Persuasive Advertising - J. Scott Armstrong [18]
N. C. Fowler, 1904
Advertisements should focus on benefits relevant to the product’s target market. While advertisers discussed this concept in the late 1800s, it was not widely used until after the 1950s when, due to improved technology, firms were better able to target specific groups with their messages (Goodrum and Dalrymple 1990). For example, magazine, and especially Internet, advertisers can now tailor their advertising to different segments of customers.
When a given product can be sold in many distinct target markets, each market might require a different campaign. Advertisers occasionally overlook this.
Many characteristics of customers can influence thinking about how to best influence them. For example, is the target market intelligent? Able to purchase? A business agent or final consumer? Old enough to make decisions? A current customer? Able to see and hear easily? Experts can often provide reasonable judgments of these questions. Target market surveys can supplement these judgments.
What does the target market currently know and believe about the brand and product category? Find out what customers need to know about your product prior to taking action. This involves asking questions such as: What benefits are they seeking? Do they know how to purchase the product?
Some of the more important considerations regarding target markets are as follows.
What interest groups are relevant?
Ads can be targeted not only to customers, but also to the community, employees, investors, suppliers, retailers, or employees. The Avis “We try harder”™ campaign was aimed at both its employees and customers. A copywriter for DDB, the ad agency for Avis, rented an Avis car and found the ashtray full of cigarette butts. His next copy was: “I write Avis ads for a living. But that doesn’t make me a paid liar. If I am going to continue writing these ads, Avis had better live up to them. Or they can get themselves a new boy.” They ran the ad for the general public, but it also helped raise standards among the employees.
In some cases, you may want to target purchasers who are not the end users. For example, an ad for children’s toys might target parents, and an ad for chocolates might target suitors.
Sometimes it pays to target those who can influence others. A World War I recruitment ad in England showed a picture of women looking out a window, with the headline “Women of Britain say – GO!”
When trying to discourage certain types of behavior, it might be better to aim the campaign at influencing people to censure the actions of others. For example, ad campaigns in schools that offered students money for turning in their guns had no effect because it reinforced the idea that defiance of authorities was cool. However, a campaign with cash rewards to those who reported students carrying guns proved quite popular because most students did not regard gun carriers as cool (Kahan 1999).
This approach has been used in anti-smoking campaigns. Advertisements are aimed at people who object to smoking, encouraging them to express their disapproval when they see people smoking indoors. For example, a restaurant put up a sign that said, “No smoking. Enforced by customers.”
Is the product (or brand) new to the market?
Is the product an improvement of an existing product, or is it something the consumers have never seen? This aspect, “newness,” is important when developing an advertising campaign. The advertising campaign should typically change over the life cycle of the product. Customers need information when products are new; emotional appeals become relatively more effective when products are well known.
Is the message consistent with the attitudes and behavior of the target market?
The task of advertising is easier when it reinforces current consumer attitudes and behavior, or provides an obvious way for customers to meet their needs. Effectively, the advertisement should say, “Here’s how to get what you want.” If it calls for a change in attitudes, the advertising task becomes more demanding.
The client will be able to provide