Download Creative Strategy : Planning

MK375 BUYER BEHAVIOUR AND
INTEGRATED MARKETING
COMMUNICATIONS
LECTURE WEEK 7
CREATIVE STRATGEY: PLANNING
OBJECTIVES
• Discuss creative strategy and explain the nature
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and role of the creative brief
Highlight the commonest creative appeals
available to marketers
Discuss the execution and evaluation of creative
ideas
Explain the basic nature of semiotics and how
marketers can use this as an aid to creative
strategy development
PLANNING
IMPLEMENTATION
Strategy
e.g. ‘big idea’, position, USP etc
Briefing
communicating objectives, strategies
etc to creative and media teams
Output
design and production of
communications materials; booking
media etc.
THE CREATIVE BRIEF
• Briefs are the mechanism for summarising
the analysis and developing the ideas for a
campaign
• They can be written separately for the
creative and media teams
• The creative brief needs to encapsulate all
the important points needed to develop
the message (the harnessed creativity)
THE CREATIVE BRIEF
A typical brief might include:
• Objectives
• The communications ‘problem’
• The target audience
• The proposition: the big idea, copy platform,
position etc.
• Tone of voice
• Mandatory information
• Special requirements e.g. timing etc
CREATING THE MESSAGE:
APPEALS AND EXECUTION STYLES
• Creative strategy defines what the
communications should say
• Creating the message is deciding how this
can best be communicated i.e. encoded
• An appeal is the approach used to attract
the attention of audiences e.g. emotional
• The execution style includes style, pattern,
sources used in the actual message design
CREATING THE MESSAGE:
ADVERTISING APPEALS
• Fill (2002) notes two approaches
– High involvement
– Low involvement
• Picton and Broderick (2005) categorise
them by product and consumer orientation
APPEALS: INVOLVEMENT (Fill)
High Involvement
Low Involvement
Central route to
persuasion
Peripheral route to
persuasion
•Rational, product
•Emotional, image
attribute appeals
•Information provision
•Benefit claims
based appeals
•Social, ego, hedonic
orientation
APPEALS: CONSUMER/PRODUCT
ORIENTATION (Picton & Broderick)
Product
Oriented
•Factual
•Product comparison
•Expert spokesman
•Hard sell
Emotional •Slice of life
•News sensation
•Celebrity
•Soft sell
Rational
Consumer
Oriented
•Factual
•Problem-solution
•Celebrity
•Factual
•Product comparison
•Sex, glamour
•Music
•humour
RATIONAL APPEALS
• Focus on practical, functional, utilitarian
needs
• Emphasis features and benefits
• Messages need to emphasis facts, learning
and logic i.e. to persuade consumers that
they should buy this brand because it is
the best way to meet their needs
RATIONAL APPEALS
• Rational appeals include:
– Comfort
– Convenience
– Economy
– Dependability
– Durability
– Efficiency
– Performance
EMOTIONAL APPEALS
• These relate to the consumers’ social and
psychological needs
• They can be used to produce positive
feelings in consumers which may be
transferred to a favourable evaluation of a
brand
EMOTIONAL APPEALS
• Emotional appeals include:
– Sex e.g. Haagen-Daz
– Fear e.g. acne products/fear of social
embarrassment
– Humour e.g. Pot Noodles
– Animation e.g. Tony/Frosties
– Music e.g. Levis/Grapevine
– Situation associations e.g. slice of life
EMOTIONAL APPEALS
• Belch and Belch (2004) define these in
terms of:
– Personal states/feelings e.g. safety, love,
happiness, nostalgia, pride, sorrow, pleasure,
ambition, comfort etc
– Social based feelings e.g. recognition, status,
respect, involvement, approval, belonging
MIXED APPEALS
• Sometimes messages can combine
rational and emotional appeals to good
effect
OTHER APPEALS
• Reminder
• Teaser
CREATIVE TACTICS/EXECUTION
• Having decided on the strategy and the
appeals, the message designers now have
to work out the execution style i.e.
– How will the ‘big idea’ or position be
communicated?
– how is the rational or emotional message
going to be presented?
CREATIVE TACTICS/EXECUTION
• Execution options include:
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Straight sell/factual message
Scientific/technical evidence
Demonstration
Comparison
Testimonial
Slice of life
Animation
Personality symbol
Fantasy
Humour
Dramatisation
MESSAGE DESIGN: STYLE
• Information vs. emotion
• Balance needed between information and
the use of creativity to gain attention,
attract the target audience, provide
pleasure in the message (remember that
consumers use advertising for information,
reassurance and entertainment)
MESSAGE DESIGN: PATTERN
• This relates to the design of effective messages
i.e.
– To communicate key points
– To overcome objections
– To overcome opposing points of view
• Pattern of messages relates to structural factors:
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Conclusions
One vs. two sided
Order of presentation
Repetition
PATTERN: CONCLUSION DRAWING
• Should a message draw a firm conclusion for the
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audience?
Or should they be allowed to interpret the
message in a way that is meaningful for
themselves?
The decision depends on:
– The nature of the issue
– The situation
– The audience
PATTERN: CONCLUSION DRAWING
• It is better to draw a conclusion if the message is
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complex, or new
Better educated people prefer to draw their own
conclusions
Less well educated people may be unable to make
inferences from data presented, so may need
conclusions drawn for them
Conclusions are better if immediate action is required
(less thinking time)
Leave conclusions open for high involvement situations –
consumers are in a problem solving mode and will do it
themselves
PATTERN:ONE AND TWO SIDED MESSAGES
• One-sided message is most effective when:
– Audience agrees with communicators position
– When they are unlikely to hear counter arguments
– When the audience is less well educated
• Two-sided message should be used when:
– Receiver does not agree with communicators position
– When the audience is better educated
– When they are likely to hear counter arguments
PATTERN: ORDER OF PRESENTATION
• Where should the important points be placed in
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the message? Depends on audience interest and
involvement.
Strongest points at the beginning are called
anticlimax and use primacy effect, used in low
involvement situations where attention has to be
worked at
Strongest points saved for the end are called
climax and use the recency effect, used in
personal selling and persuasive communication
situations
PATTERN: REPETITION
• This can involve repeating a key point,
word, phrase
• Necessary to overcome selective attention
• Can lead to Pavlovian type learning
• However excessive repetition can lead to
wearout
SOURCE OF MESSAGE
• A strongly credible source essential in situations
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where attitude change or persuasion needed
Who will the perceived source be:
– The organisation e.g. corporate brand?
– A spokesperson?
– A celebrity?
• Source credibility based on: expertise,
knowledge, motives, likeability/similarity to
consumer
THE WHOLE IS GREATER THAN
THE SUM OF THE PARTS ……..
• The final message is made up of several
components, all of which need to work
synergistically in order to produce maximum
effect
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Headlines
Body copy
Layout
Illustrations and photographs
Strap/tag line
Logo
Audio – voice overs, music, sound effects
Useful websites:
• www.businesslink.gov.uk
• www.adassoc.org.uk/guide/contents.html
EVALUATION
• Creative work usually requires pre and
post testing
• Evaluation can be a method for choosing
between different techniques/creative
approaches
• Evaluation should be against objectives
SEMIOTICS
• Study of signs and symbols – what they
mean and how they relate to things or
ideas
• Can be a useful way of evaluating the
impact creative approaches will have on
audiences
• Semiotic toolkit (Copley 2004) can be used
to undertake semiotic analysis
SEMIOTICS
• Toolkit:
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Visual signs
Linguistic signs
Aural signs
The implied communication situation
Textual structure
Information structure
Visual emphasis
Genre
Binary oppositions and contrast pairs
Communication codes
Any Questions?