Manage-Wise

Creating successful marketing campaigns

The fact that the creative component plays a major role in determining the results of communication activities is undeniable. A well-defined creation leads to exactly the desired response. When the public is receptive to a message and responds satisfactorily, that is an infallible path to achieving the marketing professional’s objectives.

The main challenge is to identify a strong marketing concept and its intellectual and emotional components, which together create successful campaigns. Here, we will analyze the factors involved and describe the necessary steps in developing a creative plan that will have a positive impact on relationship-marketing programs.

Creating attitude or generating behavior

When conceptualizing the essence of the development of a creative plan, it is possible to understand the different and complementary characteristics of mass media and direct-response advertisements by analyzing consumers’ varying reactions to these two types of communications. It also becomes clear that the routes to results with these two types of approaches are diametrically opposed.

Mass media advertising influences the consumer’s attitude. It establishes a path with recall and awareness of the brand and then generates enough goodwill so that the purchase occurs. The creation of direct-response advertisements, in contrast, aims to stimulate new behavior in the consumer, leading to a quick and direct response (call to action). Thus, direct-response advertising must be broader and more detailed in its description of product benefits and price. Furthermore, it is of the utmost importance to provide the consumer with the response channels and available payment systems as part of the creative process. Thus, in order to be irresistible and inspire the consumer to spend, it must be “tailor-made for the consumer,” satisfying personal yearnings and expectations. The inherent reasoning for each of these two types of communication determines how the plan’s creation is elaborated in each of the cases. According to Godin, mass marketing is based on interruption marketing, whereas direct-response advertising is sustained by the concept of permission marketing.

Interruption marketing

For years, mass-marketing professionals have used interruption marketing to grab the attention of the target public. The television commercial, carefully inserted into the programming schedule, interrupts viewers while they are enjoying a TV show. Ads in magazines and newspapers, which are placed in between articles, interrupt readers. Billboards on city streets interrupt drivers and pedestrians as they move to and from their homes and workplaces. In all of these examples, the procedure is the same: interrupt people who are engaged in activities and grab their attention to show a message from the company. The hope is that the communication will arouse the interest of a certain portion of the viewers.

However, as the number of interruptions increases, their effectiveness decreases. Competing for the same valuable commodity—people’s time—companies clamor to fill communication vehicles with messages. In top-rated programs, it is not uncommon for all television commercials to last almost the same time of the entire program! There are magazines in which for every page of news, there is another full page of advertising. According to Stone and Jacobs, the ratio of advertising to content in consumer magazines is around 50-50. In the case of local television programming, the proportion is around 60% for programming and 40% for advertising. In some cities, there are areas where billboards cover entire buildings, completely changing the landscape. And the population’s response can be swift and sure. If the visual pollution of billboards reaches unbearable limits, neighborhood associations launch campaigns to demand their removal. If the TV commercial is too long, audiences start channel surfing, searching for a better option. If print publications are chock full of ads, readers look for something else to read. The positive results expected from the interruption decline dramatically as the number of interruptions increases.

Comminucating the message

The proliferation of new channels further aggravates the situation. There are hundreds of television channels, ratio stations, and magazines available. Digital TV will permit the viewer to select from among approximately 500 different channels. If a person takes 5 seconds, on average, to check out another program, the total time needed to see all of the options exceeds 40 minutes! Where can you find your desired public? How can you make your message stand out in the midst of such clutter? How can you catch the audience’s attention for even a short period of time?

One recourse is to explore the range of locations where people can be found. Nowadays, we find messages on buses, on taxis, in commercial building elevators, and even on city garbage containers! Another option is to create stimulating communications with distinct formats. Multimedia billboards have used video resources, three-dimensional objects, and even human beings as live sculptures. Recently in Japan, vertical games were created on a billboard to highlight Adidas’s sport products. Two players, attached to a billboard on the top of a 10-story building, played soccer, moving back and forth while held by special ropes. They kicked a ball that hung from a rope between them.

However, the most effective way to shine a light on your message in the midst of so many is to repeat the communication frequently. The more often a message interrupts the audience, the better the chances that it will be noticed. A television commercial stays on the air for several weeks. A print ad in a magazine runs in several editions. The impact on the consumer base is similar to that of osmosis: the message will gradually seep in until it is completely absorbed.

The biggest obstacle to this strategy is escalating costs. Generally, running the same ads twice doubles the prices. For most companies, airing or publishing an ad in the mass media over and over again is financially prohibitive. The only companies that are able to stand out amidst the clutter of ads are those that have a large enough marketing budget to repeat their messages as many times as necessary to get the attention of their target public.

Excerpt from ‘Customer Obsession’ by Abaete de Azevedo & Ricardo Pomeranz. Reproduced with permission © 2009, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited. Price: Rs 295. Vishwanath_Ghanekar@mcgraw-hill.com