10 - Creative Message Strategy

Question 1

10 Message Strategy Objectives and Methods

Answer 1

1. Promote Brand Recall
2. Link Key Attributes to the Brand Name (USP)
3. Persuade the Consumer
4. Affective Association
5. Action via Fear
6. Action via Anxiety
7. Define the Brand Image
8. Define the Brand’s Social Meaning
9. Connect to Social Disruption & Cultural Movement
10. Transform Consumption Experiences

Question 2

How to achieve brand recall?

Answer 2

1. Repetition
   • buy lots of ads and repeat the brand name
   • brand name becomes more cognitively accessible
2. Slogans and Jingles
3. Point-of-purchase Branding - Displays used in stores to provide a memory trigger

Question 3

Slogan definition

Answer 3

Linguistic device that links a brand name to something memorable by means of the slogan’s simplicity, meter, rhyme, or some other factor.

Question 4

Jingle definition

Answer 4

Same as slogan - linking brand name to something memorable - just set to a melody

Question 5

Strategic implications of repetition, slogans, and jingles

Answer 5

♠ Extremely resistant to forgetting
♠ Efficient for consumer
♠ Long-term commitment/expense
♠ Competitive interference
♠ Creative resistance

Question 6

Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Answer 6

A type of an ad that strongly emphasizes a supposedly unique quality (or qualities) of the advertised brand.

Question 7

Strategic implications of the USP method

Answer 7

♠ Big carryover
♠ Very resistant
♠ Long-term commitment and expense
♠ Some creative resistance

Question 8

Strategic implications of Reason-Why Ads

Answer 8

♠ Permission to buy
♠ Socially acceptable defence
♠ High level of involvement
♠ Potential for counterarguments
♠ Legal/regulatory challenges/exposure
♠ Some creative resistance

Question 9

Strategic Implications of Hard-Sell Approaches

Answer 9

♠ Permission to buy now
♠ Socially acceptable defence
♠ Low credibility
♠ Legal/regulatory challenges/exposure
♠ Some creative resistance

Question 10

Methods to persuade the consumer

Answer 10

♠ Reason-Why ads
♠ Hard-Sell Ads
♠ Comparison Ads
♠ Testimonials
♠ Demonstration
♠ Infomercials

Question 11

Strategic Implications of Comparison Ads

Answer 11

♠ Can help low-share brand
♠ Not for established market leaders
… p. 204

Question 12

Strategic Implications of Testimonial Advertising

Answer 12

♠ Popular people can generate popularity for the brand
♠ Can generate more popularity for the star than for the brand
… p.205

Question 13

Strategic Implications of Demonstration Ads

Answer 13

♠ Inherent credibility of “seeing is believing”

… p.205

Question 14

Strategic Implications of Infomercials

Answer 14

♠ Long format gives advertisers plenty of time to make their case
♠ Has the advantage of looking like an entertainment show, when it’s really an ad

Question 15

Methods for affective association

Answer 15

♠ Feel-Good ads
♠ Humor Ads
♠ Sex-Appeal Ads

Question 16

Strategic implications of feel-good ads

Answer 16

♠ Eager creatives
♠ May perform better in cluttered media environment
♠ May generate competing thoughts and connections

Question 17

Strategic Implications of Humor Ads

Answer 17

♠ Humor can be very effective but can also end up being expensive entertainment.
♠ Humor can actually interfare with memory processes

Question 18

Strategic implications of Sexual-Appeal Advertising

Answer 18

♠ Higher attention levels
♠ Higher arousal and affect (feeling)
♠ Possible poor memorability of brand due to interference at the time of exposure

Question 19

Methods for scaring the consumer into action

Answer 19

♠ Fear-Appeal Ads

Question 20

Methods for changing behaviour by inducing anxiety

Answer 20

♠ Anxiety Ads

♠ Social Anxiety Ads

Question 21

Methods for defining the brand image

Answer 21

♠ Image ads

Question 22

Methods for giving the brand the desired social meaning

Answer 22

♠ Slice-of-Life Ads - depicts the ideal usage situation of the brand(p.212)
♠ Branded entertainment: product placement

Question 23

Methods for leveraging social disruptions and cultural contradictions

Answer 23

♠ Tie brand to social/cultural movement - Find a social movement and suggest that your brand
“gets it”

Question 24

Methods for transforming consumption experiences

Answer 24

♠ Transformational ads - try to connect the brand with positive memories of the consumer; includes trying to help share (and even create) these memories

Question 25

Strategic implications of Fear-Appeal Ads

Answer 25

♠ Boomerang effect - he unintended consequences of an attempt to persuade resulting in the adoption of an opposing position instead.

Question 26

When you see an ad, ask:

Answer 26

what is that ad trying to do, and how is it trying to accomplish that goal?

Question 27

Promote Brand Recall when and why use

Answer 27

‣ Especially appropriate with parity products & low
involvement
‣ If people think a brand is a leading brand, it can
become a leading brand

Question 28

Image ads (their importance and what they do)

Answer 28

Their importance:
• efficient; cuts through ad clutter 
• once established, they differentiate 
• they communicate across cultures
What they do?
• seek to convey the brand’s core meaning in an efficient
visual manner
• heavy reliance on imagery 
• sparse use of words 
• can communicate an attribute and/or evoke feeling