Creative Strategy

Research Strategy
Ch 4 (pp.111-130)
Ch 8 (pp. 277-297)

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 7-Step Decision Making Process
• Target Market Selection
• Communication Objectives
• Message Strategy
• Creative Strategy
• Media Strategy
• Budgeting
• Research Strategy

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 What is Creativity?
Creativity refers to the ability to generate fresh, unique and
appropriate ideas that can be used as solutions to
communication problems.

• Divergence – the extent to which an ad or a communication

activity contains elements that are novel, different, or unusual.

• Relevance – the degree to which the various elements of the ad

or communication activity are meaningful, useful, or valuable to
the consumer.

3
 Creative Strategy
• The process of developing the central theme and slogan for
the IMC campaign, choosing appropriate communication
activities, and determining the execution details of each
chosen program.

• Determining how to communicate your IMC message

• Translate the message into a form that is attention-getting,

distinctive, and memorable to the target audience.

4
 A Quick review of the “Uncola” Campaign
• What was the problem facing 7-
up before the “uncola” ad
campaign?

• Based on what we have learned

in class, briefly assess 7-up’s CFR
strategy and POP/POD elements.

• What kind of positioning strategy

was adopted in the “uncola”
campaign?

• What main messages were

communicated by the “uncola”
campaign?

5
 Creative Strategy

Develop a campaign theme

Design a campaign slogan/tagline

Choose communication activities

Determine the execution details

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 Step 1: Determine Campaign Theme

• Find out the strongest singular thing about your

product or service that you want to deliver to the
target audience.

• Find a unique perspective to express your message

• Once you determine the theme, live with it, and let it
remain the central issue in every ad and
communication activity in the campaign.
 “Only in Vegas” Campaign

• Client: LVCVA
• Agency: R&R Partners
• Message:
– A world-class shopping, dinning and entertainment
destination
• Campaign Theme: Adult Freedom
– LV is the place where you can cut loose, have fun, and do
things you wouldn’t do back home—from overindulging in
bars, restaurants, and casinos to staying out all night…
• Tagline: “What happens here, stays here”

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 Priceless Campaign
• Message:
– MasterCard is a warm, friendly and yet functional credit card
• Campaign theme:
– Priceless- Good spenders use credit cards to acquire things that
are important to them and enrich their daily lives.
• Creative Execution:
– Showing a shopping list of items that could be purchased for a
certain dollar amount and one key item that could not and thus
was deemed “priceless”
• Tagline:
– “There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else,
there is MasterCard.”
萬事皆可達，唯有情無價
 More about campaign theme
• A good theme should be specific enough to deliver the
message clearly without ambiguity, and at the same
time broad enough for elaborations, reiterations, and
variations.
– Happiness Subway Stunt Marketing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1veWbLpGa78
– Happiness Machine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqT_dPApj9U
– Happiness Phone Booth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KUqn7-lIUs&t=9s

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 Step 2: Tagline/Slogan
Memorable phrases in IMC campaigns that serve to draw
people’s attention to one or more benefits of the brand and
highlight the campaign theme.

• Tips:
– Create a word list
– Focus on benefits
– Write sentences
– shortening

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 Step 3& 4: Choosing Communication Activities &
Execution Details

Advertising

Direct Marketing

Internet Marketing

Sales Promotion

Public Relations

Personal Selling
 The Creative Process

Preparation Gathering background information

needed to solve the problem through research and
study.

Incubation Getting away and letting ideas

develop.

Illumination Seeing the light or solution.

Verification. Refining and polishing the idea

and seeing if it is an appropriate solution.

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 7-Step Decision Making Process
• Target Market Selection
• Communication Objectives
• Message Strategy
• Creative Strategy
• Media Strategy
• Budgeting
• Research Strategy

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 Research Strategy

• Research about:
– 3Cs
– Focusing on 3rd C (consumer): research directed to
understanding what consumers think and feel about
the brand and act toward it.

• Different types of research:

– Background research
– Qualitative research
– Quantitative research
 Background Research
• Reading anything related to the product or market—books,
trade publications, general interest articles, research
reports, and the like.
• Asking everyone involved with the product for
information—designers, engineers, salespeople, and
consumers.
• Listening to what people are talking about. Visits to stores,
malls, restaurants, and even the agency cafeteria.
• Using the product or service and becoming familiar with it.
The more you use a product, the more you know and can
say about it.
• Working in and learning about the clients’ business to
understand better the people you’re trying to reach.

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Google Trends

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Google Barometer

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Test My Site

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 Qualitative Research
• A natural or observational examination of the
consumer reactions toward a brand and the reasons
that govern such responses.
– Observation
– Focus group
– In-depth interview
– Open-ended survey
 Quantitative Research
• Seek empirical support for hypotheses and provide
more definitive assessment of the depth and breadth
of brand awareness and the strength, favorability,
and uniqueness of brand associations.
 Conducting Research for your Final Project
• Background research
– Company website; company annual reports; Wikipedia;
government consensus; news articles; consumer and
expert ratings, etc.
• Exploratory research
– observations; focus group; in-depth interviews; pilot
surveys with open-ended questions; Questionnaire designs
• Summarize consumer insights
• Recommend future research
– If the target company was to adopt your IMC plan, what
other efforts could be taken to get more consumer insights
and to help you evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed
IMC campaign?
What Consumer Insights Should We Know?
• Probe who, what, where, when, why and how of consumer
reactions. The goal to identify potential problems; reveal insights;
generate hypotheses for follow-up researches.
– Who buys our product or service?
– Who makes the decision to buy the product?
– Who influences the decision to buy the product?
– How is the purchase decision made? Who assumes what role?
– What does the customer buy? What needs must be satisfied?
– What product attributes are most important to consumers?
– Why do customers buy a particular brand?
– Where do they go or look to buy the product or service?
– When do they buy? Any seasonality factors?
– What are customers’ attitudes toward our product?
– What social factors might influence the purchase decision?
– Does the customers’ lifestyle influence their decisions?
– How is our product perceived by customers?
– How do demographic factors influence the purchase decision?
Consumer Decision-Making Process

Decision-Making
Problem recognition

Information search

Alternative evaluation

Purchase decision

Postpurchase evaluation

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 Decision Irrationality
• Marketers spend a lot of time trying to
understand why their customers do the things
they do, why they make certain decisions, what
motivates them. But the answers aren’t always
straightforward, predictable, or even rational.

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What’s in a

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01 02 03 04 05

01 08 15 20 26

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Jennifer Gertrude

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• Smooth Pebble
• White Ivy
• Ethereal
• Faithful
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 Something Extra:
Predictably Irrational
When it comes to making decisions in our lives, we think
we're making smart, rational choices. But are we?
In this newly revised and expanded edition of the
groundbreaking New York Times bestseller, Dan Ariely
refutes the common assumption that we behave in
fundamentally rational ways. From drinking coffee to
losing weight, from buying a car to choosing a romantic
partner, we consistently overpay, underestimate, and
procrastinate. Yet these misguided behaviors are neither
random nor senseless. They're systematic and
predictable—making us predictably irrational.

Dan Ariely is the James B Duke Professor of

Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke
University.
 Something Extra:
Thinking, Fast and Slow
In the international bestseller, Thinking, Fast
and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, the renowned
psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in
Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour
of the mind and explains the two systems that
drive the way we think.

Daniel Kahneman is the Eugene Higgins

Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Princeton
University and Professor of Psychology Public
Affairs Emeritus at Princeton’s Woodrow
Wilson School of Public and International
Affairs. He received the 2002 Nobel Prize in
Economic Sciences for his pioneering work
with Amos Tversky on decision making.
 Summary
• Consumers sometimes make “irrational” decisions that
appear senseless. But these “irrational” decisions are
often driven by consumers’ inner motives and desires
and triggered by external (e.g. situational and
environmental) factors.
• Understanding the motivation behind those decisions
and identifying the influencing external factors can
help IMC planners develop creative and convincing
campaigns.

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Promotion- Finding Consumers’ Sweet Spot

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