What is institutional advertising?
Corporate advertising is marketing designed to promote a company rather than a specific good or service.
It can be designed to make the public more aware of the company or to improve the reputation and image of the existing company.
Depending on the company, this could be a form of brand advertising.
Many forms of advertising are about product promotion, this can include promoting a new product so that the audience becomes aware of its existence, or trying to persuade the audience to buy more of the existing products,
Instead, institutional advertising promotes the company itself.
One example is a chain of groceries that runs ads that emphasize general quality or lower prices for their food, rather than providing details for specific running offers.
Some forms of corporate advertising are geared towards promoting a positive image, and effectively discourage product sales to some extent.
For example, smoke companies may run commercials warning of the health problems associated with smoking.
These commercials usually designed to improve the company’s image, making it appear more trustworthy or reliable.
In some cases, corporate advertising is the same as advertising for brand awareness, where ads promote a specific brand rather than the product itself.
For example, a banking group might run promotions for one of its banks as dynamic and stimulus while promoting its sister bank as particularly beneficial to customers.
In either case, this is different from promoting a particular service, for example by advertising a low rate on loans to new customers.
It is also possible for corporate advertising to promote an industry rather than a specific company, usually by an industry association; this happens most often in industries where many companies are small businesses without the budgets to carry out major advertisements, particularly in the national media.
As a hypothetical example, most wills prepared by attorneys done by small law firms have only a few offices.
A trade organization for inheritance attorneys could execute this type of advertisement by putting together a television ad promoting the importance of having a will, and then listing a website that would refer viewers to attorneys in their area.
Corporate advertising can cause problems for marketing analysis. When an advertisement is commercial for a particular product, marketers can track how it affects sales and see how effective the advertising is.
With corporate advertising, the link between advertising and its business impact is more vulnerable, and it may take longer to show any effects.
