Communicative Writing
Scenario 8
Print
Advertising
8%
Select one of the following assignments:
1. AsparFlakes
A. Write copy for a full-page magazine ad for AsparFlakes breakfast cereal. Please use the
strategic message planner that follows this page to guide your creative process.
B. Sketch the layout for the ad or use desktop software to finish your ad. Incorporate your copy.
2. Bob’s Pizza Shoppe
A. Create a strategic message planner for your Bob’s Pizza Shoppe ad. (You get to make up all
the details of this business.)
B. Write copy for a half-page magazine ad for a new Mexican pizza at Bob’s Pizza Shoppe.
C. Sketch the layout for the ad or use desktop software to finish your ad. Incorporate your copy.
3. Your choice
A. Create a strategic message planner for a print ad for a product of your choice. The product must
be different from the product in your Integrated Advertising Project
B. Write copy for the ad.
C. Sketch the layout for the ad or use desktop software to finish your ad. Incorporate your copy.
Strategic Message Planner: AsparFlakes
Client and Product
AsparPower Mills, Inc., of Asparagus City, Michigan, makes AsparFlakes breakfast cereal.
Michael Campion founded AsparPower Mills in 1903. The company's primary products are asparagus
bread, asparagus dinner rolls, asparagus breadsticks and asparagus juice. AsparPower
Mills primarily sells its products to health-food stores in the United States and Canada. Total revenues in
the past fiscal year were $13 million.
AsparPower Mills has produced AsparFlakes, an all-natural breakfast cereal, since 2004. The ingredients
of AsparFlakes are dried organic tofu, ground whole wheat, ground whole oats and ground dried
asparagus. AsparFlakes appears in 16-ounce boxes at a suggested retail price of
$4.75.
AsparFlakes is baked in brick ovens. Its ingredients are supplied by certified organic farms in
Saskatchewan.
AsparFlakes tastes and smells like dried asparagus. With skim milk, one bowl provides 1,000 milligrams
of calcium, the recommended daily allowance for adults.
AsparPower Mills created AsparFlakes to provide a high-calcium, tasty, organic breakfast cereal for
America's health-conscious consumers. Early testers of the product report that they also enjoy
AsparFlakes as a dry snack food.
Target Audience
The target audience for this ad is middle-aged (ages 40 to 60), health-conscious women in the
United States and Canada. They are college-educated professionals. They are married with children. Their
family income averages $90,000 per year.
These women shop in health-food stores at least twice a week. They buy healthy, organic foods for three
meals a day, not just for the evening meal. Though they are not vegetarians, they prefer foods made from
all-natural fruits, vegetables and grains. Because of their shopping habits, they are familiar with the
traditional products from AsparPower Mills. However, they are not familiar with AsparFlakes, a new
product.
Ingredients and production processes are important to this target audience. They prefer all- natural,
organic ingredients. They like old-fashioned, natural production processes.
Members of this target audience see their physicians at least once a year. Osteoporosis, a disease in which
bones become porous and brittle, is a primary health concern for this target. Post- menopausal women are
the highest-risk group for osteoporosis, and our target knows that. Physicians often recommend high daily
doses of calcium to prevent osteoporosis.
Product Benefits
AsparFlakes helps prevent osteoporosis by supplying the recommended daily allowance of calcium.
Being all-natural, it is healthy and nature-friendly.
Current Brand Image
AsparPower Mills is known and respected by the target audience. However, the target has not heard of
AsparFlakes all-natural breakfast cereal. The target has no brand image of AsparFlakes.
Desired Brand Image
Ideally, the target will view AsparFlakes as a tasty, healthy, environmentally responsible solution for
osteoporosis.
Direct Competitors and Brand Images
AsparCrunch cereal, produced by the AsparCrunch Company, holds 70 percent of the market for
asparagus-flavored breakfast cereals. It is an all-natural cereal. Because it lacks tofu, however, it is not
high in calcium. Our target audience views AsparCrunch only as a tasty, asparagus- flavored all-natural
cereal.
The closest competitor to AsparCrunch is Aunt Martha's Asparagus Cereal, produced by Aunt Martha's
World Conglomerate. This cereal holds approximately 20 percent of the market for asparagus-flavored
breakfast cereals. Aunt Martha's is not an all-natural cereal. It includes chemical preservatives. It lacks
tofu and is not high in calcium. Our target views Aunt Martha's Asparagus Cereal as a cheaper, less
healthy alternative to AsparCrunch, the market leader.
Indirect Competitors and Brand Images
Indirect competitors include all-natural nonasparagus breakfast cereals. The best selling all- natural
nonasparagus breakfast cereal is NaturoBreakfast Solution. Our target likes it for its taste and its calcium
content. However, it delivers only 50 percent of the recommended daily allowance of calcium.
Other indirect competitors are diets and breakfast cereals that are not all-natural. Our target usually avoids
both, believing them to be unhealthy.
Advertising Goal
To get target audience members to view AsparFlakes as the healthiest all-natural asparagus- flavored
breakfast cereal because it fights osteoporosis.
Strategic Message
All-natural AsparFlakes fights osteoporosis because it's an excellent source of calcium.
Supporting Benefits
Feature
All-natural
Benefit
Healthy
100 percent of recommended
daily allowance of calcium
Fights bone disease
Made in old-fashioned brick
ovens by AsparPower Mills
A name you know and trust;
a process that represents old-fashioned,
wholesome values