Some about advertising

History

Claude Hopkins
Helen Lansdowne
Ray Rubicam
Rosser Reeves
David Ogilvy
Leo Burnett
Dan Welden

Basics

Advertisers refer to the standard communications model of a source transmitting a message through a channel (which contains a degree of noise) to a target. Feedback is received by the source in response to the message. Good feedback typically comes in the form of money spent on the product advertised.

There are three types of appeals in advertising: logical, ethical, and emotional.

Advertising is just one way to spend your marketing dollar. There are a variety of ways to promote a product, collectively called Marketing Communications (MarCom). They are illustrated by the MarCom Matrix.

Marketing Public Relations (MPR) is an attractive alternative to advertising. MPR uses public relations techniques as part of a marketing campaign. PR tools used by marketers include newsletters, events, endorsements, demonstrations, contests, and interviews.

There are two main types of promotion: trade promotion and consumer promotion. The differences in ad strategies are characterized as "push" and "pull": trade promotions are designed to push the product (into the market), and consumer promotions are made to pull the product (into the shopping cart).

Promotions

The three types of promotions are Win, Free, and Save.

Win

Examples of "win"-type promotions are games and contests. Sweepstakes are probably the most popular "win" promotion. According to US law, purchase cannot be necessary to win a sweepstakes. If purchase were necessary, that would make it a lottery; and lotteries can only be conducted by the state.

Free

A "free"-type promotion offers the consumer something for no charge. These are premiums (buy one product, get another for a discount, or for free), bonus packs ("more for less"), and sampling (free samples). A continuity program is a free-type promotion that makes the consumer part of a "club". An example of this are coffeeshops that give their customers are card that is punched each time they buy coffee; after a certain number of punches, they are given a free coffee.

Save

Examples of "save" promotions are coupons, rebates, and other money-saving ads. Another is the FSI (Free-Standing Insert), a sheet of coupons typically inserted into newspapers.

Strategies

When planning your ad, you should first define your products Unique Selling Proposition (USP). To find the USP, ask yourself "How is this product different?"

Positioning is an attempt to place a product into a certain category in consumers' minds: "the best", for example (best deodorant, best soda, etc.) ("The best" is, however, extremely difficult to establish for a new brand). Types of positioning are Against (eg, Hertz vs. Avis, 7-up vs. colas), Niche (a sub-division of a category), New, and Traditional.

A Brand Character Statement sets the tone for an entire campaign.

A simple way to start planning your advertisement is with this statement: "Advertising will ____A_____ ____B_____ that ____C_____ is ____D_____. Support will be ____E_____. Tone will be ____F_____." where A is a verb, B is a target demographic (such as, "girls between 14-18 years old"), C is your product, D is an adjective or phrase. E is what the meat of your ad will be. F is your ad's "attitude".

For example, "Advertising will convince artististic types age 18-35 that Apple computers are hip and cool. Support will be two men discussing Macs and PCs. Tone will be humorous."

Part B of this strategy statement is the target audience. Advertisers use many methods to gain information about this group, including demographics, psychographics (how the target thinks), and focus groups.

Part C is the product itself. Advertisers spend time studying this as well. Important questions to ask are "Why would anybody buy this?" "What's the product's advantage?" and "What is the client's image?" The last one is important to consider in order to make sure that your ad doesn't jar with the public perception the company has created for itself. For example, hip or edgy ads probably won't go over well with a company that has a public image of being "conservative" and/or "family friendly."

Support is anything that can demonstrate or otherwise back up the premise presented in the first sentence. Some examples are facts (e.g., statistics), images, or a scenario.

Reason Why - How a product delivers a benefit.
Combination - Two or more benefits are demonstrated.
Permission to Believe - A clever story or character(s) make claim(s) believable.
Nine-Wheel Logic - Specious support used when real support would be too unwieldy.
Image - An attitude or lifestyle that advertiser attempts to link to product.

A strong "call to action" is another element used to good effect.

Exercises

Pick 5 products and write up USPs for them.
Pick 10 products and write a strategic statement for each one using the formula above.
For each of the 5 types of support mentioned above, find one ad that exemplifies it.

The FCB Grid

The FCB Grid was created by Richard Vaughn. With this model, messages are categorized by "thinking" and "feeling", "low" and "high."

Low Think (practicality, pragmatism)
High Think
Low Feel (sensuality, pleasure)
High Feel (product as extension of self)

A Low Feel commercial demonstrates the pleasure obtained by using the product. This approach is popular for foods.

A High Feel commercial could emphasize how the product makes the consumer hip or cool. This approach is popular for advertising products like clothing, shoes, or sportscars.

The Harris Grid

Tom Harris created the Harris Grid for planning MPR campaigns.

Y&R Creative Workplan

The firm of Young & Rubicam have a process called the "Creative Workplan." This crafts a strategy that plans how to attain an objective, which solves a problem, defined by a key fact. In other words, the advertising is designed in order to solve a problem. For example, the problem may be low sales, or a need to change the corporation's image.

To start, define the problem and identify the key fact showing the cause of it. Then, state your objective (what to do to solve the problem).

The four parts of the Creative Workplan's Creative Strategy are:

Prospect Definition - The "prospect" referred to here is the demographic you are aiming your ad at (also known as a target audience). How is the product used by the prospect? Use demographics and psychographics.
Principal Competition - Why would the consumer buy the competition's product instead?
Consumer Benefit or Promise - What does the product do for the prospect?
Reason Why - Rationale for how a product delivers on its claim (e.g., "Avocados are good for you because they contain 'heart-healthy' fats that help lower cholesterol")

GE Focus System

Focus on the Receiver
Focus on the Proposition
Dramatize the Proposition - "Break the boredom barrier!"

Return on Investment (ROI) System

The ROI System was designed the firm of DDB/Needham. While covering the same territory as other systems (the target, a product claim, support for the claim) it also looks at creating a corporate "personality", as well as personality of individual products. Another important aspect of the ROI System is "aperture": the timing and placement of the ad to maximize success. The system helps you to determine the cheapest media for the greatest impact.

The Ladder

Types of advertising messages can be arranged in a hierarchical ladder, based on what perspective they use to discuss the product.

Values (This product makes me Y)
Consumer Benefit (This product helps me Y)
Product Benefit (X does Y)
Product Feature (X can do Y)
Attribute (X is Y)

The further up the ladder you go, the more consumer-based the message becomes. The further down you go, the more product-based it becomes. You can see that the first two statements tell how the product helps the consumer ("me"), while the other statements focus more and more on the product (X).

Here are some examples:

Values (Axe Body Spray makes me irresistable to women)

Try/Keep/Retry

This strategy works on three types of customers: future, current, and past. Instead of just trying to get new customers, work on maintaining current ones, and find out how to bring former customers back.

TRY to get new customers
KEEP current customers
RETRY former customers

TRY techniques focus on offers to bring in new customers, and something to bring them back (a "bounceback").

KEEP techniques work on increasing current customers' frequency of purchases and "ticket size" (how much money they spend).

RETRY techniques attempt to figure out why the customer left the company, and how to give them a reason to return.

Brainstorming

Exploding the Dot

Learn/Feel/Do Circle

In her book Hitting the Sweet Spot: How Consumer Insights Can Inspire Better Marketing and Advertising, Lisa Fortini-Campbell argues that an advertising "sweet spot" can be attained by combining consumer insight and brand insight.

A concept board can be used to demonstrate your ad campaign to your client. These boards (often quite large, so they can be appreciated by a group) outline the core idea of your campaign, a "key visual", and perhaps some bullet points.

Political

Tony Schwartz pioneered the concept of "resonance". Some of his most well-known work are his political ads. One of his TV ads for Lyndon Johnson's 1964 presidential campaign against Barry Goldwater was legendary. As a little girl picked petals off a daisy, a voice counted down from 10, followed by a nuclear explosion. Known as Daisy, this commercial is considered to be instrumental in Johnson's victory.

Another well-known political ad that is believed to have tipped an election are the anti-Dukakis, "Willie Horton" ads during the 1988 presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis and George Bush. Willie Horton was a convict serving time for murder in Massachusetts. When Dukakis was governor of Massachusetts, he escaped while on furlough and raped someone. This incident was alluded to in Republican ads mentioning Horton, attempting to convince the public that Horton's escape showed that the Democrats were soft on crime. Like the Daisy ad, it is believed that the ad was instrumental in Bush's victory.

Radio

Important aspects of a radio ad are duration and tempo. Some ways to use tempo include pausing for emphasis, and making the tone competitive or mellow. Radio advertisers try to make a "natural rhythm": using emphasis to create beats in words and phrases.

Types

Pitch - An announcer talking.
Situation - A dramatization, or "story"
Song

Other types of radio ads are combinations of these three:

Bed - Pitch with a Song background.
Donut - A Song with a Pitch in the middle.
Tag - A Song with a Pitch at the end.
Vignette - A Pitch, followed by a Situation, followed by a Song

The basic structure of a radio ad is Context (beginning), Content (middle), Conclusion (end).

Print

There are six types of print ads: One-Liner, News, Spiral, Story, Sermon, and Outline.

Print ads use a combination of headlines, subheadings, body text and/or images. Often, there is a logo or slug, for brand identification, as well.

To be effective, headlines must be attention-grabbing. They should "draw in" a viewer. A headline should also be a complete message.

Types of headlines are News, Questions, and Testimonials.

However, it has been estimated that only 10% of readers will actually read an ad. So, make sure the product appears in a picture or is mentioned in the headline.