The Victorian era kick started a huge change to society in the UK. The industrial revolution was something that changed life in the UK permanently. Many of the things that we have today in our modern world was started during this time as well as the modern conveniences that we enjoy in our lives – from the drainage that takes our waste water away and keeps the streets clean, to the workers rights that we have, it started here.
Something else that is all part and parcel of todays society is marketing and advertising. Companies like these marketing strategy consultants www.reallyhelpfulmarketing.co.uk/specialist-services/marketing-strategy-consultant/ are the modern equivalent that we have today of the first Victorian advertising companies.
As the industrial revolution started to reach all parts of Britain. Life in the UK began to change. Factories and manufacturing companies were springing up and cities were starting to grow rapidly with these new industries as well as the people who were moving there to work in them. People were no longer living and working on the land, and many came to the cities in search of work in the factories. The transport networks were improving too, as the canal network began to expand and take goods all over the country, as well as the steam trains which completely changed travel in the UK, meaning that journeys could be made in a few hours that would have previously taken days.
Because of the new products that were being created during this time, consumers suddenly had a lot more choice. There were new companies regularly starting up, all offering new things, new ideas and improved ways of doing things. This of course made the competition greater and paved the way for advertising.
As companies fought to capture the attention of people who would want to buy their products, they came up with ideas to capture the attention of people. Advertising was born at this time, with companies such as Pear’s soaps and Cadbury’s chocolate putting out promotional material speaking about the benefits of their product and what makes them better than all the rest. Many of the original adverts were quite lengthy and contained lots of words. They were often published in newspapers and magazines of the day. At the time, there was little in the way of regulations in advertising like what we have now, so many wild claims would also be made in these first advertisements.
Over time, companies started to realise that these long and wordy adverts were not exactly grabbing attention, so advertisements were created that relied on imagery and less wording to get the message across and capture the attention of consumers. To our modern eye some of these advertisements created in the Victorian era can range from long and boring to downright bizarre– but if there is one thing for certain, this is definitely where advertising as we know it today was born!
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