CHAPTER 10

CREATING EFFECTIVE
AND CREATIVE
ADVERTISING
MESSAGES
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CHAPTER TEN OBJECTIVES

1. Appreciate the factors that promote effective
and creative advertising.
2. Understand a five-step program used in
formulating advertising strategy.
3. Describe the features of a creative brief.
4. Explain alternative creative styles that play a
role in the development of advertising
messages.
5. Understand the concept of means-end chains
and their role in advertising strategy.
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CHAPTER TEN OBJECTIVES

6. Appreciate the MECCAS model and its role in
guiding message formulation.
7. Describe the laddering method that provides
the data used in constructing a MECCAS
model.
8. Recognize the role of corporate image and
issue advertising.
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WHAT MAKES EFFECTIVE ADVERTISING?

Consumer’s
Sound
View Persuasive
Strategy

Effective
Advertising
Break Doesn’t
Clutter Deliver on Overwhelm
Promises
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The Role of CREATIVITY

Creative ads share two
characteristics:  American Family Life
Assurance Company
1. Originality (AFLAC)
 Nike
2. Appropriateness  Honda U.K.
 Apple iPod
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Original Ads: Apple iPod

• Silhouetted figures
against the neon
backgrounds holding
iPods.
• Simplicity of the
design and a different
look than most
commercials, which
feature identifiable
figures engaging in
dialogue.
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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.
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Advertising Successes and Mistakes

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Advertising Successes
and Mistakes

• Successful campaigns: both the brand management

team and the creative team have done their work well.
• Marketing Mistakes: result when the brand manager
fails to distinguish the brand from competitive offerings.
• Agency Mistakes: due to the ad agency’s inability to
design an effective execution, even though its brand
management client has a convincing message.
• Complete Disasters: caused by poor value
propositions and mediocre executions.
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Advertising Strategy: A Five-Step

Program

1. Specify the key fact from the customer’s

viewpoint.
2. State the primary problem, or advertising
issue, from brand management’s perspective.
3. State the advertising objective.
4. Implement the creative message strategy.
5. Establish mandatory requirements.
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Step 1: Specify the Key Fact

The key fact in an advertising strategy is a single-
minded statement from the consumer’s point of
view that identifies why consumers are or aren’t
purchasing the brand.
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Step 2: State the Primary Problem

• Extending from the key fact, this step states the
problem from the brand management’s point of
view.
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Step 3: State the Communications

Objective
This is a straightforward statement about what
effect the advertising is intended to have on the
target market.
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Step 4: Implement the Creative

Message Strategy
Sometimes called the creative platform, the
positioning statement is the key idea that a
brand is supposed to stand for in its target
market’s minds.
• Define the target market
• Identify the primary competition
• Choose the positioning statement
• Offer reasons why
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Step 5: Establish Mandatory

Requirements
The final step involves including mandatory
requirements due to regulatory dictates, or non-
regulatory requirements like the corporate logo
or tag-line.
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Styles of Creative Advertising

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Generic Creative Style

• An advertiser employs a generic style when
making a claim that could be made by any
company that markets a brand in a particular
category.
• Most appropriate for a brand that dominates a
product category.
• Example: Campbell’s Soup
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Means-End Chaining