Today, most advertising strategies focus on achieving some general goals like;
1) Promote awareness of a brand and its product or services.
2) Stimulate sales directly and "attract competitors’ customers"
3) Establish or modify a brand image. In simple words, advertising seeks to inform, persuade, and remind the consumer.
For this, the key is a creative and impactful planning, based on an in-depth knowledge of the target consumer and the avenues that can be utilized to reach that consumer.
Stages of an Impactful Advertising Strategy:-
1. TARGET CONSUMER - The target consumer is a complex combination of people. It includes the person who ultimately buys the product, as well as those who decide what product should be bought (but don't actually buy it), and those who influence product purchases to others such as children, spouse, and friends. In order to identify the target consumer, and on the purchasing option, it is important to define three general aspects which are in relation to that consumer are;
- Demographics-Age, gender, job, income, interests, and hobbies
- Behaviors-When considering the consumer's behavior an advertiser needs to examine the consumer's point of awareness of the product and its competition, the type of products and services the consumer currently uses, and the level of appeals that are likely use to convince the consumer to give the advertiser's product or service a chance.
- Needs and Wants -here an advertiser must figure out the consumer needs- either in practical terms or in terms of self-image, etc.-and the kind of message that will convince the consumer that the advertiser's services or products can fulfill those needs very appropriately.
2 . PRODUCT CONCEPTION - How the product is positioned within the market will communicate all kinds of values the product represents, and thus how the target consumer will receive that product. Therefore, it is important to remember that no product is just itself, but, a "bunch of values" that the consumer needs to be able to connect with. Whether it is emphasized with humor, romance, science, masculinity, or femininity, the consumer must be able to believe in the product's usefulness.
3. COMMUNICATION MEDIA - The communication media is the medium by which the advertising messages are transmitted to the consumer. In addition to marketing objectives, the characteristics of the target consumer need to be considered as an advertiser decide what media to use.
4. MESSAGE - An advertising message is guided by the " art or copy platform," which is a combination of the product objectives, copy, art, and production values. This combination is carried out after the target consumer has been analyzed and the product concept has been established, with compatible media and vehicles that have been chosen. At this point, the advertising message can be delivered at a very concrete audience to achieve very specific goals.
