CREATIVE ADVERTISING

APPROACHES TO DETERMINE THE CREATIVE STRATEGY

O’ TOOLE’S THREE-POINT APPROACH TO CREATIVE STRATEGY John O’Toole, former chairman of FCB Communications and former president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, suggests three basic things when determining the creative strategy:

1. Who or what is the competition? : To set the brand apart, the advertiser should know what other brands are saying. And the advertiser must need to be aware that competition may go beyond the product category. For example, the competition for health clubs includes diet supplements, exercise videos and home exercise machines not just other health clubs.

2. Who are you talking to? : Are you targeting users of another brand? Consumers who’ve never used any brand in your category? Consumers who use a related product but might be persuaded to switch to yours? Is there a way you can position your brand to meet an unfulfilled need of a particular market segment?

Perhaps you’re targeting your current customers urging them to buy your brand more often or simply to remain brand loyal. Or perhaps you’re targeting gatekeepers, the people who influence the purchasing decision for your target audience.

Many strategy statements describe customers in demographic terms: age, sex, marital status, income, occupation etc. But demographics alone cannot help the creative team of copywriter and art diretor see and understand the person they are triyng to reach. More meaningful is a profile of that person’s lifestyle, including values, leisure-time activities, attitudes toward work and family, and stressess of every day life. O’Toole describes the demographic information as the “skeleton” and the lifestyles and values as the “body and soul”

3. What do you want them to know, understand and feel? : It must be described how your brand touches one or more human needs: to be popular, to feel attractive and wanted, to obtain material things, to enjoy life through comfort, to avoid fear to imitate the admired to have new experiences Or to protect and maintain health

Rather than communicating a rational benefit, which is easy for competitors to copy, trying for an emotional appeal is importnant. “Women don’t buy lipstick, they buy hope” Revlon’s Founder Charles Revson “Porsche is not about moving from point A to point B; it is about power and status” Porsche’s Marketing Manager

FOCUSING ON HUMAN NEEDS/ REWARD SYSTEM APPROACH TO CREATIVE STRATEGY Emotional and rational rewards must be explored of using products as the defined strategy. 3 main rewards Basic rewards: Practial, sensory, social, ego satisfaction

For example cheese: In-use rewards: Cheese is convenient (practical), offers a new taste (sensory), earns the gratefulness of the family (social), and contributes to the belief that you are a good cook (ego satisfaction) Results-of-use rewards: Cheese helps buils strong bones (practical), makes you feel better (sensory), makes you look good to the others (social), and contributes to the belief that you’re a good parent (ego satisfaction)

Incidental-to-use rewards: Provides low- cost nutrition (practical), makes no mess (sensory), adds variety to party refreshments (social) and makes you feel like a smart shopper (ego satisfaction)

MCCANN ERICKSON’S ROLE-PLAYING APPROACH TO CREATIVE STRATEGY The McCann Erickson agency suggests that you climb inside the head of your consumer by acting as if you were that person, writing your responses to the first six questions from the consumers voice and the final question in your own voice:

1)Who is my target? 2)Where am I now in the mind of this person? 3)Where is my competition in the mind of this person? 4)Where would I like to be in the mind of this person? 5)What is the consumer promise, “the big idea”? 6)What is the supporting evidence? 7)What is the tone of voice for the advertising?

THINK ROI Before finalizing to determine the strategy, the advertiser must think of the return of the investment that the client will receive from the advertising. The measure of advertising’s contribution to profitability can be shown in two steps:

1. Advertising and Brand Awareness: Research suggests if not causality (cause-effect relationship), then a relationship exists between brand awareness and market share. The most significant role that advertising plays is its contribution to the creation of brand awareness. Generally, studies show that the more businesses spend on advertising and promotion as a percentage of sales, the higher are the brand awareness.

2. Market Share and Return on Investment: Businesses demonstrating high levels of market share benefit from economies of scale in production, marketing and so forth, which has the effect of increasing profitability. By producing and marketing greater product volume, these businesses tend to be more efficient and have slower costs.

There is another ROI that’s importnant in testing the strategy. Relevance Original Impact DDB Needham agency suggests that the stragety must have and answer these. Strategy must be relevant to the target audience The strategy’s ideas must be unique The strategy’s ideas must have the stopping power first of all to make an impact.