Creative strategy documents will contain the following:

Objectives: The problem to be solved. What you want the consumer to think or do.

Target audience: Who is your most important prospect, and what should you know about that person?

Support: The reason for consumers to believe. What makes you different from others who make the same claim?

Tone and manner: The projection of you product’s personality.

First, you need facts about your brand of product or service. Study the market, the product, and the competition; understand the consumer and what needs your brand can satisfy.

Be single-minded

Make it fit an overall plan

Keep your objectives focused and reasonable

Make your strategy easy to use

Decide where you business is going to come from

Ten steps to effective advertising strategy (continued)

Make a meaningful promise to the consumer

Understand your product’s importance (or unimportance) to the consumer. Raise the level of ego involvement

Set yourself apart. Does the consumer believe you when you say: new, cool, power, refreshing, relief.

Relate the unknown to the known (old fashioned, homemade).

Keep your strategy up to date. Nike has made a significant change to their advertising recently. How is their current strategy different from the old?

How many watched TV last night?

What show(s) did you watch?

Name 3 commercials you remember seeing last night.

Having any problems recalling the commercials you watched?

You’re not alone. About 80% of Americans don’t recall watching a specific commercial the next day. It’s not surprising since the average person is exposed to 700 advertising messages a day.

Provide information they want

Present the problem to which you have the solution

Present a solution with which they identify.

Provide appropriate entertainment

The picture should tell the story

Look for a visual symbol

Grab the viewer’s attention

Be single minded

Register the name of your product

People are interested in people

Show a payoff

Reflect your brand personality

Less is more

Build campaigns

Demonstration (this detergent works)

Testimonials (I used it and it worked)

Presenters (symbolize the brand)

Slice-of-life (identify with the people)

Animation

Comparative advertising (two-edged sword)

Sex (two-edged sword, also ethical concerns)

Humor (reflects personality of product)

Music (evokes powerful feelings)

Who are your best prospects

(target market)?

What do they think about your product and your competitors’ product? (The Sprite ads reinforce consumer feelings that much soft drink advertising is just hype.)

What needs and wants can your product fill? (Sprite - Obey your thirst)

Is advertising always as "innocent" as presented in the book? Does it ever influence people to do things against their best interests? How is that possible?

The influence of television has changed what we read and how we read.

Fewer daily newspapers - the ones remaining have a more graphic format (USA Today).

Subscriptions to Sunday editions have increased.

Subscriptions to magazines have increased.

Most magazines have become specialized.

Many types of print have more credibility than television

Magazines: an editorial environment - they speak to the interests of their readers - readers believe them.

Newspapers: news environment - newspaper news articles have credibility.

What works best in print?

Simple layouts - most people do not like to read essays when they look at advertising.

The illustration is the most important part of the print ad.

The headline is the second most important part.

"Look for story appeal in the illustration." Involve the reader.

"Photographs work better than artwork."

"Offer a benefit in the headline."

"Don’t be afraid of long copy," for people who are very interested in the type of product you are advertising.

Test for ease of comprehension

Don’t be afraid to sell.

Be different.

Understand the constraints of each medium.

 Radio, billboards, and advertising viewed outside of one’s home.

How to advertise on radio

Talk one-to-one (Tom Bodett, Motel 6)

Think about the program environment (rock, country, classical, etc.)

Keep it very simple - please have lots of distractions when listening to the radio

Create "theater of the mind"

Repeat your brand name and other crucial information

Perfect medium for advertising special promotions

broadcast commercials

telemarketing

door-to-door (declining)

home parties (declining)

office parties

What makes the McDonald’s "Did someone say McDonald’s?" campaign effective?

Variety, but verbal similarity

Similarity in attitude

McDonald’s does not use visual similarity, but others do.

Some use same music, or other sound effects to create continuity

Some use same character (Energizer bunny)

Continuing story (Taster’s Choice)

Who do you want to reach?

When do you want to reach them?

Where do they live?

Cost Per Thousand (CPM) - How can anyone justify paying $1 million for a Superbowl ad?

Cost Per Rating Point (CPP) - same concept for broadcast advertising

Reach

Frequency

Repetition

Cut through the clutter.

Reach the right person at the right time and at the right place.

Decide which medium works best for your campaign.

Sales promotions are coupons, samples, sweepstakes, premiums (gifts), super size packs, etc.

Promotions are expensive.

Know the objectives of the promotion: to get the consumer to try your product, to keep the consumer from buying a competitor’s new product, to keep the consumer buying your product.

Sampling is the most effective and most expensive promotion for new products - provided the product is good.

Sweepstakes and contests do not always work.

Sometimes sweepstakes and contests are more expensive than what you anticipated.

Even couponing can be more expensive than you anticipated.

A target market or market segment is a group of consumers with similar needs and wants.

Target markets are defined by attitudes, by age, gender, race or ethnicity, geographic location (city, neighborhood, state, region, etc.), and also by how they use the product and the benefits they want (silky hair vs. hair with body).

Attitudinal target markets
(these are a little different than your book’s)

The New Achievers - your book talk about the lifestyle of new immigrant groups and affluent blue collar workers, but actually they are a much bigger group than defined by your book.

The Time Seekers - want to save time (use cell phones, shop on the internet, use household workers, etc.)

The New Age of Age - seniors are feeling empowered.

Life Simplifiers

Hispanics

African-Americans

Asian-Americans

Eastern Europeans

Evangelical Christians (can belong to any Christian denomination)

Protestant Christians (in general)

Catholic Christians

Mormons

Jews

Moslems