BBA VI Sem.

Study Material Paper Code 602: Advertising Management

UNIT -3
Advertising Message Design: Advertising Copy- Meaning, Components.
Advertising appeal, unique selling proposition and principles. Advertising
program. Advertising Campaign and its management. Measurement and
Effectiveness of advertising Campaign
Krishna Kumar Sharma, Dept. of Mgmt. D. S. College, Aligarh

Advertising Copy
Meaning
Advertisement Copy is the soul of an advertisement. An advertisement copy is all the written or spoken
matter in an advertisement expressed in words or sentences and figures designed to convey the desired
message to the target consumers.
In print media, an advertisement copy is made-up of head-line, sub-headlines, body of the copy,
illustration logo-type, slogan and the brand name. Strictly speaking, written content of an ad copy is the
product of the collective efforts of copy-writers, artists and the layout-men.
Copy writer and artist must collaborate to provide an advertisement though copy writing precedes or
succeeds the art- work and the layout.
A good advertisement copy has the following attributes:

1. It is brief: Brevity is the soul of wit. Most readers are interested in shorter advertisements. Being brief
is not dropping words or chopping sentences. It is the meticulous work of eliminating and substituting the
words without jeopardizing the meaning. It cuts to the core; it is to the point to cover all.

2. It is clear: A clear copy is one which is easily and quickly read and grasped by the readers. It is
unambiguous and self- explaining. It is one that clicks fast. Clarity gives clue to interpretation. The
manner in which a copy is interpreted is dependent on factors like local traditions habits, customs and
nationality. Clarity is adjusted to these points.

3. It is apt: A copy is apt that matches to the needs and counts of the prospects. Writing an apt copy is
the art of putting in the words that create strong desire to possess the product where the product features
or the qualities satisfy the consumers‘ desire to possess. Copy writer is to place himself in the position of
a customer to make it apt. He is to use the most suitable USP.

4. It is personal: A personal copy is specific where generality is dismissed to do away with ambiguity. A
personalized copy is centered on the prospect. It presents something of interest to the prospect. It is an
individualized appeal copy. It is written from ‗prospect‘ to ‗product‘ rather than ‗product‘ to ‗prospect‘. The
copy has ‗you attitude‘.

5. It is honest: Credibility or believability of an advertisement message is decided by the extent of

honesty. An ad to be good must be truthful. Misleading and mis-presented facts made in the copy only
damage the reputation of selling house.
6. It is conforming: Every ad copy is to conform to standards, rules and regulations acceptable to the
advertising media and the laws of the land. Anywhere in the world, no copy is acceptable to any media
that offends the morality, declines decency and ravages religious susceptibilities of people.

Components of good advertising copy

There are 5 major components to good advertising copy: (The order of these is essential to success)
Advertising is sales in print. So, you need to think about the unique benefits your products/services offer
and showcase that in a persuasive way. You need to emphasize results, not features. The components
are as follows:
 Command Attention: This is usually accomplished with the headline. You need an attention-
getter that makes people want to know more about your products/services. The best headlines
give a vivid portrayal of the benefits or show how a problem can be avoided with your
products/services. The headline is the advertisement for the advertisement.
 Showcase Benefits: You have to showcase the benefits of your products and services and,
more importantly, show how they will solve or prevent a problem. They need to know what‘s in it
for them. Include useful, factual and clear information to show precisely what the benefits are and
how they are going to help the customer.
 Offer Proof: This is where you prove what the advertisement is offering. You need to establish
you have a method to deliver. Consider information that establishes credibility and past
performance.
 Persuade: You need to add compelling reasons for your potential customers to purchase your
products/services. Use a hard sell approach and create scarcity. This will enact your potential
customers to feel like they have to act now. Which leads into the last component?
 Call to Action: You need to compel your potential customers to DO something. They need to
check out your site, sign up for your newsletter, purchase your products, and contact you about
services…something. Offer a freebie-a booklet, sample, product, bonus, demo, consult, limited
time price…the list goes on. There are lots of ways to get potential customers excited about
ordering and help them feel like they are getting an amazing deal.

Good advertisements include all of these components and are not complete without any of them. You can
sit down and think through any one of these components, then figure out how to best place them together
for the most effectiveness. We can help you with this too. Try our FREE test drive to learn how to put
together great advertisements from some of the best in the business.

Advertising appeal

Advertising appeals are communication strategies that marketing and advertising professionals use to
grab attention and persuade people to buy or act. In rhetorical theory, the idea of an ―appeal‖ dates back
to Aristotle, who identified the three main appeals of communication (also known as the rhetorical
triangle): ethos, pathos, and logos, or, in modern language, credibility, emotion, and logic. The idea was
that, if you can establish yourself as credible (ethos), for example, you are more likely to persuade
people. Likewise, if you tugged on your audience‘s heartstrings (hit their emotions, pathos) or presented a
logical argument (logos), you could persuade people to act. In other words, you (or your communication)
appealed to people because you were credible, you affected their emotions, or you made logical sense.

Definition

Advertising appeal is defined as strategies for grabbing the attention of people to persuade them to
purchase your product or service. The approach can be a marketing or advertising strategy. Many
advertisers commonly use appeals to influence their customers. It is also used so that people can support
a cause. Appeals are customized for the target audience, and they speak to the interests of individuals
and in their words or interest. The primary purpose is to entice them to take the action that is desired by
the seller.

Types of Advertising Appeal

1. Brand Appeal: Appealing to people who are brand-conscious and have certain proclivities
towards brands. The goal of the brand appeal is to make people buy a product because the brand
itself is a statement that the person hopes to associate with. Apple is an example
whose products have brand appeal to its customers.
2. Adventure Appeal: Appealing to a person‘s sense of adventure and excitement. The goal of the
adventure appeal is to make people feel like the excitement, action, entertainment, and sense of
adventure will be enhanced if they purchase or use a product or service.
3. Bandwagon Appeal: This appeal involves making people feel that since everyone is buying the
product, so they should too. The objective of bandwagon appeal is to ensure that the customer
joins the bandwagon and starts using the product because everybody else is using it. It is known
as persuasion by masses technique. Many direct to home cable services use bandwagon appeal
in which they show that the entire neighborhood is with a particular brand and why hasn‘t the
protagonist of the advertisement joined the bandwagon.
4. Fear Appeal: The fear appeal shows that adverse outcomes can happen because a particular
action is not taken. Advertisements often use fear as a motivator to promote change. The fear
tactic also involves isolation. With this technique, many kinds of toothpaste, deodorants, and anti-
dandruff shampoos are advertised. It is shown that if people do not brush with their toothpaste, it
will result in bad hygiene and foul mouth odor, which would lead to social isolation for the person.
5. Humorous Appeal: Some advertisements appeal to a person‘s sense of humor. Human beings
like to laugh and what can be a better type of attention-grabbing tool than humor, because humor
helps people to remember a particular product or an idea. The marketing or advertising
strategies often try to build a positive association with their product or service.
6. Rational Appeal: When the marketing or advertisement strategy wants people to use their
practicality and functionality for a product, then logical appeals are used. These advertisements
are focused on the features of the product and the cost of the product. The benefits associated
with the product are also briefed in the ad, and there is usually proof associated with back up the
claim of the advertisers. For example, advertisements for a car would focus on the efficiency of
gas, price, and mileage that it offers so that it can reach the customer who wants reliable as well
as a cost-effective car.
7. Emotional Appeal: The primary objective of emotional appeal is to make the customers feel
emotions towards a particular product. It may be a positive emotion or a negative emotion, but the
emotion should be strong. The customer may feel angry, bitter, sad, happy, proud, or nostalgic or
any other related feeling so that it encourages the customer to act and buy the product. Many
advertisements have started to use emotional appeal for their products, like even chocolate ads,
intending to make customers emotional. Example: LIC
8. Plain Appeal: Appealing to people by making something seem ordinary or plain. The goal of the
plain appeal is to persuade people that a product, service, or idea may not be as strange or
radical or extraordinary as people thing, but rather that it is normal and common.
9. Music Appeal: Music appeal is used to appeal to the taste of music and the sound of a person.
The primary objective of music Appeal is to encourage people to feel and emotion and associate
their product after hearing a particular tune, song, or sound.
 10. Scarcity Appeal: This marketing strategy appeals to the customers that something will run out of
stock or exhaust soon, which is why they should purchase the product or take action immediately.
The primary objective of this appeal is to make people hurry to choose the desired effect. Special
offers and discounts or sales are often with the aim of scarcity appeal.

Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

A unique selling proposition (USP) refers to the unique benefit exhibited by a company, service, product
or brand that enables it to stand out from competitors. The unique selling proposition must be a feature
that highlights product benefits that are meaningful to consumers.USP focuses on explicit claims of
uniqueness involving an objectively verifiable product attribute or benefit-in-use.

A unique selling proposition, more commonly referred to as a USP, is the one thing that makes your
business better than the competition. It‘s a specific benefit that makes your business stand out when
compared to other businesses in your market. Forming an opinionated and deliberate USP helps focus
your marketing strategy and influences messaging, branding, copywriting, and other marketing decisions.
At its core, a USP should quickly answer a potential customer‘s most immediate question when they
encounter your brand:

―What makes you different from the competition?‖

Your USP plays to your strengths and should be based on what makes your brand or product uniquely
valuable to your customers. Being ―unique‖ is rarely a strong USP in itself. You have to differentiate
around some aspect your target audience cares about, otherwise your messaging won‘t be nearly as
effective.

A compelling USP should be:

 Assertive, but defensible: A specific position that forces you to make a case against competing
products is more memorable than a generic stance, like ―we sell high-quality products.‖
 Focused on what your customer’s value: ―Unique‖ won‘t count for much if it‘s not something
your target customers truly care about.
 More than a slogan: While a slogan is one way your USP can be communicated, it‘s also
something that you can embody in other areas of your business, from your return policy to your
supply chain. You should be able to talk the talk and walk the walk.

Unique Selling Proposition Best Practices

The following practices you should bear in your mind when trying to create your own USP?

Get Inside Your Ideal Customer’s Head: Before you start thinking about which qualities set your
business apart from similar companies, you need to know almost everything about your perfect customer.
When you‘re identifying your ideal prospect, consider the following:

 What does your perfect customer really want?

 How can your product or service solve their problem(s)?
 What factors motivate their buying decisions?
 Why do your existing customers choose your business over your competitors?
Remember – it‘s not enough to merely target a rough demographic. You need to know exactly who you
want to sell to and why. Once you know this, you can get to work on the next unique selling proposition
best practice, which is…

Explain How Your Business Solves Your Ideal Customers’ Problems: Consumers don‘t want to buy
products – they want to solve their problems. This could be as simple as purchasing a reliable set of tools
that will last for years, but it can (and frequently is) much more complex.

Take the cosmetics industry, for example. Companies in this space don‘t just sell make-up – they sell
lifestyle ideals; glamour, confidence, and style. Think about this in a problem-solving context; people who
may not feel glamorous, confident or stylish will if they use a particular product. This lies at the heart of
most cosmetics advertising, and this concept applies to many other industries, too.

To create a strong USP, you have to examine the profile of your perfect customer and then market your
products in a way that shows them you can meet their needs and solve their problems. You can't hope to
write persuasive, compelling copy in the voice of the customer unless you know who they are

Make Your Business Irresistible to Your Customers: Now that you know who your ideal customer is
and the problems they face, it‘s time to tell them precisely why they should choose your business over
your competitors.

Another USP best practice you should think about in this stage is making your customers a promise.
FedEx, for example, guarantees it can get any package (from anywhere) to its destination overnight. This
not only addresses customers‘ specific need (reliable package delivery), but also makes them a promise
– to deliver their packages with care, on time, every time.

Create an Elevator Pitch: So, you‘ve figured out who your perfect customer is, explained how your
business can solve their problems, and told them why they should choose you instead of the competition.
However, you‘ll rarely have the opportunity to wax lyrical about any of this at length. Just as
advertisements have mere seconds to capture consumers‘ attention, your USP should be almost
immediately obvious.

Advertising Program

After creating a good product and service, then the marketer‘s next duty is to communicate that product‘s
benefit and value to potential consumers or general people. And one of the communication channel is an
advertising program, through advertising, we can communicate with people. Don‘t know about
positioning?

Advertising plays an important role in communicating effectively with people and also building a strong
brand. Before designing an advertisement program you have to know about your target audience. After
that, you have to follow five major processes to develop an advertising program.

Steps for Developing an Advertisement Program

Step 1: To Set Advertising Objectives:

An advertising objective is a specific communication task to be achieved with a specific target audience
during a specified period of time.

Advertising objectives can be divided into three main categories:

(a) To Inform: Informative advertising aims to create awareness and knowledge of new products or new
features of existing products, e.g. tell customers about a new product policies, promotional schemes,
availability of products etc.

(b) To Persuade: Persuasive advertising aims to create liking, preference, conviction, and purchase of a
product or service. Some persuasive advertising uses comparative advertising, which makes a clear
comparison of the attributes of two or more brands. E.g. encourage customers to switch to a different
brand.

(c) To Remind: Reminder advertising aims to stimulate repeat purchase of products and services.

Secondary Objectives of Advertising:

(i) Stimulate an increase in sales

(ii) Remind customers of the existence of a product

(iii) Inform customers

(iv) Build a brand image

(v) Build customer loyalty and relationship

(vi) Change customer attitudes

Step 2: Decision on the Advertising Budget:

It is the estimation of expenditure on various components of advertising. It should match with the
objectives of a business firm. The amount spent on advertising should be relevant to the potential sales
impact of the campaign. Advertising budgets is finalized by marketing manager and media agency.

Factors to be considered while setting the advertising budget:

(i) Stage in the Product Life Cycle: New products typically receive large advertising budgets to build
awareness and to gain consumer trial. Advertising budget for a new product may be different from a
product in maturity stage, new products tend to need a larger advertising budget to help build awareness
and to encourage consumers to trial the product. Established brands usually are supported with lower
advertising budgets as a ratio to sales.

(ii) Market Share and Consumer Base: High market share brands usually require less advertising
expenditure as a percentage of sales to maintain share, it is due to popularity and awareness of customer
about brand. It is less expensive to reach consumers of a widely used brand than to reach consumers of
low-share brands. If a new company wants to increase its market share it will need high investments on
advertising campaign.

(iii) Competition in Market: Advertisement budget depends on level of competition in market competition
can be seen more in the field of automobile, electronic appliances, telecommunication, banking etc.
products which are having close substitutes in market needs more expenditure on advertising. In a
market with a large number of competitors and high advertising spending, a brand must advertise more
heavily to be heard.

(iv) Advertising Frequency: The number of repetitions needed to put across the brand‘s message to
consumers has an important impact on the advertising budget. Higher the frequency higher would be
budget.

(v) Product Substitutability: Brands in a commodity class require heavy advertising to establish a
differential image. Advertising is also important when a brand can offer unique physical benefits or
features.

Stage 3: Determine the Key Advertising Messages and Deciding the Copy:

Research suggests that the clarity of the advertising message is often more important than the amount
spent. The advertising message must be carefully targeted to impact the target customer audience.

A successful advertising message should have the following characteristics:

a. Meaningful: Customers should find the message relevant, easy to understand.

b. Distinctive: Capture the customer‘s attention.

c. Believable: A difficult task, since research suggests most consumers doubt the truth of advertising in
general.

Message evaluation and selection of a good advertisement normally focuses on one core selling
proposition, messages should be rated on desirability, exclusiveness, and believability. Message
execution can be decisive for highly similar products, such as detergents, cigarettes, coffee, and soft
drinks. Advertising does not overstep social and legal norms.

Copy writing is the next step of advertisement programme it is a specialized form of communicating ideas
that are meant to serve the requirements of modern marketing. It helps in establishing link between
advertising and their prospects. It may also use to promote the acceptance of idea and utilized words to
convey message having commercial information.

Stage 4: Decide which Advertising Media to Use:

There are a variety of advertising media from which to choose. A campaign may use one or more of the
media alternatives. The key factors in choosing the right media include:

(a) Reach: What proportion of the target customers will be exposed to the advertising? It is the number of
different persons or households exposed to a particular media schedule at least once during a specified
time period.

(b) Frequency: How many times will the target customer be exposed to the advertising message?
Frequency is the number of times within the specified time period that an average person or household is
exposed to the message.
(c) Media Impact: Impact is the qualitative value of an exposure through a given medium where, if the
target customer sees the message – will it have most impact? For example, does an advert promoting
holidays for elderly people have more impact on Television if so, when and which channels or in a
national newspaper or perhaps a-magazine focused on this segment of the population.

Another key decision in relation to advertising media relates to the timing of the campaign. Some
products are particularly suited to seasonal campaigns on television like advertisements of durables on
Diwali whereas for other products, a regular advertising campaign throughout the year in media such as
newspapers and television.

Stage 5: Evaluation of the Advertising Campaign:

Success of advertising depends on planning and control of advertising campaign it should be evaluated
by the advertisers. Most measurement of advertising effectiveness deals with specific advertisement and
campaigns. A proposed campaign should be tested in one or a few cities first and its impact evaluated
before rolling it out nationally.

Most advertisers try to measure the communication effect of an advertisement that is, its potential effect
on awareness, knowledge, or preference. They would also like to measure the advertisement sales effect.

The evaluation of an advertising campaign should focus on two key areas:

1. The Communication Effects—is the intended message being communicated effectively and to the
intended audience?

2. The Sales Effects—has the campaign generated the intended sales growth. This second area is much
more difficult to measure.

Bases for the measurement of advertisement success:

(i) Number of enquiries from advertisement
(ii) Number of enquiries converted into sales
(iii) Levels of repeat purchase
(iv) Number of enquiries
(v) Test customer awareness
(vii) Test customer awareness of brand recognition and perceived values
(vii) Levels of customer retention
(viii) Increase in sales by comparing with previous data.

Advertising Campaign

An advertising campaign is a specifically designed strategy that is carried out across different mediums in
order to achieve desired results such as increased brand awareness, increased sales, and improved
communication within a specific market. All of this is accomplished through advertising.

Many entrepreneurs think carrying out an advertising campaign means simply creating an ad. However,
they are mistaken. For advertising to yield the best results, it‘s crucial to be well organized right from the
start.

Management of Advertising Campaign

1. Set a Campaign Goal: Typically, when we think about ‗goals‘ most people tend to think of sales. But
the truth is that there are many other advertising objectives to focus on. The most common goals include
acquiring new clients, promoting current products, and launching new products. You can also create an
advertising campaign designed to improve brand awareness or to help associate a certain brand with
certain emotions. Whatever your goal may be, it‘s important to identify it before proceeding.

2. Define a Target: Part of a campaign‘s success is directly tied to your target audiences. If you have a
well defined target market or audience, it is much easier to accomplish and measure your goals. Defining
points like age, sex, social class, marital status, education level, likes, habits, and hobbies will help you
understand who you‘re trying to reach through your advertising campaign strategy.

3. Segment Your Audiences: Once you have clearly defined your target audience, you should then
segment the audience, dividing them into various groups based on the products or services you want to
sell and their various demographics. Put yourself into the shoes of your potential customers and try to
identify what would spark their interest. Is what you offer useful for them? How will you grab their
attention? Are they aware of your brand or product? Do they have the purchasing power to buy your
product/service at the set price?

4. Decide on Your Advertising Mediums: There are many helpful tools at your disposal that can get
your campaign's message to your target segment. Let's review the different types of advertising options
that exist.

Advertising on Social Media: As the name suggests, advertising on social media allows you to create ads
on the social networks where your target audience is. This means opening up a line of communication
which allows you to easily reach your audience.

Email Marketing: Email marketing is another means of advertising which could be of use in your
campaign. Although you can use it to acquire new leads (which could then result in potential clients), the
use of its 'loyalty formula' generates incredible results

Content Marketing: Thanks to the popularity of branded content and video marketing, this is a great
avenue for digital advertising campaigns. According to Content Marketing Institute, ―Content marketing is
a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent
content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience.

5. Communication: The message of an advertising campaign is also fundamental. Even though each
company and each strategy are different, the copy should always be natural sounding, well organized,
clear, concise, fluid, and coherent. It may seem easy but if you add to the fact that the message should
also be brief (as to not bore your audience) the pressure to get it right can really build up. We recommend
leaving the task to experienced experts within the sector or copywriters.

6. Mind Your Design: The design is just as important as the message. Utilize responsive design and UX
friendly websites to win over your audience. Delight them first by sight, and then through everything else
you have to tell them.

7. Track Metrics and KPIs: Measuring is important in many different fields but in the world of advertising
it‘s absolutely crucial. If we don‘t track our results, we won‘t know what‘s going well or what we could
improve on. In an advertising campaign, the metrics should make up an integral part of the process. The
only way to understand the campaign is to track and measure the metrics and data. Furthermore, we
should note the difference between general metrics and KPIs. Even though the latter do not offer metrics,
they deal with to how to measure your company‘s set strategic goals.
Measurement and Effectiveness of advertising Campaign
Advertising is not an exact science. There‘s no precise way to measure the success or effectiveness of
an ad campaign. You can‘t, for example, determine how many sales dollars are generated by each
advertising dollar you spend, but there are methods that will give you a rough idea of whether your ads
are hitting the mark.

Ways to measure the effectiveness of an ad campaign

To assess the effectiveness of your advertising campaign, you can monitor sales, new customers,
requests for information, phone inquiries, retail store traffic, website traffic, or click-through rates. Use
these tactics to gauge the power of your ads:

1. Monitor traffic: A simple way to tell if your advertising is working is to track retail traffic by counting the
people who enter your store or come to your website. Don‘t forget to monitor traffic before you start the ad
campaign, so you‘ll have a basis for comparison. And ask new customers how they heard about your
business.

2. Assess how an ad campaign affects sales: Compare sales before, during, and after an ad
campaign. Keep in mind that advertising often has a cumulative or delayed effect, so ad-driven sales may
not materialize immediately.

3. Code your coupons: In your ads, include a coupon that customers can redeem for a discount or gift
with their purchase. Code the coupons so you can determine which ad or publication generates the best
results.

4. Offer incentives: Offer an incentive for customers to tell you they‘re responding to an ad: ―Mention this
ad and get a 10% discount on your first order.‖ Put it on your website or in the local newspaper, or use it
as part of an ad on local TV or radio. It‘s an easy way to know where customers are finding out about you.

5. Track phone orders: Use dedicated phone lines to track phone orders. For example, if you mention a
toll-free number in your ad, assign different extensions to particular advertisements.

6. Analyze site traffic: Compare pre- and post-advertising traffic on your website. Your web host logs the
hits on your site and should be able to provide you with daily, weekly, or monthly reports. Monitor your
website‘s performance with tools like Google Analytics.

7. Understand key advertising metrics: When advertising online, the old metric of click-through rates
(the number of viewers who click your banner ads) is not a reliable method of knowing whether your
advertisements are working. While ad networks that sell ad space on the web track click-through rates
and can provide you with performance reports, the numbers you really want to know are how long people
are spending on your site and how many pages they are viewing per visit. That way, you will know
whether you have truly engaged your clients. Of course, if they purchase something from your website,
then you know you really did capture them.