Chapter 10

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7e

Creative Message Strategy

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Learning Objectives

• Identify 10 objectives of creative message strategy
• Identify methods for achieving each creative message objective
• Discuss the strategic implications of various methods used to execute each message strategy objective

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©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

Promote a brand call

• Consumers are likely to buy a brand that they can remember and can easily recall
• Advertisers want their brand to be:

Top of mind - First brand a consumer remembers

In a evoked set - Small list of brand names

• Methods

Repetition

Memory aids - Slogans and jingles

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Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

Point-of-purchase branding

In-store visuals - Trigger retrieval of the brand name and memories of the ad at the point-of-purchase

Strategic implications of repetition, slogans, and jingles

Extremely resistant to forgetting

Efficient for consumer

Long-term commitment/expense

Competitive interference

Creative resistance

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Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

Link key attribute(s) to the brand name

• Unique selling proposition (USP): Emphasizing a unique quality of the advertised brand

Strategic implications

Big carryover

Very resistant

Long-term commitment and expense

Some creative resistance

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Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

Persuade the consumer

• Reason-why ads - Points out to the consumer that there are good reasons why a brand will be satisfying and beneficial

Strategic implications

Permission to buy

Socially acceptable defense

High level of involvement

Potential for counterarguments

Legal/regulatory challenges/exposure

Some creative resistance

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Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

• Hard-sell ads - Reason why with urgency

Strategic implications

Permission to buy now

Socially acceptable defense

Low credibility

Legal/regulatory challenges/exposure

Some creative resistance

• Comparison advertisements: Demonstrate a brand’s ability to satisfy consumers by comparing its features to those of competitive brands

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Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

Strategic implications

Can help a low-share brand

Provides social justification for purchase of the less popular brand

Gives permission to buy

Significant legal/regulatory exposure

Not used much in other parts of the world

Not for established market leaders

Evaluated as more offensive and less interesting than noncomparative ads

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One of the best comparison ads of all time.

Courtesy, Susan Van Etten

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

• Testimonial: Advocacy position in an advertisement taken by a spokesperson

Versions

Celebrity testimonial

Expert spokespeople

Average-user testimonial

Strategic implications

Popular people can generate popularity for the brand

People similar to the consumer, or an expert, can be powerful advocates for the brand

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Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

Consumers forget who likes what, when stars promote multiple goods and services

Can generate more popularity for the star than for the brand

• Demonstration ads

Product features are demonstrated

Strategic implications

Inherent credibility of seeing is believing

Can be used as social justification

Provides clear permission to buy

Fairly heavy regulatory/legal exposure

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©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

• Infomercial: Information/entertainment program that is an extended advertisement

Strategic implications

Long format gives advertisers plenty of time to make their case

Day-parts make infomercials better deals for advertisers when network ratings are fall

Has the advantage of looking like an entertainment show

Genre of ads has a negative public image

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Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

Get the consumer to feel good about the brand

• Feel-good ads - Link the good feeling elicited by the ad with the brand

By leveraging the tendency for humans to distort information in the favor of liked brands

Strategic implications

Eager creatives

May perform better in cluttered media environment

May generate competing thoughts and connections

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Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

• Humor ads - Create a pleasant and memorable association with the brand in the receiver

Strategic implications

Humor can be very effective if the joke is integral to the copy platform

Very eager creatives

Humorous messages may adversely affect comprehension

Very funny messages can wear out very quickly

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©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

• Sex-appeal ads - Feelings-based advertising that tend to focus on sex from time to time

Strategic implications

Higher attention levels

Higher arousal and affect

Possible poor memorability of brand due to interference at the time of exposure

Product-theme continuity excludes many goods and services

Legal, political, and regulatory exposure

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©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

Scare the consumer into action

• Fear-appeal ads - Highlights the negative consequences of not using the advertised brand or not taking some recommended action

Strategic implications

Plausible threat required to motivate consumers

Clear and easy-to-discern link between the alleviation of the threat and the use of the advertised brand is required

Some ads have low impact

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Would this ad “scare” you into buying the product?

Courtesy, Susan Van Etten

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

Change behavior by inducing anxiety

• Anxiety ads

Conveys that:

There is a clear and present problem

Way to avoid this problem is to buy the advertised brand

Social anxiety ads - Subcategory of anxiety ads where the danger is negative social judgment

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Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

Strategic implications

Can generate perception of widespread threat and motivate action

Results in long-term commitment to the brand

Efficient

Category demand and business for competitors may increase if the anxiety-producing threat is not linked to the brand

Ethical issues

Have been unfair and sexist

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©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

Define the brand image

• Image ads - Distill the brand’s essential meaning with a very sparse use of words and heavy reliance on visuals

Evaluated using:

Qualitative methods

Associative tests

Attribute-related attitude tracking studies

Zaltman (ZMET) metaphor-based techniques

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Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

Strategic implications

Less counterarguments generated by consumers

Little or no legal/regulatory exposure

Iconic potential

Very common in some categories

Rejected quickly if advertised image rings untrue

Do not copy-test well

Managerial resistance

Loved by creatives

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What is Skyy’s image, and how does this
ad project it?

Courtesy Skyy Spirits

©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

Give the brand the desired social meaning

• Slice-of-life ads - Depict an ideal usage situation for the brand

Evaluated using:

Pre- and post-exposure tests

Communication tests

Strategic implications

Fewer counterarguments made by consumers

Legal/regulatory advantages

Iconic potential

Creation of brand-social realities

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Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

Fairly common

Do not copy-test well

Loved by creatives

• Product placement - Placing products in movies and TV shows

Strategic implications

Low counterargument if the placement is not too obvious

May reduce defensive measures by consumers

Appear more prevalent and popular than it actually is

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Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

Perceived cost advantage over the very expensive network TV

Non-standardized rate structure

May not be very effective for high involvement categories

Science is unclear as to how well this technique works

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©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

Leverage social disruption and cultural contradictions

• Tie brand to social/cultural movement

Transform consumption experiences

• Transformational ads - Attempt to create a brand feeling, expectation, and mood that are activated when the consumer uses the product or service

Evaluated using:

Field studies

Tracking studies

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©2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Essential Message Objectives and Strategies

Ethnographic methods

Communication tests

Small-scale experiments

Strategic implications

Can be extremely powerful due to a merging of ad and brand experience

Fosters long-term commitment

Can ring false and hurt the brand

Ethical issues

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How does the imagery in this ad create a transformational context?

AP Images/PRNewsFoto/Disney Cruise Line