Week 4: Creative Strategy, Planning and Development

Week 4 (planning and development) deals with the planning and development of creative strategy: what creativity in advertising means, how the creative process works (Young and Wallas), account planning, advertising campaigns and campaign themes, the copy platform (creative brief) and the search for the major selling idea (unique selling proposition, brand image, inherent drama and positioning). The Ugly Mug Coffee case illustrates these ideas in practice.

What is creativity?

Creativity is probably one of the most commonly used terms in advertising: ads are often called "creative". But what is meant by creativity differs between the people involved. A study by Hirschman found that, in direct contrast to the client's orientation (selling the product), the art director, copywriter and commercial director viewed an advertisement as a communication vehicle for promoting their own aesthetic viewpoints and personal career objectives. The copywriter and art director said explicitly that a desirable commercial, from their standpoint, was one that showed their unique creative talents and so allowed them to obtain "better" jobs at a higher salary.

The lesson is that creativity can mean "artistically original" to the creative team and "effective at selling" to the client. Good advertising has to combine both.

Advertising creativity

• To be appropriate and effective, a creative idea must be relevant to the target audience.
• Many agencies recognise the importance of advertising that is creative and different, yet communicates relevant information to the target audience.
• Creativity is not the exclusive domain of the creative department. Everyone involved in promotional planning must think creatively: account executives, media planners, researchers and attorneys on the agency side, and marketing and brand managers on the client side all seek creative solutions to problems in planning, developing and executing a campaign.

Planning creative strategy and the creative challenge

The job of the creative team is challenging because every marketing situation is different and each campaign may require a different approach. Many guidelines exist for effective advertising, but there is no magic formula.

Creative people must take all the input (research, creative briefs, strategy statements, communication objectives) and transform it into an advertising message. They write copy, design layouts and illustrations, or produce commercials that communicate the central theme of the campaign. Rather than simply stating features or benefits, they must put the message into a form that engages the audience's interest and makes the ads memorable.

Copywriter Hank Sneiden (Advertising Pure and Simple) describes the creative challenge: rules lead to dull, stereotyped advertising and stifle creativity, inspiration, initiative and progress. The only hard and fast rule is that there are no rules: no formulas, no right way. Given the same problem, a dozen creative talents would solve it a dozen different ways. If there were a sure-fire formula, everyone would use it and there would be no need for creative people; we could program robots to create ads, which would sell loads of product to other robots.

Creative personnel

• Creative people often have an educational background in non-business areas such as art, literature, music, humanities or journalism, so their interests and perspectives differ from those of managers with a business education.
• They tend to be more abstract and less structured, organised or conventional in their approach, relying on intuition more often than logic.
• The differences between creative and managerial personalities must be recognised and tolerated, so that creative people can do their best work and everyone in the advertising process can cooperate.

The creative process: Young's model

James Webb Young's model of the creative process has five steps:

1. Immersion: gathering raw material and information through background research and immersing yourself in the problem.
2. Digestion: taking the information, working it over and wrestling with it in the mind.
3. Incubation: putting the problem out of your conscious mind and letting the subconscious do the work.
4. Illumination: the birth of an idea, the "Eureka! I have it!" moment.
5. Reality or verification: studying the idea to see if it still looks good or solves the problem, then shaping it to practical usefulness.

The creative process: Graham Wallas

Young's process is similar to the much earlier four-step approach of English sociologist Graham Wallas:

1. Preparation: gathering the background information needed to solve the problem through research and study.
2. Incubation: getting away and letting ideas develop.
3. Illumination: seeing the light or solution.
4. Verification: refining and polishing the idea and checking whether it is an appropriate solution.

The main difference: Young splits Wallas' preparation stage into immersion (gathering material) and digestion (working it over mentally).

Discussion question from the lecture: do you agree that advertising creativity can or should follow a definitive process? Arguments for: the process makes creative work more manageable and ensures ideas are grounded in research and verified. Arguments against: Sneiden's view that there are no rules, and that rigid processes can stifle originality.

Account planning

To facilitate the creative process, many agencies use account planning: a process of conducting research and gathering all relevant information about a client's product or service, brand and consumers in the target audience. The account planner brings the consumer's perspective into the creative process (this is the research input for the immersion or preparation stage).

Advertising campaigns

• Most ads are part of a series of messages that make up a campaign.
• The campaign theme should be a strong idea, as it is the central message communicated in all advertising and other promotional activities.
• Campaign plans are short-term (usually annual, like marketing and IMC plans), but campaign themes are usually developed to be used for a longer time period.

Top 10 advertising slogans of the century (campaign themes that lasted decades):

Several of these illustrate positioning ideas: Avis "We try harder" positions the brand as number two against Hertz (positioning by competitor); Wheaties links the cereal to athletes on the box (positioning by user); Miller Lite combines two benefits (taste and fewer calories).

Copy platform (creative brief)

The written copy platform specifies the basic elements of the creative strategy. Agencies also call it a creative platform, work plan, creative brief, creative blueprint or creative contract. It typically contains:

1. The basic problem or issue the advertising must address.
2. The advertising and communication objectives.
3. The target audience.
4. The major selling idea or key benefits to communicate.
5. The creative strategy statement: campaign theme, appeal and execution technique to be used.
6. Supporting information and requirements.

The search for the major selling idea

An important part of creative strategy is determining the central theme that becomes the major selling idea (the "big idea") of the campaign. As A. Jerome Jewler writes in Creative Strategy in Advertising: the major selling idea should emerge as the strongest singular thing you can say about your product or service; it should be the claim with the broadest and most meaningful appeal to the target audience. Once you determine it, be certain you can live with it and that it is strong enough to remain the central issue in every ad and commercial in the campaign.

Four approaches offer inspiration for a big idea:

1. Using a unique selling proposition.
2. Creating a brand image.
3. Finding the inherent drama.
4. Positioning.

1. Unique selling proposition (USP)

The USP concept (Rosser Reeves) has three characteristics:

1. Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer: not just words, product puffery or show-window advertising. Each ad must say: "Buy this product and you will get this specific benefit."
2. The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot or does not offer. It must be unique, either in the brand or in the claim.
3. The proposition must be strong enough to move the mass millions, that is, to pull new customers to the brand.

A USP works best when the brand has a real, meaningful and sustainable attribute that competitors cannot easily copy.

2. Creating a brand image

• Image advertising has become increasingly popular as the main selling idea for soft drinks, liquor, cigarettes, cars, airlines, financial services, perfume and clothing.
• Many consumers wear designer jeans or Ralph Lauren polo shirts, or drink certain beers or soft drinks, because of the image of these brands.
• The key to successful image advertising is developing an image that appeals to product users. This approach is used especially where products are similar and hard to differentiate on functional attributes.

3. Finding the inherent drama

This approach (associated with Leo Burnett) looks for the characteristic of the product that makes consumers buy it, the "inherent drama" in the product itself, and presents it in a warm, believable way, usually focused on consumer benefits. The drama comes from the product and its use rather than from an invented story.

4. Positioning

The major selling idea can also be based on the position the brand should occupy in the consumer's mind relative to competitors (see the positioning strategies of Week 2: attributes, price/quality, use, product class, user, competitor, cultural symbols). Positioning is a popular basis for creative development because it forces the campaign to express one clear, differentiating idea.

Case: Ugly Mug Coffee (New York Times, 2008)

Background. Ugly Mug is a small coffee roaster from Memphis. It traces its roots to "a lowly, hole-in-the-wall coffee shop" opened in 1998 where customers' cups hung on a wall, prompting a comment about "a bunch of ugly mugs". The company buys organic coffee beans at fair-trade prices and donates money to causes. Young and Laramore, an agency in Indianapolis, created a new brand for it.

Situation analysis.

• The coffee aisle is dominated by three large competitors: Procter and Gamble (Folgers and the new Dunkin' Donuts brand), Kraft Foods (Maxwell House, Yuban, plus an agreement to distribute Starbucks in supermarkets) and Nestle (Nescafe, Taster's Choice).
• Competitor positioning: Folgers' persona is self-congratulatory ("The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup"); Starbucks' concept is very demanding: sometimes you feel you need to learn a new language to order.
• The main problem is shelf space: "At the end of the day, only 10 percent of the shelf space is available to independents and small roasters." Ugly Mug must stand out enough to persuade grocers to stock it.
• Main questions: "Is our brand as strong as it needs to be?" and "We can make the coffee taste good, but how do we get it in people's mouths?"

Research (account planning). The agency took the company through a process called the "unlearning curve" and the client felt the agency never tried to change it into something it was not. Research found that people have a loyalty to their coffee almost as strong as to their church: "It's part of their morning ritual, so don't mess it up." Coffee buying is highly habitual, and many shoppers choose their brand while standing in front of the shelf.

Campaign objective. To differentiate Ugly Mug from its larger, far better known competitors by having some fun with the product, which is, after all, meant to be a refreshing beverage.

Creative strategy.

• Because the decision is made at the shelf, packaging became the key medium: "It was the thin edge of the wedge. How you most easily appeal to the consumer is through the packaging." Packaging is a big determinant of whether someone tries something new in a habitual category.
• The packaging design changed from a focus on coffee growers to one stressing the brand's "modest" nature: photographs of people who look as if they just woke up and are none too thrilled about it, with wry comments. All 23 varieties were redesigned, created with letterpress company Yee-Haw Industries for a hand-crafted, unpretentious tone.
• Brand personality: a brand that "does know who it is", not taking itself too seriously but passionate about coffee: "We understand why coffee is so important to you."
• IMC: the playful personality is expressed everywhere: print ads (commentary on alarm clocks, office coffee and "morning people"), the website, packages and shipping cartons in stores, posters and a PR effort, plus outreach to influential bloggers.

Results. Purchasing managers said explicitly that the packaging helped Ugly Mug onto shelves from Maine to Florida. Together with blogger outreach this produced a healthy increase in sales and new loyal customers: "the world was as ready for an unpretentious premium coffee as we were."

Link to theory. The case shows the full creative planning chain: account planning research (the unlearning curve, coffee as a ritual), a clear problem in the copy platform (shelf space, habitual buying), a communication objective (differentiate through fun), a major selling idea built on a brand image and a positioning against self-congratulatory and pretentious competitors (the unpretentious premium coffee), and consistent IMC execution across all touch points.