Advertising

Design
Message Strategies
• The essence of an IMC program is
designing messages that reaches the
target audiences. Many of these
messages are, in a very real sense,
quite personal. They are designed to
change or shape attitudes. They
must be remembered; they should
lead to some kind of short or long
term action.
• Marketing messages can reach the
targeted customers in two ways:
1. A personal message can be delivered
through a person such as a sales rep,
repair department personnel, or customer
service rep
2. Marketing messages can reach targeted
audience through a variety of ad media.
• The main challenge involved here is to
develop a personnel message even while
it is being delivered through an
impersonal medium.
 Message Strategies
• A message strategy is the primary
tactic or approach used to deliver
the message theme. Three
message strategies represent the
three components of attitudes
displayed by consumers.
1. Cognitive Strategies
2. Affective Strategies
3. Conative Strategies
Cognitive message strategy

A cognitive message strategy is the presentation of

rational arguments or pieces of information to
consumers. These ideas require cognitive
processing and the advertiser’s key message would
be about the product’s attributes or benefits.
• The goal of a cognitive message
strategy will thus be to design an ad
that will have an impact on the
beliefs or the knowledge structure of
a person. Foods, such as milk can be
described as healthful, pleasant
tasting, or low calorie. Cognitive
message strategies would make
benefits clear to potential customers.
Five major forms of generic
Generic message strategies
• Generic messages
are direct promotions of
product attributes or benefits
without any claim of
superiority. It works best
for a brand leader like
Campbell’s soup which
declares “Soup is good food”.
This is because the company
dominates the soup industry.
When most consumers think
of soup, they think of
Campbell’s.
Generic message strategies are seldom
used in B2B ads because few firms can
dominate an industry like Campbell does.
One major exception indeed is Intel, which
controls over 13.7 percent of the global
microconductor market (almost double of
the second, Samsung). Generic message
strategies can also be used to create
brand awareness; develop a cognitive
linkage between a specific brand name
and product category, like a “Give me
Red” ad of Eveready.
• Preemptive messages
They claim superiority based on a product’s
specific attribute or benefit. Crest tooth
paste claims to be “the cavity fighter” and
remains so by preempting others from
claiming so. The key to effectively using a
preemptive is to be the first company to
state the advantage. This prevents other
competitors from saying the same thing.
And those who do, are viewed as “me too”
brands or copycats.
• Unique Selling Proposition
USP is an explicit testable claim of
uniqueness or superiority that can be
supported or substantiated in some
manner. Reebok claims that it is the
only one that uses DMX technology,
which provides for a better fit.
• Hyperbole
The hyperbole approach makes an
non-testable claim based on some
attribute or benefit. If a television
network boasts that the “buck stops
here” is the most favorite show at 10
P.M. on all weekdays, then it is a
hyperbole claim.
• Comparative Advertisement
When an
advertiser directly
or indirectly
compares a good
or service to the
competition, it is
the comparative
method.
• The ad may or may not mention the
competitor; sometimes a competitor is
recognized as a “make-believe”
X brand. This is not quite effective as
actually mentioning the competitor in
the comparative advertising method.
Visa brags that many
merchants
accepting cards will
not accept American
Express.
 Important aspects of
comparative advertisement
• One major advantage is that it captures
consumer attention – when comparisons are
made, both brand awareness and message
awareness increase
• The negative side of this method is in the areas
of believability and consumer attitudes. Some
consumers think that comparative ads are false
and the claims are often exaggerated. The
concept of spontaneous trait transference in
psychology suggests that when someone calls the
other one dishonest, other people tend to treat
the speaker as less honest.
• The comparative message strategy must
be employed with care and caution. The
comparison brand must be picked carefully
to ensure consumers see it as a viable
competing brand. If the comparisons are
all hype and opinion, with no substantial
differences, comparative advertisements
would not simply work.
• All the five types of cognitive strategies
dealt with earlier are based on some type
of rational logic. The message is designed
to make sure that consumers pay
attention to the ad and take time to
cognitively process the information. In
terms of attitudes, the sequence of
cognitive – affective – conative is the plan
of attack when developing a rational
approach.
 Affective strategies
• Affective message strategies invoke
feelings or emotions and match those
feelings with the good, service or
company. Such ads are meant to enhance
the likeability of the product, recall of the
appeal, or comprehension of the ad. These
strategies elicit emotions that prompt the
customer to purchase the product, and
subsequently affect the consumer’s
reasoning process.
A Cheerios ad portray

three generations of
family in a visual combined
with the words “Your heart
has better things to do than
deal with heart disease”. An
emotion such as love is used here to convince
consumers that Cheerios is a superior
breakfast cereal for loved ones.
 Two categories of affective
strategies
1. Resonance advertising – attempts to
connect a product with a consumer’s
experience and develop stronger ties
between the product and the consumer.
Any strongly held memory (of the early
childhood, family reunion, etc) or
emotional attachment is clear choice for
resonance advertising.
resonance: the prolongation of sound by reflection; reverberation
2. Emotional advertising attempts to elicit
powerful emotions that eventually lead
to product recall and choice. Many
emotions – trust, reliability, friendship,
happiness, security, glamour luxury,
serenity – can be connected to products.
These are common approaches to
develop strong brand names. Coke and
Pepsi primarily use affective message
strategies.
 Conative Strategies
Conative strategies are

designed to lead more

directly to some type of

consumer response. The goal of
a conative advertisement is to
elicit behavior. Example: a TV ad
inviting the viewers to call a toll
free number and order for a Music
CD before a particular date and which is not
available at stores.
 Executional Frameworks
• An executional framework is the manner in which
an ad appeal is presented. Different appeals can
be chosen and the framework put into force.
Different frameworks could be:
 Animation
 Slice-of-life
 Dramatization
 Testimonial
 Authoritative
 Demonstration
 Fantasy
 Informative
 Animation
• Highly popular executional
framework
• Dramatically increased due to
growing sophistication of computer
graphics
• Animation technologies are far
superior to the cartoon type which
was in vogue much earlier
• Rotoscoping- a process of digitally painting or
sketching figures into live sequences – is one new
animation technique. The technique was used in
Budweiser’s “Born a Donkey Commercial”. A donkey
that wanted to be a Clydesdale and lead the
Clydesdales pulling the Budweiser beer wagon
Green giant ads.
• Animation characters can be human,
animal, or product personifications.
Animation was originally a last-resort
technique for those advertisers who did
not have money! Currently it is one of the
most popular technique. Animation is
mostly used in TV spots. It can be used in
movie trailers, on Internet, or on print
media as single shots.
 Slice-of-Life
• In slice-of-life ads solutions for meeting every
day problems are offered. The ad normally
shows the common experiences, especially the
ones people encounter. Then the good or
service is displayed as solution. The most
common slice-of-life format has four
components:
1. Encounter
2. Problem
3. Interaction
4. Solution
A typical slice-of-life ad can start

with a boy playing soccer and

parents cheering. (the encounter)
Boy’s dress getting dirty (the
problem). Announcer talks about the
benefits of a new detergent
(interaction). The boy is shown
again (in a clean dress of course)
receiving a trophy and again
cheered by the parents and the
crowd!
In print ads, slice-of-life
frameworks are difficult.
B2B ads use heavily this
technique. It is highly
popular because products
can be explained or
highlighted quite
effectively.
 Dramatization
• Dramatization is similar to slice-of-life
approach; first a problem is presented and
then a solution is found out. The difference
lies in the intensity and story format.
Dramatization uses higher levels of
excitement and suspense to unfold the
story. It may rise up to a crisis point!
• An effective and dramatic advertisement is
difficult to create, because the drama
must be completed in 30/60 seconds.
Building a story to a climatic moment is
quite challenging, given such a short time
period.
• Would the Thumps Up ad featuring film
star Akshay Kumar fall into this category?
Leo Burnett’s Thumps Up Ad
 Testimonials
This kind of ads have been most successful in B2B
and service
sectors. Testimonial ads:
1. A customer is presented in an ad talking about
a positive experience with a product
2. When services are mostly intangible, customers
cannot examine services before making
decisions. A testimony from a current customer
is an effective method of describing the benefits
or attributes of a service.
Companies use testimonials of
ordinary customers as they
enhance the company’s
credibility. Endorsers and
famous individuals do not
always have high levels of
credibility because customers
know that they are being paid
for the endorsements.
 Authoritative
• The advertiser may seek to convince viewers that
a given product is superior to other brands. This
can be done by using
an expert authority
like a
doctor, engineer,

or a chemist. These
experts normally
talk about the brand
attributes that make
the product superior.
• Many authoritative ads include some type
of scientific or survey evidence. Quoting
these results, especially those of the
surveys conducted by independent groups,
government organizations and unpaid
sources , gives an ad greater credibility.
Authoritative ads find wider acceptance in
B2B sector especially when scientific
findings are available to support product
claim.
 Demonstration
• A demonstration execution shows how a
product works. While demonstrating the
product attributes could be effectively
explained to the viewers of the ad. B2B
ads often present demonstrations; they
may help one business to detail how the
specific needs of another business could
be met. Demonstrations ads well suited to
TV and the Internet flash. In a print ad a
series of photos could outline the
sequence of product usage.
 Fantasy
• Fantasy ads are designed to lift the
audience beyond the real world to a make-
believe experience. Some fantasies are
meant to be realistic others are completely
irrational. Often the more irrational and
illogical ads are the more clearly recalled
by the consumers. The most common
fantasy themes involve sex, love, and
romance.
• One product category that frequently
uses fantasy ads is the perfume and
cologne industry.
 Informative
• A common advertising executional
framework is an informative
advertisement. These ads present
information to the audience in a straight
forward way. These are extensively used
on the radio where only verbal
communications are possible. Informative
ads are less popular on TV and the print as
consumers tend to ignore them.
• Consumers highly involved in a particular
product category pay more attention to an
informational ad. Such is often the case
when business buyers are in the process
of gathering information for either a new
buy or modified rebuy. As buying centers
in B2B require detailed information, the
informative framework continues to be a
popular approach for B2B advertisers.
• The key to informative ads is the
timing of the same. An informative
ad aired on an FM radio station about
buffet lunch in a restaurant just
before noon is listened to more
carefully rather if it is run at 3 P.M.!
Sources and Spokespersons
Selecting the right source and
spokesperson to be used in an
advertisement is a most critical
decision. Four types of sources are
available to advertisers:
1. Celebrities
2. CEOs
3. Experts
4. Typical persons
• According to one study in the US, 20 percent of
all advertisements use some type of celebrity
spokesperson. Payments to celebrities accounted
for 10 percent of all advertising dollars spent. A
celebrity endorser is used because his or her
stamp of approval on a product can enhance the
product’s brand equity. Celebrities also help to
create emotional bonds with the products. The
idea is to transfer the bond that exists between
celebrity and the audience to the product being
endorsed. The bond transfer is more profound
among the young consumers.
• Agencies utilize celebrities to help
establish a “personality” for a brand. The
trick is to tie the brand’s characteristics to
those of the spokesperson. In developing
a brand personality, the brand must
already be established. The celebrity
merely helps to define the brand more
clearly. Using celebrities for new products
does not always work as well for the
already established brand.
Three variations of Celebrity
endorsements
• Unpaid spokespersons
They are the celebrities who appear
in an ad for supporting a charity or
cause, like “save the tiger”
campaign. These are highly credible
endorsements in which movie stars,
cricket players, and politicians
appear and entice significant
contributions to a cause.
• Celebrity voice-overs
Many celebrities provide voice-overs for TV
and Radio ads without being shown or
identified. Listeners respond to these ads
and try to guess whose voice is reaching
out to them. In that process of trying to
figure out the voice of the speaker, the
audience might lose track of the product
as well!
• Dead Person Endorsement
It occurs when a sponsor uses an
image, or past video or film featuring
an actor or personality who was
dead. These can lead to
controversies
 CEO spokespersons
• Instead of celebrities, advertisers can use
a CEO as the spokesperson or source. In
America Dave Thomas of Wendy’s was the
famous CEO during the 1990s. For some
time Lee Iacocca was the spokesperson
for Chrysler. Highly visible and personable
CEOs like Richard Branson and Vijay
Mallya can become major assets for the
companies and their products.
CEOs
• Expert sources include physicians, lawyers,
accountants, financial planners, architects, and
so on.
• Typical –person sources are one of two
types:
1. Paid actors who act as every day people
2. Actual, typical every day people
Wal-Mart features its own store employees in
free standing insert advertisements.
Real people sources are becoming more
common.
 Source Characteristics
• Several characteristics of the sources
are considered before deciding upon
a particular source. The effectiveness
of an ad that uses a spokesperson
depends on the degree to which the
person has one or more of the
characteristics such as the following
which constitutes what might be
called the credibility:
 Credibility

Attractiveness Likeability

Trustworthiness Expertise
 Creating an Advertisement
• The work begins with the creative brief
which outlines the message of the ad s
well as other pertinent information. Using
the creative brief blueprint, the creative
develops a means-end chain, starting with
an attribute of the product that generates
a specific customer benefit and eventually
produces a desirable end state.
 Creating an advertisement
Message Creative Brief Executional
Strategy (message theme) Frame work
Animation
Cognitive
Slice of life
Affective
Dramatization
Conative Testimonial
Authoritative
Appeals Demonstration
Means-End Chain Fantasy
Fear
Informative
Humor
Sex
Music
Rationality Spokesperson
Emotions
Scarcity Leverage Point
• Following the development of the means-end
chain, the creative selects a message strategy,
the appeal, and the executional framework. A
source person is also chosen at this juncture.
Development of the leverage point is taken up
after the creative begins work on the ad. The
leverage point moves the consumer from the
product attribute or customer benefit to the
desired end state. The type of leverage point
used depends on the message strategy, appeal,
and executional framework.
 Advertising Effectiveness
• Producing effective ads requires the
joint efforts of the account executive,
creative, media planner and media
buyer. Working independently can
produce some award-winning ads,
but often they not meet the
advertisers’ objectives!
• An effective ad accomplishes the
objectives desired by the client. The
task of making sure the ad
accomplishes the IMC objectives is a
major challenge. Seven basic
principles of advertising effectiveness
should be followed:
 Principles of effective
advertising
1. Visual consistency
2. Campaign duration
3. Repeated taglines
4. Consistent positioning- avoid
ambiguity
5. Simplicity
6. Identifiable selling point
7. Create an effective flow