Brands refer to associations created between customers and the goods and services, whereas advertising refers to a specific message conveyed by a marketer to the consumer through different channels like print, TV, radio, etc. This article attempts to evaluate the influence of advertising in brand building and the need for integrated brand promotion to drive incremental volume and profits.

Advertising serves as a mass communication tool to marketers where a single message is sent to many in an audience. It, however, has different connotations for different people. It is a business, an art form, an institution and a cultural phenomenon. For a product like Pepsi, advertising plays an important role in creating brand awareness and brand loyalty. For a retailer, it is a means to attract customers into their stores. For an art director, it is a creative expression of the concept. To a website manager, it is a way to increase the number of people visiting the site. Advertising, basically, generates awareness about the product or the service in the minds of potential customers, builds knowledge about it and helps to increase the recall value. Different ad strategies are used for reinforcing and modifying the existing attitudes of consumers to transform them from first-time buyers to repeat buyers and finally to make them brand loyal.

Today's companies are innovating the best possible ways to understand how and where consumers want to receive information about the brands. Traditionally, advertising has been considered as a means to inform consumers about the functional capabilities of the brand. It primarily focuses on the symbolic values of the brands and meanings relevant to the consumer. In a way, it outlines the path for consumer persuasion. But, the changing consumer preferences and new technological developments are reshaping the environment in which the brand image is developed at various levels, like the corporate, retail or product levels. Under such conditions, the lines between information, entertainment and commercial message are getting blurred. Firms of all sizes need and use advertising and companies, today, are using concepts like branded entertainment, Internet, influence marketing and other modes of communication to reach the target customers and pass their brand message. The conventional media are being supported by new channels to reach the customers. Many leading organizations have been spending huge amounts of money in the brand building exercise. For example, in the year 2006, Microsoft spent around $11.5 bn, Coca-Cola, more than $2.5 bn, Yahoo, $1.3 bn, eBay, around $871 mn, Google, $188 mn, Starbucks, $95 mn and confectionery firm, Perfetti, around Rs. 6 bn on various brand building exercises.

Advertising Express Magazine, Integrated Brand Promotion, Mass Communication Tools, Technological Developments, Brand Building Exercise, Commercial Messages, Brand Management, Integrated Marketing Communication, Internet Advertising, Brand Entertainment, Online Advertising, Brand Loyalty.