Developing advertising strategy:

Advertising strategy consists of two major elements;

i) creating advertising message
ii) selecting advertising media
Creating advertising message: the creative department first created good
advertisements. Advertising can succeed only if commercials gain attention and
communicate well. Good advertising messages are especially important in today's costly
and cluttered advertising environment.
Message strategy: the first step in creating effective advertising messages is to decide
what general message will be communicated to consumers- to plan a message strategy.
Developing an effective message strategy begins with identifying customer benefits that
can be used as advertising appeals. Message strategy statements tend to be plain,
straightforward outlines of benefits and positioning points that the advertiser wants to
stress.
The creative concept will guide the choice of specific appeals to be used in an advertising
campaign.

The advertising appeal refers to the approach used to attract the attention of consumers
and to influence their feelings toward the product, service or cause. An advertising appeal
can also be viewed as something that moves people speaks to their wants or needs and
excites their interest. The appeal can be said to form the underlying content of the
advertisement. Advertising appeal tend to adapt themselves to all media. There are three
types of appeals, such as are given to below:
i) Rational/ informational appeals:
ii) Emotional appeals
iii) Moral appeals

Rational/informational appeals: Rational appeals relate to the audience’s self-

interest. They show that the product will produce the desired benefits. It focus on the
consumer’s practical, functional or utilitarian need for the product or service and
emphasize features of a product or service and or the benefits or reasons for owning or
using a particular brand. Rational based tend to be informative and advertisers using them
generally attempt to convince consumers that their product or service has a particular
attributes or provides specific benefit that satisfies their needs.
Many rational motives can be used as the basis for advertising appeals including comfort,
convenience, economy, health and sensory benefits such as touch, taste and smell and
rational motives are quality, dependability, durability, efficacy, efficiency and
performance etc.
Weilbacher identified several types of advertising appeals that fall under the category of
rational approaches such as are
Ads that use a feature appeals focus on the dominant traits of the product or service.
A competitive advantage appeal is used, here the advertiser makes either a direct or an
indirect comparison to another brand and usually claims superiority on one or more
attributes.
A favorable price appeal makes the price offer the dominant point of the message.

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News appeals are those in which some type of news or announcement about the product,
service or company dominates the ads.
Product/ service popularity appeals stress the popularity of a product or service by
pointing out the number of consumers who use the brand, the number who have switched
to it, the number of exports who recommend it or its leadership position in the market
place.

Emotional appeals:
Emotional appeals stir up either negative or positive emotions that can motivate purchase.
Emotional appeals relate to the consumers’ social or psychological needs for purchasing a
product or service. Communicators may use positive emotional appeals such as are love,
pride, joy and humor etc. sometimes they negative emotional appeals such as are fear,
guilt and shame. Many feelings or needs can serve as the basis for advertising appeals
designed to influence consumers on an emotional level.

Personal states or feelings social based feelings

Safety arousal/stimulation Recognition
Security sorrow/grief Status
Fear pride Respect
Love achievement/accomplishment Involvement
Affection self-esteem Embarrassment
Happiness actualization Affiliation/ belonging
Joy pleasure Rejection
Nostalgia ambition Acceptance
Sentiment comfort Approval
Excitement

Moral appeals:
Moral appeals are directed to the audience’s sense of what is right and proper. They are
often used to urge people to support social causes such as a cleaner environment, better
race relations, and equal rights for women and aid to the disadvantaged.
An example of a moral appeal is the March of Dimes appeal, “God made you whole.
Give to help those He did not”

Advertising appeals should have three characteristics;

First, they should be meaningful
Second the appeal must be believable
Third , the appeal should also be distinctive

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 Message execution
Message execution: the advertiser now has to turn the big idea into an actual ad execution
that will capture the target market's attention and interest.. the creative people must find
the best style, tone, words and format for executing the message. Any message can be
presented in different execution styles, such as the following;
Advertising execution styles:
Once the specific advertising appeal that will be used as the basis for the advertising
message has been determined, the creative specialist or team begins its execution.
Creative execution is the way an advertising appeal is presented. An advertising message
can be presented or executed in numerous ways:
1) Straight sell or factual message: The ads relies on a straightforward presentation
of information concerning the products or services. Here the focus of the message
is the product or services and its specific attributes or benefits. It is commonly
used in print ads.
A picture of the product or service occupies part of the ads and the factual copy takes
up the rest of the space.
They are generally used in the advertising with an announcer generally delivering the
sales message which the product or service is shown on the screen.
Ads for high involvement products as well as industrial and other business to business
products generally use this format.
2) Scientific/Technical Evidence:
In this method scientific or technical evidence is presented. Advertisers often recite
technical information, result of scientific or laboratory studios or endorsements by
scientific bodies or agencies to support their advertising claims. For example, an
endorsement from the American council or dental therapeutics on how fluoride help
to prevent cavities was the basis of the campaign that made crest the leading brand on
the market.
3)Demonstration: it is designed to illustrate the key advantages of the product or
service by showing it in actual or is some stage situation.
TV ad is particularly well suited for demonstration executions. The benefits or
advantages of the products can be shown right on the screen.
4) Comparison: Brand comparisons can also be basis for the advertising executions.
It offers a direct way of communicating a brand’s particular advantage over its
competitors or positioning a new or lesser known brand with industry leaders.
Comparisons executives are often used to execute competitive advantage appeals
5) Testimonial executions: here a person praises the product or service on the basis
of his or her personal experiences with it. The testimonial must be based on actual use
of the product or service to avoid legal problems and the spokesperson must be
credible. For example, apple computer made effective use of testimonial as part of its
switch campaign which features computers uses from various walks of life
discouraging why they switched from wind owns from windows based machines to
machintoshes.
A related execution technique is the endorsement where a well known or respected
individual such as a celebrity or expert in the product or service area speaks on behalf
of the company or the brand.

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6) Slice of life: it is generally based on a problem or solution approaches. This ads
portrays a problems or conflict that consumers might face in their daily lives. The ads
their shows how the advertised products or services can solve the problems.
7)Animation: an advertising execution approach that has become popular in recent
years is animation. With this technique animated scenes are drawn by artists or
created on the computer and cartoons puppets or other types of fictional characters
may be used.
Cartoon animation is especially popular for commercials targeted at children
8) Mood or image: this style builds a mood or image around the product, such as
beauty, love or serenity. No claim is made about the product except through
suggestion. Bermuda tourism ads create such moods.
9) Musical: this style shows one or more people or cartoon characters singing a song
about the product. For example, one of the most famous ads in history was a coca
cola ad built around the song. I would like to teach the world to sing.
10) Personality symbol: this style creates a character that represents the product. The
character might be animated or real. Such as Marlboro man. This style involves
developing a central character or personality symbol that can deliver the advertising
message and with which the product or service can be identified. This character may
be a person.
11) Fantasy: an execution technique that is popular for emotional types of appeals
such as image advertising is fantasy. Fantasy executions are particularly well suited
for television, as the commercial can become a 30 second escape for the viewer into
another lifestyle. Cosmetics ads often use fantasy appeals to create images and
symbols that become associated with the brand .
12) Dramatization: another execution technique particularly well suited to television
is dramatization where the focus is on telling a short story with the product or service
at the star. The purpose of using drama is to draw the viewer into the action it
portrays.
13) Humor: this technique can also be used as a way of presenting other advertising
appeals. Humorous executions are particularly well suited to television or radio.
14) Combinations: many of the advertising techniques can be combined to present
the advertising message. For example, animation is often used to create personality
symbols or present a fantasy. Slice of life ads are often used to demonstrate a product
or service.

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Format elements make a difference in an ad's impact as well as in its costs. A small
change in ad design can make a big difference in its effect. The elements of the print ad
must effectively work together. The creative tactics for print advertising are given to
below;
Creative Tactics for print advertising:

The basic components of a print ad are the

i) the headline
ii) the body copy
iii) the visual or illustrations
iv) the layout

Headlines: the headline is the words in the leading position of the ad-the words that will
be read first or are positioned to draw the most attention. Headlines are usually set in
larger type and are often set apart from the body copy.
The most important function of a headline is attracting readers’ attention and interesting
them in the rest of the message.
Research has shown the headline is generally the first thing people look at in a print ad.
Only 20% of readers go beyond the headline and read the body copy.
The headline must put forth the main theme, appeal or proposition of the ad in a few
words.
Types of headline: Headline can be categorized as direct and indirect headline.
Direct headlines are straightforward and informative in terms of the message they are
presenting and the target audience they are directed toward. Common types of direct
headlines include those offering a specific benefit, making a promise or announcing a
reason the reader should be interested in the product or service.

Indirect headlines are not straightforward about identifying the product or service or
getting to the point. But they are often more effective at attracting readers’ attention and
interest because they provoke curiosity and lure readers into the body copy to learn
answer or get an explanation.
The technique for writing indirect headlines include using questions, provocations, how
to statements and challenges.

Subheads:
Subheads are usually smaller than the main headline but larger than the body copy. They
may appear above or below the main headline or within the body copy
Subheads are often used to enhance the readability of the message by breaking up large
amounts of body copy and highlighting key sales points

Body Copy:
The main text portion of a print ad is referred to as the body copy. Advertising body
copy can be written to go along with various types of creative appeals and executions-
comparisons, price appeals, demonstrations, humors, dramatizations and the like.

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Visual Elements: the third major components of a print ad is the visual element. Visual
portions of an ad must attract attention, communicate an idea or image and work in
synergistic fashion with the headline and body copy to produce an effective message.
Many decisions have to be made regarding the visual portions of the ad: what
identification marks should be included; whether to use photos or hand-drawn or painted
illustrations; what colors to use and what the focus of the visual should be.

Layout: a layout is the physical arrangement of the various parts of the ad, including the
headline, subheads, bodycopy, illustrations and any identifying marks. The layout shows
where each part of the ad will be placed and gives guidelines to the people working on
the ad.
The layout can also guide the art director in determining the size and types of photos.

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 Selecting advertising media:
The major steps in media selection are
i) deciding on reach, frequency and impact
ii) choosing among major media types
iii) selecting specific media vehicles
iv) deciding on media time

Deciding on reach, frequency and impact:

To select media, the advertiser must decide what reach and frequency are needed to
achieve advertising objectives. Reach is a measure of the percentage of people in the
target market who are exposed to the ad campaign during a given period of time.
Frequency is a measure of how many times the average person in the target market is
exposed to the message
The advertiser must also decide on the desired media impact-the quantitative value of a
message exposure through a given medium. For example, for products that need to be
demonstrated, messages on television may have more impact than messages on radio
because television uses sight and sound. The same message in one magazine may be
more believable than in another message. The more reach, frequency and impact the
advertiser seeks, the higher the advertising budget will have to be.

Choosing among major media types: the media planner has to know the reach,
frequency and impact of each of the major media types. The major media types are
newspapers, television, direct mail, radio, magazines, outdoor and the internet etc. each
medium has some advantages and limitations.

Medium Advantages Limitations

Newspapers Flexibility, timeliness, good Short life, poor
local market coverage, reproduction quality, small
broad acceptability and high pass along audience.
believability
Television Good mass-market High absolute costs, high
coverage, low cost per clutter, fleeting exposure,
exposure, combines sight, less audience selectivity
sound and motion,
appealing to the senses.
Direct mail High audience selectivity, Relatively high cost per
flexibility, no ad exposure, Junk mail image.
competition within the same
medium, allows
personalization
Radio Good local acceptance, high Audio only, fleeting
geographic and exposure; low attention;
demographic selectivity; fragmented audiences
low cost
Magazines High geographic and Long ad purchase lead time;

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 demographic selectivity; high cost; no guarantee of
credibility and prestige; positions
high quality reproduction;
long life and good pass-
along readership.
Outdoor Flexibility, high repeat Little audience selectivity;
exposure; low cost; low creative limitations
message competition; good
personal selectivity
Internet High selectivity; low cost; Small, demographically
immediacy; interactive skewed audience, relatively
capabilities low impact; audience
controls exposure

Media planners consider many factors when making their media choices.
i) the media habits of target consumers
ii) the nature of the products
iii) Types of messages
iv) Costs.

Selecting specific media vehicles:

The media planner must now choose the best media vehicles-specific media within each
general media type. For example, television vehicles include ER and ABC World News
Tonight. Magazine vehicles include Newsweek, Poeple, In Style and Sports Illustrated
etc.
Media planner must compute the cost per thousand persons reached by a vehicle. The
media planner must also consider the costs of producing ads for different media.
In selecting media vehicles, the media planner must balance media cost measures against
several impact factors. First, the planner should balance costs against the media vehicle's
audience quality.
The second, the media planner should also consider audience attention.
The third, the planner should assess the vehicle's editorial quality-Time and Wall street
Journal are more believable and prestigious than the national Enquirer.

Deciding on media timing:

The advertiser must also decide how to schedule the advertising over the course of a year.
Obviously, the company would like to keep their advertising in front of consumers at all
times as a constant reminder of the product and brand name. The primary objective of
scheduling is to time promotional efforts so that they will coincide with the highest
potential buying times. Three scheduling methods are available to the media planner-

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 i) Continuity
ii) Flighting
iii) Pulshing
Continuity refers to a continuous pattern of advertising, which may mean every day,
every week or every month. The key is that a regular pattern is developed without gaps or
non-advertising periods. Such strategies might be used for advertising for food products,
laundry detergents or other products consumed on an ongoing basis without regard for
seasonality.
A second method, fighting, employs a less regular schedule, with intermittent periods of
advertising and non-advertising. At some time periods there are heavier promotional
expenditures and at other there may be no advertising. Many banks for example spend no
money on advertising in the summer but maintain advertising throughout the rest of the
year. Snow skis are advertised heavily between October and April; less in May, August
and September and not at all in June and July.

Pulsing is actually a combination of the first two methods. In a pulsing strategy,

continuity is maintained, but at certain times promotional efforts are stepped up. In the
beer industry, advertising continues throughout the year but may increase at holiday
periods such as Labor day,

Evaluating advertising:
The advertising program should evaluate both the communication effects and the sales
effects of advertising regularly. Measuring the communication effects of an ad-copy
testing-tells whether the ad is communicating well. Copy testing can be done before or
after an is printed or broadcast. Before the ad is placed , the advertiser can show it to
consumers, ask how they like it and measure recall or attitude changes resulting from it.
After the ad is run, the advertiser can measure how the ad affected consumers recall or
product awareness, knowledge and preferences etc.

The sales effects of advertising are often harder to measure than the communication
effects. Sales are affected by many factors besides advertising such as product features,
price and availability. One way to measure the sales effect of advertising is to compare
past sales with past advertising expenditures. Another way is through experimentation.