1. Effective and Creative Advertising Messages
CHAPTER 8
Effective and Creative Advertising Messages
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2. Chapter Objectives After reading this chapter you should be able to:
Appreciate the factors that promote effective, creative, and “sticky” advertising.
Describe the features of a creative brief.
Explain alternative creative styles of advertising messages.
Understand the concept of means-end chains and their role in advertising strategy.
Appreciate the MECCAS model and its role in guiding message formulation.
Recognize the role of corporate image and issue advertising.
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8–2

3. Creating Effective Advertising
Accomplishment
(Output Perspective)
Composition (Input Perspective)
Meaning of Effective Advertising
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4. Effective Advertising
Takes the Consumer’s View
Extends from Sound Marketing Strategy
Doesn’t Overwhelm the Strategy
Delivers on Its Promises
Breaks through the Clutter
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5. Creativity: The CAN Elements
Connectedness
Appropriateness
Novelty
The CAN Elements of Creative Ads
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8. Getting Messages to “Stick”
Characteristics of Sticky Ads
Their audience readily comprehends the advertiser’s intended message
They are remembered
They change the target audience’s brand-related opinions or behavior
They have lasting impact: they stick
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9. Sticky Messages: SUCCESs
Common Elements of Sticky Ads
Unexpectedness
Simplicity
Concreteness
Storytelling
Emotionality
Credibility
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10. Illustrations of the Aflac Advertising Campaign with the “Spokesduck.”
Figure 8.1
Illustrations of the Aflac Advertising Campaign with the “Spokesduck.”
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11. Advertising Successes and Mistakes
Value Proposition
Is the essence of a message and the reward to the consumer for investing his or her time attending to an advertisement
The reward could be information about the product or just an enjoyable experience
Research indicates that starting with a strong selling proposition substantially increases the odds of creating effective advertisements
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12. Combination of Message Convincingness and Execution Quality
Figure 8.2
Combination of Message Convincingness and Execution Quality
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13. Advertising Successes and Mistakes (cont’d)
Successful Campaigns
Result from both the brand management team and the creative team having done their work well
Marketing Mistakes
Occur when the brand manager fails to distinguish the brand from competitive offerings
Agency Mistakes
Result from the ad agency’s inability to design an effective execution, even though its brand management client has a convincing message
Complete Disasters
Are caused by poor value propositions and mediocre executions
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14. Constructing a Creative Brief
Item
Question
Background
What is the background to this job?
Target Audience
Whom do we need to reach with the ad campaign?
Thoughts and Feelings
What do members of the target audience currently think and feel about our brand?
Objectives and Measures
What do we want the target audience to think or feel about the brand, and what measurable effects is the advertising designed to accomplish?
Behavioral Outcome
What do we want the target audience to do?
Positioning
What is the brand positioning?
Message and Medium
What general message is to be created, and what medium is most appropriate for reaching the target audience?
Strategy
What is the strategy?
Nitty-Gritty Details
When (deadline) and how much (budget)?
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15. Alternative Styles of Creative Advertising
Functionally Oriented Advertising
Appeals to consumers’ needs for tangible, physical, and concrete benefits
Symbolically or Experientially Oriented Advertising
Is directed at psychosocial needs
Category-Dominance Advertising
Does not necessarily use any particular type of appeal to consumers but is designed to achieve an advantage over competitors in the same product category
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16. Styles of Creative Advertising
Table 8.1
Styles of Creative Advertising
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18. Creative Advertising Styles
Creative Style
Strategy
Unique Selling Proposition
Identifying an important difference that makes a brand unique and supports a claim that competitors cannot match
Brand Image
Developing an image or identity for a brand by associating the brand with symbols that provide a transformational context
Resonance
Attempting to match “patterns” in an advertisement with the target audience’s stored experiences
Emotional
Aiming to reach the consumer at a visceral level through the use of emotional strategy
Generic
Making no attempt to differentiate the dominant brand from competitive offerings or to claim superiority
Preemptive
Making a generic-type claim but doing so with an assertion of
superiority
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19. Brand image creative style
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20. Resonance creative style
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23. Section Summary
An advertiser might use two or more styles simultaneously.
Some experts believe that advertising is most effective when it addresses both functional product and symbolic benefits.
Effective advertising must establish a clear meaning of what the brand is and how it compares to competitive offerings.
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24. Means-End Chaining and the Method of Laddering as Guides to Creative Advertising Formulation
Represents the linkages among brand attributes, the consequences obtained from using the brand and “consuming” the attributes, and the personal values that the consequences reinforce
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25. Means-End Chain Attributes Consequences Values
Features or aspects of advertised brands
Consequences
What consumers hope to receive (benefits) or avoid (detriments) when consuming brands
Values
Enduring beliefs people hold regarding what is important in life
Brand attributes and the consequences of consuming these attributes are the means whereby people achieve valued ends
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26. Ten Universal Values Table 8.2
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27. A MECCAS* Model Conceptualization of Advertising Strategy
Table 8.3
A MECCAS* Model Conceptualization of Advertising Strategy
* Means-End Conceptualization of Components for Advertising Strategy
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28. MECCAS Illustration for Self-Direction Value
Figure 8.5
MECCAS Illustration for Self-Direction Value
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29. MECCAS Illustration for Hedonism Value
Figure 8.6
MECCAS Illustration for Hedonism Value
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30. MECCAS Illustration for Achievement Value
Figure 8.7
MECCAS Illustration for Achievement Value
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31. MECCAS Illustration for Power Value
Figure 8.8
MECCAS Illustration for Power Value
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32. Identifying Means-End Chains: The Method of Laddering
Laddering Research Technique
Is used to identify linkages between attributes (A), consequences (C), and values (V)
Constructs a hierarchy, or ladder, of relations between a brand’s attributes and consequences (the means) and consumer values (the end).
Attempts to get at the root or deep reasons why individual consumers buy certain products and brands
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33. Practical Issues in Identifying Means-End Chains
The laddering method “forces” interviewees to identify hierarchies among attributes, consequences, and values that may actually not exist for them
Consumers may perceive clear-cut linkages between attributes and consequences but not necessarily between consequences and values
The resulting aggregations of A  C  V chains are assumed to represent all consumers in the target audience
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34. Corporate Image and Issue Advertising
Corporate Image Advertising
Attempting to increase a firm’s name recognition, establish goodwill for the company and its products, or identify the firm with some meaningful and socially acceptable activity.
Corporate Issue (Advocacy) Advertising
Involves a firm taking a position on a controversial social issue of public importance with the intention of swaying public opinion.
Supports position and best interests of the firm while expressly or implicitly challenging an opponent’s position and denying the accuracy of their facts.
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35. Illustration of Corporate Image Advertisement
Figure 8.9
Illustration of Corporate Image Advertisement
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