Week 4: Message Strategy and Execution
Messages – their types, structure and consistency
Message Strategy = formulating the right message or creative strategy is absolutely vital Determination of what an advertising message will say to the target audience
• Product Messages
• Service messages
• Planned messages
• Unplanned messages Types of messages:
Product Messages What the product tells us
I.e. our experience with the product
Service Messages What organizational representatives tell us about the product Planned messages What the organization or advertising tells us
Unplanned messages What everyone else tells us Message Consistency:
Moriarty’s triangle in which the three points com together to achieve strategic consistency and ensure consumers recognize and trust a brand
Message Structure:
Order of Presentation:
Conclusion Drawing:
• Marketing communicators must decide whether their messages should explicitly draw a firm conclusion or allow receivers to draw their own conclusions
• Messages with explicit conclusions are more easily understood and effective
• However, some studies have shown effectiveness of conclusion drawing may depend on their target audience, the type of issue or topic, and the nature of the situation.
Message Sidedness:
One sided
messages Mention only positive attributes or benefits of a product are presented Two sided
messages Present both good and bad points about a product or claim are presented Refutational
messages Present both sides of an issue, before refuting the opposing viewpoint Verbal vs Visual Messages:
• In addition to the words, the visual also influences the way the message is processed
• Consumers may develop images or impressions based on visual elements such as an illustration in an ad or the scenes in a TV commercial
Creativity, creative thinking, and creative process – message strategy and execution
Creativity:
• Advertising creativity is the ability to generate fresh, unique and appropriate ideas that can be used as solutions to communication problems
• Creativity is the process of connecting our consumers’ need with our product’s benefits
Creativity Processes | Solutions
Creative brief – clearly sets out the advertising problem, objective, product concept, consumer insight and the strategic way forward
Creative blueprint for the campaign
The message Strategy:
“The major selling idea should emerge as the strongest singular thing you can say about your product or service. This should be the claim with the broadest and most meaningful appeal to your target audience. Once you determine this message, be certain you can live with it; be sure it stands strong enough to remain the central issue in every ad and commercial in the campaign”.
Differences in B2B and B2C social media message strategies
Strategic Triad:
The message strategy, the major selling idea:
• What is the consumer’s crying need or desire that my product will solve better than that of the competition?
Message strategy statement:
Types of message strategies:
• Generic
• Pre-emptive = making a claim that non of your competitors has
• Unique selling proposition = focuses on a product or service attribute that is distinctive to a particular brand and offers an important benefit to the customer
The big Idea:
• Comes from the consumer insight. It builds on message strategy by converting the ‘what to say’ into an idea that makes the message relevant and engaging to the consumer. The big idea brings the message strategy or proposition to life
• Communicate the product benefit with consumer desire
• Big challenge: Many products and services offer virtually nothing unique.
