Advertising Strategy and Media Planning

Creative Strategy - Positioning…6

Percy and Elliott’s Five Steps…

Select the target audience

Understand target audience decision making

Determine the best positioning

Develop a communications strategy

Setting a media strategy

Percy and Elliott, 2009

What is creativity?

Broad agreement that it involves having an idea that is…

In advertising, a creative idea also is usually…

extendable (into a campaign)

new, novel, original, useful and has value

transferable (across media)

(adapted from Percy and Elliott 2009)

Creative concept has to…

Break through clutter

Be relevant

Differentiate the brand from competitors

Arouse interest

Promote the brand and not the category

Answer the creative brief

Appeal to both the consumer and the client

Be meaningful to the target audience

(adapted from Yeshin, 2006)

what is positioning?

“Positioning refers broadly to the values and associations, both tangible and intangible, that are linked with a given brand. The positioning differentiates the brand from its rivals.”

Hackley 2010 p70

…the marketing mix

product

price

people

process

Physical evidence

promotion

place

…partners?

McCarthy, 1960

Booms & Bitner, 1981

Chaffey, 2006

what is positioning?

A key insight summed up in a positioning statement

which is part of the advertising strategy document and

the creative brief.

Needs to consider…

Who it’s for…

Reason to buy…

Product category…

Benefit(s)…

what is a brand?

“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. If the consumer (whether it’s a business, a buyer, a voter or a donor) doesn’t pay a premium, make a selection or spread the word, then no brand value exists for that consumer.”

Godin, 2011

what is a brand?

Fill, 2011, identifies that a brand has two main attributes…

intrinsicextrinsic

functional…designperformanceingredients/components

size/shapeprice

meaning…valuebrand imageimages of stores where soldperceptions of users of the brand

Also important…

What the product does… functional positioning

What the product means… emotional positioning

Yeshin, 2006

Advertising Manager decisions…

Two decisions the manager must make…

Two questions about the brand… what is it and what does it offer?

how should the brand be positioned within the category

whether the brand’s position in relation to other brands should be in terms of product users or the product itself

Percy and Elliott (2009)

Central or differential?

Central positioning…Delivers all the category benefits, Brand “owns” the category,

Best and most loved brand in category, Must already have a

large/majority market share

Differential positioning…

Delivers a specific category benefit better than the leading

brand, Different to the leading brand in an important way,

Different in a way sufficient consumers want, Occupies a

worthwhile niche or is a new entrant

https://www.youtube.com/user/tasteisking

User or product benefit

User-oriented position…

The user is the focus (“for the serious athlete”)

Underlying benefit is social approval (“for the discerning”)

User benefits drive the message (“because you’re worth it”)

Product-oriented position…

The product is the hero (“there’s no better”)

Product benefits drive the message (“the best a man can get”)

Selecting the appropriate benefit

Reflects the motivation that drives purchase behaviour

Important to the target audience

What distinguishes the brand from competitors in a way that is

important to the target audience

Must be…

Believable to the target audience

Deliverable by the brand better than the competition

They vary wildly…

It is “…so much more intimate than a laptop, and it’s so much

more capable than a smartphone with its gorgeous screen.”

For families concerned about safety, Volvo builds a vehicle

with state-of-the-art safety features that give you peace of

mind when driving

Designed to provide internal agreement and clarity for specific

value offered to specific markets against competition

Gospe, 2012

Other points for consideration…

Competitive environment

Target consumers

What makes the brand distinctive

Consumer benefits (tangible and intangible)

Why/how consumers see the brand as different to its competitors

Adapted from Percy and Elliott, 2009

Brand values and personality

Why consumers believe and trust

Link to advertising content…

L’Oreal - because you’re worth it

Tesco - every little helps

Lloyds - for the journey

Positioning then becomes a key component of the creative brief

Once this far in the strategy process, can brief the creatives to come

up with the advertising message/content

Positioning sometimes reflected in the advertising tag line…

BMW - the ultimate driving machine

References and reading

Burtenshaw, K., Mahon, N. and Barfoot, C. (2006). The Fundamentals of Creative Advertising. Switzerland: AVA Publishing.

Percy, L. and Elliott, R. (2009) Strategic Advertising Management. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Shimp, T. (2007) Integrated Marketing Communications in Advertising and Promotion. USA: Cengage.

Yeshin, T. (2006). Advertising. London, Thomson