How To Advertise: An Analysis of Contemporary Advertising (part 30)

Creative Strategy and the Creative Process 

(part A)

by

Charles Lamson

Formulating Advertising Strategy: The Key to Great Creative

Let's look at the advertising (or creative) strategy Vitro and Robertson developed for Taylor Guitar. Then we will see how they translated that into a message strategy and a big idea, and, finally, into effective ads.

Advertising strategy consists of four elements: the target audience, the product concept, the communications media, and the advertising message.

What is Taylor Guitar's target audience? Taylor's target audience comprises consumers, and centers of influence. Resellers (or retailers) are Taylor's primary market---that is who the company sells to. So Taylor definitely wants them to see its advertising. Because Taylor guitars are handcrafted from the highest quality of materials, they command premium prices. Therefore, the primary target audience also includes a segment of the retailer's customers---serious musical enthusiasts who play acoustic guitars and are willing to spend $2,000 to $5,000 for a superior instrument. Professional guitarists typically circumvent the normal distribution channels, so there was no reason to include them in the target market. However, they may act as centers of influence (or key influentials), in which case they would be a secondary target audience for the advertising.

What is Taylor Guitar's product concept? Taylor's acoustic guitars are top-quality, handcrafted musical instruments made from the finest woods available. They are designed and constructed differently from other guitars, which gives them a unique, distinguishable sound quality---a certain ring in the tone---that customers like. In other words, there is something special about a Taylor guitar that makes it worth more.

What  communications media does Taylor use? The company has a small budget and uses limited media. It advertises in special-interest consumer magazines targeted to well-defined segments of the guitar enthusiast market. The magazines offer high-quality reproduction and color and are read by members of the trade as well as professional musicians. The company also produces high-quality brochures and price lists that detail the instruments' features and construction.

What is Taylor Guitar's advertising message? In its simplest terms, message strategy is determined by what a company wants to say and how it wants to say it. Although Taylor was well-known in the trade for ts quality guitars, the word was not filtering down to the larger guitar-buying public. The goal (or message objective) was to get prospective customers to ask for the Taylor name when they shopped for a guitar. To accomplish this, the ads had to exude an aura of quality. So the agency creative team chose a message strategy that was simple yet thoughtful, entertaining, credible, and most of all, distinctive.

The agency and client team must understand and agree to these four elements of the advertising strategy---target, product, media, and message---before any creative work begins. In most agencies, the account management group is responsible for developing the advertising strategy. In some large agencies, account planners spend a great deal of time researching the market. Then they compare the advertising strategy with input from, and the approval of, account management. When the strategy-development task is completed, the account people prepare a creative brief to communicate the strategy to the creative department.

Writing the Creative Brief

With the overall advertising objectives and strategy determined, the account managers (or often, account planners) write a brief statement of the intended advertising strategy. The creative brief serves as the creative team's guide for writing and producing the ad. In some agencies, it may be referred to as a copy platform, a work plan, or a copy (or creative) strategy document. Regardless of the name, it is a simple written statement of the most important issues to consider in the development of the ad or campaign: the who, why, what, where, and when.

• Who? Who is the prospect in terms of behavioristic, geographic, demographic, and/or psychographic qualities? What is the typical prospect's personality?
• Why? Does the consumer have specific wants or needs the ad should appeal to? Advertisers use two broad categories of appeals. Rational appeals are directed at consumer's practical, functional need for the product or service; emotional appeals target the consumer's psychological, social, or symbolic needs.
• What? Does the product have special features to satisfy the consumer's needs? What factors support the product claim? How is the product positioned? What personality or image (of the product or the company) can be or has been created? What percieved strengths or weaknesses need to be dealt with?
• Where and when will these messages be communicated? Through what medium? What time of year? What area of the country?
• Finally, what style, approach, or tone will the campaign use? And generally, what will the copy say?

The creative brief identifies the benefits to be presented to consumers, but it does not cover execution. How the benefits will be presented is the creative team's job.

Procter & Gamble and Leo Burnett use a simple creative brief with three parts.

1. An objective statement. A specific, concise description of what the advertising is supposed to accomplish or what problem it is supposed to solve. The objective statement also includes the name of a brand and a brief, specific description of the target consumer. For example: Advertising will convince serious guitar players that the Taylor guitar is a distinctive, high-value instrument and persuade them to consider it the next time they are in the market for an acoustic guitar.
2. A support statement. A brief description of the evidence that backs up the product promise; the reason for the benefit. For example: Support is that Taylor guitars are hand crafted from the finest woods available, which gives the instrument a distinctive, sweet sound.
3.  A tone or brand character statement. A brief statement of either the advertising's tone or the long-term character of the brand. Tone statements are short-term emotional descriptions of the advertising strategy. Brand character statements are long-term descriptions of the enduring values of the brand---things that give the product brand equity. A tone statement might be phrased: The tone of Taylor Guitar advertising should convey beauty, quality, sophistication, and value, with just a touch of good-natured humor. On the other hand, a brand character statement might be phrased: Taylor Guitars---handcrafted from the finest materials to give the sweetest sound.

The delivery of the creative brief to the creative department concludes the process of developing an advertising strategy. It also marks the beginning of the next step: the advertising creative process, in which the creative team develops a message strategy and begins the search for the big idea. After writing the first ad, the copywriter should review the copy platform to see if the ad measures up on the resonance and relevance dimensions. If it does not, the team must start again.

Elements of Message Strategy

The creative team is responsible for developing creative ideas for ads, commercials and campaigns and for executing them. From the information given by the account team (in the creative brief) and any additional research it may perform, the creative team develops the message strategy. This may actually occur before, during, or after the creative process of searching for the big idea.

The message strategy (or rationale) is a sample description and explanation of an ad campaign's overall creative approach---what the advertising says, how it says it, and why. The message strategy has three components:

• Verbal. Guidelines for what the advertising should say; considerations that affect the choice of words; and the relationship of the copy approach to the medium (or media) that will carry the message.
• Nonverbal. Overall nature of the ad's graphics; any visuals that must be used; and the relationship of the graphics to the media in which the ad will appear.
• Technical. Preferred execution approach and mechanical outcome, including budget and scheduling limitations (often governed by the media involved); also any mandatories---specific requirements for every ad, such as addresses, logos, addresses and slogans.

Because all these elements of the message strategy intertwine, they typically evolve simultaneously. Language affects symmetry, and vice versa. However, the verbal elements are the starting point for many advertising campaigns.

The message strategy helps the creative team sell the ad or the campaign concept to the account managers and helps the managers explain and defend the creative work to the client. Of course, the message strategy must conform to the advertising strategy outlined in the creative brief or it will probably be rejected.

In the development of message strategy, certain basic questions need to be answered: How is the market segmented? How will the product be positioned? Who are the best prospects for the product? Is the target audience different from the target market? What is the key consumer benefit? What is the product's (or company's) current image? What is the product's unique advantage? At this point, research data are important. Research helps the creative team answer these questions.

*SOURCE: CONTEMPORARY ADVERTISING 11TH ED., 2008, WILLIAM F. ARENS, MICHAEL F. WEIGOLD, CHRISTIAN ARENS, PGS. 373-377*

END