Advertising Principles and Practices

Advertising Principles and Practices

Gan Pei Jane
0327622
Jan 2019 - Feb 2019

Module Outline

Fig. 1: Module Outline.

Lectures

Week 1

Lecture 1:

What is advertising?

In the first class of Advertising Principles and Practices module, Mr. Vinod briefed us on the module outline of the module and what exercises and projects that we needed to do throughout the short semester for this module. After then, he gave us a lecture on the introduction of Advertising.

1. Communicates information:

One of the most important functions of advertising is to convey or communicate the information to others. In the modern day world, where science and technology contribute to new innovations and inventions, every now and then new goods and improvisation of the existing goods and services are entering into the market. If their use or knowledge is restricted to a limited number of people, social advancements cannot take place.

Consumers are, therefore, provided information about new products and services which enter the market, through advertising. Besides, the demand for existing products and services has to be maintained as well as enhanced with the help of advertising. The ultimate purpose is to enhance sales either by creating or increasing the demand for goods and services.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

2. Creates ground for personal selling:

Since the main purpose of advertising is to create and sustain demand for products or services and expand the market, the prospective buyers automatically become interested to buy such products and services. In this way, advertising supports the efforts of the sales force of an organization and creates the ground for the salesmen to approach prospective buyers.

3. Educates people:

Advertising serves another important purpose of educating people about products and services. As consumers are not aware of the use of several products and services, advertisements provide adequate knowledge to the people at large about the usage and utility of several products and services.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

For example, as consumers, we are not aware of the composition of baby food, health drink, etc. which are made known to us by advertisements only. In fact, advertisement provides us knowledge of various aspects of products and services which really benefits and educates consumers in making wise purchase decisions.

4. Creates and extends demand:

By arousing the interest of the people and attracting their attention, advertising seeks to create and sustain demand for a product or service and expand the market for the same. Thus, advertising is a two-edged weapon. It creates demand for products and services and also helps to maintain and extend the demand. As a matter of fact, there are innumerable wants which lie dormant within us. Advertising and publicity try to bring out the hidden want within us and create demand for goods and services. Thus, new demand within the population is created and consumers are encouraged to buy more.

5. Creates an image for the product or service:

Another important purpose of advertising is to create an image both for the product as well as for the organization. This is done by emphasizing the distinctive features of the products or services through advertisements. Similarly, the reputation and goodwill of the organization can also be emphasized in advertisements.

Further, some advertisers also communicate information about new discoveries, new ideas, and new products and thereby create a good image of their firms. They also highlight their high points like low prices, special discounts, customer services, etc. which contribute to building a favorable image of the organization.

6. Builds goodwill:

Advertising serves the purpose of promoting goodwill for the organization. Many advertisements aim at impressing the consumers that the firm is patriotic, progressive, imaginative and very much concerned with quality. This creates goodwill in the minds of the general public about the firm. This goes a long way in creating a favorable impression about the organization on the prospective buyers.

7. Obtain dealer support:

Dealers dealing with products and services need constant support from the manufacturer in the form of advertising. In other words, advertisements make products and services quite familiar with prospective buyers.

As a consequence, products and services are pre-sold through advertising. Such products and services become quite familiar with consumers. Dealers also prefer stocking those products and services which are well-advertised and having a constant demand in the market.

8. Counters competition

In the present day competitive marketing environment, a firm cannot escape the responsibility of spending on advertising. To counter the competitor’s advertisement campaign, every firm has to undertake an advertisement of its own. Therefore, competitive forces compel firms to spend on advertising.

10 Principles Of Advertising by Bill Bernbach
1. Go to the essence of the product. 
2. Make your product an actor in the scene; not just a prop.
3. Art and copy must be fully integrated.
4. Advertising must have vitality. 
5. It is little less than useless to employ a so-called gimmick in advertising unless the gimmick itself tells the product story.
6. Tell the truth. If the product is good, tell the truth; if the product is not really good, don't tell the negative and enhance the good of the product.
7. Be relevant.
8. Be simple.
9. Safe ideas can kill you.
10. Stand out.

After the lecture, Mr. Vinod then asked us to go to the website for "D&AD New Blood Awards 2019". We were asked to sign up and download the briefs for the competition. Afterward, we are also told to read through all the briefs available and choose a brand to participate in. For the brand, I teamed up with Xin Ying and we chose Bacardi as our brand of choice. 

We were then given a break to think about ideas to propose for the competition. For the first idea, using the keywords needed, which is "summer" and "free-spirit" and also the word "mixable drink", I pondered on the idea about a music video featuring a mixture of different races doing summery activities in the afternoon summer with a summery music background while holding Bacardi drinks. 

Mr. Vinod thought that the mix of races was a good attempt on an idea and he asked us to think about more ideas to be proposed on the next week. 

Lecture 2:

Advertising and Marketing

During the second lecture of the week, Mr. Vinod lectured us on a topic called Advertising and Marketing. According to AMA, advertising is defined as “The placement of announcements and persuasive messages in time or space purchased in any of the mass media by business firms, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and individuals who seek to inform and or persuade members of a particular target market or audience about their products, services, organizations, or ideas.” Whilst marketing is derived from the Latin word Mercari and Marcatus, and means “buy or trade”. Marketing is defined as “A form of communication between you and your customers with the goal of selling your product or service to them.”

Marketing requires the synchronization of four elements called the 4 P's of marketing:

1. identification, selection, and development of a product
2. determination of its price
3. selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer's place
4. development and implementation of a promotional strategy.

Week 2

Lecture 3:

Roles and function of an art director

For this class, Mr. Vinod started the class by giving us a lecture on Design Thinking, which is a model that designers use to break down the process of design thinking. Mr. Vinod explains that as designers, the first step to design thinking is to emphathize with the audience, which is putting themselves in the shoes of the audience and experiencing the situation, and not just looking at the situation, which is just sympathy. The designers then need to do research and gain insights and then dissecting the brief and categorize it and also analyzing and evaluating and come up with an idea. He explains that the process is very important to win the hearts and minds of the audience.

Art directors are responsible for the visual style and images in magazines, newspapers, product packaging, and movie and television productions. They create the overall design and direct others who develop artwork or layouts.

Art directors set the overall artistic style and visual image to be created for each project, and oversee a staff of designers, artists, photographers, writers, or editors who are responsible for creating the individual works that collectively make up a completed product.

Art directors typically do the following: 

• Determine how best to represent a concept visually
• Determine which photographs, art, or other design elements to use
• Develop the overall look or style of a publication, an advertising campaign, or a theater, television, or film set
• Supervise design staff
• Review and approve designs, artwork, photography, and graphics developed by other staff members 
• Talk to clients to develop an artistic approach and style
• Coordinate activities with other artistic and creative departments
• Develop detailed budgets and timelines
• Present designs to clients for approval

The art director typically works with a typewriter, who produces the written content, the art director will seek to influence changes in audience behavior through ideas, creativity and the use of media.

Another interesting thing that Mr. Vinod mentioned is what constitutes a creative idea. 
Product proposition + something unrelated = creative ideas

Lecture 4:

Idea sketches

In today's lecture, we learn about idea sketches and the importance of mind mapping to come up with ideas. Mr. Vinod then explains to us what an idea sketch means, and also lectured us on the difference between an idea sketch and a concept.

Idea sketch: An idea by itself
Concept: Multiple ideas relating to each other

When doing an idea sketch, it is best to not put in too much detail and just do a vague sketch of the idea, shading, and coloring is also not necessary unless required to do so.

Week 3

No lecture for this week.

Week 4

Lecture 4:

Advertising message and choice of media

Factors in developing a media strategy:

1. Market: Various targets of media plans.
2. Money: Budget size and allocation.
3. Media: Communication channels available to the marketer
4. Mechanics: Timing and type of media
5. Methodology: Overall media strategy

Week 5

No lecture for this week.

Week 6

Lecture 5: 

Creative and effective advertising message for a specific target audience

Mr. Vinod mentions in today's lecture that we should:
1. Research the target audience, and not create art that you yourself would like.
2. Let the target audience test the outcome.

Why do we create?
1. To communicate ideas and values
2. To solve the problem
3. Need for novel, varied and complex situations

How we can become creative:
1. Look from a different perspective
2. Do something new

Creative content of advertising:
1. Relevance between brand and target audience
2. Present selling ideas
3. Be unexpected(A twisted visual or headline)

Lecture 6:

For today's lecture, Mr. Vinod talks about the importance of attracting attention in an ad. He says that people only take a few seconds to look at an ad, the designer needs to use unrelated/unexpected elements to attract people to see the ad so that people will spend time looking at the ad and ends up remembering the ad. It is important to choose ONE element to attract the attention of people, be it an unexpected visual or an unexpected headline to make the poster strong in terms of message.

Exercises

Exercise 1:

Decoding Exercise

For the second lecture, we were asked by Mr. Vinod to find a campaign advertisement and to think about the Proposition, Creative Idea, Strategy, and Element.

Fig. 2: Worry Lines: Car Crash.

Fig. 3: Worry Lines: Annoying Kids.

Fig. 4: Worry Lines: Unfinished House.

Campaign Title: Nivea: Worry Lines
Conceived By: Jung Von Matt/Alster
Product: Nivea Men Active Age Moisturizer
Idea: There is more to worry about than just wrinkles on one's forehead. The ad portrays worrisome situations such as a car crash, annoying children and also an unfinished home that presses heavily on a man's mind to create premature wrinkling.
Strategy: Wrinkles deep enough to cause distress/ fear of losing good looks and aging, vanity.
Elements: Car crash, annoying kids and unfinished home.
USP: Focus on life events that cause distress in a man's mind and therefore, wrinkles.
Tagline: Because Life Makes Wrinkles
Target Audience: Older men

The advertisement features a visual of a close up on a man's wrinkly forehead and examples of "disasters" that happens on top of his forehead, or, in a man's mind. The ad's message is "because life makes wrinkles". The strategy is fear of aging, losing good looks, basically, vanity. The advertisement shows that the wrinkles are deep enough to cause distress. Which can prompt older men who have wrinkles to buy Nivea's product.

Exercise 2:

Market Segmentation

During Week 4, we were divided into groups of 4 and are given a market segmentation to research and define. My group mates for this exercise is Xin Ying and Chris. The topic that was given to us is psychographic segmentation. We were then asked to post our findings on Facebook in our Advertising Principles and Marketing group.

The definition of psychographic segmentation is as below:

Psychographic segmentation has been used in marketing research as a form of market segmentation which divides consumers into sub-groups based on shared psychological characteristics, including subconscious or conscious beliefs, motivations, and priorities to explain and predict consumer behavior. Psychographics is to look past who your customers are towards your company and see them as individual people living in the real world. By learning about their personality, lifestyle, and social classes and how our brand fits into their personal life.

Behavioral Segmentation is a segmentation based on the consumer's behavioral patterns.
Demographic Segmentation is a segmentation that is based on the consumer's gender, age etc.
Geographic Segmentation is a segmentation based on the consumer's location.

Project

Our main project for this module is to participate in the D&AD New Blood Awards 2019. We were asked to choose from a list of brands provided on their website. My group mate for this project is Xin Ying. We have chosen Bacardi as our brand for this competition.

Fig. 5: D&AD Brief: Bacardi.

We were then asked to read the brief provided for the brand and to understand the keywords and main points written in the brief to do our research for the brand and to execute our project.

Fig. 6: Do What Moves You.

While researching, we found a few ads which varies from posters to videos. 

Fig. 7: Bacardi ad example 1.

Fig. 8: Bacardi ad example 2.

Fig. 9: Bacardi ad example 3.

Fig. 10: Bacardi ad example 4.

At the beginning of the semester, we brainstormed on ideas and created a mindmap to portray our ideas and keywords to give us a clear thought on what we want our final outcome to be. The main idea is to create an advertisement that showcases Bacardi as not only a simple drink but as something that can inspire and "move" people, as shown in the tagline "Do What Moves You". The target audience for this particular project are young people aged 18 to 24.

Fig. 11: Mind mapping of Bacardi.

We then prepared a SWOT analysis based on Bacardi's main competitors: Diageo, Pernod Ricard, Suntory, and Remy Cointreau.

The SWOT analysis is as below:

Diageo (1997)

Strength

• A highly recognized brand that has a market presence in 180 countries.
• The world’s largest whiskey producer with almost 30 malt distilleries and two-grain distilleries.
• Strong brand positioning has developed through global associations and tie-ups.
• Presence across multiple price points and deal in various types of liquor like vodka, rum, whiskey, and beer ensuring that they have something for all types of customers.
• Out of the world’s top 20 brands of spirits 8 brands are owned by Diageo. Some of these popular brands include Smirnoff Vodka, Johnnie Walker, Baileys, Guinness, Captain Morgan, Crown Royal etc.

Weakness

• High costs, challenges in managing costs since procurement of licenses, legal formalities as well as distribution demand high levels of investment from the company.
• Insufficient market resources in the wine’s portfolio of the brand comparatively to its spirit business.

Opportunity

• There is growing awareness regarding various types of alcohol across the world and people are more aware of global brands and prefer to serve well-known brands of alcohol

Threats

• Laws and regulation can threaten the establishment and advertisement of the wine business.
• The customers of alcohol are concerned about the ill effects of consumption of the drink and this is likely to affect the sale of hard liquor in the future.

Pernod Ricard (1975)

Strength

• 2nd biggest Spirits company in the world
• As a recognized brand-builder

Weakness

• Focus on premium liquors: In growing markets like India and China as well as in the US the company is harping on its premium liquor brands to give it profitability. However, the margins are low on these brands and the company will need to increase volumes for achieving the necessary profitability.
• Inability to target mass: Pernod Ricard is a seller of premium brands of alcohol.In countries like India where there is a growing market most of the volumes come from the sale of economy brands of alcohol and the masses are not willing to spend on premium brands. This will affect the future profitability of the business.
• Unrealistic sales growth expectations: Pernod Ricard is focusing on accelerated sales growth in most of its markets. While in the USA the sale of its popular brand of Vodka Absolut has been on a steep decline, in China the slump has made people conscious about their spending and thus they are unwilling to spend on luxury brands of alcohol. This makes the sales growth dream an unrealistic one for Pernod Ricard.

Opportunity

• Great opportunity for the organization to grab a strong hold on the upcoming whole new generation of drinkers and get a virtual first-mover advantage in emerging economies.

Threats

• Consumer health concern (switching to non-alcoholic beverages).
• Laws and regulation can threaten the establishment and advertisement of the wine business.

Suntory (1899)

Strength

• Sound soft drinks business – Suntory has a strong position in the global soft drinks market despite the increasing profile of Chinese companies. The company is the largest Japanese soft drinks manufacturer.
• Established brand – the eponymous Suntory brand is a very valuable asset of the company as it is still Japan's second best-selling soft drinks brand, and in China, the brand’s market share is increasing year-on-year. 
•  Healthy external relationship – the company’s business relationships with PepsiCo, Nestlé and Unilever have helped it cushion the sluggish growth in soft drinks in the Japanese domestic market and increase its revenue streams.
•  Asian expansion – further expansion China and Southeast Asia may help Suntory to increase its market shares in Asia-Pacific in the long term. The development of the RTD coffee business in the region is expected to bear fruit in the medium term.
• Proactive to market trends – Suntory is proactive in responding to consumer trends and this is reflected in the introduction of new products in dynamic sectors such as RTD tea and the direct importing of Nestlé’s water brands from France to Japan when imported water brands are becoming popular.

Weakness

• Reliance on the domestic market – Suntory’s heavy reliance on the Japanese domestic market has made it susceptible to the sluggish growth of the country’s soft drinks business. 
• Heavyweight business relationship with PepsiCo – some reliance on Pepsi bottling business makes Suntory vulnerable to any decline in PepsiCo’s global soft drinks business

Opportunity

• Imported water brands – imported bottled water is becoming increasingly popular in Japan and with imported brands also growing in popularity, the company's agreements to import and distribute Nestlé’s brands should prove a positive move in the short to medium term.
• Online retailing – the growing popularity of online shops can be used to leverage the intense competition in regular retail channels.
• Stronger relationship – the strengthened alliance with PepsiCo in Southeast Asia will help Suntory to be a more serious player across the region.
• Acquisitions – over the past six months, Suntory has made a few acquisitions, showing that the Japanese player is becoming bolder in terms of acquisition particularly for expanding overseas business and domestic channel development.

Threats

• Increases in marketing spending to maintain interests – Japanese consumers are characterized by a short interest in certain products, and the constant need to launch new products could be a costly business, potentially affecting margins. 
•  Company brands to be under pressure – increased selling of imported brands increases the revenue stream, but Suntory’s own water brands could potentially be pressured.
• Rising input costs – high commodity prices and energy costs will increase significantly the production costs and put margins constantly under pressure.

Remy Cointreau

Strength

• First mover advantage in the increasingly crowded market place. The new products are rapidly increasing Remy Cointreau market share in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry.
• Remy Cointreau has a strong market leadership position in the Beverages (Alcoholic) industry. It has helped the company to rapidly scale new products successes.
• A wide geographical presence - Remy Cointreau has an extensive dealer network and associates network that not only helps in delivering efficient services to the customers but also helps in managing competitive challenges in Beverages (Alcoholic) industry.
• Talent management at Remy Cointreau and skill development of the employees - Human resources are integral to the success of Remy Cointreau in Beverages (Alcoholic) industry.
• Brands catering to different customers segments within the Beverages (Alcoholic) segment - Remy Cointreau extensive product offerings have helped the company to penetrate different customer segments in Beverages (Alcoholic) segment. It has also helped the organization to diversify revenue streams.

Weakness

• Business Model of Remy Cointreau can be easily imitated by the competitors in the industry name industry. To overcome these challenges company name needs to build a platform model that can integrate suppliers, vendors and end users. 
• Low investments into Remy Cointreau's customer-oriented services - This can lead to competitors gaining an advantage in the near future. Remy Cointreau needs to increase investment into research and development especially in customer services oriented applications.
• Loyalty among suppliers is low - Given the history of Remy Cointreau coming up with new innovations to drive down prices in the supply chain.

Opportunity

• The trend of customers migrating to higher-end products - It represents a great opportunity for Remy Cointreau, as the firm has strong brand recognition in the premium segment, customers have experience with excellent customer services provided by Remy Cointreau brands in the lower segment. It can be a win-win for the company and provides an opportunity to increase its profitability.
• Opportunities in Online Space - Increasing adoption of online services by customers will also enable Remy Cointreau to provide new offerings to the customers in Beverages (Alcoholic) industry.
• Accelerated technological innovations and advances are improving industrial productivity, allowing suppliers to manufacture a vast array of products and services. This can help Remy Cointreau to significantly venture into adjacent products.
• The increasing customer base in lower segments - As customers have to migrate from un-organized operators in the Consumer/Non-Cyclical industry to licensed players. It will provide Remy Cointreau an opportunity to penetrate the entry-level market with a no-frills offering.

Threats

• Saturation in the urban market and stagnation in the rural markets - For Remy Cointreau, this trend is an ongoing challenge in the Beverages (Alcoholic) segment. One of the reasons is that the adoption of products is slow in the rural market. Secondly, it is more costly for Remy Cointreau to serve rural customers than urban customers given the vast distances and lack of infrastructure.
• Competitive pressures - As the new product launch cycles are reducing in the Consumer/Non-Cyclical industry. It has put additional competitive pressures on players such as Remy Cointreau. Given the large customer base, Remy Cointreau can't respond quickly to the needs of the niche markets that disruptors are focusing on.
• Changing demographics - As the baby boomers are retiring and new generation finding hard to replace their purchasing power. This can lead to higher profits in the short run for Remy Cointreau but reducing margins over the long run as young people are less brand loyal and more open to experimentation.

After doing the SWOT analysis, we decided to then think about certain ideas that can relate to all the main points and keywords that we have gathered from the brief. The ideas that we come up with are as below. It is a mash-up of different rough ideas that sums up to a similar element, which is dance and fun:

1. Dance Idea 

- A mix of cultures from all around the world.

- A mix of various dances and music from different countries.

2. Dance with visuals of a summery afternoon while the sun is up with a Caribbean music background. 

3. Flash mob of people dancing while holding Bacardi and sharing a drink. 

4. Seawater as a metaphor of Bacardi liquor, people jump in it, having fun and zooms out to a Bacardi bottle.

5. Boy sitting at home staring at the window outside seeing people dancing and he is bored and wonders if he can join them, then he picks up his skateboard and go out the door and skated danced all the way and socialize and drink liquor. 

6. Summer bikini beach Bacardi dance a group of girls.

7. Music festival couples mixed groups of people of different ethnicities. 

Mr. Vinod then advises us that we should be better off doing something unique that no one else has done before, instead of the usual typical liquor ads that involve just groups of people having fun. He advises us to focus on an ad that can attract attention and asked us to look into the Unhate campaign. He then told us that maybe involving the LGBTQ+ community in our ads can help attract attention to our ad as it can also work with the tagline "Do What Moves You".

We then proceed to draw several sketches for the ideation of the advertisement's final outcome. 

Fig. 12: Sketches.

Fig. 13: Sketches.

Fig. 14: Sketches.

Fig. 15: Sketches.

Fig. 16: Sketches.

Fig. 17: Sketches.

Fig. 18: Sketches.

Fig. 19: Sketches.

 After several sketches, Mr. Vinod says that we should focus more on the LGBTQ+ aspect of the advertisement, which involves intimate contact and/or kissing. So we decided to sketch more on that aspect.

Fig. 20: Sketches: LGBTQ+.

Fig. 21: Sketches: LGBTQ+.

I also conducted a survey to see what people think about liquor advertisements and what are their opinions regarding involving LGBTQ+ in a liquor advertisement. The questions and results are as below.

Fig. 22: Survey Questions and Results.

After sketching, we voiced out our ideas to Mr. Vinod, which is a scene of an LGBTQ+ couple kissing with a beach/music festival background in a poster. But Mr. Vinod asked us to convey our ideas in a short video form. So we decided to sketch out some video ideas and poses.

Fig. 23: Video idea sketches.

Media choice

The media of our choice is a short video because 62.5% of our survey participants have voted for a short video ad as their preference in our survey. At the same time, a short video can bring a lasting and better impression in comparison to a poster. Most people nowadays watch Dramas, TV series and are on social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube at most times, and a short video can be shown in those platforms as advertisements when watching what they're watching on those sites. Videos can be easily spread all across the social media platforms too. 

Fig. 24: Media choice from result of survey.

The final outcome of our video is as below: 

First attempt:

Fig. 25: First attempt on final outcome.

Final attempt: 

A short video of a LGBTQ+ couple kissing with a beach background overlooking the sunset. The video utilizes two different taglines, “Love Knows No Gender” and “Do What Moves You”. The tagline “Do What Moves You” describes that you should do what makes you happy without a worry, “Love Knows No Gender” celebrates the love of an LGBTQ+ couple despite the controversy and hate surrounding the issue. The video is set in a beach overlooking a sunset with people playing in the background, Caribbean music is used to set the tone for the video which shows a fun-loving carefree life that should be celebrated with Bacardi’s drink.

Fig. 26: Final Outcome.

The slides for the entry is as below:

The link to our research is available here. 

Feedback

Week 1
Mr. Vinod looks through our first ideation in google drive and commented that we need something that can "pop" and be unexpected to the audience instead of a typical fun loving liquor ad.

Week 4
Mr. Vinod commented that we need to sketch more LGBTQ+ concept to tie up to the quote "Do What Moves You" and present a rough idea to him.

Week 5
During Week 5, we show Mr. Vinod our video idea sketches and LGBTQ+ sketches. Mr. Vinod commented that we should proceed with our outcome to test if it works.

Week 6
Mr. Vinod commented that we need to put in more effort into our final outcome as the visual element is not strong enough. He mentions that the music does not really work. The cinematography is weak. the vid has only one shot no angles. And the video ends rather abruptly.

Reflection 

Throughout this module, I have learned a lot of things relating to advertising and have experienced many ups and downs when completing the final outcome. Mr. Vinod has taught us many important aspects of design, for example, empathizing with the audience in order to learn what the audience may see or want from a design and he has also taught us simple design elements that can bring a dramatic, impactful and lasting impression from an advertisement by adding an unexpected element that can shock the audience, it can be done simply by just adding an unexpected headline or an unexpected visual. He also taught us to see things from a different perspective in order to create something different and to do plenty of research to see what our audience wants and what can be a good selling point of a design. Overall, the module has taught us a lot of fundamental yet important design elements and has also taught us how to utilize elements carefully to produce a desirable outcome.