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Chapter
11 Total Quality Communication Advertising Creative Strategy and Tactics The study of advertising usually begins with a focus on creative strategy and tactics. Creative strategy is defined as determining what the advertising message will say. Then, creative tactics deals with how the message strategy is implemented. In developing the Total Quality Communication program, we have already created the foundation for a creative advertising strategy for each of our intended audiences. We already know who our audiences are and we have already performed research to acquire data about our audiences. And, we have a list of the media available to select from when trying to communicate to each of these audiences as well as data regarding the mechanics of use for each type of media.
We have already talked about the importance of creative thinking during the audience identification and media identification steps in program planning. When advertising is selected as a communication tool, creativity takes on particular importance. Creativity in Strategy and Tactics Creativity in strategy and tactics helps to ensure that the message you communicate achieves its objectives. Creativity can help cut through the clutter of information that bombards people every day. We are exposed to hundreds of promotional messages daily. But, the danger exists of being too creative. The history of advertising in the U.S. is littered with examples of ads and campaigns that won multiple awards for creativity, but failed in the more important task of communicating to the audience to achieve an objective. For example, a few years ago, Alka-Seltzer, a product that competed with aspirin, Tylenol and other products for pain and headache relief, won praises for its advertising creativity and entertainment value. The problem was that the ads entertained, but they didn't successfully promote the product as a pain remedy. In the end, Alka-Seltzer's market share declined until today the product is a very minor player in the pain reliever category. In fact, the product had to be positioned into a different attribute domain to survive as a product.Ê Another example is the recent Taco Bell commercials with the Chihuahua.Ê People had no trouble remembering the dog, the problem was that they had trouble remembering what he was advertising.ÊÊ Advertising creativity is the ability to generate fresh, unique, and appropriate ideas that can be used as a solution to communication needs. To be appropriate and effective, a creative idea must be relevant to the intended audience. Compliance with the audience message statement generated in our Total Quality Communication plan is the primary means of ensuring this appropriateness of the creative strategy and tactics of advertising.
The Challenge of Multiple Audiences People working on the creation of advertising have a tremendous challenge, which is to take all the input generated in our TQC planning and to convert it into effective advertising. Each advertising project or campaign directed to an audience is different. Each audience's interest relationship with our organization is different. Ensuring that advertising for a specific audience is appropriate to the audience and the medium is a challenge. Crafting audience-specific advertising is not the final issue, however. This challenge is compounded by the equally important task of evaluating the implicit effect of the advertising on other audiences that will be exposed to the message in the targeted medium. In other words, our strategic dilemma is that we must tailor our message to an audience, but other audiences may also see our message. The Copy Platform One helpful tool in the advertising development process is to create a copy platform. The components of the platform include:
Table 1 Components of the Creative Strategy Statement
Creative Strategy Statement 1 - The Campaign Theme Your advertising plan may require that you use many exposures to your audience to overcome resistance to adoption. Although iteration or repeating is considered a valid approach to message delivery, constant exposure to the same advertising can cause undesired reactions among your audience members.. For this reason, a group of related advertisements reinforcing the same theme but with different content is often used. This can reduce the negative reaction that could arise to seeing the same ad over and over. An advertising campaign refers to the use of multiple ads to reinforce a central theme. The campaign theme is derived directly from the audience message statement developed in our TQC plan. A campaign theme, such as Coke's "Coke Is It" or Pepsi's "The New Generation," becomes the unifying message delivered by ads with different styles and executions. However, each ad is carefully crafted to extend and reinforce the basic theme. Figure 1
The Unique Selling Proposition The concept of a unique selling proposition as the basis of an advertising campaign involves identification of benefits that the consumer can experience from the product's or service's use. Proponents of this concept suggest that advertising should make a proposition to the audience characterized as "use our product and you'll realize this benefit." Again, the specific benefit proposed must be one that is relevant to the audience, but is also unique to the product or service. It must be something the competition can't or won't duplicate. A unique selling position approach must represent a long-term advantage if it's to be used as the basis for a campaign. As we have suggested on more than one occasion in this book, technology has reached a point of capability that makes such market advantages very hard to create. Technologically based advantages are likely to erode quickly as slightly-improved products hit the market in quick succession after a successful product launch. Positioning Positioning is another basic concept in strategy design. Position is defined as the perception that the targeted consumers have of a firm's products or services relative to competitive products or services. Positioning is based on product or service attributes or characteristics that are potentially relevant to the audience. One methodology suggests that positioning strategy may be approached via one of six positioning trait sets, shown in Table 2. We'll look briefly at each of these. Table 2 Positioning Trait Sets
Positioning by Attribute Positioning by attribute is probably the most often used positioning approach. An attribute is a characteristic feature or benefit of the product or service. To use this method, you begin by defining a relevant set of attributes, usually in pairs. These attributes can be anything as long as the consumer of the products or services perceives the attribute as an important characteristic of the product or service. Positioning by Price/Quality This may be thought of as a set of attributes, but they are of such importance to all consumers that they probably should be considered their own category for positioning purposes. The price/quality set reflects a perception in consumers' minds that brands which offer more features, and/or better service performance, are often priced higher. Higher prices tend to signal a higher quality of product or service. The relationship of the price/quality judgment made by consumers about products creates the positioning on these specialized attributes.
Positioning by Application In this process, positioning is established by attributes or characteristics of the product's use. For example, Gatorade, a fruit-based drink, positioned itself as "for use during strenuous workouts" when it was introduced. It became established in the market for this use and is still primarily seen as a workout thirst quencher and bodily fluid replenisher. The downside to this application-specific type of positioning is that later attempts to reposition the product or service to another application may fail because of deeply entrenched consumer positioning. For example, Seven-up, a soft drink product, was positioned at its introduction as a mixer for alcoholic cocktails. Attempts to position it as a soft drink were not successful. It was only with its repositioning as an alternative to cola drinks that Seven-up was able to shake its position as a mixer. Vignette. Other attempts to reposition products have included orange juice ("it's not just for breakfast anymore,") and turkeys. Turkey producers suffer from seasonal demand for their product, while orange juice is psychologically confined to consumption in the morning. Can you reposition tonic water or club soda? Positioning by Product User This is product positioning by a specific type of user or class of users. Some kinds of cosmetics for women associate themselves with well-known models and are positioned in the minds of consumers as appropriate for women who want to be associated with that type of beauty. Or, what about the Thai potato chip company who depicted Hitler eating their chips, then becoming transformed into a good person? Some ideas are just bad. [1] Positioning by Product Class This is a rare and potentially dangerous product positioning technique. Here the product is positioned against competing products in other associated classes. For example, a brand of margarine called "I can't believe it's not butter" positions itself against butter, rather than against other brands of margarines. Positioning by Competitor An established image of a competitor can serve as the basis for positioning. As an example, Avis Rent-A-Car was made famous for its advertising campaign based on the positioning against a well-established competitor, Hertz. The now-famous "We're number two so we try harder" advertising slogan established Avis in the minds of consumers as second largest firm, but one from whom the consumer could expect better service. The some notion is now used in the "not exactly..." commercials by Hertz. Vignette. It's difficult to meaningfully compare yourself to a competitor. For example, in 1998 Bumble Bee tuna ads claimed a 2-to-1 preference in taste in a mall intercept study. Problem: most tuna marketers rely on the same suppliers, so claiming a difference in taste between brands is virtually impossible. Sorry, Charlie.... Vanessa O'Connell (1998), "Bubble Bee Tuna Ads Claim a 2-to-1- Edge," The Wall Street Journal (April 29), p. B2. In the next section, we'll continue with the development of the Creative Strategy Statement by discussing the advertising appeal approach and execution issues for individual ads in our campaign. Creative Strategy Statement II - The Advertising Appeal Approach We'll continue with development of information that serves as our Creative Strategy Statement. This is the second part of our copy platform that guides our advertising implementation. In the last section, we discussed the Campaign Theme, the Unique Selling Proposition, and positioning our products or services as a base for theme development. The second element of the Creative Strategy Statement is the Advertising Appeal Approach. The appeal we set for advertising can be defined as belonging to one of two categories: (1) Informational/ Rational Appeals and (2) Emotional Appeals. Informational/Rational Appeals-- These appeals focus on consumers' practical, functional, or utilitarian needs. The content of advertising emphasizes facts, learning, and logical persuasion. Appeals can be based on product features, competitive advantage, favorable prices, news produced, or popularity. In general, this appeal approach depends on the consumer being open to information, and then using acquired information to make a logical, rational decision regarding adoption of the product or service. These types of appeals are most successful in facilitative and educative communication strategies. Recall that the communication strategy depends on the potential degree of resistance the audience members will exhibit toward the idea of adoption (see Chapter 9).
Emotional Appeals--These relate to social or psychological needs for the product or service. Many advertisers believe that emotional appeals are the most successful for products or services that are not highly differentiated from competition. Emotional appeals can be made to the self--that is, an appeal to personal pleasure or excitement--or to one's social orientation--such as status or recognition. Many advertisers try to make appeals on emotional grounds to consumers to activate a higher degree of involvement in the decision making process. Creative Strategy Statement III - Creative Execution The third component of the Creative Strategy Statement is the creative execution of the advertising appeal approach. Once the appeal approach has been set, then creative execution begins. This refers to the way that the advertising appeal is presented. The ad's message can be presented in a number of different ways, shown in Table 3. Table 3 Creative Execution - The Message
Creative Execution -Message Content Straight Sell One of the most basic types of creative execution is the straight sell or factual message. This relies on straightforward presentation of facts. It is often used with the information/rational appeal approach. The execution is based on the belief that the audience will read and consider the facts and can make a logical decision based on their self-interest. This form of ad tends to show up most often in print ads for magazines or newspapers. It also tends to be used more often in industrial or business-to-business advertising than in consumer executions. The ad from Fidelity Investments is a good example. Scientific/Technical Evidence This is a variation of the straight sell/factual execution. Its primary feature is the use of scientific or technical evidence to support feature or benefit statements. Proctor and Gamble used an endorsement received by the American Council on Dental Therapeutics as the basis for a campaign that made Crest toothpaste the leading brand in the market. The Pfitzer ad is another example. This type of message is likely to appeal to technically oriented members of the business. Television and print advertisements for prescription medication is another example of this type of execution. Demonstration This type of advertising is designed to illustrate key advantages of the product or service by showing it in actual use or in some contrived situation (created scene). Television is particularly well suited for demonstration since the benefits can be shown during greater time exposure to the consumer than can be achieved in print advertising. The Johnson and Johnson Baby Shampoo ad is an example. Comparison Brand comparisons can be the basis for execution. In fact, comparisons are an increasingly popular execution choice. Comparisons of a product or service with competitive products can have a considerable impact on consumers. The execution method is appropriate as long as the comparisons are positive and can be substantiated. This means that the execution is based on building your product up in the comparison, not tearing down the competition. Any clams you make in the comparison must be sustainable by proof (evidence of accuracy). Unsubstantiated claims expose the advertising to potential legal problems. In fact, this execution option must be implemented carefully because it is the one that most closely nears the boundary of the acceptability standards set by the American Adverting Federation and by laws set by many countries on advertising claims. This is the form most likely to raise difficult ethical issues. The Cable Television ad is an example.Ê Another example is the advertisements for McDonaldÕs and Burger King as to who has the most beef in their hamburger. Testimonial In testimonial ads, a person, either a celebrity or a representative of "everyman," praises the product or service. In the case of the everyman approach, the idea is to have consumers relate to the person describing his or her experience with the product of service. If it fills their need, it should fill the consumer's need.Ê Take for example, LysolÕs commercial where the woman offers for people to come and smell her toilet. For celebrity testimonials, the intent is to associate the product or service with a famous person. If the famous person believes the product is acceptable, then the idea is that consumers will believe the product is OK. Oscar Meyer created an ad for its food products using George Foreman, a recognizable boxer, as the celebrity providing a testimonial for the product. Michael Jordan is the most commonly used sports figure for testimonials. Slice of Life Widely used in print advertising formats, this execution shows a real life problem and what the person in the ad does to overcome it. This execution is a combination of the demonstration and the testimonial executions. Ads for consumer products use this method effectively. An example is a housewife who is having trouble cleaning her kitchen floor, with a product offered which can solve this problem. Slice of Death This is similar to the slice of life execution except that it depicts what could happen to the subjects if they make the wrong choice of product or service. The results are usually shown to be something catastrophically negative. An example of the slice of death approach is the series of AT&T ads that show the disasters that befall a company that has employees select the wrong telephone service for long distance, internal networks and the like. Table 4 Creative Execution - Formats
Creative execution - Formats In addition to different executions in terms of messages, ads may appear in different types of formats. Here, formats refer to the format of the ad. A lost of possible formats is shown in Table 4. Animation This execution is becoming more popular. The decrease in cost of computer animation has made animation executions more affordable for even small firms. Just a few years ago, the animation process was expensive and time consuming if the goal was to achieve an artistically pleasing animation. At the time, animations were considered effective by the firms who could afford them because animation ads tend to score very high in recall tests. An example of an animated ad is the various [Joe Camel] advertisements. Personal Symbol A central character or personality is created to represent the brand. Again, the Joe Camel ad is a good example. The intent is to make the personality and the product inseparable in the minds of consumers. Early examples are of the Marlboro Man (cigarettes) and the hotel bellboy (Phillip Morris cigarettes). Fantasy Similar to live action animation, fantasy executions are designed to stimulate emotional involvement in the advertisement. Fantasy executions are typically well suited for television, although the technique can be effective in print ads. The Mountain Dew ad is an example of print use of fantasy. Dramatization Typically, dramatization is more effective as an execution for television ads where time and action are available to tell a story. The story illustrates the message content. The purpose of the drama is to draw the audience into the story to experience the message. An example is the Zerex Antifreeze ad created for television that depicted a woman arriving at an airport late in the evening, walking to her isolated car in a snowstorm, and starting the car with no trouble.Ê Humor This execution is designed to attract attention using humorous illustrations or humorous messages appropriate to the message strategy. Execution of humor in ads must be done carefully to ensure its appropriateness. More importantly, humor has some trouble in translation across international and cultural boundaries. An ad created for Anheuser Busch for Budweiser Beer showed ants carrying a bottle of Budweiser to their nest and tipping it up. A noise like a bottle opening is heard and the contents of the bottle drain into the ant nest. We hear loud music and the ground shakes in time to the music. The ad worked in all major markets of the world except one. The Chinese interpreted the commercial as featuring a pesticide to kill ants. Humor is not universal. The Defend Flea Treatment ad is a print example of humor execution.
Conclusion This chapter began our study of the various communications tools we have at our disposal. We turn next to public relations. References [1] Pichayaporn Utumporn (1998), "Ad With Hitler Causes Furor in Thailand," The Wall Street Journal (June 5), B8. Practice Exam When you have completed reading this chapter, you may elect to take a practice exam on-line. You may take the practice exam as many times as you wish. Each time, the test will be compared to the answer key. You then have the option to review the results or not. You may wish to try the exam again before seeing the results of the comparison. ©1997 2000 David L. Sturges and Michael Minor These pages were created on November 1, 1999, and last modified on August 29, 20010, on a PowerBook G3-266 using Dreamweaver 3.0. Questions or comments should be directed to the WebJŽfe. |
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