Basic Principles of Advertising According to Academics - Research Paper Example

A typical day for me begins by waking up from my advertised bed; brushing my teeth using my advertised toothbrush and toothpaste; taking a bath underan advertised shower; dressing up with my advertised clothes; and eating my advertised cereals and milk for breakfast. This scene is not uncommon for everyone, who, like me, lives and breathes with the products of advertisements – good advertisement for that matter. Having been a promotional model, promoting various products for many different companies already, and sales manager, setting up sales directed by vendors and top store management, I know how essential coming up of an effective advertisement is in making or breaking a company. For me, advertising transcends from being mere “form of nonpersonal communication about an organization, product, service, or idea by an identified sponsor” (Belch and Belch, 2001). It is a product of well-defined objectives and strategies to, as Wells, et. al. put it, impact on the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the consumers (2007). And because the audience for traditional media has already been declining (Hackley, 2010), carefully studying how products, thru advertising, are to be sent to its intended audience is of great importance. It is to this regard why following the basic principles or stages of advertising are the most effective way to come up with a good advertisement. These stages are research, planning, creative development, and production. An advertisement always has to start with a Research, without it, all the remaining stages will falter. This stage, according to Altstiel and Grow (2006) is where one seeks to answer several Journalism questions, such as “who, what, and why”. Additionally, as stated by the same authors, research should include the following tasks: Defining the target audience, identifying features and benefits, clarifying the current positions, and aligning the wants and needs for the product. Defining the target market has to answer the question, “who are we talking to?”. Those who are coming up with an ad campaign should find out who are buying the product now and why they buy it, and those who are not buying it and why not? Advertisers spend a significant amount of money and human resources to know their market and keep them satisfied with their products and/or services. This process of identifying groups of people sharing common needs or characteristics is called market segmentation (Arens, 2002). Identifying the features and benefits of the product answers the things that make it better than its competition. My experience as a promotional model should tell me why it is important to know the product inside-out, otherwise, I would end up promoting the product ‘generically’ – nothing special, nothing unique. It is also important to clarify the current position of the product in the research; that is, finding out what the people think about the product (is their impression of the product good or bad?). Knowing the people’s general perception or impression of the product will help you decide whether you only need to reinforce their opinion or if you would need to change it. Finally, aligning the wants and needs for the product require seeking to answer why the people should buy the product. Here, advertisers should include in their research what benefits can the consumers get from the product; say, if the product contains this and that, so what? The research stage therefore does not just focus on getting to know the market or consumers; it is also about getting to know the product more. Assembling these facts gathered in the research, will make you proceed to the next stage which is Planning. The planning stage in advertising delves around the question, “what shall we do with the information at hand?” Putting it all together, the plan should begin with an objective or a set of objectives. Sure, the general goal of advertisements is drawing the people’s attention to goods and/or services, but what is it exactly that you would want to tell them? Would you like to introduce a new line of cosmetics or would want to reinforce the audience’s knowledge about a certain brand? Being a retail manager, I realized how important it is to be very specific with your objectives, that is why I always make sure to ask the top store management I work for what they would want to happen other than increasing their sales. The objective/s will serve as your guide all throughout the planning stage. Determining exactly what you’d want to do or happen with the product will significantly help you in coming up with possible strategies, which is part of the Creative Development stage. The creative development stage encompass the creative process in coming up with the advertisement. Altstiel and Grow also calls this stage as ideation as it involves concepting or developing big ideas (2006). Strategizing, as mentioned above, takes place as soon as the objective/s has already been set. The possible things to do to get the consumers’ attentions is being thought about or discussed here. Will you use lots of colorful pictures or will you put the product side-by-side its competition? Will you use animals or cartoons, or will you be using celebrities to endorse the product? My experience in the retail industry made me realize how important it is to “marry” the strategies with your objectives. A good strategy is not good at all unless it directly answers to the objective/s set. There are several approaches to the creative development. These include showing the product, showing its benefits, showing consequences or alternatives, and comparison (Altstiel and Grow, 2006). Showing the product basically aims simply to establish or reinforce the identity of the brand. It may sound boring but many of the most innovative ads merely showcase the logo of the product (e.g. Nike, FedEx, McDonalds, etc.). Many times in my experience as promotional model did this simplest approach prove to be effective in catching the audience’s attention? Showing the product’s benefits on the other hand presents, in a straightforward manner, the things that will happen to your consumer when they use the product. It can be direct as putting those benefits in words, or implied using photos or scenarios (e.g. showing people having fun drinking a can or bottle of soft drink). Another creative approach to coming up with an ad is by showing the alternative. Compared to the first two products, this approach is a bit more fun to do as this shows (in direct or subtle way) what happens to the consumer when they do not use the product, or if they use that of the competition. This may be a bit unethical to do when you are working in the retail business like me, but when the need arises, it somehow just boils down to how the message is presented. Comparison is quite related to this approach where one compares the product advertised to other products (mostly its competition) or offers a metaphor to the product, such as being a “life-saver”, a “best friend”, or an “answered prayer”. The creative development stage is therefore a product of thorough brainstorming and deliberation. It also involves a lot of theorizing, because as Hackley puts it: “Theorizing enables us to integrate different perspectives and make implicit assumptions in planning explicit” (2002). It is here where one answers “what to say” about a product, and “how to say” it. Now it’s time to put the result of your research, planning, and conceptualizing into a tangible material through the Production stage. Weaving everything that has happened in the first three stages, production involves the creation of the ad itself. It is here where, “advertising messages are encoded into words, pictures, sounds, colours, etc. and transmitted through the medium of television, the internet, radio, print publication, etc.” (Hackley, 2010). The activities/tasks involved in the production stage vary from the medium the ad will be used for. Most productions though make use of a layout – the overall arrangement of all the elements the ad will use, such as the visuals, headline/tagline, slogan, logo, seal, and signature among others (Arens, 2008). For print advertising, visuals are important elements, so getting good illustrators and photographers is of utmost importance. Script on the other hand is the most important element when producing a radio advertisement. As William Arens put it, “Radio writing has to be clearer than any other kind of advertising” (2008) simply because, compared to print, audience cannot go back reading the thing that they missed, or compared to television, it does not have visuals. – And yes, because television has the advantage of being visual, Arens also expressed how utterly important the role of the art director is. With the addition of the web, the production stage of advertising shall also include getting someone, a designer for example, who has thorough understanding of the web to produce an effective online ad. As Hackley mainly credit the web for the decline of audience in the traditional media (2010), there has also been a shift of focus in the production from print, radio and television to the web. As a retail manager, I for one, have to also pay attention to the web, such as social networking sites, to reach our target market easily. Because coming up with an ad for the three traditional media is quite pricey, the Internet proves to be relatively cheaper, more convenient, and more personal in terms of reaching the audience. Coming up with a (good) advertisement does not happen in an instant. These four basic principles or stages just prove how carefully and intricately an ad is thought about to reach its target market. For us living in the world of advertised goods, it is important to understand the process or stages the ad has gone through to make us wiser and better consumers ourselves. References: Altstiel, Tom and Grow, Jean (2006). Advertising Strategy.USA: Sage Publications, Inc. Arens, William F. (2002). Contemporary Advertising, 8th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Arens, William F. (2008). Contemporary Advertising, 11th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Belch, George E. and Belch, Michael A. (2001). Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective, 5th Ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Hackley, Chris (2010). Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Approach, 2nd Ed. Sage Pubns Ltd. Wells , William D.; Spence-Stone, Ruth; Moriarty, Sandra; and Burnett, John. (2007). Advertising: Principles and Practice. (p.1). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education Australia. Read More