advertising

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How to Advertise for Results

Agenda

• Principles of Integrated Marketing

• Positioning: Where It Starts

• Advertising: View from the Masters

• Case Studies

• Discussion

Principles of Integrated Marketing

“The key to successful marketing is determining the needs and wants of target customers and delivering the desired products more effectively and efficiently than competitors. Integrated marketing occurs when all of an organization’s departments work together to serve the customer’s interests.”

Philip Kotler on marketing

“The key to successful marketing is determining the needs and wants of target constituents and delivering the desired services more effectively and efficiently than competitors. Integrated marketing occurs when all of an organization’s departments work together to serve the constituent’s interests.”

Philip Kotler on marketing

Institutional marketing: the old model• Highly decentralized

communications profile

• Organized by unit or function

• Goals, objectives, content established within unit

• Lack of cohering structure or process

• Winning the battle, losing the brand

Integrated marketing

• Strategic

• Data-driven

• Markets-based

• Focus on quality of constituent experience

• Guided by comprehensive plan

• Cooperation and participation by all operating units

Research

• Perception and reality

• Fact, not folklore

• Qualitative: depth, nuance, tone, language

• Quantitative: benchmark, tracking, statistically reliable

• The power of data

Elements of successful program

• What’s real

• Solid research base

• Intensely collaborative

• Sustained effort

Integrated marketing

“Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.”

John Kenneth Galbraith on change

Positioning: Where It Starts

Positioning

• The confluence of three forces Institutional capability and vision

Constituent perceptions

Competitive mix

• Appropriate, distinct, valued “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Positioning: reinforcing the advantage• Volvo: Safety• Apple Different• Disney: Wholesome

• Harvard: Harvard• American Red Cross: Disaster• Mayo: Where to go

Positioning defined

• Denotes the space that the institution wants to occupy in the minds of stakeholders

• Sets the organization apart from competitors

• Is not optional: every organization has a position because the consumer/constituent has assigned it

Successful positioning

• Differentiating• Beneficial (to stakeholders)• Relevant• Aspirational• Believable• Sustainable• Consistent with quality of

experience

Advertising: View from the Masters

Advertising must…

• Have a specific purpose

• Appeal to target audience

• Reinforce positioning

• Connect the message and the medium

• Make a promise (implicit or explicit) that can be met

Rosser Reeves and the USP

• Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer (“buy this product and you will get this specific benefit”)

• The proposition must be one that the competition can not or does not offer.

• The proposition must be so strong that it moves the product.

Ted Levitt and differentiation

“Differentiation is one of the most important strategic and tactical activities in which companies must constantly engage. It is not discretionary…There is no reason to get stuck in the commodity trap, forever confined to competing on price alone. Historically, companies that have taken and stayed resolutely on the commodity path…have become extinct.”

Sergio Zyman and image

“It all starts with a strategy. You have to have a strategy about how you are going to dominate the market, and then you have to make sure that you create an image that helps you do it…The image is really the composite totality of everything that consumers know or think that they know about your company and your product.”

Howard Gossage on basic principles“Nobody reads advertising. People

read what interests them; and sometimes it’s an ad.”

“Advertising is not a right, it’s a privilege. Our first responsibility is not to the product but to the public.”

“I don’t know how to speak to everybody, only to somebody.”

Jon Steel on key questions

“Why are we advertising at all?

“What is the advertising trying to achieve?

“Who are we talking to?”

“What do we know about them?”

“What’s the main idea we need to communicate?”

“What is the best way of planting that idea?”

“How do we know we’re right?”

Harry Beckwith on service marketing“The core of service marketing is

the service itself…If you cannot write a reasonably good ad for your service – an ad that makes an attractive promise to your prospect – your service needs fixing.”

Guy Kawasaki on fulfilling the promise“Get better reality.”

Leo Burnett on creativity

1. “There is an inherent drama in every product. Our No.1 job is to dig for it and capitalize on it.”

2. “When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.”

3. “Steep yourself in your subject, work like hell, and love, honor and obey your hunches.”

David Ogilvy on the process

“You don’t stand a tinker’s chance of producing successful advertising unless you start by doing your homework. I have always found this extremely tedious, but there is no substitute for it.”

David Ogilvy on “the big idea”

“Did it make me gasp when I first saw it?”

“Do I wish I had thought of it myself”

“Is it unique?”

“Does it fit the strategy to perfection?”

“Could it be used for 30 years?”

David Ogilvy on placement

“Repetition. Repetition. Repetition.”

Image Ad Case Study

Seton Hall University

Situation

• Image/reputation not consistent with quality

• Ambitious “repositioning” agenda

• Changing demographic in primary base

• Sesquicentennial

• Capital campaign

Key research findings

• Extremely loyal, appreciative alumni

• Major competitors: public universities

• Success in communicating self-identified attributes: Catholicity and technology

• Student choice driven by factors other than those emphasized

• Stronger reputation = increased goal

Response: integrated program

• Influencers: advertising, events• Prospective students: revised

publications, financial aid leveraging

• Alumni: greater investment in alumni activities, web outreach

• Donors/prospects: strategies and materials keyed to positioning

• Faculty/staff: on-campus programs

Positioning

“Seton Hall University is a community where leaders learn…

…to set – and achieve – high standards in their professional, civic, and personal lives.

…to believe in themselves and their God-given capacity to make a difference in the lives of others.

…to build and maintain relationships with people from all walks of life and around the world.”

Service/Product Ad Case Study

Chicago Historical Society

Situation

• Increased competition for mindshare and membership

• Gradual decline in visitors

• Ambitious facility master plan

• Increasing web presence

• Bifurcated audience: from schoolkids to serious researchers

Key research findings

• Pride that CHS exists

• Perception as “second tier” cultural institution

• “History” itself dates, irrelevant, scary

• Solo visits

• Been there, done that

Response: integrated program

• Increased investments in media relations, advertising

• Bold moves

• Reconsideration of visitor experience

• Refocusing of capital campaign

• Emphasis on relevance of history

Positioning

Chicago Historical Society

Sharing the American Story

Image/Product Ad

Rush-Presbyterian-

St. Luke’s Medical Center

Situation

• Heightened competition for visibility among healthcare providers

• Awareness of research and care achievements low

• PR and advertising efforts fragmented

• Upcoming capital campaign

Key research findings

• Rush’s multi-faceted nature misunderstood: many believe RUSH is a medical school only

• Area residents unaware of many RUSH research breakthroughs

• Feasibility study showed lack of readiness for a capital campaign

Response: integrated program

• Bold advertising campaign• 50 weekly ads in Tribune and Sun-

Times• Vivid photography and substantive

text focused on real results, real stories

• Demonstrate breadth/depth in research and patient care

• Radio spots and direct mail reinforce message

Positioning

Rush-Presbyterian St.Luke’s Medical Center

“It’s Happening at Rush”