MK375 BUYER BEHAVIOUR AND INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

1. MK375 BUYER BEHAVIOUR AND INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS LECTURE WEEK 7 CREATIVE STRATGEY: PLANNING

2. OBJECTIVES • Discuss creative strategy and explain the nature and role of the creative brief • Highlight the commonest creative appeals available to marketers • Discuss the execution and evaluation of creative ideas • Explain the basic nature of semiotics and how marketers can use this as an aid to creative strategy development

3. PLANNING IMPLEMENTATION Strategy e.g. ‘big idea’, position, USP etc Briefing communicating objectives, strategies etc to creative and media teams Output design and production of communications materials; booking media etc.

4. THE CREATIVE BRIEF • Briefs are the mechanism for summarising the analysis and developing the ideas for a campaign • They can be written separately for the creative and media teams • The creative brief needs to encapsulate all the important points needed to develop the message (the harnessed creativity)

5. THE CREATIVE BRIEF A typical brief might include: • Objectives • The communications ‘problem’ • The target audience • The proposition: the big idea, copy platform, position etc. • Tone of voice • Mandatory information • Special requirements e.g. timing etc

6. CREATING THE MESSAGE: APPEALS AND EXECUTION STYLES • Creative strategy defines what the communications should say • Creating the message is deciding how this can best be communicated i.e. encoded • An appeal is the approach used to attract the attention of audiences e.g. emotional • The execution style includes style, pattern, sources used in the actual message design

7. CREATING THE MESSAGE: ADVERTISING APPEALS • Fill (2002) notes two approaches • High involvement • Low involvement • Picton and Broderick (2005) categorise them by product and consumer orientation

8. APPEALS: INVOLVEMENT (Fill)

9. APPEALS: CONSUMER/PRODUCT ORIENTATION (Picton & Broderick)

10. RATIONAL APPEALS • Focus on practical, functional, utilitarian needs • Emphasis features and benefits • Messages need to emphasis facts, learning and logic i.e. to persuade consumers that they should buy this brand because it is the best way to meet their needs

11. RATIONAL APPEALS • Rational appeals include: • Comfort • Convenience • Economy • Dependability • Durability • Efficiency • Performance

12. EMOTIONAL APPEALS • These relate to the consumers’ social and psychological needs • They can be used to produce positive feelings in consumers which may be transferred to a favourable evaluation of a brand

13. EMOTIONAL APPEALS • Emotional appeals include: • Sex e.g. Haagen-Daz • Fear e.g. acne products/fear of social embarrassment • Humour e.g. Pot Noodles • Animation e.g. Tony/Frosties • Music e.g. Levis/Grapevine • Situation associations e.g. slice of life

14. EMOTIONAL APPEALS • Belch and Belch (2004) define these in terms of: • Personal states/feelings e.g. safety, love, happiness, nostalgia, pride, sorrow, pleasure, ambition, comfort etc • Social based feelings e.g. recognition, status, respect, involvement, approval, belonging

15. MIXED APPEALS • Sometimes messages can combine rational and emotional appeals to good effect OTHER APPEALS • Reminder • Teaser

16. CREATIVE TACTICS/EXECUTION • Having decided on the strategy and the appeals, the message designers now have to work out the execution style i.e. • How will the ‘big idea’ or position be communicated? • how is the rational or emotional message going to be presented?

17. CREATIVE TACTICS/EXECUTION • Execution options include: • Straight sell/factual message • Scientific/technical evidence • Demonstration • Comparison • Testimonial • Slice of life • Animation • Personality symbol • Fantasy • Humour • Dramatisation

18. MESSAGE DESIGN: STYLE • Information vs. emotion • Balance needed between information and the use of creativity to gain attention, attract the target audience, provide pleasure in the message (remember that consumers use advertising for information, reassurance and entertainment)

19. MESSAGE DESIGN: PATTERN • This relates to the design of effective messages i.e. • To communicate key points • To overcome objections • To overcome opposing points of view • Pattern of messages relates to structural factors: • Conclusions • One vs. two sided • Order of presentation • Repetition

20. PATTERN: CONCLUSION DRAWING • Should a message draw a firm conclusion for the audience? • Or should they be allowed to interpret the message in a way that is meaningful for themselves? • The decision depends on: • The nature of the issue • The situation • The audience

21. PATTERN: CONCLUSION DRAWING • It is better to draw a conclusion if the message is complex, or new • Better educated people prefer to draw their own conclusions • Less well educated people may be unable to make inferences from data presented, so may need conclusions drawn for them • Conclusions are better if immediate action is required (less thinking time) • Leave conclusions open for high involvement situations – consumers are in a problem solving mode and will do it themselves

22. PATTERN:ONE AND TWO SIDED MESSAGES • One-sided message is most effective when: • Audience agrees with communicators position • When they are unlikely to hear counter arguments • When the audience is less well educated • Two-sided message should be used when: • Receiver does not agree with communicators position • When the audience is better educated • When they are likely to hear counter arguments

23. PATTERN: ORDER OF PRESENTATION • Where should the important points be placed in the message? Depends on audience interest and involvement. • Strongest points at the beginning are called anticlimax and use primacy effect, used in low involvement situations where attention has to be worked at • Strongest points saved for the end are called climax and use the recency effect, used in personal selling and persuasive communication situations

24. PATTERN: REPETITION • This can involve repeating a key point, word, phrase • Necessary to overcome selective attention • Can lead to Pavlovian type learning • However excessive repetition can lead to wearout

25. SOURCE OF MESSAGE • A strongly credible source essential in situations where attitude change or persuasion needed • Who will the perceived source be: • The organisation e.g. corporate brand? • A spokesperson? • A celebrity? • Source credibility based on: expertise, knowledge, motives, likeability/similarity to consumer

26. THE WHOLE IS GREATER THAN THE SUM OF THE PARTS …….. • The final message is made up of several components, all of which need to work synergistically in order to produce maximum effect • Headlines • Body copy • Layout • Illustrations and photographs • Strap/tag line • Logo • Audio – voice overs, music, sound effects

27. Useful websites: • www.businesslink.gov.uk • www.adassoc.org.uk/guide/contents.html

28. EVALUATION • Creative work usually requires pre and post testing • Evaluation can be a method for choosing between different techniques/creative approaches • Evaluation should be against objectives

29. SEMIOTICS • Study of signs and symbols – what they mean and how they relate to things or ideas • Can be a useful way of evaluating the impact creative approaches will have on audiences • Semiotic toolkit (Copley 2004) can be used to undertake semiotic analysis

30. SEMIOTICS • Toolkit: • Visual signs • Linguistic signs • Aural signs • The implied communication situation • Textual structure • Information structure • Visual emphasis • Genre • Binary oppositions and contrast pairs • Communication codes

31. Any Questions?