Creative Advertising Strategies and Basic Steps

In order for a brand to be successful, it must first create a certain advertising strategy. We can talk about these advertising strategies and stages as follows:

Brand Image

David Ogily is the person who implemented and developed this strategy. According to Ogily, the most important task of an advertiser is to give an identity to the brand and to contribute to the brand image through advertising. Brand image lives in the consumer’s own mind. For this reason, the brand should not only create a product difference, but also create a different image perception in the minds of the consumers. The most important way for thousands of brands with similar services and products to make a difference is to create a consistent and correct brand image. For this, it is necessary to create a brand personality that is suitable for the brand’s values, reason for existence and goals.

In advertisements, known as the simplest way to reflect the brand image, communication with the consumer is established through psychological factors and emotional values. Therefore, when you ask questions such as what my brand would do if it were a person, what kind of personality would it be, where would it live, would it do sports, what it would wear, the answers you get will reveal the personality of your brand.

Basic Selling Promise

With the basic sales promise strategy, ads both determine what the brand does best and emphasize the benefits it will provide to the consumer.

Lovemarks

Seen as an advanced stage of brand evolution, being Lovemarks requires loyalty. This is not that easy either. Because in order to be a lovemark, it is necessary to establish an emotional bond with consumers. In order to establish an emotional connection, a communication mechanism formed with correct consumer insights is required. With this communication network, the consumer who owns the emotional values of the brand will become the brand ambassador of that brand and these brands will be one class higher than the others.

Positioning

Positioning is an advertising strategy that has been implemented since the 1990’s. According to the positioning strategy, the service or product is tried to be placed in the mind of the consumer and to give a certain position here.

Repositioning Strategy

The rapid change of the target audience causes many companies to lose their position. For this reason, brands prefer to reposition for the goods or services they produce. This strategy aims to use the brand in areas beyond its usage area. Thus, an extension is made to new areas of use with the same product and the same brand name.

Star Strategy

According to this strategy, the brand is identified with a star person or personality. In other words, it is aimed for the brand to become a star in a short time with this strategy.

Basic Stages of Advertising Strategies

The first thing that needs to be done to create a certain advertising strategy is to position the service or product in the mind of the consumer. In doing so, it is necessary to keep up with the new developments and trends in the market and apply a creative plan.

1- Determining the Target Audience Creative Advertising Strategies and Basic Steps

The target audience includes a group within a certain framework or several different groups. Therefore, the target audience may be the people who buy the product, the people who decide to purchase the product or those who affect the purchase of the product. In this case, three criteria should be determined in general:

a) Needs and demands: At this stage, an evaluation is made from the practical use in daily life and the values ​​that the person adds to himself with the product. Then, the message is given that the product can meet these needs and requests.

b) Demographic elements: Factors such as gender, age, profession, interests, income, and the intangible values ​​that groups have in terms of mentality should be determined.

c) Behaviors: It should be determined what product or when consumers use which product, when and how, the degree of awareness about the company, what types of items or offers may be attractive to persuade the consumer to try or use our own products.

2- Product Concept

The product concept is the stage of expressing the features or values that distinguish the brand from other companies. If we position the product in a certain way, we will determine the values represented by that product and how the target audience will perceive this product. At this stage, we will need to create a set of values that will appeal to the consumer or that he can match with.

3- Media Selection

In the selection of the medium to be published; budget, marketing objectives and general characteristics of the target audience need to be taken into account. Television, digital media, radio, newspapers, magazines and postal advertisements are some of the most common channels used for advertisements.

After determining the channel, a certain time period must be planned for the advertisement to be broadcast. At this stage, a time period is determined as day, week, month or year, and the ads are published within that time period.

4- Advertising Message

Advertising message; It is a combination of the written and visual elements in the advertisement, the marketing objectives and the value and characteristics of the product. In the advertising message, the key elements to focus on are:

• What are the main features or values that distinguish the product from a similar product of the other brand?

• How do we want consumers to evaluate the product in the advertisement?

• How does the consumer position competitors?

• How can we persuade consumers to buy the advertised product?

• What are the strengths and weaknesses of our competitors in positioning themselves?

5- Written Content

The main purpose of preparing such content may be to provide information about the service and product or to attribute a value to the product. Companies create a slogan that combines the benefits and basic features of the product they highlight with their marketing goals. Then they develop other elements of the ad. Although creating a catchy advertisement content is important for the product, taking into account certain values ​​and features of the product or service will be much more effective in turning the advertisement into sales. In this respect, it is the most effective way to express the message to be conveyed to the consumer clearly and clearly while preparing the advertisement text. Therefore, the title used in the ads should be an expression that explains the main theme of the advertisement to the consumer very well.

6- Visual Content       

Visual content is; It is the fictionalization of the visual elements in the advertisement such as colors, spaces used, images, writing styles and sizes within a certain purpose and logic. When starting from these elements, we should think that the advertisement should attract attention quickly.

7- Advertising Budget

The advertising budget can be determined before the advertisement strategy is created or after the advertisement strategy is developed. It will always be more appropriate for small firms to set their budget first. Because if the advertising budget is determined first, the other items will be adjusted according to the budget. As a result, companies will not be faced with any surprises that will later hurt themselves.

The most used method when creating an advertising budget is to take into account the past sales rate. Thus, even if the advertisement is an ineffective advertisement in the eyes of the consumer, this does not cause any financial difficulties for the company. Companies with high income and slightly larger; they must take into account their firm savings, future sales forecasts and market shares.