Getting Results From Branding Advertising

The key issues to address when considering an advertising campaign are:

1. Know what you want
   
   There are clear differences between branding advertising and retail or sales promotion advertising. Branding advertising is designed to communicate the brand personality, attributes, and benefits to the customer in order for them to be aware of your brand and develop a favourable attitude toward it. Advertisements for Nike™ products are aimed at developing equity in the brand over the long term, that is they do not necessarily generate immediate sales. The development of a brand is clearly a longer term proposition, examples of great brands such as Nike™, and Coke® take a significant investment over a long time not just a series of retail advertisements running constantly in local markets.
   
   Conversely, retail or sales promotion advertising is largely aimed at generating sales in the short term through communicating a “Hook” or some inducement to buy such as a sale. While there are often elements of branding in advertisements it is not always the main objective.
   
   It should be noted that it is not a clear decision between branding on the one hand and retail on the other. Budget constraints often require brands be developed through the use of incremental retail or sales promotion campaigns over time.
   
   
2. Know your typical customer
   
   How much do you actually know about your typical customer? This is one of the most critical elements of communication strategy – the target market.
   
   It is important not to let media selection, advertising deals, agency bias or just anecdotal evidence cloud your view of who your customers are. There are plenty of data sources available such as your own records, dealings with your customers, industry data, and the ABS. It is critical to develop a typical customer profile across many variables such as demographic, lifestyle and media consumption. A typical customer for you may be -
   
   
   “males (who are part of a couple) aged between 30 and 40, with 2 children less than 14, who work 40 hours per week on average, spend $20 per week on your product type, and enjoy sport. They are time poor, have owned at least 1 home, and save money by doing jobs at home themselves whenever possible.”
   
   This profile gives us a clear idea of who our target customers are, their purchase motivations, and how we may communicate with them.
   
   
3. Know why customers buy your product or service
   
   You must be aware of why people buy your products or services, and what is unique about them. This is the compelling reason for other similar people in the target market to make a purchase.
   
   It is not enough to claim that “we are the best” or “we have the best service”, such ambit claims are rarely believed and do not form the basis of a credible unique proposition. Focus groups, where you invite known customers to a group to discuss the reasons they buy your product, related patterns of consumption, and areas for improvement, often provide invaluable insight.
   
   The proposition must be both unique, and perceived as salient by the customer. An example of this is in the widget market. Company “A” manufactures widgets, the products in this market are relatively homogenous, and the target market is our typical customer in section 2. A focus group reveals that the reason customers prefer your widget is that it has no odour; further investigation reveals potential customers perceive no difference among widgets other than price. While other widget makers are promoting the price, there is a clear opportunity in the market to differentiate through your unique “no odour” attribute.
   
   
4. What media?
   
   Media selection is often based on perceived risk, for example “we spend a little bit across a number of mediums to cover all the bases”. Deals offered by direct media sales representatives and the bias or vested interest of your agency or media buyer also provide the basis of media selection.
   
   The four key drivers of your media selection should be:
   
   
   • your outcome objectives (eg What will I get in return?)
     
     
   • your expenditure budget
     
     
   • the mediums ability to communicate the message, and
     
     
   • the target customers or audience
     
     
   
   When we review the case of the widget it is clear our target audience is not geographically concentrated and is large enough to require a mass medium. The expenditure on the item of $20 per week also makes the potential return attractive. The fact that the typical customer enjoys sport and is conscious of value for money points to major daily papers sports sections and televised sporting events as potential media choices. As a message must reach a large percentage of the target audience and be seen several times at least to be effective a mixture of both mediums may be appropriate.
   
   
5. Creative
   
   The creative execution of the advertisement must distil all of these factors into something that is both compelling and memorable.
   
   The problem with a lot of advertising is it tries to say too many things without saying any of them clearly. The main focus of the ad must be the unique proposition stated in a single minded way.
   
   

Conclusion

So why don’t businesses get results from branding advertising? They start with an objective that is unclear, target customers that are vaguely described, assume to know why customers buy the product, use media that may be better for your agency than your product, and use creative that has many messages none of which are effective. Why not?

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