Advertising & Media Unit 3 – Analyzing the customer

Advertisers (and marketers in general) identify likely consumers for their products Create wants

Consumers can be grouped by Culture Social Class Community Family Gender

Differences in consumption between genders are not well defined

Positioning is the process of making an advertiser’s product different from other products in the consumer’s mind Figuring out how to convince a consumer

to choose one product over a similar product offered by a competitor

Providing consumers with reasons to purchase specific products

Substance: something must “back up” the strategy or claim in order for a positioning strategy to remain effective over time

Consistency: internally, across media and overtime

Simple, Distinctive Theme: Let the consumer understand what the product will do for them

Themes create a focus for the advertising campaign

Physical positioning strategies emphasize the objective physical characteristics of the product

Perceptual positioning strategies emphasize emotional or subjective opinions about the product

The following basic themes can use physical or perceptual strategies with these basic themes:

Benefit Positioning – focusing on a specific benefit derived from the choice of that product

User Positioning – focus on the consumer. How will the product fit into their lifestyle

Competitive Positioning – emphasizing the difference between your product and similar products

Starting over due to: Loss of effectiveness over time Change in the market

New entrant Change in technology

Change in consumer taste Unexpected events

Research is conducted in the planning, preparation and placement of advertisements

Can happen multiple time at different points in the process of creating an advertisement: Selecting the target market Understanding the target segment Evaluate an advertisement’s effectiveness Evaluate the advertisement’s remaining

effectiveness before it is withdrawn from the media

Help in creating the advertisement Idea Generation – talk directly to

consumers to find out why they might want to buy the product

Environmental Analysis – evaluate the potential influence of your environment (social & cultural trends, economics and politics) on purchasing decisions

Audience Definition – Get to know your target market

Audience Profiling – Lifestyle research, surveys, and in-depth interviews to get a more complete picture of the individual consumer

Provide Knowledge – recall and recognition tests will tell advertisers how much the audience remembers

Shape Attitude – does the advertisement change one’s opinion about one of the factors?

Attach Emotions – emotional impact can increase recall

Validate a Brand – does the advertisement resonate or feel true to the consumer

A focus group consists of groups of six to twelve consumers

Used to obtain in depth information Represents a small sample of the target

market Must be led by an experienced

moderator to: Remain on track Avoid being dominated by one member

Testing an advertisement before it is released to the media

Communication tests – test the message the audience receives against the message the advertiser wants to send

Magazine Dummies – a mock-up magazine with the advertisement is sent to test market at their home. Test subjects answer questions about the content and the ads to gauge recall and feelings about the ad

Theater Tests – Advertisements can be viewed in small theaters (usually near malls).

Thought Listings – After viewing an advertisement, small groups write down the thoughts they had during the advertisement

Releasing the advertisement to a small potion of the target segment before it is fully released