1.  Advertising & Media  Unit 3 – Analyzing the customer

2.  Advertisers (and marketers in general) identify likely consumers for their products  Create wants  Consumers can be grouped by  Culture  Social Class  Community  Family  Gender  Differences in consumption between genders are not well defined

3.  Positioning is the process of making an advertiser’s product different from other products in the consumer’s mind  Figuring out how to convince a consumer to choose one product over a similar product offered by a competitor

4.  Providing consumers with reasons to purchase specific products  Substance: something must “back up” the strategy or claim in order for a positioning strategy to remain effective over time  Consistency: internally, across media and overtime  Simple, Distinctive Theme: Let the consumer understand what the product will do for them

5.  Themes create a focus for the advertising campaign  Physical positioning strategies emphasize the objective physical characteristics of the product  Perceptual positioning strategies emphasize emotional or subjective opinions about the product

6. The following basic themes can use physical or perceptual strategies with these basic themes:  Benefit Positioning – focusing on a specific benefit derived from the choice of that product  User Positioning – focus on the consumer. How will the product fit into their lifestyle  Competitive Positioning – emphasizing the difference between your product and similar products

7.  Starting over due to:  Loss of effectiveness over time  Change in the market  New entrant  Change in technology  Change in consumer taste  Unexpected events

8.  Research is conducted in the planning, preparation and placement of advertisements  Can happen multiple time at different points in the process of creating an advertisement:  Selecting the target market  Understanding the target segment  Evaluate an advertisement’s effectiveness  Evaluate the advertisement’s remaining effectiveness before it is withdrawn from the media

9. Help in creating the advertisement  Idea Generation – talk directly to consumers to find out why they might want to buy the product  Environmental Analysis – evaluate the potential influence of your environment (social & cultural trends, economics and politics) on purchasing decisions

10.  Audience Definition – Get to know your target market  Audience Profiling – Lifestyle research, surveys, and in-depth interviews to get a more complete picture of the individual consumer

11.  Provide Knowledge – recall and recognition tests will tell advertisers how much the audience remembers  Shape Attitude – does the advertisement change one’s opinion about one of the factors?  Attach Emotions – emotional impact can increase recall  Validate a Brand – does the advertisement resonate or feel true to the consumer

12.  A focus group consists of groups of six to twelve consumers  Used to obtain in depth information  Represents a small sample of the target market  Must be led by an experienced moderator to:  Remain on track  Avoid being dominated by one member

13. Testing an advertisement before it is released to the media  Communication tests – test the message the audience receives against the message the advertiser wants to send  Magazine Dummies – a mock-up magazine with the advertisement is sent to test market at their home. Test subjects answer questions about the content and the ads to gauge recall and feelings about the ad

14.  Theater Tests – Advertisements can be viewed in small theaters (usually near malls).  Thought Listings – After viewing an advertisement, small groups write down the thoughts they had during the advertisement

15.  Releasing the advertisement to a small potion of the target segment before it is fully released