Sem 14.1 T2 - T5

Topic 2 ORGANISATION AND CREATIVE STAFF.

By the end of this topic, you will be able to:

1. Explain the main groups of the marketing communication field;

2. Explain the position and the organisational structure of an agency that

provides creative service;

3. Identify the creative staff through their positions and tasks;

4. Discuss the role of a copywriter as the communicator and the

challenges faced; and

5. Identify marketing communications agencies.

INTRODUCTION

This topic focuses on the creative team and the organisation it works for. Three

main subtopics will be discussed, namely the industrial organisation, the creative

staff and the agency's service. In the industrial organisation subtopic, the

students will be given exposure to the groups involved in the marketing

communications field, which are the advertiser, the media and the agency.

In the section on creative staff, their main positions will be identified and their

tasks as well as their relationships with each other will be explained. Besides

copywriter, other positions are creative director, art director, graphic designer

and illustrator.

In the section on the service agency, the organisations that provide creative

services will be elaborated. These are the full service agency, creative boutique,

internal agency, media planning and buying agency as well as other agencies in

the public relations and sales promotion fields.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

2.1 INDUSTRIAL ORGANISATION

In the marketing communications field, many parties are related to one another.

The three basic organisation groups are:

 Marketing communications agency;

 Media organisation; and

 Advertising company.

These three categories of organisations are partners in the marketing

communications industry. Each partner is elaborated below.

2.1.1 Partner

The organisation of marketing communications exists in various forms and

structures, depending on its ability and purpose. There are internal organisations

as well as external and independent ones. Internal organisations include

departments, units or divisions in the large organisations in any industry,

whether manufacturing, service, agriculture or others.

Internal organisations usually offer marketing communications services only to

their companies, whereas external organisations operate independently and offer

marketing communications services to any company that needs it. The

independent organisation exists in various forms and specialisations.

SELF-CHECK 2.1

 A copywriter communicates at different levels. Think about the

meaning of communicator in the context of a copywriter. What is

the message and who is the audience? Draw a diagram to

illustrate the communication process.

 Hanley Norins (1980) assumes that a copywriter has five

characteristics: avid curiosity, vivid imagination, warm empathy,

keen enthusiasm and modest flexibility. Explain the meaning of

each characteristic.

Figure 2.1: Partners of marketing communications

A company needs the services of the marketing communications agencies to

convey information about their products and services. Figure 2.1 shows the

partners of the marketing communications industry. Although they are partners,

each entity is independent but interdependent on each other and exist together.

The figure is known as the pyramid of marketing communications partner or the

Golden Triangle Partners of IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications). The

position of the customers and the interest holders in the middle of the pyramid

illustrates the customer-centric nature of this industry.

Table 2.1 below illustrates the partners of marketing communications in detail.

Table 2.1: Partners of Marketing Communication

Partners of Marketing

Communication Description

Advertiser  Covers all commercial and non-commercial,

private, government, semi-government companies

and non-profit organisations.

 Has something to sell or offer.

 This organisation will continue to exist if they

have sufficient clients to buy their products,

services or ideas.

 The type of purchase is different:

- Commercial company: customers who buy

products and services.

- Non-profit organisation: purchase done

through time or financial contribution.

Media  Print and electronic media companies that have

their own audiences; these audiences are needed

by the advertisers in their marketing

communications process.

 Media organisations that offer space and time for

those purposes.

Agency  Organisation involved in offering marketing

communications services either as a full service

agency or a company that offers special services.

These three groups need each other to continue their operations:

 The advertiser needs the media as their communication tool,

 The media needs the advertiser to pay their operation costs, and;

 The agency has creative experts so it can offer services to the advertiser.

So, it is clear that each has its own interests and needs.

2.1.2 Organisation Structure

The organisation structure of external and internal advertising agencies is

different. This also applies to special service agencies such as the creative

boutique or other creative services providers. It depends on the ownership and

management. The same goes for the other companies that become the

advertisers.

For companies that have advertising departments, they may have many staff

headed by the advertising manager, who is responsible to the marketing director

or the marketing services manager.

The actual structure depends on a few factors, but basically, there are two types

of management structure · centralised and decentralised. There are companies

that combine both these structures.

(a) Centralised Structure

In the centralised structure, the party in authority is responsible for all the

marketing communication messages. This usually happens when all the

products are sold under a brand name such as IBM, Nikon and Caterpillar.

The organisation head has complete control and power. This means the

marketing, advertising and research divisions and all the functions under

marketing communications will report to the director or head of company.

Refer to Figure 2.2 below.

Figure 2.2: Centralised structure organisation

A centralised company is very concerned about cost efficiency and

continuity in its marketing communications programme. Via the centralised

structure, the highest person in authority has more power to enable

him/her to provide efficient and continuous service throughout the

divisions.

In centralised departments, the advertising manager is responsible to the

head above him/her, which is usually the vice president. Besides that, the

company may structure the departments according to certain divisions

based on the product or brand, the sub-functions of advertising, end user,

media and geography.

(b) Decentralised Structure

Each division is more independent and performs a wider range of

functions. The heads of departments assume management responsibilities

and they may be structured according to geography, product, brand,

subsidiary or other divisions. Refer to Figure 2.3 below.

Figure 2.3: Decentralised organisation structure

The companies that sell products of different brands usually use the

decentralised structure. For example, Procter & Gamble manufactures and

markets different product brands such as Crest, Tide, Cheer and Pampers.

Each brand has its own agency and individual marketing communication

messages that are not related to the other brands under the mother

company. Procter & Gamble, the name of the company, is a corporate brand

and it receives less promotion compared to the products and brands under

it. Decentralised structure also happens geographically when the company

sells the products and provides the services to the other countries or

regions.

Each region manager is responsible for the selling and marketing

communication messages of its region.

ACTIVITY 2.1

Look at the telephone directory. Get the following information

from the directory

1. How does the directory categorise the companies involved in

marketing communication activities?

2. Name some of the main companies in each category.

3. Get more information about those companies.

2.2 SERVICE AGENCY

Look at the telephone directory. Get the following information from that book. A

few types of advertising service agencies will be elaborated on below. Those

agencies are divided according to the types of services given to the advertising

companies.

The organisation of these agencies is not always the same because each has its

own uniqueness in structure, name of position and department. However, there

are similarities among one another and these agencies can be divided into:

2.2.1 Full Service Agency

A full service agency provides all or nearly all kinds of services needed in the

marketing communication field. Usually, a full service agency provides these

services: research services, creative development for brand messages, media

planning, media buying and account management.

However, full service doesn’t mean that they will perform all tasks. For instance,

in print advertising, they may not do printing and in television advertising, they

may not do filming. On the contrary, they manage or monitor those tasks given

to the more specialised agency and in these cases, the printer and film company.

Usually, there are three units/divisions/departments in the full service agency,

which are:

 creative service,

 media division and

 management and account division.

Refer to Figure 2.4.

Figure 2.4: The structure of a full service agency

Table 2.2

Unit/Division/Department Description

Creative Service

 The traffic and production divisions are under the control of the creative service.

 The production division manages the advertisement production while the traffic division ensures that the production process flows smoothly.

 The creative service division has creative staff who are responsible for the production of creative ideas.

Under this division, there are:

- copy unit,

- production unit,

- art unit,

- traffic unit or other units according to media,

which are the print advertisement unit,

television advertisement unit and radio

advertisement unit.

 The creative staff consist of:

- copywriter,

- art director,

- creative director,

- publisher and

- traffic manager.

 The copywriter produces texts, copies or verbal and

written messages.

 The collaboration with account managers is

important in this matter because the account

manager deals directly with the clients.

Account Management  Account in this context means the organisation that

becomes the advertising agency’s clients. For

example, airlines, banks and hotels are accounts of

advertising agencies.

 The account management division is handled by

account managers who are the communication

officers between the agency and the clients.

 This division is headed by the customer service

director who manages the staff, which consist of

account supervisor, account officer and account

officer assistant.

 The main tasks of this division are:

- To identify the customer’s problems and needs

and help create communication strategies to

solve them.

- Another important task includes conveying creative

ideas and media plans to customers and convincing

the customers to acknowledge them.

Media Division  The media division has two main tasks, which are:

- media planning and

- media buying.

 Media planning is related to tasks that set objectives

and media strategies of advertisement to be

presented to the audience.

 Media buying involves buying and obtaining

suitable advertisement space and time in the mass

media according to the media plan.

Research Division  If there is a research division, then it will usually

collaborate with the creative service and account

management divisions.

 A big agency has its own research division.

 This division conducts studies and research

qualitatively and quantitatively to enhance their

understanding of customers and identify the most

suitable group of audiences to receive their

marketing communication messages.

 This division is also needed to test creative strategy

ideas and evaluate advertising works based on their

stages.

2.2.2 Internal Agency

Some companies think it is more profitable to have a special division to handle

the marketing communications tasks themselves. The internal agency’s role is to

produce all or a part of the marketing communications items.

A company that needs to advertise daily, such as the supermarket that always

publishes groceries advertisements, has an internal agency. Some large

companies have internal agencies so that they can control the creative process

and work, especially in terms of creative ideas and manufacturing costs.

Depending on its type and roles, internal agencies perform marketing

communications tasks such as advertising, publicity, sales promotion and direct

marketing. However, internal agencies also have their limitations such as

creativity, exposure and bargaining power. The best person in this field usually

chooses the full service agency. Besides that, with only one account, there is less

exposure and buying advertisement space and time for one agency only will

incur higher costs.

2.2.3 Creative Boutique

Creative boutique is an agency that has creative experts, specifically

 Copywriter

 Graphic designer

 Typesetter

 Illustrator

 Artist.

They work together to offer special services based on the combination of their

skills. This agency works on a project basis for their customers and other

agencies.

Once a project is completed, they will send it for production or to the media for

broadcast. The role of the creative boutique is the same as the creative

department in a full service agency.

Normally, the creative boutique is started by a copywriter or a person in the

creative team such as the creative director or art director who works for a full

service agency. Their success in producing good work results in their decision go

set up their own company, which is the creative boutique. Perhaps they are also

not satisfied working for other people. So, they choose to be free and set up this

creative agency.

Although the work of the creative boutique may be good and economical, they

do not provide research and marketing services, selling skills and customer

service that a full service advertising agency offers. Because of this, the services

of the creative boutique are only limited to providing creative work.

2.2.4 Freelancer

Some creative experts work individually and independently without any

bonding with employers. Usually, they have vast expertise and are trusted by the

agencies and companies to work on creative projects. So, freelancers are

independent creative experts who work on their own and take up tasks from

agencies or marketing organisations on a project basis.

2.2.5 Media Planning and Buying Agency

A media planning and buying agency is an organisation with expertise in

planning and buying media spaces for advertisers. This agency works with

various companies to obtain those spaces for advertising purposes.

Media planning is very important because the media are widely used by the

advertisers to communicate and convey their marketing messages. Besides that,

the media are developing progressively and have become complex through stiff

competition.

In addition, the media are becoming more specialised and more focused on their

individual audiences. Fragmentation exists among the audiences because there

are many media choices and the task of media planning is getting more

complicated. Besides that, the advertisers need to negotiate smartly with the

media because of tight budgets. Good judgement in management and full

attention are also needed. All these make the media planning and buying agency

very relevant.

Media time and space are perishable services. For example, the time on radio and

television for a certain period will be gone as time passes by. Similarly,

newspaper or magazine spaces will eventually be gone after the newspaper or

magazine has been published.

Unused space and time are unprofitable for the media company. So, radio and

television time will be sold as early and as much as possible. The media will

usually give a discount for bulk buying. The media buying agency will get the

best discounts by buying more time and then selling the time to advertising

agencies or companies.

The media buying agency provides a detailed analysis of the media buying to its

clients. When media packages are sold, the media buying agency will book the

time, verify the performance and ensure that the media station fulfils the buying

by publishing the advertisement or pays compensation if it is not published.

2.2.6 Other Marketing Communications Agencies

There are many special agencies involved in the marketing communications

field, apart from advertising. Some of them are shown in Figure 2.4 below:

Figure 2.5: Other marketing communications agencies

(a) Direct Marketing Company

This firm uses a database and technology to help their clients foster a long-

term profitable relationship with their audiences. These companies implement:

ACTIVITY 2.2

The media today is said to be getting more specialised and focused with their own specific and focused audiences. Obtain a schedule of programmes for an electronic media (television and radio) in Malaysia and based on the schedule, answer the questions below.

1. How many television channels and media are there in

Malaysia?

2. How specialised are these channels?

3. What is the condition of the audience fragmentation?

4. Which channel do you think has a generalist nature?

5. Which channel do you think is the advertiser’s favourite and why?

 Strategic planning

 Response management

 Media buying

 Customer management

(b) Event Marketing Company

Event marketing is a promotional function that is planned to interest and

involve the target audience of a product. It has become a specialisation

service carried out by the company. Besides planning and handling

marketing events, this company also monitors and manages logistics. Event

management can have a great impact because it involves the individual

completely. This makes the event memorable and motivating because it

does not involve mere passive messages.

According to Clare Rosenberg, President of Promotional Marketing

Association USA,

Recent recognition from corporate marketers that event marketing engages

consumers with a hands-on, emotionally rewarding brand experience, has

caused them to shift budget resources from „traditional‰ marketing

practices to event marketing, which is the fastest growing practice in the

industry.

Important reasons for implementing event marketing are:

 Getting audiences who are difficult to reach;

 Increasing product or brand awareness; and

 Creating the platform for publicity activities.

Tupperware is said to be the founder of event marketing because it used

event marketing as a marketing tool at the in-home Tupperware Party. This

party created peer pressure but at the same time, it resulted in experiential

marketing. The product differentiated itself through special exposure at the

party, such as demonstration and socialisation. However, such method is

now challenged by other strategies, especially online marketing.

(c) Packaging Agency

This agency manages packaging and performs tasks related to packaging

design and management. Packaging is important in creating a positive

product or brand perception. This means packaging can affect the image.

Although advertising is an important image builder for products or

organisations, packaging also plays an important role. Packaging reminds

the consumer of the brand and represents the image at the buying point,

where the decision to buy is made.

Packaging has five components, namely:

 Design

 Protection

 Function

 Cost

 Disposability

The features of a package such as the shape, logo, typography, colour and

material are planned to exhibit the identity and image.

(d) Public Relations Agency

A public relations agency handles the management aspects of work related

to the companyÊs relationship with the public to establish trust,

collaboration and a good image. Other public relations programmes focus

on corporate communications and workers as well as community and

financial relationships.

(e) Call Centre

An agency that handles telephone communications, either outgoing or

incoming calls.

(f) Research Company

It conducts studies and research on customers and products besides

evaluating marketing communication ideas and testing their effectiveness.

(g) Publishing Company

A company that publishes marketing communication items in print and

electronic forms. These publishing companies undertake tasks or projects

owned by the advertising organisation, public service organisation or even

advertising companies via their marketing department.

(h) Design Studio

An agency that provides graphic design services for the different types of

media. Design studio carries out specific tasks that are done by skilful

graphic designers.

2.3 STAFF OF THE CREATIVE DEPARTMENT

The creative staff consist of:

 Creative director

 Art director

 Copywriter

 Visualiser

 Graphic designer

 Artist

 Illustrator

 Traffic manager

The creative staff are united as a group and they need to work together to get

ideas and implement those ideas in the advertising campaign.

2.3.1 Creative Director

This means that the Creative Director:

 Supervises the production process,

 Implements

 Produces the creative ideas.

Some of the tasks of the Creative Director are to:

1. Ensure that the concepts and intentions are interpreted as well as possible.

2. Ensure that the advertisement produced fulfils its objective.

3. Report the progress of the advertising assignments directly to the General

Manager or the Managing Director of the company.

The Creative Director is responsible for the whole idea and the advertisement

presentation.

Figure 2.6: The tasks of a creative director

1. Ensures that the Concepts and Intentions are Interpreted as Well as

Possible

The Creative Director is responsible for ensuring that the concepts and

intentions of the advertiser are interpreted as well as possible so that the

advertisement produced is really strong and fulfils the needs of the product

manufacturer. In other words, a Creative Director usually racks his/her

brain to find the most suitable and effective approach to create a successful

advertisement. Usually, he/she is the person who is able to read minds and

gauge the tendency of a prospect or customer with the potential to buy the

products.

2. Ensures that the Advertisement Produced Fulfils its Objective

The Creative Director and his/her team will work hard to ensure that the

advertisement produced fulfils its objective such as attracting the

audience’s attention or stays in the mind for a long time.

In this case, if the customer can recall the advertisement for a long time, it

means the Creative Director and the team are very creative. It is a success

too, if the words and phrases in the advertisements are mentioned by many

people. A person becomes really creative when he/she is in the world of

advertising for a long time and has produced various types of

advertisements for different types of customers.

3. Reports the Progress of the Advertisement Assignments Directly to the

General Manager or the Managing Director of the Company

The Creative Director is responsible for reporting the progress of the

advertising tasks given directly to the General Manager or the Managing

Director of the company. Sometimes, he/she also needs to present the final

production to the customers and support the strength of the concept and

the creative approach. He/she needs to have convincing arguments on the

choice of elements in the advertisement.

2.3.2 Art Director

If the Creative Director is responsible for supervising the production process,

implementing and producing creative ideas, then the Art Director will be

responsible for supervising and handling the visual aspects of the advertisement.

The Art Director and the other graphic artists decide on the theme and then turn

the concept into visual elements. This process is called visualisation · the early

step in conveying the ideas visually.

Working with the copywriter, the Art Director will use his/her imagination

through the stages of the creative process such as exploration, thinking,

implementation and evaluation. The Art Director handles the visual aspects of

the advertisement and is assisted by the graphic designer, artist, illustrator and

graphic artist.

One of the dimensions of visualisation is deciding on how the message element

· words, pictures and sounds · are presented and arranged to convey the ideas

most effectively.

In this context, the Art Director handles the visuals. The word ÂvisualÊ actually

refers to all the artwork. In print advertisement, the artwork covers photos,

computer-generated images and hand-drawn illustrations. In the electronic

media such as film, television and video, the art element consists of film, still

pictures or animation.

Another important element is typeface. The Art Director needs to choose and use

a suitable typeface that illustrates the advertising needs and portrays the

corporate image. The types, which are the alphabets and the characters used,

have design dimensions and can contribute to the style of the advertisement

presentation. Different typefaces bring out different images and tones, for

instance formal, informal, light, casual, etc.

This means the Art Director is responsible for photography, illustration, film,

logo and all other visual elements.

In most marketing communication messages, the visual element is regarded

important because it is used to enhance attraction. At the same time, it must

convey messages about the product, brand and company. For example, the

advertisement typeface can create positive or negative impressions and that

impression may stay in the audience’s minds for a long time.

2.3.4 Copywriter

In this book, the copywriter refers to the advertising copywriter. Who is the

copywriter?

In Complete Copywriter, Hanley Norins (1980) described the copywriter through

the paraphrasing of Dicken’s novel, A Tale of Two Cities:

„Copywriter is the best of writers, he is the worst of writers, he is a

practical businessman, he is a temperamental artist, he is the bearer of

benefits, he is the apostle of greed, he is an inspired craftsman, and he

is a frustrated hack.‰

Who is actually the copywriter? According to Norins, the copywriter is the

communicator who faces the greatest challenge compared with other

communicators because, according to Norins, the copywriter:

 Needs to use the most intense language for the most difficult discourse.

 Needs to communicate through very restrictive space and time.

 Has no voluntary audiences just like the other communicators and he/she is

compelled to face indifferent people and sometimes, even antagonists.

According to Norins, as a communicator, the copywriter communicates at

different levels. (see Table 2.3).

Table 1.1: Definition of Advertising

Process Description

Stage 1: Planning Process  In the advertisement production process, the

copywriter communicates with the public to do

detailed research on the item, specifically:

- the product advertised,

- the competitors of the product and the

customers.

Stage 2: Advertisement

Message Production

Process

 The copywriter will communicate with the colleagues

specifically:

- the account managers, researchers and media

experts who will work together as a team to

produce the best advertisement.

 He/She will also communicate closely with the

creative experts such as:

- the art director, publisher, film director, stylist,

composer, lighting director, film editor, etc.

 He/She will also communicate with the advertising

companies, which is the most important group

because without them, the advertising project cannot

be implemented.

Stage 3: Implementation Process

 The product produced is used to communicate with

the target audience to convey the specified message.

The copywriter is the communicator who communicates with the various

audiences at the different stages during the creative process, from planning till

implementation.

The copywriter’s role is to produce advertisement texts for the print or electronic

media. Basically, the copywriter is part of the creative team in an advertising

agency that is given the task of getting ideas and presenting them in campaigns

that market or promote the products or services effectively.

Therefore, what is written by the copywriter should have commercial motives, so

that it attracts the consumer to acknowledge and appreciate the product

introduced.

The Creative Director has his/her own ways to manage the creative team or the

department staff. He/she has full freedom to determine the style of working in

the department or the time needed to finish an assignment.

Sometimes, the Creative Director gives his/her suggestions, opinions or

guidance to the copywriter on the text approach. If this happens, it will facilitate

the work of the copywriter. For text preparation, usually the Art Director is very

concerned and sensitive about the headlines suggested by the copywriter. The

Art Director will ensure that the headlines or sub-headlines are suitable for the

illustrations being worked on.

In certain circumstances, the copywriter can also help the Art Director to produce

a good illustration or help the Art Director to generate ideas to fulfil the

customers needs. It is indeed better if there are more opinions or views being

voiced out to generate more ideas for a task.

Besides that, the Art Director also helps the copywriter to get ideas and adopt a

sound approach to produce the copy or advertisement text. However, this

seldom happens because the Art Director is usually busy and he/she needs to

think about other creative assignments as well. He/she may be able to help in

producing headlines because the graphics and illustrations are usually related to

the headline.

2.3.5 Graphic Designer

The graphic designer works on the different print or electronic media. Some

designers are not „artists‰ because they do not produce most of the graphics or

illustrations but they produce the layout of the text or graphic materials done by

the other persons.

Besides that, there are also graphic designers who do not use the text directly as

their source and they are the illustrator or digital artist. However, there are also

graphic designers who perform all kinds of tasks and produce all the items such

as the print, Web, layout and illustration.

The graphic designer and illustrator usually work together as freelancers or with

the employers. Graphic designers with employers get a fixed salary and work in-

house while freelance graphic designers work externally and get commission or

payment from the projects that they have completed. Internal staff usually work

as the technical illustrator in the automotive industry, the illustrator in the

medical, botanical or archaeological services, the graphic designer in the retail

industry, and the graphic designer in the graphic industry or advertising agency.

Freelance graphic designers receive their assignments in the form of

 Single assignment,

 Multiple assignments or period assignments, and

 Advisory services.

The method of payment is either a fixed lump sum according to the market rate

or the agreed percentage of royalty based on profit. The normal method is

calculation according to hours or the duration and retainer method where the

customer wants to keep or use the service.

The graphic designer prepares his/her job by compiling his/her portfolio.

A portfolio contains the works or samples of hand drawings, computer images,

photos and printed works.

In advertising, the graphic designer produces the advertisement for the various

media. One of the media is the print advertisement explained in Figure 2.7.

Figure 2.7: Print advertisement

2.3.6 Other Staff

There are other staff working in the creative department. They consist of the

layout artist, illustrator, painter, artist, visualiser, publisher, traffic officer, etc.

A portfolio is the collection of his/her best works. It portrays his/her skills to

the customers and employers.

The ‘painter’ and the ‘artist’ are the general terms given to people with the

expertise in illustration works whether it is graphic illustration, pencil drawing,

paint drawing, water colour or the other media.

Some of the staff working in the creative department are listed in Table 2.4

below:

Table 2.4: The Tasks Performed by the Creative Department Staff Position The Task Performed Illustrator

The person who has the expertise in the illustration field and does the illustration works.

Layout Artist

 The person who arranges the elements of layout such as the

texts and graphics that make up the whole layout of a page.

 A layout artist is not a graphic designer but a designer who

is skilful at layout works. This means the graphic designer is

in a higher category as stated by Roy Nelson,

... ’use the term ‘layout artist’ in connection with low-level

layouts and the term ‘designer’ with the high-level

layouts’...

Publisher

 The person who handles logistics and advertisement production costs.

Traffic Manager

 The traffic manager controls the work flow until the verification and production processes are carried out.

 The task of this division is important to ensure that deadlines are met.

 The traffic manager also manages external services from the artist, photographer and printer when needed.

The creative staff mentioned above can work for a particular media: newspaper,

magazine, television station and advertisement company. They can also work for

the advertisers: manufacturing company, retailer, wholesaler and service

company. Besides that, they can work in an art studio, a designer studio or even

at the printers.

Art Director

Copywriter

Creative Director

Freelancer

Graphic Designer

Illustrator

Layout Artist

Traffic Manager

SELF ASSESSMENT 1

1. State two types of management.

2. In marketing communications, there are three basic groups of organisation.

State those groups.

3. What is the job of a Creative Director?

4. What are the differences between a graphic designer and an illustrator?

5. What is a portfolio?

SELF ASSESSMENT 2

1. What are the meanings of internal and external organisations? What are

their differences and similarities?

2. Elaborate on the organisation structure of a full service agency.

3. Explain the differences between a full service agency and a creative

boutique.

4. State the strengths and weaknesses of the centralised and decentralised

structure.

5. How relevant is the media planning and buying agency?

REF

Arens, W. F. (2006). Contemporary advertising. (10th ed.). New York: McGraw-

Hill Irwin.

Bendinger, B. (1990). The copy workshop workbook. (3rd ed.). Chicago: The

Copy Workshop.

Duncan, T. (2006). Advertising and IMC. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Lois, G. (1991). What’s the big idea? How to win with outrageous ideas (that sell).

New York: Doubleday.

Marra, J. L. (1990). Advertising creativity: Techniques for generating ideas. NJ:

Prentice Hall.

Norins, H. (1980). The complete copywriter: A comprehensive guide to all

phrases of advertising communication. Malabar Florida: Robert E. Krieger

Publishing Company.

Pickton, D. & Broderick, A. (2005). Integrated marketing communication.

London: Prentice Hall.

Varey, R. J. (2002). Marketing communication: Principles and practice. New York:

Routledge.

White R. (1993). Advertising: What it is and how to do it. New York: McGraw-

Hill.

TOPIC 3 CREATIVITY IN ADVERTISING

INTRODUCTION

This topic discusses the concept of creativity in advertising as well as its role and process. Students will be introduced to the meaning of creativity, the characteristics of a creative personality and how creative thinking is done. Students will also have an understanding of the importance of creativity, creativity application in advertisements and the relationship between the copywriter in the context of creativity and the production of a successful advertisement.

By the end of this topic, you will be able to:

1. Define the creativity concept and its role as well as importance in marketing communications;

2. Identify the characteristics of a successful advertisement;

3. List the creative stages and the process involved in the production of a creative item;

4. Explain how the audiences react to the marketing product or message; and

5. Use the creative techniques in a project.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

(Jef I. Richards)

Creativity is an advertising agencys most valuable asset, because it is the rarest.

Through this topic, students will also have an understanding of the stages and

models of the creative process. This aspect will also include the guidelines

presented by the experts in advertisement production or creative works. Overall,

this topic is divided into three main subjects · the creativity concept, the

creativity in advertising and the creative process. Understanding all these is

important for comprehending the creativity field in terms of its theory and

guidelines.

SELF-CHECK 3.1

In this modern world, everyone is exposed to advertisement

messages around them: billboards in housing areas, posters at

transport station, direct mail advertisements sent to homes, radio and

television advertisements as well as marketing communication items

in the supermarkets. Think of an advertisement that you normally

encounter and answer the following questions:

1. What can you tell from the advertisement message?

2. How is the presentation?

3. What are the elements used?

4. What is the meaning of each element?

5. Which advertisement do you think is better and why?

3.1 CREATIVITY CONCEPT

There are people who say that humans are born with creative characteristics. This

means that humans are naturally creative. What is the meaning of a creative

human?

Actually, ‘creativity’ is a term widely used in the career world and certainly in,

the advertising world. People who produce advertising messages are called the

creative types and the advertising agency builds their reputation based on the

creative stage. The creativity concept is given strong focus because it is the

biggest challenge. But what is the meaning of creativity?

3.1.1 Definition of Creativity

Creativity is the talent and skill to produce something.

In advertising, it means the skill to produce an idea and turn the idea into an

effective advertisement.

But what is creative idea? Many writers in the creativity field agree that creative

ideas do not mean that the idea is new or the idea is not related to what has been

invented by man before.

The general definition for create

vity is the quality possessed by someone and this

quality enables him/her to generate new approaches to solving a problem. In

advertising, creativity may be seen in different perspectives.

There are views, in the extreme, which maintain that an advertisement is creative

when it can sell the products or services successfully. Another extreme view sees

creativity of the advertisement through its aesthetic and artistic values. ThatÊs

why advertisements need to be fresh, natural and unique. The actual answer for

advertisement creativity may be just between those two extreme views.

However, the general view of creativity in advertising is:

the ability to generate fresh, unique and appropriate ideas that can be used as

solutions to communications problems.

This perspective recommends that the creative ideas in advertising are: novelty,

originality and suitability. This means that the creative idea is new, fresh, unique,

innovative and different.

Ideas that are suitable must also be relevant to the audience or at least benefit

them. This means that the suitable and relevant ideas are useful, correct and

valuable ideas and with interests and needs.

Actually, creativity is not only needed in the creative department. In marketing

communications management, it is important to manifest it in each division.

Advertisement messages must be creative to ensure that they are successful and

have an impact. The choice of media also needs creativity because creative media

usage can strengthen the attraction of messages.

For example, there was a time where the advertiser or advertising agency or even

the media did not think of placing an advertisement on the front page of the

magazine or newspaper because it has a masthead or they didn’t realise that it is

the most strategic space for the media to convey their messages. However, these

days, there are advertisements on the front page of the newspaper or magazine

through the creative insertion of a separate page at the area.

The choice and combination of the media also need creativity to get the

maximum exposure to the target audience. The choice of the target audience also

has to be creative so that all the potential audiences can be reached during the

advertisement campaign.

Table 3.1 shows some general definitions of creativity and Table 3.2 shows those

given by the advertising experts.

Table 3.1: Various General Definitions of Creativity

Definition of Creativity Source

Involves cognitive activity that results in a new way of viewing some problem or situation, and which is not necessarily restricted to practicality.

The ability to think and approach a problem in an

original or flexible way.

- Internet

The ability to create. Oxford English Dictionary

Characterised by originality and expressiveness, imaginative.

The Heritage Illustrated

Dictionary

Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction. Picasso Imagination is more important than knowledge. Einstein Creativity is knowledge times imagination times evaluation. And I say ‘times’ because if either knowledge, imagination or evaluation is missing then there would be no creativity.

David C. Morrison

Table 3.2: Definitions of Creativity by Advertising Experts Definition of Creativity Source

An idea is nothing more or less than a new combination of old elements.

James Webb Young

A creative thinker evolves no new ideas. He actually evolves new combinations of ideas that are already in his mind.

Alex Osborn

I have always felt that perhaps the real key to this nebulous thing called ‘creativity’ is the art of establishing new and meaningful relationship between previously unrelated things in a manner that it is relevant, believable and in good taste, but which somehow presents the product in a fresh new light.

Leo Burnett

The forming of associative elements into new combinations which either meet specified requirements or are useful in some way.

Wilbert S. Ray

Creativeness is a basic scientific ability to see the relationship between apparently unrelated things.

Ernest Ditcher

A large part of Creativity is the creative individuals ability to think by connections, many times by analogies and metaphors: Something is like or suggests something else.

And this connection provides the spark for creativity ideas.

James Marra

3.1.2 Creative Personality

In the context of personal creativity, the general assumption is that the personal

creative process is a result of the interaction between the right and left

hemispheres of the brain. The right brain, which is related to the intuition

function and creativity, is regarded as being responsible for an insight or an idea

while the left brain manipulates the suitable tool to express the idea.

However, there are other views that reject the idea of the left and right brain.

Such an idea is regarded as oversimplification. The process in the human brain is

not that simple because both parts of the brain, which are the two hemispheres,

are needed for all the creative tasks. Excluding the comparison of which part of

the brain is more creative, the important question related to advertising is what

are the special personality characteristics that can reinforce the creative process in

an individual?

Many studies have been done to observe the creative characteristics of an

individual. What differentiates a creative person from an uncreative person?

Csikszentmihalyi (1996) listed the various special characteristics of a creative

person: smart yet naïve, combining playfulness with discipline, alternating

between fantasy and reality, being both introverted and extroverted, and being

rebellious while also conservative. In the context of playfulness, this quality can

make the individual use the various combinations of thoughts and ideas to form

a new concept.

A person is creative if he/she can adapt very easily to new environments.

Complexity interests them and they are intuitive; they can compromise on

equality or ambiguity and confidence. These ideas are presented by researchers

such as Caudron, Csikszentmihalyi and Oldham & Cummings.

Besides that, according to Gelade, a creative person tends to be neurotic and more open to experience in terms of fantasy, aesthetics, and feelings than their noncreative counterparts. They are also outgoing, non-rational, emotional, and guided by feelings, and they know when they are „hot‰ or approaching a solution (Alvesson, 1994 & Stein, 1991).

However, intelligence is regarded by the researchers as one of the main qualities of a creative person while it actually has an unclear relationship with creativity. This is true if intelligence is measured with the usual IQ test. A person with a high score in an IQ test is not necessarily the most creative person and vice versa.

This shows that different measures need to be used, for instance, for the measurement of the ability to solve a problem.

Generally, the research on creative personality concludes that there is a group of characteristics that focuses on intelligence, intuition, and confidence.

ACTIVITY 3.1

Read the definitions of creativity in Table 3.1. Get also other

definitions from different sources such as dictionary, book, journal

and the Internet.

1. List those definitions and state their respective sources.

2. What are the significant similarities and differences between the

definitions?

3. Which definition do you think is the best and what is the source

of the definition?

4. Why do you think it is the best definition?

5. What is your own definition of creativity?

6. What is your conclusion?

3.1.3 Creative Thinking

Humans are generally creative. Without creativity, humans cannot live and

develop progressively with so many technological creations. Human’s lives

changed from nomadic to sedentary life with the creation of agricultural tools.

Man now can sail the seas and rocket into space and cross boundaries quickly

and safely. All these are the results of human creativity.

According to Max Weber, humans think in two ways:

 Objective way

 Subjective way

In the objective way, humans think rationally based on facts. With the qualitative

method, humans can think intuitively according to values. In examinations, we

think rationally and apply the facts that we learned but when we are buying a

house, we think intuitively about the colour, shape and ambience besides the

price, loan and physical specifications.

Roger Von Oech divides the way of thinking into two, which are:

 Soft thinking and

 Hard thinking

Hard thinking refers to the reality, accuracy, consistency, logic and specialisation

concepts. In this thinking, there is true or false; accuracy and inaccuracy. Soft

thinking is related to non-visual, abstract concepts, such as fantasy, humour,

dream, perception and assumption.

In this context, there is no concrete situation because some are accurate and some are not really accurate with many answers and uncertainties.

Many thinking theories assume there are two ways of thinking, which are:

 Thinking based on facts

- makes conclusions based on situation analysis to be certain or get the best

conclusions.

 Thinking based on values

- makes decisions through intuitive values and ethics while thinking based

on facts.

Based on these different approaches of thinking, we will get different results. In

advertising, we usually encounter direct, informative, structured and practical

advertisements. At the same time, we also encounter subjective, intuitive, soft,

fine and metaphorical as well as analogical advertisements.

3.2 CREATIVITY IN ADVERTISING

As mentioned, creativity in advertising is regarded as an ability to generate fresh,

unique and accurate ideas to solve communication problems. This idea is

important because it acknowledges the creative ideas as new, pure and

appropriate ideas for the situation. This means besides freshness and uniqueness,

the idea of the advertisement must have values for its audiences.

3.2.1 Role of Creativity in Advertising

The advertiser usually chooses an advertising agency based on its creative style

and reputation in the concept of purity. This shows that the role of creativity is

very important. Some of the roles of creativity in advertising are to inform,

persuade, recall and attract attention as explained in Table 3.3.

Table 3.3: The Role of Creativity in Advertising

Role of Creativity Description

1. Inform

Creativity strengthens the role of the advertisement as an informer.

 Creative ideas will make the advertisement clear and clarity can attract attention and strengthen understanding besides encouraging the audiences to think about it.

2. Persuade

The persuasive character can be integrated via the text and visual, which are the non-verbal elements.

 Using emotional words and rational thinking of the audience can only be done through creativity.

 This is the same for usage without texts through the manipulation of colour, design, illustration and other graphic elements.

3. Recall  If the same statement is repeated again and again, it will be boring. So, the statement in the advertisement needs innovation.

 Every campaign needs to be different even though the message may be the same. This is to avoid boredom.

 Innovation needs creative ideas.

4. Attract attention  Attraction is the first step that the advertisement producer needs to think of. Now, there’s a lot of competition in the advertising world. Wherever we go, we can see advertisement images. This makes it hard to attract customers.

 Only creativity can turn the advertisement into an attractive item. This may be done through the whole concept of the advertisement or through special characteristics and elements in the advertisement such as the colour, visuals, slogan, logo, etc.

3.2.2 Successful Advertisement

Creativity can produce great advertisements. The questions are:

 What is a great advertisement?

 What makes an advertisement attractive, explosive and leave a lasting

impression in the minds of the audiences?

 What makes an advertisement successful?

 Some have said that great and successful advertisements are well-liked

advertisements because they are very interesting.

Some have also said that

successful advertisements are effective advertisements because they can

achieve their objectives. Others have described great advertisements as those

that have an impact on the public. All those assumptions are true and can be

accepted.

George Lois in his book, What’s the Big Idea said:

... all great advertising must be part of an intricate mosaic that includes

extensive research, market planning, media analysis, and all the building blocks

of marketing. But these disciplines are worthless if the advertising sucks.

Von Oech was of the opinion that big idea advertisements are presented with

maximum selling power. He suggested five components of advertisements that

have such energy: strategic precision, savvy psychology, slick presentation,

structural persuasion and solution to the problem. Figure 3.1 below elaborates on

these components.

Figure 3.1: The five components of a forceful advertisement by Von Oech

David Ogilvy suggested that the advertisers ask four questions to determine

whether an advertisement is good, great and effective or otherwise. These

questions are related to our reactions when we see the advertisement for the first

time as well as its uniqueness, appropriateness of strategy and durability.

Figure 3.2: OgilvyÊs five questions on an effective advertisement

Studies found that advertisements that are well-liked tend to be successful. This

means that the liking for an advertisement is its success factor. According to

Hugh G. Canon from Wayne State University, US, there are two dimensions in

measuring the success of an advertisement:

 Resonance Dimension and

 Relevance Dimension

(a) Resonance Dimension

Resonance means echoing, humming, vibrating and rebounding. It also

means ringing, blasting and firing. A great advertisement is an exploding,

firing and echoing advertisement. Every blast and fire or ring will attract

attention. For example, the ringing of the alarm clock will wake us up from

a nice sleep. When we are awake, the ringing will have greater effects!

In an advertisement, a blast or ringing is a shocking element. It not only

attracts attention but also fire up the imagination. It is like a picture that

mesmerises us because it is beautiful and unique. Besides that, resonance

can be achieved through an advertisement that is highly informative and

fulfills the needs of the audience. For example, the daily problems faced by

a person can be presented in an advertisement that shows the solutions to

the problems. This can touch the lives of the audiences who are seeking

solutions to particular problem.

This is in accord with the consumer motive theory which states that the

motive of a person comes from a negative or positive source.

 If the motive is from a negative source, the consumer will buy a product to solve a problem.

 If the motive is from a positive source, a product is bought for satisfaction or for something positive. A successful advertisement is transformational, employing positive reinforcement by giving offers or promises desired by the consumers.

(b) Relevance Dimension

A great advertisement has relevance, where it is relevant to the advertiser’s

strategy. There are advertisements that have many responses but which are

irrelevant to the marketing strategy. Then, they will create opposite effects

to what is desired by the advertiser.

An example is the slimming advertisement. Besides featuring the benefits of

the product, the advertisement may have great responses because it draws

people’s attention to the beauty problem but not the ways of solving the

problem. Some advertisements also have great responses because of their

entertainment value but the real message is not conveyed because it has no

relevance to the advertiser’s strategy. This type of advertisement is great in

terms of entertainment but it fails in terms of advertising.

Relevance is also related to the target audience. For the target audience,

what is the meaning of the advertisement? What is its connection and

importance? If it has no importance and need, then it is meaningless to the

audience.

3.2.3 Copywriter and Creativity

The copywriter is not a creative human who writes or composes only for his/her

own satisfaction or nor a writer who deals with the current issues in the society to

create awareness or to report on a product.

Copywriters write to market something. The success of their writings depends on how far the target audiences are successfully persuaded to give a positive response to the advertising messages such as purchasing a product.

To produce effective copy, the copywriter needs to:

 Know the marketing process and the promotion carried out by the product

manufacturing company and advertising company that market the product.

 Share the information and target market so that the collaboration can be turned into the successful texts, slogans and headlines.

According to Philip Ward Burton, even though the copywriter is a creative human, he/she cannot be categorised as an artist because he/she is business person.

Figure 3.3 below shows some of the characteristics of uncreative practices that should not be applied by a copywriter.

Figure 3.3: Characteristics of uncreative practices

3.3 CREATIVE PROCESS

The creative process is the procedure in stages of getting an original idea and

arranging these available concepts into a new form.

By following the stages or steps, a person can enhance his/her ability to explore the possibilities, connect the concepts and choose the best ideas. The discussion of the creative process will elaborate on some of the guidelines and stages as well as the techniques to help generate creative ideas. Although many researchers have said that there are no rules and principles in creativity, there are, however, some guidelines and models that can be taught.

3.3.1 Creative Guidelines

White (1993) found that producing creative ideas is more difficult than defining

your own creativity concept. According to him:

How do creative people create? Nobody really knows. Nobody really knows

where ideas are born; where an unforgettable bar of music comes from; why a

felicitous phrase pops into somebody’s head. No one really knows how some

people can put words and pictures and sounds and ideas together in ways that

can move millions of other people to think and feel and act.

In this matter, White (1993) put forth the following guidelines to be observed:

Rul

Rul

e 1: There are no Rules.

e 2: There may be exceptions to Rule 1.

Hank Sneiden (in Pickton & Broderick, 2005) also agreed with White. He said:

Rules ... stifle creativity, inspiration, initiative, and process. The only hard and

t rule that I know of ... is that there are no rules. No formulas. No right way.

Given the same problem, a dozen creative talents would solve it a dozen

different ways.

fas

If there are no rules, what can be done? The best thing may be creating

guidelines. Many researchers and experts have created guidelines on creativity.

Steve Henry, the Creative Director of HHCL (Pickton & Broderick, 2005), gave

the following advice:

If you want to make a difference, make it different.

His next guidelines were the following:

 Research what is done by other people in the market and then do something

different from what you have seen.

 Forget about the logical proposition but get the personality of the product or

brand.

 Define the target market so that you understand, like and respect them.

Figure 3.4 below explains the creative guidelines by White (1993).

Figure 3.4: Creative guidelines by White (1993)

3.3.2 Creative Stages

Besides guidelines, the creative process must be understood to form creativity.

The creative process is the procedure in stages of producing original ideas

through imagination and problem solving skills.

Some models have been presented by the scholars of the creative process. Figures

3.5 and 3.6 are some of the models of the creative process.

Roger Von Oech in 1986 introduced the creative method that consists of four

steps and which has proven effective by many successful companies in the

United States. The stages are:

Figure 3.5: Model of creative method by Roger Von Oech

These stages are related to the creative process in advertising. What do you think

about it?

James Webb Young, the Vice President of J. Walter Thompson company in the

United States, produced a popular approach to facilitate the creative process. He

suggested a five-step process:

Figure 3.6: Five steps to facilitate creative process by James Webb Young

3.3.3 Creative Techniques

The steps in the creative process were suggested by Young. The process mainly

needs group work. Not only do the ideas need to be searched together, they also

need to be evaluated and accepted together.

Besides the stages presented, the researchers also think of the various techniques

that can be used to help a person in the creative process. Many of the methods are constructed through socio-psychological knowledge. Some of these are stated in Table 3.4:

Table 3.4: Techniques Creative Process.

The Technique Used Description

1. Juxtaposition.  

Some people explain creativity as an ability to combine the ideas into a new combination.

 When looking into this context, creativity is an effort to form a relationship between the idea and the thinking.

 Juxtaposition is an effort to place the unrelated ideas together.

 The result of that effort is a new idea formed through the relationship among those ideas.

2. Lateral thinking

 This is related to finding alternatives.

 Edward de Bono started this concept by challenging the normal practice of the thinking process.

 The process involves inductive or deductive thinking, convergent or divergent thinking, left brain or right brain thinking or through intuition, emotion, evaluation, etc. .

 Lateral thinking encourages us to break free from our normal practice and use new methods.

3. Brainstorming

 This process is very popular and is done in groups.

 This method uses free association as its main principle.

 The members of this group voice out their ideas and each idea is appreciated.

 No ideas will be reviewed, evaluated or rejected.

 The quantity of ideas will be given priority at this stage.

 A person’s idea may trigger new ideas from the other individuals.

4. Free association

 In this method, all the thoughts in the mind will be recorded.

 The ideas in the form of words, images or sounds are related to each other to produce new ideas via the elements that are not related earlier.

5. Convergent thinking

 Convergent thinking is horizontal or linear thinking.

 The process of finding the answers or calculation is done through the decreasing of ideas up till the focus point.

 This method is regarded uncreative because it is considered as reductionist.

 Although it is discouraged, we cannot deny the possibility that its results may be something creative too.

6. Divergent thinking

 This method opens the mind to any ideas that arise.

 In the divergent condition, our thinking should be broad

and free in the effort to find different choices.

 Ideas that don’t cross our minds may arise through this

free type of thinking.

 The mind is allowed to wander and achieve what comes

across it.

Figure 3.7 below shows the procedure of brainstorming, which is one of the

techniques used to assist the creative process.

Figure 3.7: Procedure of brainstorming

3.3.4 Customers Reaction

In marketing communications management, understanding the customer’s

reaction towards the product or the marketing messages is very important. The

creative team needs to understand how the audiences think and react in order to

make sure the audiences receive the messages or product positively as desired by

the team.

One of the important models is the hierarchy of effects model. There are at least

four perspectives in this model, which are:

 AIDA model,

 Lavidge & Steiner model,

 DAGMAR model and

 ATR model.

(a) Hierarchy of Effects Models

The four models are illustrated in Table 3.6 below. This hierarchy of effects

model is actually illustrated in the form of a pyramid and is introduced to

help the creative team turn the advertising strategy and big idea into a real

advertisement. This creative pyramid is based on the cognitive theory or the

behaviouristic theory of how a person learns new information.

Table 3.6: Hierarchy of Effects Models

AIDA Lavidge & Steiner DAGMAR ATR

Attention Awareness Awareness Awareness

Interest Knowledge Understanding Trial

Desire Interest Agreement Reinforcement

Action Choice Action

Agreement

Purchase

(b) AIDA Model

The AIDA model was introduced by Elmo Lewis in the 19th century and he

said the buyer moves from one stage to another to reach the purchase stage.

These stages formed his model and later became the foundation of other

models.

The AIDA model stands for:

 Attention,

 Interest,

 Desire, and

 Action.

(c) Lavidge and Steiner

Later, Lavidge and Steiner increased these stages from four to six. At the

same time, they changed the arrangement of the stages to one that was

slightly different from the original.

These two arrangements are sequential and this has caused criticism

because the positive situation for each stage doesn’t mean that it will be a

smooth move to the next stage as claimed by both models.

For example, if a person is aware of a product in the market, it does not

mean that he/she is interested in it. There are factors that create interest but

they are not awareness or knowledge about the product. Besides that, the

arrangement may not be linear.

In 1966, Palda K.S.’s article in the Journal of Marketing Research found

there is no conclusive final proof that awareness will end in action. The

sequence may change according to the situation.

Another adjustment to the model is explained by William F. Arens (2006). In

this amended creative pyramid, there are five elements, one more element

is added to the AIDA model. The additional element is credibility which is

placed in the third stage after Attention and Interest (see Figure 3.9).

 After the credibility stage, the advertisement can now focus on the other

characteristics such as desire and action.

 After that, the copywriter’s task is to develop an interest among the

audience in the message or the product itself.

 Then, the customer needs to be convinced of the product. The next stage is

credibility of the claims or promises of the advertisement message.

For new products, awareness needs to be created. To create awareness:

 The first important thing is attention, which is to attract the audience’s

attention.

The purpose of many advertisements is to persuade the audience to take action

or to remind them to take action to fulfil a need.

Guidelines

(d) DAGMAR Model

To enhance the linear models, Colley produced another model that did not

follow any sequence. Although the stages are quite the same, they are

actually different. The differences are that each stage can be an objective in

marketing communications and at the same time, stand by itself.

Colley’s model is known as DAGMAR, which stands for Defining

Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results. By relating the

sequence to the objective of marketing communications, this model opens a

new road for creativity and application in the marketing communications

theory.

Actually, the sequential model is based on the cognitive tradition. It needs

the buyers to think of communication to enable them to understand the

advertiser’s messages. When there is no stiff competition in marketing

activities, this model is very suitable.

However, the situation is now very different. Within our surroundings,

there are many information sources and customers also have personal

experiences in product usage. This models are said to be suitable when

there is no marketing activity and when the product is newly introduced or

is not known to many.

(e) ATR Model

Another model is introduced by Ehrenberg. He applied the behaviouristic

view and not the cognitive perspective as in the Colley and Lewis models.

His model is known as the ATR model, which stands for Awareness-Trial-

Reinforcement. The focus of this theory is the sector of fast-moving

consumer goods. Unlike the other previous models, Ehrenberg claimed that

the consumer is very knowledgeable and generally very aware of the

product.

He also thinks the buyer has extensive buying knowledge and follows a

stable buying pattern. That’s why the focus of communication is on the

reinforcement of benefit from previous usage. This focus handles the

learning process with the hope of strengthening brand loyalty among the

audience.

(f) Think-Feel-Do Model

Another important model, although a relatively new one, is the Think-Feel-

Do Model introduced by Ray in 1973. He identified three responses, which

were think, feel and do. The sequence of the reactions is not necessarily the

same all the time but it depends on the product category, the type of buyer

and the buying situation. It may be in this situation: Think-Feel-Do; Think-

Do-Feel; Do-Think-Feel. In this model, the steps of evaluation follow one of

these paths · cognitive, affective or behavioural. This model is shown in

Figure 3.8 below.

Figure 3.8: Think-feel-do model

However, the important factor is the involvement stage, which is how relevant a

product or message is to the customer’s decision.

From the point of involvement or relevance of the product or message to the

customer, it can be categorised into two:

 Low involvement products

- products that are relatively cheap, frequently bought without

consideration and regarded as low risk. So, the buyer won’t think too

much before getting it.

 High involvement products

- more expensive products with high social consequences are regarded as

high risk. The buyer will think through before getting it.

The main subject that determines involvement is relevance. This means how

relevant the product or message is to the interested customer. For example, if you

need a pair of spectacles because you are unable to see things clearly, you will be

more receptive to advertisement messages on spectacles. You will make sure that

the optician is skilful at testing your eyesight. You will also be more concerned

with the shape, brand and style of the spectacles.

The importance or the relevance of the spectacles on you makes your

involvement higher.

The people who form or plan messages such as the creative director or

copywriter will find product relevance and involvement important. Because of

this, they would do research on customers to understand how they look at

themselves, their environment and the product or brand used. This is called

customer insight, which is understanding the customer’s condition.

The risk factor also influences involvement. For instance, expensive consumer

products or advertisement messages on such products will be evaluated carefully

by customers before they make their decisions. There are a few types of risks that

customers or businesses will try to avoid:

 Financial risk: the customer will lose money if the product doesn’t function

well.

 Performance risk: product failure will cause other failures such as work

interruption, failure to meet deadlines or failure to produce other products.

 Physical risk: product may harm, damage or affect the physical well-being of

the consumer.

 Psychological risk: product failure damages the company’s image or affects

the emotions of the customers.

 Social risk: Other people may have bad impressions of the product user.

3.3.5 Creative Pyramid

The creative pyramid is a model that helps the creative team turn the advertising

strategy and big ideas into the real advertisement.

By applying the cognitive theory to how an individual learns new information, it

uses a structure with five steps, which are attention, interest, credibility, desire

and action. To elaborate on the structure of the creative pyramid, the stages in the

structure are explained in detail below. (Figure 3.9).

Figure 3.9: Creative pyramid

(a) Attention

In many advertisements, attention is regarded as the earliest objective. This

is the most critical stage to create more responses. Print advertisements may

use the visual element to attract attention. However, in the print

advertisement, the headline is used most widely to attract attention.

From the physical and meaning points of view, the headline is written in the

best way to leave a lasting first impression or to be the main attraction.

Besides that, print advertisement uses an attractive layout, a dominant size

or bright colours. In the electronic media, special sound effects, animation

or extraordinary visual techniques are also used besides music. The biggest

problem for using these methods is the financial factor.

The financial factor determines the position of the advertisement in the

print media or the broadcast time in the electronic media. It also determines

the use of colour or visual techniques that involve cost. However, the

financial factor is beyond the control of the creative team.

The important effect that needs to be developed in attracting attention is the

focus. That’s why techniques that are used must produce drama, power,

intensity, highlight, importance and priority. It must also suit the product,

the tone of the advertisement, the advertising strategy, and the interest and

needs of the target audience.

(b) Interest

When there is interest, the audience will be ready to read or go through the

content of the advertisement. To maintain interest, the advertisement must

be able to keep up the feeling of excitement of the audience or the sense of

involvement in the advertisement. How to maintain involvement?

Research shows that audiences will read whatever interests them and they

will ignore whatever bores them. One of the ways to maintain interests is to

increase information related to the headline.

Besides that, the language used in the text must be suitable to the audiences’

interests and attitudes. So, the copywriter must know the audiences

interests and attitudes. This was explained in the previous section on the

copywriter’s need to research the audiences profile carefully.

Normally, the things that interest us involve problems that we face, our

needs and how a product provides a solution to our problem. Besides that,

the copywriter will use other methods to enhance the presentation of the

content. For example, storytelling, interesting dialogues, animation or

dramatic situations.

(c) Credibility

Advertisements need to have credibility because audiences today are highly

educated and knowledgeable. Their thinking is critical and complex. They

will not believe a promise or claim easily. Every claim must be proper and

supported by facts and details. Using a spokesperson with authority can

also create credibility.

For example, the advertisement of a product that energises the body will

have higher credibility if spokespersons who are popular and successful

athletes are used, compared with an unknown personality or a personality

from other fields. Besides that, advertisements also use credible results of

research to support their claims and build credibility.

(d) Desire

Some advertisements develop interest in the audience by giving them hope

to fulfil their dreams. They create hope by requesting the audience to

imagine a situation that involves them. Example: Imagine your future when

you are old (insurance advertisement), imagine bad breath (toothpaste

advertisement), imagine the security of your family in a journey (car

advertisement). By using the imagination method, advertisements tends to

create desire to achieve something good or get rid of something bad.

There are also advertisements that create a second character to verify the

hope and the character also mentions the hope or other benefits. The

methods used in print and electronic advertisements may differ due to the

difference in medium.

(e) Action

The purpose of this stage is to encourage the audience to take action, which

is the last step in advertising. The actions normally hoped for are making

decisions, sending coupons, making a call, sending a fax, sending an e-mail,

visiting the exhibition lot, going to the shop or making a purchase.

The technique used for encouragement or appeal can be either explicit or

implicit. For example, the dotted lines in the forms is an implicit appeal to

the audience to cut the form and send it to the advertiser.

A statement such as ‘visit our exhibition centre now’ uses a very explicit

style. Now, with the availability of various facilities such as the mobile

phone and Internet, we don’t need to appeal explicitly but we can just

include the website address, telephone number, fax number, etc.

Brainstroming

Creative Process

Creative Pyramid

Creativity

Free Association

Juxtaposition

Lateral Thinking

SELF ASSESSMENT 1

1. State the two basic guidelines in doing brainstorming.

2. What is a creative pyramid?

3. It is said that the buyer will move from one stage to another to reach the

purchase stage. What does this idea refer to?

4. State some of the procedures in producing creative ideas.

5. Give specific examples of credibility in an advertising campaign.

SELF ASSESSMENT 2

1. There are two dimensions to measure the success of an advertisement. The

first is the Resonance Dimension and the second is the Relevance

Dimension. Elaborate on both dimensions.

2. When preparing for a brainstorming session, write down the objective, the

‘positioning’ statement as well as the message strategy to launch a famous

restaurant at your place.

3. Actually, creativity is not only needed in the creative department. In

marketing communications management, it is important to manifest it in

every division. Elaborate.

4. Elaborate on the importance of the right and left brain in producing creative

ideas.

5. Get a print advertisement that you think is successful. What are the criteria

that you will use and how far are they implemented in the advertisement?

Arens, W. F. (2006). Contemporary advertising. (10th ed.). New York: McGraw-

Hill Irwin.

Baldwin, H. (1982). Creating effective TV commercials. Chicago: Crain Books.

Bendinger, B. (1990). The copy workshop workbook. (3rd ed.). Chicago: The Copy

Workshop.

Duncan, T. (2006). Advertising and IMC. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Lois, G. (1991). What’s the big idea? How to win with outrageous ideas (that sell).

New York: Doubleday.

Marra, J. L. (1990). Advertising creativity: Techniques for generating ideas.

Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Pickton, D. & Broderick, A. (2005). Integrated marketing communication.

London: Prentice Hall.

Varey, R. J. (2002). Marketing communication: Principles and practice. New York:

Routledge.

White R. (1993). Advertising: What it is and how to do it. New York: McGraw-

Hill.

TOPIC 4 ADVERTISING STRATEGY PLANNING  

By the end of this topic, you will be able to:

1. Define the objective concepts, strategy and tactics in advertising and

marketing communications;

2. Discuss the importance and objective characteristics of marketing

communications;

3. Identify the different approaches in setting the marketing

communications objective;

4. Elaborate on the importance of data collection, especially product and

prospect data; and

5. Explain a copy guide or creative brief and ways to produce it.

INTRODUCTION

The advertising creative process is guided by aims and specific objectives and a

strategy or an action plan is needed to achieve that purpose. Actually, the

development of a creative strategy starts with the careful evaluation of the

marketing and promotion situation as well as determining the message that

needs to be conveyed to the target audience. Besides that, the creative strategy

also needs to be developed based on some of the factors explained in the creative

or copy platform.

Planning is very important in advertising campaigns especially in developing

and implementing advertising strategy. This topic elaborates on three important

steps in advertising strategy planning, which are determining the advertising

objective, doing research and preparing the copy guide. The areas of discussion

in this topic are the marketing communications plan, data collection and

developing the copy guide.

Under the marketing communications plan, students will be exposed to the

planning process through the planning programme used by advertising and

marketing communication agencies. Planning also involves the data collection

process and students will be introduced to product and prospect data. In

developing the copy guide, the concept of creative brief or copy platform will be

introduced and the ways of producing it will be discussed.

SELF-CHECK 4.1

Think about an advertisement you have seen recently whether on a billboard, bunting or any other display.

1. First, explain on the advertisement in general.

2. Then, clearly present a statement on what do you think is the most important objective of the advertisement.

3. Think of the other objectives that you regard as the secondary objectives.

4. Think how each objective can be achieved and whether you think it is effective.

4.1 MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLAN

Marketing communications planning is a process to determine the important

decisions related to the audience, budget, objective of the strategy and tactics.

Like all management plans, the marketing communications plan comprises the

stages of objective, strategy and tactics. They are the important elements to be

identified.

There are many planning formats and we can use any format suitable for the

organisation and our aim of planning. However, these plans are seen from

perspective of the different stages of business management, for example, the

corporate stage, business unit stage, functional stage and marketing

communications stage.

SELF-CHECK 4.1

Think about an advertisement you have seen recently whether on a

billboard, bunting or any other display.

1. First, explain on the advertisement in general.

2. Then, clearly present a statement on what do you think is the

most important objective of the advertisement.

3. Think of the other objectives that you regard as the secondary

objectives.

4. Think how each objective can be achieved and whether you

think it is effective.

4.1.1 Contents of Plan

Although the plan is devised through the different stages and levels, the basic

essence is the same. Usually, a plan will consist of the background description,

objective, strategy and tactics. However, the source information, implementation

and evaluation can be added to the content.

The J. Walter Thompson advertising agency divided the contents of the plan into

five questions below:

 Where are we?

 Why are we here?

 Where should we be?

 How do we get there?

 Have we reached there?

Cooper (1997) introduced the stages of the planning cycle that cover the processes below:

Table 4.1: The Stages of the Planning Cycle Introduced by Cooper (1997)

Process Description

1. Familiarise

 Go through the customer’s brief and analyse the

current data.

2. Hypothesise

 Commission further research to help define the

strategy.

3. Synthesise and inspire

 Brief the creative team on the work based on the customer’s input and agreed strategy.

4. Optimise  Carry out diagnostic research on the early creative

ideas to understand the consequences of the

promotion and the problems that occurred.

5. Evaluate  Supervise a pre-test to ensure the message and

brand retention reach a satisfying stage.

6. Review  Detect the results of marketing communications in

terms of sales, awareness and message.

Smith et al. (1997) suggested six aspects, which were situation analysis, objective,

strategy, tactics, action and monitoring. Another approach is the RABOSTIC

model, which is a plan with eight steps to devise the marketing communications

campaign. The term is an acronym for:

 Research and analysis

 Audience identification

 Budget and allocation

 Objectives

 Strategy

 Tactics

 Implementation

 Control

In conclusion, the planning format of the advertising or marketing

communications message can be summed up in the table below:

Table 4.2: The Usual Planning Format

Element Description

Situation Analysis Organisation analysis, competitor analysis, consumer analysis,

market analysis, product analysis.

Target Demographic, geographic, psychographic and behaviouristic

profile.

Source Human resource, financial resource, time resource (3M ă men,

money, minutes).

Objective AIDA approach, SMARRTT characteristics.

Strategy Four main areas of strategic decision: brand value, Unique Selling

Proposition, competitive positioning, competitive activity.

Tactics Specific activities that help achieve the objective.

Implementation Daily activities that help achieve the objective.

Evaluation and

Control Measure

Evaluation: What is expected to happen? What happened? What

are the collective and individual effects? What is the reason for

the success or failure? What is the lesson learnt from the

campaign? What will happen next?

Measures: Retail sales, direct sales, purchasing practice, brand

attitude, brand perception/image, brand awareness, attitude

towards the advertisement, advertisement retention,

advertisement exposure.

4.1.2 Determining the Objective

We can determine the strategy and tactics through the objective. What is the

meaning of objective, strategy and tactics? According to Butterfield (1977):

Objective is the goal or aim or end result that one is seeking to achieve.

A strategy is the means by which it is intended to achieve that goal or

aim or end result. Thus, one should be able to state an objective in the

absolute, to preface it with the word ‘no’. A strategy therefore becomes

the conditional element, prefaced by the word ‘by’ so an objective is

where you want to be, a strategy is how you intend to get there.

According to Paul Smith (1998), tactics are the details of the strategy. In

marketing communication, tactics are communication tools such as:

 advertising,

 public relations and

 sales promotion.

Tactics in the marketing communications plan list what happens, when they are

implemented, how they are made and what is the cost.

Many activities in marketing communications can be carried out in accord with

the factors that allow it, such as the objective, financial and other resources. For

example, the cleaning of drains and ditches in a community area can be a public

relations programme in a campaign to market products that kill pests or a

campaign to promote social responsibility among the public.

Objective is important for operations planning at every stage of the business.

Because of this, there are corporate objectives, financial objectives, marketing

objectives, marketing communications objectives and advertising objectives.

The objective must be stated clearly and in accord with each other so that it can

be achieved. Usually, the marketing communications objective is related to sales

or an aim that affects the mind of the target audience.

This means tactics are special activities carried out to achieve an objective

through the identified strategy.

Objective has a very important value in the process of finding or preparing

the direction of an advertising or marketing communications campaign.

The AIDA model shows the stages that a customer goes through before making

the purchase decision and the marketing communication objective that may be

related to these strategies. A good objective must be planned well.

As mentioned by Russell Colley in Pickton and Broderick (2005), setting an

objective has the following advantages:

 People will work better if they know what they need to achieve clearly. They

know the direction and understand the issues that need to be resolved.

 Actually, marketing communications has both obscure and subjective

processes. Any effort to introduce objectivity must be encouraged.

 Communication task involves many parties and an objective will unite them.

 Evaluation and measures can be done and resources can be better allocated

with an objective.

The characteristics of a good objective can be explained with a SMARRTT model,

which is the acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, relevant,

targeted and timed.

Figure 4.1: SMARRTT objective

How are objectives usually determined in advertising? Some methods are

presented here to determine objectives.

(a) Objective Based on Sales

This trend found that marketing communication is valueless without results

in sales. All the changes that happen to the consumer as a result of the

conveyed message are useless if no purchases are made. That is why, based

on this trend, the advertising objective needs to be determined to show that

action.

(b) Objective Based on Communication

This communication trend focuses on important communication variables

before a purchase takes place. If there are no positive views of the company,

brand or product, it is hard for purchasing to happen. That is why communication needs to happen to create awareness, knowledge and confidence.

Objective, based on the hierarchy of effects model, explains the

communication process. As discussed in Topic 3, the hierarchy of effects

model elaborates on the stages that a consumer goes through before making

the purchase decision. Those stages are from the awareness stage up till the

action stage.

The models such as AIDA, DAGMAR, et cetera have been explained

previously. In this case, the decision making process may also be made

based on three paths, which are the cognitive, affective and behavioural

paths in the think-feel-do model.

Figure 4.2: Advertising objective using the think-feel-do model

At this stage, we are determining the communications objective, persuasive

objective or message objective, but not the marketing objective. The marketing

objective is seen from the point of sales, market sharing, et cetera, while the

communications objective focuses on the consequences of the message conveyed.

4.1.3 Planning the Campaign Theme

The campaign theme is important to ensure the success of an advertisement.

After identifying a suitable theme, the copywriter will then have a guide to think

of the facts or rational reasons why a product should be owned or used.

In other words, the theme is like the pulse of an advertisement. It ensures that an

advertisement is energetic, of quality and attracts a lot of attention. So, the

copywriter has to be very careful when deciding on the theme of an

advertisement because the theme will determine the continuity of the

advertisement or the brand of the product constantly. For example, the theme for

Petronas advertisements during the festive seasons is ‘giving back what you

take’. So, during festive seasons, the Petronas advertisements illustrate more on

social responsibility compared with promoting the contents or benefits of the

products.

A good advertiser is able to determine a long-term theme for the campaign. The

meaning of a long-term theme is a relevant theme all the time. It enables many

advertisements to be produced by just using that theme.

Finally, it can attract new prospects or customers and gradually overcome the

Competitor’s products especially if the advertiser’s competing products failed to

give new life to the theme of its product. However, the advertisers don’t need to

change the advertisement theme if the advertisement produced successfully

attracts many purchasers.

4.1.4 Consumer Stimulus

The copywriter needs to understand that consumers act in a certain way when

they are encouraged by certain stimuli. So, the copywriter needs to understand

the behaviour of the consumers and identify the elements that encourage them to

make a decision to get a product.

Many purchasing stimuli have been researched by psychological experts. Some of

the stimuli are:

 Immediate needs,

 Basic needs, and

 Natural instinct needs.

A theme is the basic idea of an advertisement. It is a guide for the copywriter

to effectively form the other elements in the copywriting.

There are also stimuli that fulfill environmental and cultural demands. However,

the copywriter has the freedom and choice to determine the suitable stimulus to

be used to produce the text of the copy.

Table 4.3 below provides some examples of the stimuli that prompt human

actions.

Table 4.3: Examples of Stimuli that Prompt Human Actions

Stimulus Description

Unlimited Needs The desire to get money, power, prestige, efficiency and own something.

Comfort The desire to get physical comfort, rest, free time and relaxation.

Facility The desire to get away from work or do something easy.

Curiosity The desire to enjoy a new experience.

Ego The desire to be famous, popular and attractive.

Family Welfare and Happiness.

The desire to do something for the family, to make the family

members happy and to see the children grow up safely.

Fear/Worry The need to feel safe from diseases, death and torture as well as

losing possessions, beauty and loved ones.

Health The desire to be healthy and fit.

Idol The desire to be someone we admire.

Love and Lust The desire to be loved and to love, the desire to have a normal

sexual relationship.

Mind Stimulus The desire to enhance the thinking ability and analytical force.

Fun The desire to be happy, go on a vacation, to have fun and enjoy oneself.

4.1.5 Product Speciality

One of the message strategies is highlighting the unique characteristic of the

product by stressing on that characteristic or the difference of the product being

marketed and trying to make the unique characteristic an attraction.

However, the effort to identify this uniqueness is not easy. If a copywriter fails to

identify the uniqueness of the product that needs to be marketed, he/she must

get facts on how the product being marketed can help solve the problems of the

consumers or fulfil their needs.

The technique to emphasise the need of this product can be done if the technique

stresses on the uniqueness of the product that cannot be achieved after finding

out that other competing products also have the same uniqueness. Besides that,

we must know that the consumer purchases a certain product because of product

usage and the copywriter has a strong foundation to make the use and need of

this product a mascot fact.

The copywriter also needs to try telling the consumer or prospect that he/she is

concerned and sympathise with the problem faced by the consumer and wants to

help solve the problem together.

We take a pest killer advertisement, such as killing cockroaches or termites, as an

example. The copywriter should start his/her texts by mentioning the problem

and worry faced by the prospect due to the attack by cockroaches or termites. The

text or script needs to show that the advertiser shares the problem with the

prospect. Then, the copywriter should suggest the effective solutions to solve that

problem and be happy together after the problem has been successfully resolved.

In short, the copywriter should:

 Identify the human appeal,

 Determine the mascot facts so that they can be exploited and used to benefit

in the three parts of the advertisement, such as the

− headline,

− illustration, and

− opening copy.

Uniqueness in the marketing context means the positive facts or benefits of

the advertised products that are not present in the competing products.

4.2 DATA COLLECTION

Collecting and getting important data before writing is a must for the creative

team. They cannot produce really effective texts or scripts without the relevant

information and data.

However, a copywriter does not necessarily need to do research or field work to

collect the data. He/she may be able to get the data from the product

manufacturing company or agency that has done such research before. This can

save more time.

It is also better if the copywriter can do further research on research that has been

done previously. This is to increase confidence in the product being marketed

and deepen the focus of the texts being produced.

4.2.1 Product Information

The copywriter needs to know how customers see a product as well as the

qualities of the product that attract the customers.

The copywriter needs to know the information about the product thoroughly to

enable him/her to form a unique concept for the product. Product information

can also result in the effective formation of the positioning strategy.

In this matter, the advertisement can emphasize the position of the product in the

minds of the consumers. Besides its benefits, the other important information

about the product is related to its characteristics, its position in the product life

cycle, classification, branding, uses and usage, packaging, et cetera.

(a) Product Benefit

Many products have specific benefits for the consumer and the copywriter

should be able to notice these benefits in the plan to convince the consumer.

However, the copywriter needs to be careful not get carried away by the

description or explanation by the product manufacturer until the copy text

produced extols the product.

Usually, a good copywriter will take the initiative to test the product that

needs to be marketed to know its effectiveness. This action involves

expenses and financial commitment, but it enables the copywriter to get a

complete feel of the product. Then, he/she will be able to produce solid

copy that will not create an irrational or wrong impression.

When the consumers feel that they are receiving correct information about

the product and don’t think they are being deceived, their confidence will

be increased and this will create consumer loyalty for a brand.

Product benefit is related to what a consumer gets as a result of product

purchase and usage.

(b) Product Positioning

Basically, the following questions are related to the effort of positioning the

product:

 What is the thing/product being marketed?

 Who is the product directed at?

 How do you want the customer to think about the product?

Usually, not all products are used by everyone. The product market is

divided into certain segments, where only certain things or products are

marketed to certain groups. This is the same for service products. Besides

trying to know the product that needs to be marketed well, the copywriter

also needs to know how satisfying is the future prospect of using the

product. Refer to Figure 4.3 below for more about product information.

Figure 4.3: Product information

Product positioning is done when the copywriter has the information on the

identity, strength, characteristics and stages of the product life.

4.2.2 Identifying Prospect

Besides good knowledge of the product, the copywriter also needs to have

knowledge of the prospect in terms of:

(a) Demography

Contains the data of the audience or prospect in terms of their background,

age, education, salary, gender, marital status, family members and all the

other values.

(b) Geography

Focuses on the address of the prospect.

(c) Psychography

The psychography of the prospect can be seen from the value of life,

lifestyle, thinking, ambition, attitude and the views of life.

(d) Behaviouristic

The behaviouristic aspect identifies the behaviour of the prospect on the

product in terms of its usage, purchase, et. cetera.

The copywriter cannot make a guess or simply assume the ability of the prospect on the product being marketed. That’s why the complete data is needed and to be

understood by the copywriter. Figure 4.4 shows the background data of the prospect.

Figure 4.4: Background data of the prospect

The prospect is the potential customer of a product that is being marketed.

In short, the copywriter needs to thoroughly know the background of the target

group or the prospect who will make a purchase. Without this knowledge, the

copywriter cannot form an accurate and effective relationship between the

audience and the advertisement as well as the advertising message. Without this

relationship, the advertising campaign may not be able to achieve its objective

well.

Table 4.4: The Stages of the Family Life Cycle

Stage Financial Position and Purchase Characteristic

Single

 Slight financial problems, recreation-

oriented, likes vacations, outdoor

entertainment.

Just Married

 Improved financial status, two income

sources, bought a house and some

durable products.

Family With Child Category One

 Bought a house with more installments

paid, higher financial stress, maybe one

source of income, bought household

goods.

Family With Child Category Two  Higher financial status, one spouse

continues working.

Family With Child Category Three

Good financial status, increased purchase of household products.

Family Without Child Category

One

 Near to owning a house, has interest again in traveling and recreational and

rest activities, bought expensive goods.

Family Without Child Category Two

 Income dropped drastically, needs

medical service.

Solitary Survivor One

Good income but tends to sell the house.

Solitary Survivor Two

Special needs for medical care, needs, love and affection.

(Adapted from Hooley & Saunders (1993))

Many researchers have done research on the consumer’s profile based on

psychographic characteristics. These characteristics are more difficult to measure.

Psychographic data is important in collecting the information on the audience or prospect in terms of who they are actually. Marketers in the 70s used psychography to divide the prospect into the following groups:

 View leader

 Loyal customers of a shop

 Consumer activist

 Social class

However, many researchers have made other divisions based on certain factors,

as carried out by:

Figure 4.5: Purchase typology based on psychography.

Besides that, Arnold Mitchell founded the VALS segmentation system that uses

attitude and social value to group the consumer. The psychographic

segmentation approach is based on Values and Lifestyles. Then, it is expanded by

the SRI Consulting Business Intelligence by Stanford University and University of

California Berkeley, America. In this approach, the individual is grouped based

on strong personality characteristics and purchase practice.

Psychographic data is hard to collect. However, the basic instrument for

measuring psychography is usually based on the AIO Statement (Attitude,

Interest, Opinion). This statement measures the attitude, interest and opinion of

the audience and it can be in the form of a general or specific statement of the

products. The AIO statement is presented to the audience in the AIO inventory

and the measurement tool is the Likert Scale. Plummer in 1974 identified four

fields and their relationships with their individual activities (Table 4.6).

Table 4.6: Psychography: Variables in the AIO Statement

Activity Interest Opinion Demography

 Occupation

 Hobby

 Social function

 Vacation

 Entertainment

 Club member

 Community

 Shopping

 Sports

 Family

 Household

 Occupation

 Community

 Recreation

 Fashion

 Food

 Media

 Achievement

 Self and

personal

 Social issue

 Politics

 Business

 Economy

 Education

 Product

 Future

 Culture

 Age

 Education

 Salary

 Family size

 Address

 Geography

 City size

 Life stage

Source: Plummer (1974)

Figure 4.6: Division according to VALS

Source: SRI Consulting Business Intelligence (www.sric-bi.com/VALS)

It is said that successful advertisement campaigns depend on accurate answers

from some important questions that require data to answer them.

 Who are my customers?

 How is their condition?

 What do they buy?

 Where can I find them?

 How do I contact them?

Besides primary research that usually requires cost and takes time, data from

secondary research is also very important. This data can be obtained from the

government statistics, organisation statistics and published results of research.

There are organisations that specifically carry out research and then sell the

research data. In fact, the research agency is one of the important partners in

marketing communications as discussed in a previous topic.

The copywriter should also try to understand the prospectÊs media choice. This

means knowing the newspaper that they always read, television or radio station

of their choice and the programmes they always watch. This information can be

obtained from research companies that collect information on consumer

behaviour. To get more exclusive information, the advertising company itself can

conduct research to understand consumer behaviour.

ACTIVITY 4.1

Based on the advertisement below, answer the following questions:

1. What is the product being advertised?

2. Who may be interested in the product or service advertised?

3. Who is the target audience and what is their profile?

4. What is the expected response to the advertisement?

5. What is the direct and indirect style used? Give your reasons.

6. What type of appeal is used? State your evidence.

7. What are the strategies used? Give your evidence.

8. How reliable is the print advertisement? Elaborate.

4.3 COPY DEVELOPMENT GUIDE

The advertisement copy guideline is also called the copy platform or other terms,

which are:

 Copy brief

 Work plan

 Creative strategy document

 Creative brief

 Copy strategy document or copy blueprint.

This copy platform is a short written document with the purpose of mentioning

all the important things needed by the creative team to produce the creative idea

and marketing communications campaign, prepare a plan or an important

checklist as a guide for creating an advertising message or campaign.

4.3.1 Creative Brief

However, the creative brief or the copy platform only prepares important

information needed by the creative team to expand their ideas.

The brief is not the same as the briefing even though both also give direction and

guide as well as inspiration to the creative team. When an agency is used for the

advertisement campaign, the task of writing a brief is in the hands of the person

handling the account and also the account planner.

The creative brief and the briefing process are used in marketing communications

as a mechanism to drive the creative team to produce ideas for the new

campaigns. In fact, according to Graham Bunting (1995), creativity ‘starts from

the brief’.

According to Charlie Robertson (1997), the creative brief must be short and not

necessarily creative. However, the creative briefing must give inspiration. It is not

just a distribution of the creative brief but it enables the creative team to see

various different paths through the briefing.

This document is prepared by the team in an agency or a group assigned in the

accounts department and this special group is made up of the creative staff as

well as the account director and the representatives from the media and research

divisions. The involvement of the advertising manager or product manager from

the advertising company is important in this group and they are needed to

acknowledge the platform and also provide important inputs.

The advertising guideline should be short but complete and also easy to

understand. The best is to plan the guideline after discussions with the art

director and the representative from the product manufacturing company

(customer).

These questions are used as a guide for creative planning.

 What is the aim to be achieved by the marketing campaign of a product or

service?

 Who is the target audience of the campaign? In other words, who is the

advertisement directed at?

 What is the benefit of using the product? Is the product or service unique and

interesting? If not, what is the purchase rationale that can be the facts or

argument? Besides the main facts or arguments, what are the other

supporting facts or arguments that can be the material to attract the customer?

 What is the media that will be used?

 How do we position the product or service?

 What is the best creative strategy for the advertisement?

4.3.2 Copy Guide for Various Agencies

There are a few ways to present the advertising copy guide or copy platform. An

organisation or advertising agency may use a format that is different from the

guides used by other agencies.

However, this guide basically has subjects such as the target audience, the

Product’s main and side interests as well as the creative strategy statement. Look

at the information below on the different guides used by the different agencies.

Figure 4.7: Examples of guidelines used

Figure 4.8: Example one: copy platform

It is clear that the creative brief basically has the target audience aimed at by the

advertising campaign, what is the message to be conveyed and what should

happen to the prospect.

For the prospect, it is better if the main prospect can be specifically identified

because the advertisement can use the ‘language’ of the people aimed at.

Demographic data may not be sufficient and the detailed description includes

psychographic and behavioural aspects.

The copy strategy must define the message to be conveyed, which is the sales

focus or the important and main promise of the product to be turned into a big

sales idea by the copywriter. Besides that, the side promises or message also need

to be stated.

An advertisement can project any identity but it must have its own identity. This

identity exists through a total combination and this total combination can create

an impression in the minds of the audiences.

The elements that create the looks or the identity of the advertisement include

style, tone, music, speed, casting and setting. The personality of the

advertisement highlighted must be in accord with the product personality or

brand image and also the personality or self-image of the prospect. The audience

must feel that the advertisement is directed at them and is ‘talking’ to them. So,

it must use the suitable tone, style or pitch for the message or audience. The tone

is the representation of the message attitude and product personality. The voice

tone refers to the style of voice expression, whether sad, happy, excited or

disappointed.

ACTIVITY 4.2

Use this creative brief form adapted from Butterfield (1977) to

produce an advertising strategy guide for one of the brands that you

find not so famous but has the potential to be marketed.

1. Customer

2. Product:

3. Brand:

4. Advertising Role:

(a) After looking at the advertisement, how do you want the

audience to react?

(b) How do you convince yourself that this advertisement can

achieve that?

5. Who do we aim at?

6. What is the most important thing that this advertisement must

convey?

7. Why must the audience believe it?

8. What is the practical consideration of the audience’s belief?

Creative Brief

Objective

Prospect

Strategy

Tactics

Tone

SELF ASSESSMENT 1

1. Advertising copy guide or copy platform is mentioned by different names.

State all those names.

2. In situation analysis, what is usually being analyzed?

3. What is the meaning of tactics?

4. State some of the tactics in the Visit Malaysia Campaign.

5. What is meant by reward/support in the copy guide by DDB-Worldwide?

SELF ASSESSMENT 2

1. What is the meaning of objective, strategy and tactics? Elaborate on their

differences.

2. Usually, the plan consists of the background description, objective, strategy

and tactics. However, a more complete content includes the situation, target,

source, objective, strategy, tactics, implementation and evaluation.

3. The J. Walter Thompson advertising agency divided the content of a plan

into five questions. What are the questions? The advertising copy guide or

copy platform has different ways of being presented. Present the guide used

by the advertising agency Leo Burnett and elaborate.

4. Between the objective based on sales and objective based on communication,

which one do you think is better and why?

5. Get the definition of tone from the dictionary and then relate the meaning to

the tone in the advertisement presentation. How do you elaborate on the

meaning in this new context?

Butterfield, L. (1977). Excellence in advertising: the IPA guide to best practice.

Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Cooper, A. (1997). How to plan advertising? The Account Planning Group,

London: Cassel.

Pickton, D. & Broderick, A. (2005). Integrated marketing communication. London:

Prentice Hall-Financial Times.

Robertson, C. (1997). Creative briefs and briefing, in How to plan advertising, in

Cooper, A. ed. London Cassell.

Smith P., Berry, C. & Pulford A. (1997). Strategic marketing communications.

London: Kogan Page.

TOPIC 5 STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this topic, you will be able to:

1. Define the strategy concept in the marketing and advertising context;

2. Identify the various creative strategies that can be used in developing marketing communications;

3. Elaborate on the types of appeal that motivate the audiences to give their feedback;

4. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of hard selling and soft selling;

5. Discuss the strategy to create advertisement credibility through persuasive persuasion whether rational or emotional persuasion; and

6. Discuss the importance of consistency in the advertising campaign and how it is done.

INTRODUCTION

Strategy is important because it provides the direction for all the parties involved  in a campaign. Strategy also provides a plan and scope for an operation. It is a method or way by which an objective will be achieved. The topic on strategy implementation focuses on the discussion of various strategies used to convey the sales messages. There are more than ten common strategies used and they will be elaborated in this topic. Besides that, the product positioning method is one of the important strategies elaborated on. This topic also defines the strategy concept in the marketing and advertising contexts to show their differences. Another focus of discussion is the consistency of presentation required in marketing communications campaigns. Two types of consistencies will be discussed implementation consistency and strategic consistency.

5.1 ADVERTISING STRATEGY

Strategy is important because it provides the direction for all the parties involved

in a campaign. Strategy also provides a plan and scope for an operation. It is a

method or way by which an objective will be achieved. The marketing

communication strategy can identify who the campaign target is, what the

campaign wants the target audience to do and what the campaign can inform the

audience to influence them. The condition or character of a strategy is different

according to the objective determined, the financial provisions available and the

expected marketing communication characteristics.

Before understanding the advertising strategy, let us look at the marketing

strategy first because it is related in the marketing communication context. It is

the same for message or creative strategy. Just like the marketing objective, the

advertising and message objectives is related, so their strategies are related too.

5.1.1 Marketing and Advertising Strategy

Marketing strategy is how a company achieves its marketing objective. The

method is determined by considering the marketing mix, which consists of the

product, promotion, place and price elements. The marketing strategy has a big

impact on the advertising strategy. It determines the role and the total

advertisements in the marketing mix, and the creative and media focus used. The

first process in the marketing strategy is to define and choose the target market

using the market segmentation process and research - who is the target market in

terms of demography, psychography, geography and behaviour characteristics.

The second aspect is how to position the product. Positioning refers to the

position or place of the product in the minds of the customer. Each product has

its own position whether we realize it or not. According to David Ogilvy, one of

the most important marketing and advertising decisions is how to position the

product.

Positioning refers to the competitive position of a product in the minds of the

consumer. This position is based on the audienceÊs perception that may not be

accurate in reality. A strong product or brand has a clear and unique position in

the target market.

The third step is to determine the marketing mix by emphasizing the cost-

effective values for each target market. The marketing elements, which are the

4Ps, are mixed to get the best results. In this matter, the company has many

choices of marketing strategies; for instance, to increase distribution, add new

uses and give a discount. Each mix focuses on one or more elements and the

choice depends on the target market of the product as well as what the

advertising stage is. The third process is to determine the tactics or the action

programs. The objective of the company is to identify the direction to be followed

and the tactics determine the direct short-term action to be implemented.

Figure 5.1: The approaches to create positioning strategy by Earnest Martin

Advertising strategy, as mentioned, is how to reach the destination. It combines

the elements in the creative mix, which are the target audience, product concept,

communication media and advertising message. The target audience is usually

larger than the target market. The advertiser needs to know who the real product

users are, who the purchasers are and who influences them to make the purchase.

For example, children pester their parents to buy toys or fast food. That’s why,

even though the target market of a company are the adults, the target audience

also includes children and the advertising messages for the product are directed

at children. So, the advertising strategy is a method used to achieve the identified

advertising objective through the creative mix of advertising elements. The mix is

determined by the advertiser based on the audience, product concept,

communication media and advertisement message.

5.1.2 Message Strategy

Message strategy is how to achieve the objective of a marketing communication

message and in this case, it is advertising. It is an idea of how to convey a

message of a product in the most creative and persuasive way. Usually, the

message strategy will combine the rational thinking or appeal with the emotional

appeal. The mix is done creatively. A successful message strategy also pays

attention to product importance or relevance to the customers. Three basic

processes will be followed to determine the strategy: identify the communication

objective, determine the audience, choose the sales strategy.

Imagine how you can sell new cars in the competitive automotive market in

Malaysia? How does a cigarette company market its product in a society with an

environment and policies of local authorities that are opposed to smoking? How

do you, as an advertiser, convey the message of your product?

The answer depends on the marketing communication objective. What do you

want to achieve in the advertising message? That is why the message objective

statement is very important · because it is the determining factor of the effect of

the communication. Usually, the message objective is based on the Hierarchy of

Effects Model or specifically, the AIDA model, as discussed in the previous topic .

As mentioned, one of the most important components in the marketing

communications program is the advertising message. It is clear that there are

many ways to convey the advertising message. However, it is the creative

strategy that is involved in determining what is conveyed by the message and

also the creative tactics, which is how the message strategy is implemented. In

this case, attention is paid to the process of forming the creative strategy and the

various approaches to produce the big idea that will be used as the main

advertising campaign theme and turned into the advertising messages.

Figure 5.2: The process of message strategy

5.1.3 Categories of Strategy

Advertising and marketing communication experts divide the message strategy

or creative strategy into the following categories:

Generic Strategy: In this strategy, no difference will be made between the brands

or products. For communication effects, according to Rossiter and Percy (1997),

the focus should be given to the category need, and not brand awareness. Usually,

this strategic approach is done on behalf of industrial groups. Some of the

examples are rice promotion without mentioning the brand of the rice, fruits

promotion without mentioning the type or brand of the fruit, computer

promotion without mentioning the computer brand and so on. The market leader

also uses this approach because as the leader, they will definitely gain some

benefits when consumers give positive feedback to the overall computer industry.

This is also the same when the economy of a country is developing. All types of

business companies will also benefit from the increase of businesses. For example,

the Campbell Soup company uses the slogan „Soup is good for you‰, which is an

expression that can be used by any soup-making company. However, it is still

used because the company controls the food category and any positive feedback

from the advertisement can benefit a large number of the company’s products.

Generic strategy is suitable for the monopolistic market of a product or brand.

Pre-emptive Strategy: In this strategy, the generic claim is made but with a

statement that the brand advertised is better or more superior. That’s why the

competitors will benefit, but at the same time, the competition is quite tough

because the competitors will be regarded as copycats when the superior image of

the brand or product is already established through the promotion and its image.

This strategy is considered important in developing the market because the

promotion due to stiff competition doesn’t take place but is only a generic

competition.

It is clear that this strategy focuses on the basic characteristics or benefits of a

product, where the claims can be made, or focuses can be given to the other

brands. It is suitable for the product that has no difference or few differences only

in terms of its characteristics. For example, a telecommunications company uses

the phrase ‘Connecting Your World’. Those words are actually pre-emptive. All

telecommunications tools provide communications service, but by starting a

campaign that emphasizes that characteristic via a way that results in memory

retention, the company manages to position its brand as an important product in

the communications service. The slogan ‘This Is Celcom Territory’ is also an

effective pre-emptive statement to position the Celcom brand as the market

leader.

USP Strategy: USP stands for Unique Selling Proposition. USP is a selling strategy

that is based on the most unique characteristics of a product compared with a

competitor’s product. This strategy focuses on brand or product superiority

based on the unique characteristics or unique benefits. In the highly competitive

marketing world, whatever benefits can be easily imitated by other products

unless it is patented or protected by the law. Even if this is the case, the

characteristics of a successful product will soon face competition from other

products that are similar even though not exactly the same.

For example, a new type of bread product that uses the brand „Roti Boy‰ gains

publicity and a wide market because of the softness and crunchiness of the bread.

Not long after that, a similar type of bread made by other manufacturing

companies appears in most big supermarkets. Many products and services face

great challenges from new competitors unless they have a strong strategy to

secure their position in the market. The TV reality program Survivor has created

something new in the broadcast media and obtained a high rating worldwide. In

a short period of time, dozens of reality shows are aired and compete with each

other.

In practice, the USP tends to be based on perception, and a good creative strategy

can be used to provide maximum effect. This perception forms a unique feeling

that differentiates one product from another. A product or service will try to

produce something different, for example, through customer service or expert

service or delivery service. Then, this difference is used in marketing

communications to differentiate the product from other products.

Brand Image Strategy: Brand image or product image has long been related to the

marketing communications strategy. This strategy depends on the formation of

mental or psychological relationship through the use of semiotic tools, which are

marks, symbols and images. The product is differentiated through the whole

image created in the public’s mind, specifically, the target audience. In this case,

the physical differences are regarded as not important.

‘Resonance’ Strategy: This strategy is an effort to adapt or match the product

with the consumer through the relevant meaning, experience, thinking,

relationship or aspiration and it is related to the needs, importance and tastes of

the consumer. This strategy may be the same as the brand image strategy, but in

this case, the focus will be given to the effort of marketing communications that

illustrates the aspirational and status-finding themes, which can be related to the

consumer’s desires.

This strategy is also known as the lifestyle strategy where the idea that is given

emphasis is a situation or lifestyle symbol that can be identified by the consumers

or desired by them. The meaning, experience and thinking in this advertisement

will be related to what is desired by the customers in their lives.

Affective Strategy:

Affective strategy is an emotional strategy that tries to create

involvement and emotion. Although it is not related to the sales message, this

method is regarded as very powerful. The strategy that creates a psychological

relationship between the brand or product with the customer or prospect usually

uses a celebrity or a popular personality because their glamour can make the

product or consumer look glamourous.

Informational Strategy: This strategy is based on the assumption that the

important element in the creative theme is to convey information. Usually,

educational campaigns use the informational strategy. Private education is an

apparent example. Others include housing project advertisements. Some tourism

advertisements are also informative to convey the details needed by the audience

to make decisions.

Credibility Strategy: This strategy strengthens the confidence and reduces the

perception of risk. The usual techniques used in the credibility strategy are

acknowledgement, assurance or acknowledgement by the expert and the expert

demonstration on product usage. This strategy is usually used, for instance, for

safety and health products.

Positioning Strategy: Positioning is an effort to fill the mental spaces with certain

images of a product in its relationship with the images of competitor’s products.

This strategy is suitable for facing the phenomena to become the market leader.

This can be done when there are enough resources for an aggressive campaign

for quite a long period of time. Positioning the product in the minds of the

consumers means placing the image of the product in its relationship with

competitors.

Incentive Strategy: This is a sales strategy to create immediacy, so that the

customer responds quickly after looking at the advertisement. Usually, the

customer who responds will be given a reward, which is actually one of the

important factors to create immediacy. This strategy is normally used in certain

situations where sales need to be increased fast and to fight strategies used by

competitors.

Retention Strategy: This method is usually used for mature brands which have

already created self identity. It is hoped that the customer will remember the

brand again and make a purchase or response. Most of the advertising campaigns

for a product such as Coca-Cola that has existed in the market for a long time

donÊt use the main characteristics of the product for positioning or appeal. The

most important thing for this brand is continuous retention by the consumer.

Interactive Strategy: In this method, the focus is a two-way communication to

ensure response from the customer. For the interactive media, this strategy looks

easy to implement because there are technological facilities for the customers.

However, it is more important for a brand that needs the customer to contact the

company or the agents of a company in the process of purchasing or using the

product.

Figure 5.3: The seven message strategies by Patti & Fraser

5.1.4 Positioning Method

Positioning was established by Al Ries and Jack Trout in the 1980s. According to

them, the customer who is aware that there are a few brands in a product

category will automatically compare brands or products according to the

differences perceived by them. So, the strategic effort to place the product in its

own position, even though by using psychological and emotional propositions, is

to create a competitive difference and benefit difference and prevent a clash

between the products.

Pickton and Broderick (2005) identified the seven types of positioning based on

David Aaker and Gary Shanby (1982) in the article entitled ‘Positioning Your

Product’ in Business Horizon that has already identified six positioning

strategies. However, it can be said that there are eight of them:

 Positioning by product characteristic: A brand is perceived more superior by

using a certain way and when the marketing communication focuses on this

characteristic. Actually, this positioning strategy is the foundation of USP.

The Gillette shaver can shave smoother because it has a two-stage shaving

method. Brand XYZ is more superior because it is produced through the

combination of new technology and traditional creativity.

 Positioning by product user: The consumer can be divided into different

categories if they are seen from the point of purchase practice or its position

in the society. The category involves consumer status, usage rate, taste,

profession, et cetera. This positioning focuses on the customer’s needs. Some

of the uses of the products will be highlighted to career women or men of

status.

 Positioning by price and quality: To convey the ‘value for money’

characteristic through the special price or quality claims. The BMW car is also

known as an expensive car but it is of high quality in terms of durability and

latest technology. For ‘high end’ products or brands, the promotional effort

is based on forming the image and status without stating the expensive price,

while for ‘low end’ products or brands, the emphasis is the price without

mentioning its quality.

 Positioning by application: The marketing communication focus is on the

usage or application that makes it apparently different or special. Some of the

products have the same application but when the product is given emphasis

in special functions, the image will be connected with the special functions.

 Positioning according to product category: This strategy tries to prevent a

clash with competitor’s products. The method is by positioning the product as

one of the choices among what is there. For example, margarine is positioned

as one of the choices among the brands of butter. E-mail is given the position

as one of the choices among post. Bus express transport is an alternative

method to rail or air transport.

 Positioning against the competitor: Some of the products or brands fight

against the competitor directly, and it is not stealthily or softly. The

customer’s perception of the existence of a competitor product is important

and needs to be carried out in marketing communications. In a homogeneous

market, where there are a few companies with many different brands, the

competition is stiff and a company will try to compete with other companies

and prevent competition between the brands under its control.

 Cultural positioning: Culture is also a positioning strategy when a brand is

connected clearly with cultural heritage, country, religion, ethnic or race. For

example, in the automotive industry, the Proton brand is given the position as

a car of Japanese technology and made in Malaysia. We also know that the

Rolls Royce car is related to UK; BMW to German; Citroen to France; Toyota,

Mitsubishi and Honda to Japan; Hyundai and Kia to Korea. Halal food

positions itself as an Islamic product just like kosher food is positioned as

Jewish food.

 Repositioning: Besides all the positioning strategies mentioned above,

repositioning also needs to be discussed. Brand positioning needs evaluation

all the time because of changing situations, choices and tastes. If re-evaluation

is not done from time to time, the brand will be eliminated due to the

competitive market. The decision made may be to maintain the positioning or

change it into another position.

Figure 5.4: Eight positioning strategies

All this while, Nestum that is regarded as baby or children food has been given a

new position as food for the whole family. With the new promotion, new colours

and packaging, Nestum hopes to gain the position as an enjoyable product for the

whole family all the time and not just for breakfast only. Johnson & Johnson Baby

Shampoo has increased its position as a mild shampoo for adults besides

maintaining its image as the children’s shampoo.

Products with an increased life span should be given a new position during

changing situations and different trends. One of the repositioning techniques is

brand-mapping. This process involves product evaluation in terms of similarities

with other products and exploring other positions that offer potential for product

development.

5.2 CREATIVE APPROACH

If we analyze the messages in marketing communications, we will find that

certain themes are used. These themes are presented in an attractive or appealing

way to the customer. During the implementation of the creative strategy, the

appeal is the early advertising objective in the advertising pyramid. To attract

attention, the advertisement must be presented attractively and this appeal is

done to motivate rational thinking and emotional appeal.

5.2.1 Rational and Emotional Appeal

Appeal is an idea that motivates the audience to respond. These ideas can appear

in various forms such as success, beauty, durability, security, tastiness, gentleness,

softness, luxury, love and care, pride, etc. The appeal in the message will create a

relationship between the customer and the product or the target audience with

the source.

There are various ways to attract attention and in this case, they can be divided

into rational appeal or emotional appeal or a mix of the two appeals. Besides that,

there are product-oriented and consumer-oriented appeals. Product-oriented

appeal presents the attractiveness of the product or the product’s characteristics

that appeal to the customer’s emotion and rational thinking. Consumer-oriented

appeal focuses on the consumers themselves or issues related to their lives and

their need for the product.

Figure 5.5 shows the matrix that states the examples of themes and

implementation in the context of appeal.

Figure 5.5: Appeal categories

Rational Appeal: Rational appeal consists of rational ideas that motivate the

audience to respond. The ideas can be factual, explanatory information, data,

statistics, demonstration, etc. These ideas use logical thinking as acceptance.

Rational thinking is directed at the practical, functional and utilitarian needs for

the products and services. Usually, the rational appeal is informational and the

information focuses on those needs.

Rational appeal can be divided into the following categories from the contents of

presentation.

 Product characteristic appeal: focuses on the dominant characteristics of the

product and service such as the material used, taste or price.

 Competitive characteristic appeal: make a comparison with other brands in

the same category.

 Price appeal: offers a price that matches the quality and product usage.

 Announcement appeal: makes the advertising message as a piece of news to

be announced or broadcast.

 Product popularity appeal: stresses on the popular characteristics.

Emotional Appeal: Emotional appeal uses the method that plays with the human

feelings such as care, fear, love, happiness, comfort, pride, etc. Emotional appeal

is targeted at psychological, social and symbolic needs.

Some of the experts regard the emotional appeal as being better and more

successful than the rational appeal. There are some reasons why emotional

appeal is used.

(a) Usually, the customer will be easily attracted to the words that contain

emotion. Some of the product campaigns contain no informational value

but they attract attention because there are emotions behind those words:

Finger licking good [so delicious until you lick your fingers], the Enchanting

Scent, the Real Taste of Adabi Product and Kodak Moments⁄ all these

phrases are filled with emotions.

(b) How many song lyrics can you remember and how many formulas can you

say without making any reference? Humans are emotional beings and it is

said that we use our emotions first, then only intellect. Besides that, humans

are more easily involved when their feelings are played with and appealed

to. There are no easy rational reasons to explain that.

(c) The things offered by the product, which cannot be seen, are more credible

if the emotional appeal is used. We always want to believe that a medicine

will provide a cure, the food will provide nutrition and so on.

Figure 5.6: Advertisement appeal by Biagi

5.2.2 Hard Selling, Soft Selling

The traditional approach in advertisement presentation focuses on the methods

of hard selling and soft selling. Hard selling is a direct method and soft selling

uses the hidden approach. Hard selling is a clear-cut selling method that asks,

urges, directs or tells the customer to make a purchase or take action. Soft selling

is done covertly, without any urge to take action.

Hard selling uses the strong and direct persuasive method until it sometimes

reaches the coercion stage whereas soft selling uses a gentle method and no clear

elements of coercion can be seen. That is why hard selling is always regarded as a

rough, annoying method and it makes some customers feel uncomfortable. Soft

selling is related to a presentation that is entertaining, pleasant and comforting.

When comparing both methods, hard selling is like a salesperson who uses an

urging and coercive way and soft selling like the salesperson who uses a soft way

to convey the sales message. Rosser Reeves who was dean previously at the

School of Hard Sell in a university in USA made the following statement that

illustrates the hard sell philosophy:

The hard sell commercial, which permits no nonsense, no semi-

sophistication, no ‘kidding of the sponsor’, is far from obsolete ... The

hard sell is an approach almost austere as its dedication to the process

of visually and aurally battering the man in front of the tube with sales

points until he caves in and buys the product being advertised.

The hard sell approach as mentioned by Reeves uses a clear-cut way by

bombarding sales messages until the customer gives in and buys the product. The

hard sell approach is also based on the conviction that an advertisement that is

remembered is better than an advertisement that is well-liked. An advertisement

that is remembered is regarded as a better communicator of the communication

objective compared with a well-liked advertisement. The liking that exists may

not be due to the sales messages but other factors such as entertainment. The

supporters of the soft sell approach believe that highlighting the sales promises is

not enough because the more important thing is making the customer feel

comfortable and getting a better picture of the product and advertiser. So, a

happy and comfortable advertisement is more important.

The issue here is whether the main role of the advertisement and marketing

communication is to entertain the customer and give a good image of the product

and customers or to sell the product, brand and service. So, the challenge of the

copywriter and the creative team is to create a balance by selling the product in a

fun way without coercion or urge that is annoying.

5.2.3 Basic Selling Style

The basic purpose of marketing communications, based on the advertising

pyramid, is to attract attention. This can be achieved through different ways,

approaches, methods and presentation styles. A good style to convey an

advertising message is the direct and simple style without simplifying anything.

A direct style is clearer and easy to understand; it is not complex, abstract and

obscure. A direct style also makes a clear-cut and not long-winded presentation

to convey the real message.

The opposite is a way that is boring and makes understanding difficult, hard to

remember and not likeable. Simple and direct messages will reach the mind faster

and stay inside it. Complex and indirect messages provide as many messages on

the brand as possible so that the audience can understand the product. However,

humans tend to get only one message at a time and in a situation where there are

many advertisements, it is very difficult to absorb all the messages presented.

However, it is said that the process to simplify all these can be boring and not

creative. This process shows low level thinking, without any interesting art and

style. Nevertheless, if the product and message are relevant, a simple

presentation can be dramatic and interesting. Let’s take the advertisement on

food as an example. It is shown in a simple way, which is the way of preparing it.

Because it is relevant and is directly applied to the consumer, the audience will

look at the advertisement attentively.

Another basic presentation is in an entertaining and happy form. This can be

done in various styles, especially humour, singing and the other lighter styles.

Actually, many styles can be thought of via the creativity of the creative team as

long as they do not violate ethics and rules, are suitable to good taste and do not

exaggerate. Exaggerated advertisements can be shown through exaggerated

situations, intense characters, highly sophisticated graphic tools or forceful

demonstrations. However, the practice of using all these exaggerated elements is

accepted and indeed very popular because it enhances memory retention. As

long as the message can be trusted and the sales message is not exaggerated, this

exaggerated presentation through the situation, character, graphic tools and

demonstration is considered creating positive consequences.

5.3 ADVERTISEMENT CREDIBILITY

One of the ways to create persuasive values, whether rational persuasion or

irrational persuasion, is to give the audience confidence in the advertisement

messages. The confidence of the audience is one of the important consequences to

be achieved in marketing communications. One of the ways to build confidence is

to ensure that the advertisement is credible.

Advertisement credibility is related to the effort of convincing the customer not to

look down on the advertisement message because there is something beneficial in

it. A good advertisement is a credible advertisement and not looked down upon

by the audience. How to make an advertisement credible and how do language

play a role? This means the message and language used must be convincing.

5.3.1 Intrinsic Drama

Each product has its own identity. This means that each product has an intrinsic

drama to be explored. It may be easier to find a drama in a product that has news

value, for instance, a new product, a new invention, a new usage or a new

packaging. All new values have news characteristics such as impact value,

quality value, conflict value, current value and proximity value.

Abstract nouns and adjectives are popular descriptive words in an advertisement.

Look at the following text:

 Fast, easy and effective body-contouring project.

 Superb cleaning results.

 The use of economical dust cleaning tool.

 Relieves throat and nasal cavity fast.

 Comfortable, fast and safe.

 Amazing!

How credible are the words fast, easy, effective, amazing, economical, relieved,

quick, comfortable, speedy, safe and amazing? Some advertising texts are

credible because the product itself is unique and the benefits and uses are

explained. However, for products or advertisement messages that are less unique,

how do the words build credibility?

Some of the reasons why some advertisements are not credible are because they

make a lot of promises, and not because they are not specific. Intrinsic drama

does not necessarily mean that we must be flamboyant with words. William

Strunk, in his famous book The Elements of Style, said:

Place yourself in the background. Write in a way that draws the

Reader’s attention to the sense and substance of the writing, rather than

to the mood and temper of the author.

Strunk’s statement shows that the main thing that creates the drama is not the

illustration or the meanings beyond the product but the ‘sense and substance’.

Leo Burnet also said that ‘the greatest thing to be achieved in advertising... is

believability and nothing is more believable than the product itself’.

5.3.2 Concrete Character.

When a person is confused, he/she is like in the middle of the sea without any

guidance. Each direction points to water. They do not have anything to hold.

Confusion means obscurity and ambiguity. There is no concrete visual image in

the mind. In the language context, this happens because there are no concrete

ideas to convince the audience. The advertisement messages are uttered generally

and no perception can be formed in the minds of the audience. Besides that, this

happens when the language used is obscure and not concrete.

5.3.3 Keep a Promise

When a purchase takes place from the advertising promises, the product must

keep the promises made. Does the copywriter have the power to ensure that the

promises are kept? Yes, because those promises are phrased through his/her

language and he/she can reject the words that cannot be kept. Dave Garroway,

when giving a speech in a seminar by the Association of Advertising Agencies in

USA entitled „How to Get People To Believe You, said:

When you said this car can save up to 40% of petrol, it doesn’t mean

anything to the audience. 'Up to 40%' has no meaning... so I try hard to

avoid using ambiguous words in my advertisement. They are actually

words that do not say what we mean but mean the other thing. The

limitation of a product is apparent. There is no single thing that can do

many things effectively... so I will research a product carefully on its

style, qualities, how it is used, where it is used and who uses it. When I

speak about it, I have an idea about who will I speak to and I know how

to communicate with them. You cannot talk about a Cadillac car like

you are talking about a pie.

The important point conveyed by Garroway is the use of ambiguous words.

Ambiguity means having various interpretations. Ambiguity also means without

clear and needed facts for understanding and confidence. However, ambiguity is

not regarded by Norins (1980) as the 'worst crime of unbelievable copy'.‰

The problem, as mentioned by S.I. Hayakawa, that of is „deceptive differentials.‰

In his criticism of Rosser Reeves book, Hayakawa referred to the following

sentences:

 Our bottles are washed with hot steam.

 Eliminates dirty layers on teeth.

 Stops halitosis.

 Eliminates body odour.

The statements above are called ‘deceptive differentials’ because those promises

are made by other products too. This creates a problem because when the

consumer changes the product to the advertised brand, he/she will feel cheated

when he/she found that there is nothing different in the new brand. The

promises may be true and there are no lies or falsehoods, but the problem is, it is

not a better brand compared with other brands. Over a long period of time, if the

product doesn’t show what it says, then the campaign is said to be ineffective.

In short, in many situations, ambiguity is a weakness. However, sometimes

ambiguity is created intentionally. If that is the purpose, we need to choose

words that can bring us to the ambiguity stage that we desire. Another weakness

is making false claims. Promises should be kept all the time.

5.3.4 Demonstration

Another key to achieve confidence is using the demonstration method. In the

language context, this method uses language clearly and directly without any

general, obscure or exaggerated words.

A general word states a class or a group of things; a specific word names the

object, action or individual quality in a class or group. In a way, this term is quite

relative because it depends on the situation or a certain context. Besides that, the

general or specific degree is different among each other. For example, there are

very general terms and very specific terms. Once again, these terms are quite

relative.

When we learn to speak, we normally learn to name the general category before

we learn to name the specific objects. For a three-year-old child, parrot, dove,

pigeon, swallow and hornbill are birds. Then, when we grow older and have a

better grasp of the language, we learn to differentiate the general words and

name a class of things with specific words that are members of that class. We also

know that the general term and specific term are relative. For example, a bird is

more specific than an animal but more general than a pigeon.

Figure 5.7: General words and specific words

Through the use of simple words, the audience will not feel cheated.

Demonstration is more credible if the consumer does not have the perception that

a swindle will occur. However, demonstration is always avoided because some of

the copywriters think that it is not artistic. Claude Hopkins in My Life in

Advertising (Norins, 1980) said: ‘No argument in the world can ever compare

with a dramatic demonstration’. He shows how he learnt to sell products from

street vendors who can sell effectively through demonstrations to passers-by.

5.3.5 Create Reality

A real person uses a language different from characters in a fiction. A real person

speaks everyday language. For example, they repeat their words, use incomplete

phrases, abbreviations et cetera. They use their daily language. This is the same

for people who act, write, sing and do different jobs. A more credible

advertisement is nearer to reality. That is why some of the advertisements use

normal characters in our daily lives and not actors or models to parade the

product. In the language context, reality can be achieved through the use of

colloquial, slang or informal language except in official functions that require us

to speak formally.

Informal language includes informal words such as popular words, words not

learnt, colloquial words and slang. This means we may need to avoid jargon,

redundant and bombastic words to create reality. The concept of the types of

words mentioned will be explained below.

Colloquial language is the language used in speech. Colloquialism covers

popular words and idiomatic expressions. However, it also includes words learnt

with popular meaning and contracted words such as do not, cannot and root

words such as do, disturb, fold, hit. Slang is very colloquial language. It is used in

every social situation by certain groups. Its use is lesser and more selective

among educated people. Slang is an effort to express an idea clearly. Younger

people are always experimenting with language, for instance, using old words in

an extraordinary way to invent new words. A lot of slang is borrowed from

specific words and used with a different meaning.

Popular words are normal words used daily, whether in written or oral form.

They are used daily by different levels of people, whether educated or

uneducated. These words are feel elements and function as a communication tool

for speakers of different backgrounds. Words learnt are used more widely in the

written context.

Their use is quite limited because only the educated will use these words. These

terms may be more difficult and used in a more formal context. They are acquired

by a person through the formal or informal learning process. Some of the terms

learnt have the same meaning as popular terms. Both can be used to carry their

concepts. However, the context and situation make them different.

Jargon refers to two types of language; the first is related to specific vocabularies

used in a career, and the second is a difficult language or term, which is

pretentious and long-winded to project a great and authoritative image, but

whose meaning may actually be completely opposite. The difference is between

technical language and gobbledygook. Gobbledygook is the term invented by an

American Congress member to express his hatred for words used by the leaders.

The technical term is important for an expert to communicate with his/her

colleagues. It is used to convey an accurate meaning and for economical

purposes. If not, a long explanation will need to be used to explain the concept

presented.

Gobbledygook is an effort in vain because it sounds technical or scientific but it is

not in accord with the great idea that needs to be presented.

Technical language can easily become gobbledygook when false experts use the

jargon as buzzwords to attract the reader’s attention. If it is used in this context,

those terms lose their suitability and accuracy. On the contrary, they become a

strategy to hide a moderate idea in great language.

Like jargon, bombastic terms are used to sound great and authoritative. Usually,

they sound exaggerated but actually, the meaning is simple and direct.

Sometimes, the actual meaning is trivial and unimportant.

5.3.6 Understatement

The moderation principle is demanded in many situations in our lives. To be

moderate means not exaggerated, boastful, showy or long-winded. Using

moderate words not only shows courtesy but also credibility. Can we trust a

boastful person?

An understatement can cause the audience to be more easily involved in the

advertisement. They tend to fill up the empty spaces not expressed by words.

Imagine an advertisement that is filled with words whether written words in

print advertisement or words expressed on the radio or in television

advertisements. This is not wrong, especially if the informational strategy is used.

However, some advertisements are more effective if not all the words are

expressed. There are some phrases that need to be unuttered because as

mentioned before, the audience can fill them up and the result is better because

there is involvement. If there is involvement, the credibility signs will appear.

An understatement also means using moderate, normal and not exaggerated

words. However, this does not mean using clichés. A cliché is a stereotype

statement or idea and is repeated very frequently. That is why the strength,

freshness and originality will be lost. This makes reading monotonous and the

writer looks like a person who copies things. The ideas and expressions of a

cliché can exist in the form of a theme, a plot, a discourse a presentation, the use

of a phrase and a sentence. However, a cliché can frequently facilitate the writer

to convey the ideas and information that need to be conveyed. When the concepts

are very common, the readers will find them easy to follow.

For example, in news writing, a consistent sentence structure or form of writing

will facilitate the reader to get the information at a glance without needing a long

time to understand it.

In a news report, there are standard expressions and the use of extraordinary or

uncommon statements will make it sound strange and awkward. However, the

term cliché actually has a negative connotation. Those expressions with negative

effects will normally be avoided because they prevent us from producing an idea

and discourse that is fresh and mature.

5.4 CONSISTENCY OF PRESENTATION

One of the challenges in the implementation of the message strategy is creating

consistent advertisement messages strategically by brand positioning and

product image. According to Tom Duncan (2005), there are two stages of

consistency, which are One Look, One Voice Consistency and strategic

consistency. The first refers to campaigns and the other is related to brand

messages.

Figure 5.8: Two stages of consistency

5.4.1 Implementation Consistency

This consistency is mentioned by Duncan (2005) as the One Look, One Voice

Consistency. It is a type of continuity that happens when all the marketing

communication messages such as advertising, sales promotion, sponsorship,

publicity, direct response, packaging, et cetera have the same look, voice and feel.

This consistency shows that all of them collaborate at the implementation stage.

For example, when the same campaign is carried out in the form of a poster,

billboard, magazine advertisement, bus advertisement and other external

advertisements, all the messages must have the same look and personality and

convey the same message even though some are shorter or have their own

variations. This consistency is important to ensure that there is a strong link that

strengthens the message. Some of the practices done to achieve consistency of one

look, one voice are the following:

 Implementation consistency: visual link · the same format in terms of

layout and art or the colour style and the main visual elements.

 Verbal consistency: the words in the form of a slogan, tag lines, rhapsody

that can be repeated a few times.

 Character consistency: the same character or spokesperson.

 Symbol and logo consistency: the same trademarks.

 Audio consistency: the same voice or sound to represent the corporate

image.

 Emotional consistency: the same imagery or situation.

 Theme continuity: the same themes to facilitate message identification and

link.

One of the problems in creating the one look, one voice consistency is when there

are many different people or units involved in producing the marketing

communication messages of a brand. If the message or idea conveyed is not

consistent but the audience it is directed at is the same, the audience will be

confused and don’t know what to expect from the brand. This results in an

ineffective and unprofitable overall campaign.

5.4.2 Strategic Consistency

Strategic consistency is the continuity that occurs when the marketing

communication messages are different but each message has the same main

element. This difference is made because the audience directed at is different

such as internal staff, shareholders, suppliers, law enforcers and customers as

well as the users.

However, no matter who the audience is, some of the elements such as the logo

and brand must be inserted into each of the messages to show the company or

brand identity. Besides that, the message for an adult may be different from the

message for a child; or the message for the industrial audience may be different

from the message for the consumer audience. However, this does not mean that

the messages will be totally different. Different messages must create a consistent

personality and positioning of the brand even though the selling proposition is

different.

The change in packaging, slogan or logo creates a long-term dilemma consistency.

When the company wants its brand to be known easily through consistent

presentation, they also need to change or renew their look or style so that they are

not rigid, old and boring. That is why they need to be in the middle between

maintaining freshness and establishing the identity and personality.

Appeal

Brand Mapping

Emotional Appeal

Implementation Consistency

Marketing Communication Objective

Positioning

Rational Appeal

Strategic Consistency

ACTIVITY 5.1

(a) (b) (c)

One of the challenges in the implementation of the message strategy

is to create consistent advertisement messages.

1. How far is the consistency value in the advertisement

achieved?

2. What are the reasons to support your answer?

3. Who is the target audience directed at in each advertisement?

SELF ASSESSMENT 1

1. State the three common positioning methods used.

2. What is USP ă Unique Selling Proposition?

3. What is brand mapping?

4. Give examples of products that use the Generic Strategy to convey their

messages.

5. Give examples of exaggerated advertisement presentation in terms of

character usage.

SELF ASSESSMENT 2

1. Give examples of products with a successful new positioning. How does it

make a difference in advertising?

2. What is the difference between hard selling and soft selling? Discuss the

advantages and disadvantages of each of their methods of presentation with

suitable examples from the advertisement.

3. Why is consistency important in advertising campaigns? What is the

meaning of consistency and how is it achieved?

4. A good advertisement is credible. Discuss the statement and list the ways to

make an advertisement credible.

5. What is meant by the term 'deceptive differentials'? State the reasons that

support and oppose the usage of 'deceptive differentials'.

REF::

Aaker, David & Shanby, Gary (1982). Positioning your product. Business Horizon.

25 (May/Jun), 56-62

Beierley (1995). The advertising handbook. London: Routledge.

Duncan, Tom (2005). Principles of advertising and IMC. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Pickton, D. & Broderick, A. (2005). Integrated marketing communication. London:

Prentice Hall.