The role of advertising focuses the account planner and advertising agency on what advertising can and cannot accomplish. Advertising can solve many problems, but it is not a panacea for all business problems. Developing an award-winning campaign begins with understanding the fundamentals of business. To conduct a proper advertising campaign, one must understand what role advertising plays in the marketing mix. Once this is defined, then you can begin to determine how to properly measure advertising's impact on overall business. Understanding the role of advertising in the marketing mix is a key component to developing an award-winning campaign. The most common problem that advertising is asked to solve is increasing consumer awareness of a brand. Brand awareness is at the top of the purchase funnel. Advertising is one way to activate the brand purchase process. The marketing mix is characterized by the 4Ps: product, price, place, and promotion. When the 4Ps were developed, marketing was seen as a linear process.