CHAPTER 8
Effective and Creative
Advertising Messages
© 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning
All rights reserved.
PowerPoint Presentation by Charlie Cook
The University of West Alabama
Eighth Edition
Chapter Objectives
After reading this chapter you should be able to:
1. Appreciate the factors that promote effective, creative,
and “sticky” advertising.
2. Describe the features of a creative brief.
3. Explain alternative creative styles of advertising
messages.
4. Understand the concept of means-end chains and
their role in advertising strategy.
5. Appreciate the MECCAS model and its role in guiding
message formulation.
6. Recognize the role of corporate image and issue
advertising.
© 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–2
Creating Effective Advertising
Meaning of
Effective Advertising
Accomplishment
(Output Perspective)
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Composition
(Input Perspective)
8–3
Effective Advertising
Extends from
Sound Marketing
Strategy
Takes the
Consumer’s View
Delivers on
Its Promises
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Breaks through
the Clutter
Doesn’t Overwhelm
the Strategy
8–4
Creativity: The CAN Elements
The CAN Elements
of Creative Ads
Connectedness
Appropriateness
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Novelty
8–5
Getting Messages to “Stick”
• Characteristics of Sticky Ads
 Their audience readily comprehends the advertiser’s
intended message
 They are remembered
 They change the target audience’s brand-related
opinions or behavior
 They have lasting impact: they stick
© 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–6
Sticky Messages: SUCCESs
Simplicity
Concreteness
Unexpectedness
Common Elements
of Sticky Ads
Emotionality
Credibility
Storytelling
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8–7
Figure 8.1
Illustrations of the Aflac Advertising Campaign
with the “Spokesduck.”
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8–8
Advertising Successes and Mistakes
• Value Proposition
 Is the essence of a message and the reward to the
consumer for investing his or her time attending to an
advertisement
 The reward could be information about the product or
just an enjoyable experience
 Research indicates that starting with a strong selling
proposition substantially increases the odds of
creating effective advertisements
© 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–9
Figure 8.2
Combination of Message Convincingness
and Execution Quality
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8–10
Advertising Successes and Mistakes (cont’d)
Successful
Campaigns
Result from both the brand management team and
the creative team having done their work well
Marketing
Mistakes
Occur when the brand manager fails to distinguish
the brand from competitive offerings
Agency
Mistakes
Result from the ad agency’s inability to design an
effective execution, even though its brand
management client has a convincing message
Complete
Disasters
Are caused by poor value propositions and
mediocre executions
© 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–11
Constructing a Creative Brief
Item
Question
Background
What is the background to this job?
Target Audience
Whom do we need to reach with the ad campaign?
Thoughts and
Feelings
What do members of the target audience currently think and
feel about our brand?
Objectives and
Measures
What do we want the target audience to think or feel about the
brand, and what measurable effects is the advertising
designed to accomplish?
Behavioral Outcome What do we want the target audience to do?
Positioning
What is the brand positioning?
Message and
Medium
What general message is to be created, and what medium is
most appropriate for reaching the target audience?
Strategy
What is the strategy?
Nitty-Gritty Details
When (deadline) and how much (budget)?
© 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–12
Alternative Styles of Creative Advertising
• Functionally Oriented Advertising
 Appeals to consumers’ needs for tangible, physical,
and concrete benefits
• Symbolically or Experientially Oriented
Advertising
 Is directed at psychosocial needs
• Category-Dominance Advertising
 Does not necessarily use any particular type of
appeal to consumers but is designed to achieve an
advantage over competitors in the same product
category
© 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–13
Table 8.1
Styles of Creative Advertising
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8–14
Creative Advertising Styles
Creative Style Strategy
Unique Selling
Proposition
Identifying an important difference that makes a brand unique
and supports a claim that competitors cannot match
Brand Image
Developing an image or identity for a brand by associating the
brand with symbols that provide a transformational context
Resonance
Attempting to match “patterns” in an advertisement with the
target audience’s stored experiences
Emotional
Aiming to reach the consumer at a visceral level through the use
of emotional strategy
Generic
Making no attempt to differentiate the dominant brand from
competitive offerings or to claim superiority
Preemptive
Making a generic-type claim but doing so with an assertion of
superiority
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8–15
Figure 8.3
Illustration of
Resonance
Creative Strategy
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8–16
Figure 8.4
Illustration of
Emotional
Creative Strategy
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8–17
Section Summary
• An advertiser might use two or more styles
simultaneously.
• Some experts believe that advertising is most
effective when it addresses both functional
product and symbolic benefits.
• Effective advertising must establish a clear
meaning of what the brand is and how it
compares to competitive offerings.
© 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–18
Means-End Chaining and the Method
of Laddering as Guides to Creative
Advertising Formulation
• Means-End Chain
 Represents the linkages among brand attributes, the
consequences obtained from using the brand and
“consuming” the attributes, and the personal values
that the consequences reinforce
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8–19
Means-End Chain
• Attributes
 Features or aspects of advertised brands
• Consequences
 What consumers hope to receive (benefits) or avoid
(detriments) when consuming brands
• Values
 Enduring beliefs people hold regarding what is
important in life
Brand attributes and the consequences of
consuming these attributes are the means
whereby people achieve valued ends
© 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–20
Table 8.2
Ten Universal Values
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8–21
Table 8.3
A MECCAS* Model Conceptualization
of Advertising Strategy
* Means-End Conceptualization of Components for Advertising Strategy
© 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–22
Figure 8.5
MECCAS
Illustration for
Self-Direction
Value
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8–23
Figure 8.6
MECCAS
Illustration for
Hedonism
Value
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8–24
Figure 8.7
MECCAS
Illustration for
Achievement
Value
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8–25
Figure 8.8
MECCAS
Illustration for
Power Value
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8–26
Identifying Means-End Chains:
The Method of Laddering
• Laddering Research Technique
 Is used to identify linkages between attributes (A),
consequences (C), and values (V)
 Constructs a hierarchy, or ladder, of relations
between a brand’s attributes and consequences (the
means) and consumer values (the end).
 Attempts to get at the root or deep reasons why
individual consumers buy certain products and brands
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8–27
Practical Issues in Identifying
Means-End Chains
• The laddering method “forces” interviewees to identify
hierarchies among attributes, consequences, and values
that may actually not exist for them
• Consumers may perceive clear-cut linkages between
attributes and consequences but not necessarily
between consequences and values
• The resulting aggregations of A  C  V chains are
assumed to represent all consumers in the target
audience
© 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–28
Corporate Image and Issue Advertising
• Corporate Image Advertising
 Attempting to increase a firm’s name recognition,
establish goodwill for the company and its products,
or identify the firm with some meaningful and socially
acceptable activity.
• Corporate Issue (Advocacy) Advertising
 Involves a firm taking a position on a controversial
social issue of public importance with the intention of
swaying public opinion.
 Supports position and best interests of the firm while
expressly or implicitly challenging an opponent’s
position and denying the accuracy of their facts.
© 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–29
Figure 8.9
Illustration of
Corporate Image
Advertisement
© 2010 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
8–30