Chapter 1

Advertising Strategy
Compiled by: Dr. Vikas Dogra

An advertising strategy is a campaign developed to communicate ideas about products and services
to potential consumers in the hopes of convincing them to buy those products and services. This
strategy, when built in a rational and intelligent manner, will reflect other business considerations
(overall budget, brand recognition efforts) and objectives (public image enhancement, market share
growth) as well. As Portable MBA in Marketing authors Alexander Hiam and Charles D. Schewe
stated, a business's advertising strategy "determines the character of the company's public face."
Even though a small business has limited capital and is unable to devote as much money to
advertising as a large corporation, it can still develop a highly effective advertising campaign. The key
is creative and flexible planning, based on an indepth knowledge of the target consumer and the
avenues that can be utilized to reach that consumer.

1.1 Role and relevance of advertising strategy

Today, most advertising strategies focus on achieving three general goals, as the Small Business
Administration indicated in Advertising Your Business: 1) promote awareness of a business and its
product or services; 2) stimulate sales directly and "attract competitors' customers"; and 3) establish
or modify a business' image. In other words, advertising seeks to inform , persuade , and remind the
consumer. With these aims in mind, most businesses follow a general process which ties advertising
into the other promotional efforts and overall marketing objectives of the business. Advertising
strategy achieves its goals in various stages.

As a business begins, one of the major goals of advertising must be to generate awareness of the
business and its products. Once the business' reputation is established and its products are
positioned within the market, the amount of resources used for advertising will decrease as the
consumer develops a kind of loyalty to the product. Ideally, this established and ever-growing
consumer base will eventually aid the company in its efforts to carry their advertising message out
into the market, both through its purchasing actions and its testimonials on behalf of the product or
service.

Essential to this rather abstract process is the development of a "positioning statement," as defined
by Gerald E. Hills in "Marketing Option and Marketing" in The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship : "A
'positioning statement' explains how a company's product (or service) is differentiated from those of
key competitors." With this statement, the business owner turns intellectual objectives into concrete
plans. In addition, this statement acts as the foundation for the development of a selling proposal,
which is composed of the elements that will make up the advertising message's "copy platform."
This platform delineates the images, copy, and art work that the business owner believes will sell the
product.

With these concrete objectives, the following elements of the advertising strategy need to be
considered: target audience, product concept, communication media, and advertising message.
These elements are at the core of an advertising strategy, and are often referred to as the "creative
mix." Again, what most advertisers stress from the beginning is clear planning and flexibility. And key
to these aims is creativity, and the ability to adapt to new market trends. A rigid advertising strategy
often leads to a loss of market share. Therefore, the core elements of the advertising strategy need
to mix in a way that allows the message to envelope the target consumer, providing ample
opportunity for this consumer to become acquainted with the advertising message.
Target Consumer: The target consumer is a complex combination of persons. It includes the
person who ultimately buys the product, as well as those who decide what product will be bought
(but don't physically buy it), and those who influence product purchases, such as children, spouse,
and friends. In order to identify the target consumer, and the forces acting upon any purchasing
decision, it is important to define three general criteria in relation to that consumer, as discussed by
the Small Business Administration:
1. Demographics—Age, gender, job, income, ethnicity, and hobbies.
2. Behaviors—When considering the consumers' behavior an advertiser needs to examine the
consumers' awareness of the business and its competition, the type of vendors and services
the consumer currently uses, and the types of appeals that are likely to convince the consumer
to give the advertiser's product or service a chance.
3. Needs and Desires— Here an advertiser must determine the consumer needs—both in
practical terms and in terms of self-image, etc.—and the kind of pitch/message that will
convince the consumer that the advertiser's services or products can fulfill those needs.

Product Concept: The product concept grows out of the guidelines established in the "positioning
statement." How the product is positioned within the market will dictate the kind of values the
product represents, and thus how the target consumer will receive that product. Therefore, it is
important to remember that no product is just itself, but, as Courtland L. Bovee and William F. Arens
stated in Contemporary Advertising, a "bundle of values" that the consumer needs to be able to
identify with. Whether couched in presentations that emphasize sex, humor, romance, science,
masculinity, or femininity, the consumer must be able to believe in the product's representation.

Communication Media: The communication media is the means by which the advertising message
is transmitted to the consumer. In addition to marketing objectives and budgetary restraints, the
characteristics of the target consumer need to be considered as an advertiser decides what media to
use. The types of media categories from which advertisers can choose include the following:
Print—Primarily newspapers (both weekly and daily) and magazines.
Audio—FM and AM radio.
Video—Promotional videos, infomercials.
World Wide Web.
Direct mail.
Outdoor advertising—Billboards, advertisements on public transportation (cabs, buses).

After deciding on the medium that is 1) financially in reach, and 2) most likely to reach the target
audience, an advertiser needs to schedule the broadcasting of that advertising. The media schedule,
as defined by Hills, is "the combination of specific times (for example, by day, week, month) when
advertisements are inserted into media vehicles and delivered to target audiences."

Advertising Message: An advertising message is guided by the "advertising or copy platform,"

which is a combination of the marketing objectives, copy, art, and production values. This
combination is best realized after the target consumer has been analyzed, the product concept has
been established, and the media and vehicles have been chosen. At this point, the advertising
message can be directed at a very concrete audience to achieve very specific goals. Hiam and
Schewe listed three major areas that an advertiser should consider when endeavoring to develop an
effective "advertising platform":
What are the product's unique features?
How do consumers evaluate the product? What is likely to persuade them to purchase the
product?
 How do competitors rank in the eyes of the consumer? Are there any weaknesses in their
positions? What are their strengths?
Most business consultants recommend employing an advertising agency to create the art work
and write the copy.

However, many small businesses don't have the up-front capital to hire such an agency, and
therefore need to create their own advertising pieces. When doing this a business owner needs to
follow a few important guidelines.

Copy: When composing advertising copy it is crucial to remember that the primary aim is to
communicate information about the business and its products and services. The "selling proposal"
can act as a blueprint here, ensuring that the advertising fits the overall marketing objectives. Many
companies utilize a theme or a slogan as the centerpiece of such efforts, emphasizing major
attributes of the business's products or services in the process. But as Hiam and Schewe caution,
while "something must be used to animate the theme …care must be taken not to lose the
underlying message in the pursuit of memorable advertising."

When writing the copy, direct language (saying exactly what you mean in a positive, rather than
negative manner) has been shown to be the most effective. The theory here is that the less the
audience has to interpret, or unravel the message, the easier the message will be to read,
understand, and act upon. As Jerry Fisher observed in Entrepreneur, "Two-syllable phrases like 'free
book,' 'fast help,' and 'lose weight' are the kind of advertising messages that don't need to be read
to be effective. By that I mean they are so easy for the brain to interpret as a whole thought that
they're 'read' in an eye blink rather than as linear verbiage. So for an advertiser trying to get
attention in a world awash in advertising images, it makes sense to try this message-in-an-eye-blink
route to the public consciousness—be it for a sales slogan or even a product name."

The copy content needs to be clearly written, following conventional grammatical guidelines. Of
course, effective headings allow the reader to get a sense of the advertisement's central theme
without having to read much of the copy. An advertisement that has "50% Off" in bold black letters
is not just easy to read, but it is also easy to understand.

Art Work and Layout: Small business owners also need to consider the visual rhetoric of the
advertisement, which simply means that the entire advertisement, including blank space, should
have meaning and logic. Most industry experts recommend that advertisers use short paragraphs,
lists, and catchy illustrations and graphics to break up and supplement the text and make the
document both visually inviting and easy to understand. Remember, an advertisement has to
capture the reader's attention quickly.

Advertising Budget: The advertising budget can be written before or after a business owner has
developed the advertising strategy. When to make a budget decision depends on the importance of
advertising and the resources available to the business. If, for instance, a business knows that they
only have a certain amount of money for advertising then the budget will tend to dictate what
advertising is developed and what the overall marketing objectives will be. On the other hand, if a
business has the resources available, the advertising strategy can be developed to meet
predetermined marketing objectives. For small businesses, it is usually best to put together an
advertising budget early in the advertising process.

The following approaches are the most common methods of developing an effective budget. All the
methods listed are progressive ones that look to perpetuate growth:
Percentage of future or past sales
 Competitive approach
Market share
All available funds
The task or objective approach

The easiest approach—and thus the one that is most often used—is the percentage of future or past
sales method. Most industry experts recommend basing spending on anticipated sales, in order to
ensure growth. But for a small business, where survival may be a bigger concern than growth, basing
the advertising budget on past sales is often a more sensible approach to take.

Methods of Advertising: Small business owners can choose from two opposite philosophies when
preparing their advertising strategy. The first of these, sometimes called the push method, is a
stance wherein an advertiser targets retail establishments in order to establish or broaden a market
presence. The second option, sometimes called the pull method, targets end-users (consumers),
who are expected to ask retailers for the product and thus help "pull" it through the channel of
distribution. Of course, many businesses employ some hybrid of the two when putting together their
advertising strategy.
Push Method
The aim of the push method is to convince retailers, salespersons, or dealers to carry and
promote the advertiser's product. This relationship is achieved by offering inducements, such
as providing advertising kits to help the retailer sell the product, offering incentives to carry
stock, and developing trade promotions.
Pull Method
The aim of the pull method is to convince the target consumer to try, purchase, and ultimately
repurchase the product. This process is achieved by directly appealing to the target consumer
with coupons, in-store displays, and sweepstakes.

Analyzing Advertising Results: Many small businesses are distressingly lax in taking steps to monitor
whether their advertising efforts are having the desired effect. Instead, they simply throw a
campaign out there and hope for the best, relying on a general sense of company health when
determining whether to continue, terminate, or make adjustments to advertising campaigns. These
small business owners do not seem to recognize that myriad factors can influence a business's
fortunes (regional economic straits, arrival of new competition, seasonal buying fluctuations, etc.).
The small business owner who does not bother to adequately analyze his or her advertising efforts
runs the danger of throwing away a perfectly good advertising strategy (or retaining a dreadful one)
if he or she is unable to determine whether business upturns or downturns are due to advertising or
some other factor.

The only way to know with any accuracy how your advertising strategy is working is to ask the
consumer, the opinions of whom can be gathered in several ways. Although many of the tracking
alternatives are quite specialized, requiring either a large budget or extensive advertising research
expertise, even small businesses can take steps to measure the effectiveness of their advertising
strategies. The direct response survey is one of the most accurate means of measuring the
effectiveness of a company's advertising for the simple reason that it measures actual responses to a
business's advertisements. Other inexpensive options, such as use of redeemable coupons, can also
prove helpful in determining the effectiveness of an advertising campaign.

Advertising Agencies: The decision whether or not to use an advertising agency depends both on a
company's advertising strategy and its financial resources. An agency has professionals who can
organize, create, and place advertising so that it will meet established objectives better than most
small businesses can do on their own, but of course the expense associated with soliciting such
talent is often prohibitive for smaller companies. Still, some small- and mid-sized businesses have
found that agencies can be helpful in shaping and monitoring advertising strategies.

Because of their resources and expertise, agencies are useful when a business is planning a broad
advertising campaign that will require a large amount of resources. An advertising agency can also
help track and analyze the effectiveness of the advertising. Some criteria to consider when choosing
an agency include size of the agency, size of their clients (small companies should avoid allying
themselves with agencies with a large stable of big corporate clients so that they are not trea as
afterthoughts), length of time that the principals have been with the agency, the agency's general
advertising philosophy, and the primary nature of the agency's accounts (are they familiar with your
industry and the challenges involved in differentiating your company's products or services from
others in that industry?).

1.2 Advertising Strategy Planning Process

An advertising strategy should support the marketing plan, which in turn supports the company
business plan. In the real world an ad agency is rarely handed a marketing or business plan. So
normally they have to figure things out for themselves.

There are two major parts to an advertising strategy: Assessment and Action. Assessment means to
understand what's going on in the market; what's the history; the current situation; what are the
major trends in the market; and what's the future looking like (with the product, competitors,
consumer attitudes). Whereas, action implies what should your client do about the most significant
opportunities or problems presented by the situation; what should you do with the brand; with
direct marketing; the web site; the way the company is positioned.

These are some of the components of the advertising strategy planning process:

1.2 (a) SWOT Analysis

The first step in the development of your communications strategy is a SWOT analysis. Properly
done, a Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats assessment presents a 360 degree, full-
color picture of the market, the product or service, and the company. It’ll help you figure out the
"What's going on" part. And figure it out quickly. The "What to do" part of your ad strategy should
follow logically from the "What's going on" part.

1.2 (b) Define the Brand

This is the first step in the process of developing your brand strategy. By defining who your brand is
you create the foundation for all other components to build on. Your brand definition will serve as
your measuring stick in evaluating any and all marketing materials and strategies.

You will begin this process by answering the questions below.

1. What products and/or services do you offer? Define the qualities of these services and/or
products.
2. What are the core values of your products and services? What are the core values of your
company?
3. What is the mission of your company?
4. What does your company specializes in?
5. Who is your target market? Who do your products and services attract?
6. What is the tagline of your company? What message does your tagline send to your prospects?
7. Using the information from the previous steps create a personality or character for your company
that represents your products or services. What is the character like? What qualities stand out? Is
the personality of your company innovative, creative, energetic, or sophisticated?
8. Use the personality that you created in the previous step and build a relationship with your target
market that you defined in Step 5. How does that personality react to target audience? What
characteristics stand out? Which characteristics and qualities get the attention of your prospects.
9. Review the answers to the questions above and create a profile of your brand. Describe the
personality or character with words just as if you were writing a biography or personal ad.

1.2 (c) Position a Company in the Minds of Consumers

Positioning, along with branding and direct response, is one of the three types of strategic
communications. How you position your brand, product, or company might be the most important
aspect of a marketing communications plan.

Position is that one descriptive sentence or slogan or image the brand is known for; that one specific
idea that first comes to mind about the product; that one characteristic that sets the service apart
from competitors.

Brand positioning, as well as product or service positioning, can be expressed in many ways, from a
simple slogan to an entire campaign. In most cases you should express it in every ad, perhaps as the
tagline, or as a brand character, or even a sound.

1.2 (d) Understand the Psycho-Dynamics of the market

This simply means: what’s going on inside the brains of buyers, of perspective customers?

It includes, but is not limited to, Consumer Involvement Theory – How the consumer relates to the
purchase: Rational to emotional; High to low involvement. You probably buy the same brand of soap
or soda with a mindless motion at the market. But you do your homework when buying cameras or
cars. Most people do the same.

But besides CIT, there are likely other issues, perhaps more important issues, such as why people
buy the other brand: “People think our competitor produces higher quality, more reliable products.”
Or, “People think Big Bank has more services and products than we do. Things like investments and
insurance, even inexpensive safe deposit boxes. So they think Big Bank is more convenient.”

Or perhaps it's not so much what people think about competitors, but what they think about your
client: "Gosh, I don't know if I want to buy a Mac. Just not as much software as I can get for a PC."

Thus, Psycho-Dynamics is all about what’s going on in the mind of the potential customers: the
thoughts, feelings and ever-changing prejudices that influence purchase decisions.

1.2 (e) Consumer involvement Theory (CIT)

CIT - is one way to understand the psychology and behavior of your target audience. There are other
such theories as well, but none quite so quick, simple and insightful.

Involvement refers to how much time, thought, energy and other resources people devote to the
purchase process. The Emotional / Rational scale is a measure of reason vs. impulse, desire vs. logic,
passion vs. prudence. There are four general categories: High involvement / emotional, High
involvement / rational, Low involvement / emotional, Low involvement / rational

High involvement / rational: In this category you find expensive business purchases:
anything relating to the technological infrastructure, the office location and lease, as
well as the company health insurance plan.

On the consumer side, high involvement / rational purchases tend to be linked to

high cost. This category can include financial services and products, the purchase of
a home or car, as well as major appliances and electronics.

That said, high involvement consumer purchases can vary significantly on the
rational / emotional scale from individual to individual. For Ms. A, a car is strictly a
way to get to work, and her selection is based on fuel economy and reliability. For
Mr. B, a car is an important expression of his status and ego. Your task is to
determine how the majority of your target market relates to the purchase of the
particular product or service.

For both B2C and BtoB markets, advertising for Hi/R purchases tend to be copy
driven, with clear explanations of features and benefits.

High involvement / emotional: Business purchases that fall into this category might
include such things as office design, advertising, and perhaps the hiring of certain
employees.

For individuals, high involvement / emotional purchases can include jewelry,

weddings, and holiday travel plans. In some societies the selection of a husband or
wife will fall into group. As can the purchase of a home or car. Again, depends on
the culture, person, and how much purchasing power she has.

Advertising in this category tends to focus on visual and emotional appeals. Give
people visual details, with music.

Low involvement / rational: These are the things we buy out of habit, without much
thought. This category includes most of the things you put into your basket at the
drug store or market. The places you eat lunch, say the local McDonald's.

Here the typical role for advertising is to get people to sample or switch, to break
the automatic habit of spending their money with the competitor. So consider
coupons and other incentives, as well as ways to differentiate or re-position the
product.

Over the counter medicines tend to fall into this category. But pain relievers, cough
medicines and the like, especially those for children, can be more emotionally
driven.

Low involvement / emotional: The gratification we get from these products is

emotional or sensual. But fleeting; it doesn't last a long time. So we don't spend a
lot of time thinking about the purchase – movies, candy, an entertaining magazine,
or a birthday card or even selecting a restaurant for a special occasion.
 The advertising challenge here tends to be the flash promise of pleasure, of
gratification, the promise of a benefit. Strong positioning can help, especially in a
crowded product category.

1.2 (f) Define Adverting Goals

This is called the advertising objective. Do you want the advertising to get people to think or feel or
do something? Or a combination of the three?

Another way to define the Ad Objective is to ask, what’s the most important task for our advertising?
Is it to encourage an emotional connection with the brand? Or, to provoke, challenge or give them
an incentive to re-appraise the brand? Or, is it to convince them to give the product another try?

Is it to convince them rationally that the service delivers better value for the money? Is the objective
to get consumers change their usage patterns? To buy your butter instead of the butter Mom always
bought? Or react immediately in some way to the advertising, such as pick up the phone or go online
and order?

1.2 (g) Understand or define the marketing objective and strategy

The marketing objective is a business goal. For example, “in the first year we want to capture 10% of
the market in six cities.” Or, “Our goal is to be profitable in this country within 6 months.” Or, “We
want to increase sales with this product to the point where profits reach $50,000 per month, and do
this in 12 months.”

All of the above, of course, to be accomplished within a budget. The advertising strategy supports
the marketing strategy. So let’s say we’re selling X’s Farm Fresh Ice Cream – chocolate, strawberry
and vanilla are selling hot, but no one wants the papaya flavor.

So X says, “I want my papaya flavor to add 20% to my sales - not steal sales from the existing three -
or I’m going to dump it in 12 months. Here's one million dollars to work with. What do you suggest?”

In this case your strategy might be to: A) Re-name the product: Papaya Surprise; B) Re-position it:
Surprisingly Sweet, Surprisingly Healthy; C) Build a brand based on a fussy old lady, a great cook,
who is very demanding: it’s got to taste great, and be great for your health; Or, D) Achieve
immediate sales with an in-store promo plan or discount coupons, something to encourage people
to give it a try. All the while, keep in mind that one single thread you want to weave into all of your
communications; that one most important thing you want to say: "Papaya surprise is loaded with
healthy fiber, and surprisingly sweet."

In the following chapters the elements of Adverting Strategy will be explained individually in greater
detail.

Sources:
http://advertisingstrategy.org/
http://www.enotes.com/small-business-encyclopedia/advertising-strategy
http://marketing.about.com/cs/advertising/ht/definebrand.htm
http://www.adcracker.com