Strategy

For Effective Advertising

Pranesh Misra
IIM Bangalore. July 14, 2010
The Marketing
Value Management Process

Communicate
Choose the value Provide the value
the value

- Product
Development - Integrated
- Segmentation
Communication
- Market Focus - Pricing
- Sales promotion
- Value Positioning - Sourcing/ Making
- Sales force
- Distributing
Communication Strategy

CURRENT:
Consumer Behavior

BECAUSE:
They think or feel
Communication Strategy

CURRENT: FUTURE:
Consumer Behavior Consumer Behavior

BECAUSE: We change the way they

They think or feel think or feel
Change Decisions –
Foundation of Strategy
Change Communication Challenge
perceptions

Change Marketing Challenge

behavior

Change
Fortunes
Business Challenge
Let’s look at some ads

Can we spot the

strategy behind the
ad?
 Let us think about strategy behind
some ads…
 Target Audience
› Which specific consumer were they trying to address?

 Business Challenge:
 How would the company benefit from the ad?

 Marketing Challenge:
 What change in behavior should the ad initiate?

 Communication Challenge:
› What changes in perception were intended?

 Consumer Insight:
› What was the core consumer understanding that led to the COMMUNICATION IDEA?
D’Arcy Ad Agency
 D’Arcy’s Brief?
• Target Audience:

• Business Challenge

• Marketing Challenge

• Communication Challenge

• Insight
 D’Arcy’s Brief?
• Target Audience:
Potential clients of the agency

• Business Challenge
Increase D’Arcy’s success rates at pitches

• Marketing Challenge
Get clients to include D’Arcy in their pitch list

• Communication Challenge
How to convince that D’Arcy is a hardworking agency

• Insight
The biggest sufferers of a hardworking man are his family members
Sony VAIO
 Sony VIAO Brief?

• Target Audience:

• Business Challenge

• Communication Challenge

• Insight
 Sony VIAO Brief?
• Target Audience:
Young people in the 20 – 30 age group. Style and fashion
conscious.
• Business Challenge
How to get shares from users of Apple notebooks?
• Communication Challenge
How to build perception of Sony Vaio as a creative and trendy
brand for young professionals
• Insight
When you are engrossed in your work, you do not notice other
people around you.
The Communication Brief

“The most important piece of

paper on this floor…”
 Why do we need a brief?
 To achieve common understanding of the
communication strategy amongst team members
involved on the brand.

 To encourage and inspire creative ideation along

a desired path.
Communication Strategy

CURRENT: FUTURE:
Consumer Behavior Consumer Behavior

BECAUSE: We change the way they

They think or feel think or feel
 Brief: Blue Print of
Communication Strategy
Set of Questions:
• Why advertising?
• Who are we talking to?
• What do we want them to think/ do?
• The core insight?
• What should ad say?
• Why would it be believed?
• Desired tone & manner?
• Executional considerations?
 Ideal Brief:
The Five Critical Questions.
• Target Audience:
• Who should we talk to and influence?
• Business & Marketing Challenge:
• What behavior change would lead to a business impact on the brand’s fortune?
• Communication Challenge:
• Which perceptions (think/ feel)to change to bring about this change of
behavior?
• Differentiated Proposition:
• Which aspect about our product/ service/ personality should be amplified to
bring about change in perception?
• Consumer Insight:
• What is the key truth that will bond the consumer to our proposition and
brand?
Changing way the consumer feels
and behaves …

CURRENT: FUTURE:
Consumer Behavior Consumer Behavior

BECAUSE: We change the way they

They think or feel think or feel

CONSUMER INSIGHT
 Consumer Insight:
The heart of our strategy

Consumer
Consumer Brilliant Insight Impactful
Understanding Innovation Communication
Insights are electrifying!
Condom Usage: Insight

“Men are bashful to utter the word

CONDOM”
Pepsodent Toothpaste

“Though I know that sweets will

damage teeth and gums, I don’t
want to be seen as a nagging mom!”
Greenply Furniture

“Anything that lasts beyond a lifetime

must be durable!”
Surf Excel

“It is OK for my children to get dirty

since they are learning something in
the process”
Consumers don’t tell us Insights
We have to discover them!
 Discovering Consumer Insights –
useful Tools
Insight Mining
Barrier Jumping

Perceptual Mapping
Laddering
Barrier Jumping
How to discover insights
that will overcome
mental barriers in
consumer’s mind?
Barrier Jumping: What will help us
overcome barrier in the mind?
Three Typical Barriers to Our
Proposition I don’t want the
benefit
I don’t believe you
deliver

I already have your

benefit
Barrier Jumping - Probes
 Role of insight: To make the benefit
I don’t want the particularly desirable or important
benefit  Probe Questions:
 When do products fail?
 Who will notice?
 How does the product change lives?
 When is it really important that the
product works?
 What is the most important area in
which the product is used and why?
Barrier Jumping - Probes
Don’t believe you  Role of insight: Build credibility that
deliver the benefit the brand does work.
 Probe Questions:
 Do you understand how the product
works – the process?
 Who do you trust as experts on the
category?
 Who would you think knows more
than you, so you can trust them if
they endorsed the brand’s benefits?
Barrier Jumping - Probes
 Role of insight: To cause re-
I Already have the evaluation of their current brand,
benefit and shake complacency
 Probe Questions:
 When do products fail?
 Who will notice that you are not
getting this benefit, even if you
don’t?
 What is the proof that your current
brand is delivering the benefit?
 What is the standard of excellence
on the benefit? Does your current
brand meet this standard?
LADDERING
How to discover hidden
motivations that are
really important for the
consumer?
 Laddering
 We start with the attributes
 Ask why the attribute is important
 Ask why the benefit is important
 Ask why that answer is important
Laddering: Doing an MBA

 Why are you investing two years to pursue an

MBA?
 Why is that important?
 And why is that important?
 Etc.
Group Exercise: Spot the Strategy

• Target Audience?

• Business Challenge?

• Marketing Challenge?

• Communication Challenge?

• Consumer Insight?
Group 1: Volvo
Group 2: Toyota
Group 3: Ikea
Group 4: Rexona
Group 5: Bridgestone
Group 6: Greenply
Questions & Discussions
Thank You.

pranesh.misra@brandscapesworldwide.com