A campaign may have several target groups, sometimes these can be so dissimilar that they cannot be adequately reached and the desired message clearly communicated, without treating them as a discrete audience. If this is the case, as can be seen in Figure 4.11 above, they should be the basis of a sub-campaign of their own. For example, in the case of a major company promoting welding rods, the mode, media and the message will be different for the engineering or production direc- tors of shipyards (budget holders), compared to that designed to reach the welders themselves (users).
A definition of the target group or audience, is essential to being able to specify mode/class and media.
FIGURE 4.12: DEFINING THE TARGET GROUP
Mode/class
What mode or class of promotion is the company going to use? By this we mean, is it going to be advertising, PR/EP*, exhibitions, seminars, Internet, direct mail hospitality, visits to reference sites etc?
(*i.e. Public Relations/Editorial Publicity.)
Message Media
•Mode
Class
Media
This defines whether the channel of communication will be via:
• printed media such as the press, or posters, or
• broadcast media such as radio, television, or commercials breaking into mobile phone conversations (as happened in Sweden) text messages etc.
By getting close to the intended audience the marketer will be able to divine the modes and classes of promotion to which the audience is open, and which media they ‘consume’ (i.e. not just reception via circulation, but they read, digest and internalize the content, e.g. lots of people in the higher socio-economic groups buy both The Sun and The Financial Times, but when it comes to financial and business editorial they will give more credit to the latter and less to the former. When it comes to sport it may be the other way around). This ‘closeness’ derives either from the use of market research or longer-term customer information systems (see Chapter 7).
Media choices
There are two distinct decisions to be made about the choice of media:
• the inter media choice and
• the intra media choice.
First – ‘inter media’, this is the decision whether to use, and in what combination, the media of:
• radio
• television
• national press
• local press
• direct mail
• posters
• sponsorship, etc.
Assessing and comparing each for their:
• reach
• creative scope
• sales history
• cost, re. the budget
• reaction of the ‘trade’
• flexibility of booking
• competitor’s use
• security/confidentiality, etc.
Second the ‘intra media’ choice, i.e. how do different vehicles within a class of media compare in terms of:
• cost
• coverage
• atmosphere
• credibility
• context
• frequency
• reproductive quality etc.
Message
As can also be seen from Figure 4.11, familiarity with the target group is also necessary for the marketer to be able to define the message. A different message will be sent to the production director (decider/budget holder) than that sent to the welder (user), e.g. to the director/decider
= ‘High production rates with less wastage’ – whereas to the welder/user
= ‘Less fumes, less chance you will suffer from ‘welder’s’ lung’.
The message exists in two distinct forms:
• First – the creative strategy, sometimes referred to as the ‘copy platform’, which is a succinct ‘plain English’ statement of what needs to be communicated.
• Then– the creative execution or treatment, which is how the copy platform will be translated so as better to be absorbed, understood and effect the behaviour of the target group (i.e. it is in their language and their emotional ‘set’).
FIGURE 4.13: THE SEQUENCE
Copy platform
Message Media
•Mode Execution Treatment
(encoded) Testing Execution
Target group
The sequence is portrayed in Figure 4.13 (above). To illustrate this, take the consumer example of the classic promotion of Heinz baked beans in the U.K. back in the late 1970s. Research showed that mums in middle socio-economic groups were feeling that baked beans were a food asso- ciated with hard times, and that now their families were a little more affluent, should they not give their children something better?
So the copy platform designed by the marketer/product manager, was based on the need for these mums to obtain peer group reassurance that baked beans were a fine food for growing children, irrespective of the lower costs.
Across the several campaigns the associated copy platform read, something along the lines of:
• ‘Don’t feel you are serving lower quality food to your growing family, a lot of other mums also buy Heinz baked beans.’
The various treatments/executions (not in order) featured ‘hook-lines’
such as:
• ‘Beanz builds a body’ (yes, with a ‘z’, see later).
• ‘A million housewives every day, pick up a tin of beanz and say, Beanz means Heinz’ (this sung to a catchy tune).
Later abbreviated to just:
• ‘Beanz meanz Heinz.’
• ‘You know what beanz meanz.’
The campaign went out using press posters and television. The ads always featured aspirational mums and bouncy healthy pre-teen children. The campaign was such a success, that even today, some 20 or more years later, one only has to hum the tune or quote the start of the ‘hook-line’
and many people can complete it for you.
Creative strategy
The copy platform, i.e. what the marketer wants the promotion to say.
There are a great deal of propositions that can be put to a market. Some of the classic types are listed below:
WHERE THE PROPOSITIONS LIE:
Product – service characteristics
• Constituents
• Performance in use
• Presentation
• Availability (or parity)
• Versatility
• Country of origin User characteristics
• Celebrities or known experts
• Most sports competitors use it
• Only ‘the best’ use it Price characteristics
• Lasts longer
• Reassuringly more expensive
• Payment more convenient Image characteristics
• Quality
• Good value
• Friendly to you – To community – To environment
– To country’s economy, etc
• Contemporary
Disadvantages of non-use
• Resultant suffering, e.g. loss of status – Client
– Profit – Job
• Missed opportunity
Direct comparisons with competitors
• Product comparison
• ‘Knocking copy’
• Parody competitor’s advertising, slogans, origins etc.
Ways of using the product/service
• Philanthropic
• Caring for the community/environment
• Responsible citizen
HOW THE SERVICE IS/WAS DEVELOPED
Surprising facts about the product
• Technology
• Responsibility
• Mind boggling numbers
Satisfies psychological/physiological needs
• Thirst
• Hunger
• Loneliness
• Sex
• Social confidence
• Being a good mum, dad, citizen etc
Product heritage
• Comes from Finland (etc)
• Established 1865
• Founders of the company Newsworthiness
• New, improved
• Anniversaries
• Topical events Generic benefits
• Appropriate a characteristic of all the market to yourself, e.g.
for Nokia ‘Connecting people’
Boost sales force morale
• Is there a better way to do it?
Increase traffic
Increase trade activity