Download to create an advertising plan we must understand how advertising

TO CREATE AN ADVERTISING PLAN WE MUST UNDERSTAND
HOW ADVERTISING WORKS
FIRST LOOK AT THE EXTERNAL (BIG PICTURE) ENVIRONMENT
1. The marketing strategy - remember product, price and distribution has a direct bearing
on whether advertising is used to achieve marketing objectives.
2. Target consumer’s history and their attitudes/lifestyles - which strongly influence
whether and how consumers process an advertisement.
3. Look at other marketing communications tactics such as personal selling, packaging,
signage, public relations, etc.
NEXT LOOK AT THE INTERNAL (LITTLE PICTURE) ENVIRONMENT
1. Target Audience - how relevant does our audience feel the ad is? What is the perceived
need? Advertisers respond in one of three ways: a) create an unknown need (difficult to
do); b) reawaken a need; and c) offer a solution to a need.
How does our target audience process information? We know it is not tidy or
predictable, we browse, scan, look at snippets. We avoid advertising messages because
we have become bombarded.
2. Noise - any factor that interferes with or distorts the correct delivery of the advertising
message to the target audience. The most common and serious type of noise is called
clutter. The advertising environment is extremely cluttered by other media, other ads and
promotions, and news stories that get in the way of an advertiser’s message.
3. Media Strategy - choosing the best set of media to reach the target audience at the best
time and place.
4. Creative Strategy - writing and designing the ads or the ad campaign.
THE MESSAGE RECEPTION PROCESS -the internal environment
Everything about the success of a particular advertisement depends on the target audience
receiving and processing it accurately and completely.
1 Perception - if we perceive something it has registered. We have to get our target
audience to notice our message. The first step in perception is exposure. This is a media
buying problem. The next step is attention ,which means the mind is engaged/focused.
Something triggers the targets interest. Getting attention means you have to stop them
from scanning/wandering. In advertising we call this stopping power. Many ads are
intrusive - they work by shouting. Other ads use mesmerizing visuals. In print ads
contrast is often used. Unique or novel thoughts are used to capture attention.
2. Awareness - the message has made an impression. Low levels of attention can create a
minimal level of awareness. The thing that aids awareness is relevance. People will pay
attention to advertising only if its worth their while to do so. Interest is created by one of
two things: personal involvement or curiosity. Involvement - the intensity of the
consumers interest in the product, medium or message.
3. Understanding - is a conscious mental effort to make sense of the information being
presented. This mental process is how we learn. Informational advertising - advertising
that contains a large amount of product information. It requires clear and relevant
explanation. Teaching is an important aspect of advertising. Ads must bridge the gap in
people’s experience by teaching them how to recognize and use the product.
Advertisements use association to get consumers to link the product with something they
aspire to, respect, value or appreciate.
4. Persuasion - advertisements must persuade people to believe or do something. An
appeal is something that makes the product particularly attractive. Beliefs, attitudes and
values structure our opinions. Advertising attempts to accomplish one of three things:
1. Establish a new opinion
2. Reinforce an existing opinion
3. Change an existing opinion
Likability signals how people respond to a product or message. Entertainment is a
likability technique. When a product is liked well enough to generate repeat sales, that is
called brand loyalty. Argument is a line of reasoning, one point follows from another.
Emotion is another form of persuasion. How someone feels is just as important as what
they know. Attitudes, reasons, logic and emotion all lead to belief. We believe something
about every product we purchase. A conviction is a particularly strong belief.
5. Memory/Locking Power - we retrieve information from our mental filing cabinet.
Advertising focuses on recognition and recall. Vampire creativity is when people
remember the commercial but not the product. Advertisers use repetition with jingles,
slogans, taglines and key visuals to help with memory. A key visual is a vivid image.
HOW BRANDING WORKS
Branding is the process of creating a unique identity for a product. It is particularly
important for parity products, those for which there are few if any major differences in
features. A brand image is a mental image that reflects the way consumers perceive the
brand. Product personality - the idea that a product takes on a familiar human
characteristics, such a friendliness, trustworthiness or belongingness. A brand has both
physical and psychological dimensions. A brand is also a promise of value.
Brand Equity - accumulation of goodwill and good impressions in the consumers mind.
It assists us with our memory process by positioning it relative to other products.
Advertisers use distinctive names, slogans, graphics and characters to lock brands into
memory. Consistency is critical to building brand equity.