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
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
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