Marketing Communications

Chapter 7 : Creative Strategy

Creative Strategy

The Creative Objective
The Target Market
Primary Selling Proposition
Secondary Selling Proposition
Support
Tone and Manner

Advertising Appeals

Rational Appeal
Emotional Appeal
Other Appeals

Creative Format

Animation
Slice-of-life
Testimonial
Authoritative
Demonstration
Fantasy
Informative

The Creation Stage

Idea Generation
Copywriting
Illustration
Layout
Creative Process for Television Advertisements

Copy Testing and Diagnosis.

Chapter Summary

The creative strategy for an advertisement comes into the picture once the objectives for the advertisement are finalized. The creative strategy consists of six elements - creative objective, target market, primary selling proposition, secondary selling proposition, support and tone & manner. Advertisers use various appeals like rational, emotional and others to attract the attention of viewers.

Some rational appeals are price, quality, feature, competitive advantage, news and popularity. Emotional appeals, which are used to arouse feelings, are humour, fear, music and sex. Apart from these, companies also use star appeal, reminder and teaser advertisements to promote the product. The appeals are presented to the viewers with the help of a creative framework.

Examples are animation, slice-of-life, testimonials, authoritative, demonstration, fantasy and informative. The creative process begins with idea generation, goes on to copywriting and illustration and concludes with layout. In the idea generation stage, the idea used to represent the advertisement is decided. Idea generation is a seven-step process: orientation, preparation, analysis, ideation, incubation, synthesis and evaluation.

During copywriting, the words and music are finalized. The print ad contains a headline, subhead, body copy, slogan, etc. which have to be written. In the illustration stage, the pictures to be used are selected or created. Finally, in the layout stage all the elements are placed together to make an advertisement.

Commonly used layouts are picture window, Mondrian, type-specimen, copy-heavy, frame, multipanel, circus and rebus. The layout for print advertisements is governed by the principle of balance, proportion, sequence and unity. A television advertisement has different parameters. All this together constitute creative strategy.

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