Building Advertising Programmes
Building Advertising Programmes
Setting advertising objectives is not only necessary for marketing success but
also for the day-to-day operations of a small business. Your immediate goal
will decide your advertising objective and the response to your advertisement
will be the metric to measure if your goal is reached.
What do you hope your advertising program will achieve? Are you attempting
to draw in new clients or are you hoping to entice returning ones? What kind
of consumer traffic growth are you seeking, and over what time frame? Each
goal is unique and requires a specific design.
2. Make a budget
Setting up a budget for your advertising strategy within your capacity is the
next important point to consider. How much money are you willing to spend
on your ad campaign? If you already have some ideas, how much will it cost
to put them into action?
Identifying the demographics who are most likely to purchase your goods or
service is helpful when you’re trying to increase sales. What group of people
do you want to appeal to? Do you serve wealthy elderly or young people who
scavenge cash from couch cushions?
It’s best if you can be as specific as possible. If you are a fast food chain,
you’ll need to feature fast food in your advertising, rather than doing like a
general eatery that has no specialty. Are you introducing a new product that
you want to highlight in your ad, or do you want to spread the news of
slashing the price of an existing product? What do you want to emphasize?
You should emphasize how your company differs from the competitors in
your ad campaign. Use your SWOT analysis to identify why your product is
better than the competition. It could be a lower price or superior quality, or
something else. Utilize such differentiators in your advertising strategy.
What, when, and where are the three questions that need to be addressed?
What kind of advertisements will you be running? When will you start using
them? Where will they eventually show up? Are you planning to use display
advertisements on the web, Instagram ads, or Google ads? It all comes down
to an effective marketing plan!
The most effective kind of advertising is word of mouth, and few things can
create word of mouth as effectively as a well-run social media campaign.
What kind of social media marketing initiatives may your company run? Could
you sponsor a nearby occasion or organize a competition of some kind? Make
a list of inexpensive steps your company could take to assist your advertising
strategy.
So you’ve determined your target audience, preferred platform, budget, and all
other pertinent information. It’s now time to start writing great ad copy.
Do you want people to visit your store or your website? Is your immediate goal
to drive free software signups or ebook downloads? Consider the content and
how it can contribute to the end goal(s) of your ad campaign.
(a) To Inform:
(b) To Persuade:
Persuasive advertising aims to create liking, preference, conviction, and
purchase of a product or service. Some persuasive advertising uses
comparative advertising, which makes a clear comparison of the attributes of
two or more brands. E.g. encourage customers to switch to a different brand.
(c) To Remind:
a. Meaningful:
b. Distinctive:
c. Believable:
A difficult task, since research suggests most consumers doubt the truth of
advertising in general.
The term copy includes every single feature that appear in the body of
advertisement, copy – is an all-embracing term covering all that appears in an
advertisement the written matter, pictures, labels and design. Developing copy
is a creative process copy development is mostly done by professional
advertising agencies.
(a) Reach:
(b) Frequency:
How many times will the target customer be exposed to the advertising
message? Frequency is the number of times within the specified time period
that an average person or household is exposed to the message.
2. The Sales Effects—has the campaign generated the intended sales growth.
This second area is much more difficult to measure.
(iii) Test customer awareness both before and after the advertising campaign
Advertising Appeals
Advertising appeals are different techniques and strategies that are used to
attract customers. Usually, advertising appeals provide evidence or provoke
an emotional response that helps to convince the target audience to buy a
certain product or service. Marketing experts group them into different
categories but the most common appeals are emotions, logic, and popularity.
What distinguishes good advertising from bad advertising is not the quality of
photos, design, or copy alone. All of these elements are supposed to enhance
the core message and the concept behind your ad. However, the primary goal
of advertising is to connect with your audience.
Use one of the common advertising appeals. Give people what they long for,
make them smile, laugh, or cry.
Every consumer and every brand is different but, ultimately, business owners
want to increase their sales and popularity while consumers want to satisfy
their needs. Understanding these needs – the ways to fulfill them and appeal
to them – is essential.
Appeal to emotion
Personal appeal
Social appeal
Appeal to popularity
Appeal to authority
Appeal to logic
Appeal to humor
Appeal to fear
Sex appeal
Appeal to Emotion
Although people like to perceive themselves as rational beings, their reality is
mainly shaped by social interactions, emotions, customs, and culture.
We want to satisfy our personal needs and achieve our personal goals but, at
the same time, we must also take care of various roles imposed on us by
society. The general trend is that people want to constantly improve the
quality of their life and prevent bad things from happening. All of these
desires and fears can be used in your advertising materials and
communication strategy. Appeal to emotion to win your customers over and
persuade them to buy.
Personal Appeal
By addressing the most private psychological needs we can make a powerful
connection with our customers. Personal appeals frequently used in
advertising include feelings and emotions such as love, friendship, happiness,
or security.
This sphere is, by definition, intimate so it’s important to be careful – you can
either strike a chord or a false note. Let’s take a look at an email ad by Casper.
Company: Casper
Cons: May not be very appealing to the ones who are not in a relationship
A picture of a couple spooning in bed is nothing out of the ordinary. Quite the
opposite – the situation is very relatable and instantly brings to mind a sense
of comfort, security, and emotional attachment. This mattress email ad is
appealing because it depicts an intimate situation without being blunt.
Company: Google
Cons: May not be appealing to people without kids or people from broken (or
abusive) homes
Using family-themed iconography in your ads can instantly connect you with
your customers – in point of fact, it is a blend between personal appeal and
social appeal. Families are both basic building blocks of society and groups of
people bonded by emotional relationships and mutual responsibilities. They
are the largest consumer group that can be addressed with a single image or
situation such as a family dinner, picnic, or a bike ride.
Social Appeal
Social needs are linked with our public image and the ways we interact with
others. While personal appeal tries to address individual and intimate needs,
social appeal focuses on somebody’s position within particular social groups
and society as a whole. Social appeals used in advertising connect with
customers by using motives such as status, fame, recognition, or respect.
f you want to get closer to your customers or audience, try using live chat
software on your website. It’s one of the easiest and fastest way to
understand who your clients are and what are their needs. Try a free tool
like Tidio (it gives you unlimited messages and a powerful visitor tracking
panel).
Company: Uber
Cons: It won’t appeal to people who are not open towards different cultures,
nationalities, and races
Company: YouTube
Cons: It won’t appeal to people who are not sociable and are afraid of sharing
The previous social appeal example was concerned with ethnic identity and
security. Here we can observe an approach which grabs the attention of the
email recipients by acknowledging their creative efforts and by providing
means to satisfy their need of connecting with their audience.
Appeal to Popularity
The easiest way to convince somebody to buy a product or service is to prove
that everyone else has done it already. Once something becomes a widely
recognized phenomenon or a trend, it becomes obvious that it has to have
some merits – otherwise it wouldn’t be so popular. Right?
For instance, Tidio’s WordPress chat plugin is one of the most popular WP live
chat tools available. It has more than 60,000+ active WordPress installations
and 200,000+ installations on websites that are not powered by WordPress.
This is a kind of social proof based on popularity that can be used as a
marketing appeal.
Company: Unsplash
Pros: The recipients can feel that they are part of a community and that the
website is becoming more and more popular
Cons: It won’t appeal to people who sneer at herd mentality and who believe
that your newly discovered favorite band was far better three albums ago
when nobody heard of them
Not only does this email appeal to customers’ need for recognition but also it
reassures them that they’ve made the right choice. The popularity of this
website serves as a testimony to its high quality and ability to create a
“passionate and creative” user base.
When it comes to popularity, you can either use the collective endorsement of
your customers or get a celebrity. The end result is very similar. Things
become acknowledged and noticed when they are backed up by a famous
person or thousands of not-so-famous persons.
Company: Masterclass
Pros: The celebrity is involved in the most natural way possible (as a tutor)
and his role is not superficial
Appeal to Authority
Appealing to authority is very different from getting a celebrity endorsement.
Sometimes these types of advertising appeals overlap, but in some fields,
experts and top professionals are not easily recognizable. The value of their
expertise, however, is appreciated.
Cons: The aura of exclusiveness and high standards signal that the
apartments may be costly, which could deter some customers
The Plum Guide has its own team of architects, interior designers, and other
professionals who give their “stamp of approval” to every apartment you can
book on their website. This advertisement reveals what happens behind the
scenes to reassure their customers that what they get was meticulously
tested and reviewed by a “razor-sharp eye”.
The picture strengthens the message of the ad. Every element of Plum’s
apartments gets under the careful examination. They are not just ordinary
interior designers, but “home critics” who approach the apartments like they
were works of art.
Appeal to Logic
If you don’t know how to reach your customers’ hearts and emotions, you can
still try to convince their brains. Appeal to facts, calculable benefits, and
statistics to encourage the recipients of your email ads.
Company: Lyft
Pros: The recipients get a unique reward based on their rating and can save
money
Cons: There are too many numbers (10%, 10, 5, 10%, 10, 30) and the message
is confusing – is it “10%” or “up to 10%”?
Logical fallacies are very popular in advertising. However, being honest and
bringing hard logic to the equation of your marketing formula can do wonders
for your sales. Modern buyers try to make rational decisions so it is good to
talk the language of tangible benefits.
Appeal to Humor
The more engaged your customers get, the easier it is to convince them to
buy. If you can make them smile, you are in a great position to sell. The bad
news is that jokes tend to be funny only once. The good news is that when it
comes to your email marketing campaigns once is enough!
Pros: The email ad is funny, relatable, and offers a quick and easy solution to
a problem
Cons: It won’t appeal to people who take things too seriously and to the
masters of gift wrapping who take pride in their art
Appeal to Fear
Scaring your customers into buying things is not a good advertising strategy
(unless it is Halloween and you want to use some relevant imagery). Fear is
usually used only combined with one of the other advertising appeals. An
introduction may be scary, but something funny and calming is used as the
punchline of an ad.
The most common fears involve some kind of loss – of health, wealth, safety,
beauty, or opportunity. However, the ads that approach these issues tend to
briefly introduce the problem and focus on the solution and positive aspects.
Here is a good example of an email ad that uses fear as its advertising appeal.
Pros: The email draws attention to the problem of financing one’s education
(that needs to be dealt with eventually)
Cons: The imagery is probably a little bit too dark and creepy
This email example uses very interesting images and creates the atmosphere
of being lost in a dark fairy tale forest. It appeals to fear through imagination
and draws up some worrying scenarios. There is, however, a guiding light that
is revealed at the very end of this email.
The motive of lost opportunity is very frequent in advertising. One of the most
common fears of the 21st century is the fear of missing out (FOMO). FOMO is
the anxiety linked with the feeling that the lives of others are full of joy and
great opportunities that we are left out of. Here is an example of FOMO in
action:
Company: Havenly
Sex Appeal
The relationship between sex and advertising is a long and complicated one.
The attitude towards using sex appeal in marketing has been changing
throughout the decades but it remains a very controversial subject. On the
one hand, it objectifies women and men, on the other, sexual imagery can be
very effective and it can be, paradoxically, used to draw attention to serious
social problems.
One of the famous Diesel campaigns used a slogan: “Sex Sells *Unfortunately
We Sell Jeans”. Unfortunately, sex still sells jeans like crazy, yet escessive use
of sex appeal in ads is frowned upon.
Pros: The ad is sensual and it draws the attention of both men and women
Some industries, especially the ones connected with fashion and cosmetics
can get away with showing sexually titillating images. Idealised bodies and
sensual poses and sexual gestures are part of their traditional advertising
strategies and they appeal to their consumer base.
There’s a fine line between what’s considered classy and vulgar. Therefore,
using sex appeal in your email ads may not be the best solution unless your
products or services are relevant – a new line of perfume or clothes may use
this type of advertising appeal and increase your sales, but the racier it gets,
the more criticism it will attract.
Here is another example of sex appeal from Coca-Cola:
Company: Coca-Cola
Cons: On the very first glance it could appear like an immature joke
Because sex appeal can instantly grab attention, sexual imagery is often used
to raise awareness about important social issues, health risks, or
environmental problems. It is easier to persuade audiences to take action or
think about an issue when a message is conveyed through visuals and words
that are shocking, engaging, or provocative.