Now that you have established your advertising goals, it's time to define your strategy. In this chapter, we will review different techniques that will enable you to reach your goals.
Discover the Different Strategic Advertising Strategies
There are four major theories, each based on particular consumer perception, that you are going to want to influence.
The Persuasive or Informative Strategy
Try to convince a consumer with a rational argument (appealing to the head).
The consumer purchase is a considered act to satisfy a need.
Your strategy is to present the product features compared to your competitors, showing a competitive advantage, often demonstrated by a price/quality comparison.
You generally find this type of advertising in the world of mass marketing. In this example, Lidl is showing that in addition to getting a very similar looking product, your money will buy you a range of other things to go with it... just not quite the same brand!
Lidl comparison with Tesco campaign
There was a particularly cheeky example of this a few years ago in South Africa. Recounting an accident in 1988, where a driver walked away unhurt from his Mercedes after it fell 100m over a cliff, this advertisement from Mercedes Benz aired on South African television networks:
Competitors BMW were quick to respond with a cleverly worded response: "Doesn't it make sense to drive a luxury sedan the beats the bends (Benz)?"
The Suggestive Strategy
Try to develop a psychological approach to the individual.
It does not appeal to reason, but their senses. It emphasizes the image and influences the consumer's unconscious.
It aims to create a desire that is not necessarily rationally justified; the consumer will not buy out of necessity.
This strategy is used by campaigns that discuss protecting the planet. The WWF campaign, "Before it's too late," concerning the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, prompt the consumer to donate to the association.
WWF campaign "Before it's too late" 2014
This example, one of a series for Jeep, used the slogan: "See whatever you want to see." These playful ads each featured two different animals in the same picture, depending on which way you held the page. It subtly suggests that you can see things that others can't, or at least see them differently with a Jeep.
Jeep: is it a deer, or is it a penguin?
The Repetition Strategy
Here you try to create a reflex; you don't appeal to the consumer's rational and conscious sense, but the opposite. You want to educate the consumer, render them passive, and subject them to the consumption reflexes, or habits.
This strategy builds on the ubiquity of your brand, product, or service, using blanket advertising techniques.
Ronseal, a British manufacturer of wood stain, paints, and preservatives, has run campaigns for over 20 years with the line, "It does exactly what it says on the tin." This successful repetition strategy has entered the language - the phrase has even being cited by politicians in their campaign speeches.
As it was pointed out, Ronseal no longer uses a tin. They ran this lighthearted apology as a commercial on TV and online, which plays on many years of advertising strategy that repeated their slogan.
The Projective or Integrative Strategy
Here you try to work on consumer's desire to affirm their social status.
You highlight how your product or service emphasizes the consumer's membership in a select group.
This strategy uses the consumer's lifestyle to motivate them to change their behavior to access a select group of heroes.
Traveline Cymru is a Welsh campaign that started with the idea that the transport services they offered gave ordinary people superpowers when they planned their journeys via social media, text, website, app, or phone. The campaign started with posters to find heroes, then used digital media for interactivity, culminating in a TV commercial that featured everyday heroes.
Traveline Cymru - members of the public as heroes
The Principles of Persuasion
Robert Cialdini, Professor of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University, is the author of some highly respected books on the subject of persuasion. In his 1984 book, Influence: Science and Practice, he set out the six principles of persuasion. In his latest book, Pre-Suasion, he added a seventh.
These seven Cialdini principles have had a significant impact on marketing thinking since. In fact, you'll recognize them in the strategies above. They are:
Reciprocation: The sense of obligation people often feel about returning favors offered to them.
Commitment and consistency: People like to be seen to be consistent in their behavior.
Social proof: People find it reassuring when making decisions, to see others like them making the same choices.
Liking: People agree more with other people they like.
Authority: People are influenced in their decisions by an authority.
Scarcity: The more scarce something becomes, the more people tend to want it - think of toilet paper in the early stages of the COVID lockdown!
Unity: The more people identify with others, the more they copy their behavior and choices.
🥤 Discover Which Strategy Bio Boost Opts For
What about our Bio Boost🥤 start-up? What strategy could Candice and Julien choose?
There is a good chance that they are looking to develop a persuasive strategy. They can target consumers of organic products who, until now, don't consume energy drinks, as this type of beverage did not match their organic preferences.
Candice and Julien can try to demonstrate the product's quality by comparing it with a non-organic energy drink.
Let's Recap!
You are now equipped with new tools that will enable you to identify and reach your ideal target audience. You have explored the four main advertising strategies:
The persuasive strategy that appeals the rational mind.
The suggestive strategy that appeals to the senses.
The repetition strategy that aims to create a reflex reaction.
The projective strategy that appeals to the customer's sense of social status.
These strategies will also have an impact on consumers since they are based on different sociological approaches.
In the next chapter, you’ll further study your potential customers and try to understand better who they are.
