Many concerns are growing about whether advertising is mainly necessary for discretionary products or it is beneficial in many other ways. Although this view is reasonable, I just partly agree with it while I think advertisements also have other purposes.
On one hand, we all know that advertisements are the way to introduce things to people or make them to be more fascinated about these products. Because of this, it is reasonable to acknowledge that many companies need to advertise their items because these goods are not really attractive or essential to many people. For instance, we can see numerous advertisements about fashion items, such as handbags, makeup products,…which are not the fundamental human needs. These advertisements in some ways, such as by attractive visual effects or well-known performers, can pose psychological triggers to people that make individuals feel interested about these things and encourage them to buy. And then, the sales of unnecessary goods like those can be increased significantly although life still goes on without them.
On the other hand, despite the main function of advertisements is to bring items close to people, I don’t think that it is just beneficial for the sales of inessential products. For many businesses that provide basic necessities, they also need to advertise them to reinforce their brand and enhance the credibility of these enterprises. The reason behind is when companies allocate expenditure on advertisement, it can make customers believe that these products are well-sold so that they have lots of money to spend on advertising. Besides, this activity is the way to compete with other brands which sell the same items. For instance, Colgate and Sensodyne both sell toothpaste which is an essential good. But the sales of Colgate are higher than the counterparts due to their impressive and outstanding advertisements.
In conclusion, while it is true that advertising is beneficial in order to raise the sales of unneeded products, I still assume that it also has other functions which are really effective for many vital items such as strengthening credibility and to gain competitive advantages over rival brands.