Achieving Customer

Engagement
Advertising strategy

 Paid, non-personal communications from

an identified sponsor, using mass media
to persuade or influence a decision
(Richards and Curran 2002)
A paid, mediated form of communication
from an identifiable source, designed to
persuade the receiver to take some action,
now or in the future. (Richards and Curran
2002)

Advertising objectives
Possible advertising objectives
Informative
advertising

Telling the market about a new product

Suggesting new uses for a product
Informing the market of a price change
Explaining how the product works

Persuasive
advertising

Building brand preference

Encouraging switching to your brand
Changing customers perception of product
attributes

Reminder
advertising

Building and maintaining the customer base

Remind the customer that the product may
be needed in the future
Keeping the product in the customers mind
during off-seasons

Different levels of purchase

motivation

The motivation that drives the purchase of a

product influences how one reacts to and
processes advertising (Ratchford, 1987; Rossiter
et al, 1991; Vaughan, 1986).

 Products are either purchased to fulfil:

Informational needs (also called think
products) are used for solving consumptionrelated problems such as bank services,
washing-up liquid, and tooth paste.
Transformational needs provide
gratification and positive emotions such as
holiday travel, chocolate and clothes.

Informational Needs

Informational products solve consumption

problems
Consumers are rational when they purchase
them
Target audience requires information
Convince the target audience that the
product has the right characteristics against
competition

Transformational Needs
The audiences need for information is lower
Consumers evaluate based on how they perceive the
product will make them feel

Sometimes, informational products are advertised

using transformational motivations
Car
Deodorant
Drinks

Different type and objectives of

advertising appeals

Appeal approach
Brand awareness

Objectives of communication
To illicit recall and recognition of brand following
Marketing Communications.

Brand salience

To differentiate a brand within a category.

Promoting product trial

To get the target audience to start using the

brand.

Comparing our brand against the

To achieve relative positioning against the

competition

competition within a category.

Changing negative brand perceptions and

To get target audience to re-evaluate our brand.

consumer attitudes to our brand

8

Different type and objectives of

advertising appeals

Informational content

To eliminate perceived risk from purchase decision.

Activity and engagement

To seek active participation by target audience with communication

message.

Strength of argument

To apply communications relevant to the level of involvement

consumers have with the brand.

Appealing to

To tailor communications according to the level of rational or

Informational and

emotional requirement of target audience.

Transformational Needs
Flexibility

To vary ad content without affecting a consistent message.

Informational content

To eliminate perceived risk from purchase decision.

Target audience

Type of target

characteristics and

audience

perceptions

response

Brand Loyal to our

Cognitive

brand

Affective

Conative

Brand Loyal to

Cognitive

Competitor

Indicative advertising objective

Remind and Reinforce

Recall

Informational content

Associate our brand with category

Induce engagement

Encourage activity and engagement

Encourage repeat purchase

Calls to action

Informational content

Comparative statements against

competition

Affective

Reputational advertising

Inspire loyal customers to spread positive

word of mouth to non-users

Conative

Facilitate sales of product

How advertising works

Advertising cannot be explained by a single
interpretation or model
Analogue v Digital

Persuasion model
Involvement Model
Salience model
Sales promotion model

Digital and Analogue

Advertising Messages
Analoguedelivered
messages say
This is the reason
why the brand is
different

Digitally
delivered
messages
encourage
Persuasion

People to explore a
brand such as
search

Imagine you are

associated with the
brand

Involvement

People to play and

create content

Please think about

this brand

Salience

People to talk and

share information
about the brand

Promotion

People to act now

Act now and you

Persuasion
Rational approach to advertising
Push consumers to act
AIDA

Involvement
Draw the audience into the advertisement
Elicit an emotional response
Shared values (Dove)
Aspirational values (Lynx)
Personification (Loreal)

Salience
Advertising works by being noticeable
Standing out in the product category

How can ads be made salient?

Sales Promotion
This approach is based on the premise that
sales is the only objective when measuring
the effectiveness of an advertising
campaign.
Tangible measurement

Selecting the media

Reach, frequency and impact
Media types
Print, Radio, TV, Digital

Media vehicles
Specific type of media used (e.g. Sunday
times, Champions League)

Media timing
Seasonality, AM/PM, weekday / weekend

Brand positioning and

narrative development

Involvement: determines how involved the

purchase is, how much information should be
used, to what extent the target audience should
be activated, and the amount and strength of
arguments used.
Purchase motivation: will also determine how
much information should be used, whether the
argument is appropriate and what emotions the
advertising should evoke.
Brand familiarity: decides how much attention
should be given to the product and how
complex the advertising content should be.

Product Involvement
High-involvement products
Complex
Expensive
Need consumers to spend time evaluating and
purchasing

Low involvement products

Low complexity and involvement

Majority of purchases are low involvement

Product Involvement
The function of advertising with low
involvement product is to remind customers
of the products existence
Majority of advertising is devoted to this
Level of involvement will influence
advertising approach

Brand Awareness

Two types of brand awareness...

Recall
Recognition

Recall is dependent upon the likelihood of

advertising being remembered
Recognition relies not just on remembering
the advertising, but creating positive
associations

Brand Awareness
To attain recall, advertising must create
strong associations which make the product
memorable to the target audience
Relevant and easily accessible associations

Recall objectives

Linking the brand to category need:

Top-of-mind recall is desirable when

consumers link brands with a particular
category need. Explicitly creating strong
associations between the product and the
category is important.

23

Recall objectives

Repetition: Repetition is the most

effective tool when recall is the
communication objective as recall is a form
of simple learning:
Repetition within the actual
advertisements is evident too: the
repetition of the message in the beginning
and end of the advertisement, or by
paraphrasing (i.e. repeating with other
words) the headline of a newspaper ad
further down in the text.

Recall objectives
Enduring contact time:
Another way to get the target audience to
remember the link between the product and
the category need is to maximise contact
time (Singh et al, 1993). Contact time is the
time spent establishing the desired productcategory need link.
User-generated contact

Recognition objectives

Recognition is to a large extent about an automatic

behaviour: it is less demanding to attain brand
recognition as peoples visual memory is highly strong
and accessible. The task of advertising is to create and
automatic recognition.

Clear product exposure: Advertising may convey an

environment that relates to the purchase situation (e.g.
a store or a newsstand). Likewise, the purchase situation
could by all means remind people of the advertising, by
for example linking back to the advertisings theme in
store displays (sales promotions).
26

Recognition objectives
Consistency: The way that the product is
depicted must not change.
Negative consequences of a changed
product packaging or a different advertising
concept.
After the initial introduction of the product,
the advertising should mainly reinforce the
message.

Recognition objectives

High-repetition advertising, where the audience

is exposed to the same ad numerous times
within short time-intervals, allows the audience
ample opportunity to learn about an unfamiliar
brand.
This effect is less pronounced for familiar
brands, as the audience can relate to their
previous relationship with the brand and reduce
the level of boredom (Campbell et al, 2003).

Task
Outline the advertising strategy of a recent
campaign. Consider:

Overall objectives
Consumer motivations
Approach
Selection of media
Evaluation

Reading
Fill, C. (2013). Marketing Communications:
Brands, Experiences and Participations, 6th
Ed. Prentice Hall Chapter 14
Dahlen, M., Lange, F., & Smith, T. (2010).
Marketing communications: A brand
narrative approach. Chichester: Wiley.
Chapter 11