Advertising – and Its Association to Other Concepts

Author: Jyotsna

Introduction:

An advertisement as an object and an advertising as a process has lots of contents and players to bring that concept. As an object it is the Ad designer or the agent who has the role to play, while as a process it is the beholder who has the responsibility to accomplish the objective. In between these two there are other players also to play their separate roles. While the whole issue is to manage and explore the benefits, the role of advertising, being used as a marketing tool can’t be ignored. This is an attempt to define what an advertisement is, and how it is related to other objectives.

Definition

Advertising is a process to communicate the desired message of the producer to the customers. In other words it is the process by which the message is being passed to the consumers by proper means of communication. In a well versed form it is one of the marketing mix to promote goods, services, companies and ideas through an identified sponsor. One of the 4P’s of marketing is the promotion strategy. Advertising being a part of promotional mix helps a lot to the marketers to promote their products.


Elements of advertising Process

There are different elements of advertising. Their relevancy depends upon the demand of a particular situation and so can easily move in the priority list to fulfill the need of the situation. As enlisted and shown in the figure depicted above “an advertisement as a product has several elements to be judged (in the process starting from concept to reality) to come as a product to meet the objective of the company”.


The importance of advertising depends upon various factors such as nature of the product, Industry to which it belongs, competition in the market, market intensity, stage of the product or the brand in its life cycle, effect on per capita consumption, customer loyalty, brand credibility and media.


Advertising is a component of marketing mix has a lot to do in the market to meet an objective of the beholder. Being a communication process to put the information about the intended “idea or thought” to the target audience or defined customers in a manner to satisfy the intended need is not an easy task. In a very subjective way it is all to bring the concept into reality to work and meet the intended need. Through advertisement, the beholder tries to put their information into the market for their ready acceptance. The intensity of competition has led a lot of pressure on promoters and advertisers to make a creative, responding and effective advertisement.


The need of the market has created a different role for advertising to play in the area of marketing. For a well established product or brand, advertisement has to just communicate its relevance by transferring the information to the market. But, for a product or an idea which is either in an initiation stage or just to move, advertising has a lot to do in the market for that product. Nature of the product and its stage in its life cycle is also a great determinant of advertising, to be designed and to get figured in the market.


Four P’s of marketing and advertising

Product and Advertisement: There are three kinds of products shown in an advertisement. They are General Products, Esteemed or logical products and Competitive Products. To advertise a general product information used in an ad is all the benefits of the product and its appeal to the target audience. For logical products the information to be conveyed through the advertisement is the need or satisfaction level to which the product is designed. For competitive product the comparative appeal is used in an advertisement to promote the product.


Place and Advertisement: To convey information through advertisement place strategy covers culture, age, gender, emotion, demography, geography, society, class of people, Income class to be shown in the advertisement and through that to target the desired audience. By this an advertisement helps to promote the product and to reach the targeted audience.


Price and Advertisement: In an advertisement pricing strategy usually designed to convey the comparative benefits and price structure with the competitive products and to target the desired customers to meet the objective.


Promotion and Advertisement: An advertisement is usually defined as a promotion strategy to promote the intended idea and meet objective. When all the other 3 Ps gets compiled in an advertisement it is the advertisement (a part of the promotional mix) which has to serve the intended need.


Advertising budget and cost

There are different categories of advertising media to be used for advertisement. A company has to go through a thorough search of different available options, budget for advertisement, mass effect of the media and analysis of cost and benefit of the available media to meet the objective. The choice of the option depends upon available options, different objectives subject to the restriction of resources to be used. For example to meet the objective in terms of its effectiveness television advertising is used, for others such as for great branding and reach a large audience magazines are used, while to assist in cornering the market mail order and leaflets are used. By advertising one’s business with internet marketing strategies one can save on his advertising budget and one can run his advertising budget into arrears if he starts up his internet marketing with the wrong advertising company. To opt certain media one has to thoroughly evaluate the objectives, resource constraints, target reach, accessibility and per capita effect.

There are different types of advertising. It covers Television, Newspaper, Magazine, Mailorder, Banners, Cost per click, Google SEO, Weblinx etc. While their effect is respectively, mass effect, budgetary effect, cost justification effect , an easy lead access effect, brand development effect, easy access and lesser cost effect, website promotion effect and in budget advertising effect. The criterion to select an option to advertise is restricted with the purpose, the obligation, the resource constraints and the earlier outcomes of those options.

All the efforts for advertising are to put the information in the market and get the desired objective fulfilled. Though the definition is very subjective the outcomes are a mix of qualitative and quantitative one. Examples of subjective outcome is supporting the branding process, place the informations at the right place, stimulating intention and motivation to buy etc while the measurable outcome is sales growth, increase in per capita consumption etc. The measurement of an outcome of a selected option becomes a base for evaluating the decision of the company or the organization moved up with that decision. While the same outcome, becomes an evaluating parameter for others to use, as to evaluate that available option.

An ad campaign has different issues to meet the target. Its content covers, message, appeal, slogan, words, celebrities, media, kind of satisfaction etc. An ad is a complete justification of the need and the requirement. Though the justification has several grounds to get a trade off among different available options, the need to serve and manage that trade off cant be ignored. It is the resource capacity, which ultimately talks about the whole of the advertisement. The other factors which affects the decision is available options and the need.

Advertisement has an important role in marketing to meet the objective of the beholder. For an organization or the beholder for whom it is designed, for the ad designer, for the sponsors, and for the customers as a whole advertising has different meaning. For the sponsor it is the communication, for the beholder it is the objective, for a customer it the rationale to decide. To serve different needs of the society it is designed and used differently. The significance of advertising cant be ignored as it is the mean to communicate and get the desired result. As a mean to inform and to add to the credibility the strategy behind designing an advertisement and its content, there is a lot of factors to be judged and to comply with. Being an effective marketing tool advertisement is used to meet several needs and hence to fill the gap in the market.



Advertising : Different players their association and role :

Manufacturer/Initiator

1. What?

2. How?

3. Where?

4. To Whom?

5. By Whom?

6. How much?

Ad designer/ Ad agencies

1. What?

2. How?

3. By whom?

4. Where?

Sponsor

1. Where?

2. To whom?

3. When?

4. How?

Customers

1. What?

2. How?

3. Who?

Evaluator

1. Shift in per capita consumption

There are five main players playing with an ad concept to come as a product. They are manufacturer, Ad designer, Sponsor, Customers and the Evaluator. These different persons have different roles in formulating the purpose. As shown in the above picture they are concerned with different parts as to play in this process. Though the start and end point is not restricted but it all depends upon the requirement and available options. To enrich their role they have different role criteria either to be put to initiate the concept or to evaluate the same on different grounds, in an advertisement process, as shown in the below mentioned diagram. The terminology and the contents that have been used to define the roles of each head have the effect of their responsibility, the stage where they have to play or contribute and their part in the whole communication process to lead the concept of advertisement into reality.

After fulfilling the initial criteria these all have to stick towards different parts of their role within a predefined set to bring advertisement concept to work. The role of these players and the requirement of their role gets judged with the whole issues as defined in the below mentioned figure.


Ad designer/ Ad agencies

1.Message

2.Content

3.Language

4.Media

5.Target audience

6.Slogan

7.Methods

8.Brand association

9.Customer loyalty

10.Brand acceptance

Manufacturer/Initiator

1.Product/Idea

2.Concept

3.Budget

4.Segments

5.Gender

6.Value addition

7.Associated benefits

8.Celebrities

9.Media

10.Language


Sponsor

1.Budget

2.Cost/benefits

3.Media

4.Timimng

5.Target audience

6.Brand loyalty



Customers

1.Brand value

2.Valueaddition

3.Offerings

4.Ad association

5.Need satisfaction

6.Ad message

7. Earlier experience.


Evaluator

1.increase in per capita consumption

2.Customer acceptance

3.Market credibility


Advertising: Evaluation

Now about the product or the theme which get informed through the advertisement has to take the market acceptance. If the requirement of all meets properly the intention of the message gets served with proper acceptance in the market. Being a challenging and required issue of the market all parts of the process have to meet effectively. Based upon the results in terms of sales growth, market acceptance, and credibility as desired initially the advertisement also required to be evaluated in terms of its effectiveness. There are different methods of evaluating advertisement effectiveness. Few of them are rating point (rp) and target rating point (trp). It tries to show the percentage of the universe of the existing base of users/customers that can be reached by the use of each media outlet in a particular moment of time. The difference in these methods is because of the size of the sample and their dimensions. Hence we can put that these methods could be used to make an advertisement to fulfill the segmentation strategy with the more refined method i.e. trp.


To sum up

Advertising has a critical role in marketing. It helps in promoting the product, improves sales growth, puts the information into the market, effects people to initiate the action. Apart from its role for a beholder for whom it is designed it has a great contribution in generating a sector with employment opportunity and by that creating its contribution to the society. The affect, credibility, and the requirement all could be easily measured by its current role in the market and the economy. From both as a need and as a competitive requirement, advertising serves a lot in the market. Being an important marketing tool it servers the need of all the players and by that proves its credibility to contribute towards the needs and objective.

Real-Time Campaign Evaluation

Arie den Boon

Now that television seems likely to become less effective – and the same holds for almost all other media – what can marketing managers do to get the best out of their marketing budgets? They plunge into the media synergy field and use more media in their campaigns. But what they get is not clear until the campaign is over: a good or bad surprise. Their task is difficult and there is almost no research that can help them to take tough decisions. Media buying is based on audience research and past experience, but real effect data is missing. Therefore the media plan is always suboptimal, even with the best resources.

It is during the campaign itself that real effects are achieved. With real-time campaign evaluation the marketing manager can monitor, and get fast feedback for, the effectiveness of the campaign. But monitoring in itself is not enough. To be able to take action, a real-time analysis of the performance of the campaign, media, creative and media strategy is necessary. Only with real-time analyses can the marketer optimise and manage communication. Monitoring is looking back, analysing is gaining insight, managing is optimising campaign performance.

This article addresses media strategy and frequency.

MIXED MEDIA CAMPAIGN

To illustrate, we look at a mixed-media campaign for a brand of personal care products (Brand Q). The target group consists of males and females, aged 20–49, who are responsible for the shopping in the household. We look at both advertising awareness and brand consideration as objectives (that is, effects we wish the campaign to have).

The campaign is ongoing and we select a period of 13 weeks to analyse the advertising effects. Online research is carried out among 1,415 people. The questionnaires contain both advertising effect questions and questions that estimate the media usage.

We look first at the trend lines of both prompted advertising awareness and brand consideration. The ad is shown to respondents as a series of nine stills and the prompted advertising awareness is the percentage of consumers who say they certainly or probably have seen the ad.

The consideration variable is the percentage of consumers who indicate they know the product, buy it or are willing to buy it. Figure 1 shows the trend lines of both variables. For some 60%–65% the brand belongs to their consideration set, and the prompted ad awareness is 50%–60%.

The bars show the euro costs of the TV and magazine pressure. The magazines used include both weeklies and monthlies.

Although we have taken a three-week rolling average, we have to admit that nothing much happens to the awareness and consideration trend lines. It would be extremely difficult to assess the importance of the two media in the campaign just from this chart. The advertising recognition of print ads and all TV commercials shows strong rising trends during the campaign. But in the competitive environment of this category of products, advertising awareness and brand consideration do not show clear effects at this aggregate level.

Let us look at the first step in communication: do the ads get attention and are they being recognised? In Figure 2, we see the recognition of a TV commercial and three magazine ads. All show effect increases, some more than others. So the first step in communication is achieved: the ads in both media are recognised.

To find out what effects the different media may be having, we need to look at more detail. For that we carry out a Media Pressure Analysis, in essence a detailed contact-frequency analysis.

FREQUENCY OR REACH

We have two media in the campaign, so we will look at the effects of the number of contacts the respondents have with the different media. For each medium, we divide the respondents into four groups. For TV, we put in the 'No contact' group all respondents that cannot have had any contact with the campaign because they have not watched the relevant channels in the dayparts within which the campaign has run. The rest of the respondents are divided into three groups (Low, Medium, High) with equal numbers of respondents in each. We do the same for print, according to what the respondents have told us about their readership of the magazines in which the campaign appears. The recognition of both the print ads and the commercials shows an almost linear increase from No contact, through Low and Medium to High numbers of contacts. An example for magazine ad 1 is given in Figure 3. The budget also increases rapidly in each of the groups. So more contacts and more budget leads to a higher recognition, but the budget in the three contact groups increases faster than the recognition percentages (see Figure 4).

Because the effects of ads usually erode over time unless reinforced, we have decided to apply, in this case, an assumed decay rate of 25% per week (other levels can also be used, as well as no decay at all). Now we will analyse the prompted ad awareness of Brand Q.

We see from Figure 4 that TV shows a much steeper curve than magazines. So, more contacts with TV increase the effect more quickly. We can see other things as well. The increase levels out at the Medium level. More contacts do not show more effect – it stays at 62%. This is remarkable, because the budget doubles in the highest category. The groups with a high magazine frequency even show a decreasing effect. To explain what happens here is not difficult. The curve is likely to be influenced by relevant differences between the groups. For example, there are differences in social class (see Figure 5). The High frequency group contains only 13% of the top social class A, whereas it is up to 25% in the Low frequency group (the position being reversed for the lowest social classes, C and D). Figure 5 shows how high social class differs considerably from the other groups.

There is no difference in frequency response by sex, although men show much lower awareness percentages than women. So, one of the reasons that the high contact frequency does not increase linearly with the number of contacts is that high and low contact groups contain different people.

There can also be other reasons why the effects do not increase with the contact frequency. It is easier to add percentage points to a low starting level than when the percentage is already 60% or more. We will probably never get awareness higher than 80% or 90%. A second reason is wear-out of the ads, although this is not likely for awareness, and more likely for attitudes and behaviour.

So, for many reasons, a high frequency does not always give us more effect. How does this help us here? First, in this example, some of the budget in the high frequency groups could profitably be reallocated to the lower frequency groups. TV is a mass medium, so a high frequency cannot be avoided completely in a campaign with a high TV pressure. But we could gain efficiency by shifting some weight to groups that have more room to grow. Second, target groups are not homogeneous and therefore this particular deployment of the budget reaches some groups more than others. If the higher social class is important, we do not seem to be reaching it very effectively or efficiently. Third, the effect is also caused by the ads themselves. Some of them are clearly better suited to draw attention, are liked more than others and are more likely to stay effective after many contacts. In the next section we will discuss mixed-media campaigns, which nowadays are almost the rule for large advertisers.

MEDIA SYNERGY

Sometimes, not always, media in combination give us a degree of effectiveness that is greater than that delivered by their combined reach alone. This depends very much on the media and their overlap, but most of all on the ads, product, the message and target group.

In the case of Brand Q, we were able to compare those who received different levels of TV and of print. Table 1 shows the numbers in each cell of this matrix and also the effects (in this case, the percentage claiming brand consideration). There is some fluctuation, but we can immediately see that the medium and high TV viewers who are also high readers of the relevant print media show the strongest effects: over 80% compared to the average of around 60%. This group is just over 13% of the sample (185 out of 1,372).

As well as response by combined reach, we can also look at the costs involved. Table 2 shows the budget involved in achieving each level of reach (costs are in '000 euros).

Are the costs being distributed wisely? The High/High group gives a strong result, but the costs are high and they reach only 8% of the target. If we divide these figures into each other we can see both the costs per numbers reached in each cell and the cost per response percentage point (see Tables 3 and 4).

Would it pay to divert a bit of money away from TV and try to increase the Lower TV plus Higher Print groups, which show respectable levels both of reach and effect? This evidence is only part of the argument, but probably yes. Medium TV viewers who are reasonably high print readers look as if they have more room to grow, and it will be less expensive to reach more of them.

BUILDING EFFECTS OR WASTE

To build and maintain a brand over time, we need a campaign that is both effective and efficient. If we see in the early stages of the campaign that the desired effects clearly increase as contact with the campaign grows, we can continue the campaign. But beware – waste could be building up. When the effects rise and the contact frequency builds up over time, the ads will increasingly contact the same people again. The budget that is wasted grows from week to week and the share of waste increases. We have found that the tail of the frequency graph (the High exposure group) often starts high, but then drops after a couple of weeks. As waste builds up, the campaign effects plateau out and remain more or less the same.

WHEN TO TELL IT AGAIN, AND WHEN TO STOP TELLING

What lessons can be learned from frequency build-up? What can we do if waste increases and effects do not? The central theme in the frequency debate used to be in terms of the minimum number of contacts needed: 3+ or 5+ or even 10+. What we have found here and in many other cases is that it would be more effective to limit frequency than to try to increase frequency. The question is: when to tell the story again and when to stop?

There is no general rule to follow; each product and category, each market and campaign, demands a different approach. Therefore it is essential to calculate the efficiency of each campaign separately, and base decisions on how efficiently effects are achieved, instead of on costs per GRP.

We have seen that the efficiency of a campaign may well depend on contact frequency in a medium and (sub) target group. With the help of a fast real-time analysis system we can calculate and judge the most efficient way to increase brand consideration (if that is the key indicator) each week. When the efficiency drops in the High frequency groups or in important subgroups, we may advise a change in media strategy. In this case we would suggest changing to a lower frequency build-up and an increase in reach. Increasing reach means using more media, more channels and more different programme contexts. If only 20% of the budget from the High-frequency group could be re-allocated, this would increase effectiveness and efficiency with almost the same amount of expenditure overall.

C-MEEs: cross-media engagement evaluations

Robert Passikoff and Don E. Schultz

Nearly four decades ago, Neil Postman, professor, media theorist and cultural critic, predicted what he termed media ecology: 'Media ecology looks into the matter of how media of communication affect human perception, understanding, feeling and value.'

This reflects remarkably the concerns modern marketers are facing, especially in regard to how consumer engagement is facilitated by cross-media utilisation.

Almost ten years later, Marshall McLuhan observed that 'media ecology means arranging various media to help each other ... to buttress one medium with another', which sounds even more like the current conundrum regarding measuring cross-media consumption, and its effect on consumer engagement, brand development and sales.

You can argue about the precise date when media ecology finally arrived in its full complexity, or the continuum on which the media environment migrated. What is incontrovertible is that a real, 21st-century media ecology, where consumers are cocooned by media of one sort or another on a 24/7 basis, has arrived, and that media planning for this environment is more complex than ever.

CROSS-MEDIA MEASUREMENT

The need for a real measure of cross-media consumption has been amplified by the rapidly evolving ways in which consumers use, juggle, adopt and 'gatekeep' old and new media, and by the fact that burgeoning new-media technologies have become more and more accepted – and used – as 'media platforms'. Our research measures 26 individual media touchpoints that marketers might use to engage and persuade consumers to the brand's particular point of view. BIG-research currently reports observations across 45 media, including 12 in-store formats. Planning complexity cannot be denied, so it is critical that marketers can measure their brand's interaction in this ecology.

Some media formats are more practicable than others. Others are more cost-effective. Each touchpoint claims to incorporate a unique set and subset of values, nuances, and capabilities to communicate, inform, and persuade. And – based upon the Brand Keys predictive Brand-to-Media Engagement (B2ME) metrics – some are actually more effective for certain categories and brands than others.

Equally, more and more marketers are using a variety of touchpoints to communicate their existence, differentiation, messages and values to their target audiences, with the ultimate goal of selling products and services.

Embracing more and different media touchpoints theoretically optimises the opportunity the brand has to engage the target consumer, since any one consumer uses different forms of media at different times. So, you might ask whether, if each medium has its strengths, and if a combination of media has greater potency, won't the brand with the most touchpoints win?

The C-MEE assessment answers that by demonstrating the effects cross-media consumption has on brand engagement levels – positive and negative – as well as consumer behaviour in the marketplace.

THE C-MEE MODEL

The C-MEE model is an engagement-based assessment that 'fuses' emotional and rational values that govern brand engagement and loyalty. It combines indirect, psychological inquiry with higher-order statistical analysis. The questionnaire has a test/re-test reliability of 0.93 from national probability samples in the US and UK, and has been used in B2B and B2C brand strategy and media scenarios in 26 countries.

'Engagement' is defined and explained as 'the consequence of a marketing or communication effort that results in an increased level of brand equity for the product or service', and a variety of validity tests and independent, professional reviews have proven the efficacy and in-market legitimacy and utility of this definition.

The output of engagement assessments provides two critical elements necessary to provide cross-media measures that correlate with positive behaviours towards the advertised product or service, specifically, sales.

Identification of category drivers that define how the target audience views the category, compares brand offerings and, ultimately, how consumers will behave in the marketplace.
The identification of the percentage-contribution made to engagement, loyalty, and sales by any marketing element or variable included in the assessment. This can include any consumer or category attribute, benefit or value, and is useful in strategic brand planning.

While strategic brand planning and cross-media consumption are not mutually exclusive, the model was created to assess media platforms and combinations. For this paper, 26 individual media touch-point platforms that might conceivably be consumed or experienced, individually and in combination, were also assessed for the category in which the client brand competes: moisturising bar soap.

The model acknowledges that relying on cross-media consumption on a 'time spent' interaction basis would produce limited insights into cross-media-generated consequences. This is equally true of any assessment mechanism based on identifying touchpoints that consumers 'love', 'trust', find 'educational' or think 'inspiring'.

Further, inferences based on the per cent of media budget allocated to various touchpoints may be acceptable for allocation exercises, but not for understanding consumption effects.

Our model 'equalises' media platforms on those bases, and the combined output – via an engagement-based value equation – allows marketers better to understand media consumption (as opposed to allocation). Through the diagnostics, marketers can identify the impact media have on the success of a brand when used together, and how the media combinations work from a strategic brand management perspective. Media can then be allocated on a more synergistic and efficient basis, which, in a complex marketplace, is increasingly critical to brand success.

THREE-PHASE SURVEY

Our survey was conducted in three phases, to:

identify a brand engagement benchmark for the Dove brand
identify cross-media consumer segments and quantify the engagement effects engendered by exposure to the brand's advertising
determine the percentage-contribution made by each of the 26 media options (and their summed value for cross-media consumption groupings); meaning, for example, that the contribution identified for TV-only was added to the contribution identified for ISP, and so on.

Phase 3 also included calculation of the correlation of cross-media consumption engagement effects with the identified percentage-contribution to engagement and loyalty for the category 'ideal', and the correlation of the per cent of the cross-media consumption summed values (for each media-consumption segment) with self-reported past 60-day purchases of Dove bar soap.

PHASE 1: BENCHMARKING

Two hundred interviews were conducted with exclusive Dove and Ivory moisturising soap users, who had purchased their brand in the past 60 days.

All respondents assessed their 'ideal' moisturising bar soap, 20 category attributes, benefits and values, and 26 media touchpoints. Respondents assessed only one brand, Dove or Ivory – the one they used exclusively.

Thus, the 'ideal' describes the ultimate moisturising bar soap for the total audience, while the brand assessments measure how brand-exclusive users see their preferred brand in relation to their ideal.

On the basis of respondent assessments (and factor, regression and causal path analyses), 20 attributes, benefits and values have been identified as components of the category drivers.

Pro forma brand-engagement assessments provide the percentage-contribution that each individual attribute, benefit and value makes to engagement and loyalty. This includes any marketing or communication element, including the 26 media touchpoints. The results of that analysis will be discussed and used in Phase 3.

A weighted average of the brand-specific assessments is calculated and provides an overall brand equity index score. In this case, Dove was calculated as 113, which, for research purposes, represents the brand engagement benchmark.

PHASE 2: MEDIA EXPOSURE AND EFFECTS

Phase 2 was conducted among a separate sample of exclusive Dove users who had purchased the brand in the past 60 days.

Respondents were asked to report in which of the 26 touchpoints they had 'seen Dove advertising in the past 60 days'.

They were also asked to appraise – using the engagement assessments used in Phase 1 – 'the Dove brand they had seen advertised', and indicate how many bars of soap they had purchased in the time period. It should be no surprise that, given current media ecology and the myriad ways in which consumers (and advertisers) use media, segments large enough to provide generalisable samples of 'one-off' touchpoints were rare. In fact, only one emerged, for magazines.

'Television' has been included as a one-off segment both because it is an essential and huge medium and because it also generally dominates major brands' budgets. However, the few consumer segments reporting only one medium as where they had seen Dove advertising in the past 60 days required us to combine broadcast and cable.

Nonetheless, 11 consumption segments with large enough user segments (150+) were revealed.

On the basis of standard engagement appraisals – or, here, cross-media consumption – media can be classified as having produced an increased level of brand equity for the brand, which classifies the media effort as a high-engagement brand enhancer. Based on previous work in this area, the effort should correlate with high(er) degrees of positive attitudes and behaviours towards the advertised brand.

Media consumption (or marketing efforts, or individual media) can be classified in two other ways: as producing 'neutral' levels of engagement, not significantly reinforcing brand values to a degree that consumers felt the brand better met their category ideals; or 'negative' engagement, where brand values have actually deteriorated.

It is interesting that the two media that normally account for the most time spent and/or larger percentage(s) of the media budget – TV and magazines – did not produce significant brand engagement on their own.

However, nine of the cross-media consumption segments did produce significantly higher engagement for Dove. On a cross-media-consumption basis, seven segments included TV and five magazines. Only three included both TV and magazines.

CALCULATING C-MEES

C-MEEs equal the per cent of 'lift' to the brand's engagement benchmark caused by exposure to various media combinations.

These were calculated using the range between the benchmark score for Dove from Phase 1 (113) and the highest single assessment achieved as a result of reported consumer consumption of a particular combination of media. In this instance, this was the segment 'TV + word of mouth + ISP+ article'. Exposure to advertising via this combination resulted in the highest brand engagement of the nine identified segments: 137.

This allows us to calculate the relative 'lift' over the benchmark (113 to 137). We did this to take into account the fact that brand engagement scores are not linear or open-ended, unlike temperature measured by a thermometer.

Therefore, for the 11 cross-media consumption segments examined, relative effects on brand engagement were calculated.

PHASE 3: ANALYSIS

Earlier, we noted that on a pro forma basis brand-engagement assessment output provides the percentage-contribution each variable in the assessment makes to engagement and loyalty. In this study that included the 26 possible media touch-points that Dove might use.

Bear in mind that these assessments describe how target audiences consume media, and will vary from category to category.

The analysis also included the calculation of correlations of cross-media consumption with engagement effects on the brand and reported purchases.

The correlation of per cent of lift to brand equity based on cross-media consumption with the C-MEE summative calculations of per cent contribution made by the cross-media groupings was 0.769.

Next we calculated the correlation of C-MEE summative calculations of percentage-contribution made by the cross-media groupings with the average, past-60-day purchases of Dove moisturising bar soap The correlation between these two measures was 0.779.

We find these high correlations heartening because, although the values were calculated on the basis of the ideal moisturising soap, it is clear that fine-tuning can be used to create a Dove-specific engagement-based value equation. Also, we believe it is fair to say that the calculations prove the efficacy of engagement-based cross-media consumption measures.

In practice, correlation between the summative calculations of percentage-contribution made by the cross-media groupings from the engagement assessment and how Unilever actually allocated its budget was less impressive – a correlation of 0.298. This was not a total surprise, given that allocation and consumption are different activities and that the cost of purchasing TV time is far higher than, say, website or PR/word-of-mouth activities.

AN ENGAGEMENT EXTRA

The C-MEE assessment not only provides high correlations that identify how well cross-media consumption reinforces a brand's values, but its diagnostics identify which of the top four category drivers of engagement and loyalty are being most influenced by the insertion of the brand into one cross-media option versus another.

These measures show the difference between the brand benchmark and 'Dove brand seen advertised' for each segment.


In the TV-only segment, positive effects show up as primarily influencing only one category driver – How I look/how I feel – while among the TV + word-of-mouth + ISP segment, significant positive effects show up in all four category drivers that influence engagement, loyalty and product purchase.

Additionally, reflecting the correlation of the C-MEE summative percentage-contribution made by the cross-media groupings with their past-60-day purchases of Dove, while there are only directional differences in the number of bars purchased in the past 60 days, the correlation supports the validity and utility of the assessments.

With information like this for each segment, it is possible to select media for a campaign on the basis of which set of options best reinforces the brand, on the basis of specific copy and engagement objectives. This assessment can, of course, be conducted on a specific-media-vehicle basis as well – Desperate Housewives versus The View – which will allow for more efficient and effective planning.

HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR ENGAGEMENT

The reality of media ecology and the fact that media planning has become more and more complex is no surprise to marketers and media planners. Huge media proliferation, new (and, every day, newer) technologies, and the more sophisticated ways in which today's 'bionic' consumers use, juggle, adopt, and 'gatekeep' old and new media are forcing advertisers to re-think traditional models of audience measurement.

At no time in post-modern marketing (we estimate, 1985 onwards) has the need to possess a consumer-centric measure of cross-media consumption been so great. We believe that our approach successfully addresses this need.

The model equalises media platforms normally measured on a time-spent basis. It allows marketers to truly understand media consumption, and not become mired in questions of allocation.

The model explains how media combinations work, and does so from both a behavioural (product purchase) and attitudinal (brand engagement) basis. The diagnostics make it possible to select media on the basis of sets of options that best reinforce the brand – based on category imperatives, specific copy objectives, or engagement goals.

Because of the high correlation between attitudinal and behavioural measures, and the summed calculation of percentage-contribution made by the individual media consumed by different segments, the model makes it possible for marketers to construct engagement-based value equations that can identify the impact media will have on the success of a brand when consumed in various combinations.

The ability to do that corroborates two marketing paradigm shifts. First, advertising today has become less about the character and nature of the products consumed and more about the character of the consumers of the products and, more particularly, the combinations of media they consume. Second, anyone who has been watching the changes in the media landscape knows that the advent of new technologies involves some sort of trade-off. Change in the media landscape does not necessarily result in equilibrium and, depending on the category, some become greater contributors than others, and marketers need to know that.

Using the C-MEE approach means that 'character' and 'contribution' can be identified, and media can then be allocated on a more synergistic, efficient and consumer-centric basis. Given current trends, that ability will become more and more critical to the success – and profitability – of a brand.

Creating Advertisements 2

Creating Advertisements 2
The proliferation of the media and rising media costs constitute another major challenge to creativity in advertising. According to Arun Nanda, Chairman and Managing Director, Rediffusion Advertising, media costs have risen 52 per cent between 1991 and 1994. The number of TV channels is one factor. The problem is how to get the most out of your money. In advertising, a creative person has to. be totally loyal to the marketing brief, the marketing objective, which is something very mundane, very matter of act. This loyalty has to be transformed info attention-getting material. Today, much of the attention getting effort is to be achieved through the use of computer graphics. Unfortunately the computer has become a toy in the hands of those who create advertisements, especially when they have nothing new to say. This novelty is not going to attract attention for long. Already, experienced and more hardheaded advertising and marketing people are opting for a strong message, emotional appeal and reaching out for results. Advertisements of detergents on 'television (Ariel/Surf) are typical examples. Even where such attention-catching sound and visuals are used, the basic thrust is the sales or motivational message. The devil's head might catch the attention but the message is clear-'The Owner's Pride and the Neighbor’s Envy'-such is the quality of Onida.
If you want to join the creative department of an advertising agency, apart from the skills of the trade that you might possess, you must have the ability to absorb and digest a basket full of a variety of information. You must have the ability to put yourself in the consumer's shoes. It is such a total understanding churned in the crucible of your imagination and sensitivity that would bring you success in your search for an ideal point of contact between the product or service and the consumer, engender credibility about the benefits offered, particularly those that add to the value of a consumer's life and environment. The appeal in the ultimate analysis, particularly in the area of undifferentiated competition between different brands of the same product or service, is to the option. Of course, in the case of capital goods or industrial products and inputs to industrial or agricultural production, the appeal to emotion does not work. A great deal of financial investment is involved and hence, only hard facts, most credibly focused alone are likely to win consumers. The major challenge that a creative person faces in advertising is the acquisition of a total perception of the task in hand that involves not only the product or service and the related consumer, but also the opportunities and limitations of the medium of creative expression. Above all, it is essential to be able to meet the requirement of delivering on demand a fresh idea every time, to meet the communication needs of a specific marketing situation. What is more, it must first be acceptable as credible to the client, most often represented by a team, with all its attendant limitations of a variety of perceptions, and finally meet the ultimate test of the consumers.
In this context, let me tell you a story popular in advertising circles. I cannot vouch for its authenticity. Once upon a time there was an art director. With blood and sweat, day and night he labored to conceive a new idea and behold, he found that he had created a full-blooded stallion with flashing eyes, proudly arched neck, powerful legs and a flowering tail. This was such a perfect arumal that not even the ancient gods could have done better. A conference was called to inspect the masterpiece. The salesman declared: "He trots too lightly." There was a great deal of talk and the stallion was given the legs of an elephant. Some one else piped up: "I think the range of vision is too limited." There was more talk and the stallion wound up with a giraffe's neck. Finally/the boss remarked: "He is not fancy enough." Of course, everybody agreed. The arumal now received a peacock's tail. And everyone wondered why the idea did not pull.
The entire process begins with the client briefing the agency. These days, the creative people too are exposed to this preliminary briefing. The account service group now proceeds to gather together all the information and work out an advertising objective, based on a clearly defined measurable marketing objective. The advertising objective is a specific communication task to be achieved among a defined target group or audience or consumers, at a certain time and place and within a certain period of time. On the basis of the advertising objective the account service group works out the communication concept or the basic idea or theme to put across in the advertisements to ensure consumer credibility, brand confidence and motivation and action. The communication concept would include consumer benefits, a product image with the consumer benefits implicit or attributed; new, exclusive product features; difference with other brands-implicit or attributed; benefits external to the product itself. All these would add up to the campaign theme or positioning the product in the market.
Creativity in advertising is the process of translating a communication concept into an idea, interpreting it and presenting it in the most credible and persuasive communicable form. What is wanted is not the combination of imagination merely with native, artistic or creative competence or skill, but also with the requirements of a specific marketing situation and of the media to be used.
Imagination, originality, inventiveness have to be integrated with a profound understanding of human psychology and behavior patterns and expressed through attractive and evocative words and illustrations and design or layout. Even this is not enough. What you say is as important as how you say it. At times what you say is more important than even how you say it. .
Creativity in advertising is team work; the collective work of the creative director or the ideas man, the copywriter and the visualiser and finally the artists who put all this together. In the collective effort, there are other inputs as well. The multidimensional aspect of creativity in advertising starts from campaign planning, which provides a total approach to the creation and dissemination of advertisements. Research is a specific input. It assembles together qualitative and quantitative data: Fed into computers they can produce varied analytical results and, might be, even formulae. Ultimately, the human intervention is essential. The analysis, understanding and interpretation of this data themselves constitute a creative process. It is necessary at this stage to realize that creativity in advertising extends to other areas as well. It applies to the selection of media, even the allocation of the budget and the scheduling and distribution of advertisements over the different media over a period of time. All the artistic efforts going into the creation of advertisements would be useless unless there are creative contributions and even inputs from these various disciplines that constitute the multidimensional world of advertising. There is creativity in the work of the processor of the artwork for the final reproduction, of the printer, photographer, the radio/TV producer, the person who lends music to the words or profound background music for audio-visual advertisements, the recording or sound engineer, and so on. Creativity in advertising has to relate to these various disciplines and make use of their limitations and potential in constant interaction with them and has even to acquire a working knowledge of these disciplines. Creativity in advertising is also disciplined by limitations of costs and today influenced by the trans-nationalization of communication, thanks to the technological revolution in information and communication and the increasing entry of transnational corporations in the Indian market, followed and often even preceded by the transnational advertising agencies, projecting universal lifestyles and brand images and stereotypes.
The search for creative ideas or expressions is like the search for the proverbial philosopher's stone that turns even the crudest of metals into gold. Sometimes the choice is not left to the team of creative people. The client might demand to go with the fashion or the trend. How many advertisements do you see these days? If you have the liberty to break away from the trendy and the fashionable, you look for a suitable formula, based more or less on the belief that all the diverse information can be put into the human mixer, the creative person, and homogenized into a creative concept, which would at the same time ensure an approach to the heart of the consumer, different from that of the competing brand. The challenge, on the one hand, is often to overcome the taboos of commercial tribalism, which are embodied in some house stereotypes of every client, and, on the other, to be able to convert every mass medium to an instrument of individual appeal. Clear, direct appeals, credible expression, have to be dressed up in attention catching, memory-jogging images. One has to express the obvious in such a way as to draw attention to it. One has to be heard or seen in a cacophony of voices or a crowd of images. Interpretation is the soul of creativity in advertising. What Alexander Pope had once said is very appropriate: "What oft was thought but never so well expressed." This demands an awareness of today's needs. Awareness is the essence of creativity in advertising. You have to be aware of every factor that moulds the thinking and behavior patterns of people and motivation for their, action at a particular place, or under particular ambitions, or in particular situations. Relating the specific reality to the specific communication task is the role of creativity in advertising.
Distilling awareness and the perception of reality in the crucible of imagination helps relate human situations with no apparent connection to achieve surprise. This demands the ability to perceive the universe in a grain of sand, as William Blake had once said. In the search for a creative solution to every marketing problem that is unique, one must also remember the specific character of every medium of communication. Every medium is a challenge. It has its own language, its own communication function, its impact on other media. Television provides a sense of intimacy. It is more personal. The close-up, the camera angle, the light and shade, the diffusion and the sharpness, create a feeling of romance and a sense of involvement, of participation. The time and cost factors determine the economy of words and visuals. Such a medium demands simplicity, proximity and the warmth of involvement, an easy and not a pompous approach; a quick and sharp thrust and clarity above all. True, with the flexibility of the computer graphics, all kinds of images are being shown in advertisements on TV, but it is not the mind-boggling trick of the medium but the basic features of the product or service that help assimilation of the message. Otherwise, the form would overwhelm the content. The brand name might be recalled and the product and the benefits it offers might be forgotten and even missed. Television is now influencing the print media through large space, eye-catching images and the use of color to add drama to the product benefit too, through the creation of different situations.
In radio, which has some of the features of television, words and sound assume the greatest importance. The perfect marriage of sound and music and words must be able to conjure up a visual image. Satellite communication opens up new challenges and opportunities for creativity, especially in reaching out to people in different cultural contexts with vastly different levels of experience.
What I have said so far should help you to decide whether you fit into this framework, and if you do, in what specific area of creativity in advertising? This is now the focus of discussion. Usually the creation of an advertisement starts from the copy or the words. Copy consists of all the reading matter or spoken matter that appears or forms the body of an advertisement. In a press advertisement or in any other form of printed advertising, copy includes the headline, the sub-headings if any, the text of the main message and the address of the advertiser and other relevant information. The ultimate purpose of every copy is to stimulate sales or goodwill. In the case of the audio-visual medium, copy would constitute the commentary. Words would also constitute the skeleton, which would be given flesh and blood by the camera and sound and music. The words of the script would be from where the director of the audio-visual media and the team of technicians would begin.
The task of the copywriter is to use words in a certain combination to attract the attention of the consumers and generate an impulse to lead them to the desired objective of the advertiser. What the salesman does across the counter or the table, the copywriter has to achieve at a long distance and on a mass scale with the aid of modem communication technology-the press, radio, television and films.
What I have said above about the various demands pn creativity in advertising applies most to the copywriters. They must be sensitive to human psychology. They must have some understanding, especially in India and in today's context, of operating on a global market, not only of the diversified public and its ever-changing demands, some of which the copywriter must also be able to create, but also the forces that mould human psychology-cultural and historical background, general economic developments, social political environment and so on. Copywriters must obviously have a feel for words and be able to use them most effectively, in the struggle for an audience within the limitations of space and time. They have to have the ability to Marshall all available data, sift through them to pick up the most relevant and formulate a copy platform, which would cover the basic points included in the campaign theme. In making this selection, copywriters must be able to weave the benefits of other selling points into a composite whole.
The copy platform has now to be worked out into the actual copy. Here one would have to follow a logical sequence taking the reader or viewer from the level of awareness about a product or service td information about it, and, then, create a desire for it. But desire is not enough; the reader or viewer has to be led to the conviction not only of the need for the product or service but for the particular brand. Finally, the consumer must be motivated to make the decision to buy the product or service concerned. Hence, the communication must have a focal point. It is obvious that the copywriter must be able not only to attract attention to the words and thus secure a reader, but also create enough interest to make the reader go through the entire copy. The copy must arrest attention and maintain interest from the start to the finish. There must be a tone of earnestness and conviction to the kind of words used and the message that they carry.
Words are the tools of the copywriter. The effective use of words is the question of a style. This cannot be taught. It can, however, be developed and sharpened. Good reading is the key to good writing. The words must be pregnant with meaning, fresh and vibrating and must strike home. The copywriter must be able to write for the eye as well as the ear.
Expressions must be such as to conjure up a vivid vision and give flesh to the reader's or listener's or viewer's dreams and desires. The message must flow from idea to idea easily to build up a thought process in the mind of the audience. In a country such as ours, the illustration or the audio-visual presentation must interpret the copy. It is seldom otherwise.
From the copywriter's table we move into the studio where artists reign supreme. The copy or the series of copies of an advertising campaign first goes to the visualiser. He creates the layout or the design constituting an arrangement of illustration and copy or of the copy alone. The process might start with a scribble, a very rough idea of what the advertisement would look like. There could be a constant interaction between the copywriter, the account executive concerned and the visualiser at every stage of the development of the advertisement. From the scribble would emerge the rough layout, a clearer presentation and then on to a finished rough. At this stage one would have a clear idea of what the advertisement would ultimately look like. The illustration would be clearly sketched, the copy area clearly defined, the size and the character of the types to be used indicated. The final stage would be the creation of a finished artwork from which material for printing could be processed.
The process of designing an advertisement is not as simple as it sounds. It is not merely a question of routine command over the skills of the trade, of competent craftsmanship, apart from all that marketing communication demands as already outlined in considerable detail. India might be in the process of being flooded with a whole range of goods and services, which have been common in the advanced countries. The revolution in information and communication terminology might bring in new lifestyles, value systems and even social behavior patterns. How ever much this massive invasion might overwhelm us, it is difficult, if not impossible, to uproot us from our rich heritage of a civilization going back to more "than 5,000 years. Over these long centuries have developed a rich sense of color and design among our people. Cross-fertilization of the Saracenic and Anglo-Saxon influences has enriched this heritage. Music is part of the daily life of vast sections of our people. We have a wealth of motifs, themes and forms. These are both decorative and imbued with meaning and symbolism. Color is imbued with social and spiritual significance. Every mood has a color and even music associated with it. There is the whole canvas of folk forms expressing the day-to-day experiences of the people. There is a wide diversity in the symbolism inherent in color and design.
It should be obvious that the skills of the trade learnt at the art school are not enough to be a visualiser or illustrator or a designer in a studio in an advertising agency. There is need for a profound acquaintance with the design and art heritage of our people in their infinite variety, if you are to speak to the people through an art form that would evoke immediate response.
There are different specializations even in the field of commercial art or art in the service of marketing communication. The visualiser is more like an ideas man. You could be an illustrator, giving form and shape to the scribbled ideas or the rough produced by the visualiser. An important and scarce discipline is that of the typographer. As much as the illustration, the type or types used for the text of the advertisement are an essential part of the design of an advertisement for the press. Typography is the art of selecting and arranging types to help express an understanding of the theme, thoughts and emotions inherent in the copy of an advertisement, in harmony and integration with the overall design. This is a very important area of creativity in advertising. It passes unnoticed because its effectiveness lies in not drawing attention to itself. Its virtue is its unobtrusiveness. A typographer is not necessarily a designer of new types. He uses available types to serve a particular communication function. A typographer has to be profoundly aware of the design features of different types developed over the years, since the beginning of the invention of the movable metal type for printing in the fifteenth century A.D. by Johan Guttenberg. A whole range of different types with specific design features are available today-heavy, light, expanded, bold, decorative, dean and modem, with a contrast of thick and thin strokes creating various color values even in black and white and so on. The computer now enables the typographer to play about even with existing types. It is possible to arrange the printed matter in such a manner as to create a design or an illustration. In this the computer is a very flexible instrument. The typographer's sense of design can find free flow in calligraphy or the handwritten alphabet, basing oneself on the Indian tradition, which includes both the indigenously developed scripts and the Arabic calligraphy brought in by the Arabs and the Central Asians.
If you have moved ahead from school-day classroom drawings and sketching as a hobby and have graduated from an art college with specialization in commercial art, you have an option to enter advertising as an artist. Like a copywriter you would start as an apprentice at around Rs. 6,000 a month. The maximum you reach would depend on your abilities. It could be anywhere around Rs. 80,000. If you have passed out from the National Institute of Design, your opening prospects are better. You would start at a salary of around Rs. 10,000.
The new area of creativity in advertising is the electronic media. There was a time, when the only audio-visual medium used in advertising was .the film. For this the copywriter usually produced a script. This was then translated into a storyboard or sketched frames with accompanying copy for commentary and indications for background music and sound effects. This was then presented to the client with slides and taped commentary. Much of the work could be done in the studio of the agency itself. Slides had to be produced by photographic studios to be used in cinema houses for advertising products and services for advertising films one had to depend on film producers and studios. Today television is the medium and after the storyboard stage, the work passes on to the independent video producers, who have all the studio shooting, "recording and editing facilities. If you have some understanding of the film medium you could also supervise the production or even direct it on behalf of the advertising agency. This is an interesting extension of your work, either as a visualiser or a copywriter. There are, however, greater possibilities in the video-producing studios. If the audiovisual is your medium, these studios would possibly give you opportunities to go beyond the limitations of mere marketing communication. The earnings could also be higher.

Creating Advertisements 1

Creating Advertisements 1
Having discussed the market and marketing and the research associated with marketing operations, we are now in a position to discuss the communication component of marketing or advertisements. How are advertisements created? What goes into the making of an effective advertisement? What are the disciplines and the kind of mind required to create effective advertisements?
After looking at the links, most of you would probably first clicked here first. This is the area, which appeals to most people wanting to enter the advertising profession. It conjures up pictures of a world of glamour and glitter; of the esoteric few, in which you can give full rein to what you believe to be your unrecognized creative talent, and so on. This is understandable, because everyone of us believes that one has an element of creativity which just needs an opportunity" to find an avenue for expression and then universal recognition. From the world of creativity of advertising a far more esoteric world, a far more glamorous world, a far more exciting world, where money flows like water, is expected to open up for you.
Creativity in advertising is a highly specialized area. It involves the creation of the most effective message to motivate a consumer to buy a particular product or service, not once, but again and again. This means the creation of such messages year after year, often for the same product or service in the face of increasing competition. It is also the most challenging. With the growing proliferation of and possibilities offered by the electronic audio-visual media, there are openings for a wide variety of skills and talents for creative expression of ideas. This is possibly the most talent-intensive area of advertising, demanding training in and a total grasp of various specialized areas of mass communication. Training, however, can only help sharpen and give a direction to inherent talent or flair. It should be obvious from the fact that this chapter is placed after eight chapters discussing various aspects of advertising and marketing, that here there is no free play for imagination and creativity. The concept of the free market does not operate in this area; instead, the actual market disciplines creativity. Imagination and innovative ideas have to serve the demands of the communication needs of the market, the product or the service.
An advertisement whatever the medium for which it is created-visual or audio-visual is not the result of the imagination or inventiveness of a single individual. In an advertising agency, a creative team prepares advertisements or persuasive communication or creatively interprets the advertising objective that is derived from the marketing objective. Thus it is the market, and the product in relation to it, which provides the seed for the creative inspiration to flower. In a sense, from the very beginning, creativity in advertising is tainted with the environment of the market place, the very mundane issues of profit. At the entrance to the studio of an advertising agency should be written the following: "All who enter here leave behind all dreams of an unfettered expression of your creative talent or genius."
Once again to begin at the beginning: What is creativity? The dictionary meaning of the word is "inventive, imaginative, showing imagination as well as native skill." The two fundamental aspects are imagination and creative skill. Creativity is a combination of imagination and natural skill. If these two elements are there, these can be sharpened through training and observation and of course, experience.
How does the creative process work? How are products of the imagination born and given physical shape? Very little is really known about it. This is true even of a writer or a painter or of all the creators of art. One -could possibly say that the essence of creativity or the creative process is the interaction, even a kind of conflict, between the creator and the external reality. A creative person is constantly trying to absorb and rise above the external reality and is in the process influencing it and being influenced by it. In the crucible of the creative mind the external reality is transformed into something different, without losing its basic features. This is what appeals to the viewer, listener or reader. Under the influence of a creative work we begin to look at the external reality from a different angle, as also our relationship with it. We are even motivated at times to change the external reality.
About good writing, it has been said: "Knowledge is the foundation and source of good writing." If this is true of good writing, particularly creative writing in general, it is more so of persuasive and motivational communication concerned with people. Knowledge is much more than book knowledge. Primarily, it is knowledge of people, their social and cultural world and their behavior within this world of theirs. We talk of the individual will, but it is molded by society. It is, however, true, that once molded, the individual will can transcend the limitations of existing society and even transform it. This is a continuing process. Exposure to varied experiences of life enriches creative talent. In reality creativity feeds on such experience. This is true of every creative person. Other inputs to creativity include interests and wide reading in a variety of subjects. One must have a deep interest in and be a perceptive observer of the social scene. Above all, a creative person is highly sensitive to people's feelings and moods, their wants, fears, hopes, aspirations. This is most vital for a creative communicator with the objective of moving people into action. Creative persons must be able to probe the depths of the mind of their audience. This is because all the driving forces of an action of every individual pass through his or her brain and transform themselves into motivations to drive him or her into action. External stimuli can trigger this unconscious motivation.
For creative marketing communication, this is not enough because it is creativity within a specific framework. It is concerned with people in relati6n to specific products or services in a specific marketing situation. Mere exposure to a variety of experiences or knowledge is not enough. You have to saturate yourself with all the relevant information. This would involve understanding of people in a particular context, as buyers of a particular product or service and their behavior pattern in relation to it, particularly the circumstances under or environment in which they best absorb ideas. You have to combine your understanding of the people, of a particular segment of society, at a given moment of time and in space, with the deepest possible knowledge of the product or service. You have to relate these two understandings. An advertisement is a creative interpretation of this knowledge. The creative process in advertising does not begin with an idea or a concept and then attempt to fit in knowledge about people and products and services into it. It is the result of a profound and infinite interaction between such knowledge and the creative mind. In the non-commercial field of creativity such interaction can often find spontaneous expression. Sometimes one has to wait for an inspiration. In advertising there is no room for spontaneity or the time to wait for an inspiration. One has always to work against time.
Creativity in advertising is facing a major challenge today. The demands on it are not only appreciation by the consumers, but their acceptance of the credibility of the benefits offered by the particular brand. The challenge has become more acute because differentiations between brands are narrowing. In reality, quality-wise, there is practically no difference between different brands of high-priced textiles, for example. It is no longer enough for the words and the visuals to describe the benefits to be derived from the product or service most forcefully. The consumer has to be involved and drawn into the environment created by the advertisement. The consumer must be compelled to identify with the environment and the product or service or associate with it as part of the aspiration for a particular lifestyle.

Is Your Advertising Working as Hard as It Could?

Is Your Advertising Working as Hard as It Could?

If you frequently advertise, you no doubt have a good idea of which ads work and which ads don't by comparing sales levels after advertisements have run. You likely have adjusted your advertising based on these observed sales results, and will continue to do so. However, it may take quite some time for your advertisements to improve to the point where your advertising campaigns are working as hard as they could be. Advertising testing can expedite the process of optimizing your advertising efforts, allowing you to maximize sales as quickly as possible.

Advertising testing can tell you the following:

• To what extent does an ad convince people to buy my product/service?


• What does the ad to enhance my company's image?


• What percentage of people notice my ad?


• What do people recall about my company and its products/services after reading my ad?


• What percentage can recall the name of my company?


• Is there anything about my ad that is difficult to believe?


• What components of my ad are working?


• What components need to be improved or eliminated?

Advertising testing is best done inconspicuously. It is important that respondents not know that they involved in an advertising test when they are first exposed to an advertisement in a test. This mirrors the manner in which consumers/customers typically are exposed to advertising.

Dealing with Newspaper Advertising

Dealing with Newspaper Advertising
With newspaper advertising [and with all other types of media], Consistent Advertising = Familiarity = Trust = Customers. People won’t buy from you until they trust you.
Trust and confidence take time to build up. To be successful with newspaper advertising, you need persistence, patience, and a budget to keep your newspaper advertising running to build that trust.
Your ad should appear in the same place in the newspaper at least weekly for an indefinite period [forever]. Expect to run your newspaper advertising for two months before you see an increase in sales. It takes some time to build trust. And if you quit, you have to start all over again. Don’t waste your money starting a newspaper advertising program if you can’t give it time to work.
Facts about Newspaper Advertising
Fifty-seven percent of adults in the U.S. read a daily newspaper. Sixty-seven percent read a Sunday paper. They spend almost 45 minutes per day reading at least one paper, and over an hour on Sunday.
Newspapers get the biggest share of advertising revenue in this country. Almost 22% of all ad dollars go to newspapers. Over 85% of that money is spent by local advertisers.
There are over 1,600 daily papers in the United States with a circulation approaching 58 million. The are over 7,000 weekly papers with a circulation of over 50 million.
When and Where Your Ad Should Appear
Your newspaper advertising strategy will depend on your type of business. The key question is: “When and where [what newspaper sections on what days] do your customers look for your type of business?"
Here are some general placement guidelines:
1. A smaller advertisement run repeatedly will do better than a larger ad run less often. Familiarity = trust.
2. Shoppers read the Friday, Saturday and Sunday papers to plan their weekend shopping. Saturday is the most important of the three, but Sunday is the most widely read. If you are a retail store, you probably want your newspaper advertising to run on these days.
3. The public knows to read the paper on certain days of the week to get certain information. If your competitors are all running their newspaper advertising on Wednesday in the same section, there is a reason. Shoppers know to look there for information about your type of business.
If you change your ad and your customers don’t recognize it, you will have wasted all of the trust you have built up over time. Many companies never change their basic newspaper advertising design. This is a good strategy as long as the ads are working.
Attention
You will see us repeat this idea over and over. Your ad has a zero percent chance of succeeding if your prospect doesn’t read it.
Attention is everything in newspaper advertising. Don’t be shy. You want the biggest ad that makes economic sense, and the most stunning presentation you can design. Your ad must stand out from [contrast with] all of the others on the page. Conservative ads won’t even get noticed. Think about it.
Direct Response Newspaper Advertising
Once you get their attention, your newspaper advertising needs to motivate your customers to respond now. A direct response ad is written to get attention, interest, desire, and action immediately. Think of it this way: Where will that newspaper be in 24 hours? [In the recycle bin.]
Now, think about that huge mountain of inertia you must overcome with your customers to get action. You want them to take a financial risk, clip your ad, get in their car, drive to your store, deal with your staff, buy your products, carry them home, assemble and install, etc. etc. etc. All they want to do is sit in their chair and peacefully read their newspaper. How are you going to get them to respond?
You use direct response newspaper advertising, and you create professional advertisements using professional marketing techniques.
You need to make your customers squirm, or wince, or laugh, or cry. You need them excited, exhilarated, and ready. Make them feel danger. Fear. Heat. Sex. Hunger. Desire. Stoke them up, and then tell them how to get what they want. Fulfill that desire. Quench that thirst. Eliminate that pain. Easy. Fast. Free.
So, can your diaper delivery service do this?
You'd better, or no one will call. Actually, this may be a bad example, because there is a certain built-in motivation to get someone else to clean your dirty diapers. But no matter what your service or product, you need to build real motivation in your customers if you want them to respond to your newspaper advertising.
More Direct Response Newspaper Advertising
Let's see if we can help you to better recognize effective direct response advertising when [or if] your designer shows it to you.
Direct Response Advertising Example
“Hungry? Try Our .99 Double Cheeseburger”
This ad achieves one-on-one communication, and it motivates the reader to recognize a problem [hunger] by asking a stimulating question.
“Hungry?” [“Yes”, the reader replies, “That’s me.”] The ad then offers an immediate, highly desirable solution. “Try Our .99 Double Cheeseburger” [problem, solution, value, desire, satisfaction.]
The ad gets visual attention simply by using special fonts. It gets attention, identifies a problem [stimulates interest], creates desire, and demands immediate action.
Notice that this newspaper advertising does not ask the reader to try the product - it tells the reader to try it. And if the reader is actually hungry, this ad can stimulate a physical reaction in their stomach and in their mouth. Using the right colors in the ad will increase this physical reaction. A full color photo of the product could make your stomach grumble. Get the idea?
This deceptively simple newspaper advertising works. It is written to get a response, and it does.
A Direct Response Advertisement:
1. Gets attention through design, ad size, placement, and timing.
2. Stimulates interest by touching on human emotions, desires, and needs.
3. Creates desire by offering solutions [benefits] to emotions, problems, or needs.
4. Gets action by making the solution highly desirable yet affordable and easy.
This is professional newspaper advertising. Use it.
A Warning For Professionals: If you are a doctor, an accountant, a lawyer, or any professional, and you are thinking: “I want to be very professional in my newspaper advertising. I just want to put my name out there. I don’t want to sell”, then your newspaper advertising costs will be exponentially high [$10 x $10 x $10…]. Your newspaper advertising must be classy and professional, but it also must get attention, spark interest, create desire, and ask for action. And ultimately, it must show a return on your investment. That is what professional direct response ads are designed to do.
Increase Your Response Rate
There is only one way to increase the effectiveness of your newspaper advertising. You have to measure the response rate, and test variations of the ad to improve on that response rate.
You only get what you measure. In one test, some smart marketing pros discovered that just by changing the headline in the ad they got a five-hundred-percent increase in response. 500%! How did they do it? They changed the headline, and measured the results.
So test different headlines, offers, copy, themes, ad sizes, photos, illustrations, and when and where your newspaper advertising runs. Measure the results. It’s worth the work. Here some additional ideas on increasing response:
• Your headline is 70% responsible for the success of your ad. You want it to promise the biggest benefit, or to ask a provocative question. “Loose 10 pounds in 2 weeks” is a benefit promise headline. Your Headline Must Be Great.
• Write a few different strong headlines, and try them out. An improved newspaper advertising headline could triple the response rate to your ad, or more. Same ad - different headline - three times the response. How do you do it? You test different headlines, and measure the response.
• You want your newspaper advertising to awaken strong emotions in your customers. Emotions are triggered by clear and powerful benefits. Give benefits, not features. Touch on human desires and needs, and offer the solution to the problem.
• People will justify their emotional decisions later. Newspaper advertising is not the place for a logical argument or justification. The job of the ad is to get a response.
• Twice as many readers will look at your graphic than will read your headline. By using a graphic or a photo, you are getting the attention of twice as many people with your newspaper advertising.
• 60% of consumers believe ads that offer a money-back guarantee. 57% believe ads that carry an official third party endorsement. 46% of consumers believe claims based on survey results. Use these tools in your newspaper advertising if you can.
• Offer different deals every few weeks. One offer will out-pull the others. This will also help you to get different kinds of customers who respond to different offers.
• Use a time limit for response in your newspaper advertising. Time limits work.
• Offer a limited number of free consultations or special deals per month. “Only the first 50 people….” This gets people to respond now.
• About 1/3 of readers will stop reading your newspaper advertising after the first 50 words. An additional 25% will stop reading after 200 words. Put the benefits up front.
• People believe testimonials. Use them if you can in your newspaper advertising.
• Be careful when measuring the response to your newspaper advertising. Many unpredictable things can go wrong or right that have nothing to do with your ad. Current events, the weather, and competitor actions can help or hurt you in the short run. You may get great placement and a great response, or the exact opposite. Just average it all out. Ask your customers where they saw your ad, and be persistent. Good luck or bad, it’s time and patience that will pay off with your professional newspaper advertising.
• Set goals and measure your progress. Are inquiries becoming clients? What is your return on investment for your newspaper advertising?
• Are you getting repeat business? Find out why customers are, or are not, coming back.
• Are you attracting customers you don’t want? Not every client is profitable or desirable. You may need to modify the offer you are making in your newspaper advertising.
• A half-page advertisement will pull 70% of the business a full-page ad will. A quarter-page ad will pull 50% of a full page. Is the cost difference worth it?
• Tell your customers to respond now. Tell them what to do and how to do it. Make it as simple as possible for them to respond to your newspaper advertising. [Offer credit, discounts, delivery, 800#, web information, directions, map, etc.]
• Response devices work. [Coupons, phone #’s, return cards, directions.] Make sure it is easy for your customers to respond.
• Use the problem – solution format in your newspaper advertising. And always ask questions that get a “Yes, that’s me” reply.
• Buy a bigger ad. Effective newspaper advertising requires space. If you need to include a lot of information in your ad, don’t try to cram it all into a little box.
• Your newspaper advertising also needs to work with the reader's physical eye movements. The point of attraction for the eye, and the subsequent movement or natural reading progression, needs to lead the reader toward the response devise.

Allocating Advertising Dollars for Advertising Research

Allocating Advertising Dollars for Advertising Research

One of the challenges facing marketers is how to afford to test advertising. It is human nature that, given a finite advertising budget, all advertising dollars should be spent producing and placing/airing an ad or commercial. Unfortunately, by definition, half of all advertisements produced are below average. Many ads do nothing positive either in terms of selling product or boosting corporate image. A large company can easily rack up production costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and media costs in the millions. The numbers are smaller for small and mid-size businesses, but still large enough to be scary when one considers that all this money has potentially been thrown away. If you fail to test an ad and it turns out to be one of the many sub-par ads in existence today, how much money was saved by not testing?

A good rule of thumb is to spend 10% to 15% of your advertising dollars in ad testing. This percentage should be somewhat smaller for large ad budgets, and somewhat greater for small ones. It also is wise to keep some funds in reserve for additional production costs, just in case testing shows an ad to be a dog. If the ad passes with flying colors, you can spend the money on additional GRPs.

The Importance of Research in the Copywriting Process

Written by: Eric Brantner


The man many consider to be the greatest ad man of all time, David Ogilvy, used to always preach the importance of conducting thorough research before writing a single word of copy. Research is the best foundation for coming up with profitable ideas and the right angle for your copy. Without it, you’re like a blindfolded drunk trying to throw a bull’s-eye while playing darts at the local bar.

Because this is an SEO/Internet marketing blog, I’m only going to discuss the importance of research as it relates to writing your website copy.

• Understanding your product—You’d be surprised how many companies have a skewed view of their product. Either they think it’s way more impressive than it really is (because they’re biased) or they don’t truly understand which features/benefits their target audience cares about. In Ogilvy’s book Ogilvy on Advertising, he discusses an advertising campaign he created to increase tourism to Britain. One prominent British government official told Ogilvy he should feature trout fishing in his ads to the U.S. market. Ogilvy responded by pointing out that research indicated there were 49 other benefits of traveling to Britain that interested Americans more than trout fishing. Know the true appeal of your product!

• Analyzing the competition—A careful study of your competition is a crucial step to take before writing your web copy for several reasons. First, you need to identify exactly who your competitors are. Next, you need to know what their online presence consists of. In other words, are they active in social media? Have they optimized their website? Lastly, you need to examine their actual website copy. What benefit are they playing up? Who do they seem to be speaking to? What’s their USP? Knowing all of this will help you create the right angle for your copy.

• Getting to know your target audience—I’ve said more than my fair share on identifying your target audience, so I won’t bore you with more details.

• Keyword research—Effective keyword research is the gateway for bringing qualified traffic to your website. When doing your keyword research, you should not only determine the common search queries related to your products and services, but you should also try to identify keyword opportunities your competition is overlooking. Remember, SEO isn’t a one-time process. Keyword research is something your should be doing on a regular basis to ensure your search engine presence is at its maximum potential.

• Web usability research—When it comes to writing for the web, Jakob Nielsen is the chief authority on usability. Spend time browsing through his web usability studies so you can make certain your copy is getting read (or scanned) and your readers are taking action.

How much research did you do before you wrote your web copy?

Marketing Basics: Competitor Analysis

Marketing Basics: Competitor Analysis
Written by: Eric Brantner

In part 2 of my Marketing Basics series, I want to talk about getting the most out of your competitor analysis (by the way, make sure you read part one of this series about defining your target audience.) When I’m getting ready to write copy for a new client, I always ask them about their competition. See, it’s important that you know your enemy better than they know themselves. It’s the only way you can properly position yourself in your industry.

Here are some questions you should answer when performing competitor analysis.

1. Who are my main competitors? This should be a fairly simple question to answer. All you have to do is figure out which companies are taking up the piece of market share that you want. If you only provide local services, identify the main competition in your area. Be realistic. Don’t think that some “small fry” isn’t really a competitor. Make sure you leave no stone unturned when identifying your competition.

2. What are their strengths and weaknesses? Again, be realistic when answering this question. Recognize what your competition does really well. Also, dig around and figure out where they come up short. Maybe they don’t provide the level of customer service you can provide. Perhaps they don’t have the capabilities to take on large clients. Remember, any weakness of the competition presents an opportunity for you to capitalize on it. I also recommend examining the online presence of your competition. Find weaknesses in their SEO, social media marketing, link building, and other areas, and do your best to take advantage of it.3. What do I offer that they don’t? This goes back to the question above; it’s called finding your competitive edge. It could be as simple as finding a service you offer that the competition doesn’t. Or it might be that you provide a price that they can’t match. The point is this: find something of value you can provide to your consumers that you your competition can’t. Once you identify your competitive edge, drive it home in your website copy, advertisements, taglines, and anywhere else your brand name comes up.

4. Are there potential customers that my competition is overlooking? When starting a new business, your first instinct might be just to pattern it after one of your competitors. This means going after the same customers as your competition. While that might end up being your only option, take some time to see if there are any customers your competition is missing out on. For example, look at Nintendo. Their video game system, the Wii, is aimed at the customers the Sony PS3 and Microsoft XBOX 360 are ignoring. By creating a video game system that focused on being user-friendly (meaning anyone—even my mom—can pick it up and play it) instead of designed to attract hardcore gamers, the Wii has consistently outsold the competition.

5. How does my pricing compare with others? Now, this isn’t to say that you should always focus on offering the cheapest products or services out there, but the fact is you can’t just ignore the pricing structure of your competition. There’s nothing wrong with being more expensive than your competitors, but just make sure you provide something of value that justifies the extra cost to your consumers. If your target audience can’t understand why they should pay more for your services, they’ll just buy from the competition instead.

When’s the last time you performed a competitor analysis for your business? Would you add any questions to this list?

Marketing Basics: Defining Your Target Audience

Marketing Basics: Defining Your Target Audience
Written by: Eric Brantner

Because I’m a copywriter, a lot of my posts have to do with general marketing techniques that apply to both online and offline communication. In light of this, I thought it would be a good idea to do a series on the basic principles of marketing. Over the next several posts, I’ll cover everything from defining your target audience to creating a unique selling point for your business. By the time this series is complete, I hope to have given you everything you need to create a working marketing strategy for your small business (or, at the very least, to get you aimed in the right direction).

For the first post in this series, I want to talk about defining your target audience. See, the term “target audience” or “target demographic” gets thrown around a lot in marketing conversations. But more times than not, a company’s target audience is just vague definition that gets filed away in the back of a business plan somewhere. In reality, your target audience should drive every decision you make in regards to your business.
So, let’s discuss how to go about defining exactly who your target audience is. Ask yourself these questions to help you better understand who your business is working for.

1. Who does your product appeal to, and what are their general characteristics? Let’s start out broad. General attributes to consider are your target audience’s age, sex, location, income level, and marital status.2. What is their motivation for buying your product or services? Is your product something they need or something they want? Does having your product elevate their social status somehow? Does it make them feel better about themselves? Or is it something that merely entertains them? In short, what is your customer’s pain? Why do they so badly need you? The point is your product adds some sort of value to their lives. Figure out what that value is.

3. How does your target audience shop? To best market to your ideal customer, you need to figure out their purchasing habits. Do they tend to make impulse purchases, or are they more rational, logical consumers? Where do they shop? Online or in person? Are they loyal to particular brands or are they always susceptible to jump ship?

4. Where does your target audience congregate? In order to communicate with your target audience, you need to first know where they are. If your target audience is the teenage group, figure out which social networks and other websites they frequent most. Which type of physical establishments do they hang out in? Which TV and radio stations do they tune into? Which magazines do they read? By knowing exactly where your target audience is, you can focus your marketing efforts into those areas so that you have a better chance of capturing their attention.

Once you’ve found the answers to these questions, you’ll have a better idea of who your target audience is. Your mission should always be to get to know your target audience better. That’s why I think social networking is such a great tool. While some people see Twitter as a waste of time due to a bunch of “meaningless” posts, I see it as an opportunity to get inside my audience’s mind. I can learn how they talk, what they think, what their likes and dislikes are, and what the best method is for getting a positive reaction out of them.

Who is your target audience? How do you go about connecting with them? Share your tips with us in the replies.