Description
Advertising in detail.It can be used as a primer to Advertising.
Advertising
DEFINITION OF ADVERTISING:
The American Marketing Association defines advertising as “Advertising is defined as any paid form of non-personal communication about an organization, product, service, or idea by an identified sponsor.”
ADVERTISING AGENCIES:
An advertising agency is an independent organization that provides one or more specialized advertising and promotion related services to assist companies in developing, preparing and executing their advertising and other promotional programs.
Advertising exposure model
AWARENESS/FAMILIARITY WITH BRAND
INFORMATION OR BRAND ATTRIBUTES OR BENEFITS
CREATION OF BRAND IMAGE/PERSONALITY AD EXPOSURE BRAND ATTITUDE ASSOCIATION OF FEELINGS WITH BRAND PURCHASE BEHAVIOUR
LINKAGE OF BRAND WITH PEERS/EXPERTS AND GROUP NORMS
REMINDER OF INDUCEMENT ABOUT BRAND TRIAL
This represents another model of the advertising and persuasion process wherein the various processes that can occur after consumers are exposed to an advertisement. • • • • First, exposure to the advertisement can create awareness about the brand, leading to a feeling of familiarity with it. Second, information about the brands benefits and the attributes on which the benefits are based can register with the consumer can also result from exposure to the ad. Third, advertisements can also generate feelings in an audience that they begin to associate with the brand or its consumption. Fourth, through the choice of the spokesperson and various executional devices, the advertisement can lead to the creation of an image for the brand, often called “brand personality” Fifth, the advertisement can create the impression that the consumer’s peers or experts- individuals favour the brand and groups the consumer likes to emulate.
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This is often how products and brands are presented as being fashionable. These five effects can create a favorable liking, or attitude towards the brand, which in turn should lead to the purchasing action. Sometimes the advertiser will attempt to spur purchasing action directly by providing a reminder or by attacking reasons why the consumer may be postponing that action. The above model helps us to understand how and why consumers acquire, process and use advertising information. It’s also important at the planning stage to develop a good understanding of where advertising fits into the total pool of information and influence sources to which a consumer is exposed. Understanding information processing invariably leads to the need for understanding a wide range of other important psychological constructs, such as perception, learning, attitude formation and chance, source effects, brand personality and image, cognitive and affective response and social factors such as group influence.
Functions Of Advertising
As a form of mass communication, advertising delivers relevant messages to target audiences and by changing mental states, it can perform a number of functions. Advertising moves consumers from being unaware of a product or service to finally purchasing it. An ad is considered effective if it propels the consumer a step further in this process. This is how the function of advertising is viewed. The different functions of advertising are viewed as follows: 1. STIMULATES DEMAND – By informing consumers about the availability of a product in the market, advertising stimulates latent needs, and reinforces the aroused needs. There is a general agreement that advertising has some effect on aggregate consumption.
2. STRENGTHENS OTHER PROMOTION MIX ELEMENTS – Advertising does the pre selling of the product and makes the job of the sales people easier. Advertising reaches a relatively large audience and makes them favourably predisposed. Ads carry the sales, promotional messages and often produce quick sales response. 3. DEVELOPS BRAND PREFERENCE – Consistent and persuasive advertising often induces brand trial or purchase. When the product delivers the promised quality, service and value, it creates satisfied customers who become instrumental in spreading a favourable word-of-mouth. Satisfied customers also develop brand preference, which gets reinforced by repeated ads. Products with strong brand franchise offer some protection against the competition. Retailers develop confidence and do not hesitate in stocking strong brands. Brand loyal customers are an important asset for the company and are less likely to be influenced by competitive moves. 4. CUTS COSTS – Advertising may be instrumental in cutting down production and selling costs. Increasing unit sales decrease unit costs. Selling costs also may decrease because there could be fewer wasted calls and less strain on sales people. 5. LOWERS PRICES – In any market based and competitive economy, when unit cost of a product goes down, there are external and internal pressures which compel companies to lower prices to the advantage of consumers. This often leads to deeper market penetration. 6. COMPETITIVE WEAPON – Advertising by itself and coupled with other promotion mix elements, may prove to be an extremely potent weapon to counter competitive moves. Advertising has an established role in creating brand personality and image. It helps differentiate a company’s offer in a manner that the product may be considered as something with unique value having a definite identity of its own
What is an advertising campaign?
Advertising campaign can be defined as the correlation and combination of an advertisement and related efforts in respect of a product or service, during a particular period of time, and directed towards the attainment of one or ore predetermined objectives. In simple words advertising campaigns is a series of advertisements with an identical or similar message, placed in one or more of advertising media over a particular period of time.
The ad campaign must be co-ordinate with other marketing efforts and activities which maybe a part of the marketing mix. Before going ahead with the advertising campaign one must consider factors like the 5 M’s The process mainly involves • Research inputs • Setting objectives • Defining target markets • Setting the budget • Deciding message/ theme • Coordinating with other marketing factors • Choosing and scheduling of media • Executing the campaign • Feedback
? SETTING THE ADVERTISING OBJECTIVES:
The advertising objectives must flow from prior decisions on target market, market positioning, and marketing mix. The advertising objectives can be classified according to whether their aim is to Informative advertising: it is heavily used in the pioneering stage of a product category, where the aim is to build primary demand. Ujala commercial, where the ad talks about how different it is from the age old “neel” by talking about its solution contents and showing how different your clothes look when washed with Ujala. Persuasive advertising: it is generally used when the product is in the competitive stage, where the company’s objective is to build selective demand for a particular brand. Whirlpool ice magic positions itself as being a quick icemaker and was the first one of its kind to use this as a marketing platform. Reminder advertising: it is very important to use these when the product is in the maturity stage. They are intended to remind people to purchase your brand. Thums up, Coke, Pepsi ads all these ads no more are shown to create awareness or persuasion because people are already aware of their presence and already have chosen the brand of their choice. These are just reminder ads to keep the brand or the company fresh in the minds of the consumers or have the brand top of mind. Reinforcement advertising: It seeks to ensure the buyers that they have made the right choice by purchasing your brand. Hamara Bajaj advertisements make the owner of the two wheelers of Bajaj proud of their possession by giving it a patriotic positioning.
? DECIDING ON THE ADVERTISING BUDGET
Advertising has a carryover effect that lasts beyond the current period. Although advertising is treated as a current expense, part of it is really an investment that builds up an intangible asset called brand equity. This treatment of advertising reduces the company’s reported profit and therefore limits the number of new product launches a company can undertake in any one year. The following are the five factors that are considered while setting the advertising budget: ? Stage in the product life cycle: new products typically receive large advertising budgets to build awareness and to gain consumers trial. ? Market share and consumer base: the brands having a high market share usually require less advertising expenditure whereas for products whose brand needs to be built, requires larger advertising expenditure. ? Competition and clutter: In today’s competitive market, where there are a large number of competitors, a brand must advertise heavily to be heard. ? Advertising frequency: the number of repetitions that need to be made to put across the brand message to consumers has an important impact on the advertising budget. ? Product substitutability: brands in the commodity class require heavy advertising to establish a different image. For example, cigarettes, beer, soft drinks. Also advertising is important when the brand can offer unique physical benefits or features.
? CHOOSING THE ADVERTISING MESSAGE
Advertising campaigns vary in their creativity. The creativity factor can be more important than the number of rupees spent. Only after gaining the attention can a commercial help to increase the sales, Advertisers go through four steps to develop a creative strategy viz: ? Message generation: At this stage, the advertiser decides on what message he wants to communicate to the consumers regarding the product.
o For example, the product’s “benefit” message should be decided as a part of developing the product concept. Over time, the marketer might want to change the message, especially if the consumers seek new or different benefits from the product. o Also, at this stage various alternative advertisements are prepared and finally the excellent one is chosen. But also, higher costs are incurred in preparing these advertisements. ? Message: A good ad evaluation and selection normally focuses on one core selling proposition. The advertiser should conduct market research to determine which appeal works best with its target audience. ? Message execution: the impact of the message depends not only on what is said but how it is said. Some of the ads aim at rational positioning and others for emotional positioning. While preparing an ad campaign, the advertiser usually prepares a copy strategy statement describing the objective, content, support, and tone of the desired ad. The creative people also find a cohesive style, tone, words, and format for executing the message. ? Social responsibility review: the advertisers and their ad agencies must be very careful that their “creative” advertising doesn’t overstep social and legal norms. Advertisers must not make false claims, such as stating that a product cures something when it does not. To be socially responsible, advertisers must be careful not to offend ethic groups, racial minorities, or a special – interest groups.
TYPES OF ADVERTISEMENTS:
The types of advertisements can broadly be classified into three types:
Types of advertisements
Consumer Advertising
Advertising to Business and profession
Non- product Advertising
Consumer Advertising
These are basically nothing but product or service advertisements directed towards the consumer or the customer as such. Such advertisements can be in the form of national or local advertisements also. Such kind of advertisements uses emotional or rational appeal in their advertisement. Advertisements such as that of DeBeers, pizza hut etc use the emotional appeal to attract the consumers. On the other hand advertisements such as the Kawasaki bajaj caliber, Vim Bar etc. use the rational appeal to address its target audience. The advertisement of DeBeers uses an emotional appeal because the statement “I have my feet firmly planted on the ground except when I’m wearing the millennium diamond” suggests that by wearing them u can fly high in the sky and feel like what Urmila does in the advertisement
Advertising to business or profession
This type of advertising is aimed at resellers and professionals. The media used here is direct mail or professional magazines. These are ads which are not directed towards the final consumers. Corporate ads are also a part of these types of ads. The target groups of corporate advertising are most often customers, stockholders, employees, financial institutions, political leaders and government. The objectives of the corporate or the institutional ads may be to establish or boost corporate identity and image, counter negative attitudes towards a company, industry or to promote and relate the company to some worthwhile social public interest cause. The recent Aditya Birla group campaign would fit into this category
Non- product advertising
In this type of advertising advertisements depicting an idea, a social cause etc is included. Surrogate advertisements are also a part of such non- product advertisements.
FORMS OF ADVERTISING
1) Institutional Advertising: This advertising speaks about an organizations corporate image. Public sector ad’s like SAIL, VIZAG STEEL. 2) Brand advertising: This advertising helps in the long-term build up of a brand. HLL’s ad’s for LUX ,LIRIL, REXONA. 3) Classified Advertising:
This advertising gives information dissemination about a sale. MID-DAY NEWSPAPER or TOI classified section 4) Promotional Advertising: This advertising informs an announcement about a sale. ADIDAS offering 50% DISCOUNT on sneakers. 5) Advocacy Advertising: This advertising is used to publicize a particular cause. All the social ads fall into this category. Drink, MORE MILK (TV ad by FCB ULKA for NDDB.) AIDS AWARENESS ADS by Maharashtra Govt. CLASSIFIED ON GEOGRAPHICAL SPREAD 6. National Advertising: Advertising that is done in one nation only. Dabur Ads or Nirma Ads 7. Local Advertising: Advertising that is carried out in a particular region or market. BRU and AMRUTANJAN selected campaign directed towards consumers in South India. 8. Global Advertising: Advertising that is carried on for a company or a product globally. I’m loving it was a global ad released by McDonalds ON THE BASIS OF TARGET GROUP 9. Consumer Advertising: Advertising that is directed towards the consumer directly. All FMCG product ads like P&G, NESTLE etc. 10.Industrial Advertising: Advertising that is directed by Industrial Goods Manufacturer to his target group. SKF BEARINGS direct their ads in Industrial Journals to TELCO etc. 11.Trade Advertising: In this type of advertising, the ads are directed to the Initiator rather than the end user of the product. Most Pharmaceutical companies direct their ads in Medical journals to Doctors, who prescribe the medicines to the patients. 12.Informative Advertising:
This advertising figures heavily in the Introduction stage of a product, where the primary objective is to build demand. MOTOROLA Ads for pagers, explaining how to use them (providing information). 13.Persuasive Advertising: Persuasive Advertising figures heavily in the Growth Stage of Product Life Cycle, where the company’s objective is to build selective demand for a particular brand. Some Persuasive Advertising has now taken the form of COMPARISON ADVERTISING, which seeks to establish the superiority of one brand, through specific comparison with one or more brands in the same product class. AKAI TV ads compared the brand with 6 competitor brands. 14. Reminder Advertising: This advertising is highly important in the mature stage of the product to keep the consumer thinking about the product. Fevicol campaigns act as a reminder form of advertising, bonding Fevicol with consumers as the strongest Adhesive A related form of advertising is REINFORCEMENT ADVERTISEMENT, which seeks to assure current purchasers that they have made the right choice. MARUTI SUZUKI ads tell that the CONSUMER is a part of 1,00,000 happy customers.
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EVALUATING ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS
Good planning and control of advertising depends on measures of advertising effectiveness. Most of the money is spent by agencies on pretesting ads, and much less is spent on evaluating their effectiveness. Most advertisers try to measure the communication effect of an ad – that is, its potential effect on awareness, knowledge, or preference. They would also like to measure the ad’s sales effect. ? Communication effect research: it seeks to determine whether an ad is communicating effectively. Called copy testing, it can be done before an ad is put into media and after it is printed or broadcasted. There are three major methods of advertising pretesting: o Direct rating method: in this case, the consumers are asked to rate the alternative ads. These ratings are used to evaluate the ads. o Portfolio tests: here, the consumers are asked to view or listen to a portfolio of advertisements, taking as much as time as they need. Consumers are then asked to recall all the ads and their content, aided or unaided by the interviewer.
o Laboratory tests: it uses equipment to measure the physiological reactions – heartbeat, blood pressure, pupil dilation, perspiration – to an ad. These tests measure attention getting power but reveal nothing about the impact on beliefs, attitudes, or intensions. ? Sales effect research: advertising’s sales effect is generally difficult to measure than its communication effect. This is mainly because the sales are influenced by many other factors, such as the product features, price, availability, as well as the competitor’s actions. Companies are generally interested in finding out whether they are overspending or under spending on advertising. Researchers try to measure the sales impact through analyzing either historical or experimental data.
Communications Objective
A mediocre advertising message properly directed stands more chance of success than the most professionally developed ad campaign directed at the wrong audience or using unsuitable message appeals. Advertising creates its most powerful impact when it is used to solve narrowly defined communication objectives. Advertising communication objectives can be put in a pyramid form. The lower level objectives are awareness, knowledge or comprehension. These are accomplished first. Subsequent objectives may focus on moving prospects to higher levels in the pyramid to elicit desired behavioural responses such as associating feelings with the brand, trial or regular use etc. It is easier to accomplish objectives located at the base of the pyramid than the ones toward the top. The percentage of prospective customers will decline as they move up the pyramid towards more action oriented objectives, such as regular brand use, etc. Irrespective of the fact whether the brand is new or established, the pyramid can be used to determine appropriate advertising objectives. What is required is to determine where the target audience lies with respect to various levels in the pyramid. If the level of brand awareness or knowledge of its features or benefits is low, the advertising communication should be to increase them. In case the brand liking and preference is low, then the appropriate goal can be to change the target audience’s image of the brand.
COMMUNICATION EFFECTS PYRAMID
It is a difficult task to translate a sales goal into a communication objective. However, if the brand objective is to raise sales by X% the promotion manager will ultimately have to decide in terms of some message that will be used to address the target audience to achieve this level of sales increase. Some other possible objectives could be 1. Increasing the percentage of target consumers who associate specific features or benefits with the company’s brand 2. Increasing number of target consumers who prefer the client company’s brand rather than competing brands 3. Increasing company’s brand trial among non-users 4. Increasing company’s brand trial rate among existing consumers. Even when promotion managers attempt to translate sales objectives, they are not sure what really constitutes adequate levels of awareness, knowledge, liking, preference or conviction. There are no formulas except the judgment and experience of concerned managers.
REPURCHASE TRIAL PREFERENCE
LIKING KNOWLEDGE/COMPREHENSION AWARENESS
INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS:
For many years, the promotional function in most companies was dominated by mass media advertising. Companies relied primarily on their ad agencies for guidance in nearly all areas of marketing communications. Most marketers did use additional promotional and mktg communication tool, but sales promo and direct mktg agencies as well as package design firms were generally viewed as auxiliary services and generally used on a per project basis. PR agencies were used to manage the organizations publicity, image and affairs with relevant publics on an ongoing basis but were not viewed as integral participants in the mktg communication process. Many marketers built strong barriers around the various mktg and promotional functions and planned and managed them as separate practices, with different budgets, different views of the market, and different goals and objectives. These companies failed to recognize that the wide range of mktg and promotional tools must be coordinated to communicate effectively and present a consistent image to target markets. EVOLUTION OF IMC During the 1980s, many companies came to see the need for more of a strategic integration of their promotional tools. These firms began moving towards the process of integrated marketing communication (IMC), which involves coordinating the various promotional elements and other marketing activities that communicate with the firms customer. As marketers embraced the concept of IMC, THEY BEGAN ASKING THEIR AD AGENCIES to coordinate the use of a variety of promotional tools rather than relying primarily on media advertising. A number of companies also began to look beyond traditional advertising agencies and use other type of promotional specialists to develop and implement various components of their promotional plans. Many agencies respond to the call for synergy among the various promotional tools by acquiring PR, Sales Promotion, and direct marketing companies and touting themselves as IMC agencies that offer one stop shopping for all of their clients’ promotional needs. THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPING AN INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLAN ? REVIEW OF THE MARKETING PLAN 1. 2. 3. 4. Examine the overall marketing plan and objectives Role of Advertising and Promotions Competitive analysis Assess environmental influences
? ANALYSIS OF PROMOTIONAL PROGRAM SITUATION Internal analysis • • • • Promotional department organization Firms ability to implement a promotional program. Agency evaluation and selection Review of previous program results
External analysis ? Consumer behaviour analysis ? Market segmentation and target marketing ? Market positioning ? ANALYSIS OF THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS Analyse receivers response processes. Analyse source, message, channel factors. Establish communication goals and objectives. ? BUDGET DETERMINATION Set tentative marketing communication budgets. Allocate tentative budget. ? DEVELOP IMC PROGRAM 1. Advertising ? Set advertising objectives ? Determine advertising budget ? Develop advertising message ? Develop advertising media strategy 2. Direct marketing ? Set direct marketing objectives ? Determine direct marketing budget ? Develop direct marketing message ? Develop direct marketing strategy
3. Interactive/Internet marketing ? Set Interactive/Internet marketing objectives ? Determine Interactive/Internet marketing budget ? Develop Interactive/Internet marketing message ? Develop Interactive/Internet marketing media strategy 4. Sales Promotion ? Set Sales Promotion objectives ? Determine Sales Promotion budget ? Develop Sales Promotion message ? Develop Sales Promotion media strategy 5. Public Relations/Publicity ? Set Public Relations/Publicity objectives ? Determine Public Relations/Publicity budget ? Develop Public Relations/Publicity message ? Develop Public Relations/Publicity media strategy 6. Personal Selling/Sales ? Set Personal Selling/Sales objectives ? Determine Personal Selling/Sales budget ? Develop Sales message. ? Develop selling roles and responsibilities INTEGRATE AND IMPLEMENT MARKETING COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Integrate promotional mix strategies Create and produce ads Purchase media time, space, etc. Design and implement direct marketing programs. Design and distribute sales promotion materials. Design and implement public relations/publicity programs Design and implement interactive/internet marketing programs.
MONITOR, EVALUATE, AND CONTROL IMC PROGRAM ? ? Evaluate promotional program results/effectiveness Take measures to control and adjust promotional strategies
Resistance to IMC While the logic of IMC appeals to most marketing practitioners, there are many who resist integrating their communications efforts. Inertia The first and foremost reason for resistance is inertia or refusal to change – any attempt to change the so-called “tried and tested” recipe tends to encounter resistance. IMC requires a complete re-structuring of the mindset towards marketing communications – both at the client side and the agency side. For most managers, this is a difficult task to embark upon. Nothing New Most clients and agencies think that IMC is simply old wine in a new bottle – that the use of multiple communications tactics, coordinated campaign themes, and consistent graphic or corporate identity has always been employed. Most brands have attempted to integrate the look and feel across media for a long time. But the last five years have seen the emergence of many new media opportunities, Internet, Events, Product-placements, etc. So the task has become a lot more complex. It is this increasing complexity that calls for a holistic and synergistic approach towards marketing communications. Complex Planning Complex planning is another deterrent. The integrated marketer can select from more than 20 tools, from advertising to in-store merchandising to promotion to public relations to database marketing to the Internet. This often requires detailed and long-term planning at both the client and agency levels. Marketing is often viewed as cost, rather than investment. This tactical – rather than strategic – perspective works against planning and preparation, which is the foundation of IMC. Planning helps in deciding the communications strategy that ultimately helps in optimising the marketing spends. Lack of Initiative Many clients blame the agencies for not initiating IMC. Kotler writes, “Most agencies have not done a good job of putting together all the different teams and organisations involved with a communications campaign.” Agencies themselves have not given adequate focus to IMC. It is often treated as an appendage to the mainline agency. While agencies need to invest more into IMC – in terms of people, tools & research – it is also necessary to educate clients on IMC thinking. Accountability Accountability or the problem of accurately measuring the effectiveness of the various disciplines used also discourages clients from using IMC. The client always wants the
highest possible ROI on every buck he spends. Lack of guidelines to evaluate the IMC programme is also an impediment to IMC programmes.
IMC in Practice
McCann Erickson India has used IMC for General Motors and the launch of Virgin Atlantic. FCB Ulka went the integrated way for launching the new TATA Indigo. Percept has implemented IMC campaigns for Reid & Taylor and more recently Hero Honda Ambition. Rediffuson DY&R too have attempted to integrate the Daikin Airconditioners campaign. TATA INDIGO LAUNCH The launch integrated all the elements of IMC to give one message of 'Comfort and Luxury'. This message and the visual of the 'Arm Chair' was used in a variety of media vehicles, including newspapers, magazines, TV, outdoor, merchandising, mailers, website, event design, brochures and even invitation card to the launch event. Parameshwaran emphasises, “Coordinating the entire campaign called for a lot of effort, since you had to use the key elements of the message and adapt it to the medium concerned. The arm chair may look very nice in press ad, but how will look on stage, or on a banner ad on the website? Overall the integration has had a tremendous effect on the brand Tata Indigo. No one got a message from any source that was not aligned to the strategy of comfort and luxury.” DAIKIN AIRCONDITIONERS The campaign for Daikin Airconditioners has been built around message of 'complete silence' which has been taken across not only press, TV, outdoor, retail and online advertising, but has been even used by dealers and sales personnel in the field. Mendoza explains, “Our client sells the Airconditioners on a technology platform which singlemindedly translates into it being more silent than other Airconditioners.” And the result has been very encouraging – the IMC campaign is doing wonders for the product on the sales front - this despite Daikin being about 20 per cent more expensive than other airconditioners in its class and not once resorting to promotions, discounts etc. INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS WITH RESPECT TO LOWE Ltd. Public relations: LOWE had launched the AXE products with a very grand launch. It does this sort of an activity for almost all its products. Rural Marketing: For Lifebouy, LOWE had suggested the use of vans Decorated with logos and pictures of Lifebouy all over for the rural market which was a great success.
Sales Promotion: LOWE had suggested the insertion of dental insurance in the Pepsodent toothpaste packets worth Rs. 1000/Direct Marketing: The team at LOWE handling Pepsodent also went and spoke to various dentists about the benefits of the toothpaste thus encouraging them to suggest that toothpaste to their patients. SMS: There has been a lot of advertising done through SMS for the AXE range of products. Packaging: The team at LOWE had taken active participation in the packaging of the AXE shaving products. Wrapping up IMC is not a management fad; it is a fundamental and marked shift in thinking and practice of marketing communications by clients and advertising agencies. A quick market scan proves that IMC is being taken seriously and is being practised by a significant group of marketing communications practitioners. The primary value that agencies see with IMC is the consistency, impact, and continuity, which an integrated programme provides. The critical issue concerning IMC is that of evaluation and measurement of integrated programmes. Part of the difficulty is that traditionally advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, and the public relations disciplines have developed separate and distinct measurement approaches. The measurement of integrated programs, which can estimate the synergy between elements, is a totally new field, which remains relatively undeveloped. IMC is a new approach to marketing communications planning being driven by technology, customers, consumers, and by organisational desire to efficiently allocate finite marketing resources. It is still an emerging discipline. We are living in a period of transition between the historical product-driven outbound marketing systems and the new information-driven, interactive, consumer focused marketplace of the twenty-first century. So is IMC an idea whose time has come? Only time will tell!
ADVERTISING AGENCY:
An advertising agency is: 1. 2. 3. 4. an independent business organisation composed of creative and business people who develop, prepare and place advertising on advertising media for sellers seeking to find customers for their goods and services. -American Advertising Agency Association (AAAA)
Evolution of the advertising agency
Origin of the advertising agency - the first ever agency was put together in Britain in 1800 called “Whites” which created advertisements for the Government lotteries and mostly recruitment advertising. First agencies were no more than space brokers, selling press advertising space on a freelance basis for newspapers. As the production and penetration of newspapers increased, the brokers began to compete by offering copywriting and design service. The messages were repetitive and lacked creativity. This soon led to the birth of creative advertising agencies. The early account executive was known as the “contract man” After the Second World War the agencies developed additional services like market research, media planning etc Today there are more than 500 advertising agencies in India today. The oldest one being Hindustan Thompson Association Ltd.
Functions of an ad agency
Big agencies such as HTA, Lowe, O&M are called full service agencies because they are ONE STOP SHOP for all services that are offered to the clients. Today’s agencies are providing total communications packages for the clients’ brands. They are acting as the custodians of the client brands. • CLIENT SERVICING Also called “account executives”. Acts as the link between the agency and the client. He suggests what the client exactly wants to his ad agency. He is the person who carries the client brief and is also responsible for the approvals.
• CREATIVE DEPARTMENT Under the creative director are a team of copywriters and visualisers who arrive at the “big idea”. Accordingly the storyboard is prepared and scriptwork is done. The final layout is sent for approval to the client. • PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT The production department is responsible to convert the storyboard into a finished layout if its for print medium or Outdoor. However the TVC will be outsourced to a production house (eg. Prasoon Pandey’s HIGHLIGHT FILMS). The final storyboard is made into a technical storyboard before it is sent for shooting. • MEDIA DEPARTMENT The Media Planner alongwith Media manager and brand manager of the client prepares the final media budget and purchases insertions for print media (space buying) or purchases radio spots or purchases TV time if its on television. Appropriate media mix is developed. • RESEARCH DEPARTMENT In fact research department functions before and after a commercial is made for pretesting and post-testing of media respectively. Consumer insights and brand usages are also tested at times, according to client in many instances. • FINANCE DEPARTMENT This department looks after the accounts (financial records) for the agency.
Types of advertising agencies:
There are basically four types of ad agencies. They are ? In-house agencies ? Creative boutiques ? Media buying agencies ? Full service agencies ? In- house agencies Some companies, in an effort to reduce costs and maintain greater control over agency activities, have set up their own advertising agencies internally. An in-house agency is an ad agency set up, owned and operated by the advertiser. Many companies use in-house agencies exclusively; others combine in-house efforts with those of outside agencies. A major reason for using in-house agency is to reduce advertising and promotional costs. Companies with very large advertising budgets pay a substantial amount to outside agencies in the form of media commissions. With
an internal structure, these commissions go to the in-house ad agency. An inhouse ad agency can also provide related work such as sales presentations and sales force material, package design, and public relations at a lower cost than the outside agencies. Saving money is not the only reason companies use in-house ad agencies. Time savings, bad experience with outside agencies, and the increased knowledge and understanding of the market that come from working advertising and promotion for the product or service day by day are also reasons. Companies can also maintain a tighter control over the process and more easily coordinate promotions with the firm’s overall marketing programmes. Opponents of the in-house agencies say that they can give the advertiser neither the experience nor the objectivity of the outside agency and nor the range of services. They argue that the outside agencies have a more specialized staff and attract the best creative staff. Also flexibility is higher since if the company is not satisfied with the agency it can be dismissed, whereas changes in an in-house agency could be slower and more disruptive. Thus we can summarize by saying that Ad agency Advantages In house agency ? ? ? Cost saving More control Increased coordination Disadvantages ? ? ? Less experience Less objectivity Less flexibility
In-house agencies in India are:
1. 2. 3. Levers - Lintas (previously) Videocon – Confidence Reliance – Mudra (when Mudra started out)
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Creative boutiques
Creative boutique is an agency that provides only creative services. These specialized companies have developed in response to some client’s desires to use only the creative talent of an outside provider while maintaining the other functions internally. The client may seek outside creative talent for two reasons: 1. Because he wants an extra creative effort 2. May be because its own employees of the in-house agency or the agency that he has appointed do not have sufficient skills in this regard. The full-service agencies also sub-contract work creative boutiques when they are very busy or want to avoid adding full time employees to their pay roll. Creative boutiques are usually found by members of the creative departments of full service agencies who leave the firm and take with them clients who want to retain their creative talents. These boutiques generally perform creative function on a fee basis. Few creative boutiques in India:
1. 2. 3.
RMG David Vyas Gianetti Creatives Chlorophyll
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Media buying agencies Media buying agencies are independent companies that specialize in the buying of media, particularly radio and television. The task of purchasing advertising media has grown more complex as specialized media proliferate, so media buying services have found a niche by specializing in the analysis and purchase of the advertising time and space. Agencies and clients generally develop their own media plans and then hire the buying services to execute them. Some media buying agencies do help advertisers plan their media strategies. Because media buying agencies purchase such large amounts of time and space, they receive large discounts and can save the small ageny’s or client’s money on media buying. Media buying agencies are paid a fee or commission for their work.
Few media buying agencies: 1. Mindshare 2. Initiative Media (LOWE) 3. Zenith Media (Bates, Saatchi & Saatchi) 4. Optimedia (Publicis) 5. Starcom (Leo Burnett) 6. Fulcrum (HTA) Full – service agency
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The function of an advertising agency is to see to it that its client’s advertising leads to greater profits in the long run than could be achieved without the ad agency. Most such agencies are large in size and offer their clients a full range of services in the area of marketing, communications and promotions. These include planning, creating and producing the advertisement, media selection and research. Other services offered include strategic marketing planning, sales training, package design, sales promotion, event management, trade shows, publicity and public relations. The full service agency is composed of various departments; each is responsible to provide required inputs to perform various functions to serve the client. The various departments can be seen in the following diagram:
STRUCTURE OF AN ADVERTISING AGENCY
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? Account service department The account service, or the account management department, is the link between the ad agency and its clients. Depending upon the size of the account and its advertising budget one or two account executives serve as liason to the client. The account executive’s job requires high degree of diplomacy and tact as misunderstanding may lead to loss of an account. The account executive is mainly responsible to gain knowledge about the client’s business, profit goals, marketing problems and advertising objectives. The account executive is responsible for getting approved the media schedules, budgets and rough ads or story boards from the client. The next task is to make sure that the agency personnel produce the advertising to the client’s satisfaction. The biggest role of the account executive is keeping the agency ahead of the client through follow-up and communications.
? Media department The responsibility of the agency’s media department is to develop a media plan to reach the target audience effectively in a cost effective manner. The staff analyses, selects and contracts for media time or space that will be used to deliver the ad message. This is one of the most important decisions since a significantly large part of the client’s money is spent on the media time and/or space. The media department has acquired increasing importance in an agency’s business as large advertisers seem to be more inclined to consolidate media buying with one or few agencies thereby saving money and improving media efficiency. ? Creative department To a large extent, the success of an ad agency depends upon the creative department responsible for the creation and execution of the advertisements. The creative specialists are known as copywriters. They are the ones who conceive ideas for the ads and write the headlines, subheads and the body copy. They are also
involved in deciding the basic theme of the advertising campaign, and often they do prepare the rough layout of the print ad or the commercial story board. Creation of an ad is the responsibility of the copywriters and the art department decides how the ad should look. ? Production department After the completion and approval of the copy and the illustrations the ad is sent to the production department. Generally agencies do not actually produce the finished ads; instead they hire printers, photographers, engravers, typographers and others to complete the finished ad. For the production of the approved TV commercial, the production department may supervise the casting of actors to appear in the ad, the setting for scenes and selecting an independent production studio. The production department sometimes hires an outside director to transform the creative concept to a commercial. ? Finance and accounting department An advertising agency is in the business of providing services and must be managed that way. Thus, it has to perform various functions such as accounting, finance, human resources etc. it must also attempt to generate new business. Also this department is important since bulk of the agency’s income approx. 65% goes as salary and benefits to the employees.
SELECTION OF AN AD AGENCY
An advertising agency may be a full-service agency or part-service agency. Each has a different outlook and advertising activities. The selection of advertising agencies depends on whether one wants a full-service agency or a part-time agency. The selection is also made on the basis of compatibility of the agency team, agency stability, services, credibility and the agency’s problem solving approach. • Full service agency or part- time agency The full-service agency is involved completely in the advertising functions. It has a large number of expert employees. The organization is typically useful for performing advertising agencies. It looks upon customers as key clients. It communicates with the prospective purchasers. The distinguishing characteristics of the various agencies lie in the creative skills of the personnel of each organization and in the philosophy of advertising. Larger agencies offer better services. The part-time agency offers service on free of cost or project basis. These agencies perform various outside activities and co-ordinate the activities of the advertiser and media men. Clients have greater control over advertising campaigns. Advertiser’s research agencies generally perform job of part-agencies. The selection of a particular agency depends on its size, its services, knowledge and growth
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Compatibility the selection of an advertising agency depends on the compatibility of the agency. The needs of the company determine the fitness of the agency. The advertiser visits several agencies and chooses the best agency on the basis of its merits, demerits, accreditation, its methods of handling the accounts and using the available opportunities. Agency Team This includes management specialists, market researchers, copywriters, media experts, production managers and art directors. The attitude, thinking, experience and personalities of the team members have positive effects on the selection process.
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Agency Stability An agency, which has been long in existence generally, performs efficiently and effectively. The greater the investment in the agency, the more vital the contribution of the agency to the advertising activities. The personnel, finance, management and credit are examined before selecting a suitable advertising agency. Services The services rendered by the agency are evaluated with a view to choosing the best advertising agency. Cost accounting, general agreements, project estimates, selling attitudes and other services performed by the advertising agencies are considered to evaluate their efficiency and credibility in performing advertising jobs. The greater the range of an agency’s services, the more fully it can serve the clients’ needs. The agency can serve the clients by its potential capacity for advertising, sales promotion, media placement, public relations, market research, sales training and distribution channels. Creativity Creativity is the main element in advertising. If the advertising agency is capable of great creative efforts, it is selected for the purpose. Style, clarity, impact, memorability and action- these are taken into account while evaluating creativity. Problem-solving approach The agency which has a problem solving approach is considered to be superior and useful. The importance of choosing the right agency cannot be ignored. Caliber, compatibility, balanced services, responsiveness, talent an equitable compensation-these are important factors in selecting an advertising agency.
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PROCESS OF MAKING AN AD
After the marketer selects an ad agency for its product or brand the marketer gives an ad brief to the account executive, the person in charge of handling that particular account. This ad brief generally includes information such as: 1. Why does the marketer think there is need for advertising the brand or product 2. The target audience 3. What do they think about the brand and other such products 4. What is the kind of response the marketer wants form the consumer after they see the ad 5. The USP of the product 6. Any suggestions as to how the ad should look
The next step is where the account executive analysis the ad brief and goes back to the client in case if any clarifications are required. Then this ad brief is broken up into a creative brief and a media brief. These are given to the creative and the media department respectively. The media and the creative department then conduct research if required for the characteristics of the target audience, their likes, their dislikes, their living conditions, their behaviour in general, their exposure to the different types of media and so on. The creative department after the research comes out with various alternative campaigns for the product. In the same way the media department also makes alternative media plans. The creative and the media department then make presentations to the account executive who in turn after discarding various ideas selects 2 or 3 ideas which according to him matches the ad brief and the requirements of the client the best. If none of the ideas appeal the account executive then the creative and/or media department have to work from scratch all over again. Once this is done, the account executive or someone from the account planning department assisting the account service department makes presentations to the client of the ideas that were approved by the account executive. There are three possibilities at this stage: 1. The client does not like any of the ideas presented and again the creative and media department have to work towards another idea. 2. The client approves of an idea which is sent for further processing. 3. The client is confused between two very good concepts. Here there is Pre- testing undertaken. Both the ideas are shown to a specific audience that is assumed to be the representative sample of the target audience as suggested by the client. Depending upon their response for the two ideas the best is chosen and sent for further processing. After one concept is finally approved of, the creative copy is sent to the printer for the print ad. For the commercial, the concept is sent to the production department where the
ad is shot. The decision about model selection is either of the client, account executive or the film director or a combined effort of all three. As the print ad is being made and the commercial being shot the media department at the same time starts buying media slots as per the approved media plan. The next step is the launch of the ad in the specified media.
Then comes the next step of billing. An ad agency generally charges the client on the basis of a fee structure or on a cost-plus system basis. Under the fee structure, the client and the ad agency negotiate a flat sum to be paid to the agency for all work done. The agency estimates the cost (including out of pocket expenses) of servicing the client who either accepts or negotiates for a lesser amount. Negotiations continue until an agreement is reached. The cost-plus system is generally used when the media billings are relatively low and a great deal of agency service is required by the client. This happens most often with industrial products, new product introductions etc. that require disproportionate amount of agency help in preparing brochures, catalogues and other non- commissionable marketing activities. The final step is Post- evaluation. In this stage the success of the advertisement is judged through research conducted wherein the target audience as such is questioned on the visibility of the ad, whether the ad is top of mind or not, if the product is existing has the new campaign helped in increase in the sales or not and so on. CASE:
AGENCY BUSINESS PROCESS
AT SSC&B LINTAS MEMBER: INTERPUBLICGROUP (USA)
A) The client briefs the account management on the brand to be advertised. The brief includes the communication objective, target audience, target markets, media vehicles to be used (Print / TV / Radio / Outdoor, etc) and media budgets.
B) The account management then prepares the creative brief. This brief consists of the brand positioning statement, the communication objective, the target audience, the target markets, competition, creative thought, creative required and deadlines. C) Simultaneously, account management briefs media planning to prepare a media plan. The plan is based on the media budget, the media vehicles to be used and target audience for the brand. D) Account management then presents a media and creative strategy presentation to the client. On approval from the client, further action is taken. E) Based on the approved media plan, the account management team briefs the media buying decision who then begin negotiations with publications / TV channels, make bookings, etc. F) Simultaneously account management also co-ordinates with the production department to get advertising material ready. Production costs of four departments – art studio, photography, processing, printing and films. Art Studio – prepares artwork for the print medium Photography / Processing / Printing – for newspaper / magazine ads the artwork is sent to the processor for advertising material (positives). For brochures / POPs / leaflets, etc. the positives are then sent to the printer for printing. Films – for TV commercials, the account management co-ordinates with the films department who in turn approaches producers for quotations (usually 3). The client approves one of the quotes and the TV film gets into production. Once the film is ready, release tapes (Beta / u-matic) are then sent to the respective TV channels for the telecast. G) Simultaneously the production department raises estimates on the jobs that are being carried out, in the case of printing, films & photography the estimates must be approved before the production job starts. In other cases the estimates must be approved within 21 days. H) Once the advertising material is ready, the account management hands over the material to Initiative media who sends it to the various media. I) The suppliers then send their bills to the agency’s accounts department who in turn raise the debit notes and hand it to the account management. Account management then sends the debit notes to the client. The client must clear the bill within the credit period i.e. 21 days from date of bill.
A. CLIENT BRIEF ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
B. CREATIVE
C. MEDIA PLANNING
D. Strategy & Creative Presentation CLIENT APPROVALS ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
E. INITIATIVE MEDIA ( Rate Negotiations / Space / Time Bookings )
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F. PRODUCTION
Photography
Languages Film
Processor
Agency’s Art Studio Printer
MEDIA VEHICLES ( Press / TV / Radio, etc
G. ESTIMATE APPROVALS I AGENCY’S ACCOUNTS J. ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT CLIENT’S MARKETING / CLIENT’S ACCOUNTS
CHEQUE PAYMENT WITHIN 21 DAYS SENT TO ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
AGENCY EVALUATION
The process of agency evaluation involves regular assessment of two aspects of performance area – financial and qualitative. The financial assessment focuses on how the agency conducts its business to verify costs and expenses, the number of personnel hours charged to an account to an account and what payments are made to media and other outside service suppliers. Qualitative assessment explores the agency’s efforts devoted in planning, developing and implementing the client company’s advertising campaign and an assessment of the achievements. For a qualitative assessment even the small things matter; such as a quick turnaround time, creativity because this is what the agency is in the business of, value add in terms of giving the client a creative edge by giving them a ‘creative leap’ etc. One can also evaluate agencies by their track record of losing clients or acquiring new clients and retaining them.
The parameters on which an ad agency’s creative services dept is evaluated are as follows: (The various parameters are ranked on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being the poorest and 10 being Excellent) 1. Agency regularly produces fresh ideas and original approaches? 2. Creative executions are consistently on strategy? 3. Research is effectively used in strategic development and in pre-post testing of advertising 4. Creative group is knowledgeable about the company’s products, markets and strategies? 5. Creative group is concerned with good and consistent advertising communications and develops campaigns, ads that exhibit this concern 6. Creative group produces on time and submits for review in time to permit orderly revisions 7. Creative group performs well under pressure 8. Agency presentations are well organized with sufficient examples of proposed executions 9. Creative group participates in major campaign presentations 10. Agency presents ideas and executions not requested but which they feel are good opportunities. 11. Creative group takes constructive criticism and redirection 12. Creative group effectively controls costs 13. Overall evaluation of creative services The parameters on which an ad agency’s Media services dept is evaluated are as follows: (The various parameters are ranked on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being the poorest and 10 being Excellent) 1. Media group actually explores the new uses of various media available 2. Agency media recommendations are objective and reflect sufficient knowledge of company’s markets, target consumers, services and objectives 3. Agency exhibits a broad capability in media as opposed to specializing in a particular medium 4. Agency keeps client up-to-date on the trends and developments in the field of media 5. Agency subscribes to and makes use of available and applicable syndicated media services 6. Agency engages in original research in the field of selection and usage of media 7. Agency provides client with regular review and analysis of competition’s media’s usage 8. Agency media administrative practices are adequate, including co-ordination of media schedules, contracts, checking media to verify advertising has run, etc.
9. Agency regularly conducts post-buy analysis on all media placements in a timely manner 10. Agency is effective in media negotiations for best possible rates and position for the company’s advertising 11. Media plans provide sufficient flexibility for opportunistic buys or other cost saving strategies 12. Agency communication plan objectives and rationale effectively to brand management 13. Media strategies establish specific and measurable goals for reach, frequency and other objectives
SUCCESSFUL AD CAMPAIGNS •
Brand: Pepsodent Agency: Lowe The Dishoom Dishoom success story
Pepsodent's home run upto 1998 Pepsodent's credentials of 'long lasting protection from germs for hours after brushing', enabled the brand to grow and differentiate itself powerfully vis a vis the market leaderColgate Dental Cream. From Process to End Benefit : 1999-2000 Between 1999 and 2000, Pepsodent decided on a logical extension of the 'process' benefit of germ fighting to end benefits.This was an attempt to take on Colgate Dental Cream in its own territory, with a new formulation and new communication. The Result : Weakening of all associations with the brand leading to dilution in Pepsodent's distinctiveness as a Germ Fighter. The Challenge: 2001 It was time to win back the distinctive edge- by appropriating once again the proposition of 'Long lasting Germ Protection' in consumers' minds. And Pepsodent had to also contend with a rejuvenated Colgate Dental Cream at the same time.
Creative Strategy: To heighten concern about germs and thereby leverage Pepsodent's core proposition in this context. Research helped identify several situations wherein a mother tends to show anxiety about her child's teeth .This helped us home in on the most relevant and provocative insight. Insight : Mothers worry about their childrens' eating habits, more so when they are out of her sight. They don't want to fight with them over this. But, if they don't do anything, they feel they are being irresponsible . Advertising Idea: Don't fight with your children over their 'out of control' eating . Let Pepsodent fight the germs for you. Sweet food was used as a torture test to depict Pepsodent's efficacy at germ fighting. The sound mnemonic of Dishoom Dishoom was used to depict the conflict between the mother and child, and also, the action of Pepsodent on germs. Results of the campaign The Pepsodent mother became aspirational. Mothers using CDC were forced to sit up and pay attention to Pepsodent- a brand that understood them and addressed situations that they encountered in their day to day life. And Pepsodent gained back its edge of 'long lasting germ protection'. Quantitative evidence of success This was reflected in improvements in its market shares- an increase of 2.85 percent points between March 2001 and December 2001 (from 10.96% to 13.81%).Share increases were steady and consistent, with increasing GRP spend.
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Brand : ICICI Prudential Agency: Lowe The Making of India’s No: 1 Private Life Insurer
ICICI Prudential is a case study in the role of marketing in reshaping an industry. It highlights how an industry where “sell” and “push” were oft used words and consumer
was nothing more than a file no., has changed to one where “consumer preference” and “consumer pull” rules the roost. Here’s a look at how ICICI Pru changed the rules of the game and emerged a leader in the process. Background: When the insurance sector was liberalized in 2000, the private players had to contend with a few issues. Ratio of premium to GDP was low: 1.3% of GDP was invested in insurance. Insurance penetration was at an abysmal 22% of the insurable population. Besides the above the private players were faced with: Attitudinal Barriers, Perception of insurance as a tax saving tool and lack of a consumer centric approach in service and product offerings. The Marketing Challenge facing ICICI Pru: The challenge therefore was to change established category drivers (death payment & tax saving) and to get the consumer to evaluate insurance on a more emotional platform (protection) rather than a mere rational decision (tax savings). The Campaign Objectives: A) Reposition the category in the consumer's mind. Influence the consumer to view it as a protection instrument and not a tax saving product alone. B) In the process, create differentiation for the ICICI Pru brand as a provider of social security and family protection. C) Achieve leadership status in saliency, image & product parameters. D) Build credibility and trust. The Target Audience: Representing an ideal mix of medium to high net worth individuals: The consumers most disposed towards buying life insurance. Middle-aged professionals, primarily male, salaried and self employed, age group: 28 - 45 years, household income: Rs.20, 000 and above. Creative Strategy: The essence of the creative strategy: To get the consumer to re look at Insurance as a means to lead a worry free life and not as a necessary evil. To this effect the core brand insight highlighted was "As head of the family it's my responsibility to take care of my loved ones and protect them from the uncertainties of life", summed up in the advertising
idea: ‘We cover you at every step in life (Suraksha… Zindagi ke har kadam par, as interpreted in Hindi ). ICICI Pru was positioned as an enabler of protection relevant to the needs of the life stage that you are in. At the core of the communications strategy was appropriating the generic category benefit (protection) through its greatest metaphor – Sindoor. The Creative execution: TVC: Building image and creating a differential in the most creative and compelling manner. The creative execution heightened the emotional connect with the ICICI Pru brand - Indian; satisfaction of knowing that one’s loved ones are protected. Symbolic representation of the protector of the family through situations showcasing various life stages and creating endearing imagery of protection and familial bonding. Press: Gave the consumer a rational and tangible reason to buy insurance first and secondly from ICICI Prudential. The product specific advertising focussed on changing the prevalent perception about insurance and breaking a few myths: non- affordability, insurance not being good investment option and the myth that insurance was good only for tax saving. Other Communications: Other programs included direct mail, PR of communications campaign in press & TV, website marketing; and database generation through Banc assurance channels. Media Strategy: In a market likely to be cluttered, we used multiple touch points to reach the consumer. The role for each medium was envisaged. The TV medium was used to enhance the emotional link with the brand. Strategic use of 15 sec. edits facilitated high frequency levels. In print, cost per response rather than cost per thousand as responses were measured in form of call-ins. Radio FM, Cinema, Internet were used to create a media multiplier effect. The results of communication efforts: Being no: 1 in awareness and saliency. Awareness: ICICI Pru showed a significant jump in awareness between Feb and Sept 2001. Image: Highest score among all Insurance players including LIC, on image parameters like safety, modernity, service, good returns etc. Intention to invest: Next only to LIC as per research (All Source: Research by ORG
Marg). No. of calls and emails: There were 70,000 calls at the call center and 6582 emails in the year 2001. Sum up: In just over a year ICICI Pru has emerged as India’s no.: 1 Private Life Insurance Company with almost 50% market share of the private players. Has sold highest no. of policies both in volume and value. Major Milestone - Over 100000 policies on Mar 31, 2002.
Advertising Objectives
ROLE OF ADVERTISING
Advertising ultimately seeks to establish what is called "mind share". Mind share is the status a brand can achieve when it co-exists with deeper, more empirical categories of objects. Bisleri,for example, can distinguish itself as a type of mineral water. But, because it has gained mind share amongst consumers, it is frequently used as a term to identify mineral water itself, even if it is from an opposing brand. One of the most successful firms to have achieved this is Hoover (as mentioned above) whose name was for a very long time synonymous with vacuum cleaner . Mind share can be established to a greater or lesser degree depending on product and market. In Texas, for example, it is common to hear people refer to any soft drink as a Coke, regardless of whether it is actually produced by Coca-Cola or not (the more accurate term would be 'cola'). Similarly Xerox is one of the terms used frequently to describe the act. A legal risk of mind share is that the name can become so widely accepted that it becomes a generic term, and loses trademark protection. Examples include "aspirin". Other objectives include short or long term increases in sales, market share, awareness, product information, and image improvement.
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Differentiation and competitive advantage
The decision by Hutchinson Telecom to enter the UK telecommunications market was seen by some at the time of entry as ambitious. The market was dominated by two main players, Cellnet and Vodafone, each with substantial market shares. The market was characterised by price competition, so margins were tight and perceptions limited. A new brand was developed which was imbued with values that differentiated the Hutchinson offering from the price base of the others. The brand was called Orange, and the visual cue of a bright orange colour on a black background had a strong impact that was easily memorable and capable of leading to a string of triggers and brand associations. The brand was launched with a coordinated campaign that was striking in its presentation and which has since been developed to launch new products and facilities. Market share has grown, and Orange is now a significant part of the UK market What do advertisers mean by strategy? There are several considerations in an advertising strategy. Advertising messages aren’t created on a whim or by a quick flash of inspiration. Advertising is a disciplined art and involves a lot of strategic thinking. Advertisers create messages to accomplish specific objectives, a process called strategic planning. Advertisers determine what you want accomplished, decide on strategies to go about accomplishing, and implementing tactics which make the plan come to life. Advertising involves many different strategies.
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First there must be a strategic business plan that deals with the broadest decisions made by the organization. Next advertisers have marketing strategies that will identify key advantages for the product or firm in the marketplace. Lastly there are advertising strategy decisions that are made which are crucial to all advertising situations. Advertisers must set objectives and identify the target audience. The advertising product must be compared to competing products features. The product must be positioned so that it is welcomed in the marketplace by consumers. Finally the advertisers must create a brand image and personality for the product.
These are all key considerations for the advertising strategy. Targeting an audience for the product is the most important. These audiences are equivalent to a target market, but often includes people other than prospects, such as those who influence the purchase. Once the target audience is defined this lets the advertising planner zero in on the most responsive audience Components of an Advertising Plan
Advertising Objectives Advertising Budget Message Strategy Media Strategy
The following should be considered in setting advertising objectives: 1. Market Segmentation: only through careful market segmentation can the target audience for advertising be identified and defined. The process has to be continuous so that the changes in consumer type, buyer behavior and socioeconomic and other environmental parameters can be kept under the preview. This provides the advertiser with an informational base to expand, limit or reduce creative advertising campaigns and media plans to react to different markets effectively. 2. Buyer Behavior: Advertising communications must take cognizance of the underlying patterns of buying behavior in setting objectives so that strategies and messages may be accordingly devised. Needs and motivations of decision makers may be assessed through the use of various quantitative and qualitative marketing and advertising research methods. 3. Product personality and perception: a mere advertisement demonstrating the characteristic features and special properties does not contribute towards sales because these can be copied by the competitors. But the perception of the brand in the minds of the consumers is what moulds product personality and can transcend mere physical properties and perpetuate itself despite changes in the product itself. 4. Situational factors: Advertising objectives will be derived from marketing objectives which will be an ongoing assessment of the market situation, competition, price position, distribution channel and their incentives and so forth. In setting up the advertising objectives due consideration should be given to the time period to which these objectives are confined. In coherence with marketing objectives, it may relate to short-term and long-term objectives.
Advertising can reach huge audiences with simple messages that present opportunities to allow receivers to understand what a product is, what its primary function is and how it relates to all the other similar products. This is the main function ofadvertising: to communicate with specific audiences. These audiences may be consumer- or organisation-based, but wherever they are located, the prime objective is to build or maintain awareness of a product or an organisation. Management's control over advertising messages is strong; indeed, of all the elements in the promotional mix, advertising has the greatest level of control. The message, once generated and signed off by the client, can be transmitted in an agreed manner and style and at times that match management's requirements. This means that, should the environment change unexpectedly, advertising messages can be 'pulled' immediately. Asian Paints campaign- “Waa, Sunil Babu badhiya hai”, words “ nayi Gadi” were edited later, as a result of objection raised by Maruti. Advertising frameworks Hall (1992) and O’ Malley (1991) have suggested that there are four main advertising frameworks. 1. The sales framework This framework is based on the premise that the level of sales is the only factor that is worth considering when the measuring the effectiveness of an advertising campaign. This view holds that all advertising activities are aimed ultimately at shifting product – generating sales. Advertising is considered to have a short term direct impact on sales. This effect is measurable and, while other outcomes might also result from advertising, the only important factor is sales. On sales alone will the true effect of any advertising be felt. Types of Sales Oriented Objectives Type of Increase Sale Media Policy Creative Content Example
Existing Products Existing Product Maintain Suggest new uses for your to Existing users insertions in product, or reasons for current media more frequent use, building on existing contacts and goodwill
DETTOL Antiseptic advertised on the different usage of the product, like for washing baby’s clothes, for shaving, etc.
Existing Product Consider new Explain the basic benefits to New users media of your product, and your company record, to people unaware of them. Existing Product to users of rival products – Brand switching Consider competitors media patterns
PHILIPS, ONIDA launched their colour television sets in rural markets and had related advertisements for it. Comparison campaigns FAIREVER advertised to pointing out the switch the Fair & Lovely advantages of the product users to its product. over rival brands and of changing established buying habits
New Products New Products to Maintain Explain basic benefits, LAKME introducing new Existing insertions in building on existing products like Sunscreen Customers current media contacts and goodwill lotion, Moisturizer with Peach Flavour, Winter Cream Lotion with Strawberry ingredients, etc. New Products to Consider new Explain the basic benefits New Users media of your product, and your company record in other fields New Products to Consider Explain basic benefits and Competitors competitors overcome established Customers media goodwill. patterns FA and NIVEA introducing products for men. PEPSI AHA aimed at advertising itself in bars in order to switch the alcohol drinkers to use Pepsi Aha instead of Thumbs Up as their mixer in the drink.
2. The persuasion framework. The second framework assumes advertising to work because it is capable to work because it is capable of persuasion. Persuasion is effected by gradually moving buyers through a number of sequential steps. This hierarchy of effects models assume that buyer decision making is rational and can be accurately predicted. As discussed earlier, these models have a number of drawbacks and are no longer used as the basis for designing advertisements, despite great popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. 3. The involvement framework Involvement based advertisements work by drawing members of the target audience into the advertisements. Involvement with the product develops as a consequence of involvement with the advertisement.
4. The salience framework. Salience models are based upon the premise that advertising works by standing out, by being radically different from all other advertisements in the product class. Orange cellular service always differentiated itself with a bright presentation and a striking bright orange in its logo and very catchy picture messages used to convey several things. For eg the picture of animal ears standing upright to mean all incoming free. Also the ads that feature the boy being followed by the dog, everywhere saying, “ Wherever you go, our network follows”.
Advertising Objectives –2 school of thoughts
Role of objectives Many organizations, including advertising agencies, fail to set realistic promotional objectives. There are several explanations for this behaviour, but one of the common factors is that managers are unable to differentiate between the value of advertising as an expenditure and as an investment. The setting of objectives is important for 3 main reasons: 1. They provide a means of communication and co-ordination between groups client and agency working on different parts of a campaign. 2. These objectives also serve as a guide for decision-making and provide a focus for decisions that follow in the process of developing promotional plans. 3. Objectives provide a benchmark so that relative success or failure of a programme can be determined. In the matter of advertising objectives, 2 distinct schools of thought emerge: Advertising objectives
Sales objectives
Communication objectives
The Sales school
Many managers see sales as the only meaningful objective for promotional plans. Their view is that the only reason an organization spends money on promotion is to sell its products or service. Therefore, the only meaningful measure of the effectiveness of the promotional spend is in the sales results. These results can be measured in a number of different ways. 1. Sales turnover is the first and most obvious factor particularly in business-tobusiness markets. 2. In the consumer markets and the FMCG sector, market share movement is more sensitive barometer of performance. Over the longer term, return on investment is used to check success or failure. However sales objectives are applicable only in particular situations. 1. Direct response advertising: where direct action is required by the receiver in response to exposure to message, measurement of sales is justifiable. Thus it attempts to induce quick response from the members of the target audience, Ads offering some kind of incentive, or ads announcing contests, or encouraging prospects to place orders on phone or through internet. In such cases evaluation is based on sales results. 2. The retail sector: can also use sales measures, and it has been suggested that packaged goods organizations, operating in markets, which are mature with established pricing and distribution structures, can build a databank from which it is possible to isolate the advertising effect through sales. If a particular celebrity is used for an ad campaign and a particular amount of money is spent on it, by monitoring the amount of sales, it is possible to evaluate the success of the campaign or success of using the celebrity. 3. Sales Promotion Programs: Many sales promotion programs have sales objectives since their goal is often to generate trial or short-term sales increases Several companies come up with the scratch and win offers. Britannia at the time of world cup had actually come up with such offers “ Britannia khao, world cup jao” However, there are certain difficulties associated with using sales as advertising objective: ? Sales could result from variety of influences, such as the other marketing mix elements, competitor actions and wider environmental effects, like the strength of the currency or the level of interest. Concept of adstock or carryover: the impact of promotional expenditure will not be immediately apparent as the receiver may not enter the market until a later date but the effects of the promotion may still influence the final purchase decision.
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Thus while measuring effectiveness of campaign, sales results may not show its full impact as there is considerable time lag between audience exposure to ad and actual sales. Sales objectives do little to assist the media planner, copywriters and creative team working on the communication programme. They would want to know what the company intends to communicate, what is the target audience and what kind of behaviour or response is finally desired on their part.
The communications school
There are many situations where the aim of a communication campaign is to enhance the image or reputation of an organization or product. Sales thus don’t remain the only goal. Consequently, promotional efforts are seen as communication tasks, such as the creation of awareness or positive attitudes towards the organization or product. To facilitate this process, receivers have to be given relevant information before the appropriate decision processes can develop and purchase activities established as long-run behaviour. Thus the communication objectives basically seek to move people to action and induce them to purchase the products. When we see ads, we tend to judge them with their ability to make us laugh or feel engrossed. However, a far more powerful way to look at advertising is by understanding that advertising is a communication task, with specific communication objectives, and therefore we need to understand how communication works. It is important to understand all the different interactions that target customers have with the product or the company. Suppose, a person were to buy a coloured television, before making the investment he is likely to look into several aspects like features available, benefits, information with regard to these in the form of articles, etc. thus a marketer would do good if he could understand what influences this person at every stage in the buying process and accordingly formulate his communication plan to ensure more effective allocation of the communication budget. Thus there are several models that are framed based on this understanding. These models tend to follow a certain sequence in influencing buyer behaviour. The stages are as follows:
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Cognitive: this stage basically involves communication that deals with cognition or knowledge. It deals with creating knowledge, perception, ideas and awareness in the minds of people. Before people can be moved to action in terms of purchase, they must be informed about the same. Affective: this stage deals with the emotions or the affections. Thus this is the stage that determines whether a person develops positive perception about the product or simply dislikes it. At this stage, interest may further strengthen to take the shape of strong desires or preference. Conative/ behaviour: this mainly deals with the final buyer behaviour. In this case the person on the basis of his preference or dislike for the product would either purchase it or reject the product.
Thus as mentioned earlier, in case a person wants to buy a TV set, he may after having understood his desire, collect different types of information and after having being convinced by the same, finally make the purchase. This pattern may differ depending upon low or high involvement products. These days, more and more research is being conducted under the premise that consumers develop relationships with their brands and products, which could sustain the notion that a series of stages occur between the point of product awareness and the point of product purchase. The concept of "bottom-line" thinking has essentially passed. Effective advertising should sell, but should also communicate with the consumer on an emotional level. Knowing this, we can say that advertising is a communication task.
Models used to convey communication objectives
? ? ? Hierarchy of effects FCB grid DAGMAR
Hierarchy-of-Effects Models
Among advertising theories, the hierarchy-of-effects model is predominant. It shows clear steps of how advertising works Hierarchy of effects Model can be explained with the help of a pyramid. First the lower level objectives such as awareness, knowledge or comprehension are accomplished. Subsequent objectives may focus on moving prospects to higher levels in the pyramid to elicit desired behavioral responses such as associating feelings with the brand, trial, or regular use etc. it is easier to accomplish ad objectives located at the base of the pyramid than the ones towards the top. The percentage of prospective customers will decline as they move up the pyramid towards more action oriented objectives, such as regular brand use.
Awareness: if most of the target audience is unaware of the object, the communicator’s task is to build awareness, perhaps just name recognition, with simple messages repeating the product name. Consumers must become aware of the brand. This isn’t as straightforward as it seems. Capturing someone’s attention doesn’t mean they will notice the brand name. Thus, the brand name needs to be made focal to get consumers to become aware. Magazines are full of ads that will capture your attention, but you’ll have trouble easily seeing the brand name. Knowledge: the target audience might have product awareness but not know much more; hence this stage involves creating brand knowledge. This is where comprehension of the brand name and what it stands for become important. What are the brand’s specific appeals, its benefits? In what way is it different than competitor’s brands? Who is the target market? These are the types of questions that must be answered if consumers are to achieve the step of brand knowledge. Liking: if target members know the product, how do they feel about it? If the audience looks unfavourably towards the product to communicator has to find out why. If the unfavourable view is based on real problems, a communication campaigns alone cannot do the job. For product problem it is necessary to first fix the problem and only then can you communicate its renewed quality. Preference: the target audience might like the product but not prefer it to others. In this case, the communicator must try to build consumer preference by promoting quality, value, performance and other features. The communicator can check the campaigns success by measuring audience preference before and after the campaign. Conviction: a target audience might prefer a particular product but not develop a conviction about buying it. The communicator’s job is to build conviction among the target audience. Purchase: finally, some members of the target audience might have conviction but not quite get around to making the purchase. They may wait for more information or plan to
act later. The communicator must need these consumers to take the final step, perhaps by offering the product at a low price, offering a premium, or letting consumers tried out. This is where consumers make a move to actually search out information or purchase. Thus advertising is thought to work and follow a certain sequence whereby the prospect is moved through a series of stages in succession from unawareness to the purchase of the product. Advertising cannot induce immediate behavioural response, rather a series of mental effects must occur with the fulfillment at each stage before progress to the next stage is possible. Teaser campaigns Awareness Pioneering ads Jingles/ slogans Internet banners Knowledge Announcement s Informative ads
Liking
Preference
Conviction
Descriptive ads Image/ celebrity Demonstration of benefits Competitive ads Persuasive copy Comparative ads Testimonial s Direct-action retail ads Point-ofpurchase ads Price deal offers
Purchase
Reminder ads Informative “why” ads
Here are various versions of hierarchy-of-effects model.
The AIDA Model
AIDA model is initiatory and simplest. ACTION
DESIRE
INTEREST
AWARENESS
AIDA model was presented by Elmo Lewis to explain how personal selling works. It shows a set of stair-step stages which describe the process leading a potential customer to purchase. The stages, Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action, form a linear hierarchy. ? ? ? It demonstrates that consumers must be aware of a product's existence, Be interested enough to pay attention to the product's features/benefits, and Have a desire to benefit from the product's offerings.
?
Action, the fourth stage, would come as a natural result of movement through the first three stages. Although this idea was rudimentary, it led to the later emerging field of consumer behavior research.
Reliance India Mobile campaign can be used to explain this model better. Awareness- the elaborate advertisement where Mukesh Ambani spoke about the new project being introduced on his father’s 70th birthday. Interest- was generated as the company spokesperson featured in the ad, as a representative of the company image and also spoke about introducing a new technology – CDMA. Desire- was created with various offers like free SMS, 40paise STD calls, easy payment schemes, and discount coupons worth Rs. 1 lakh. Action- Dhirubhai Ambani Pioneer offers induced people to go for the product. Also the model can be applied to marketing movies : Where in the initial stage awareness may be created with attention by airing the promos on television. Attention is created with the help of key features like starcaste, music, locations, etc. Interest is then created with the release of the music and by introducing the theme and sales of audiocassettes and CDs indicate the same. Desire is created with hoardings of the movie and also with the help of several contests and free prizes and attractions like stars visiting the music shops. In the last stage people are moved to action in the form of buying tickets as a result of the ratings given to the movies in the dailies, etc To illustrate one such movie through the AIDA model is BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM A: Promos had David Beckham and Football I: Introduced Music and Dialogues of film. Also the tagline: “Who wants to cook Aloo Gobi when you can bend a ball like Beckham.” D: A fresh movie with a different theme. The film also talked about the success of film overseas A: Got 3– and 4–star ratings and publicized that in promos. CRITICISM Hierarchy of effects model has been criticized on some points, such as that people do not exactly follow these sequences
People in all the cases may not strictly follow a series of stages as are explained in the hierarchy of effects model. They may in certain situations, directly jump to a particular stage, not following the stages in a logical pattern. For e.g. a child accompanying mother to a grocery store is likely to demand a product without indulging in stages like becoming aware about it, being interested by it and then buying it. He may just be lured by the display
DAGMAR (Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results)
Awareness
Comprehension
Conviction
Action Russell Colley (1961) developed a model for setting advertising objectives and measuring the results. This model was entitled ‘Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results- DAGMAR.’ DAGMAR model suggests that the ultimate objective of advertising must carry a consumer through four levels of understanding: from unawareness to Awareness—the consumer must first be aware of a brand or company Comprehension—he or she must have a comprehension of what the product is and its benefits; Conviction—he or she must arrive at the mental disposition or conviction to buys the brand; Action—finally, he or she actually buy that product. Awareness Awareness of the existence of a product or organization is necessary before the purchase behaviour can be expected. Once the awareness has been created in the target audience, it should not be neglected. If there is neglect, the audience may become distracted by competing messages and the level of awareness of focus product or organization will decline.
Awareness needs to be created, developed, refined or sustained, according to the characteristics of the market and the particular situation facing an organization at any one point of time. Awareness grid
Involvement High Low
HIGH
Sustain current Refine awareness levels of awareness
Awareness
LOW
Build awareness Create association of quickly. awareness of product with product class need
In situations where: 1. Buyer experiences high involvement: ? Is fully aware of a product’s existence, attention and awareness levels need only be sustained and efforts need to be applied to other communication tasks. sales promotion and personal selling are more effective at informing, persuading and provoking consumption of a new car once advertising has created the necessary levels of awareness. The L.G golden eye ads that are repeatedly shown inspite of high awareness to ensure top of mind awareness and retain the existing awareness levels. ? Where low levels of awareness are found, getting attention needs to be the prime objective in order that awareness can be developed among the target audience.
Sahara Homes ad that features Amitabh Bachhan saying “ jaha base Bharat”. Awareness level is low, however it is a high involvement decision. Thus adequate attention is required and awareness levels are raised with use of well-known and trusted celebrities. 2. Buyer experiences low involvement: ? If buyers have sufficient level of awareness, they will be quickly prompted into purchase with little assistance of the other elements of the mix. Recognition and brand image may be felt by some to be sufficient triggers to stimulate a response. The requirement in such a situation would be to refine and strengthen the level of awareness so that it provokes interest and stimulates greater involvement during recall or recognition. Parle G ad that talks about it being the largest seller “ Duniya ka sabse Zyada bikne waala biscuit”. Parle G as a brand already enjoys high levels of awareness and requires low involvement decision, thus communication is mainly intended to refine awareness. If buyers have low level of awareness, the prime objective has to be to create awareness of the focus product in association with the product class. When coils were popular in use and then the different repellants entered the market, awareness had to be created about their benefits and use. Comprehension Awareness on its own may not be sufficient to stimulate a purchase. Knowledge about the product or the organization is necessary. This can be achieved by providing specific information about key brand attributes. In attempting to persuade people to try a different brand of water, it may be necessary to compare the product with other mineral water products and provide an additional usage benefit, such as environmental claims. The ad of Ganga mineral water, featuring Govinda, which banked on the purity aspect. They related the purity of the water with that of river Ganga. Conviction The next step is to establish a sense of conviction. By creating interest and preference, buyers are moved to a position where they are convinced that a particular product in the class should be tried at the next opportunity. To do this, audience’s beliefs about the product have to be moulded and this is often done through messages that demonstrate the product’s superiority over a rival or by talking about the rewards as a result of using the product.
Many ads like Thumbs Up featured the reward of social acceptance as ‘grown up’. It almost hinted that those who preferred other drinks were kids.
Action Communication must finally encourage buyers to engage in purchase activity. Advertising can be directive and guide the buyers into certain behavioural outcomes, Use of toll free numbers, direct mail activities and reply cards and coupons. Tupperware, Aqua Guard, are famous in Indian cities as a result of its personal selling efforts. For high involvement decisions, the most effective tool in the communication mix at this stage in the hierarchy is personal selling. Through the use of interpersonal skills, buyers are more likely to want to buy a product than if personal prompting is absent. Characteristics of Objectives A major contribution of DAGMAR was Colley’s specification of what constitutes a good objective. Four requirements or characteristics of good objectives were noted Concrete and measurable—the communications task or objective should be a precise statement of what appeal or message the advertiser wants to communicate to the target audience. Furthermore the specification should include a description of the measurement procedure Target audience –a key tenet to DAGMAR is that the target audience be well defined. For example –if the goal was to increase awareness, it is essential to know the target audience precisely. The benchmark measure cannot be developed without a specification of the target segment Benchmark and degree of change sought—another important part of setting objectives is having benchmark measures to determine where the target audience stands at the beginning of the campaign with respect to various communication response variables such as awareness, knowledge, attitudes, image, etc. The objectives should also specify how much change or movement is being sought such as increase in awareness levels, creation of favorable attitudes or number of consumers intending to purchase the brand, etc. a benchmark is also a prerequisite to the ultimate measurement of results, an essential part of any planning program and DAGMAR in particular.
Specified time period—a final characteristic of good objectives is the specification of the time period during which the objective is to be accomplished, e.g. 6months, 1 year etc. With a time period specified a survey to generate a set if measures can be planned and anticipated. Written Goal - finally goals should be committed to paper. When the goals are clearly written, basic shortcomings and misunderstandings become exposed and it becomes easy to determine whether the goal contains the crucial aspects of the DAGMAR approach. Criticism with regard to DAGMAR model: 1. Sales orientation those who see sales as the only valid measure of effectiveness level this criticism. The sole purpose of advertising is to generate sales. So as the completion of communications tasks may not result in purchases, the only, measure that needs to be undertaken is that of sales. 2. Restrictions on creativity DAGMAR is criticized on the grounds that creative flair is lost as attention is continuously on the numbers game, such as focusing on measures of recall, attitude change and awareness rather than the looking for the big idea. Thus the creative personnel is held more accountable under DAGMAR and this may inhibit some of their work. A campaign with all music and warm human visuals is loved by everybody but it would fail to meet the company’s standard. Thus a wonderful campaign would be evaluated on wrong criteria. 3. Short-term accountability managers do not have adequate time to spend on analyzing levels of comprehension and preference and convert them into formats that are going to be of direct benefit to them and their organizations. 4. Difficulty in determining what constitutes adequate levels of awareness and comprehension and how can it be determined which stage the majority of the target audience has reached at any given point of time. The VIP Feelings advertisements for ladies undergarments could be successful changing the attitude towards the brand VIP that was associated to be a man’s wear, or it could be successful in creating awareness that VIP has started a new line of product for ladies too. Evaluating and measuring this form one single advertisement is difficult. 5. Hierarchy of Effects Model DAGMAR attacks the basic hierarchy model, which postulates a set of steps of awareness, comprehension, and attitude leading to action. The counterargument is that it is possible that action may precede awareness. The foreign chocolates, which are bought by people from the departmental stores, are not advertised, but still people buy them. It is later that the advertising for the product is done, or sometimes it is not done at all. Another example would be that
action is preceded the attitude formation and comprehension with the impulse purchase of a low involvement product.
FCB Grid "FCB grid,” is suggested by Dave Berger and Richard Vaughn. This model combines high and low involvement, and left and right brain specialization. It shows a visually coherent matrix which has four quadrants with two factors—high and low involvement, and feeling and thinking. The communication response would certainly be different for high versus low involvement products and those which required mainly thinking (left brain) and feeling (right brain) information processing. To define involvement and think / feel, eight scales are used: High Involvement
• • •
Very important decision Lot to lose if you choose the wrong brand Decision requires lot
Low involvement: ? ? ? Unimportant decision. Little to lose if you choose the wrong brand. Decision requires little thought
Think or rational approach
• •
Decision is / is not mainly logical or objective Decision is / is not based mainly on functional facts
Feel or emotional approach
• • •
Decision is / is not based on a lot of feeling Decision does / does not express one’s personality Decision is / is not based on looks, tastes, touch, smell, or sound (sensory effects)
Think Informative (Thinker) High Involvement Model: Learn – Feel – Do (Economic)
Feel Affective (Feeler) Model: Feel – Learn – Do (Psychological)
Ex. Cars, appliances, and Ex. Cosmetics, jewelry, and insurance, house, fashion clothing, motor cycles furnishings Habitual (Doer) Low Involvement Model: Do – Learn – Feel (Responsive) Self-satisfaction (Reactor) Model: Do – Feel – Learn (Social)
Ex. Consumer goods, Ex. "life’s little pleasures" such as gasoline, food, household beer, cigarette, and candy/sweets. items "FCB grid" shows a particular type of advertising strategy for each of these types of products. This model pulls together the concepts of involvement and thinking versus and feeling as the way of information processing. The basic assumption of this model that different products need different strategies because the type of products requires different levels of involvement and information processing. High involvement- think quadrant High level of decision is require to be made as decision is with regard to purchase of high value items like house, cars, etc.
Thus in this case, people generally follow a pattern of learn- feel- do. Thus advertising must focus on the following aspects:
• • • • • •
Convey multiple facts that illustrate the basic message Use expert/credible sources Present scientific evidence Use 2 sided appeals Present weakest arguments first Use comparative advertising.
A computer being a high involvement decision product would demand a more rational approach where consumers would try to find out about features, usage, etc. and then go it buying it after having being convinced by it. Thus these ads try to provide required information. Intel ads- Pentium 4 that showed a whole lot of things including a class room set up and child learning, that tried to convey how learning became easy and better with it. Possible implications: Test: Recall, Diagonistics Media: Long copy format, Reflective vehicles Creative: Specific information, Demonstration High involvement- feel quadrant Here decisions are with regard to high involvement items where emotional approach is involved. People therefore follow a Feel – Learn – Do pattern in case of purchase. Advertising must: • • • • • • Use dramas Use sources similar to your customers Try to create empathy and a vicarious emotional experience Strong visuals Large spreads TV with visual impact
Possible implications: Test: attitude change.
Emotional arousal Media: Large space Image specials. Creative: Executional Impact Ads of Lakme featuring Yana Gupta, for the strawberry crème, another ad with a young boy overwhelmed by her soft skin and look. e.g: PROVOGUE continuously advertises its line of garments as being endorsed by popular models and actors, the latest one being Fardeen Khan. Instead of talking about fabrics or colours, it always talks about the aspirational value of wearing a Provogue outfit. Low involvement- think quadrant This pertains to purchase of products like food, etc , where rational approach is followed and buyer follows a Do – Learn – Feel pattern Advertising can therefore focus on: • • • • • • • • • • Don’t use comparative ads Use one-sided appeals Use credible/expert source Present strongest arguments first Use a large number of arguments Draw a conclusion Reminder ads and repetition Catchy music and slogans Small space ads Point of sale ads.
Possible implications: Test: Sales Media: Small space ads, 10 second Ids, radio, POS Creative: Reminder The Sugar free ad that features Raveena Tandon and Harsha Bhogle, Dettol ad that features the lady saying “mei apne parivaar ka dhyaan nahi rakhoongi to aur kaun rakhega?”
Low involvement- feel quadrant These involve low involvement products whereby individuals exhibit an emotional approach and follow a Do – Feel – Learn pattern. Products are to be purchased for selfgratification. Thus advertising must look at:
•
• • • • • •
Create a likable ad via the use of music, celebrities, humor, attractive visuals Use likable sources Attention getting Impulse purchase Billboards Newspapers Point of sale
Possible implications: Test: Sales Media: Billboard, newspapers, POS Creative: attention Gilbey’s Green Label ad that that uses the emotional appeal for a low involvement product,shows the man working hard in mines and the song “ Kuch pana hai kuch kar dikhana hai” Pan Pasand, in its ads, talked about how having a Pan Pasand lozenge changes moods from anger to polite and loving.
The Five M’s Of Advertising
The organizations handle their advertising in different ways. In small companies, advertising is handled by someone in the sales or marketing department, who works with an ad ageny. A large company will often set up its own advertising department or else hire an ad agency to do the job of preparing advertising programmes. In developing a program, marketing managers must always start by identifying the target market and the buyer’s motives. Then they can make the five major decisions in developing an advertising program, known as the five M’s, viz. ? Mission: what are the advertising objectives? ? Money: how much can be spent? ? Message: what message can be sent? ? Media: what media should be used ? Measurement: how should the results is evaluated? The above mentioned can be explained by the diagram given below
The 5Ms of Advertising Checklist for planning of a marketing or advertising campaign. Mission Money Message Media Measurement
? What are the objectives? ? What is the key objective? ? How much is it worth to reach my objectives? ? How much can be spent? ? What message should be sent? ? Is the message clear and easily understood? ? What media vehicles are available? ? What media vehicles should be used? ? How should the results be measured? ? How should the results be evaluated and followed up?
MISSION
• • Sales goals Advertising objectives
MONEY
• • • • • Stage in PLC Market Share and Consumer Base Competition and Clutter Advertising frequency Product substitutability
MESSAGE
• • • Message generation Message evaluation & selection Message execution
MEDIA
• • • • • Reach, Frequency & impact Major media types Specific media vehicles Media timing Geographical media allocation
MEASUREMENT
• • Communication impact Sales impact
1. MISSION OR SETTING THE ADVERTISING OBJECTIVES
Advertising Objectives can be classified as to whether their aim is: To inform: This aim of Advertising is generally true during the pioneering stage of a product category, where the objective is building a primary demand. This may include: • Telling the market about a new product • Suggesting new uses for a product • Informing the market of a price change • Informing how the product works • Describing available services • Correcting false impressions • Reducing buyers’ fears • Building a company image To persuade: Most advertisements are made with the aim of persuasion. Such advertisements aim at building selective brand. To remind: Such advertisements are highly effective in the maturity stage of the product. The aim is to keep the consumer thinking about the product.
2. MONEY
This M deals with deciding on the Advertising Budget The advertising budget can be allocated based on: • • • • Departments or product groups The calendar Media used Specific geographic market areas
There are five specific factors to be considered when setting the Advertising budget. • • Stage in PLC: New products typically receive large advertising budgets to build awareness and to gain consumer trial. Established brands are usually supported with lower advertising budgets as a ratio to sales. Market Share and Consumer base: high-market-share brands usually require less advertising expenditure as a percentage of sales to maintain their share. To build share by increasing market size requires larger advertising expenditures.
Additionally, on a cost-per-impressions basis, it is less expensive to reach consumers of a widely used brand them to reach consumers of low-share brands. • Competition and clutter: In a market with a large number of competitors and high advertising spending, a brand must advertise more heavily to be heard above the noise in the market. Even simple clutter from advertisements not directly competitive to the brand creates the need for heavier advertising. Advertising frequency: the number of repetitions needed to put across the brands message to consumers has an important impact on the advertising budget. Product substitutability: brands in the commodity class (example cigarettes, beer, soft drinks) require heavy advertising to establish a different image. Advertising is also important when a brand can offer unique physical benefits or features.
• •
3. MESSAGE GENERATION
Message generation can be done in the following ways: Inductive: By talking to consumers, dealers, experts and competitors. Consumers are the major source of good ideas. Their feeling about the product, its strengths, and weaknesses gives enough information that could aid the Message generation process. Deductive: John C. Meloney proposed a framework for generating Advertising Messages. According to him, a buyer expects four types of rewards from a product: ? Rational ? Sensory ? Social ? Ego Satisfaction. Buyers might visualize these rewards from: ? Results-of-use Experience ? Product-in-use Experience ? Incidental-to-use Experience The Matrix formed by the intersection of these four types of rewards and the of experiences is given below. POTENTIAL TYPE OF REWARD (Sample Messages) Rational Sensory Social Result-of-Use 1. Gets Clothes 2. Settles Stomach 3. When you care Experience Cleaner upset completely enough to serve the best Product-in5. The flour that 6. Real gusto in a 7. A deodorant to Use needs no sifting great light beer guarantee social Experience acceptance three types Ego Satisfaction 4. For the skin you deserve to have 8. The store young executive for
Incidental-toUse Experience
9. The plastic 10. The portable pack keeps the television that’s cigarette fresh lighter in weight, easier to lift
11. The furniture 12. Stereo for the that identifies the man with home of modern discriminating taste people
Message evaluation and selection The advertiser needs to evaluate the alternative messages. A good ad normally focuses on one core selling proposition. Messages can be rated on desirability, exclusiveness and believability. The message must first say something desirable or interesting about the product. The message must also say something exclusive or distinct that does not apply to every brand in the product category. Above all, the message must be believable or provable. Message execution. The message’s impact depends not only upon what is said but also on how it is said. Some ads aim for rational positioning and others for emotional positioning. While executing a message the style, tone, words, and format for executing the message should be kept in mind. STYLE. Any message can be presented in any of the following different execution styles, or a combination of them: • Slice of life: Shows one or more persons using the product in a normal setting. Coke 1litre ad, showed a family enjoying Coke, with a game of antakshari when there is a power failure. • Lifestyle: Emphasizes how a product fits in with a lifestyle. Asmi and Platinum ads, that focus on lifestyle of persons using their products. •Fantasy: Creates a fantasy around the product or its use. VIP Frenchie ads, showing a woman thinking of the Frenchie man saving her from a villain. •Mood or image: Evokes a mood or image around the product, such as beauty, love, or serenity. No claim is made about the product except through suggestion. Kingfisher Beer ads, saying the King of Good Times. • Musical: Uses background music or shows one or more persons or cartoon characters singing a song involving the product.
Nescafe, Bacardi usually use Music as the main theme of communication
• Personality symbol: Creates a character that personifies the product. The character might be animated Ronald McDonald for McDonald’s • Technical expertise: Shows the company’s expertise, experience, and pride in making the product. GE and Skoda ads • Scientific evidence: Presents survey or scientific evidence that the brand is preferred over or outperforms other brands. This style is common in the overthe-counter drug category. DuraCell Ads, claiming the battery lasts 6 times longer than ordinary batteries • Testimonial evidence: This features a highly credible, likable, or expert source endorsing the product. It could be a celebrity or ordinary people saying how much they like the product. In ads for Sunsilk, they had hair expert Coleen, endorsing the product. TONE : The communicator must also choose an appropriate tone for the ad. Procter & Gamble is consistently positive in its tone—its ads say something superlatively positive about the product, and humor is almost always avoided so as not to take mention away from the message. Other companies use emotions to set the tone—particularly film, telephone, and insurance companies, which stress human connections and milestones. Words: Memorable and attention-getting words must be found. The following themes listed on the left would have had much less impact without the creative phrasing on the right: Theme Creative Copy You won’t have to stay at home because Get Out, Get Going of bad hair Format: Format elements such as ad size, color, and illustration will make a difference in an ad’s impact as well as its cost. A minor rearrangement of mechanical elements within the ad can improve its attention-getting power. Larger-size ads gain more attention, though not necessarily by as much as their difference in cost. Four-
colour illustrations instead of black and white increase ad effectiveness and ad cost. By planning the relative dominance of different elements of the ad, optimal delivery can be achieved.
4. MEDIA
The next ‘M’ to be considered while making an Advertisement Program is the Media through which to communicate the Message generated during the previous stage. The steps to be considered are: Deciding on Geographic media allocation Step V Deciding on media timing Step IV Selecting specific media vehicles Step III
Choosing among major media types Step II
Deciding reach, frequency and impact Step I
5. MEASUREMENT
Evaluating the effectiveness of the Advertisement Program is very important as it helps prevent further wastage of money and helps make corrections that are important for further advertisement campaigns. Researching the effectiveness of the advertisement is the most used method of evaluating the effectiveness of the Advertisement Program. Research can be in the form of: • Communication-Effect Research • Sales-Effect Research There are two ways of measuring advertising effectives. They are: Pre-testing It is the assessment of an advertisement for its effectiveness before it is actually used. It is done through • Concept testing – how well the concept of the advertisement is. This is be done by taking expert opinion on the concept of the ad.
• •
Test commercials - test trial of the advertisement to the sample of people Finished testing
Post-testing It is the assessment of an advertisement’s effectiveness after it has been used. It is done in two ways • Unaided recall - a research technique that asks how much of an ad a person remembers during a specific period of time • Aided recall - a research technique that uses clues to prompt answers from people about ads they might have seen
THE 5 M’s OF ADVERTISING WITH RESPECT TO THE DOODH DOODH CAMPAIGN MISSION: A survey among 1,00,000 households in 1995 showed that there was a decrease inthe direct consumption of milk because of the following reasons: 1. Milk took a backseat when compared to soft drinks when it came to teenagers. 2. Adults believed that milk was essential for growing children but not for them. Thus the mission of the ad agency was to make aware the consumers about the benefits of milk for youngsters as well as elederly pople. Their mission was to create a communication plan that milk was not a “boring conservative drink” but a “youthful, exciting and nutritional, exciting energy drink” ? MESSAGE The writers hit upon the idea of using Hindi word for Milk i.e. “doodh doodh” in the form of a musical note. This musical note was in the form of “sa-re-ga-ma” which was remembered by the consumers a lot and was also top of mind when they were asked to comment on milk. The commercial as well as the print ad showed not only kids and youngsters but also elderly and old people whereby it targeted all age groups giving the benefits of milk as well. ? ? MEDIA: Television was chosen as the primary media because of its popularity and the fact that an audio visual medium lends itself to demonstration of ‘high energy’, ‘fun’ and ‘youthfulness’ more vividly. The print medium was also used as reinforcement message deliver backing the TV commercials.
The first round had concentrated on channels such as DD1, DD2 and the star plus. For every spot that they bought, there were four spots given as a bonus to be aired on the same programme. This made the commercial highly visible in terms of frequency as well as the reach.
? MEASUREMENT: Any effort to bring about an attitudinal change takes time. A measure of effectiveness of the communication was that the TV commercial was voted by viewers of India’s one of the best commercials aired. The communication has definitely made the youngsters make sing the song ‘doodh doodh’, in addition to the cola songs. Qualitative research showed that there was a tremendous popularity of the commercial across all the age categories. Kids in the age group of 10-12 were not very resistant in their attitudes towards drinking milk. Mothers took advantage of the commercial among the children to make them consume milk. There was a rapid increase in consumption of milk across all age groups. The consumption of milk in 1995 was 198 gm/per day which has gone up to 250 gm/per day in 1998. THE 5 M’s OF ADVERTISING WITH RESPECT TO THE SUNDROP CAMPAIGN MISSION: Sales goals: Leadership in the edible refined oil segment Advertising Goals: Communication task 1. Position Sundrop as the healthy oil for healthy people 2. Ensure that this did not erode the delivery of the taste benefit. 3. Positioning had to be perceptually as far away from Saffola. 4. Young, modern and premium feel 5. Execution had to be distinct and original to stand out from the clutter MONEY: o Stage in PLC: Introductory, therefore relatively large expenditure o Market share: new product o Competitors: Saffola (Safflower oil) also used the health platform but was associated with heart patients and less taste Flora and Sunola (Sunflower oils) MESSAGE:
Health was chosen as the platform, along with a supporting claim for taste. People who were healthy and energetic were concerned about the long-term prospects of their health. Thus ‘Health’ • Was related to maintenance of good health • Was applicable to all members of the family • Was characterized by lively energetic people • Thus the message and (positioning): ‘The Healthy Oil for Healthy People’
MEDIA: Primary media: Television ad 30 seconds. Print ad MEASUREMENT: • • • • Within 6 months, Sundrop became the largest selling refined sunflower oil. Redefined the category and expanded the Sunflower oil segment from 2.71% to 23% in 6 months, and 42% in 1997 Still the largest selling sunflower oil brand holds 15% of branded oil market. The ad was shown for over 10 years as the main theme film.
Advertising Techniques
Advertisers use several recognizable techniques in order to better convince the public to buy a product. These may include: ? Repitition: Some advertisers concentrate on making sure their product is widely recognized. To that end, they simply attempt to make the name remembered through repetition. Nirma detergent in the song repeated the word nirma thrice. ? Bandwagon: By implying that the product is widely used, advertisers hope to convince potential buyers to "get on the bandwagon." The emphasis on “ PSPO nahin jaante!” in Orient fan ad tried to convey to people that everyone knew about it.
? Testimonials: Advertisers often attempt to promote the superior quality of their product through the testimony of ordinary users, experts, or both. "Three out of four dentists recommend..." This approach often involves an appeal to authority. Pepsodent ads that feature a dentist who recommends the use of the toothpaste to protect teeth, ? Pressure: By attempting to make people choose quickly and without long consideration, some advertisers hope to make rapid sales: "Buy now, before they're all gone!" . generally ads talking about sale that emphasise that “offer would be open till stocks last”.
? Association: Advertisers often attempt to associate their product with desirable things, in order to make it seem equally desirable. The use of attractive models, picturesque landscapes, and other similar imagery is common. Intel pentium4- print ad that depicts the dupilactes of famous Sholay duo and the message of “ It’s the same with PCs- there is only 1 original.” ? Advertising slogans: Advertising slogans are claimed to be, and often prove to be , the most effective means of drawing attention to one or more aspects of a product. Typically they make claims about being the best quality, providing an important benefit or solution, or being most suitable for the potential customer. Karlo duniya muthi me”, “yeh dil maange more”!
Advertising objectives - Examples To inform
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Telling the market about the new product
Livon silky potion ad differentiating it from shampoos and conditioners,and positioning it to be better than conditioners and explaining the use and talking of hair becoming more manageable and silky after using it.
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Suggesting new uses for a product
Moov ads that always showed the woman of the house would suffer from severe back ache and then how moov helped to relieve it. Later they also showed moov being used to relieve leg pain.
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Telling about new facilities and product development
The crocin ads that talk about crocin being 20% more effective and providing quicker relief. Besides the shape of the new crocin was seen as longer as opposed to the old round pill.
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Informing the market of a price change
Chota coke ads advertised featuring aamir khan in a rural setting wherein 2 girls buying coke were being charged more and aamir khan wittily dealing with the shop-keeper, clearing it was for Rs. 5 and the term “paanch” was greatly emphasized.
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Explaining how the product works
Livon silky potion new ad featuring the girl showing the use of product, explaining in what quantity should it be taken, specifying it is not required to be used in the same quantity as hair oil. • Describing available services
Print ads of Motorola ads that talk about the features like camera, thus referring to the service as motography, and also talking about the MMS service ,etc.
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Corporate ads
Aditya Birla group, Sahara Group, Maruti Udyog, Indian airlines
Print ads of Indian airlines, which said, “ We have a nation to live upto” .
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Correcting false impressions
In many situations, a wrong perception or a negative image of the company may be formed in the minds of the target audience as a result of a mishap or a controversy related to the product. Thus it becomes very vital for the company to communicate urgently to prevent losing out their customers to competitors , etc. Fanta ads following the cola controversy – where 3 young people shown being apprehensive about having the soft drink offered, and rani mukherji talking about “Ghandhiji ke Teen Bandar”.
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Reducing consumers' fears
In case of many products, people are apprehensive about using the product as they may have certain fears and may be scared of the consequence of using a product. This is especially true in case of products to be used on skin, hair, etc. In case of hair colour, there is fear that it leads to hair becoming dry and getting damaged. Print ad of Regel hair vitaliser which ensures there are no side-effects. ? Social ads
These type of advertisements communicate the social messages. They are generally intended for the social-well being and in many cases talk about AIDS awareness, the importance of safe driving, anti-tobacco campaigns, polio ad featuring Amitabh Bacchan etc. Several companies as a part of social responsibility function may support these causes and tie-up with several NGOs, etc. This also helps to enhance credibility with the public. Surf excel tied up with an orphanage in Bangalore whereby they asked people to send in clothes that they washed and gave to this orphanage.
To persuade
Build brand image or personality/ company image It is very vital for companies to create a positive perception and a perception of reliability in the minds of the consumers. Thus it needs advertising inorder to create a specific perception that is intended. Unique Selling Proposition:
SAFFOLA previously advertised the feature of its oil, which said that its consumption would not lead to any heart problems. Brand Image McDonald’s creating an image of being family oriented, fun, cheerful, etc and generally make use of the emotional appeals, like the ad that says “ Be your child’s favourite parent” Product attributes: to bring to light some feature by various means. Samsung ad that brought to light the very good sound ensured that almost lead a man to mistake a love conversation on TV being watched by his wife for a real conversation. Building brand preference Comparative Ads, Ujala when launched asked the consumers to try Ujala, while highlighting the negative aspects of neel Changing customer's perception of product attributes Iodex when relaunched changed its formulation and also color, which had earlier lead to its downfall Persuading customer to purchase now Seasonal print ads of United Colours of Benetton with regard to their winter collection sale .
To Remind
A constant reminder ensures that the product is not missed or forgotten in the clutter and the noise created by several brands in the category. Reminding consumers that the product may be needed in the near future M’seal ads that showed various problems that were caused as a result of leakage and later conveying that people must not wait till things got out of control. Reminding them to buy it . (POP’s are generally used to remind customers about a brand while they are to make the purchase Keeping it in their minds during off seasons. Demand for colas is generally during the summer. However round the year campaigns ensure they stay in the minds of customers.
Maintaining its top-of-mind awareness Most Ads of Fevicol, use humor and do not focus on product attributes, but just help build Fevicol’s TOM amongst its target. Overcoming Resistance/Changing Attitude Many companies seem to assume that the public is merely waiting for a suitable advertising message to stimulate them into buying the product. But the people are wary of buying unfamiliar products and the retailers are equally shy of stocking the lines unknown to their customers. More than often, people are hostile. As in the case of KAMASUTRA condoms – people were against the use and had a negative impression of using condoms. Their approach was that of high resistance. This was because they saw condoms as a means of protection. Hence KAMASUTRA had a task of selling not only the product, but also the desire of ‘The pleasure of making love’. Hence in all their advertisements they have addressed the factor. Countering competition The market today is no longer a one–man show. There are innumerable companies, all of them having their own products to offer. In such a situation, a company needs to constantly advertise to remain in the minds of the consumers. With the MNCs entering India, a lot of Indian companies have been facing tough competition. Most companies position their products so as to differentiate their brands from the competition. MOOV used its competitor IODEX’s negative point in its advertisements. It showed how the usage of IODEX (name not revealed in the ad) left stains in the clothes making other people know about it. The tagline said “Kissi Se Kuch na Batai” Responding to a campaign, IODEX launched a big campaign where it had a character entering a shop and refusing to take MOOV, which was offered by the shopkeeper and said ‘No, Move, Move’. New customers from other brands One must try to find out which existing users of the competing brand are the most dissatisfied with it and target these switchable consumers. Alternatively one should try to acquire those customers of the competing brand who are the most likely to grow their sales volume in the years to come. And/or are the most profitable. For many product categories about 20% of the customers (heavy users) are likely to account for 50% of the sales volume and profits and are clearly worth focusing on as new brand users. ARIEL v/s SURF: When Ariel was launched, it showed comparisons between itself and a known detergent (Surf packet without its name). Through its ads, it showed how it was better than Surf and thus wanting to shift the Surf users to Ariel.
New customers from other categories Another approach is to attract people from those not now using the product class. The firm in the industry that has the highest market share, the largest distribution, the biggest sales force and the highest awareness is the one most likely to get the sale from a customer just entering the product category. PEPSI might conclude that it is easier to get young coffee drinkers to switch from coffee to PEPSI, than it is to switch COKE drinkers to PEPSI UJALA, when it entered the market, proved itself better than Neel (blue) and made the users shift to it. Supporting other sales promotion activities Many times the company introduces sales promotion activities for its consumers. For this, they advertise on different mediums to support the sales promotion program in meeting its objectives. FILMFARE uses hoardings at the latter part of the month to advertise about the freebie attached with the next month’s issue. Increasing usage It is possible to increase the usage of existing customers in the product class. In essence the goal would be to increase the amount consumed per usage occasion. Khane waalo ko khane ka bahana chahiye” ad showing use of Cadbury on occasion, also other ad that showed people eating dairy milk at a marriage occasion as against the convention sweets.
The Product Life Cycle (PLC)
Every product goes through a series of stages, namely the introduction, growth, maturity, decline. After a period of development it is introduced or launched into the market; it gains more and more customers as it grows; eventually the market stabilises and the product becomes mature; then after a period of time the product is overtaken by development and the introduction of superior competitors, it goes into decline and is eventually withdrawn. However, most products fail in the introduction phase. Others have very cyclical maturity phases where declines see the product promoted to regain customers.
Thus in this case, a suitable advertising and promotion campaign is required to be identified and followed.
Strategies for the differing stages of the PLC
Introduction The need for immediate profit is not a pressure. The product is promoted to create awareness. If the product has no or few competitors, a skimming price strategy is employed. Limited numbers of product are available in few channels of distribution. Advertising differentiates the product. Print ad of a Printer giving details about its specifications
Growth Competitors are attracted into the market with very similar offerings. Products become more profitable and companies form alliances, joint ventures and take each other over. Advertising spend is high and focuses upon building brand. Market share tends to stabilise. Advertising establishes participation with the marketplace. Maturity Those products that survive the earlier stages tend to spend longest in this phase. Sales grow at a decreasing rate and then stabilise. Producers attempt to differentiate products and brands are key to this. Price wars and intense competition occur. At this point the market reaches saturation. Producers begin to leave the market due to poor margins. Promotion becomes more widespread and use a greater variety of media. Advertising puts price ahead of the competition. Decline At this point there is a downturn in the market. For example more innovative products are introduced or consumer tastes have changed. There is intense pricecutting and many more products are withdrawn from the market. Profits can be improved by reducing marketing spend and cost cutting. Defensive advertising or for revitalization.
Advertising messages to meet the objectives
Whether advertising converts people into becoming brand-loyal customers or acts as a defensive shield to reassure current buyers, and whether central or peripheral cues are required, there still remains the decision about the nature and form of the message to be conveyed: the creative strategy. The Balance of the message This suggests that the style of message should reflect a balance between the need for information and the need for pleasure or enjoyment in consuming the message. Messages can be product oriented and rational or customer-oriented and based upon feelings and emotions. When dealing with high involvement products, where persuasion occurs through a central processing route, the emphasis in the message should be on the information content, the key attributes and benefits. In case of low involvement products, messages could concentrate on the images created within the mind of the recipient. This style seeks to elicit an emotional response from receivers.
High involvement: HDFC housing loans ad- once in a life-time decision which involves your home, do you want to take a risk? “play safe when it comes to a housing loan. With HDFC you get expert advice, attractive rates and the comfort of dealing with the most experienced-with you right through”. Also cars and motor bikes- talking of mileage, fuel efficiency; Cars talking about comfort, leg room, head space.
HIGH INVOVEMENT
Rational product attribute appeals Information provision benefit claims
LOW INVOLVEMENT Emotional image-based appeals Social, ego, hedonic orientation Likeability Likeability is important, because learning and attitude change may be positively correlated with the degree to which consumption of the message is enjoyed. This means that greater the enjoyment, the greater the exposure to the message and lower the probability that the message will be perceptually zapped. It has been found that changes in product preferences were considerably improved when receivers had ‘liked the commercial a lot’. But what makes a message liked? The receiver must be stimulated to become interested in the message. Having become emotionally engaged, interest can be only sustained if the credibility of the advertisement can also be maintained. The style of the message should be continued so that the context of the message does not require the audience to readjust their perception. This is particularly important in case of low-involvement messages, where the receivers have no or little interest. Message structure It involves considering the best way of communicating the key points, or core message, to the target audience without encountering objections and opposing points of view.
Conclusion drawing Should the message draw a firm conclusion for the audience or should the people be allowed to draw their own conclusions from the content. Explicit conclusions are more easily understood and stand a better chance of being effective. Whether or not the conclusion be drawn by the receiver depends on: ? The complexity of the issue: Health care products, personal financial services, for e.g.: can be complex and many members of the target audience may not have sufficient knowledge, experience and motivation to draw their own conclusions. Thus the complexity requires that conclusion be drawn for them. The level of education possessed by the receiver: better educated audiences would prefer drawing their own conclusions as opposed to less educated. Whether immediate action is required: if urgent action is required by the receiver, then a conclusion must be drawn very clearly. The level of involvement: high involvement usually means that receivers prefer to make up their own minds and may reject or resent any attempt to have the conclusion drawn for them.
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One and two-sided messages This means whether the cases for and against an issue or just that in favour are presented to the audience. Messages just presenting one argument, in favour of the product or issue are more effective when receivers favour the opinion expressed and are less educated. Two-sided messages, where the good and bad points of an issue are presented and are effective when receiver’s initial opinion is opposite to that presented in the message and when they are highly educated. Here credibility is improved and these messages produce more positive perceptions of a source than one-sided messages. Order of presentation Messages that present the strong points first use the primacy effect. This decision depends on whether the audience has a low or high level of involvement. A low level may require attention –getting message component at the beginning. A decision to place the strongest arguments at the end of the message assumes that recency effect will bring about greater levels of persuasion. This is appropriate when receiver agrees with the position adopted by the source or has high positive involvement.
Source of the message Establishing credibility Credibility can be established in several ways: By listing or displaying the key attributes of the organization or the product and then signal trustworthiness through the use of third –party endorcements and the comments of the satisfied users. Harpic ads showing opinions of people, Dove ads where ladies share their experience. ? ? Complex approach is using referrals, suggestions and association.
CREDIBILIY
Trustworthiness
Expertise
The above 2 aspects can be strengthened by using a spokesperson or organization to provide testimonials on behalf of the sponsor of the advertisement. Credibility established by the initiator: Credibility of the organization initiating the communication process is important. An organization should seek to enhance its reputation with its various stakeholders at every opportunity. Organizational credibility is derived from image which again is composite of many perceptions like past decisions, current strategy and performance indicators. High quality retail outlets. An important factor influencing credibility is branding. Companies enjoying strong brands are able to develop and launch new products more easily as compared to those not enjoying such brand strength. Brand extensions (like Mars ice cream) have been launched with the credibility of the product
Firmly grounded in the parent brand name (Mars). Consumers recognize the name and make associations that enable them to lower the perceived risk and feel more confident while they try the product. Credibility established by spokesperson Entertainment and sporting celebrities are often used to create credibility for a range of high involvement products. Sahrukh khan endorses Omega watches and Longines was endorsed by Aishwarya Rai. Also for certain low involvement products, these celebrities may be roped in to create credibilty and also to create perception of the product being the secret of the skill they possess. Sachin tendulkar vouching “ Boost is the secret of my energy”. This also helps to grab the attention of people in markets where motivation to decide between competitive products may be low. The celebrity enables the message to stand out among the noise and clutter that typify several markets. It is also hoped that celebrity and or the voice-over will become a peripheral cue in the decision-making process. However, there are potential problems, which advertisers need to be aware of when considering the use of celebrities. It is important to find out whether they are suitable inorder that the communication objectives spelt out for a campaign be achieved, do they fit the image of the brand and will the celebrity be acceptable and relatable for a given target audience. Also in many cases the celebrity may be noticed, but the message or the brand is missed. This makes him the hero, rather than advertising the product. The final form of spokesperson is the consumer. By using consumers to endorse products the audience is being asked to identify with a ‘typical consumer’. The identification of similar situations, lifestyles, interests and opinions allows for better understanding and reception of message. Pantene ad featuring a girl having problems of dull hair and then after having used Pantene, says “pata hai meri friends mere baal ko dekhke kya kehti hai? - wooooow” Consumers are often shown testing two products that are similar. captain cook salt ad wherein the lady is shown testing 2 types, one is free flowing, the other being moist and sticky. Appeals based upon the Provision of information • Factual: Often referred to as the ‘hard sell’, the dominant objective of these appeals is to provide information. This type of appeal is commonly associated with high-involvement decisions where receivers are sufficiently motivated and able to process information. Such advertisements should be rational and contain
logically reasoned arguments and information in order that receivers are able to complete their decision making process. • Slice of Life: One of the ways of making sure that the message is accepted by the receiver is by presenting the message in such a way that the receiver can identify immediately with the scenario being presented to them. This process of creating similarity is used a great deal in advertising and called as the ‘slice of life’. Ariel,Surf Ads Montage: campaigns that focus at reaching out a number of diverse type of people and feature different places and people. HMT watchches Demonstration: here the problem is presented to the audience as a demonstration. The focus brand is depicted as instrumental in resolving problems Eno and Dispirin ads that show how it shows effect and resolves problem in a given time. Comparative Advertising: It is a popular means of positioning brands wherein messages are based upon the comparison of the focus brand with that of either a main competitor or all competing brands, with the aim of establishing superiority. Entrants keen to establish presence in the market who have little to loose by comparing themselves with market leaders mainly use such form of advertising. However, market leaders have a great deal to loose and little to gain by comparing themselves with minor brands. Sprite started its campaign by using such form of advertisement.
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Appeals Based Upon Emotions And Feelings As products become similar and as consumers become aware of the whole range of available products the need to differentiate becomes more important. Increasing number of advertisers are using messages which seek to appeal to the targets emotions and feelings, ‘a soft sell’. The following main techniques are thus being used increasingly. • Fear: Fear can be used in two ways; The first type demonstrates the negative aspects or physical dangers associated with a particular behavior or improper product usage. Drive safe; Life Insurance and Smoking typify this type of advertising. The second approach is that of social rejection or disapproval if the focus Brand is not used. this type is frequently used advertisements of anti-dandruff shampoos and deodorants, and is used to support consumers’ needs for social acceptance and approval.
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Humor: the use of humor is attractive because: it can draw attention and stimulate interest. It can put the receiver in a positive mood, thus he is open to new ideas. It is effective because the argument quality is likely to be high, i.e. the level of counter argument can be substantially reduced. Saint Gobain ads, positioned as “so clear, so real” glass by SAINT GOBAIN. One of them featured two men sitting on a table and mistaking a woman for splashing water over them, failing to almost realize there existed a glass partition between them and the woman, that was being washed by the woman, thus indicating the clarity of the glass that could almost be mistaken for nothing. Also amul’s ads in keeping with current happenings:
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Animation: the main reason for using animation is that potentially boring and low interest/involvement products can be made visually interesting and provide a means of gaining attention. A further reason for the use of animation is that it is easier to convey complex products in a way that does not patronize the viewer. Hutchison has effectively used animation, battery ad-“last long, really long”
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Music: It can provide continuity between a series of advertisements and can also be a good peripheral cue. A jingle, melody or tune, if repeated sufficiently gets associated with the brand. The Airtel ads that make use of the popular jingle. Also it can be used for conveying messages without much being said. The recent ads that say- negotiate, persuade, celebrate, conspire, speak out,say yes,be heard, etc.- “Express Yourself” . • Fantasy and surrealism: the use of fantasy and surrealism in advertising has grown partly as a result of the increased clutter and legal constraints imposed on some product classes. By using fantasy appeals, associations with certain images and
symbols allow the advertiser to focus attention on the product. The receiver can engage in the distraction offered and become involved with the execution of the advertisement. The Intel Pentium 4 ad featuring aliens.
EVALUATING AD CAMPAIGNS
INTRODUCTION It is through the process of review and evaluation that an organization has the opportunity to learn and develop. In turn, this enables management to refine its competitive position and to provide for higher levels of customer satisfaction. The use of marketing communications is a management activity, one that requires the use of rigorous research and testing procedures in addition to continual evaluation. This is necessary because planned communications involve a wide variety of stakeholders and have the potential to consume a vast amount of resources. The evaluation of planned marketing communications consists of two distinct elements: The first element is concerned with the way the ad communicates. Thus, it deals with the development and testing of individual messages. An advertising message has to achieve, among other things, a balance of emotion and information in order that the communication objectives and message strategy be achieved. To accomplish this, testing is required to ensure that the intended message is encoded correctly and is capable of being decoded accurately by the target audience. This testing could be pre or post testing. The second element concerns the overall impact and effect that a campaign has on sales once a communication plan has been released. This post-test factor is critical, as it will either confirm or reject management’s judgement about the viability of their communication strategy.
THE ROLE OF EVALUATION IN PLANNED COMMUNICATIONS The evaluation process is a key part of marketing communications. The findings and results of the evaluation process feed back into the next campaign and provide indicators and benchmarks for further management decisions. The primary role of evaluating the performance of a communications is to see that the advertising objective has been met and that the strategy has been effective. The secondary role is to ensure that the strategy has been executed efficiently, that the full potential of the individual promotional tools has been extracted and that resources have been used economically. TOO MUCH OR TOO LITTLE? Companies are generally interested in finding whether they are overspending or underspending in advertising. One way to figure that out is to use the formula given below. Share of voice is the company’s share of advertising expenditure that earns a share of the consumer’s mind, and ultimately the market. Comparing that to market share provides an idea as to the feasibility of the company’s ad spend. Company Ad Spend (Rs) Share of Voice ( % ) Market Share Advertising (%) Effectiveness ( Mkt share / Share A B C Total 20,00,000 10,00,000 5,00,000 35,00,000 57.1 28.6 14.3 100 40 28.6 31.4 100 of voice ) .70 1 2.19
An advertising effectiveness ratio of 1 means an effective level of ad expenditure, while a ratio less than 1 indicates a relatively ineffective advertising level.
As can be seen from the above table, firm A spends Rs. 20 lakhs of the total industry expenditure of Rs. 35 lakhs. Thus, its share of voice is 57.1%. However, its market share is only 40%. So we can say that firm A is either overspending or misspending. Firm B has a market share equal in proportion to its share of voice. It spends effectively on advertising, while firm C is super efficient, and could probably increase expenditures.
PRE-TESTING
Advertisements can be researched prior to their release (pre-test) or after they have been released (post-test). Pre-tests are sometimes referred to as copy tests. The methods used to pre-test advertisements are based upon either qualitative or quantitative criteria. The most common methods used to pre-test advertisements are concept testing, focus groups, consumer juries, dummy vehicles, readability, theatre and physiological tests. Focus groups are the main qualitative method used and theatre or hall tests, the main quantitative tests. The primary purpose of testing advertisements during the developmental process is to ensure that the final creative will meet the advertising objectives. The practical objective of pre-testing unfinished and finished creative work is that it is more effective for an advertiser to terminate an advertisement before costs become so large and commitment too final. Changes to an advertisement that are made too late may be resisted partly because of the sunk costs and partly because of the political consequences that ‘pulling’ an advertisement might have. Once a series of advertisements has been roughed or developed so that its messages can be clearly understood, advertisers seek reassurance and guidance regarding which of the alternatives should be developed further. Concept tests, in-depth interviews, focus groups and consumer juries can be used to determine which of the proposed advertisements are the better ones by using ranking and prioritization procedures. Of those selected, further testing can be used to reveal the extent to which the intended message is accurately
decoded. These comprehension and reaction tests are designed to prevent inappropriate advertisements reaching the finished stage. PRE-TESTING UNFINISHED ADVERTISEMENTS Concept testing
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The concept testing is an integral part of the developmental stage of advertising strategy. The purpose is to reduce the number of alternative advertising ideas, to identify and build upon the good ideas and to reject those that the target audience feel are not suitable. Concept testing can occur very early on in the developmental process, but is usually undertaken when the target audience can be presented with a rough outline or story-board that represents the intended artwork and the messages to be used. There are varying degrees of sophistication associated with concept testing, from the use of simple cards with no illustrations to photomatics, which is a film of individual photographs shot in sequence, and livematics, which is a film very close to the intended finished message. Their use will reflect the size of the advertiser’s budget, the completion date of the campaign and the needs of the creative team usually followed up focus groups. The Pantene Pro V shampoo was priced higher than most shampoos, and since the target were SECs A+, the concept of showcasing modern women with short hair was created. Before they went ahead with making the ad, people at Grey Worldwide did a concept testing exercise, where a representative sample of the target was shown drawn sketches of the ad. Surprisingly, the idea of women with short hair did not gel well with them, since in India, long hair is perceived as more beautiful. Consequently, the idea was scrapped, and models were changed to those with longer hair. A lot of money was saved through this exercise, without which the ad could have backfired.
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Focus groups
When a small number (8 to 10) of target consumers are brought together and invited to discuss a particular topic, a focus is formed. By using in-depth interviewing skills, a professional moderator can probe the thoughts and feelings held by the members of the group towards a product, media vehicles or advertising messages. One-way viewing rooms allow clients to observe the interaction without the focus group’s behavior being modified by external influences. The advantage of focus groups is that they are relatively inexpensive to set up and run and they use members of the target audience. In this sense, they are representative and allow true feeling and emotions to be uncovered in a way that other methods deny. They do not attempt to be quantitative and, in that sense, they lack objectivity. There may be in-built bias to the responses. Focus groups are very popular, but they should not be used on their own. Children are a very important target audience for many products. Often focus groups of children are formed. Since they are easily bored, and may not be able to provide conclusive answers, admen have to look for creative ways to tap them. Often, they are given coloured pecils, crayons etc. and asked to draw the product. The drawing provides valuable insights. Therefore, while testing for Polo Smoothies, kids were provided with various other candies along with Polo Smoothies, and their behaviour was then noted. Picnics were also conducted. Consumer juries
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A ‘ jury’ of consumers, representative of the target market, is asked to judge which of a series of paste-ups and rough ideas would be their choice of a final advertisement. They are asked to rank in order of merit and provide reasons for their selections. There are difficulties associated with ranking and proiritisation tests. First, the consumers, realizing the reason for their participation, may appoint themselves as
‘experts’, so they lose the objectivity that the process is intended to bring. Second, the ‘halo’ effect can occur, whereby an advertisement is rated excellent overall simply because one or two elements are good and the respondent overlooks the weaknesses. Finally, emotional advertisements tend to receive higher scores than informational messages, even though the latter might do better in the market place. Nestle’s Smoodles have kids as the target audience. They were asked to participate in such an exercise, and actually thumbed down 7 variations of the packaging, before they finally gave their approval to the present one. While testing for Kotak Mahindra Financial Services, consumer juries were provided with the names of various banks and financial service providers, and asked to segregate them into “Good”, “Bad””, and “Ugly”. The results were a little surprising…ICICI and HDFC enjoyed top spot, while the Citibank and HSBCs were second,mostly because consumers didn’t feel they could trust the MNCs completely. Kotak, Tata etc. were at the bottom. Kotak Mahindra was perceived as an unprofessional, fuddy duddy, Indian company. To change this image, the company came out with the “ Zindagi ka hisaab kitaab” ads, which were totally non financial, and non technical, featuring instead Hindi Poetry in the background. Also, simple feel good messages were sent out for a year and a half to create a positive feeling about the company. The ad was a great success. PRE-TESTING FINISHED ADVERTISEMENTS When an advertisement is finished, it can be subjected to a number of other tests before being released. Dummy vehicles
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Many of the pre-testing methods occur in an artificial environment such as the theatre, laboratory or meeting room. One way of testing so that the reader’s natural environment is used is to produce a dummy or pretend magazine that can be consumed at home, work or wherever readers normally read magazines. Dummy magazines contain regular editorial matter with test advertisements inserted next to control advertisements. These pretend magazines are distributed to a random sample of households, who are asked to
consume the magazine in their normal way. Readers are encouraged to observe the editorial and at a later date they are asked questions about both the editorial and the advertisements. The main advantage of using dummy vehicles is that the setting is natural, but, as with the focus group, the main disadvantage is that respondents are aware that they are part of a test and may respond unnaturally. Respondents are shown a number of ads, and then asked which they remembered, what they liked about the ad, and so on. Going back to the previous example, the Kotak Mahindra ad stood out in such a test because (according to respondents) it was a financial services advertisements, which had no finance aspect to it. Readability tests
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The readability test involves, among other things, determining the average number of syllables per 100 words of copy, the average length of sentence and the percentage of personal words and sentences. By accounting for the educational level of the target audience and by comparing results with established norms, the tests suggest that comprehension is best when sentences are short, words are concrete and familiar, and personal references are used frequently. Such norms are especially used when it comes to designing ads for hoardings. There are established norms as to the minimum font size a text should have to avoid being missed. Ads also try to have shorter sentences, fewer than eight words, and avoid using words like “ because”, “ and so” etc. Theatre tests
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As a way of testing finished broadcast advertisements, target consumers are invited to a theatre (laboratory or hall) to preview television programmes. Before the programme commences, details regarding the respondents’ demographic and attitudinal details are recorded and they are asked to nominate their product preferences from a list. At the end
of the viewing their evaluation of their programme is sought and they are also requested to complete their product preferences a second time. There are a number of variations on this theme: one is to telephone the respondents a few days after the viewing to measure recall. The main outcome of this process is a measure of a degree to which product preferences change as a result of exposure to the controlled viewing. This change is referred to as the persuasion shift. This approach provides for a quantitative dimension to be added to the testing process, as the scores recorded by respondents can be used to measure the effectiveness of advertisements and provide benchmarks for future testing. It is argued that this form of testing is too artificial and that the measure of persuasion shift is too simple and unrealistic. Furthermore, some believe that many respondents know what s happening and make changes because it is expected of them in the role of respondent. PHYSIOLOGICAL MEASURES Physiological tests have been designed to measure the involuntary responses to stimuli and to avoid the bias inherent in the other tests. There are substantial costs involved with the use of these techniques, and the validity of the results is questionable. Consequently, they are not used a great deal in practice, but, of them all, eye tracking is the most used and most reliable. However, ad agencies don’t use these tests in India. ? Pupil dilation Pupil dilation tests are designed to measure the respondent’s reaction to a stimulus. Pupil dilation is associated with action and interest. The level of arousal is used to determine the degree of interest and preference in a particular advertisement or package design. ? Eye Tracking This technique requires the use of eye movement cameras which fire an infra-red beam to track the movement of the eye as it scans an advertisement. The sequence in which the
advertisement is read can be determined and particular areas which do or do not attract attention can be located, the layout of the advertisement can then be adjusted as necessary. ? Electroencephalographs (EEG) This approach involves the use of a scanner, which monitors the electrical frequencies of the brain. There are essentially two ways of utilizing this approach. The first, hemisphere lateralisation, concerns the ability of the left-hand side of the brain to process rational, logical information. It tends to process verbal stimuli. In contrast, the right-hand side of the brain is thought to handle visual stimuli and respond more to emotional inputs. The right is best for recognition; the left is better for recall. Thus, advertisements should be designed to appeal to each hemisphere.
POST-TESTING
Testing advertisements that have been released is generally more time-consuming and involves greater expense than pre-testing. However, the big advantage with post-testing is that advertisements are evaluated in their proper environment, or at least the environment in which they are intended to be successful. There are a number of methods used to evaluate the effectiveness of such advertisements, and of these inquiry, recognition and sales based tests predominate. Inquiry tests
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These tests are designed to measure the number of inquiries or direct responses stimulated by advertisements. Inquiries can take the form of returned coupons and response cards, requests for further literature or actual orders. Inquiry tests can be used to test single advertisements or a campaign in which responses are accumulated. Using a split run, an advertiser can use two different advertisements and run them in the same print vehicle. This allows measurement of the attention-getting
properties of alternative messages. If identical messages are run in different media then the effect of the media vehicles can be tested. Care needs to be given to the interpretation of inquiry-Based tests, as they may be misleading. An advertisement may not be effective simply because of the responses received. People may respond because they have a strong need for the offering rather than the response being a reflection of the qualities of the advertisement. Likewise, other people may not respond despite the strong qualities of the advertisement, simply because they lack time, resources or need at that particular moment. Recall tests
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Recall tests are designed to assess the impression that particular advertisements have made on the memory of the target audience. Interviewers, therefore, do not use a copy of the advertisement as a stimulus, as the tests are intended to measure impressions and perception, not behavior, opinions, attitudes or the advertising effect. Normally, recall tests require the cooperation of several hundred respondents, all of whom were exposed to the advertisement. They are interviewed the day after an advertisement is screened, hence the reference to day-after-recall tests (DAR). Once qualified by the interviewer, respondents are first asked if they remember a commercial for, say, air travel. If the respondent replies ‘yes, Virgin Airlines’, then this is recorded as Unaided Recall and is regarded as a strong measure of memory. If the respondent says ‘no’, the interviewer might ask the question ‘did you see the advertisement for British Airways?’ a positive answer to this prompt is recorded as Aided Recall. These answers are then followed by questions such as ‘what did the advertisement say about British Airways?’ ‘What did the commercial look like?’ and ‘what did it remind you of?’. All the answers provided to this third group of questions are written down word for word and recorded as verbatim responses.
The reliability of recall scores is generally high. This means that each time the advertisement is tested, the same score is generated. Validity refers to the relationship or correlation between recall and the sales that ultimately result from an audience exposed to a particular advertisement. The validity of recall tests is generally regarded by researchers as low. Recall tests have a number of other difficulties associated with them. ? They can be expensive, since a lot of resources go into looking for and identifying respondents. ? Also interviewing time is expensive, and scores may be rejected if it appears that the respondent is merely guessing. However, as recall tests are an indication of the levels of attention and interest in the advertisement, they are used a great deal. They provide an acceptable means by which decisions to invest heavily in advertisements can be made. Agencies accumulate vast amounts of recall data, which can be used as benchmarks to indicate whether a particular advertisement generated a score that was better or less than the average decided for the brand. Despite their merits, however, they are poor predictors of sales. Kinetic wanted the Kinetic Challenger ad to have everything about the product shown. Though the agency tried to make the ad as memorable as possible, recall tests found that people were confused, and had little idea as to what the bike stood for, or its features. Recognition tests
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Recall tests are based on the respondents’ memory and their ability to process information about the advertisement. A different way of determining the effectiveness is to ask the respondents if they recognise an advertisement. This is most common in the case of print advertisements.
Having agreed that the respondent has previously seen a copy of the magazine, it is opened at a predetermined page and the respondent is asked for each ad, whether he has seen or read any part of the advertisement, If yes, then he is asked to indicate exactly which part he has seen/read. What the scores note are? ? ? The percentage of readers who remember seeing the ad (noted) Percentage of readers who recall seeing or reading any part of the ad identifying the offering (seen associated) ? ? Percentage of readers who report reading at least 50% of the ad (read most) Percentage of readers who remember seeing the brand name or logo (signature)
The reliability of recognition tests is higher than that of recall tests. Costs are also lower because the technique is simple, quick and easy to administer. It is also possible to deconstruct an ad and then assess each effect on the reader. However, bias is inevitable, on the part of the respondent. It could also be introduced by the research organisation and the interviewer’s fatigue. Also there could be the problem of false claiming, where the respondent claims to have seen the ad, but in fact has not. Sales tests
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If the level of sales that occurs during and after an ad campaign could measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns, then sales tests would be a useful method of measuring the effectiveness of an ad. However, the fact is that, sales tests are historical by definition. Sales occur partly as a consequence of past actions, including past communication strategies, and the costs of production, agency and media have already been sunk. However, with the development and advances of technology, it is now possible to correlate consumer purchases with the ads they have been exposed to. This is known as “ single source data” and involves the controlled transmission of advertisements to
particular households whose every purchase is monitored through a scanner at supermarket checkout points. Consumers on one side of the street receive one set of advertisements, while those on the other receive the test advertisements. Then, any change in buying pattern is observed to arrive at conclusions.
? Other tests
o Tracking studies A tracking study involves interviewing a large number of people on a regular basis, weekly or monthly, with the purpose of collecting data about buyers’ perceptions of the advertisements and how these ads might be affecting the buyer’s perceptions of the brand. By measuring the impact of an advertisement campaign when it is running, adjustments can be made quickly. The most common elements that can be tracked or monitored are the awareness levels of an advertisement and the brand, and its image ratings, as well as image ratings of the organisation. Tracking studies could be on a periodic or continuous basis. A further form of tracking is to monitor the stock held by retailers. Counts are usually undertaken every month, on a pre and post exposure basis. This method of measuring sales is used frequently. Grey Worldwide has been tracking about 50 families in New Zealand, to find their patterns of consumption. This has gone on for the last 10 years and is still continuing. They now have an enviable wealth of information, including the products bought, reasons why, where the products are placed within the house, the manner of usage and so on. However, they say tracking in India is extremely expensive. Since this is a heterogenous market, with the North, South, East and West having distinctive preferences, and since more people would have to be tracked given our population, tracking is not feasible here. Likeability: The key factor
Research has shown that of all the measures and tests, the most powerful predictor was likeability: “ how much I liked the ad”” A lot of work has also gone in to clarify the term “likeability”, and has been found to have a deep meaning, and is concerned with the following issues: Personally meaningful, relevant, informative, true to life, believable, convincing Relevant credible, clear product advantages, product usefulness, importance to “me”” Stimulates interest and curiosity about the brand, creates warm feelings through enjoyment of the advertisement. Thus, post testing should include a strong measure of how well an advertisement was liked at its deepest level of meaning. CONCLUSION The evaluation of a marketing plan, once implemented is an essential part of the total system. It provides a potentially rich source of material for the next campaign. The achievement of advertising objectives can only be specifically measured if the target audience is tested before and after exposure, in order that a degree of change can be determined. Such pre and post testing is however, not without its share of problems. One way of coping with such problems is to control all variables except the advertising. To achieve this, a control group and a test group are required and tests conducted so that the advertising effect can be theoretically isolated. Again, assessment of advertising is easier said than done. There is no singular perfect technique, but research should be undertaken if the communication performance of the offering is to be built and maintained. An important question is why so many managers choose not to measure effectiveness. The immediate answer is that all managers do measure the effectiveness demonstrated through their observation of the sales results at the end of each period. However, proper testing is rarely done for various reasons. Since different people associated with the campaign have different needs there can be disagreement as to what is to be researched. Also budget maybe restricted. It is also difficult to isolate the effect of advertising, thus why waste resources on testing.
However, only by attempting to measure the effectiveness will our understanding of advertising improve and lead to more effective utilization of the tool of communication. Sales measurement is used so commonly because it is relatively cheap to administer and quick to implement and to many managers sales and profits are derived from advertising, and so this constitutes as the only real measure. However, pre and post testing should use a range of re and post techniques, both qualitative and quantitative. This together with the measure of likeability would be the ideal measure if time and financial resources permit.
Copy
Introduction
An advertisement is a stimulus. It must break through consumers’ physiological screens to create the kind of attention that leads to perception. The final form in which advertising appears perhaps conceals as much as it reveals, unless advertising is superficial and shallow. The creative team has the critical responsibility of not missing out on the substance and yet making the advertising appealing and credible.
What is Copywriting?
Definition:
Copywriting is a specialized form of communicating ideas that are meant to serve the requirements of modern marketing. It helps in establishing links between advertisers and their prospects. It may also be used to promote the acceptance of an idea, as in the case of non-commercial advertising. It utilizes words to convey messages having commercial, informative or persuasive value through various media and its success is indicated by the acceptance by the audience of the idea or claims made for goods or services. The results come from what words convey in terms of benefits and satisfaction.
Meaning:
Copywriting is essentially selling with words. Copywriting is using words to convince readers they will benefit by using a certain product or service and then motivating them to take action (buy). Copywriting is the words used in advertisements, TV commercials, and brochures. Whenever a business promotes itself (through a press release, a leaflet or a newsletter), it needs a copywriter. That’s why copywriting is everywhere - on big posters, local newspaper ads, and every slogan. And when you put a postcard in a newsagent's window, to sell your old hi-fi, you're using copywriting again. Copywriting is probably the most creative and demanding branch of writing. You start with a blank sheet of paper. You may have only a couple of days to meet the client’s deadline. And your work could be read by millions of people.
What Copywriting isn't!
Copywriting is different from copyright. Copyright is about owning the rights to a book, play or picture while copywriting is writing of an advertisement for television, radio, posters, billboards, leaflets, pamphlets, etc.
Who needs copywriters?
The market is vast. Every business, small and large, has to promote itself. Every company needs leaflets or direct mail letters. And every new product needs a pack that will entice us to buy it. These days all organizations need to communicate. That includes hospitals, local authorities and charities. So the opportunities for the copywriter are infinite. Because organizations constantly alter, their literature and ads need regularly changing, too. That keeps copywriters busy! A copywriter performs a highly responsible role of fully understanding the marketing strategy and integrating it, through creative strategy, in the copy. Copywriting skills require • Command over language and • An intellectual and creative mentality. It may also be necessary, at times, to assume the role of a salesman, for instance to understand the marketing perspective from the advertisers angle as well as from the audience point of view. A copywriter works in the creative department along with the art director. It is the job of this department to generate alternative advertising ideas and ultimately pick one or a few that will go forward into production. A copywriter has the responsibility of creating the advertising while as the art director has to introduce illustration and pictoral materials. These two people are generally under the supervision of the Creative Director and as team is responsible to make a campaign.
Principles of Copywriting
1. Use Attention Getting Headlines BPL – Powerful performance. Incredible looks 2. Keep body copy to the point If your headline and illustration has attracted the reader, he may decide to look at the small print – the body copy. This is where you explain the headline, confirm the facts and add extra selling points. If one can make people read the body copy, you have a better chance of selling your product. DHL – you time is precious, Spend it beautifully.
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Be positive. Some ad starts with negative statements, which could be easily converted into positive statements. Indiatimes Astrospeak - A wrong move and your career might not move at all. Include the minor details. At the bottom of the ad goes your company name, the address and telephone number. If you leave it out you aren’t really trying to get sales. If you are selling packaged goods, you will need to include a pack shot – a photo of your product. If you can’t use a pack shot, your logo will provide a visual reminder for the reader. A list of stockists is important if your product has limited selective distribution. Other options include a money – off coupon, or a coupon to be mailed back to you for more information. Enchanting Tamil Nadu An ad. Promoting Tamil Nadu, which includes all the contact details.
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3. Expand Headline with Lead Paragraph Follow up the headline immediately with the first paragraph. If you ask a question, answer it. If you propose a thought, explain it. Don't leave them hanging too long; you may end up hanging yourself. BioAsia Introduces an industrial area with a saying by a newspaper regarding that land. 4. Draw the Reader In Avoid page and advertising layouts that are confusing or hard to read. Reading your message should be a pleasure to read. Keep your copy simple, clear and concise. Talk to your reader as you would a friend or family member. Be straight and sincere with them. Spell it out and explain points that need explaining. Don't leave your reader secondguessing your copy. 5. Focus on the Reader, not the Product Of course your copy must contain information and facts about your product or service, but that is not your focal point. You must focus the reader. Use their needs, wants, desires, fears, weaknesses, concerns, and even fantasies to sell your product or service. Lakme The ad for Lakme Deep Pore Cleansing begins with the headline “There's a lot that shows on your face”. The body copy includes - Now, one-and-a-half minutes is all it takes to uncover the real you. Presenting the complete Deep Pore Cleansing Regimen from Lakme. Simply because your face says it all. Thus, not only does the ad talk about the product, it also focuses equally on the reader. Using words like “you” would make the reader feel good, rather than an ad that boasts about the product but says nothing about how to use it, how it could make your life better, etc.
6. Use the "That's Right!" Principle Get your prospect to agree with you. Tell them something they know already. Get them to say to themselves, "That's Right!" JW Marriott The print ad for JW Marriott starts with the headline -: Your mom knows exactly how you like your bed, your toast, and your coffee…. This headline will indeed make the target exclaim – that’s right! 7. Ask Provocative Questions: Leading into your copy or headline with thought provoking questions will grab the reader's interest and move them to read more for the answer. Car ads. Usually ask a question such as “Planning to buy a new car”? 8. Move Quickly from Intro to the Pitch: Don't waste your reader's time trying to "warm them up". If they got that far, there's blood flowing already. People are busy creatures. If you lose their interest, you neither sell nor profit. Get on with it! 9. Be Sincere: What's the number one fallback for sales on the web? Fear! Fear of being scammed or ripped-off. The more sincere you are the better your chance of building a "selling" relationship. Air Sahara The sincerity and genuineness of Air Sahara comes across in its ad where the body copy says – as hard as we may try at this time of the year (winter), there are chances of flight delays due to weather conditions. Every step is taken to help passengers get to their destinations on time. To make this process easier, we need your help too. 10. Don't Contradict Yourself: Double-check your copy. You would be surprised to know that many copywriters unknowingly contradict themselves leaving the reader suspicious, thus destroying your credibility with them. 11. Keep Your Focus Aligned The more focused your target group, the better your chance of meeting their needs. Don't try to sell everyone!
12. Make Your Product Irresistible Dress it up. Your product should sound like the cream of the crop. Focus on your selling point (price, quality, etc) and make it impossible for the reader to imagine another in comparison. The FedEx ad which shows a company employee carrying a baby in his arms. 13. Use Fear as Motivation: Fear is both a weakness and strength, but also a powerful selling tool. Fear of injury, death or missed opportunity. If you sell a safety product you would use this fear to your advantage. If you're offering an opportunity, the fear of missing their chance is a strong seller. Saffola oil talks about the heart problems among the high risk Indians 14. Flattery will get you everywhere Yes, everyone likes to hear a little flattery. Keyword here is "little". Don't overdo it! 15. Be Personable Let them know that there is a kind, honest and real person behind the page. People would rather deal with people, not companies, corporations or conglomerates. Add the "Human Touch" to your copy. Eureka Forbes The institutional ad for Eureka Forbes which shows model Aditi Gowatrikar with her child has a human touch to it, what with the body copy saying – “…times have changed. Yet your dreams remain the same. So open up. Say ‘yes’ to life…” 16. Its Guaranteed A guarantee reassures the reader that you are reputable and will live up to your promises. Vim Bar In the Vim Bar TVC, the anchor promises that if “your” detergent is better than Vim Bar, you will get a year’s supply of your detergent free. This guarantee lends credibility to the offering and induces the viewer to act. 17. Share a Secret People want to get the inside track. If you can convince your prospect that you have an exclusive message for them, you're one step closer to a sale.
18. Use "Power"ful Words: "Power" words are words that move a buyer by enhancing and reinforcing your presented idea. Certain words have proven to be movers and shakers in the advertising world. Examples of persuasive and attention-grabbing words Easy genuine immediate more convenient advantages instant biggest exclusive comfortable WANTED oldest Indulge dependable WARNING Original
19. Keep It Lively: There are many ways to keep your copy lively. Telling a (brief) story is a strong technique for getting your message across. Separating and highlighting key information or facts is another. Using personal pronouns like "you", we and us will add a sense of warmth to your copy. 20. Go with the Flow Writing copy requires the ability to make a smooth transition from one point to another. Rather than laying them out like a list, learn to use transitional words. Transitional words are used to go from one point to another. 21. Check Your Spelling Take the time and spell-check your work. Finding misspelled words in copy leaves the reader wondering how competent your product or service could be, if you cannot take the time to be sure you spelled the words in your web copy correctly. 22. Use Photo's to Demonstrate: Use photos to demonstrate your product or service. If used correctly a picture really is worth a thousand words. The VLCC ‘Before’ & ‘After’ Ads. 23. Use Graphics to get Attention: Using buttons, icons and arrows can help direct the reader's attention to important details. If organized correctly they can also help sort facts or messages into categories. The Fila ad. shows how similar is a design of a Fila shoe and a F1 car.
24. Offer Testimonials Offer short, reputable testimonials. People want to hear what others have to say about your product or service. Loreal - Diana Hayden – Miss World 1996 offers testimonial for Loreal Hair color. 25. Create a Memorable Logo Create a simple, but memorable logo or custom graphic that your visitor can easily relate to your product or service Nike swoosh, BMW, Mercedes 26. Create an Unforgettable Slogan Use a short, easy to remember slogan that a reader will walk away with on his or her lips. Nike – Just Do It. Visa – Go get it Pepsi – Yeh Dil Maange More Asian Paints – Merawalla…. 27. Get a response There are many techniques for getting a prospect to respond. Spell it out for them. Tell them to respond. Tell them why they should respond. Give them a reason they should respond now. Offer a bonus or freebie if they respond. This can be done by using words like – order now, order today, for a short time only, last chance, etc. Service – ICICI Bank – Two Wheeler Loans “Take Home Passion (Hero Honda Passion) by just paying Rs. 3999 only
Writing strategy
Creativity is of paramount importance in initiating the process of writing a copy, especially in evolving the basic approach. At the same time, creative ardour has to be combined with purposeful thinking. Such thinking should, in fact, help in capitalizing effectively on the full creative potential. The following phases of purposeful thinking have been envisaged 1. Abstracting: Relevant data are obtained from the market situation, prospects and relevant media. 2. Synthesizing: Elements are blended and combined, ideas and approaches accepted, rejected, revised.
3. Hypothesizing: Ideas formulated into experimental pattern culminating in a working statement. 4. Gestation: Objections and difficulties resolved. Many involve discussion with others or reference to sources of information. 5. Coalescence: Decisions are made for transference of ideation to physical expression, i.e. writing. 6. Performance: Action is taken in the form of actual writing. Copy Elements The major elements of copy are briefly described below. All of them may not be necessary advertisements. The Headline The first and possibly the most important copy element is the headline. The headline of an advertisement will normally present a selling idea or will otherwise serve to involve the prospect in reading of the advertisement. Most advertisements have headlines of one sort or another and their primary function is to catch the eye of the reader. A headline may be set in big type or small. Headlines need not always contain special messages. Even a company or brand name could be used as a headline. The Sub head Sometimes important facts may have to be conveyed to the reader and it may require more space than what should be ideally used for the headline. In order to give prominence to such formation it can be put in smaller type than the headline, known as a subhead. All advertisements do not require subheads. Example: Mahindra Scorpio – the NFO Automotive 2003 Total Customer Satisfaction Study. Yet another high for Scorpio. The Body Copy The body copy refers to the text in the advertisement which contains details regarding the functions of the product/service and its benefits. Ogilvy recommends plunging in the subject matter straightaway without beating about the bush. The body copy can be short or long depending on how much information the company is willing to tell the reader.
Captions Captions are the small units of type used with illustrations, coupons and special offers. These are generally less important than the main selling points of the advertisement in the body copy and are usually set in type sizes smaller than the text. Health Total – exciting new year offer last 6 days The Blurb A blurb or a balloon is a display arrangement where the words appear to be coming from the mouth of one of the characters illustrated in the advertisement. At times the complete body copy can be composed of blurbs, as in the case of comic strips. DIT – speech bubble having the text “ Sunoji, today is the last date for payment of Advance Tax…… Sunti ho” Boxes and Panels Boxes or panels are, in fact, captions placed in special display positions so as to get greater attention. A box is a caption that has been lined on all sides and singled out from the rest of the copy. A panel is a solid rectangle in the centre of which the caption is placed either in white or centered in the white space. Boxes and panels are generally used in advertisements containing features such as coupons, special offers and consumer contests. Slogans, Logo Types and Signatures A slogan may refer, for instance, to the age of the advertiser’s firm, meant for inclusion in every advertisement. A symbol of the company name, seal or trademark is called logotype and is a typical feature of most advertisements. It is also referred to as signature, indicating identification of the company or the brand. A logotype is an important aid in quick recognition of an advertisement and in creating familiarity for the audience. Add a strapline. A ‘strapline’ or ‘tag line’ usually appears underneath the logo. The strapline summarizes the product’s benefits in a memorable way. Put the same strapline at the bottom of the ad, on point-of-sale material and on brochures, and you link all the different promotional elements together. Writing a strapline is like writing a headline. You sit down and produce fifteen or more short lines (each two to five words long). Occasionally, a strapline becomes a national saying, but people usually forget which brand it was attached to.
Straplines often make good headlines because they summarize a major benefit in a pithy way. Similarly, discarded headlines often make good straplines, though they may have to be shortened. BPL – Believe in the Best
Criteria of effective copy
A good copy should comply with the following guidelines. It must 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Be precise Be concise Aim to sell Be sincere Be addressed according to the type of the audience Stimulate interest Create desire Inspire confidence Influence the reader’s thoughts and/or action
Copywriting Process
USE A CREATIVE BRIEF
AD AGENCY RESEARCH
CREATIVE PROCESS
ILLUSTRATING
LAYOUT
1. Creative Brief
A creative brief introduces some planning into the advertising process. It stops you writing the wrong ad. And it prevents other people in the company from saying later, ‘we should have majored on the colour, not the fabric’. Here are the main points to be covered in the creative brief. ? OBJECTIVES: What is the ad trying to do? Create awareness, sell more goods, or launch a new service? The best objectives are quantified (for example, ‘To achieve 50 per cent prompted awareness among the target market’). TARGET AUDIENCE: Who buys your product? Are they 18-30 year old SEC A/B/C (the upper classes and middle classes)? Female owners of small dogs? Engineers in firms employing more than fifty people? Iced bun lovers? Here you can add more details about your target market. How much do they know about the product? What do they think of your brand? What is their life style? This information will give you vital clues as to what the ad should say. PROPOSITION: The proposition is the main benefit you want to convey.
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Example: An advertisement for a laptop computer claimed that service agents were on hand to mend the machine quickly in the event of a breakdown. This worried readers that the machine would frequently break down. Not until the end of the ad did the company mention an astonishing selling point: its machine had been voted ‘best laptop’ by two magazines. That was a powerful proposition that the advertising agency had missed. Many advertising people use the UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION, or USP for short. In being ‘unique’, the proposition must be different from everyone else’s. The product doesn’t have to be the best: it simply has to be unique in some way. The USP must also be a ‘selling’ proposition: it must make the consumer want to buy the product. A rational USP comes from the product itself, while an emotional USP is used for a product that has no real advantage over competing brands. The emotional appeal often relies on ‘borrowed interest’ – something outside the product. Where no advantage exists, you have to look for a positioning that will distinguish the product from all others. In looking for an emotional appeal, you have to think laterally. SUPPORTING EVIDENCE: How can you justify the proposition? Can you quote facts and figures from market research? People need a ‘Reason to Believe’. Why they should believe a claim that your coffee tastes better? Maybe you have a special way of roasting it? Or perhaps you have experts who select the best beans? You can provide evidence from market research (‘7 out of 10 cat owners prefer it’). Or you can mention clinical research from a learned journal. You can quote satisfied customers, or show installations where your product is in place? ? TONE OF VOICE: If the ad were a person, what manner would it have? Would it be brisk, young and a bit brash? Or would it be cool and efficient? Would it be old, wise and whimsical; or would it be homely and simple?
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SPECIMEN CREATIVE BRIEF – VIP (Bye-Bye campaign) ? ? ? ? OBJECTIVES: Top of the mind awareness TARGET MARKET: Travelers PROPOSITION: Spacious, suitable for all purposes OTHER BENEFITS: Different sizes, 360 degree rotating, wide range of colors, sturdy. MEDIA: Television, Media
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This creative brief sets out the purpose of the ad and its parameters. Now the ad agency takes this brief as a base and starts its work. But before that they carry out a research themselves on the product in the target market so as to achieve the objectives of an ad.
2. Research carried by an ad agency after getting the brief
1. Who is the most likely prospect for the product? The copy platform must define the prospect in terms of geographic, demographic, psychographic, and/or behaviorist qualities. 2. Why? Does the consumer have specific wants or needs that the ad should appeal to? Advertisers use two broad categories of appeals. Rational appeals are directed at the consumer’s practical, functional need for the product or service; emotional appeals are directed at the consumer’s psychological, social, or symbolic needs. 3. What product features satisfy the consumers’ needs? What factors support the product claim? What is the product’s position? What personality or image – of the product or the company – can be or has been created? What perceived strengths or weaknesses need to be dealt with? 4. When and where will the messages be communicated? What medium? What time of the year? What area of the country? 5. How should this be communicated? What style, approach or tone will the campaign use? And generally what will the copy say? The answers to these questions help make up the copy platform. After writing the first ad, the copywriter should review the copy platform to see if the ad measures up. If it doesn’t, the writer must start again. Another important aspect to be considered before writing the copy for an ad is the broad objective of the ad. The advertising objective must flow from the prior decisions on target market, market positioning and marketing mix. Advertising objectives can be classified according to whether their aim is to inform, persuade or remind.
The Approval Process
Product Manager of Client Legal
Client Service (Agency)
Creative Director
Account Management Team
Legal
Art Director
Copywrit er
Acct. Supervisor
Account Manager
Staff Writer The client company representative (product manager) gives the brief to the clientservicing department of the ad agency. This brief is then broken down into creative and media brief. The creative brief is given to the creative director who passes it on to the art director and the copywriter. These two work in conjunction to create the ad. The (rough) ad is then shown to the account management team consisting of the supervisor and manager. They look into legalities that might affect the ad and whether the ad meets the client’s brief and budget. Changes, if any, are communicated to the creative department The (rough) ad is then shown to the client servicing dept. The dept. might also suggest changes. The ad is finally shown to the client for his approval. Once the approval is received, the creative department goes ahead with the actual production of the ad.
3. Creative Process: Coming up with an idea.
The creative process is concerned with taking up the baldly given marketing proposition (brief), and converting that into one or more creative ideas that clearly, powerfully and persuasively convey to the consumer what the brand does for them and why it should matter to them. Zingaro - Brief: Use humor with aspirational value
At the start of this stage the PLC (the product life cycle) should be taken into consideration
PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS IN ADVERTISING
Copy for ads for different products will vary according to the position of the product category in the product life cycle. When Good Knight mosquito mats were introduced, they were the first of their kind. Coils – mainly Tortoise, dominated the mosquito repellant industry. Thus, the product being in the introductory stage, the objective of the ad was to create product awareness and trial. It did so by informing the target as to how mats, and Goodknight in particular were different from coils. The slogan for the ad said it all – “No smoke, No ash, only Goodknight sleep.” But today, the category being in the maturity stage, GoodKnight can afford not to have elaborate body copy, detailed explanations about product benefits, etc. It can simply show Lisa Ray’s face with mosquito bites on one page and without those bites on another, and just use two words in the entire copy – bad night – below the first photograph and GoodKnight below the second. Thus copywriting differs according to the stage of the life cycle the product is in.
Action
Action
Desire Conviction Comprehension Awareness
Desire Credibility Interest Attention
Advertisers Pyramid MARKETING OBJECTIVES ADVERTISING STRATEGY
Copywriters Pyramid INTRODUCTION GROWTH Create product Maximise awareness and trial. market share. MATURITY Maximise profit while defending market share. Build product Build Stress brand awareness among early awareness differences and adopters and dealers. and interest in benefits. the mass market. DECLINE Reduce expenditure and milk the brand. Reduce to level needed to retain hard-core loyals.
When following the five steps of the copywriter’s pyramid, the writer’s words also help shape the various format elements of an ad- the headline, body copy, boxes and panels, slogans, and more.
Using the AIDA Model for Copywriting Attention
Print ads often use headlines as the major attention - getting device. Many other devices also help getting attention – in print media: • • Dynamic visuals Tata Indigo Vibrant color Use of bright colors such as red, purple, green,etc helps attract attention. Orange Dominant ad size A full-page ad in any newspaper is sure to get the reader’s Mahindra Scorpio attention.
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In electronic media - Special sound effects, music The Kelvinator Ad showing an old man’s dentures, in a bowl clattering every time the refrigerator door opened. Thus the use of sound effect- of teeth clattering – attracted attention. Animation Amul – girl mascot Kellog’s chocos – bear Amaron – clay Models The attention getting device should create drama, power, impact, and intensity, and it must be appropriate – relate to the product, to the tone of the ad, and to the needs or interests of the intended audience.
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Interest
Interest, the second step is extremely important; it carries the prospective customer – now excited from a successful attention step – to the more serious discussion in the body of the ad. It must keep the excitement of the prospect alive as the information becomes more detailed and specific. To do this, the copywriter can answer a question asked in the attention step or add additional facts that relate to the headline. Research shows that people read what interests them and ignore what doesn’t, so the writer must maintain the prospect’s interest all times. One way to do so is to relate to the
prospect’s psychological screens – by talking to them about them, and about their problems, their needs, and how the product or service answers their needs. Copywriters use the word you frequently. There are many effective ways to stimulate interest – a dramatic situation, a story, a cartoon, or charts and tables. In radio, copywriters use sound effects or catchy dialogues between characters. Television frequently uses quick cuts from one subject to another to maintain interest in the action – and the outcome – of the commercial.
Credibility
The third step is to establish credibility for the product or service. Customers today are sophisticated, skeptical, and cynical. They want to know that a product or service claim is backed up by facts. Comparison ads can build credibility, but they must be relevant to customer’s needs – and fair. Well – known presenters may lend credibility to commercials. Advertisers often show independent test results to substantiate product claims. To work, such proofs must be valid, not just statistical manipulation. Advertisers and agencies must remember that many consumers have extensive knowledge, even in specialized areas. Many publications – newspapers, magazines, etc lend credibility to their ads by quoting figures stated by ABC – audit Bureau of Circulation, IRS, NRS, etc. Scorpio ad saying “91 points to make one simple point to cars.”
Desire
In the desire step, the writer encourages prospects to picture themselves enjoying the benefits of the product or service. Essentially they are invited to experience the process o visualization. In newspaper and magazine ads, the copywriters initiate visualization by using words and phrases like: “picture yourself”; “Imagine”; “Be the first”. In TV copywriting, the main character pulls a sparkling clean T-Shirt from the washer and strikes a wide smile, and says “Yeah!” In radio, the announcer says, “You’ll look your best.” Fall madly in love at MAMALLAPURAM.: Tourism Tamil Nadu. The objective of the desire step is to hint at the possibilities and let the audience’s minds take over. The desire step is one of the most difficult sections of the pyramid to write – and that must be why some copywriters omit it.
Action
The final step is the action step. The purpose here is to motivate people to do something – to send in a coupon, call the number on the screen, or visit the store – or at least to agree with the advertiser. This block reaches the smallest audience but those with the most to gain from the product’s utility. So the last step is often the easiest. If the copy is clear about what readers need to do – whom to call, how to write, when to act – and commands them to act, chances are they will act. Some ads use coupons to get readers involved; others display toll-free phone or fax number in print and broadcast ads to make response more convenient. And direct mail pieces use order cards or order forms with tear off mail-back envelopes. Regardless of the techniques, ads should always request action. Health total: Exciting New Year offer. Last 6 days. Sai service: Lowest ever Interest rates, 10% off, exchange options.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS CAN BE ELABORATED AS FOLLOWS:
The following are the steps generally covered in developing concepts (central ideas) for campaigns and then writing the copy. It is guide to a reasonable procedure that can be helpful before the copywriter gains enough experience to prepare his/her own procedures. The steps are explained using the example of Cello Techno Tip pen.
Writing the Copy Headline
Headlines may be classified by performance as follows: 1. News or Information: Conveys real news or important information about a product. The Radio Mirchi ad., wherein they include bar and pie charts to depict the listenership share.
2. Claim:
Insist that this product has an outstanding record or performs in a certain way. It should not be overly blatant and boastful, if so then it is called Horn-Blowing. DHL - “when sending shipments to the US, more of India’s companies choose us”. 3. Advice or Promise: Promise a real benefit if the product is used. Kotak Mahindra Mutual Funds 4. Logo Or Slogan: Stress the reputation of the company behind it. Toyota, Tata both use their logos for most of the ads for their automobiles – Camry and Indica respectively. 5. Mood-Setting: Set a mood to create receptivity in the reader. The JW Marriott ad, which uses the headline –“The earth is mostly water. So is the view from our hotel. A picturesque scene of girl relaxing supports this 6. Provocative: It must provoke the reader into probing further. It means startling or interrupting in order to capture attention. If a provocative headline is used it must be pertinent to the product. If it presents a question, the answer must lie in the subheadline or body copy and in the product’s characteristics, features, and performance. Sometimes it presents a contradiction or an apparent paradox to the reader, with the explanation provided in the body copy. There are exceptions: Those messages where a headline and very descriptive visuals are able to tell the whole story. 7. Visuals: Are as much a part of headlines as are verbal concepts. The “bad night – Goodknight” ad with Lisa Ray …….her face tells the whole story and there’s no body copy!
Body copy
Body copy carries the selling message. Once the headline and visual have attracted attention and aroused interest, the body copy attempts further to develop the interest of the potential customer, to awaken the desire to own the product, and to close with a “call to action”. Body copy can be extremely important to the success of an ad. It allows you to fully convince the target audience of the benefits of the product. The copy approach is the way the copy and its appeal are presented. Copy approaches, various as they seem, can be grouped into three categories:
1. Factual, direct or rational approach Ford Ikon : Explaining all the features of the car. Passion Plus : Explaining all the features Several ways to work out this approach • Direct selling information Ads that offer information on products like music cassettes, books, CDs, etc, which are sold by the newspaper/magazine in which the ads feature, provide direct selling information. Testimonial copy 1. When Sachin Tendulkar says – “Boost is the secret of my energy”, he is offering testimony to the benefit offered by Boost, i.e. energy. 2. Chyawanprash: The recent Amitabh Bachhan ad. 2. Narrative approach story board Om Kotak Mahindra A man joins a party and is bewildered by what he sees. He moves forward in a daze and recognizes his own image as an old man. "Ek din, main apne aap se mila. Aur apna bhavishya dekha." He dances together with his vision, and enjoys the carefree moment. "Aatmanirbhar, surakshith. Azaad." They become the life of the party as... ...the MVO adds, "Om Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance. Jeene ki azaadi." The ad uses the narrative approach to emphasize the USP of Om Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance, i.e. Independence. Several ways to work out this approach: • • “Slice of life” – slice of life ads depict situations that one can relate to, situations that could have occurred in anyone’s life. McDonald, Cadburys dairy milk Fictional testimony In the ad for Dove, women who have used Dove narrate the positive effects of using Dove in their lives. • • Humor Amul Butter ads. 3. Projective or emotional approach Monologue or dialogue Hindustan Times
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This approach puts the reader realistically into the situation, involving him emotionally through a projected “factual story” or through fictional story about fictional characters. This approach relies on the customer’s association with the characters in the story – as if it were happening to him. McDonald’s ad. A little boy takes a last look around his old home. Everything is being packed up and stashed away to be moved Saying good-bye to his best friend he gets into the car and they drive out. On the way, he spots a McDonald’s restaurant and....he recalls all the fun they had here. The occasions celebrated and the good times come flashing back to him. Cut to the new house. His sister drags him to the window to show him something. The father draws a Mac logo in the air. As they look out, the kid sees a McDonald's restaurant opposite and his gloom disappears. The ad ends with the jingle - McDonald's mein hai kuch baat. Boxes and Panels Boxes and panels are great tools for the copywriter. In the information age, writers can access huge amounts of information to support their product’s utility and demonstrate why customers need it. To avoid having the ad’s text become a glut of testimonials, data, and off-the-issue discussions, copywriters segregate information of a secondary and supportive nature into boxes and panels next to the main body copy. This allows readers to first focus on the main issues and later study the detailed facts. A box is copy with a line around all four sides. A panel is an elongated box that runs the whole length or width of an ad. Boxes are useful for framing information that the prospect must read – e.g. coupons, special offers, contest rules, and the order blanks. Many slogans – also called theme lines or tag lines – begin as successful headlines. Through continuous use, they become standard statements, not just in advertising but also for salespeople and company employees. Slogans become a battle cry for the company. Slogans have two basic purposes: to provide continuity to a series of ads in a campaign and to reduce an advertising message strategy to a brief, repeatable and memorable positioning statement. De Beers ads still use the slogan – “Diamonds Are Forever/Heera Hai Sada Ke Liye” Because of their use in positioning a company or product, many slogans are developed at the same time the product or company is conceived. Slogans should be like old friends- recognized instantly year after year. Effective slogans are short, simple, memorable and easy to repeat, and most important, help differentiate the product or the company from its competitors.
Rhyme, rhythm, and reason – not to mention alliteration – are valuable tricks of the trade for slogan writing. Seals, Logotypes and Signatures A seal is awarded only when a product meets standards established by a particular institution or organization. Sunsilk claimed that it had passed the rigid tests and had received the approval of Elida Hair Institute of Paris Companies claiming to be ISO approved Since these organizations have credibility as recognized authorities, their seals provide an independent, valued endorsement for the advertiser’s product. The term Seal is sometimes interpreted to mean the company seal or trademark. They are actually called logotypes. Logotypes and signature are special designs of the advertiser’s company name or product name. They appear in all company ads and, like trademarks, give the product individuality and provide quick recognition at the point of purchase. Ways of visualization There are many acknowledged ways to visualize the product or the concept behind the product. ? Illustration of the product alone. (Usually a line drawing in a newspaper or a photograph against a plain backdrop). Rolex watches, Tata Indica – full page ads ? Illustration of a product in setting (as in an ad for a chair, showing the chair in the living room). Samsonite - Luggage at airport ? Illustration of a product in use (the artwork would show a chair, for example with someone sitting in it). Nilkamal chairs used in the ad ? Illustration of a benefit from using the product. (Rosy-cheeked children eating a given brand of bread, with the implication that the look of health results from eating that brand of bread). VLCC Before-after ads ? Illustration of the loss or disadvantage resulting from not using the advertised product. Indiatimes Astro Speak. - A wrong move and you career might not move at all.
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Dramatization of the headline
Nature Fresh Headline: Khao light, Jiyo life! In the ad for Nature Fresh oil, the headline – khao lite jiyo life (eat light, live life) has been dramatized by showing a young lady enjoying life to the fullest. ? Dramatizing a detail (where the illustration focuses on a small area of a product or enlarges a detail). Wills Classic print ads dramatize the details by showing small pictures of details such as the collar of the shirt, the cuff, etc. Tata Indigo: Showing the armchair, depicting, how spacious the car is. ? Comparison (illustrating the product and another object that is similar in an essential aspect). Vim Bar ads also compare the effectiveness of an ordinary detergent and that of Vim. ? Contrast (illustrating the product and an object that differs in an essential way; for example, before-and-after pictures or the advertised brand and an inferior “brand X”). The VLCC ads use the before-after effect to highlight the benefits offered by their service. ? Trade characters Lalitaji of Surf, Gattu of Asian Paints, the Amul girl. ? Charts and diagrams Radio Mirchi ads showing the listenership charts. ? Mood setting illustration (usually a romanticized rendering of the product or a romantic landscape). The JW Marriot ? Illustration of the product in its package (important for volume, price-cutting stores, and supermarket selling where recognition of the product “on the shelf” is important). ? Illustration of the product’s ingredients or raw materials. The Real Activ (packed fruit juice) commercial not only gives an illustration of a product in its package, but also shows the ingredients that are used in the product,i.e. oranges.
4. Illustrating In this stage, pictures or photographs are used to convey a central idea and there is little or no need for a long explanation or a recitation of copy points. Illustrating also involves decisions as to what “identification marks” to include. These fall into 3 categories: company or trade names, brand name, and trademarks. Art refers to a system of principles that guides us in creating beauty. In advertising, art shapes the message into a complete communication that appeal to the senses as well as the mind. So art refers to the whole presentation- visual, verbal and aural- of the ad. The term design refers to how the art director and graphic artist conceptually choose and structure the artistic elements that make up an ad’s appearance or set its tone. There are two phases in the design process for advertising (print, television). In the conceptual phase, the designer uses thumbnails, roughs, dummies, and comprehensivesin other words, non final art - to establish the ad’s look and feel. In the pre press or production art phase, the artist prepares a mechanical – the final artwork with the actual type in place along with all the visuals the publisher or printer will need to reproduce or print the ad. • Thumbnail sketches It is a small, very rough, rapidly produced drawing used to try out ideas. The artist uses it to visualize a number of layout approaches without wasting time on details; the best sketches are then developed further. Rough layout Here, the artist draws to the actual size of the ad. Headlines and subheads suggest the final type style, illustrations and photographs are sketched in, and body copy is simulated with lines. Roughs are presented to clientsparticularly cost conscious ones. Comprehensive: It is generally quite elaborated with colored photos, sub visuals, a glossy spray coat etc. Dummy It is a form of rough design used to present the hand held feel of brochures, multi page materials, or point of purchase displays.
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5. Layout The layout activity involves bringing all the pieces together before the advertising is sent to production.
A layout is an overall orderly arrangement of all the format elements of an ad- headline, subheads, visual, copy, captions, trademarks, slogans and signature. A layout gives a physical presentation (look and feel) of what the ad will look like. It helps the creative team to develop the ad’s psychological elements- the nonverbal and symbolic components. It serves as a blueprint once the best design is chosen. McGuire’s Persuasion matrix The following figure shows that process of attitude change in a simplified manner.
Ariel Compact The ad shows that the husband enters the house with a stain on his shirt. The wife then shows step-by-step method as to how to wash the shirt and then shows the clean shirt. People believe it and remember it next time when they face a similar situation. The Coke ad regarding no pesticides by Aamir Khan People see the ad and can make out the purpose of such an ad, they understood that there are no pesticides, believed it, then remembered it next time when they wanted to have a soft drink and so bought one (action) and had it.
Advertising Copy for other media
The basic principles of copywriting are same across all media, so is the AIDA model. But different media have certain peculiarities, which are explained briefly below.
No
Media Television
1.
Most important Visual
Least important
Must in the Copy Emotions Message should simple ? Stress on benefits ? ?
Others Formats: Demonstr be 1. ation: eg Vim bar ads 2. Problem & solution: eg fair and lovely ads 3. Music & song: eg Dabur anmol 4. Spokespe rson: eg Diana hayden for Loreal hair color 5. Dialogue: Moov 6. Narrative: new Berger Paints ad -
Words during the commer cial
2.
Radio
3.
Direct mail
4.
Outdoor advertising
Repetition of what is said Physical effort is needed for a positive outcome. Placement: where there is traffic Time is considered
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? ?
Strong opening line Message – simple & focused ? AIDA model is used
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Its use includes selling message to prospective customer.
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No more than 8 words
It is outdoor display of advertising message. ? Types : 1. posters/ billboard 2. painted bulletins 3. spectaculars ?
5.
Small ads
Use picture
a
6.
Transit Advertising
? Communicate advantages ? Benefit in headline Use slogans, product name, generic name applied to products campaign idea the poster advertising in terminals and stations and inside trains,
7.
POP advertising
subways, and buses Copy – simple, 1 idea, 1 ? Helps in impulse product, 1 benefit, 1 fact buying. Reminders
Budgeting
The decision how much to spend is the advertiser’s alone .The agency may be asked for its recommendation which it gives with reasonable disinterest, since it wants to keep its client next year and not just this year. It is just usually account control or the planner who gives this advice. The media department picks up a budget someone else has laid down, though it advises on media cost and performance. Even within the company several people influence or take part in the budget decision, with a variety of background and movies. In reality the freedom with which the Brand Manager exercises his supposed budget setting authority is quite limited. His recommendation will be primarily dependent on brand marketing requirement. But overall company financial will also alter even the requirement of other brand within the company affect brand and it and to this he is unlikely to have made a major contribution. It may also be geared to that outcome which wills most assist his own personal advancement. It is unknown to the brand’s advertising budget to be reduced in the short term for immediate profit improvement, with too little understanding of possible harmful effect in the long term. Company Management is heavily influenced by the trained accounting mind with its due emphasis on safety, stability, the price share and proven margins. When this attitude dominates, marketing expenditure is only that which will be generated by sales in the short term i.e. the relevant accounting period. From one point of view, advertising maintains or causes future sales; it is practice equally true that past sales causes the advertising budget. We are discussing only the media budget here – what is spend on TV, press advertising and so on. At the first stage, production cost is usually included, but they will be separated later on. The advertiser of course also has to fix the rest of his marketing budget, includes expenditure on trade and consumer deals, promotion, door to door distribution of samples and so on –each with its own cost, efficiency, long term effect, etc. These should be examined as carefully as the advertising expenditure.
Four question to determine the budget I recommend asking four questions about the budget These approach it from different direction and rarely lead to the same answer , but they enable you to you to bracket the
area in which a sensible answer lies. One question usually dominates the other but it is wise to ensure that this aspect does not settle the point of its own. 1) What can the product offer? 2) What is the advertising task? 3) What are competitors spending? 4) What have we learned from previous years? 1) What can the product offer? This is not the question asked by a naïve advertiser or by a cynical agency, eager to draw from the product the last drop of advertising money. It is request for a frank discussion on the budget for the product. Every product is under an obligation to make profits. Such a calculation must be based on a sales forecast. The supply of money for advertising may be further limited by the cash situation for the firm as whole. Only so much is available: it may be prudent – or possible – to borrow more. 2) What is the advertising task? Before any kind of work is started, it is usual to agree on its objectives. Agreement on the advertising task reduces confusion, gets the team all pulling the same way , prevents subsequent disappointment and incidentally helps to determine the advertising budget. Statement of the objectives leads to three questions 1) What media are likely to be chosen? 2) At what cost do they reach their target? 3) What no. of exposures to the target might achieve the specific effect? Next the advertising needs have to be settled. And we must decide whether this amount of consumer advertising will make a convincing story for salesmen to tell the trade – “We’re spending ¼ million pounds on television in the launch alone, and after that….”. 3) What are competitors spending? Like the first question, this looks very cynical. If the object were only to equal competitive advertising expenditure, without inquiring into its effectiveness, it would be a disappointing question. But its purpose rather goes deeper: it reminds us that we are not alone in the market. This means the competitors well as wooed by us will bombard that consumer. Studying shares of market and shares of advertising and their changes in this way can sometimes disclose useful regularities. 4) What have we learned from previous years?
If things are not stable then changes are indicated- usually in an obvious direction. Last year’s budget may have to be cut, because of a market decline . Perhaps a competitive product is growing and our brand has been allocated the task of producing more profit on smaller advertising budget in order to finance the launch of another brand. The agency can also learn from the market’s reaction to competitive brands. Major new introductions, including regional test in our product field should be monitored.
Three traditional methods
1) FIXED RATIO In some firms it is a tradition that advertising takes so much per case sold or per ton. The rule which states that advertising takes a certain proportion of the sterling value of sales is the best of a bad bunch . It results in a fixed advertising –sales ratio. If the ratio is one which is near average for the industry concerned, this method leads back to advertising share being approximately equal to the market share. 2) MINIMUM CAMPAIGNS Another method of deciding on the advertising budget is particularly common when TV is used. It is simply a traditional budget size or threshold: ‘It’s not worth spending less than x pound on TV’. The amount x pound is curiously different from one advertiser to another. Some say 200000 pounds; others may take 500000 pounds it depends. 3) MEDIA INFLATION As media cost change – and we have seen that the direction is continually upwards – there is argument for spending “the same as last year, plus inflation”. This has being called the ‘inertial method’. However sterling budget for individual brands have not generally risen as fast as inflation; hence the real advertising impact for most major brands has fallen over recent years. Experience therefore suggest that the inflationary argument has not being particularly successful in the increasing advertising budget or the brands in the later stage require less advertising support.
Conclusion
"Advertising is a splendid device for helping to keep the money going round in a free enterprise society. You make the product, you advertise that product, and people buy it. The greater proportion of all sales come about because advertising has influenced the buyers. A lesser proportion of sales come about via word of mouth or because the product happens to be in the same place as the buyer at the point of sale - when he feels the impulse to buy. So advertising plays a very important part in shifting of product. The basic standard ad contains the following elements: 1. The headline: This features the main product benefit 2. The illustration: This demonstrates the product in relation to the headline benefit 3. The body copy: An opening paragraph enlarging on this benefit. To communicate a message in the smallest space, via the least number of words, in the shortest possible time. 4. Further paragraphs of facts to support the benefit claim 5. Penultimate paragraph warning the reader of what he will miss if he doesn't buy the product. 6. Final paragraph as a call to action. (Get in touch right away) 7. The company logo: A symbolic device whose function is to give immediate identity to the company 8. Tag line: A phrase designed to leave the reader with a comfortable impression of the company
doc_382986701.doc
Advertising in detail.It can be used as a primer to Advertising.
Advertising
DEFINITION OF ADVERTISING:
The American Marketing Association defines advertising as “Advertising is defined as any paid form of non-personal communication about an organization, product, service, or idea by an identified sponsor.”
ADVERTISING AGENCIES:
An advertising agency is an independent organization that provides one or more specialized advertising and promotion related services to assist companies in developing, preparing and executing their advertising and other promotional programs.
Advertising exposure model
AWARENESS/FAMILIARITY WITH BRAND
INFORMATION OR BRAND ATTRIBUTES OR BENEFITS
CREATION OF BRAND IMAGE/PERSONALITY AD EXPOSURE BRAND ATTITUDE ASSOCIATION OF FEELINGS WITH BRAND PURCHASE BEHAVIOUR
LINKAGE OF BRAND WITH PEERS/EXPERTS AND GROUP NORMS
REMINDER OF INDUCEMENT ABOUT BRAND TRIAL
This represents another model of the advertising and persuasion process wherein the various processes that can occur after consumers are exposed to an advertisement. • • • • First, exposure to the advertisement can create awareness about the brand, leading to a feeling of familiarity with it. Second, information about the brands benefits and the attributes on which the benefits are based can register with the consumer can also result from exposure to the ad. Third, advertisements can also generate feelings in an audience that they begin to associate with the brand or its consumption. Fourth, through the choice of the spokesperson and various executional devices, the advertisement can lead to the creation of an image for the brand, often called “brand personality” Fifth, the advertisement can create the impression that the consumer’s peers or experts- individuals favour the brand and groups the consumer likes to emulate.
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This is often how products and brands are presented as being fashionable. These five effects can create a favorable liking, or attitude towards the brand, which in turn should lead to the purchasing action. Sometimes the advertiser will attempt to spur purchasing action directly by providing a reminder or by attacking reasons why the consumer may be postponing that action. The above model helps us to understand how and why consumers acquire, process and use advertising information. It’s also important at the planning stage to develop a good understanding of where advertising fits into the total pool of information and influence sources to which a consumer is exposed. Understanding information processing invariably leads to the need for understanding a wide range of other important psychological constructs, such as perception, learning, attitude formation and chance, source effects, brand personality and image, cognitive and affective response and social factors such as group influence.
Functions Of Advertising
As a form of mass communication, advertising delivers relevant messages to target audiences and by changing mental states, it can perform a number of functions. Advertising moves consumers from being unaware of a product or service to finally purchasing it. An ad is considered effective if it propels the consumer a step further in this process. This is how the function of advertising is viewed. The different functions of advertising are viewed as follows: 1. STIMULATES DEMAND – By informing consumers about the availability of a product in the market, advertising stimulates latent needs, and reinforces the aroused needs. There is a general agreement that advertising has some effect on aggregate consumption.
2. STRENGTHENS OTHER PROMOTION MIX ELEMENTS – Advertising does the pre selling of the product and makes the job of the sales people easier. Advertising reaches a relatively large audience and makes them favourably predisposed. Ads carry the sales, promotional messages and often produce quick sales response. 3. DEVELOPS BRAND PREFERENCE – Consistent and persuasive advertising often induces brand trial or purchase. When the product delivers the promised quality, service and value, it creates satisfied customers who become instrumental in spreading a favourable word-of-mouth. Satisfied customers also develop brand preference, which gets reinforced by repeated ads. Products with strong brand franchise offer some protection against the competition. Retailers develop confidence and do not hesitate in stocking strong brands. Brand loyal customers are an important asset for the company and are less likely to be influenced by competitive moves. 4. CUTS COSTS – Advertising may be instrumental in cutting down production and selling costs. Increasing unit sales decrease unit costs. Selling costs also may decrease because there could be fewer wasted calls and less strain on sales people. 5. LOWERS PRICES – In any market based and competitive economy, when unit cost of a product goes down, there are external and internal pressures which compel companies to lower prices to the advantage of consumers. This often leads to deeper market penetration. 6. COMPETITIVE WEAPON – Advertising by itself and coupled with other promotion mix elements, may prove to be an extremely potent weapon to counter competitive moves. Advertising has an established role in creating brand personality and image. It helps differentiate a company’s offer in a manner that the product may be considered as something with unique value having a definite identity of its own
What is an advertising campaign?
Advertising campaign can be defined as the correlation and combination of an advertisement and related efforts in respect of a product or service, during a particular period of time, and directed towards the attainment of one or ore predetermined objectives. In simple words advertising campaigns is a series of advertisements with an identical or similar message, placed in one or more of advertising media over a particular period of time.
The ad campaign must be co-ordinate with other marketing efforts and activities which maybe a part of the marketing mix. Before going ahead with the advertising campaign one must consider factors like the 5 M’s The process mainly involves • Research inputs • Setting objectives • Defining target markets • Setting the budget • Deciding message/ theme • Coordinating with other marketing factors • Choosing and scheduling of media • Executing the campaign • Feedback
? SETTING THE ADVERTISING OBJECTIVES:
The advertising objectives must flow from prior decisions on target market, market positioning, and marketing mix. The advertising objectives can be classified according to whether their aim is to Informative advertising: it is heavily used in the pioneering stage of a product category, where the aim is to build primary demand. Ujala commercial, where the ad talks about how different it is from the age old “neel” by talking about its solution contents and showing how different your clothes look when washed with Ujala. Persuasive advertising: it is generally used when the product is in the competitive stage, where the company’s objective is to build selective demand for a particular brand. Whirlpool ice magic positions itself as being a quick icemaker and was the first one of its kind to use this as a marketing platform. Reminder advertising: it is very important to use these when the product is in the maturity stage. They are intended to remind people to purchase your brand. Thums up, Coke, Pepsi ads all these ads no more are shown to create awareness or persuasion because people are already aware of their presence and already have chosen the brand of their choice. These are just reminder ads to keep the brand or the company fresh in the minds of the consumers or have the brand top of mind. Reinforcement advertising: It seeks to ensure the buyers that they have made the right choice by purchasing your brand. Hamara Bajaj advertisements make the owner of the two wheelers of Bajaj proud of their possession by giving it a patriotic positioning.
? DECIDING ON THE ADVERTISING BUDGET
Advertising has a carryover effect that lasts beyond the current period. Although advertising is treated as a current expense, part of it is really an investment that builds up an intangible asset called brand equity. This treatment of advertising reduces the company’s reported profit and therefore limits the number of new product launches a company can undertake in any one year. The following are the five factors that are considered while setting the advertising budget: ? Stage in the product life cycle: new products typically receive large advertising budgets to build awareness and to gain consumers trial. ? Market share and consumer base: the brands having a high market share usually require less advertising expenditure whereas for products whose brand needs to be built, requires larger advertising expenditure. ? Competition and clutter: In today’s competitive market, where there are a large number of competitors, a brand must advertise heavily to be heard. ? Advertising frequency: the number of repetitions that need to be made to put across the brand message to consumers has an important impact on the advertising budget. ? Product substitutability: brands in the commodity class require heavy advertising to establish a different image. For example, cigarettes, beer, soft drinks. Also advertising is important when the brand can offer unique physical benefits or features.
? CHOOSING THE ADVERTISING MESSAGE
Advertising campaigns vary in their creativity. The creativity factor can be more important than the number of rupees spent. Only after gaining the attention can a commercial help to increase the sales, Advertisers go through four steps to develop a creative strategy viz: ? Message generation: At this stage, the advertiser decides on what message he wants to communicate to the consumers regarding the product.
o For example, the product’s “benefit” message should be decided as a part of developing the product concept. Over time, the marketer might want to change the message, especially if the consumers seek new or different benefits from the product. o Also, at this stage various alternative advertisements are prepared and finally the excellent one is chosen. But also, higher costs are incurred in preparing these advertisements. ? Message: A good ad evaluation and selection normally focuses on one core selling proposition. The advertiser should conduct market research to determine which appeal works best with its target audience. ? Message execution: the impact of the message depends not only on what is said but how it is said. Some of the ads aim at rational positioning and others for emotional positioning. While preparing an ad campaign, the advertiser usually prepares a copy strategy statement describing the objective, content, support, and tone of the desired ad. The creative people also find a cohesive style, tone, words, and format for executing the message. ? Social responsibility review: the advertisers and their ad agencies must be very careful that their “creative” advertising doesn’t overstep social and legal norms. Advertisers must not make false claims, such as stating that a product cures something when it does not. To be socially responsible, advertisers must be careful not to offend ethic groups, racial minorities, or a special – interest groups.
TYPES OF ADVERTISEMENTS:
The types of advertisements can broadly be classified into three types:
Types of advertisements
Consumer Advertising
Advertising to Business and profession
Non- product Advertising
Consumer Advertising
These are basically nothing but product or service advertisements directed towards the consumer or the customer as such. Such advertisements can be in the form of national or local advertisements also. Such kind of advertisements uses emotional or rational appeal in their advertisement. Advertisements such as that of DeBeers, pizza hut etc use the emotional appeal to attract the consumers. On the other hand advertisements such as the Kawasaki bajaj caliber, Vim Bar etc. use the rational appeal to address its target audience. The advertisement of DeBeers uses an emotional appeal because the statement “I have my feet firmly planted on the ground except when I’m wearing the millennium diamond” suggests that by wearing them u can fly high in the sky and feel like what Urmila does in the advertisement
Advertising to business or profession
This type of advertising is aimed at resellers and professionals. The media used here is direct mail or professional magazines. These are ads which are not directed towards the final consumers. Corporate ads are also a part of these types of ads. The target groups of corporate advertising are most often customers, stockholders, employees, financial institutions, political leaders and government. The objectives of the corporate or the institutional ads may be to establish or boost corporate identity and image, counter negative attitudes towards a company, industry or to promote and relate the company to some worthwhile social public interest cause. The recent Aditya Birla group campaign would fit into this category
Non- product advertising
In this type of advertising advertisements depicting an idea, a social cause etc is included. Surrogate advertisements are also a part of such non- product advertisements.
FORMS OF ADVERTISING
1) Institutional Advertising: This advertising speaks about an organizations corporate image. Public sector ad’s like SAIL, VIZAG STEEL. 2) Brand advertising: This advertising helps in the long-term build up of a brand. HLL’s ad’s for LUX ,LIRIL, REXONA. 3) Classified Advertising:
This advertising gives information dissemination about a sale. MID-DAY NEWSPAPER or TOI classified section 4) Promotional Advertising: This advertising informs an announcement about a sale. ADIDAS offering 50% DISCOUNT on sneakers. 5) Advocacy Advertising: This advertising is used to publicize a particular cause. All the social ads fall into this category. Drink, MORE MILK (TV ad by FCB ULKA for NDDB.) AIDS AWARENESS ADS by Maharashtra Govt. CLASSIFIED ON GEOGRAPHICAL SPREAD 6. National Advertising: Advertising that is done in one nation only. Dabur Ads or Nirma Ads 7. Local Advertising: Advertising that is carried out in a particular region or market. BRU and AMRUTANJAN selected campaign directed towards consumers in South India. 8. Global Advertising: Advertising that is carried on for a company or a product globally. I’m loving it was a global ad released by McDonalds ON THE BASIS OF TARGET GROUP 9. Consumer Advertising: Advertising that is directed towards the consumer directly. All FMCG product ads like P&G, NESTLE etc. 10.Industrial Advertising: Advertising that is directed by Industrial Goods Manufacturer to his target group. SKF BEARINGS direct their ads in Industrial Journals to TELCO etc. 11.Trade Advertising: In this type of advertising, the ads are directed to the Initiator rather than the end user of the product. Most Pharmaceutical companies direct their ads in Medical journals to Doctors, who prescribe the medicines to the patients. 12.Informative Advertising:
This advertising figures heavily in the Introduction stage of a product, where the primary objective is to build demand. MOTOROLA Ads for pagers, explaining how to use them (providing information). 13.Persuasive Advertising: Persuasive Advertising figures heavily in the Growth Stage of Product Life Cycle, where the company’s objective is to build selective demand for a particular brand. Some Persuasive Advertising has now taken the form of COMPARISON ADVERTISING, which seeks to establish the superiority of one brand, through specific comparison with one or more brands in the same product class. AKAI TV ads compared the brand with 6 competitor brands. 14. Reminder Advertising: This advertising is highly important in the mature stage of the product to keep the consumer thinking about the product. Fevicol campaigns act as a reminder form of advertising, bonding Fevicol with consumers as the strongest Adhesive A related form of advertising is REINFORCEMENT ADVERTISEMENT, which seeks to assure current purchasers that they have made the right choice. MARUTI SUZUKI ads tell that the CONSUMER is a part of 1,00,000 happy customers.
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EVALUATING ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS
Good planning and control of advertising depends on measures of advertising effectiveness. Most of the money is spent by agencies on pretesting ads, and much less is spent on evaluating their effectiveness. Most advertisers try to measure the communication effect of an ad – that is, its potential effect on awareness, knowledge, or preference. They would also like to measure the ad’s sales effect. ? Communication effect research: it seeks to determine whether an ad is communicating effectively. Called copy testing, it can be done before an ad is put into media and after it is printed or broadcasted. There are three major methods of advertising pretesting: o Direct rating method: in this case, the consumers are asked to rate the alternative ads. These ratings are used to evaluate the ads. o Portfolio tests: here, the consumers are asked to view or listen to a portfolio of advertisements, taking as much as time as they need. Consumers are then asked to recall all the ads and their content, aided or unaided by the interviewer.
o Laboratory tests: it uses equipment to measure the physiological reactions – heartbeat, blood pressure, pupil dilation, perspiration – to an ad. These tests measure attention getting power but reveal nothing about the impact on beliefs, attitudes, or intensions. ? Sales effect research: advertising’s sales effect is generally difficult to measure than its communication effect. This is mainly because the sales are influenced by many other factors, such as the product features, price, availability, as well as the competitor’s actions. Companies are generally interested in finding out whether they are overspending or under spending on advertising. Researchers try to measure the sales impact through analyzing either historical or experimental data.
Communications Objective
A mediocre advertising message properly directed stands more chance of success than the most professionally developed ad campaign directed at the wrong audience or using unsuitable message appeals. Advertising creates its most powerful impact when it is used to solve narrowly defined communication objectives. Advertising communication objectives can be put in a pyramid form. The lower level objectives are awareness, knowledge or comprehension. These are accomplished first. Subsequent objectives may focus on moving prospects to higher levels in the pyramid to elicit desired behavioural responses such as associating feelings with the brand, trial or regular use etc. It is easier to accomplish objectives located at the base of the pyramid than the ones toward the top. The percentage of prospective customers will decline as they move up the pyramid towards more action oriented objectives, such as regular brand use, etc. Irrespective of the fact whether the brand is new or established, the pyramid can be used to determine appropriate advertising objectives. What is required is to determine where the target audience lies with respect to various levels in the pyramid. If the level of brand awareness or knowledge of its features or benefits is low, the advertising communication should be to increase them. In case the brand liking and preference is low, then the appropriate goal can be to change the target audience’s image of the brand.
COMMUNICATION EFFECTS PYRAMID
It is a difficult task to translate a sales goal into a communication objective. However, if the brand objective is to raise sales by X% the promotion manager will ultimately have to decide in terms of some message that will be used to address the target audience to achieve this level of sales increase. Some other possible objectives could be 1. Increasing the percentage of target consumers who associate specific features or benefits with the company’s brand 2. Increasing number of target consumers who prefer the client company’s brand rather than competing brands 3. Increasing company’s brand trial among non-users 4. Increasing company’s brand trial rate among existing consumers. Even when promotion managers attempt to translate sales objectives, they are not sure what really constitutes adequate levels of awareness, knowledge, liking, preference or conviction. There are no formulas except the judgment and experience of concerned managers.
REPURCHASE TRIAL PREFERENCE
LIKING KNOWLEDGE/COMPREHENSION AWARENESS
INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS:
For many years, the promotional function in most companies was dominated by mass media advertising. Companies relied primarily on their ad agencies for guidance in nearly all areas of marketing communications. Most marketers did use additional promotional and mktg communication tool, but sales promo and direct mktg agencies as well as package design firms were generally viewed as auxiliary services and generally used on a per project basis. PR agencies were used to manage the organizations publicity, image and affairs with relevant publics on an ongoing basis but were not viewed as integral participants in the mktg communication process. Many marketers built strong barriers around the various mktg and promotional functions and planned and managed them as separate practices, with different budgets, different views of the market, and different goals and objectives. These companies failed to recognize that the wide range of mktg and promotional tools must be coordinated to communicate effectively and present a consistent image to target markets. EVOLUTION OF IMC During the 1980s, many companies came to see the need for more of a strategic integration of their promotional tools. These firms began moving towards the process of integrated marketing communication (IMC), which involves coordinating the various promotional elements and other marketing activities that communicate with the firms customer. As marketers embraced the concept of IMC, THEY BEGAN ASKING THEIR AD AGENCIES to coordinate the use of a variety of promotional tools rather than relying primarily on media advertising. A number of companies also began to look beyond traditional advertising agencies and use other type of promotional specialists to develop and implement various components of their promotional plans. Many agencies respond to the call for synergy among the various promotional tools by acquiring PR, Sales Promotion, and direct marketing companies and touting themselves as IMC agencies that offer one stop shopping for all of their clients’ promotional needs. THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPING AN INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLAN ? REVIEW OF THE MARKETING PLAN 1. 2. 3. 4. Examine the overall marketing plan and objectives Role of Advertising and Promotions Competitive analysis Assess environmental influences
? ANALYSIS OF PROMOTIONAL PROGRAM SITUATION Internal analysis • • • • Promotional department organization Firms ability to implement a promotional program. Agency evaluation and selection Review of previous program results
External analysis ? Consumer behaviour analysis ? Market segmentation and target marketing ? Market positioning ? ANALYSIS OF THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS Analyse receivers response processes. Analyse source, message, channel factors. Establish communication goals and objectives. ? BUDGET DETERMINATION Set tentative marketing communication budgets. Allocate tentative budget. ? DEVELOP IMC PROGRAM 1. Advertising ? Set advertising objectives ? Determine advertising budget ? Develop advertising message ? Develop advertising media strategy 2. Direct marketing ? Set direct marketing objectives ? Determine direct marketing budget ? Develop direct marketing message ? Develop direct marketing strategy
3. Interactive/Internet marketing ? Set Interactive/Internet marketing objectives ? Determine Interactive/Internet marketing budget ? Develop Interactive/Internet marketing message ? Develop Interactive/Internet marketing media strategy 4. Sales Promotion ? Set Sales Promotion objectives ? Determine Sales Promotion budget ? Develop Sales Promotion message ? Develop Sales Promotion media strategy 5. Public Relations/Publicity ? Set Public Relations/Publicity objectives ? Determine Public Relations/Publicity budget ? Develop Public Relations/Publicity message ? Develop Public Relations/Publicity media strategy 6. Personal Selling/Sales ? Set Personal Selling/Sales objectives ? Determine Personal Selling/Sales budget ? Develop Sales message. ? Develop selling roles and responsibilities INTEGRATE AND IMPLEMENT MARKETING COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Integrate promotional mix strategies Create and produce ads Purchase media time, space, etc. Design and implement direct marketing programs. Design and distribute sales promotion materials. Design and implement public relations/publicity programs Design and implement interactive/internet marketing programs.
MONITOR, EVALUATE, AND CONTROL IMC PROGRAM ? ? Evaluate promotional program results/effectiveness Take measures to control and adjust promotional strategies
Resistance to IMC While the logic of IMC appeals to most marketing practitioners, there are many who resist integrating their communications efforts. Inertia The first and foremost reason for resistance is inertia or refusal to change – any attempt to change the so-called “tried and tested” recipe tends to encounter resistance. IMC requires a complete re-structuring of the mindset towards marketing communications – both at the client side and the agency side. For most managers, this is a difficult task to embark upon. Nothing New Most clients and agencies think that IMC is simply old wine in a new bottle – that the use of multiple communications tactics, coordinated campaign themes, and consistent graphic or corporate identity has always been employed. Most brands have attempted to integrate the look and feel across media for a long time. But the last five years have seen the emergence of many new media opportunities, Internet, Events, Product-placements, etc. So the task has become a lot more complex. It is this increasing complexity that calls for a holistic and synergistic approach towards marketing communications. Complex Planning Complex planning is another deterrent. The integrated marketer can select from more than 20 tools, from advertising to in-store merchandising to promotion to public relations to database marketing to the Internet. This often requires detailed and long-term planning at both the client and agency levels. Marketing is often viewed as cost, rather than investment. This tactical – rather than strategic – perspective works against planning and preparation, which is the foundation of IMC. Planning helps in deciding the communications strategy that ultimately helps in optimising the marketing spends. Lack of Initiative Many clients blame the agencies for not initiating IMC. Kotler writes, “Most agencies have not done a good job of putting together all the different teams and organisations involved with a communications campaign.” Agencies themselves have not given adequate focus to IMC. It is often treated as an appendage to the mainline agency. While agencies need to invest more into IMC – in terms of people, tools & research – it is also necessary to educate clients on IMC thinking. Accountability Accountability or the problem of accurately measuring the effectiveness of the various disciplines used also discourages clients from using IMC. The client always wants the
highest possible ROI on every buck he spends. Lack of guidelines to evaluate the IMC programme is also an impediment to IMC programmes.
IMC in Practice
McCann Erickson India has used IMC for General Motors and the launch of Virgin Atlantic. FCB Ulka went the integrated way for launching the new TATA Indigo. Percept has implemented IMC campaigns for Reid & Taylor and more recently Hero Honda Ambition. Rediffuson DY&R too have attempted to integrate the Daikin Airconditioners campaign. TATA INDIGO LAUNCH The launch integrated all the elements of IMC to give one message of 'Comfort and Luxury'. This message and the visual of the 'Arm Chair' was used in a variety of media vehicles, including newspapers, magazines, TV, outdoor, merchandising, mailers, website, event design, brochures and even invitation card to the launch event. Parameshwaran emphasises, “Coordinating the entire campaign called for a lot of effort, since you had to use the key elements of the message and adapt it to the medium concerned. The arm chair may look very nice in press ad, but how will look on stage, or on a banner ad on the website? Overall the integration has had a tremendous effect on the brand Tata Indigo. No one got a message from any source that was not aligned to the strategy of comfort and luxury.” DAIKIN AIRCONDITIONERS The campaign for Daikin Airconditioners has been built around message of 'complete silence' which has been taken across not only press, TV, outdoor, retail and online advertising, but has been even used by dealers and sales personnel in the field. Mendoza explains, “Our client sells the Airconditioners on a technology platform which singlemindedly translates into it being more silent than other Airconditioners.” And the result has been very encouraging – the IMC campaign is doing wonders for the product on the sales front - this despite Daikin being about 20 per cent more expensive than other airconditioners in its class and not once resorting to promotions, discounts etc. INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS WITH RESPECT TO LOWE Ltd. Public relations: LOWE had launched the AXE products with a very grand launch. It does this sort of an activity for almost all its products. Rural Marketing: For Lifebouy, LOWE had suggested the use of vans Decorated with logos and pictures of Lifebouy all over for the rural market which was a great success.
Sales Promotion: LOWE had suggested the insertion of dental insurance in the Pepsodent toothpaste packets worth Rs. 1000/Direct Marketing: The team at LOWE handling Pepsodent also went and spoke to various dentists about the benefits of the toothpaste thus encouraging them to suggest that toothpaste to their patients. SMS: There has been a lot of advertising done through SMS for the AXE range of products. Packaging: The team at LOWE had taken active participation in the packaging of the AXE shaving products. Wrapping up IMC is not a management fad; it is a fundamental and marked shift in thinking and practice of marketing communications by clients and advertising agencies. A quick market scan proves that IMC is being taken seriously and is being practised by a significant group of marketing communications practitioners. The primary value that agencies see with IMC is the consistency, impact, and continuity, which an integrated programme provides. The critical issue concerning IMC is that of evaluation and measurement of integrated programmes. Part of the difficulty is that traditionally advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, and the public relations disciplines have developed separate and distinct measurement approaches. The measurement of integrated programs, which can estimate the synergy between elements, is a totally new field, which remains relatively undeveloped. IMC is a new approach to marketing communications planning being driven by technology, customers, consumers, and by organisational desire to efficiently allocate finite marketing resources. It is still an emerging discipline. We are living in a period of transition between the historical product-driven outbound marketing systems and the new information-driven, interactive, consumer focused marketplace of the twenty-first century. So is IMC an idea whose time has come? Only time will tell!
ADVERTISING AGENCY:
An advertising agency is: 1. 2. 3. 4. an independent business organisation composed of creative and business people who develop, prepare and place advertising on advertising media for sellers seeking to find customers for their goods and services. -American Advertising Agency Association (AAAA)
Evolution of the advertising agency
Origin of the advertising agency - the first ever agency was put together in Britain in 1800 called “Whites” which created advertisements for the Government lotteries and mostly recruitment advertising. First agencies were no more than space brokers, selling press advertising space on a freelance basis for newspapers. As the production and penetration of newspapers increased, the brokers began to compete by offering copywriting and design service. The messages were repetitive and lacked creativity. This soon led to the birth of creative advertising agencies. The early account executive was known as the “contract man” After the Second World War the agencies developed additional services like market research, media planning etc Today there are more than 500 advertising agencies in India today. The oldest one being Hindustan Thompson Association Ltd.
Functions of an ad agency
Big agencies such as HTA, Lowe, O&M are called full service agencies because they are ONE STOP SHOP for all services that are offered to the clients. Today’s agencies are providing total communications packages for the clients’ brands. They are acting as the custodians of the client brands. • CLIENT SERVICING Also called “account executives”. Acts as the link between the agency and the client. He suggests what the client exactly wants to his ad agency. He is the person who carries the client brief and is also responsible for the approvals.
• CREATIVE DEPARTMENT Under the creative director are a team of copywriters and visualisers who arrive at the “big idea”. Accordingly the storyboard is prepared and scriptwork is done. The final layout is sent for approval to the client. • PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT The production department is responsible to convert the storyboard into a finished layout if its for print medium or Outdoor. However the TVC will be outsourced to a production house (eg. Prasoon Pandey’s HIGHLIGHT FILMS). The final storyboard is made into a technical storyboard before it is sent for shooting. • MEDIA DEPARTMENT The Media Planner alongwith Media manager and brand manager of the client prepares the final media budget and purchases insertions for print media (space buying) or purchases radio spots or purchases TV time if its on television. Appropriate media mix is developed. • RESEARCH DEPARTMENT In fact research department functions before and after a commercial is made for pretesting and post-testing of media respectively. Consumer insights and brand usages are also tested at times, according to client in many instances. • FINANCE DEPARTMENT This department looks after the accounts (financial records) for the agency.
Types of advertising agencies:
There are basically four types of ad agencies. They are ? In-house agencies ? Creative boutiques ? Media buying agencies ? Full service agencies ? In- house agencies Some companies, in an effort to reduce costs and maintain greater control over agency activities, have set up their own advertising agencies internally. An in-house agency is an ad agency set up, owned and operated by the advertiser. Many companies use in-house agencies exclusively; others combine in-house efforts with those of outside agencies. A major reason for using in-house agency is to reduce advertising and promotional costs. Companies with very large advertising budgets pay a substantial amount to outside agencies in the form of media commissions. With
an internal structure, these commissions go to the in-house ad agency. An inhouse ad agency can also provide related work such as sales presentations and sales force material, package design, and public relations at a lower cost than the outside agencies. Saving money is not the only reason companies use in-house ad agencies. Time savings, bad experience with outside agencies, and the increased knowledge and understanding of the market that come from working advertising and promotion for the product or service day by day are also reasons. Companies can also maintain a tighter control over the process and more easily coordinate promotions with the firm’s overall marketing programmes. Opponents of the in-house agencies say that they can give the advertiser neither the experience nor the objectivity of the outside agency and nor the range of services. They argue that the outside agencies have a more specialized staff and attract the best creative staff. Also flexibility is higher since if the company is not satisfied with the agency it can be dismissed, whereas changes in an in-house agency could be slower and more disruptive. Thus we can summarize by saying that Ad agency Advantages In house agency ? ? ? Cost saving More control Increased coordination Disadvantages ? ? ? Less experience Less objectivity Less flexibility
In-house agencies in India are:
1. 2. 3. Levers - Lintas (previously) Videocon – Confidence Reliance – Mudra (when Mudra started out)
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Creative boutiques
Creative boutique is an agency that provides only creative services. These specialized companies have developed in response to some client’s desires to use only the creative talent of an outside provider while maintaining the other functions internally. The client may seek outside creative talent for two reasons: 1. Because he wants an extra creative effort 2. May be because its own employees of the in-house agency or the agency that he has appointed do not have sufficient skills in this regard. The full-service agencies also sub-contract work creative boutiques when they are very busy or want to avoid adding full time employees to their pay roll. Creative boutiques are usually found by members of the creative departments of full service agencies who leave the firm and take with them clients who want to retain their creative talents. These boutiques generally perform creative function on a fee basis. Few creative boutiques in India:
1. 2. 3.
RMG David Vyas Gianetti Creatives Chlorophyll
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Media buying agencies Media buying agencies are independent companies that specialize in the buying of media, particularly radio and television. The task of purchasing advertising media has grown more complex as specialized media proliferate, so media buying services have found a niche by specializing in the analysis and purchase of the advertising time and space. Agencies and clients generally develop their own media plans and then hire the buying services to execute them. Some media buying agencies do help advertisers plan their media strategies. Because media buying agencies purchase such large amounts of time and space, they receive large discounts and can save the small ageny’s or client’s money on media buying. Media buying agencies are paid a fee or commission for their work.
Few media buying agencies: 1. Mindshare 2. Initiative Media (LOWE) 3. Zenith Media (Bates, Saatchi & Saatchi) 4. Optimedia (Publicis) 5. Starcom (Leo Burnett) 6. Fulcrum (HTA) Full – service agency
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The function of an advertising agency is to see to it that its client’s advertising leads to greater profits in the long run than could be achieved without the ad agency. Most such agencies are large in size and offer their clients a full range of services in the area of marketing, communications and promotions. These include planning, creating and producing the advertisement, media selection and research. Other services offered include strategic marketing planning, sales training, package design, sales promotion, event management, trade shows, publicity and public relations. The full service agency is composed of various departments; each is responsible to provide required inputs to perform various functions to serve the client. The various departments can be seen in the following diagram:
STRUCTURE OF AN ADVERTISING AGENCY
S t ru c
t u re
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? Account service department The account service, or the account management department, is the link between the ad agency and its clients. Depending upon the size of the account and its advertising budget one or two account executives serve as liason to the client. The account executive’s job requires high degree of diplomacy and tact as misunderstanding may lead to loss of an account. The account executive is mainly responsible to gain knowledge about the client’s business, profit goals, marketing problems and advertising objectives. The account executive is responsible for getting approved the media schedules, budgets and rough ads or story boards from the client. The next task is to make sure that the agency personnel produce the advertising to the client’s satisfaction. The biggest role of the account executive is keeping the agency ahead of the client through follow-up and communications.
? Media department The responsibility of the agency’s media department is to develop a media plan to reach the target audience effectively in a cost effective manner. The staff analyses, selects and contracts for media time or space that will be used to deliver the ad message. This is one of the most important decisions since a significantly large part of the client’s money is spent on the media time and/or space. The media department has acquired increasing importance in an agency’s business as large advertisers seem to be more inclined to consolidate media buying with one or few agencies thereby saving money and improving media efficiency. ? Creative department To a large extent, the success of an ad agency depends upon the creative department responsible for the creation and execution of the advertisements. The creative specialists are known as copywriters. They are the ones who conceive ideas for the ads and write the headlines, subheads and the body copy. They are also
involved in deciding the basic theme of the advertising campaign, and often they do prepare the rough layout of the print ad or the commercial story board. Creation of an ad is the responsibility of the copywriters and the art department decides how the ad should look. ? Production department After the completion and approval of the copy and the illustrations the ad is sent to the production department. Generally agencies do not actually produce the finished ads; instead they hire printers, photographers, engravers, typographers and others to complete the finished ad. For the production of the approved TV commercial, the production department may supervise the casting of actors to appear in the ad, the setting for scenes and selecting an independent production studio. The production department sometimes hires an outside director to transform the creative concept to a commercial. ? Finance and accounting department An advertising agency is in the business of providing services and must be managed that way. Thus, it has to perform various functions such as accounting, finance, human resources etc. it must also attempt to generate new business. Also this department is important since bulk of the agency’s income approx. 65% goes as salary and benefits to the employees.
SELECTION OF AN AD AGENCY
An advertising agency may be a full-service agency or part-service agency. Each has a different outlook and advertising activities. The selection of advertising agencies depends on whether one wants a full-service agency or a part-time agency. The selection is also made on the basis of compatibility of the agency team, agency stability, services, credibility and the agency’s problem solving approach. • Full service agency or part- time agency The full-service agency is involved completely in the advertising functions. It has a large number of expert employees. The organization is typically useful for performing advertising agencies. It looks upon customers as key clients. It communicates with the prospective purchasers. The distinguishing characteristics of the various agencies lie in the creative skills of the personnel of each organization and in the philosophy of advertising. Larger agencies offer better services. The part-time agency offers service on free of cost or project basis. These agencies perform various outside activities and co-ordinate the activities of the advertiser and media men. Clients have greater control over advertising campaigns. Advertiser’s research agencies generally perform job of part-agencies. The selection of a particular agency depends on its size, its services, knowledge and growth
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Compatibility the selection of an advertising agency depends on the compatibility of the agency. The needs of the company determine the fitness of the agency. The advertiser visits several agencies and chooses the best agency on the basis of its merits, demerits, accreditation, its methods of handling the accounts and using the available opportunities. Agency Team This includes management specialists, market researchers, copywriters, media experts, production managers and art directors. The attitude, thinking, experience and personalities of the team members have positive effects on the selection process.
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Agency Stability An agency, which has been long in existence generally, performs efficiently and effectively. The greater the investment in the agency, the more vital the contribution of the agency to the advertising activities. The personnel, finance, management and credit are examined before selecting a suitable advertising agency. Services The services rendered by the agency are evaluated with a view to choosing the best advertising agency. Cost accounting, general agreements, project estimates, selling attitudes and other services performed by the advertising agencies are considered to evaluate their efficiency and credibility in performing advertising jobs. The greater the range of an agency’s services, the more fully it can serve the clients’ needs. The agency can serve the clients by its potential capacity for advertising, sales promotion, media placement, public relations, market research, sales training and distribution channels. Creativity Creativity is the main element in advertising. If the advertising agency is capable of great creative efforts, it is selected for the purpose. Style, clarity, impact, memorability and action- these are taken into account while evaluating creativity. Problem-solving approach The agency which has a problem solving approach is considered to be superior and useful. The importance of choosing the right agency cannot be ignored. Caliber, compatibility, balanced services, responsiveness, talent an equitable compensation-these are important factors in selecting an advertising agency.
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PROCESS OF MAKING AN AD
After the marketer selects an ad agency for its product or brand the marketer gives an ad brief to the account executive, the person in charge of handling that particular account. This ad brief generally includes information such as: 1. Why does the marketer think there is need for advertising the brand or product 2. The target audience 3. What do they think about the brand and other such products 4. What is the kind of response the marketer wants form the consumer after they see the ad 5. The USP of the product 6. Any suggestions as to how the ad should look
The next step is where the account executive analysis the ad brief and goes back to the client in case if any clarifications are required. Then this ad brief is broken up into a creative brief and a media brief. These are given to the creative and the media department respectively. The media and the creative department then conduct research if required for the characteristics of the target audience, their likes, their dislikes, their living conditions, their behaviour in general, their exposure to the different types of media and so on. The creative department after the research comes out with various alternative campaigns for the product. In the same way the media department also makes alternative media plans. The creative and the media department then make presentations to the account executive who in turn after discarding various ideas selects 2 or 3 ideas which according to him matches the ad brief and the requirements of the client the best. If none of the ideas appeal the account executive then the creative and/or media department have to work from scratch all over again. Once this is done, the account executive or someone from the account planning department assisting the account service department makes presentations to the client of the ideas that were approved by the account executive. There are three possibilities at this stage: 1. The client does not like any of the ideas presented and again the creative and media department have to work towards another idea. 2. The client approves of an idea which is sent for further processing. 3. The client is confused between two very good concepts. Here there is Pre- testing undertaken. Both the ideas are shown to a specific audience that is assumed to be the representative sample of the target audience as suggested by the client. Depending upon their response for the two ideas the best is chosen and sent for further processing. After one concept is finally approved of, the creative copy is sent to the printer for the print ad. For the commercial, the concept is sent to the production department where the
ad is shot. The decision about model selection is either of the client, account executive or the film director or a combined effort of all three. As the print ad is being made and the commercial being shot the media department at the same time starts buying media slots as per the approved media plan. The next step is the launch of the ad in the specified media.
Then comes the next step of billing. An ad agency generally charges the client on the basis of a fee structure or on a cost-plus system basis. Under the fee structure, the client and the ad agency negotiate a flat sum to be paid to the agency for all work done. The agency estimates the cost (including out of pocket expenses) of servicing the client who either accepts or negotiates for a lesser amount. Negotiations continue until an agreement is reached. The cost-plus system is generally used when the media billings are relatively low and a great deal of agency service is required by the client. This happens most often with industrial products, new product introductions etc. that require disproportionate amount of agency help in preparing brochures, catalogues and other non- commissionable marketing activities. The final step is Post- evaluation. In this stage the success of the advertisement is judged through research conducted wherein the target audience as such is questioned on the visibility of the ad, whether the ad is top of mind or not, if the product is existing has the new campaign helped in increase in the sales or not and so on. CASE:
AGENCY BUSINESS PROCESS
AT SSC&B LINTAS MEMBER: INTERPUBLICGROUP (USA)
A) The client briefs the account management on the brand to be advertised. The brief includes the communication objective, target audience, target markets, media vehicles to be used (Print / TV / Radio / Outdoor, etc) and media budgets.
B) The account management then prepares the creative brief. This brief consists of the brand positioning statement, the communication objective, the target audience, the target markets, competition, creative thought, creative required and deadlines. C) Simultaneously, account management briefs media planning to prepare a media plan. The plan is based on the media budget, the media vehicles to be used and target audience for the brand. D) Account management then presents a media and creative strategy presentation to the client. On approval from the client, further action is taken. E) Based on the approved media plan, the account management team briefs the media buying decision who then begin negotiations with publications / TV channels, make bookings, etc. F) Simultaneously account management also co-ordinates with the production department to get advertising material ready. Production costs of four departments – art studio, photography, processing, printing and films. Art Studio – prepares artwork for the print medium Photography / Processing / Printing – for newspaper / magazine ads the artwork is sent to the processor for advertising material (positives). For brochures / POPs / leaflets, etc. the positives are then sent to the printer for printing. Films – for TV commercials, the account management co-ordinates with the films department who in turn approaches producers for quotations (usually 3). The client approves one of the quotes and the TV film gets into production. Once the film is ready, release tapes (Beta / u-matic) are then sent to the respective TV channels for the telecast. G) Simultaneously the production department raises estimates on the jobs that are being carried out, in the case of printing, films & photography the estimates must be approved before the production job starts. In other cases the estimates must be approved within 21 days. H) Once the advertising material is ready, the account management hands over the material to Initiative media who sends it to the various media. I) The suppliers then send their bills to the agency’s accounts department who in turn raise the debit notes and hand it to the account management. Account management then sends the debit notes to the client. The client must clear the bill within the credit period i.e. 21 days from date of bill.
A. CLIENT BRIEF ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
B. CREATIVE
C. MEDIA PLANNING
D. Strategy & Creative Presentation CLIENT APPROVALS ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
E. INITIATIVE MEDIA ( Rate Negotiations / Space / Time Bookings )
H.
F. PRODUCTION
Photography
Languages Film
Processor
Agency’s Art Studio Printer
MEDIA VEHICLES ( Press / TV / Radio, etc
G. ESTIMATE APPROVALS I AGENCY’S ACCOUNTS J. ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT CLIENT’S MARKETING / CLIENT’S ACCOUNTS
CHEQUE PAYMENT WITHIN 21 DAYS SENT TO ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
AGENCY EVALUATION
The process of agency evaluation involves regular assessment of two aspects of performance area – financial and qualitative. The financial assessment focuses on how the agency conducts its business to verify costs and expenses, the number of personnel hours charged to an account to an account and what payments are made to media and other outside service suppliers. Qualitative assessment explores the agency’s efforts devoted in planning, developing and implementing the client company’s advertising campaign and an assessment of the achievements. For a qualitative assessment even the small things matter; such as a quick turnaround time, creativity because this is what the agency is in the business of, value add in terms of giving the client a creative edge by giving them a ‘creative leap’ etc. One can also evaluate agencies by their track record of losing clients or acquiring new clients and retaining them.
The parameters on which an ad agency’s creative services dept is evaluated are as follows: (The various parameters are ranked on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being the poorest and 10 being Excellent) 1. Agency regularly produces fresh ideas and original approaches? 2. Creative executions are consistently on strategy? 3. Research is effectively used in strategic development and in pre-post testing of advertising 4. Creative group is knowledgeable about the company’s products, markets and strategies? 5. Creative group is concerned with good and consistent advertising communications and develops campaigns, ads that exhibit this concern 6. Creative group produces on time and submits for review in time to permit orderly revisions 7. Creative group performs well under pressure 8. Agency presentations are well organized with sufficient examples of proposed executions 9. Creative group participates in major campaign presentations 10. Agency presents ideas and executions not requested but which they feel are good opportunities. 11. Creative group takes constructive criticism and redirection 12. Creative group effectively controls costs 13. Overall evaluation of creative services The parameters on which an ad agency’s Media services dept is evaluated are as follows: (The various parameters are ranked on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being the poorest and 10 being Excellent) 1. Media group actually explores the new uses of various media available 2. Agency media recommendations are objective and reflect sufficient knowledge of company’s markets, target consumers, services and objectives 3. Agency exhibits a broad capability in media as opposed to specializing in a particular medium 4. Agency keeps client up-to-date on the trends and developments in the field of media 5. Agency subscribes to and makes use of available and applicable syndicated media services 6. Agency engages in original research in the field of selection and usage of media 7. Agency provides client with regular review and analysis of competition’s media’s usage 8. Agency media administrative practices are adequate, including co-ordination of media schedules, contracts, checking media to verify advertising has run, etc.
9. Agency regularly conducts post-buy analysis on all media placements in a timely manner 10. Agency is effective in media negotiations for best possible rates and position for the company’s advertising 11. Media plans provide sufficient flexibility for opportunistic buys or other cost saving strategies 12. Agency communication plan objectives and rationale effectively to brand management 13. Media strategies establish specific and measurable goals for reach, frequency and other objectives
SUCCESSFUL AD CAMPAIGNS •
Brand: Pepsodent Agency: Lowe The Dishoom Dishoom success story
Pepsodent's home run upto 1998 Pepsodent's credentials of 'long lasting protection from germs for hours after brushing', enabled the brand to grow and differentiate itself powerfully vis a vis the market leaderColgate Dental Cream. From Process to End Benefit : 1999-2000 Between 1999 and 2000, Pepsodent decided on a logical extension of the 'process' benefit of germ fighting to end benefits.This was an attempt to take on Colgate Dental Cream in its own territory, with a new formulation and new communication. The Result : Weakening of all associations with the brand leading to dilution in Pepsodent's distinctiveness as a Germ Fighter. The Challenge: 2001 It was time to win back the distinctive edge- by appropriating once again the proposition of 'Long lasting Germ Protection' in consumers' minds. And Pepsodent had to also contend with a rejuvenated Colgate Dental Cream at the same time.
Creative Strategy: To heighten concern about germs and thereby leverage Pepsodent's core proposition in this context. Research helped identify several situations wherein a mother tends to show anxiety about her child's teeth .This helped us home in on the most relevant and provocative insight. Insight : Mothers worry about their childrens' eating habits, more so when they are out of her sight. They don't want to fight with them over this. But, if they don't do anything, they feel they are being irresponsible . Advertising Idea: Don't fight with your children over their 'out of control' eating . Let Pepsodent fight the germs for you. Sweet food was used as a torture test to depict Pepsodent's efficacy at germ fighting. The sound mnemonic of Dishoom Dishoom was used to depict the conflict between the mother and child, and also, the action of Pepsodent on germs. Results of the campaign The Pepsodent mother became aspirational. Mothers using CDC were forced to sit up and pay attention to Pepsodent- a brand that understood them and addressed situations that they encountered in their day to day life. And Pepsodent gained back its edge of 'long lasting germ protection'. Quantitative evidence of success This was reflected in improvements in its market shares- an increase of 2.85 percent points between March 2001 and December 2001 (from 10.96% to 13.81%).Share increases were steady and consistent, with increasing GRP spend.
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Brand : ICICI Prudential Agency: Lowe The Making of India’s No: 1 Private Life Insurer
ICICI Prudential is a case study in the role of marketing in reshaping an industry. It highlights how an industry where “sell” and “push” were oft used words and consumer
was nothing more than a file no., has changed to one where “consumer preference” and “consumer pull” rules the roost. Here’s a look at how ICICI Pru changed the rules of the game and emerged a leader in the process. Background: When the insurance sector was liberalized in 2000, the private players had to contend with a few issues. Ratio of premium to GDP was low: 1.3% of GDP was invested in insurance. Insurance penetration was at an abysmal 22% of the insurable population. Besides the above the private players were faced with: Attitudinal Barriers, Perception of insurance as a tax saving tool and lack of a consumer centric approach in service and product offerings. The Marketing Challenge facing ICICI Pru: The challenge therefore was to change established category drivers (death payment & tax saving) and to get the consumer to evaluate insurance on a more emotional platform (protection) rather than a mere rational decision (tax savings). The Campaign Objectives: A) Reposition the category in the consumer's mind. Influence the consumer to view it as a protection instrument and not a tax saving product alone. B) In the process, create differentiation for the ICICI Pru brand as a provider of social security and family protection. C) Achieve leadership status in saliency, image & product parameters. D) Build credibility and trust. The Target Audience: Representing an ideal mix of medium to high net worth individuals: The consumers most disposed towards buying life insurance. Middle-aged professionals, primarily male, salaried and self employed, age group: 28 - 45 years, household income: Rs.20, 000 and above. Creative Strategy: The essence of the creative strategy: To get the consumer to re look at Insurance as a means to lead a worry free life and not as a necessary evil. To this effect the core brand insight highlighted was "As head of the family it's my responsibility to take care of my loved ones and protect them from the uncertainties of life", summed up in the advertising
idea: ‘We cover you at every step in life (Suraksha… Zindagi ke har kadam par, as interpreted in Hindi ). ICICI Pru was positioned as an enabler of protection relevant to the needs of the life stage that you are in. At the core of the communications strategy was appropriating the generic category benefit (protection) through its greatest metaphor – Sindoor. The Creative execution: TVC: Building image and creating a differential in the most creative and compelling manner. The creative execution heightened the emotional connect with the ICICI Pru brand - Indian; satisfaction of knowing that one’s loved ones are protected. Symbolic representation of the protector of the family through situations showcasing various life stages and creating endearing imagery of protection and familial bonding. Press: Gave the consumer a rational and tangible reason to buy insurance first and secondly from ICICI Prudential. The product specific advertising focussed on changing the prevalent perception about insurance and breaking a few myths: non- affordability, insurance not being good investment option and the myth that insurance was good only for tax saving. Other Communications: Other programs included direct mail, PR of communications campaign in press & TV, website marketing; and database generation through Banc assurance channels. Media Strategy: In a market likely to be cluttered, we used multiple touch points to reach the consumer. The role for each medium was envisaged. The TV medium was used to enhance the emotional link with the brand. Strategic use of 15 sec. edits facilitated high frequency levels. In print, cost per response rather than cost per thousand as responses were measured in form of call-ins. Radio FM, Cinema, Internet were used to create a media multiplier effect. The results of communication efforts: Being no: 1 in awareness and saliency. Awareness: ICICI Pru showed a significant jump in awareness between Feb and Sept 2001. Image: Highest score among all Insurance players including LIC, on image parameters like safety, modernity, service, good returns etc. Intention to invest: Next only to LIC as per research (All Source: Research by ORG
Marg). No. of calls and emails: There were 70,000 calls at the call center and 6582 emails in the year 2001. Sum up: In just over a year ICICI Pru has emerged as India’s no.: 1 Private Life Insurance Company with almost 50% market share of the private players. Has sold highest no. of policies both in volume and value. Major Milestone - Over 100000 policies on Mar 31, 2002.
Advertising Objectives
ROLE OF ADVERTISING
Advertising ultimately seeks to establish what is called "mind share". Mind share is the status a brand can achieve when it co-exists with deeper, more empirical categories of objects. Bisleri,for example, can distinguish itself as a type of mineral water. But, because it has gained mind share amongst consumers, it is frequently used as a term to identify mineral water itself, even if it is from an opposing brand. One of the most successful firms to have achieved this is Hoover (as mentioned above) whose name was for a very long time synonymous with vacuum cleaner . Mind share can be established to a greater or lesser degree depending on product and market. In Texas, for example, it is common to hear people refer to any soft drink as a Coke, regardless of whether it is actually produced by Coca-Cola or not (the more accurate term would be 'cola'). Similarly Xerox is one of the terms used frequently to describe the act. A legal risk of mind share is that the name can become so widely accepted that it becomes a generic term, and loses trademark protection. Examples include "aspirin". Other objectives include short or long term increases in sales, market share, awareness, product information, and image improvement.
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Differentiation and competitive advantage
The decision by Hutchinson Telecom to enter the UK telecommunications market was seen by some at the time of entry as ambitious. The market was dominated by two main players, Cellnet and Vodafone, each with substantial market shares. The market was characterised by price competition, so margins were tight and perceptions limited. A new brand was developed which was imbued with values that differentiated the Hutchinson offering from the price base of the others. The brand was called Orange, and the visual cue of a bright orange colour on a black background had a strong impact that was easily memorable and capable of leading to a string of triggers and brand associations. The brand was launched with a coordinated campaign that was striking in its presentation and which has since been developed to launch new products and facilities. Market share has grown, and Orange is now a significant part of the UK market What do advertisers mean by strategy? There are several considerations in an advertising strategy. Advertising messages aren’t created on a whim or by a quick flash of inspiration. Advertising is a disciplined art and involves a lot of strategic thinking. Advertisers create messages to accomplish specific objectives, a process called strategic planning. Advertisers determine what you want accomplished, decide on strategies to go about accomplishing, and implementing tactics which make the plan come to life. Advertising involves many different strategies.
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First there must be a strategic business plan that deals with the broadest decisions made by the organization. Next advertisers have marketing strategies that will identify key advantages for the product or firm in the marketplace. Lastly there are advertising strategy decisions that are made which are crucial to all advertising situations. Advertisers must set objectives and identify the target audience. The advertising product must be compared to competing products features. The product must be positioned so that it is welcomed in the marketplace by consumers. Finally the advertisers must create a brand image and personality for the product.
These are all key considerations for the advertising strategy. Targeting an audience for the product is the most important. These audiences are equivalent to a target market, but often includes people other than prospects, such as those who influence the purchase. Once the target audience is defined this lets the advertising planner zero in on the most responsive audience Components of an Advertising Plan
Advertising Objectives Advertising Budget Message Strategy Media Strategy
The following should be considered in setting advertising objectives: 1. Market Segmentation: only through careful market segmentation can the target audience for advertising be identified and defined. The process has to be continuous so that the changes in consumer type, buyer behavior and socioeconomic and other environmental parameters can be kept under the preview. This provides the advertiser with an informational base to expand, limit or reduce creative advertising campaigns and media plans to react to different markets effectively. 2. Buyer Behavior: Advertising communications must take cognizance of the underlying patterns of buying behavior in setting objectives so that strategies and messages may be accordingly devised. Needs and motivations of decision makers may be assessed through the use of various quantitative and qualitative marketing and advertising research methods. 3. Product personality and perception: a mere advertisement demonstrating the characteristic features and special properties does not contribute towards sales because these can be copied by the competitors. But the perception of the brand in the minds of the consumers is what moulds product personality and can transcend mere physical properties and perpetuate itself despite changes in the product itself. 4. Situational factors: Advertising objectives will be derived from marketing objectives which will be an ongoing assessment of the market situation, competition, price position, distribution channel and their incentives and so forth. In setting up the advertising objectives due consideration should be given to the time period to which these objectives are confined. In coherence with marketing objectives, it may relate to short-term and long-term objectives.
Advertising can reach huge audiences with simple messages that present opportunities to allow receivers to understand what a product is, what its primary function is and how it relates to all the other similar products. This is the main function ofadvertising: to communicate with specific audiences. These audiences may be consumer- or organisation-based, but wherever they are located, the prime objective is to build or maintain awareness of a product or an organisation. Management's control over advertising messages is strong; indeed, of all the elements in the promotional mix, advertising has the greatest level of control. The message, once generated and signed off by the client, can be transmitted in an agreed manner and style and at times that match management's requirements. This means that, should the environment change unexpectedly, advertising messages can be 'pulled' immediately. Asian Paints campaign- “Waa, Sunil Babu badhiya hai”, words “ nayi Gadi” were edited later, as a result of objection raised by Maruti. Advertising frameworks Hall (1992) and O’ Malley (1991) have suggested that there are four main advertising frameworks. 1. The sales framework This framework is based on the premise that the level of sales is the only factor that is worth considering when the measuring the effectiveness of an advertising campaign. This view holds that all advertising activities are aimed ultimately at shifting product – generating sales. Advertising is considered to have a short term direct impact on sales. This effect is measurable and, while other outcomes might also result from advertising, the only important factor is sales. On sales alone will the true effect of any advertising be felt. Types of Sales Oriented Objectives Type of Increase Sale Media Policy Creative Content Example
Existing Products Existing Product Maintain Suggest new uses for your to Existing users insertions in product, or reasons for current media more frequent use, building on existing contacts and goodwill
DETTOL Antiseptic advertised on the different usage of the product, like for washing baby’s clothes, for shaving, etc.
Existing Product Consider new Explain the basic benefits to New users media of your product, and your company record, to people unaware of them. Existing Product to users of rival products – Brand switching Consider competitors media patterns
PHILIPS, ONIDA launched their colour television sets in rural markets and had related advertisements for it. Comparison campaigns FAIREVER advertised to pointing out the switch the Fair & Lovely advantages of the product users to its product. over rival brands and of changing established buying habits
New Products New Products to Maintain Explain basic benefits, LAKME introducing new Existing insertions in building on existing products like Sunscreen Customers current media contacts and goodwill lotion, Moisturizer with Peach Flavour, Winter Cream Lotion with Strawberry ingredients, etc. New Products to Consider new Explain the basic benefits New Users media of your product, and your company record in other fields New Products to Consider Explain basic benefits and Competitors competitors overcome established Customers media goodwill. patterns FA and NIVEA introducing products for men. PEPSI AHA aimed at advertising itself in bars in order to switch the alcohol drinkers to use Pepsi Aha instead of Thumbs Up as their mixer in the drink.
2. The persuasion framework. The second framework assumes advertising to work because it is capable to work because it is capable of persuasion. Persuasion is effected by gradually moving buyers through a number of sequential steps. This hierarchy of effects models assume that buyer decision making is rational and can be accurately predicted. As discussed earlier, these models have a number of drawbacks and are no longer used as the basis for designing advertisements, despite great popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. 3. The involvement framework Involvement based advertisements work by drawing members of the target audience into the advertisements. Involvement with the product develops as a consequence of involvement with the advertisement.
4. The salience framework. Salience models are based upon the premise that advertising works by standing out, by being radically different from all other advertisements in the product class. Orange cellular service always differentiated itself with a bright presentation and a striking bright orange in its logo and very catchy picture messages used to convey several things. For eg the picture of animal ears standing upright to mean all incoming free. Also the ads that feature the boy being followed by the dog, everywhere saying, “ Wherever you go, our network follows”.
Advertising Objectives –2 school of thoughts
Role of objectives Many organizations, including advertising agencies, fail to set realistic promotional objectives. There are several explanations for this behaviour, but one of the common factors is that managers are unable to differentiate between the value of advertising as an expenditure and as an investment. The setting of objectives is important for 3 main reasons: 1. They provide a means of communication and co-ordination between groups client and agency working on different parts of a campaign. 2. These objectives also serve as a guide for decision-making and provide a focus for decisions that follow in the process of developing promotional plans. 3. Objectives provide a benchmark so that relative success or failure of a programme can be determined. In the matter of advertising objectives, 2 distinct schools of thought emerge: Advertising objectives
Sales objectives
Communication objectives
The Sales school
Many managers see sales as the only meaningful objective for promotional plans. Their view is that the only reason an organization spends money on promotion is to sell its products or service. Therefore, the only meaningful measure of the effectiveness of the promotional spend is in the sales results. These results can be measured in a number of different ways. 1. Sales turnover is the first and most obvious factor particularly in business-tobusiness markets. 2. In the consumer markets and the FMCG sector, market share movement is more sensitive barometer of performance. Over the longer term, return on investment is used to check success or failure. However sales objectives are applicable only in particular situations. 1. Direct response advertising: where direct action is required by the receiver in response to exposure to message, measurement of sales is justifiable. Thus it attempts to induce quick response from the members of the target audience, Ads offering some kind of incentive, or ads announcing contests, or encouraging prospects to place orders on phone or through internet. In such cases evaluation is based on sales results. 2. The retail sector: can also use sales measures, and it has been suggested that packaged goods organizations, operating in markets, which are mature with established pricing and distribution structures, can build a databank from which it is possible to isolate the advertising effect through sales. If a particular celebrity is used for an ad campaign and a particular amount of money is spent on it, by monitoring the amount of sales, it is possible to evaluate the success of the campaign or success of using the celebrity. 3. Sales Promotion Programs: Many sales promotion programs have sales objectives since their goal is often to generate trial or short-term sales increases Several companies come up with the scratch and win offers. Britannia at the time of world cup had actually come up with such offers “ Britannia khao, world cup jao” However, there are certain difficulties associated with using sales as advertising objective: ? Sales could result from variety of influences, such as the other marketing mix elements, competitor actions and wider environmental effects, like the strength of the currency or the level of interest. Concept of adstock or carryover: the impact of promotional expenditure will not be immediately apparent as the receiver may not enter the market until a later date but the effects of the promotion may still influence the final purchase decision.
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Thus while measuring effectiveness of campaign, sales results may not show its full impact as there is considerable time lag between audience exposure to ad and actual sales. Sales objectives do little to assist the media planner, copywriters and creative team working on the communication programme. They would want to know what the company intends to communicate, what is the target audience and what kind of behaviour or response is finally desired on their part.
The communications school
There are many situations where the aim of a communication campaign is to enhance the image or reputation of an organization or product. Sales thus don’t remain the only goal. Consequently, promotional efforts are seen as communication tasks, such as the creation of awareness or positive attitudes towards the organization or product. To facilitate this process, receivers have to be given relevant information before the appropriate decision processes can develop and purchase activities established as long-run behaviour. Thus the communication objectives basically seek to move people to action and induce them to purchase the products. When we see ads, we tend to judge them with their ability to make us laugh or feel engrossed. However, a far more powerful way to look at advertising is by understanding that advertising is a communication task, with specific communication objectives, and therefore we need to understand how communication works. It is important to understand all the different interactions that target customers have with the product or the company. Suppose, a person were to buy a coloured television, before making the investment he is likely to look into several aspects like features available, benefits, information with regard to these in the form of articles, etc. thus a marketer would do good if he could understand what influences this person at every stage in the buying process and accordingly formulate his communication plan to ensure more effective allocation of the communication budget. Thus there are several models that are framed based on this understanding. These models tend to follow a certain sequence in influencing buyer behaviour. The stages are as follows:
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Cognitive: this stage basically involves communication that deals with cognition or knowledge. It deals with creating knowledge, perception, ideas and awareness in the minds of people. Before people can be moved to action in terms of purchase, they must be informed about the same. Affective: this stage deals with the emotions or the affections. Thus this is the stage that determines whether a person develops positive perception about the product or simply dislikes it. At this stage, interest may further strengthen to take the shape of strong desires or preference. Conative/ behaviour: this mainly deals with the final buyer behaviour. In this case the person on the basis of his preference or dislike for the product would either purchase it or reject the product.
Thus as mentioned earlier, in case a person wants to buy a TV set, he may after having understood his desire, collect different types of information and after having being convinced by the same, finally make the purchase. This pattern may differ depending upon low or high involvement products. These days, more and more research is being conducted under the premise that consumers develop relationships with their brands and products, which could sustain the notion that a series of stages occur between the point of product awareness and the point of product purchase. The concept of "bottom-line" thinking has essentially passed. Effective advertising should sell, but should also communicate with the consumer on an emotional level. Knowing this, we can say that advertising is a communication task.
Models used to convey communication objectives
? ? ? Hierarchy of effects FCB grid DAGMAR
Hierarchy-of-Effects Models
Among advertising theories, the hierarchy-of-effects model is predominant. It shows clear steps of how advertising works Hierarchy of effects Model can be explained with the help of a pyramid. First the lower level objectives such as awareness, knowledge or comprehension are accomplished. Subsequent objectives may focus on moving prospects to higher levels in the pyramid to elicit desired behavioral responses such as associating feelings with the brand, trial, or regular use etc. it is easier to accomplish ad objectives located at the base of the pyramid than the ones towards the top. The percentage of prospective customers will decline as they move up the pyramid towards more action oriented objectives, such as regular brand use.
Awareness: if most of the target audience is unaware of the object, the communicator’s task is to build awareness, perhaps just name recognition, with simple messages repeating the product name. Consumers must become aware of the brand. This isn’t as straightforward as it seems. Capturing someone’s attention doesn’t mean they will notice the brand name. Thus, the brand name needs to be made focal to get consumers to become aware. Magazines are full of ads that will capture your attention, but you’ll have trouble easily seeing the brand name. Knowledge: the target audience might have product awareness but not know much more; hence this stage involves creating brand knowledge. This is where comprehension of the brand name and what it stands for become important. What are the brand’s specific appeals, its benefits? In what way is it different than competitor’s brands? Who is the target market? These are the types of questions that must be answered if consumers are to achieve the step of brand knowledge. Liking: if target members know the product, how do they feel about it? If the audience looks unfavourably towards the product to communicator has to find out why. If the unfavourable view is based on real problems, a communication campaigns alone cannot do the job. For product problem it is necessary to first fix the problem and only then can you communicate its renewed quality. Preference: the target audience might like the product but not prefer it to others. In this case, the communicator must try to build consumer preference by promoting quality, value, performance and other features. The communicator can check the campaigns success by measuring audience preference before and after the campaign. Conviction: a target audience might prefer a particular product but not develop a conviction about buying it. The communicator’s job is to build conviction among the target audience. Purchase: finally, some members of the target audience might have conviction but not quite get around to making the purchase. They may wait for more information or plan to
act later. The communicator must need these consumers to take the final step, perhaps by offering the product at a low price, offering a premium, or letting consumers tried out. This is where consumers make a move to actually search out information or purchase. Thus advertising is thought to work and follow a certain sequence whereby the prospect is moved through a series of stages in succession from unawareness to the purchase of the product. Advertising cannot induce immediate behavioural response, rather a series of mental effects must occur with the fulfillment at each stage before progress to the next stage is possible. Teaser campaigns Awareness Pioneering ads Jingles/ slogans Internet banners Knowledge Announcement s Informative ads
Liking
Preference
Conviction
Descriptive ads Image/ celebrity Demonstration of benefits Competitive ads Persuasive copy Comparative ads Testimonial s Direct-action retail ads Point-ofpurchase ads Price deal offers
Purchase
Reminder ads Informative “why” ads
Here are various versions of hierarchy-of-effects model.
The AIDA Model
AIDA model is initiatory and simplest. ACTION
DESIRE
INTEREST
AWARENESS
AIDA model was presented by Elmo Lewis to explain how personal selling works. It shows a set of stair-step stages which describe the process leading a potential customer to purchase. The stages, Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action, form a linear hierarchy. ? ? ? It demonstrates that consumers must be aware of a product's existence, Be interested enough to pay attention to the product's features/benefits, and Have a desire to benefit from the product's offerings.
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Action, the fourth stage, would come as a natural result of movement through the first three stages. Although this idea was rudimentary, it led to the later emerging field of consumer behavior research.
Reliance India Mobile campaign can be used to explain this model better. Awareness- the elaborate advertisement where Mukesh Ambani spoke about the new project being introduced on his father’s 70th birthday. Interest- was generated as the company spokesperson featured in the ad, as a representative of the company image and also spoke about introducing a new technology – CDMA. Desire- was created with various offers like free SMS, 40paise STD calls, easy payment schemes, and discount coupons worth Rs. 1 lakh. Action- Dhirubhai Ambani Pioneer offers induced people to go for the product. Also the model can be applied to marketing movies : Where in the initial stage awareness may be created with attention by airing the promos on television. Attention is created with the help of key features like starcaste, music, locations, etc. Interest is then created with the release of the music and by introducing the theme and sales of audiocassettes and CDs indicate the same. Desire is created with hoardings of the movie and also with the help of several contests and free prizes and attractions like stars visiting the music shops. In the last stage people are moved to action in the form of buying tickets as a result of the ratings given to the movies in the dailies, etc To illustrate one such movie through the AIDA model is BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM A: Promos had David Beckham and Football I: Introduced Music and Dialogues of film. Also the tagline: “Who wants to cook Aloo Gobi when you can bend a ball like Beckham.” D: A fresh movie with a different theme. The film also talked about the success of film overseas A: Got 3– and 4–star ratings and publicized that in promos. CRITICISM Hierarchy of effects model has been criticized on some points, such as that people do not exactly follow these sequences
People in all the cases may not strictly follow a series of stages as are explained in the hierarchy of effects model. They may in certain situations, directly jump to a particular stage, not following the stages in a logical pattern. For e.g. a child accompanying mother to a grocery store is likely to demand a product without indulging in stages like becoming aware about it, being interested by it and then buying it. He may just be lured by the display
DAGMAR (Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results)
Awareness
Comprehension
Conviction
Action Russell Colley (1961) developed a model for setting advertising objectives and measuring the results. This model was entitled ‘Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results- DAGMAR.’ DAGMAR model suggests that the ultimate objective of advertising must carry a consumer through four levels of understanding: from unawareness to Awareness—the consumer must first be aware of a brand or company Comprehension—he or she must have a comprehension of what the product is and its benefits; Conviction—he or she must arrive at the mental disposition or conviction to buys the brand; Action—finally, he or she actually buy that product. Awareness Awareness of the existence of a product or organization is necessary before the purchase behaviour can be expected. Once the awareness has been created in the target audience, it should not be neglected. If there is neglect, the audience may become distracted by competing messages and the level of awareness of focus product or organization will decline.
Awareness needs to be created, developed, refined or sustained, according to the characteristics of the market and the particular situation facing an organization at any one point of time. Awareness grid
Involvement High Low
HIGH
Sustain current Refine awareness levels of awareness
Awareness
LOW
Build awareness Create association of quickly. awareness of product with product class need
In situations where: 1. Buyer experiences high involvement: ? Is fully aware of a product’s existence, attention and awareness levels need only be sustained and efforts need to be applied to other communication tasks. sales promotion and personal selling are more effective at informing, persuading and provoking consumption of a new car once advertising has created the necessary levels of awareness. The L.G golden eye ads that are repeatedly shown inspite of high awareness to ensure top of mind awareness and retain the existing awareness levels. ? Where low levels of awareness are found, getting attention needs to be the prime objective in order that awareness can be developed among the target audience.
Sahara Homes ad that features Amitabh Bachhan saying “ jaha base Bharat”. Awareness level is low, however it is a high involvement decision. Thus adequate attention is required and awareness levels are raised with use of well-known and trusted celebrities. 2. Buyer experiences low involvement: ? If buyers have sufficient level of awareness, they will be quickly prompted into purchase with little assistance of the other elements of the mix. Recognition and brand image may be felt by some to be sufficient triggers to stimulate a response. The requirement in such a situation would be to refine and strengthen the level of awareness so that it provokes interest and stimulates greater involvement during recall or recognition. Parle G ad that talks about it being the largest seller “ Duniya ka sabse Zyada bikne waala biscuit”. Parle G as a brand already enjoys high levels of awareness and requires low involvement decision, thus communication is mainly intended to refine awareness. If buyers have low level of awareness, the prime objective has to be to create awareness of the focus product in association with the product class. When coils were popular in use and then the different repellants entered the market, awareness had to be created about their benefits and use. Comprehension Awareness on its own may not be sufficient to stimulate a purchase. Knowledge about the product or the organization is necessary. This can be achieved by providing specific information about key brand attributes. In attempting to persuade people to try a different brand of water, it may be necessary to compare the product with other mineral water products and provide an additional usage benefit, such as environmental claims. The ad of Ganga mineral water, featuring Govinda, which banked on the purity aspect. They related the purity of the water with that of river Ganga. Conviction The next step is to establish a sense of conviction. By creating interest and preference, buyers are moved to a position where they are convinced that a particular product in the class should be tried at the next opportunity. To do this, audience’s beliefs about the product have to be moulded and this is often done through messages that demonstrate the product’s superiority over a rival or by talking about the rewards as a result of using the product.
Many ads like Thumbs Up featured the reward of social acceptance as ‘grown up’. It almost hinted that those who preferred other drinks were kids.
Action Communication must finally encourage buyers to engage in purchase activity. Advertising can be directive and guide the buyers into certain behavioural outcomes, Use of toll free numbers, direct mail activities and reply cards and coupons. Tupperware, Aqua Guard, are famous in Indian cities as a result of its personal selling efforts. For high involvement decisions, the most effective tool in the communication mix at this stage in the hierarchy is personal selling. Through the use of interpersonal skills, buyers are more likely to want to buy a product than if personal prompting is absent. Characteristics of Objectives A major contribution of DAGMAR was Colley’s specification of what constitutes a good objective. Four requirements or characteristics of good objectives were noted Concrete and measurable—the communications task or objective should be a precise statement of what appeal or message the advertiser wants to communicate to the target audience. Furthermore the specification should include a description of the measurement procedure Target audience –a key tenet to DAGMAR is that the target audience be well defined. For example –if the goal was to increase awareness, it is essential to know the target audience precisely. The benchmark measure cannot be developed without a specification of the target segment Benchmark and degree of change sought—another important part of setting objectives is having benchmark measures to determine where the target audience stands at the beginning of the campaign with respect to various communication response variables such as awareness, knowledge, attitudes, image, etc. The objectives should also specify how much change or movement is being sought such as increase in awareness levels, creation of favorable attitudes or number of consumers intending to purchase the brand, etc. a benchmark is also a prerequisite to the ultimate measurement of results, an essential part of any planning program and DAGMAR in particular.
Specified time period—a final characteristic of good objectives is the specification of the time period during which the objective is to be accomplished, e.g. 6months, 1 year etc. With a time period specified a survey to generate a set if measures can be planned and anticipated. Written Goal - finally goals should be committed to paper. When the goals are clearly written, basic shortcomings and misunderstandings become exposed and it becomes easy to determine whether the goal contains the crucial aspects of the DAGMAR approach. Criticism with regard to DAGMAR model: 1. Sales orientation those who see sales as the only valid measure of effectiveness level this criticism. The sole purpose of advertising is to generate sales. So as the completion of communications tasks may not result in purchases, the only, measure that needs to be undertaken is that of sales. 2. Restrictions on creativity DAGMAR is criticized on the grounds that creative flair is lost as attention is continuously on the numbers game, such as focusing on measures of recall, attitude change and awareness rather than the looking for the big idea. Thus the creative personnel is held more accountable under DAGMAR and this may inhibit some of their work. A campaign with all music and warm human visuals is loved by everybody but it would fail to meet the company’s standard. Thus a wonderful campaign would be evaluated on wrong criteria. 3. Short-term accountability managers do not have adequate time to spend on analyzing levels of comprehension and preference and convert them into formats that are going to be of direct benefit to them and their organizations. 4. Difficulty in determining what constitutes adequate levels of awareness and comprehension and how can it be determined which stage the majority of the target audience has reached at any given point of time. The VIP Feelings advertisements for ladies undergarments could be successful changing the attitude towards the brand VIP that was associated to be a man’s wear, or it could be successful in creating awareness that VIP has started a new line of product for ladies too. Evaluating and measuring this form one single advertisement is difficult. 5. Hierarchy of Effects Model DAGMAR attacks the basic hierarchy model, which postulates a set of steps of awareness, comprehension, and attitude leading to action. The counterargument is that it is possible that action may precede awareness. The foreign chocolates, which are bought by people from the departmental stores, are not advertised, but still people buy them. It is later that the advertising for the product is done, or sometimes it is not done at all. Another example would be that
action is preceded the attitude formation and comprehension with the impulse purchase of a low involvement product.
FCB Grid "FCB grid,” is suggested by Dave Berger and Richard Vaughn. This model combines high and low involvement, and left and right brain specialization. It shows a visually coherent matrix which has four quadrants with two factors—high and low involvement, and feeling and thinking. The communication response would certainly be different for high versus low involvement products and those which required mainly thinking (left brain) and feeling (right brain) information processing. To define involvement and think / feel, eight scales are used: High Involvement
• • •
Very important decision Lot to lose if you choose the wrong brand Decision requires lot
Low involvement: ? ? ? Unimportant decision. Little to lose if you choose the wrong brand. Decision requires little thought
Think or rational approach
• •
Decision is / is not mainly logical or objective Decision is / is not based mainly on functional facts
Feel or emotional approach
• • •
Decision is / is not based on a lot of feeling Decision does / does not express one’s personality Decision is / is not based on looks, tastes, touch, smell, or sound (sensory effects)
Think Informative (Thinker) High Involvement Model: Learn – Feel – Do (Economic)
Feel Affective (Feeler) Model: Feel – Learn – Do (Psychological)
Ex. Cars, appliances, and Ex. Cosmetics, jewelry, and insurance, house, fashion clothing, motor cycles furnishings Habitual (Doer) Low Involvement Model: Do – Learn – Feel (Responsive) Self-satisfaction (Reactor) Model: Do – Feel – Learn (Social)
Ex. Consumer goods, Ex. "life’s little pleasures" such as gasoline, food, household beer, cigarette, and candy/sweets. items "FCB grid" shows a particular type of advertising strategy for each of these types of products. This model pulls together the concepts of involvement and thinking versus and feeling as the way of information processing. The basic assumption of this model that different products need different strategies because the type of products requires different levels of involvement and information processing. High involvement- think quadrant High level of decision is require to be made as decision is with regard to purchase of high value items like house, cars, etc.
Thus in this case, people generally follow a pattern of learn- feel- do. Thus advertising must focus on the following aspects:
• • • • • •
Convey multiple facts that illustrate the basic message Use expert/credible sources Present scientific evidence Use 2 sided appeals Present weakest arguments first Use comparative advertising.
A computer being a high involvement decision product would demand a more rational approach where consumers would try to find out about features, usage, etc. and then go it buying it after having being convinced by it. Thus these ads try to provide required information. Intel ads- Pentium 4 that showed a whole lot of things including a class room set up and child learning, that tried to convey how learning became easy and better with it. Possible implications: Test: Recall, Diagonistics Media: Long copy format, Reflective vehicles Creative: Specific information, Demonstration High involvement- feel quadrant Here decisions are with regard to high involvement items where emotional approach is involved. People therefore follow a Feel – Learn – Do pattern in case of purchase. Advertising must: • • • • • • Use dramas Use sources similar to your customers Try to create empathy and a vicarious emotional experience Strong visuals Large spreads TV with visual impact
Possible implications: Test: attitude change.
Emotional arousal Media: Large space Image specials. Creative: Executional Impact Ads of Lakme featuring Yana Gupta, for the strawberry crème, another ad with a young boy overwhelmed by her soft skin and look. e.g: PROVOGUE continuously advertises its line of garments as being endorsed by popular models and actors, the latest one being Fardeen Khan. Instead of talking about fabrics or colours, it always talks about the aspirational value of wearing a Provogue outfit. Low involvement- think quadrant This pertains to purchase of products like food, etc , where rational approach is followed and buyer follows a Do – Learn – Feel pattern Advertising can therefore focus on: • • • • • • • • • • Don’t use comparative ads Use one-sided appeals Use credible/expert source Present strongest arguments first Use a large number of arguments Draw a conclusion Reminder ads and repetition Catchy music and slogans Small space ads Point of sale ads.
Possible implications: Test: Sales Media: Small space ads, 10 second Ids, radio, POS Creative: Reminder The Sugar free ad that features Raveena Tandon and Harsha Bhogle, Dettol ad that features the lady saying “mei apne parivaar ka dhyaan nahi rakhoongi to aur kaun rakhega?”
Low involvement- feel quadrant These involve low involvement products whereby individuals exhibit an emotional approach and follow a Do – Feel – Learn pattern. Products are to be purchased for selfgratification. Thus advertising must look at:
•
• • • • • •
Create a likable ad via the use of music, celebrities, humor, attractive visuals Use likable sources Attention getting Impulse purchase Billboards Newspapers Point of sale
Possible implications: Test: Sales Media: Billboard, newspapers, POS Creative: attention Gilbey’s Green Label ad that that uses the emotional appeal for a low involvement product,shows the man working hard in mines and the song “ Kuch pana hai kuch kar dikhana hai” Pan Pasand, in its ads, talked about how having a Pan Pasand lozenge changes moods from anger to polite and loving.
The Five M’s Of Advertising
The organizations handle their advertising in different ways. In small companies, advertising is handled by someone in the sales or marketing department, who works with an ad ageny. A large company will often set up its own advertising department or else hire an ad agency to do the job of preparing advertising programmes. In developing a program, marketing managers must always start by identifying the target market and the buyer’s motives. Then they can make the five major decisions in developing an advertising program, known as the five M’s, viz. ? Mission: what are the advertising objectives? ? Money: how much can be spent? ? Message: what message can be sent? ? Media: what media should be used ? Measurement: how should the results is evaluated? The above mentioned can be explained by the diagram given below
The 5Ms of Advertising Checklist for planning of a marketing or advertising campaign. Mission Money Message Media Measurement
? What are the objectives? ? What is the key objective? ? How much is it worth to reach my objectives? ? How much can be spent? ? What message should be sent? ? Is the message clear and easily understood? ? What media vehicles are available? ? What media vehicles should be used? ? How should the results be measured? ? How should the results be evaluated and followed up?
MISSION
• • Sales goals Advertising objectives
MONEY
• • • • • Stage in PLC Market Share and Consumer Base Competition and Clutter Advertising frequency Product substitutability
MESSAGE
• • • Message generation Message evaluation & selection Message execution
MEDIA
• • • • • Reach, Frequency & impact Major media types Specific media vehicles Media timing Geographical media allocation
MEASUREMENT
• • Communication impact Sales impact
1. MISSION OR SETTING THE ADVERTISING OBJECTIVES
Advertising Objectives can be classified as to whether their aim is: To inform: This aim of Advertising is generally true during the pioneering stage of a product category, where the objective is building a primary demand. This may include: • Telling the market about a new product • Suggesting new uses for a product • Informing the market of a price change • Informing how the product works • Describing available services • Correcting false impressions • Reducing buyers’ fears • Building a company image To persuade: Most advertisements are made with the aim of persuasion. Such advertisements aim at building selective brand. To remind: Such advertisements are highly effective in the maturity stage of the product. The aim is to keep the consumer thinking about the product.
2. MONEY
This M deals with deciding on the Advertising Budget The advertising budget can be allocated based on: • • • • Departments or product groups The calendar Media used Specific geographic market areas
There are five specific factors to be considered when setting the Advertising budget. • • Stage in PLC: New products typically receive large advertising budgets to build awareness and to gain consumer trial. Established brands are usually supported with lower advertising budgets as a ratio to sales. Market Share and Consumer base: high-market-share brands usually require less advertising expenditure as a percentage of sales to maintain their share. To build share by increasing market size requires larger advertising expenditures.
Additionally, on a cost-per-impressions basis, it is less expensive to reach consumers of a widely used brand them to reach consumers of low-share brands. • Competition and clutter: In a market with a large number of competitors and high advertising spending, a brand must advertise more heavily to be heard above the noise in the market. Even simple clutter from advertisements not directly competitive to the brand creates the need for heavier advertising. Advertising frequency: the number of repetitions needed to put across the brands message to consumers has an important impact on the advertising budget. Product substitutability: brands in the commodity class (example cigarettes, beer, soft drinks) require heavy advertising to establish a different image. Advertising is also important when a brand can offer unique physical benefits or features.
• •
3. MESSAGE GENERATION
Message generation can be done in the following ways: Inductive: By talking to consumers, dealers, experts and competitors. Consumers are the major source of good ideas. Their feeling about the product, its strengths, and weaknesses gives enough information that could aid the Message generation process. Deductive: John C. Meloney proposed a framework for generating Advertising Messages. According to him, a buyer expects four types of rewards from a product: ? Rational ? Sensory ? Social ? Ego Satisfaction. Buyers might visualize these rewards from: ? Results-of-use Experience ? Product-in-use Experience ? Incidental-to-use Experience The Matrix formed by the intersection of these four types of rewards and the of experiences is given below. POTENTIAL TYPE OF REWARD (Sample Messages) Rational Sensory Social Result-of-Use 1. Gets Clothes 2. Settles Stomach 3. When you care Experience Cleaner upset completely enough to serve the best Product-in5. The flour that 6. Real gusto in a 7. A deodorant to Use needs no sifting great light beer guarantee social Experience acceptance three types Ego Satisfaction 4. For the skin you deserve to have 8. The store young executive for
Incidental-toUse Experience
9. The plastic 10. The portable pack keeps the television that’s cigarette fresh lighter in weight, easier to lift
11. The furniture 12. Stereo for the that identifies the man with home of modern discriminating taste people
Message evaluation and selection The advertiser needs to evaluate the alternative messages. A good ad normally focuses on one core selling proposition. Messages can be rated on desirability, exclusiveness and believability. The message must first say something desirable or interesting about the product. The message must also say something exclusive or distinct that does not apply to every brand in the product category. Above all, the message must be believable or provable. Message execution. The message’s impact depends not only upon what is said but also on how it is said. Some ads aim for rational positioning and others for emotional positioning. While executing a message the style, tone, words, and format for executing the message should be kept in mind. STYLE. Any message can be presented in any of the following different execution styles, or a combination of them: • Slice of life: Shows one or more persons using the product in a normal setting. Coke 1litre ad, showed a family enjoying Coke, with a game of antakshari when there is a power failure. • Lifestyle: Emphasizes how a product fits in with a lifestyle. Asmi and Platinum ads, that focus on lifestyle of persons using their products. •Fantasy: Creates a fantasy around the product or its use. VIP Frenchie ads, showing a woman thinking of the Frenchie man saving her from a villain. •Mood or image: Evokes a mood or image around the product, such as beauty, love, or serenity. No claim is made about the product except through suggestion. Kingfisher Beer ads, saying the King of Good Times. • Musical: Uses background music or shows one or more persons or cartoon characters singing a song involving the product.
Nescafe, Bacardi usually use Music as the main theme of communication
• Personality symbol: Creates a character that personifies the product. The character might be animated Ronald McDonald for McDonald’s • Technical expertise: Shows the company’s expertise, experience, and pride in making the product. GE and Skoda ads • Scientific evidence: Presents survey or scientific evidence that the brand is preferred over or outperforms other brands. This style is common in the overthe-counter drug category. DuraCell Ads, claiming the battery lasts 6 times longer than ordinary batteries • Testimonial evidence: This features a highly credible, likable, or expert source endorsing the product. It could be a celebrity or ordinary people saying how much they like the product. In ads for Sunsilk, they had hair expert Coleen, endorsing the product. TONE : The communicator must also choose an appropriate tone for the ad. Procter & Gamble is consistently positive in its tone—its ads say something superlatively positive about the product, and humor is almost always avoided so as not to take mention away from the message. Other companies use emotions to set the tone—particularly film, telephone, and insurance companies, which stress human connections and milestones. Words: Memorable and attention-getting words must be found. The following themes listed on the left would have had much less impact without the creative phrasing on the right: Theme Creative Copy You won’t have to stay at home because Get Out, Get Going of bad hair Format: Format elements such as ad size, color, and illustration will make a difference in an ad’s impact as well as its cost. A minor rearrangement of mechanical elements within the ad can improve its attention-getting power. Larger-size ads gain more attention, though not necessarily by as much as their difference in cost. Four-
colour illustrations instead of black and white increase ad effectiveness and ad cost. By planning the relative dominance of different elements of the ad, optimal delivery can be achieved.
4. MEDIA
The next ‘M’ to be considered while making an Advertisement Program is the Media through which to communicate the Message generated during the previous stage. The steps to be considered are: Deciding on Geographic media allocation Step V Deciding on media timing Step IV Selecting specific media vehicles Step III
Choosing among major media types Step II
Deciding reach, frequency and impact Step I
5. MEASUREMENT
Evaluating the effectiveness of the Advertisement Program is very important as it helps prevent further wastage of money and helps make corrections that are important for further advertisement campaigns. Researching the effectiveness of the advertisement is the most used method of evaluating the effectiveness of the Advertisement Program. Research can be in the form of: • Communication-Effect Research • Sales-Effect Research There are two ways of measuring advertising effectives. They are: Pre-testing It is the assessment of an advertisement for its effectiveness before it is actually used. It is done through • Concept testing – how well the concept of the advertisement is. This is be done by taking expert opinion on the concept of the ad.
• •
Test commercials - test trial of the advertisement to the sample of people Finished testing
Post-testing It is the assessment of an advertisement’s effectiveness after it has been used. It is done in two ways • Unaided recall - a research technique that asks how much of an ad a person remembers during a specific period of time • Aided recall - a research technique that uses clues to prompt answers from people about ads they might have seen
THE 5 M’s OF ADVERTISING WITH RESPECT TO THE DOODH DOODH CAMPAIGN MISSION: A survey among 1,00,000 households in 1995 showed that there was a decrease inthe direct consumption of milk because of the following reasons: 1. Milk took a backseat when compared to soft drinks when it came to teenagers. 2. Adults believed that milk was essential for growing children but not for them. Thus the mission of the ad agency was to make aware the consumers about the benefits of milk for youngsters as well as elederly pople. Their mission was to create a communication plan that milk was not a “boring conservative drink” but a “youthful, exciting and nutritional, exciting energy drink” ? MESSAGE The writers hit upon the idea of using Hindi word for Milk i.e. “doodh doodh” in the form of a musical note. This musical note was in the form of “sa-re-ga-ma” which was remembered by the consumers a lot and was also top of mind when they were asked to comment on milk. The commercial as well as the print ad showed not only kids and youngsters but also elderly and old people whereby it targeted all age groups giving the benefits of milk as well. ? ? MEDIA: Television was chosen as the primary media because of its popularity and the fact that an audio visual medium lends itself to demonstration of ‘high energy’, ‘fun’ and ‘youthfulness’ more vividly. The print medium was also used as reinforcement message deliver backing the TV commercials.
The first round had concentrated on channels such as DD1, DD2 and the star plus. For every spot that they bought, there were four spots given as a bonus to be aired on the same programme. This made the commercial highly visible in terms of frequency as well as the reach.
? MEASUREMENT: Any effort to bring about an attitudinal change takes time. A measure of effectiveness of the communication was that the TV commercial was voted by viewers of India’s one of the best commercials aired. The communication has definitely made the youngsters make sing the song ‘doodh doodh’, in addition to the cola songs. Qualitative research showed that there was a tremendous popularity of the commercial across all the age categories. Kids in the age group of 10-12 were not very resistant in their attitudes towards drinking milk. Mothers took advantage of the commercial among the children to make them consume milk. There was a rapid increase in consumption of milk across all age groups. The consumption of milk in 1995 was 198 gm/per day which has gone up to 250 gm/per day in 1998. THE 5 M’s OF ADVERTISING WITH RESPECT TO THE SUNDROP CAMPAIGN MISSION: Sales goals: Leadership in the edible refined oil segment Advertising Goals: Communication task 1. Position Sundrop as the healthy oil for healthy people 2. Ensure that this did not erode the delivery of the taste benefit. 3. Positioning had to be perceptually as far away from Saffola. 4. Young, modern and premium feel 5. Execution had to be distinct and original to stand out from the clutter MONEY: o Stage in PLC: Introductory, therefore relatively large expenditure o Market share: new product o Competitors: Saffola (Safflower oil) also used the health platform but was associated with heart patients and less taste Flora and Sunola (Sunflower oils) MESSAGE:
Health was chosen as the platform, along with a supporting claim for taste. People who were healthy and energetic were concerned about the long-term prospects of their health. Thus ‘Health’ • Was related to maintenance of good health • Was applicable to all members of the family • Was characterized by lively energetic people • Thus the message and (positioning): ‘The Healthy Oil for Healthy People’
MEDIA: Primary media: Television ad 30 seconds. Print ad MEASUREMENT: • • • • Within 6 months, Sundrop became the largest selling refined sunflower oil. Redefined the category and expanded the Sunflower oil segment from 2.71% to 23% in 6 months, and 42% in 1997 Still the largest selling sunflower oil brand holds 15% of branded oil market. The ad was shown for over 10 years as the main theme film.
Advertising Techniques
Advertisers use several recognizable techniques in order to better convince the public to buy a product. These may include: ? Repitition: Some advertisers concentrate on making sure their product is widely recognized. To that end, they simply attempt to make the name remembered through repetition. Nirma detergent in the song repeated the word nirma thrice. ? Bandwagon: By implying that the product is widely used, advertisers hope to convince potential buyers to "get on the bandwagon." The emphasis on “ PSPO nahin jaante!” in Orient fan ad tried to convey to people that everyone knew about it.
? Testimonials: Advertisers often attempt to promote the superior quality of their product through the testimony of ordinary users, experts, or both. "Three out of four dentists recommend..." This approach often involves an appeal to authority. Pepsodent ads that feature a dentist who recommends the use of the toothpaste to protect teeth, ? Pressure: By attempting to make people choose quickly and without long consideration, some advertisers hope to make rapid sales: "Buy now, before they're all gone!" . generally ads talking about sale that emphasise that “offer would be open till stocks last”.
? Association: Advertisers often attempt to associate their product with desirable things, in order to make it seem equally desirable. The use of attractive models, picturesque landscapes, and other similar imagery is common. Intel pentium4- print ad that depicts the dupilactes of famous Sholay duo and the message of “ It’s the same with PCs- there is only 1 original.” ? Advertising slogans: Advertising slogans are claimed to be, and often prove to be , the most effective means of drawing attention to one or more aspects of a product. Typically they make claims about being the best quality, providing an important benefit or solution, or being most suitable for the potential customer. Karlo duniya muthi me”, “yeh dil maange more”!
Advertising objectives - Examples To inform
•
Telling the market about the new product
Livon silky potion ad differentiating it from shampoos and conditioners,and positioning it to be better than conditioners and explaining the use and talking of hair becoming more manageable and silky after using it.
•
Suggesting new uses for a product
Moov ads that always showed the woman of the house would suffer from severe back ache and then how moov helped to relieve it. Later they also showed moov being used to relieve leg pain.
•
Telling about new facilities and product development
The crocin ads that talk about crocin being 20% more effective and providing quicker relief. Besides the shape of the new crocin was seen as longer as opposed to the old round pill.
•
Informing the market of a price change
Chota coke ads advertised featuring aamir khan in a rural setting wherein 2 girls buying coke were being charged more and aamir khan wittily dealing with the shop-keeper, clearing it was for Rs. 5 and the term “paanch” was greatly emphasized.
•
Explaining how the product works
Livon silky potion new ad featuring the girl showing the use of product, explaining in what quantity should it be taken, specifying it is not required to be used in the same quantity as hair oil. • Describing available services
Print ads of Motorola ads that talk about the features like camera, thus referring to the service as motography, and also talking about the MMS service ,etc.
•
Corporate ads
Aditya Birla group, Sahara Group, Maruti Udyog, Indian airlines
Print ads of Indian airlines, which said, “ We have a nation to live upto” .
•
Correcting false impressions
In many situations, a wrong perception or a negative image of the company may be formed in the minds of the target audience as a result of a mishap or a controversy related to the product. Thus it becomes very vital for the company to communicate urgently to prevent losing out their customers to competitors , etc. Fanta ads following the cola controversy – where 3 young people shown being apprehensive about having the soft drink offered, and rani mukherji talking about “Ghandhiji ke Teen Bandar”.
•
Reducing consumers' fears
In case of many products, people are apprehensive about using the product as they may have certain fears and may be scared of the consequence of using a product. This is especially true in case of products to be used on skin, hair, etc. In case of hair colour, there is fear that it leads to hair becoming dry and getting damaged. Print ad of Regel hair vitaliser which ensures there are no side-effects. ? Social ads
These type of advertisements communicate the social messages. They are generally intended for the social-well being and in many cases talk about AIDS awareness, the importance of safe driving, anti-tobacco campaigns, polio ad featuring Amitabh Bacchan etc. Several companies as a part of social responsibility function may support these causes and tie-up with several NGOs, etc. This also helps to enhance credibility with the public. Surf excel tied up with an orphanage in Bangalore whereby they asked people to send in clothes that they washed and gave to this orphanage.
To persuade
Build brand image or personality/ company image It is very vital for companies to create a positive perception and a perception of reliability in the minds of the consumers. Thus it needs advertising inorder to create a specific perception that is intended. Unique Selling Proposition:
SAFFOLA previously advertised the feature of its oil, which said that its consumption would not lead to any heart problems. Brand Image McDonald’s creating an image of being family oriented, fun, cheerful, etc and generally make use of the emotional appeals, like the ad that says “ Be your child’s favourite parent” Product attributes: to bring to light some feature by various means. Samsung ad that brought to light the very good sound ensured that almost lead a man to mistake a love conversation on TV being watched by his wife for a real conversation. Building brand preference Comparative Ads, Ujala when launched asked the consumers to try Ujala, while highlighting the negative aspects of neel Changing customer's perception of product attributes Iodex when relaunched changed its formulation and also color, which had earlier lead to its downfall Persuading customer to purchase now Seasonal print ads of United Colours of Benetton with regard to their winter collection sale .
To Remind
A constant reminder ensures that the product is not missed or forgotten in the clutter and the noise created by several brands in the category. Reminding consumers that the product may be needed in the near future M’seal ads that showed various problems that were caused as a result of leakage and later conveying that people must not wait till things got out of control. Reminding them to buy it . (POP’s are generally used to remind customers about a brand while they are to make the purchase Keeping it in their minds during off seasons. Demand for colas is generally during the summer. However round the year campaigns ensure they stay in the minds of customers.
Maintaining its top-of-mind awareness Most Ads of Fevicol, use humor and do not focus on product attributes, but just help build Fevicol’s TOM amongst its target. Overcoming Resistance/Changing Attitude Many companies seem to assume that the public is merely waiting for a suitable advertising message to stimulate them into buying the product. But the people are wary of buying unfamiliar products and the retailers are equally shy of stocking the lines unknown to their customers. More than often, people are hostile. As in the case of KAMASUTRA condoms – people were against the use and had a negative impression of using condoms. Their approach was that of high resistance. This was because they saw condoms as a means of protection. Hence KAMASUTRA had a task of selling not only the product, but also the desire of ‘The pleasure of making love’. Hence in all their advertisements they have addressed the factor. Countering competition The market today is no longer a one–man show. There are innumerable companies, all of them having their own products to offer. In such a situation, a company needs to constantly advertise to remain in the minds of the consumers. With the MNCs entering India, a lot of Indian companies have been facing tough competition. Most companies position their products so as to differentiate their brands from the competition. MOOV used its competitor IODEX’s negative point in its advertisements. It showed how the usage of IODEX (name not revealed in the ad) left stains in the clothes making other people know about it. The tagline said “Kissi Se Kuch na Batai” Responding to a campaign, IODEX launched a big campaign where it had a character entering a shop and refusing to take MOOV, which was offered by the shopkeeper and said ‘No, Move, Move’. New customers from other brands One must try to find out which existing users of the competing brand are the most dissatisfied with it and target these switchable consumers. Alternatively one should try to acquire those customers of the competing brand who are the most likely to grow their sales volume in the years to come. And/or are the most profitable. For many product categories about 20% of the customers (heavy users) are likely to account for 50% of the sales volume and profits and are clearly worth focusing on as new brand users. ARIEL v/s SURF: When Ariel was launched, it showed comparisons between itself and a known detergent (Surf packet without its name). Through its ads, it showed how it was better than Surf and thus wanting to shift the Surf users to Ariel.
New customers from other categories Another approach is to attract people from those not now using the product class. The firm in the industry that has the highest market share, the largest distribution, the biggest sales force and the highest awareness is the one most likely to get the sale from a customer just entering the product category. PEPSI might conclude that it is easier to get young coffee drinkers to switch from coffee to PEPSI, than it is to switch COKE drinkers to PEPSI UJALA, when it entered the market, proved itself better than Neel (blue) and made the users shift to it. Supporting other sales promotion activities Many times the company introduces sales promotion activities for its consumers. For this, they advertise on different mediums to support the sales promotion program in meeting its objectives. FILMFARE uses hoardings at the latter part of the month to advertise about the freebie attached with the next month’s issue. Increasing usage It is possible to increase the usage of existing customers in the product class. In essence the goal would be to increase the amount consumed per usage occasion. Khane waalo ko khane ka bahana chahiye” ad showing use of Cadbury on occasion, also other ad that showed people eating dairy milk at a marriage occasion as against the convention sweets.
The Product Life Cycle (PLC)
Every product goes through a series of stages, namely the introduction, growth, maturity, decline. After a period of development it is introduced or launched into the market; it gains more and more customers as it grows; eventually the market stabilises and the product becomes mature; then after a period of time the product is overtaken by development and the introduction of superior competitors, it goes into decline and is eventually withdrawn. However, most products fail in the introduction phase. Others have very cyclical maturity phases where declines see the product promoted to regain customers.
Thus in this case, a suitable advertising and promotion campaign is required to be identified and followed.
Strategies for the differing stages of the PLC
Introduction The need for immediate profit is not a pressure. The product is promoted to create awareness. If the product has no or few competitors, a skimming price strategy is employed. Limited numbers of product are available in few channels of distribution. Advertising differentiates the product. Print ad of a Printer giving details about its specifications
Growth Competitors are attracted into the market with very similar offerings. Products become more profitable and companies form alliances, joint ventures and take each other over. Advertising spend is high and focuses upon building brand. Market share tends to stabilise. Advertising establishes participation with the marketplace. Maturity Those products that survive the earlier stages tend to spend longest in this phase. Sales grow at a decreasing rate and then stabilise. Producers attempt to differentiate products and brands are key to this. Price wars and intense competition occur. At this point the market reaches saturation. Producers begin to leave the market due to poor margins. Promotion becomes more widespread and use a greater variety of media. Advertising puts price ahead of the competition. Decline At this point there is a downturn in the market. For example more innovative products are introduced or consumer tastes have changed. There is intense pricecutting and many more products are withdrawn from the market. Profits can be improved by reducing marketing spend and cost cutting. Defensive advertising or for revitalization.
Advertising messages to meet the objectives
Whether advertising converts people into becoming brand-loyal customers or acts as a defensive shield to reassure current buyers, and whether central or peripheral cues are required, there still remains the decision about the nature and form of the message to be conveyed: the creative strategy. The Balance of the message This suggests that the style of message should reflect a balance between the need for information and the need for pleasure or enjoyment in consuming the message. Messages can be product oriented and rational or customer-oriented and based upon feelings and emotions. When dealing with high involvement products, where persuasion occurs through a central processing route, the emphasis in the message should be on the information content, the key attributes and benefits. In case of low involvement products, messages could concentrate on the images created within the mind of the recipient. This style seeks to elicit an emotional response from receivers.
High involvement: HDFC housing loans ad- once in a life-time decision which involves your home, do you want to take a risk? “play safe when it comes to a housing loan. With HDFC you get expert advice, attractive rates and the comfort of dealing with the most experienced-with you right through”. Also cars and motor bikes- talking of mileage, fuel efficiency; Cars talking about comfort, leg room, head space.
HIGH INVOVEMENT
Rational product attribute appeals Information provision benefit claims
LOW INVOLVEMENT Emotional image-based appeals Social, ego, hedonic orientation Likeability Likeability is important, because learning and attitude change may be positively correlated with the degree to which consumption of the message is enjoyed. This means that greater the enjoyment, the greater the exposure to the message and lower the probability that the message will be perceptually zapped. It has been found that changes in product preferences were considerably improved when receivers had ‘liked the commercial a lot’. But what makes a message liked? The receiver must be stimulated to become interested in the message. Having become emotionally engaged, interest can be only sustained if the credibility of the advertisement can also be maintained. The style of the message should be continued so that the context of the message does not require the audience to readjust their perception. This is particularly important in case of low-involvement messages, where the receivers have no or little interest. Message structure It involves considering the best way of communicating the key points, or core message, to the target audience without encountering objections and opposing points of view.
Conclusion drawing Should the message draw a firm conclusion for the audience or should the people be allowed to draw their own conclusions from the content. Explicit conclusions are more easily understood and stand a better chance of being effective. Whether or not the conclusion be drawn by the receiver depends on: ? The complexity of the issue: Health care products, personal financial services, for e.g.: can be complex and many members of the target audience may not have sufficient knowledge, experience and motivation to draw their own conclusions. Thus the complexity requires that conclusion be drawn for them. The level of education possessed by the receiver: better educated audiences would prefer drawing their own conclusions as opposed to less educated. Whether immediate action is required: if urgent action is required by the receiver, then a conclusion must be drawn very clearly. The level of involvement: high involvement usually means that receivers prefer to make up their own minds and may reject or resent any attempt to have the conclusion drawn for them.
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One and two-sided messages This means whether the cases for and against an issue or just that in favour are presented to the audience. Messages just presenting one argument, in favour of the product or issue are more effective when receivers favour the opinion expressed and are less educated. Two-sided messages, where the good and bad points of an issue are presented and are effective when receiver’s initial opinion is opposite to that presented in the message and when they are highly educated. Here credibility is improved and these messages produce more positive perceptions of a source than one-sided messages. Order of presentation Messages that present the strong points first use the primacy effect. This decision depends on whether the audience has a low or high level of involvement. A low level may require attention –getting message component at the beginning. A decision to place the strongest arguments at the end of the message assumes that recency effect will bring about greater levels of persuasion. This is appropriate when receiver agrees with the position adopted by the source or has high positive involvement.
Source of the message Establishing credibility Credibility can be established in several ways: By listing or displaying the key attributes of the organization or the product and then signal trustworthiness through the use of third –party endorcements and the comments of the satisfied users. Harpic ads showing opinions of people, Dove ads where ladies share their experience. ? ? Complex approach is using referrals, suggestions and association.
CREDIBILIY
Trustworthiness
Expertise
The above 2 aspects can be strengthened by using a spokesperson or organization to provide testimonials on behalf of the sponsor of the advertisement. Credibility established by the initiator: Credibility of the organization initiating the communication process is important. An organization should seek to enhance its reputation with its various stakeholders at every opportunity. Organizational credibility is derived from image which again is composite of many perceptions like past decisions, current strategy and performance indicators. High quality retail outlets. An important factor influencing credibility is branding. Companies enjoying strong brands are able to develop and launch new products more easily as compared to those not enjoying such brand strength. Brand extensions (like Mars ice cream) have been launched with the credibility of the product
Firmly grounded in the parent brand name (Mars). Consumers recognize the name and make associations that enable them to lower the perceived risk and feel more confident while they try the product. Credibility established by spokesperson Entertainment and sporting celebrities are often used to create credibility for a range of high involvement products. Sahrukh khan endorses Omega watches and Longines was endorsed by Aishwarya Rai. Also for certain low involvement products, these celebrities may be roped in to create credibilty and also to create perception of the product being the secret of the skill they possess. Sachin tendulkar vouching “ Boost is the secret of my energy”. This also helps to grab the attention of people in markets where motivation to decide between competitive products may be low. The celebrity enables the message to stand out among the noise and clutter that typify several markets. It is also hoped that celebrity and or the voice-over will become a peripheral cue in the decision-making process. However, there are potential problems, which advertisers need to be aware of when considering the use of celebrities. It is important to find out whether they are suitable inorder that the communication objectives spelt out for a campaign be achieved, do they fit the image of the brand and will the celebrity be acceptable and relatable for a given target audience. Also in many cases the celebrity may be noticed, but the message or the brand is missed. This makes him the hero, rather than advertising the product. The final form of spokesperson is the consumer. By using consumers to endorse products the audience is being asked to identify with a ‘typical consumer’. The identification of similar situations, lifestyles, interests and opinions allows for better understanding and reception of message. Pantene ad featuring a girl having problems of dull hair and then after having used Pantene, says “pata hai meri friends mere baal ko dekhke kya kehti hai? - wooooow” Consumers are often shown testing two products that are similar. captain cook salt ad wherein the lady is shown testing 2 types, one is free flowing, the other being moist and sticky. Appeals based upon the Provision of information • Factual: Often referred to as the ‘hard sell’, the dominant objective of these appeals is to provide information. This type of appeal is commonly associated with high-involvement decisions where receivers are sufficiently motivated and able to process information. Such advertisements should be rational and contain
logically reasoned arguments and information in order that receivers are able to complete their decision making process. • Slice of Life: One of the ways of making sure that the message is accepted by the receiver is by presenting the message in such a way that the receiver can identify immediately with the scenario being presented to them. This process of creating similarity is used a great deal in advertising and called as the ‘slice of life’. Ariel,Surf Ads Montage: campaigns that focus at reaching out a number of diverse type of people and feature different places and people. HMT watchches Demonstration: here the problem is presented to the audience as a demonstration. The focus brand is depicted as instrumental in resolving problems Eno and Dispirin ads that show how it shows effect and resolves problem in a given time. Comparative Advertising: It is a popular means of positioning brands wherein messages are based upon the comparison of the focus brand with that of either a main competitor or all competing brands, with the aim of establishing superiority. Entrants keen to establish presence in the market who have little to loose by comparing themselves with market leaders mainly use such form of advertising. However, market leaders have a great deal to loose and little to gain by comparing themselves with minor brands. Sprite started its campaign by using such form of advertisement.
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Appeals Based Upon Emotions And Feelings As products become similar and as consumers become aware of the whole range of available products the need to differentiate becomes more important. Increasing number of advertisers are using messages which seek to appeal to the targets emotions and feelings, ‘a soft sell’. The following main techniques are thus being used increasingly. • Fear: Fear can be used in two ways; The first type demonstrates the negative aspects or physical dangers associated with a particular behavior or improper product usage. Drive safe; Life Insurance and Smoking typify this type of advertising. The second approach is that of social rejection or disapproval if the focus Brand is not used. this type is frequently used advertisements of anti-dandruff shampoos and deodorants, and is used to support consumers’ needs for social acceptance and approval.
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Humor: the use of humor is attractive because: it can draw attention and stimulate interest. It can put the receiver in a positive mood, thus he is open to new ideas. It is effective because the argument quality is likely to be high, i.e. the level of counter argument can be substantially reduced. Saint Gobain ads, positioned as “so clear, so real” glass by SAINT GOBAIN. One of them featured two men sitting on a table and mistaking a woman for splashing water over them, failing to almost realize there existed a glass partition between them and the woman, that was being washed by the woman, thus indicating the clarity of the glass that could almost be mistaken for nothing. Also amul’s ads in keeping with current happenings:
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Animation: the main reason for using animation is that potentially boring and low interest/involvement products can be made visually interesting and provide a means of gaining attention. A further reason for the use of animation is that it is easier to convey complex products in a way that does not patronize the viewer. Hutchison has effectively used animation, battery ad-“last long, really long”
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Music: It can provide continuity between a series of advertisements and can also be a good peripheral cue. A jingle, melody or tune, if repeated sufficiently gets associated with the brand. The Airtel ads that make use of the popular jingle. Also it can be used for conveying messages without much being said. The recent ads that say- negotiate, persuade, celebrate, conspire, speak out,say yes,be heard, etc.- “Express Yourself” . • Fantasy and surrealism: the use of fantasy and surrealism in advertising has grown partly as a result of the increased clutter and legal constraints imposed on some product classes. By using fantasy appeals, associations with certain images and
symbols allow the advertiser to focus attention on the product. The receiver can engage in the distraction offered and become involved with the execution of the advertisement. The Intel Pentium 4 ad featuring aliens.
EVALUATING AD CAMPAIGNS
INTRODUCTION It is through the process of review and evaluation that an organization has the opportunity to learn and develop. In turn, this enables management to refine its competitive position and to provide for higher levels of customer satisfaction. The use of marketing communications is a management activity, one that requires the use of rigorous research and testing procedures in addition to continual evaluation. This is necessary because planned communications involve a wide variety of stakeholders and have the potential to consume a vast amount of resources. The evaluation of planned marketing communications consists of two distinct elements: The first element is concerned with the way the ad communicates. Thus, it deals with the development and testing of individual messages. An advertising message has to achieve, among other things, a balance of emotion and information in order that the communication objectives and message strategy be achieved. To accomplish this, testing is required to ensure that the intended message is encoded correctly and is capable of being decoded accurately by the target audience. This testing could be pre or post testing. The second element concerns the overall impact and effect that a campaign has on sales once a communication plan has been released. This post-test factor is critical, as it will either confirm or reject management’s judgement about the viability of their communication strategy.
THE ROLE OF EVALUATION IN PLANNED COMMUNICATIONS The evaluation process is a key part of marketing communications. The findings and results of the evaluation process feed back into the next campaign and provide indicators and benchmarks for further management decisions. The primary role of evaluating the performance of a communications is to see that the advertising objective has been met and that the strategy has been effective. The secondary role is to ensure that the strategy has been executed efficiently, that the full potential of the individual promotional tools has been extracted and that resources have been used economically. TOO MUCH OR TOO LITTLE? Companies are generally interested in finding whether they are overspending or underspending in advertising. One way to figure that out is to use the formula given below. Share of voice is the company’s share of advertising expenditure that earns a share of the consumer’s mind, and ultimately the market. Comparing that to market share provides an idea as to the feasibility of the company’s ad spend. Company Ad Spend (Rs) Share of Voice ( % ) Market Share Advertising (%) Effectiveness ( Mkt share / Share A B C Total 20,00,000 10,00,000 5,00,000 35,00,000 57.1 28.6 14.3 100 40 28.6 31.4 100 of voice ) .70 1 2.19
An advertising effectiveness ratio of 1 means an effective level of ad expenditure, while a ratio less than 1 indicates a relatively ineffective advertising level.
As can be seen from the above table, firm A spends Rs. 20 lakhs of the total industry expenditure of Rs. 35 lakhs. Thus, its share of voice is 57.1%. However, its market share is only 40%. So we can say that firm A is either overspending or misspending. Firm B has a market share equal in proportion to its share of voice. It spends effectively on advertising, while firm C is super efficient, and could probably increase expenditures.
PRE-TESTING
Advertisements can be researched prior to their release (pre-test) or after they have been released (post-test). Pre-tests are sometimes referred to as copy tests. The methods used to pre-test advertisements are based upon either qualitative or quantitative criteria. The most common methods used to pre-test advertisements are concept testing, focus groups, consumer juries, dummy vehicles, readability, theatre and physiological tests. Focus groups are the main qualitative method used and theatre or hall tests, the main quantitative tests. The primary purpose of testing advertisements during the developmental process is to ensure that the final creative will meet the advertising objectives. The practical objective of pre-testing unfinished and finished creative work is that it is more effective for an advertiser to terminate an advertisement before costs become so large and commitment too final. Changes to an advertisement that are made too late may be resisted partly because of the sunk costs and partly because of the political consequences that ‘pulling’ an advertisement might have. Once a series of advertisements has been roughed or developed so that its messages can be clearly understood, advertisers seek reassurance and guidance regarding which of the alternatives should be developed further. Concept tests, in-depth interviews, focus groups and consumer juries can be used to determine which of the proposed advertisements are the better ones by using ranking and prioritization procedures. Of those selected, further testing can be used to reveal the extent to which the intended message is accurately
decoded. These comprehension and reaction tests are designed to prevent inappropriate advertisements reaching the finished stage. PRE-TESTING UNFINISHED ADVERTISEMENTS Concept testing
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The concept testing is an integral part of the developmental stage of advertising strategy. The purpose is to reduce the number of alternative advertising ideas, to identify and build upon the good ideas and to reject those that the target audience feel are not suitable. Concept testing can occur very early on in the developmental process, but is usually undertaken when the target audience can be presented with a rough outline or story-board that represents the intended artwork and the messages to be used. There are varying degrees of sophistication associated with concept testing, from the use of simple cards with no illustrations to photomatics, which is a film of individual photographs shot in sequence, and livematics, which is a film very close to the intended finished message. Their use will reflect the size of the advertiser’s budget, the completion date of the campaign and the needs of the creative team usually followed up focus groups. The Pantene Pro V shampoo was priced higher than most shampoos, and since the target were SECs A+, the concept of showcasing modern women with short hair was created. Before they went ahead with making the ad, people at Grey Worldwide did a concept testing exercise, where a representative sample of the target was shown drawn sketches of the ad. Surprisingly, the idea of women with short hair did not gel well with them, since in India, long hair is perceived as more beautiful. Consequently, the idea was scrapped, and models were changed to those with longer hair. A lot of money was saved through this exercise, without which the ad could have backfired.
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Focus groups
When a small number (8 to 10) of target consumers are brought together and invited to discuss a particular topic, a focus is formed. By using in-depth interviewing skills, a professional moderator can probe the thoughts and feelings held by the members of the group towards a product, media vehicles or advertising messages. One-way viewing rooms allow clients to observe the interaction without the focus group’s behavior being modified by external influences. The advantage of focus groups is that they are relatively inexpensive to set up and run and they use members of the target audience. In this sense, they are representative and allow true feeling and emotions to be uncovered in a way that other methods deny. They do not attempt to be quantitative and, in that sense, they lack objectivity. There may be in-built bias to the responses. Focus groups are very popular, but they should not be used on their own. Children are a very important target audience for many products. Often focus groups of children are formed. Since they are easily bored, and may not be able to provide conclusive answers, admen have to look for creative ways to tap them. Often, they are given coloured pecils, crayons etc. and asked to draw the product. The drawing provides valuable insights. Therefore, while testing for Polo Smoothies, kids were provided with various other candies along with Polo Smoothies, and their behaviour was then noted. Picnics were also conducted. Consumer juries
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A ‘ jury’ of consumers, representative of the target market, is asked to judge which of a series of paste-ups and rough ideas would be their choice of a final advertisement. They are asked to rank in order of merit and provide reasons for their selections. There are difficulties associated with ranking and proiritisation tests. First, the consumers, realizing the reason for their participation, may appoint themselves as
‘experts’, so they lose the objectivity that the process is intended to bring. Second, the ‘halo’ effect can occur, whereby an advertisement is rated excellent overall simply because one or two elements are good and the respondent overlooks the weaknesses. Finally, emotional advertisements tend to receive higher scores than informational messages, even though the latter might do better in the market place. Nestle’s Smoodles have kids as the target audience. They were asked to participate in such an exercise, and actually thumbed down 7 variations of the packaging, before they finally gave their approval to the present one. While testing for Kotak Mahindra Financial Services, consumer juries were provided with the names of various banks and financial service providers, and asked to segregate them into “Good”, “Bad””, and “Ugly”. The results were a little surprising…ICICI and HDFC enjoyed top spot, while the Citibank and HSBCs were second,mostly because consumers didn’t feel they could trust the MNCs completely. Kotak, Tata etc. were at the bottom. Kotak Mahindra was perceived as an unprofessional, fuddy duddy, Indian company. To change this image, the company came out with the “ Zindagi ka hisaab kitaab” ads, which were totally non financial, and non technical, featuring instead Hindi Poetry in the background. Also, simple feel good messages were sent out for a year and a half to create a positive feeling about the company. The ad was a great success. PRE-TESTING FINISHED ADVERTISEMENTS When an advertisement is finished, it can be subjected to a number of other tests before being released. Dummy vehicles
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Many of the pre-testing methods occur in an artificial environment such as the theatre, laboratory or meeting room. One way of testing so that the reader’s natural environment is used is to produce a dummy or pretend magazine that can be consumed at home, work or wherever readers normally read magazines. Dummy magazines contain regular editorial matter with test advertisements inserted next to control advertisements. These pretend magazines are distributed to a random sample of households, who are asked to
consume the magazine in their normal way. Readers are encouraged to observe the editorial and at a later date they are asked questions about both the editorial and the advertisements. The main advantage of using dummy vehicles is that the setting is natural, but, as with the focus group, the main disadvantage is that respondents are aware that they are part of a test and may respond unnaturally. Respondents are shown a number of ads, and then asked which they remembered, what they liked about the ad, and so on. Going back to the previous example, the Kotak Mahindra ad stood out in such a test because (according to respondents) it was a financial services advertisements, which had no finance aspect to it. Readability tests
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The readability test involves, among other things, determining the average number of syllables per 100 words of copy, the average length of sentence and the percentage of personal words and sentences. By accounting for the educational level of the target audience and by comparing results with established norms, the tests suggest that comprehension is best when sentences are short, words are concrete and familiar, and personal references are used frequently. Such norms are especially used when it comes to designing ads for hoardings. There are established norms as to the minimum font size a text should have to avoid being missed. Ads also try to have shorter sentences, fewer than eight words, and avoid using words like “ because”, “ and so” etc. Theatre tests
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As a way of testing finished broadcast advertisements, target consumers are invited to a theatre (laboratory or hall) to preview television programmes. Before the programme commences, details regarding the respondents’ demographic and attitudinal details are recorded and they are asked to nominate their product preferences from a list. At the end
of the viewing their evaluation of their programme is sought and they are also requested to complete their product preferences a second time. There are a number of variations on this theme: one is to telephone the respondents a few days after the viewing to measure recall. The main outcome of this process is a measure of a degree to which product preferences change as a result of exposure to the controlled viewing. This change is referred to as the persuasion shift. This approach provides for a quantitative dimension to be added to the testing process, as the scores recorded by respondents can be used to measure the effectiveness of advertisements and provide benchmarks for future testing. It is argued that this form of testing is too artificial and that the measure of persuasion shift is too simple and unrealistic. Furthermore, some believe that many respondents know what s happening and make changes because it is expected of them in the role of respondent. PHYSIOLOGICAL MEASURES Physiological tests have been designed to measure the involuntary responses to stimuli and to avoid the bias inherent in the other tests. There are substantial costs involved with the use of these techniques, and the validity of the results is questionable. Consequently, they are not used a great deal in practice, but, of them all, eye tracking is the most used and most reliable. However, ad agencies don’t use these tests in India. ? Pupil dilation Pupil dilation tests are designed to measure the respondent’s reaction to a stimulus. Pupil dilation is associated with action and interest. The level of arousal is used to determine the degree of interest and preference in a particular advertisement or package design. ? Eye Tracking This technique requires the use of eye movement cameras which fire an infra-red beam to track the movement of the eye as it scans an advertisement. The sequence in which the
advertisement is read can be determined and particular areas which do or do not attract attention can be located, the layout of the advertisement can then be adjusted as necessary. ? Electroencephalographs (EEG) This approach involves the use of a scanner, which monitors the electrical frequencies of the brain. There are essentially two ways of utilizing this approach. The first, hemisphere lateralisation, concerns the ability of the left-hand side of the brain to process rational, logical information. It tends to process verbal stimuli. In contrast, the right-hand side of the brain is thought to handle visual stimuli and respond more to emotional inputs. The right is best for recognition; the left is better for recall. Thus, advertisements should be designed to appeal to each hemisphere.
POST-TESTING
Testing advertisements that have been released is generally more time-consuming and involves greater expense than pre-testing. However, the big advantage with post-testing is that advertisements are evaluated in their proper environment, or at least the environment in which they are intended to be successful. There are a number of methods used to evaluate the effectiveness of such advertisements, and of these inquiry, recognition and sales based tests predominate. Inquiry tests
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These tests are designed to measure the number of inquiries or direct responses stimulated by advertisements. Inquiries can take the form of returned coupons and response cards, requests for further literature or actual orders. Inquiry tests can be used to test single advertisements or a campaign in which responses are accumulated. Using a split run, an advertiser can use two different advertisements and run them in the same print vehicle. This allows measurement of the attention-getting
properties of alternative messages. If identical messages are run in different media then the effect of the media vehicles can be tested. Care needs to be given to the interpretation of inquiry-Based tests, as they may be misleading. An advertisement may not be effective simply because of the responses received. People may respond because they have a strong need for the offering rather than the response being a reflection of the qualities of the advertisement. Likewise, other people may not respond despite the strong qualities of the advertisement, simply because they lack time, resources or need at that particular moment. Recall tests
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Recall tests are designed to assess the impression that particular advertisements have made on the memory of the target audience. Interviewers, therefore, do not use a copy of the advertisement as a stimulus, as the tests are intended to measure impressions and perception, not behavior, opinions, attitudes or the advertising effect. Normally, recall tests require the cooperation of several hundred respondents, all of whom were exposed to the advertisement. They are interviewed the day after an advertisement is screened, hence the reference to day-after-recall tests (DAR). Once qualified by the interviewer, respondents are first asked if they remember a commercial for, say, air travel. If the respondent replies ‘yes, Virgin Airlines’, then this is recorded as Unaided Recall and is regarded as a strong measure of memory. If the respondent says ‘no’, the interviewer might ask the question ‘did you see the advertisement for British Airways?’ a positive answer to this prompt is recorded as Aided Recall. These answers are then followed by questions such as ‘what did the advertisement say about British Airways?’ ‘What did the commercial look like?’ and ‘what did it remind you of?’. All the answers provided to this third group of questions are written down word for word and recorded as verbatim responses.
The reliability of recall scores is generally high. This means that each time the advertisement is tested, the same score is generated. Validity refers to the relationship or correlation between recall and the sales that ultimately result from an audience exposed to a particular advertisement. The validity of recall tests is generally regarded by researchers as low. Recall tests have a number of other difficulties associated with them. ? They can be expensive, since a lot of resources go into looking for and identifying respondents. ? Also interviewing time is expensive, and scores may be rejected if it appears that the respondent is merely guessing. However, as recall tests are an indication of the levels of attention and interest in the advertisement, they are used a great deal. They provide an acceptable means by which decisions to invest heavily in advertisements can be made. Agencies accumulate vast amounts of recall data, which can be used as benchmarks to indicate whether a particular advertisement generated a score that was better or less than the average decided for the brand. Despite their merits, however, they are poor predictors of sales. Kinetic wanted the Kinetic Challenger ad to have everything about the product shown. Though the agency tried to make the ad as memorable as possible, recall tests found that people were confused, and had little idea as to what the bike stood for, or its features. Recognition tests
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Recall tests are based on the respondents’ memory and their ability to process information about the advertisement. A different way of determining the effectiveness is to ask the respondents if they recognise an advertisement. This is most common in the case of print advertisements.
Having agreed that the respondent has previously seen a copy of the magazine, it is opened at a predetermined page and the respondent is asked for each ad, whether he has seen or read any part of the advertisement, If yes, then he is asked to indicate exactly which part he has seen/read. What the scores note are? ? ? The percentage of readers who remember seeing the ad (noted) Percentage of readers who recall seeing or reading any part of the ad identifying the offering (seen associated) ? ? Percentage of readers who report reading at least 50% of the ad (read most) Percentage of readers who remember seeing the brand name or logo (signature)
The reliability of recognition tests is higher than that of recall tests. Costs are also lower because the technique is simple, quick and easy to administer. It is also possible to deconstruct an ad and then assess each effect on the reader. However, bias is inevitable, on the part of the respondent. It could also be introduced by the research organisation and the interviewer’s fatigue. Also there could be the problem of false claiming, where the respondent claims to have seen the ad, but in fact has not. Sales tests
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If the level of sales that occurs during and after an ad campaign could measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns, then sales tests would be a useful method of measuring the effectiveness of an ad. However, the fact is that, sales tests are historical by definition. Sales occur partly as a consequence of past actions, including past communication strategies, and the costs of production, agency and media have already been sunk. However, with the development and advances of technology, it is now possible to correlate consumer purchases with the ads they have been exposed to. This is known as “ single source data” and involves the controlled transmission of advertisements to
particular households whose every purchase is monitored through a scanner at supermarket checkout points. Consumers on one side of the street receive one set of advertisements, while those on the other receive the test advertisements. Then, any change in buying pattern is observed to arrive at conclusions.
? Other tests
o Tracking studies A tracking study involves interviewing a large number of people on a regular basis, weekly or monthly, with the purpose of collecting data about buyers’ perceptions of the advertisements and how these ads might be affecting the buyer’s perceptions of the brand. By measuring the impact of an advertisement campaign when it is running, adjustments can be made quickly. The most common elements that can be tracked or monitored are the awareness levels of an advertisement and the brand, and its image ratings, as well as image ratings of the organisation. Tracking studies could be on a periodic or continuous basis. A further form of tracking is to monitor the stock held by retailers. Counts are usually undertaken every month, on a pre and post exposure basis. This method of measuring sales is used frequently. Grey Worldwide has been tracking about 50 families in New Zealand, to find their patterns of consumption. This has gone on for the last 10 years and is still continuing. They now have an enviable wealth of information, including the products bought, reasons why, where the products are placed within the house, the manner of usage and so on. However, they say tracking in India is extremely expensive. Since this is a heterogenous market, with the North, South, East and West having distinctive preferences, and since more people would have to be tracked given our population, tracking is not feasible here. Likeability: The key factor
Research has shown that of all the measures and tests, the most powerful predictor was likeability: “ how much I liked the ad”” A lot of work has also gone in to clarify the term “likeability”, and has been found to have a deep meaning, and is concerned with the following issues: Personally meaningful, relevant, informative, true to life, believable, convincing Relevant credible, clear product advantages, product usefulness, importance to “me”” Stimulates interest and curiosity about the brand, creates warm feelings through enjoyment of the advertisement. Thus, post testing should include a strong measure of how well an advertisement was liked at its deepest level of meaning. CONCLUSION The evaluation of a marketing plan, once implemented is an essential part of the total system. It provides a potentially rich source of material for the next campaign. The achievement of advertising objectives can only be specifically measured if the target audience is tested before and after exposure, in order that a degree of change can be determined. Such pre and post testing is however, not without its share of problems. One way of coping with such problems is to control all variables except the advertising. To achieve this, a control group and a test group are required and tests conducted so that the advertising effect can be theoretically isolated. Again, assessment of advertising is easier said than done. There is no singular perfect technique, but research should be undertaken if the communication performance of the offering is to be built and maintained. An important question is why so many managers choose not to measure effectiveness. The immediate answer is that all managers do measure the effectiveness demonstrated through their observation of the sales results at the end of each period. However, proper testing is rarely done for various reasons. Since different people associated with the campaign have different needs there can be disagreement as to what is to be researched. Also budget maybe restricted. It is also difficult to isolate the effect of advertising, thus why waste resources on testing.
However, only by attempting to measure the effectiveness will our understanding of advertising improve and lead to more effective utilization of the tool of communication. Sales measurement is used so commonly because it is relatively cheap to administer and quick to implement and to many managers sales and profits are derived from advertising, and so this constitutes as the only real measure. However, pre and post testing should use a range of re and post techniques, both qualitative and quantitative. This together with the measure of likeability would be the ideal measure if time and financial resources permit.
Copy
Introduction
An advertisement is a stimulus. It must break through consumers’ physiological screens to create the kind of attention that leads to perception. The final form in which advertising appears perhaps conceals as much as it reveals, unless advertising is superficial and shallow. The creative team has the critical responsibility of not missing out on the substance and yet making the advertising appealing and credible.
What is Copywriting?
Definition:
Copywriting is a specialized form of communicating ideas that are meant to serve the requirements of modern marketing. It helps in establishing links between advertisers and their prospects. It may also be used to promote the acceptance of an idea, as in the case of non-commercial advertising. It utilizes words to convey messages having commercial, informative or persuasive value through various media and its success is indicated by the acceptance by the audience of the idea or claims made for goods or services. The results come from what words convey in terms of benefits and satisfaction.
Meaning:
Copywriting is essentially selling with words. Copywriting is using words to convince readers they will benefit by using a certain product or service and then motivating them to take action (buy). Copywriting is the words used in advertisements, TV commercials, and brochures. Whenever a business promotes itself (through a press release, a leaflet or a newsletter), it needs a copywriter. That’s why copywriting is everywhere - on big posters, local newspaper ads, and every slogan. And when you put a postcard in a newsagent's window, to sell your old hi-fi, you're using copywriting again. Copywriting is probably the most creative and demanding branch of writing. You start with a blank sheet of paper. You may have only a couple of days to meet the client’s deadline. And your work could be read by millions of people.
What Copywriting isn't!
Copywriting is different from copyright. Copyright is about owning the rights to a book, play or picture while copywriting is writing of an advertisement for television, radio, posters, billboards, leaflets, pamphlets, etc.
Who needs copywriters?
The market is vast. Every business, small and large, has to promote itself. Every company needs leaflets or direct mail letters. And every new product needs a pack that will entice us to buy it. These days all organizations need to communicate. That includes hospitals, local authorities and charities. So the opportunities for the copywriter are infinite. Because organizations constantly alter, their literature and ads need regularly changing, too. That keeps copywriters busy! A copywriter performs a highly responsible role of fully understanding the marketing strategy and integrating it, through creative strategy, in the copy. Copywriting skills require • Command over language and • An intellectual and creative mentality. It may also be necessary, at times, to assume the role of a salesman, for instance to understand the marketing perspective from the advertisers angle as well as from the audience point of view. A copywriter works in the creative department along with the art director. It is the job of this department to generate alternative advertising ideas and ultimately pick one or a few that will go forward into production. A copywriter has the responsibility of creating the advertising while as the art director has to introduce illustration and pictoral materials. These two people are generally under the supervision of the Creative Director and as team is responsible to make a campaign.
Principles of Copywriting
1. Use Attention Getting Headlines BPL – Powerful performance. Incredible looks 2. Keep body copy to the point If your headline and illustration has attracted the reader, he may decide to look at the small print – the body copy. This is where you explain the headline, confirm the facts and add extra selling points. If one can make people read the body copy, you have a better chance of selling your product. DHL – you time is precious, Spend it beautifully.
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Be positive. Some ad starts with negative statements, which could be easily converted into positive statements. Indiatimes Astrospeak - A wrong move and your career might not move at all. Include the minor details. At the bottom of the ad goes your company name, the address and telephone number. If you leave it out you aren’t really trying to get sales. If you are selling packaged goods, you will need to include a pack shot – a photo of your product. If you can’t use a pack shot, your logo will provide a visual reminder for the reader. A list of stockists is important if your product has limited selective distribution. Other options include a money – off coupon, or a coupon to be mailed back to you for more information. Enchanting Tamil Nadu An ad. Promoting Tamil Nadu, which includes all the contact details.
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3. Expand Headline with Lead Paragraph Follow up the headline immediately with the first paragraph. If you ask a question, answer it. If you propose a thought, explain it. Don't leave them hanging too long; you may end up hanging yourself. BioAsia Introduces an industrial area with a saying by a newspaper regarding that land. 4. Draw the Reader In Avoid page and advertising layouts that are confusing or hard to read. Reading your message should be a pleasure to read. Keep your copy simple, clear and concise. Talk to your reader as you would a friend or family member. Be straight and sincere with them. Spell it out and explain points that need explaining. Don't leave your reader secondguessing your copy. 5. Focus on the Reader, not the Product Of course your copy must contain information and facts about your product or service, but that is not your focal point. You must focus the reader. Use their needs, wants, desires, fears, weaknesses, concerns, and even fantasies to sell your product or service. Lakme The ad for Lakme Deep Pore Cleansing begins with the headline “There's a lot that shows on your face”. The body copy includes - Now, one-and-a-half minutes is all it takes to uncover the real you. Presenting the complete Deep Pore Cleansing Regimen from Lakme. Simply because your face says it all. Thus, not only does the ad talk about the product, it also focuses equally on the reader. Using words like “you” would make the reader feel good, rather than an ad that boasts about the product but says nothing about how to use it, how it could make your life better, etc.
6. Use the "That's Right!" Principle Get your prospect to agree with you. Tell them something they know already. Get them to say to themselves, "That's Right!" JW Marriott The print ad for JW Marriott starts with the headline -: Your mom knows exactly how you like your bed, your toast, and your coffee…. This headline will indeed make the target exclaim – that’s right! 7. Ask Provocative Questions: Leading into your copy or headline with thought provoking questions will grab the reader's interest and move them to read more for the answer. Car ads. Usually ask a question such as “Planning to buy a new car”? 8. Move Quickly from Intro to the Pitch: Don't waste your reader's time trying to "warm them up". If they got that far, there's blood flowing already. People are busy creatures. If you lose their interest, you neither sell nor profit. Get on with it! 9. Be Sincere: What's the number one fallback for sales on the web? Fear! Fear of being scammed or ripped-off. The more sincere you are the better your chance of building a "selling" relationship. Air Sahara The sincerity and genuineness of Air Sahara comes across in its ad where the body copy says – as hard as we may try at this time of the year (winter), there are chances of flight delays due to weather conditions. Every step is taken to help passengers get to their destinations on time. To make this process easier, we need your help too. 10. Don't Contradict Yourself: Double-check your copy. You would be surprised to know that many copywriters unknowingly contradict themselves leaving the reader suspicious, thus destroying your credibility with them. 11. Keep Your Focus Aligned The more focused your target group, the better your chance of meeting their needs. Don't try to sell everyone!
12. Make Your Product Irresistible Dress it up. Your product should sound like the cream of the crop. Focus on your selling point (price, quality, etc) and make it impossible for the reader to imagine another in comparison. The FedEx ad which shows a company employee carrying a baby in his arms. 13. Use Fear as Motivation: Fear is both a weakness and strength, but also a powerful selling tool. Fear of injury, death or missed opportunity. If you sell a safety product you would use this fear to your advantage. If you're offering an opportunity, the fear of missing their chance is a strong seller. Saffola oil talks about the heart problems among the high risk Indians 14. Flattery will get you everywhere Yes, everyone likes to hear a little flattery. Keyword here is "little". Don't overdo it! 15. Be Personable Let them know that there is a kind, honest and real person behind the page. People would rather deal with people, not companies, corporations or conglomerates. Add the "Human Touch" to your copy. Eureka Forbes The institutional ad for Eureka Forbes which shows model Aditi Gowatrikar with her child has a human touch to it, what with the body copy saying – “…times have changed. Yet your dreams remain the same. So open up. Say ‘yes’ to life…” 16. Its Guaranteed A guarantee reassures the reader that you are reputable and will live up to your promises. Vim Bar In the Vim Bar TVC, the anchor promises that if “your” detergent is better than Vim Bar, you will get a year’s supply of your detergent free. This guarantee lends credibility to the offering and induces the viewer to act. 17. Share a Secret People want to get the inside track. If you can convince your prospect that you have an exclusive message for them, you're one step closer to a sale.
18. Use "Power"ful Words: "Power" words are words that move a buyer by enhancing and reinforcing your presented idea. Certain words have proven to be movers and shakers in the advertising world. Examples of persuasive and attention-grabbing words Easy genuine immediate more convenient advantages instant biggest exclusive comfortable WANTED oldest Indulge dependable WARNING Original
19. Keep It Lively: There are many ways to keep your copy lively. Telling a (brief) story is a strong technique for getting your message across. Separating and highlighting key information or facts is another. Using personal pronouns like "you", we and us will add a sense of warmth to your copy. 20. Go with the Flow Writing copy requires the ability to make a smooth transition from one point to another. Rather than laying them out like a list, learn to use transitional words. Transitional words are used to go from one point to another. 21. Check Your Spelling Take the time and spell-check your work. Finding misspelled words in copy leaves the reader wondering how competent your product or service could be, if you cannot take the time to be sure you spelled the words in your web copy correctly. 22. Use Photo's to Demonstrate: Use photos to demonstrate your product or service. If used correctly a picture really is worth a thousand words. The VLCC ‘Before’ & ‘After’ Ads. 23. Use Graphics to get Attention: Using buttons, icons and arrows can help direct the reader's attention to important details. If organized correctly they can also help sort facts or messages into categories. The Fila ad. shows how similar is a design of a Fila shoe and a F1 car.
24. Offer Testimonials Offer short, reputable testimonials. People want to hear what others have to say about your product or service. Loreal - Diana Hayden – Miss World 1996 offers testimonial for Loreal Hair color. 25. Create a Memorable Logo Create a simple, but memorable logo or custom graphic that your visitor can easily relate to your product or service Nike swoosh, BMW, Mercedes 26. Create an Unforgettable Slogan Use a short, easy to remember slogan that a reader will walk away with on his or her lips. Nike – Just Do It. Visa – Go get it Pepsi – Yeh Dil Maange More Asian Paints – Merawalla…. 27. Get a response There are many techniques for getting a prospect to respond. Spell it out for them. Tell them to respond. Tell them why they should respond. Give them a reason they should respond now. Offer a bonus or freebie if they respond. This can be done by using words like – order now, order today, for a short time only, last chance, etc. Service – ICICI Bank – Two Wheeler Loans “Take Home Passion (Hero Honda Passion) by just paying Rs. 3999 only
Writing strategy
Creativity is of paramount importance in initiating the process of writing a copy, especially in evolving the basic approach. At the same time, creative ardour has to be combined with purposeful thinking. Such thinking should, in fact, help in capitalizing effectively on the full creative potential. The following phases of purposeful thinking have been envisaged 1. Abstracting: Relevant data are obtained from the market situation, prospects and relevant media. 2. Synthesizing: Elements are blended and combined, ideas and approaches accepted, rejected, revised.
3. Hypothesizing: Ideas formulated into experimental pattern culminating in a working statement. 4. Gestation: Objections and difficulties resolved. Many involve discussion with others or reference to sources of information. 5. Coalescence: Decisions are made for transference of ideation to physical expression, i.e. writing. 6. Performance: Action is taken in the form of actual writing. Copy Elements The major elements of copy are briefly described below. All of them may not be necessary advertisements. The Headline The first and possibly the most important copy element is the headline. The headline of an advertisement will normally present a selling idea or will otherwise serve to involve the prospect in reading of the advertisement. Most advertisements have headlines of one sort or another and their primary function is to catch the eye of the reader. A headline may be set in big type or small. Headlines need not always contain special messages. Even a company or brand name could be used as a headline. The Sub head Sometimes important facts may have to be conveyed to the reader and it may require more space than what should be ideally used for the headline. In order to give prominence to such formation it can be put in smaller type than the headline, known as a subhead. All advertisements do not require subheads. Example: Mahindra Scorpio – the NFO Automotive 2003 Total Customer Satisfaction Study. Yet another high for Scorpio. The Body Copy The body copy refers to the text in the advertisement which contains details regarding the functions of the product/service and its benefits. Ogilvy recommends plunging in the subject matter straightaway without beating about the bush. The body copy can be short or long depending on how much information the company is willing to tell the reader.
Captions Captions are the small units of type used with illustrations, coupons and special offers. These are generally less important than the main selling points of the advertisement in the body copy and are usually set in type sizes smaller than the text. Health Total – exciting new year offer last 6 days The Blurb A blurb or a balloon is a display arrangement where the words appear to be coming from the mouth of one of the characters illustrated in the advertisement. At times the complete body copy can be composed of blurbs, as in the case of comic strips. DIT – speech bubble having the text “ Sunoji, today is the last date for payment of Advance Tax…… Sunti ho” Boxes and Panels Boxes or panels are, in fact, captions placed in special display positions so as to get greater attention. A box is a caption that has been lined on all sides and singled out from the rest of the copy. A panel is a solid rectangle in the centre of which the caption is placed either in white or centered in the white space. Boxes and panels are generally used in advertisements containing features such as coupons, special offers and consumer contests. Slogans, Logo Types and Signatures A slogan may refer, for instance, to the age of the advertiser’s firm, meant for inclusion in every advertisement. A symbol of the company name, seal or trademark is called logotype and is a typical feature of most advertisements. It is also referred to as signature, indicating identification of the company or the brand. A logotype is an important aid in quick recognition of an advertisement and in creating familiarity for the audience. Add a strapline. A ‘strapline’ or ‘tag line’ usually appears underneath the logo. The strapline summarizes the product’s benefits in a memorable way. Put the same strapline at the bottom of the ad, on point-of-sale material and on brochures, and you link all the different promotional elements together. Writing a strapline is like writing a headline. You sit down and produce fifteen or more short lines (each two to five words long). Occasionally, a strapline becomes a national saying, but people usually forget which brand it was attached to.
Straplines often make good headlines because they summarize a major benefit in a pithy way. Similarly, discarded headlines often make good straplines, though they may have to be shortened. BPL – Believe in the Best
Criteria of effective copy
A good copy should comply with the following guidelines. It must 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Be precise Be concise Aim to sell Be sincere Be addressed according to the type of the audience Stimulate interest Create desire Inspire confidence Influence the reader’s thoughts and/or action
Copywriting Process
USE A CREATIVE BRIEF
AD AGENCY RESEARCH
CREATIVE PROCESS
ILLUSTRATING
LAYOUT
1. Creative Brief
A creative brief introduces some planning into the advertising process. It stops you writing the wrong ad. And it prevents other people in the company from saying later, ‘we should have majored on the colour, not the fabric’. Here are the main points to be covered in the creative brief. ? OBJECTIVES: What is the ad trying to do? Create awareness, sell more goods, or launch a new service? The best objectives are quantified (for example, ‘To achieve 50 per cent prompted awareness among the target market’). TARGET AUDIENCE: Who buys your product? Are they 18-30 year old SEC A/B/C (the upper classes and middle classes)? Female owners of small dogs? Engineers in firms employing more than fifty people? Iced bun lovers? Here you can add more details about your target market. How much do they know about the product? What do they think of your brand? What is their life style? This information will give you vital clues as to what the ad should say. PROPOSITION: The proposition is the main benefit you want to convey.
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Example: An advertisement for a laptop computer claimed that service agents were on hand to mend the machine quickly in the event of a breakdown. This worried readers that the machine would frequently break down. Not until the end of the ad did the company mention an astonishing selling point: its machine had been voted ‘best laptop’ by two magazines. That was a powerful proposition that the advertising agency had missed. Many advertising people use the UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION, or USP for short. In being ‘unique’, the proposition must be different from everyone else’s. The product doesn’t have to be the best: it simply has to be unique in some way. The USP must also be a ‘selling’ proposition: it must make the consumer want to buy the product. A rational USP comes from the product itself, while an emotional USP is used for a product that has no real advantage over competing brands. The emotional appeal often relies on ‘borrowed interest’ – something outside the product. Where no advantage exists, you have to look for a positioning that will distinguish the product from all others. In looking for an emotional appeal, you have to think laterally. SUPPORTING EVIDENCE: How can you justify the proposition? Can you quote facts and figures from market research? People need a ‘Reason to Believe’. Why they should believe a claim that your coffee tastes better? Maybe you have a special way of roasting it? Or perhaps you have experts who select the best beans? You can provide evidence from market research (‘7 out of 10 cat owners prefer it’). Or you can mention clinical research from a learned journal. You can quote satisfied customers, or show installations where your product is in place? ? TONE OF VOICE: If the ad were a person, what manner would it have? Would it be brisk, young and a bit brash? Or would it be cool and efficient? Would it be old, wise and whimsical; or would it be homely and simple?
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SPECIMEN CREATIVE BRIEF – VIP (Bye-Bye campaign) ? ? ? ? OBJECTIVES: Top of the mind awareness TARGET MARKET: Travelers PROPOSITION: Spacious, suitable for all purposes OTHER BENEFITS: Different sizes, 360 degree rotating, wide range of colors, sturdy. MEDIA: Television, Media
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This creative brief sets out the purpose of the ad and its parameters. Now the ad agency takes this brief as a base and starts its work. But before that they carry out a research themselves on the product in the target market so as to achieve the objectives of an ad.
2. Research carried by an ad agency after getting the brief
1. Who is the most likely prospect for the product? The copy platform must define the prospect in terms of geographic, demographic, psychographic, and/or behaviorist qualities. 2. Why? Does the consumer have specific wants or needs that the ad should appeal to? Advertisers use two broad categories of appeals. Rational appeals are directed at the consumer’s practical, functional need for the product or service; emotional appeals are directed at the consumer’s psychological, social, or symbolic needs. 3. What product features satisfy the consumers’ needs? What factors support the product claim? What is the product’s position? What personality or image – of the product or the company – can be or has been created? What perceived strengths or weaknesses need to be dealt with? 4. When and where will the messages be communicated? What medium? What time of the year? What area of the country? 5. How should this be communicated? What style, approach or tone will the campaign use? And generally what will the copy say? The answers to these questions help make up the copy platform. After writing the first ad, the copywriter should review the copy platform to see if the ad measures up. If it doesn’t, the writer must start again. Another important aspect to be considered before writing the copy for an ad is the broad objective of the ad. The advertising objective must flow from the prior decisions on target market, market positioning and marketing mix. Advertising objectives can be classified according to whether their aim is to inform, persuade or remind.
The Approval Process
Product Manager of Client Legal
Client Service (Agency)
Creative Director
Account Management Team
Legal
Art Director
Copywrit er
Acct. Supervisor
Account Manager
Staff Writer The client company representative (product manager) gives the brief to the clientservicing department of the ad agency. This brief is then broken down into creative and media brief. The creative brief is given to the creative director who passes it on to the art director and the copywriter. These two work in conjunction to create the ad. The (rough) ad is then shown to the account management team consisting of the supervisor and manager. They look into legalities that might affect the ad and whether the ad meets the client’s brief and budget. Changes, if any, are communicated to the creative department The (rough) ad is then shown to the client servicing dept. The dept. might also suggest changes. The ad is finally shown to the client for his approval. Once the approval is received, the creative department goes ahead with the actual production of the ad.
3. Creative Process: Coming up with an idea.
The creative process is concerned with taking up the baldly given marketing proposition (brief), and converting that into one or more creative ideas that clearly, powerfully and persuasively convey to the consumer what the brand does for them and why it should matter to them. Zingaro - Brief: Use humor with aspirational value
At the start of this stage the PLC (the product life cycle) should be taken into consideration
PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS IN ADVERTISING
Copy for ads for different products will vary according to the position of the product category in the product life cycle. When Good Knight mosquito mats were introduced, they were the first of their kind. Coils – mainly Tortoise, dominated the mosquito repellant industry. Thus, the product being in the introductory stage, the objective of the ad was to create product awareness and trial. It did so by informing the target as to how mats, and Goodknight in particular were different from coils. The slogan for the ad said it all – “No smoke, No ash, only Goodknight sleep.” But today, the category being in the maturity stage, GoodKnight can afford not to have elaborate body copy, detailed explanations about product benefits, etc. It can simply show Lisa Ray’s face with mosquito bites on one page and without those bites on another, and just use two words in the entire copy – bad night – below the first photograph and GoodKnight below the second. Thus copywriting differs according to the stage of the life cycle the product is in.
Action
Action
Desire Conviction Comprehension Awareness
Desire Credibility Interest Attention
Advertisers Pyramid MARKETING OBJECTIVES ADVERTISING STRATEGY
Copywriters Pyramid INTRODUCTION GROWTH Create product Maximise awareness and trial. market share. MATURITY Maximise profit while defending market share. Build product Build Stress brand awareness among early awareness differences and adopters and dealers. and interest in benefits. the mass market. DECLINE Reduce expenditure and milk the brand. Reduce to level needed to retain hard-core loyals.
When following the five steps of the copywriter’s pyramid, the writer’s words also help shape the various format elements of an ad- the headline, body copy, boxes and panels, slogans, and more.
Using the AIDA Model for Copywriting Attention
Print ads often use headlines as the major attention - getting device. Many other devices also help getting attention – in print media: • • Dynamic visuals Tata Indigo Vibrant color Use of bright colors such as red, purple, green,etc helps attract attention. Orange Dominant ad size A full-page ad in any newspaper is sure to get the reader’s Mahindra Scorpio attention.
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In electronic media - Special sound effects, music The Kelvinator Ad showing an old man’s dentures, in a bowl clattering every time the refrigerator door opened. Thus the use of sound effect- of teeth clattering – attracted attention. Animation Amul – girl mascot Kellog’s chocos – bear Amaron – clay Models The attention getting device should create drama, power, impact, and intensity, and it must be appropriate – relate to the product, to the tone of the ad, and to the needs or interests of the intended audience.
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Interest
Interest, the second step is extremely important; it carries the prospective customer – now excited from a successful attention step – to the more serious discussion in the body of the ad. It must keep the excitement of the prospect alive as the information becomes more detailed and specific. To do this, the copywriter can answer a question asked in the attention step or add additional facts that relate to the headline. Research shows that people read what interests them and ignore what doesn’t, so the writer must maintain the prospect’s interest all times. One way to do so is to relate to the
prospect’s psychological screens – by talking to them about them, and about their problems, their needs, and how the product or service answers their needs. Copywriters use the word you frequently. There are many effective ways to stimulate interest – a dramatic situation, a story, a cartoon, or charts and tables. In radio, copywriters use sound effects or catchy dialogues between characters. Television frequently uses quick cuts from one subject to another to maintain interest in the action – and the outcome – of the commercial.
Credibility
The third step is to establish credibility for the product or service. Customers today are sophisticated, skeptical, and cynical. They want to know that a product or service claim is backed up by facts. Comparison ads can build credibility, but they must be relevant to customer’s needs – and fair. Well – known presenters may lend credibility to commercials. Advertisers often show independent test results to substantiate product claims. To work, such proofs must be valid, not just statistical manipulation. Advertisers and agencies must remember that many consumers have extensive knowledge, even in specialized areas. Many publications – newspapers, magazines, etc lend credibility to their ads by quoting figures stated by ABC – audit Bureau of Circulation, IRS, NRS, etc. Scorpio ad saying “91 points to make one simple point to cars.”
Desire
In the desire step, the writer encourages prospects to picture themselves enjoying the benefits of the product or service. Essentially they are invited to experience the process o visualization. In newspaper and magazine ads, the copywriters initiate visualization by using words and phrases like: “picture yourself”; “Imagine”; “Be the first”. In TV copywriting, the main character pulls a sparkling clean T-Shirt from the washer and strikes a wide smile, and says “Yeah!” In radio, the announcer says, “You’ll look your best.” Fall madly in love at MAMALLAPURAM.: Tourism Tamil Nadu. The objective of the desire step is to hint at the possibilities and let the audience’s minds take over. The desire step is one of the most difficult sections of the pyramid to write – and that must be why some copywriters omit it.
Action
The final step is the action step. The purpose here is to motivate people to do something – to send in a coupon, call the number on the screen, or visit the store – or at least to agree with the advertiser. This block reaches the smallest audience but those with the most to gain from the product’s utility. So the last step is often the easiest. If the copy is clear about what readers need to do – whom to call, how to write, when to act – and commands them to act, chances are they will act. Some ads use coupons to get readers involved; others display toll-free phone or fax number in print and broadcast ads to make response more convenient. And direct mail pieces use order cards or order forms with tear off mail-back envelopes. Regardless of the techniques, ads should always request action. Health total: Exciting New Year offer. Last 6 days. Sai service: Lowest ever Interest rates, 10% off, exchange options.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS CAN BE ELABORATED AS FOLLOWS:
The following are the steps generally covered in developing concepts (central ideas) for campaigns and then writing the copy. It is guide to a reasonable procedure that can be helpful before the copywriter gains enough experience to prepare his/her own procedures. The steps are explained using the example of Cello Techno Tip pen.
Writing the Copy Headline
Headlines may be classified by performance as follows: 1. News or Information: Conveys real news or important information about a product. The Radio Mirchi ad., wherein they include bar and pie charts to depict the listenership share.
2. Claim:
Insist that this product has an outstanding record or performs in a certain way. It should not be overly blatant and boastful, if so then it is called Horn-Blowing. DHL - “when sending shipments to the US, more of India’s companies choose us”. 3. Advice or Promise: Promise a real benefit if the product is used. Kotak Mahindra Mutual Funds 4. Logo Or Slogan: Stress the reputation of the company behind it. Toyota, Tata both use their logos for most of the ads for their automobiles – Camry and Indica respectively. 5. Mood-Setting: Set a mood to create receptivity in the reader. The JW Marriott ad, which uses the headline –“The earth is mostly water. So is the view from our hotel. A picturesque scene of girl relaxing supports this 6. Provocative: It must provoke the reader into probing further. It means startling or interrupting in order to capture attention. If a provocative headline is used it must be pertinent to the product. If it presents a question, the answer must lie in the subheadline or body copy and in the product’s characteristics, features, and performance. Sometimes it presents a contradiction or an apparent paradox to the reader, with the explanation provided in the body copy. There are exceptions: Those messages where a headline and very descriptive visuals are able to tell the whole story. 7. Visuals: Are as much a part of headlines as are verbal concepts. The “bad night – Goodknight” ad with Lisa Ray …….her face tells the whole story and there’s no body copy!
Body copy
Body copy carries the selling message. Once the headline and visual have attracted attention and aroused interest, the body copy attempts further to develop the interest of the potential customer, to awaken the desire to own the product, and to close with a “call to action”. Body copy can be extremely important to the success of an ad. It allows you to fully convince the target audience of the benefits of the product. The copy approach is the way the copy and its appeal are presented. Copy approaches, various as they seem, can be grouped into three categories:
1. Factual, direct or rational approach Ford Ikon : Explaining all the features of the car. Passion Plus : Explaining all the features Several ways to work out this approach • Direct selling information Ads that offer information on products like music cassettes, books, CDs, etc, which are sold by the newspaper/magazine in which the ads feature, provide direct selling information. Testimonial copy 1. When Sachin Tendulkar says – “Boost is the secret of my energy”, he is offering testimony to the benefit offered by Boost, i.e. energy. 2. Chyawanprash: The recent Amitabh Bachhan ad. 2. Narrative approach story board Om Kotak Mahindra A man joins a party and is bewildered by what he sees. He moves forward in a daze and recognizes his own image as an old man. "Ek din, main apne aap se mila. Aur apna bhavishya dekha." He dances together with his vision, and enjoys the carefree moment. "Aatmanirbhar, surakshith. Azaad." They become the life of the party as... ...the MVO adds, "Om Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance. Jeene ki azaadi." The ad uses the narrative approach to emphasize the USP of Om Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance, i.e. Independence. Several ways to work out this approach: • • “Slice of life” – slice of life ads depict situations that one can relate to, situations that could have occurred in anyone’s life. McDonald, Cadburys dairy milk Fictional testimony In the ad for Dove, women who have used Dove narrate the positive effects of using Dove in their lives. • • Humor Amul Butter ads. 3. Projective or emotional approach Monologue or dialogue Hindustan Times
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This approach puts the reader realistically into the situation, involving him emotionally through a projected “factual story” or through fictional story about fictional characters. This approach relies on the customer’s association with the characters in the story – as if it were happening to him. McDonald’s ad. A little boy takes a last look around his old home. Everything is being packed up and stashed away to be moved Saying good-bye to his best friend he gets into the car and they drive out. On the way, he spots a McDonald’s restaurant and....he recalls all the fun they had here. The occasions celebrated and the good times come flashing back to him. Cut to the new house. His sister drags him to the window to show him something. The father draws a Mac logo in the air. As they look out, the kid sees a McDonald's restaurant opposite and his gloom disappears. The ad ends with the jingle - McDonald's mein hai kuch baat. Boxes and Panels Boxes and panels are great tools for the copywriter. In the information age, writers can access huge amounts of information to support their product’s utility and demonstrate why customers need it. To avoid having the ad’s text become a glut of testimonials, data, and off-the-issue discussions, copywriters segregate information of a secondary and supportive nature into boxes and panels next to the main body copy. This allows readers to first focus on the main issues and later study the detailed facts. A box is copy with a line around all four sides. A panel is an elongated box that runs the whole length or width of an ad. Boxes are useful for framing information that the prospect must read – e.g. coupons, special offers, contest rules, and the order blanks. Many slogans – also called theme lines or tag lines – begin as successful headlines. Through continuous use, they become standard statements, not just in advertising but also for salespeople and company employees. Slogans become a battle cry for the company. Slogans have two basic purposes: to provide continuity to a series of ads in a campaign and to reduce an advertising message strategy to a brief, repeatable and memorable positioning statement. De Beers ads still use the slogan – “Diamonds Are Forever/Heera Hai Sada Ke Liye” Because of their use in positioning a company or product, many slogans are developed at the same time the product or company is conceived. Slogans should be like old friends- recognized instantly year after year. Effective slogans are short, simple, memorable and easy to repeat, and most important, help differentiate the product or the company from its competitors.
Rhyme, rhythm, and reason – not to mention alliteration – are valuable tricks of the trade for slogan writing. Seals, Logotypes and Signatures A seal is awarded only when a product meets standards established by a particular institution or organization. Sunsilk claimed that it had passed the rigid tests and had received the approval of Elida Hair Institute of Paris Companies claiming to be ISO approved Since these organizations have credibility as recognized authorities, their seals provide an independent, valued endorsement for the advertiser’s product. The term Seal is sometimes interpreted to mean the company seal or trademark. They are actually called logotypes. Logotypes and signature are special designs of the advertiser’s company name or product name. They appear in all company ads and, like trademarks, give the product individuality and provide quick recognition at the point of purchase. Ways of visualization There are many acknowledged ways to visualize the product or the concept behind the product. ? Illustration of the product alone. (Usually a line drawing in a newspaper or a photograph against a plain backdrop). Rolex watches, Tata Indica – full page ads ? Illustration of a product in setting (as in an ad for a chair, showing the chair in the living room). Samsonite - Luggage at airport ? Illustration of a product in use (the artwork would show a chair, for example with someone sitting in it). Nilkamal chairs used in the ad ? Illustration of a benefit from using the product. (Rosy-cheeked children eating a given brand of bread, with the implication that the look of health results from eating that brand of bread). VLCC Before-after ads ? Illustration of the loss or disadvantage resulting from not using the advertised product. Indiatimes Astro Speak. - A wrong move and you career might not move at all.
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Dramatization of the headline
Nature Fresh Headline: Khao light, Jiyo life! In the ad for Nature Fresh oil, the headline – khao lite jiyo life (eat light, live life) has been dramatized by showing a young lady enjoying life to the fullest. ? Dramatizing a detail (where the illustration focuses on a small area of a product or enlarges a detail). Wills Classic print ads dramatize the details by showing small pictures of details such as the collar of the shirt, the cuff, etc. Tata Indigo: Showing the armchair, depicting, how spacious the car is. ? Comparison (illustrating the product and another object that is similar in an essential aspect). Vim Bar ads also compare the effectiveness of an ordinary detergent and that of Vim. ? Contrast (illustrating the product and an object that differs in an essential way; for example, before-and-after pictures or the advertised brand and an inferior “brand X”). The VLCC ads use the before-after effect to highlight the benefits offered by their service. ? Trade characters Lalitaji of Surf, Gattu of Asian Paints, the Amul girl. ? Charts and diagrams Radio Mirchi ads showing the listenership charts. ? Mood setting illustration (usually a romanticized rendering of the product or a romantic landscape). The JW Marriot ? Illustration of the product in its package (important for volume, price-cutting stores, and supermarket selling where recognition of the product “on the shelf” is important). ? Illustration of the product’s ingredients or raw materials. The Real Activ (packed fruit juice) commercial not only gives an illustration of a product in its package, but also shows the ingredients that are used in the product,i.e. oranges.
4. Illustrating In this stage, pictures or photographs are used to convey a central idea and there is little or no need for a long explanation or a recitation of copy points. Illustrating also involves decisions as to what “identification marks” to include. These fall into 3 categories: company or trade names, brand name, and trademarks. Art refers to a system of principles that guides us in creating beauty. In advertising, art shapes the message into a complete communication that appeal to the senses as well as the mind. So art refers to the whole presentation- visual, verbal and aural- of the ad. The term design refers to how the art director and graphic artist conceptually choose and structure the artistic elements that make up an ad’s appearance or set its tone. There are two phases in the design process for advertising (print, television). In the conceptual phase, the designer uses thumbnails, roughs, dummies, and comprehensivesin other words, non final art - to establish the ad’s look and feel. In the pre press or production art phase, the artist prepares a mechanical – the final artwork with the actual type in place along with all the visuals the publisher or printer will need to reproduce or print the ad. • Thumbnail sketches It is a small, very rough, rapidly produced drawing used to try out ideas. The artist uses it to visualize a number of layout approaches without wasting time on details; the best sketches are then developed further. Rough layout Here, the artist draws to the actual size of the ad. Headlines and subheads suggest the final type style, illustrations and photographs are sketched in, and body copy is simulated with lines. Roughs are presented to clientsparticularly cost conscious ones. Comprehensive: It is generally quite elaborated with colored photos, sub visuals, a glossy spray coat etc. Dummy It is a form of rough design used to present the hand held feel of brochures, multi page materials, or point of purchase displays.
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5. Layout The layout activity involves bringing all the pieces together before the advertising is sent to production.
A layout is an overall orderly arrangement of all the format elements of an ad- headline, subheads, visual, copy, captions, trademarks, slogans and signature. A layout gives a physical presentation (look and feel) of what the ad will look like. It helps the creative team to develop the ad’s psychological elements- the nonverbal and symbolic components. It serves as a blueprint once the best design is chosen. McGuire’s Persuasion matrix The following figure shows that process of attitude change in a simplified manner.
Ariel Compact The ad shows that the husband enters the house with a stain on his shirt. The wife then shows step-by-step method as to how to wash the shirt and then shows the clean shirt. People believe it and remember it next time when they face a similar situation. The Coke ad regarding no pesticides by Aamir Khan People see the ad and can make out the purpose of such an ad, they understood that there are no pesticides, believed it, then remembered it next time when they wanted to have a soft drink and so bought one (action) and had it.
Advertising Copy for other media
The basic principles of copywriting are same across all media, so is the AIDA model. But different media have certain peculiarities, which are explained briefly below.
No
Media Television
1.
Most important Visual
Least important
Must in the Copy Emotions Message should simple ? Stress on benefits ? ?
Others Formats: Demonstr be 1. ation: eg Vim bar ads 2. Problem & solution: eg fair and lovely ads 3. Music & song: eg Dabur anmol 4. Spokespe rson: eg Diana hayden for Loreal hair color 5. Dialogue: Moov 6. Narrative: new Berger Paints ad -
Words during the commer cial
2.
Radio
3.
Direct mail
4.
Outdoor advertising
Repetition of what is said Physical effort is needed for a positive outcome. Placement: where there is traffic Time is considered
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? ?
Strong opening line Message – simple & focused ? AIDA model is used
?
Its use includes selling message to prospective customer.
?
No more than 8 words
It is outdoor display of advertising message. ? Types : 1. posters/ billboard 2. painted bulletins 3. spectaculars ?
5.
Small ads
Use picture
a
6.
Transit Advertising
? Communicate advantages ? Benefit in headline Use slogans, product name, generic name applied to products campaign idea the poster advertising in terminals and stations and inside trains,
7.
POP advertising
subways, and buses Copy – simple, 1 idea, 1 ? Helps in impulse product, 1 benefit, 1 fact buying. Reminders
Budgeting
The decision how much to spend is the advertiser’s alone .The agency may be asked for its recommendation which it gives with reasonable disinterest, since it wants to keep its client next year and not just this year. It is just usually account control or the planner who gives this advice. The media department picks up a budget someone else has laid down, though it advises on media cost and performance. Even within the company several people influence or take part in the budget decision, with a variety of background and movies. In reality the freedom with which the Brand Manager exercises his supposed budget setting authority is quite limited. His recommendation will be primarily dependent on brand marketing requirement. But overall company financial will also alter even the requirement of other brand within the company affect brand and it and to this he is unlikely to have made a major contribution. It may also be geared to that outcome which wills most assist his own personal advancement. It is unknown to the brand’s advertising budget to be reduced in the short term for immediate profit improvement, with too little understanding of possible harmful effect in the long term. Company Management is heavily influenced by the trained accounting mind with its due emphasis on safety, stability, the price share and proven margins. When this attitude dominates, marketing expenditure is only that which will be generated by sales in the short term i.e. the relevant accounting period. From one point of view, advertising maintains or causes future sales; it is practice equally true that past sales causes the advertising budget. We are discussing only the media budget here – what is spend on TV, press advertising and so on. At the first stage, production cost is usually included, but they will be separated later on. The advertiser of course also has to fix the rest of his marketing budget, includes expenditure on trade and consumer deals, promotion, door to door distribution of samples and so on –each with its own cost, efficiency, long term effect, etc. These should be examined as carefully as the advertising expenditure.
Four question to determine the budget I recommend asking four questions about the budget These approach it from different direction and rarely lead to the same answer , but they enable you to you to bracket the
area in which a sensible answer lies. One question usually dominates the other but it is wise to ensure that this aspect does not settle the point of its own. 1) What can the product offer? 2) What is the advertising task? 3) What are competitors spending? 4) What have we learned from previous years? 1) What can the product offer? This is not the question asked by a naïve advertiser or by a cynical agency, eager to draw from the product the last drop of advertising money. It is request for a frank discussion on the budget for the product. Every product is under an obligation to make profits. Such a calculation must be based on a sales forecast. The supply of money for advertising may be further limited by the cash situation for the firm as whole. Only so much is available: it may be prudent – or possible – to borrow more. 2) What is the advertising task? Before any kind of work is started, it is usual to agree on its objectives. Agreement on the advertising task reduces confusion, gets the team all pulling the same way , prevents subsequent disappointment and incidentally helps to determine the advertising budget. Statement of the objectives leads to three questions 1) What media are likely to be chosen? 2) At what cost do they reach their target? 3) What no. of exposures to the target might achieve the specific effect? Next the advertising needs have to be settled. And we must decide whether this amount of consumer advertising will make a convincing story for salesmen to tell the trade – “We’re spending ¼ million pounds on television in the launch alone, and after that….”. 3) What are competitors spending? Like the first question, this looks very cynical. If the object were only to equal competitive advertising expenditure, without inquiring into its effectiveness, it would be a disappointing question. But its purpose rather goes deeper: it reminds us that we are not alone in the market. This means the competitors well as wooed by us will bombard that consumer. Studying shares of market and shares of advertising and their changes in this way can sometimes disclose useful regularities. 4) What have we learned from previous years?
If things are not stable then changes are indicated- usually in an obvious direction. Last year’s budget may have to be cut, because of a market decline . Perhaps a competitive product is growing and our brand has been allocated the task of producing more profit on smaller advertising budget in order to finance the launch of another brand. The agency can also learn from the market’s reaction to competitive brands. Major new introductions, including regional test in our product field should be monitored.
Three traditional methods
1) FIXED RATIO In some firms it is a tradition that advertising takes so much per case sold or per ton. The rule which states that advertising takes a certain proportion of the sterling value of sales is the best of a bad bunch . It results in a fixed advertising –sales ratio. If the ratio is one which is near average for the industry concerned, this method leads back to advertising share being approximately equal to the market share. 2) MINIMUM CAMPAIGNS Another method of deciding on the advertising budget is particularly common when TV is used. It is simply a traditional budget size or threshold: ‘It’s not worth spending less than x pound on TV’. The amount x pound is curiously different from one advertiser to another. Some say 200000 pounds; others may take 500000 pounds it depends. 3) MEDIA INFLATION As media cost change – and we have seen that the direction is continually upwards – there is argument for spending “the same as last year, plus inflation”. This has being called the ‘inertial method’. However sterling budget for individual brands have not generally risen as fast as inflation; hence the real advertising impact for most major brands has fallen over recent years. Experience therefore suggest that the inflationary argument has not being particularly successful in the increasing advertising budget or the brands in the later stage require less advertising support.
Conclusion
"Advertising is a splendid device for helping to keep the money going round in a free enterprise society. You make the product, you advertise that product, and people buy it. The greater proportion of all sales come about because advertising has influenced the buyers. A lesser proportion of sales come about via word of mouth or because the product happens to be in the same place as the buyer at the point of sale - when he feels the impulse to buy. So advertising plays a very important part in shifting of product. The basic standard ad contains the following elements: 1. The headline: This features the main product benefit 2. The illustration: This demonstrates the product in relation to the headline benefit 3. The body copy: An opening paragraph enlarging on this benefit. To communicate a message in the smallest space, via the least number of words, in the shortest possible time. 4. Further paragraphs of facts to support the benefit claim 5. Penultimate paragraph warning the reader of what he will miss if he doesn't buy the product. 6. Final paragraph as a call to action. (Get in touch right away) 7. The company logo: A symbolic device whose function is to give immediate identity to the company 8. Tag line: A phrase designed to leave the reader with a comfortable impression of the company
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