Basic Strategies in Advertising

by Neil Kokemuller Google

Advertising includes paid messages within a company's promotional mix. Since you pay for the time or space for an ad placement, you typically have greater control over the development and delivery of the message. Several key strategies contribute to an effective ad campaign and advertisement design and delivery.

Segmentation Strategy

Companies with a broad target audience typically segment or break down the marketplace to groups of customers with similar traits or interests. The idea is to concentrate your message on a specific type of customer that brings a great return on investment. Common approaches to segmentation include demographics, lifestyles, usage patterns and geography. Once you identify discrete segments, you select one to target for a given ad campaign.

Message Strategy

Your message strategy includes a creative strategy, specific message objective and techniques to achieve it. Companies use variety of creative approaches in advertising, including humor, drama, attention-getting visuals, upbeat jingles and catch slogans. Promoting brand recall is a common message objective. Jingles, slogans and rhyming are common techniques to achieve recall. Fear and anxiety-inducing messages rely on these human emotions to persuade customers to buy. Presenting the social importance of a brand, making people laugh, playing on sensuality and transforming thoughts and behaviors are other common techniques used in messages.

Positioning Strategy

A company's positioning refers to its unique value proposition for a particular target market. Thus, your positioning strategy begins with a statement identifying what you offer and to whom. A company with a brand new, patented technology device might position itself as the leading provider of technology ABC to teens and young adults. With this position in mind, the company would focus its advertising on establishing this position through consistent messaging. In a more competitive marketplace, you also need to know what competitors offer to ensure your messages emphasize differentiation and superior benefits.

Media Strategy

Your media strategy includes developing a media mix and consideration of several placement factors. First, you must decide in which medium or media you wish to place your ads. A small business is often limited to a few local ad opportunities because of budget limitations. To maximize the value of your ad, you need to know the potential target market reach, the number of possible impressions for your ad and the costs to generate those impressions. Local newspaper, direct mail and radio commonly offer the most affordable way for small businesses to get their messages out.

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