What is an advertising strategy?

Basically, it is the formulation of a message that communicates to the market the benefits or problem solution characteristics of the product or service. Well, maybe that's not "basically." But what you are trying to convey through your advertising and state in your strategy is what your store offers to meet the consumer's need; how your product has more beneficial characteristics than the competition's; and what the beneficial characteristics are. In the previous two articles, we addressed the two areas that precede formulation of the advertising strategy: the collection of data through market surveys [CG #5], leading to the strategic planning process; and the creation of a working operational market strategy [CG #6] and the implementation of the strategy. The advertising strategy is a direct result of the market strategy. The market strategy focuses on the improvement of operations and the positioning of the storefront, while the advertising strategy concentrates on reaching out to the marketplace and conveying what the market strategy has accomplished internally. The first step in formulating an advertising strategy is to determine the product or service you have to offer to the marketplace and the objective of the store. For an example, we'll use an imaginary store named Third World that is located in an urban area.

http://www.cooperativegrocer.coop/articles/2004-01-09/building-advertising-strategy
An advertising strategy is a campaign developed to communicate ideas about products and services to potential consumers in the hopes of convincing them to buy those products and services. This strategy, when built in a rational and intelligent manner, will reflect other business considerations (overall budget, brand recognition efforts) and objectives (public image enhancement, market share growth) as well. As Portable MBA in Marketing authors Alexander Hiam and Charles D. Schewe stated, a business's advertising strategy "determines the character of the company's public face." Even though a small business has limited capital and is unable to devote as much money to advertising as a large corporation, it can still develop a highly effective advertising campaign. The key is creative and flexible planning, based on an indepth knowledge of the target consumer and the avenues that can be utilized to reach that consumer. Today, most advertising strategies focus on achieving three general goals, as the Small Business Administration indicated in Advertising Your Business: 1) promote awareness of a business and its product or services; 2) stimulate sales directly and "attract competitors' customers"; and 3) establish or modify a business' image. In other words, advertising seeks to inform, persuade, and remind the consumer. With these aims in mind, most businesses follow a general process which ties advertising into the other promotional efforts and overall marketing objectives of the business.

http://www.enotes.com/advertising-strategy-reference/advertising-strategy
In advertising, different creative strategies are used in order to obtain consumer attention and provoke shoppers to purchase or use a specific product. Advertisers use different ways of thinking to create catchy slogans that captureconsumer attention. Creative strategies promote publicity, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion. These ways of thinking are divided into three basic descriptions: Weak strategies, mid-strength strategies and strong strategies. The strategies labeled "strong, mid-strength, and weak are generic phrases used in the text books referenced below to help students understand the intensity of each different type of advertising strategy. Advertisements, weak, mid-strength, and strong can be found in television, radio, and magazines/print. Since the beginning of advertising, strategies have been created, starting with the simplest (weak) strategies in the 1940s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_strategies_in_advertising
Common Advertising Strategies

Produced by the Center for Media Literacy. Reprinted with permission, by the Media Awareness Network.

1. Ideal Kids The kids in commercials are often a little older and a little more perfect than the target audience of the ad. They are, in other words, role models for what the advertiser wants children in the target audience to think they want to be like. A commercial that is targeting eight year-olds, for instance, will show 11 or 12 year-old models playing with an eight year old's toy. 2. Heart Strings Commercials often create an emotional ambience that draws you into the advertisement and makes you feel good. The McDonald's commercials featuring father and daughter eating out together, or the AT&T Reach Out and Touch Someone ads are good examples. We are more attracted by products that make us feel good. 3. Amazing Toys Many toy commercials show their toys in life-like fashion, doing incredible things. Airplanes do loop-the-loops and cars do wheelies, dolls cry and spring-loaded missiles hit gorillas dead in the chest. This would be fine if the toys really did these things. 4. Life-like Settings Barbie struts her stuff on the beach with waves crashing in the background, space aliens fly through dark outer space and all-terrain vehicles leap over rivers and trenches. The rocks, dirt, sand and water don't come with the toys, however. 5. Sounds Good Music and other sound effects add to the excitement of commercials. Sound can make toys seem more life-like or less life-like, as in a music video. Either way, they help set the mood advertisers want. 6. Cute Celebrities

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sell pizza. Spuds McKenzie sells beer. "Joe Cool" camel sells cigarettes. All of these are ways of helping children identify with products either now or for the future. 7. Selective Editing Selective editing is used in all commercials, but especially in commercials for athletic toys like frisbees or footballs. Commercials show only brilliant catches and perfect throws. Unfortunately, that's not the way most children experience these toys. 8. Family Fun. "This is something the whole family can do together!" or "This is something Mom will be glad to buy for you." Many commercials show parents enjoying their children's fun as if the toy will bring more family togetherness. 9. Excitement! Watch the expressions on children's faces. Never a dull moment, never boring. "This toy is the most fun since fried bananas!" they seem to say. How can your child help thinking the toy's great? 10. Star Power. Sports heroes, movie stars, and teenage heart throbs tell our children what to eat and what to wear. Children listen, not realizing that the star is paid handsomely for the endorsement.

http://www.mediaawareness.ca/english/resources/educational/handouts/advertising_marketing/common_ad_strats.cfm
The third and strongest form of creative strategy includes affective advertising and resonance advertising. Making people feel really good about a product is called affective advertising. This is difficult to do, but often humor and an honest character can make affective advertising possible.

A great example of affective advertising is found in the Geico commercials. By creating a friendly, honest, funny gecko as a spokesperson, consumers tend to trust what the gecko is saying and find humor in his actions. This creates a good feeling about the actual service Geico offers.

Lastly, resonance advertising is a way of identifying with consumers. If an advertiser can create a campaign that certain target markets identify with, then resonance advertising has been achieved.

An example of resonance advertising is in Tide detergent ads. Many times mothers are busy doing laundry in between sports practices and driving their children around in mini vans. Their recognition with soccer moms makes Tide a favorite pick among women with children who are very involved in activities.

---http://www.scribd.com/doc/14149550/Advertising-Strategy-of-AdidasA-comparative-Study (pdf)
Methods and Examples of Advertising Create Characters: One of the best methods in modern advertising that you can employ in order to have an effect on the consumer's mind is to create a character that will become synonymous with the brand that you are promoting. This is a great idea, but in order to ensure that character brings about brand recall, you need to have the character as your brand mascot for a long time. It needs to register with your target audience. The Michelin Man or Bibendum, which is its actual name, has been the company mascot for Michelin tires for more than a hundred years now, first introduced in 1894. Today, it is synonymous with the

brand in more than 150 countries worldwide. Buzz Marketing: For the longest time, buzz marketing or word-of-mouth marketing was not given its due credit and was not recognized as an effective advertising technique. Today it is widely heralded as one of the best advertising methods and examples of the same are oft repeated as good ways to improve sales. Web campaigns for both Hotmail and Blair Witch Project are often cited as some good examples of buzz marketing. In 2008, before the movie Cloverfield was released, the teaser of the film was released not with its name but its date of release. This created a huge buzz in the market. Celeb Power: One of the most overused and common advertising strategies that exists, signing on a celebrity to promote your product is sometimes seen as an easy way out due to the huge pull that celebs enjoy over their fans. In such a scenario it becomes important that the advertising agency in charge of the campaign manages to come up with an idea that uses a celebrity in a novel manner. One of the best examples of celebs used to promote a brand, according to me, till date remains the Genworth Financial advertisement when it was launched as an offshoot of GE Financial. The commercial showed a young boy beating Taylor Dent at a game of tennis. In the last few frames of the ad, it is revealed that the boy is the son of tennis greats, Andre Aggasi and Steffi Graf. What clinches the deal for Genworth Financial is the tag-line, "The right genes make all the difference." This remains, to me, one of the examples of advertising techniques that generally does not reach it full potential. Exaggeration: Exaggerating products and their uses is another good advertising technique and an example of the technique can explain how this works in the favor of the advertiser. Even the most exaggerated, ludicrous extremes sometimes can capture the attention of the audience and appeal to them. For this advertising technique to work, it is important that the viewer realizes that there are elements of exaggeration in the ad. M&M somehow manages to use elements of exaggeration very well in their ads including the recent one, where a man tossing candies into his mouth is being clocked by a large M&M candy. Shocking the Viewer: An effective method of advertising, shocking viewers gets them more interested in the product because it causes a shift in their comfort zone. Vehicles being maneuvered around difficult terrain and pretty models pouting their lips in cosmetic ads is sooner or later going to bore the viewer. Benetton has been praised for effectively using this type of advertising technique and instances of their advertising are often used to teach advertising students. While their advertisements are often criticized for their shock value, they have also been praised for increasing awareness of many issues. One of their most brilliant advertisements was of an Afro-American woman nursing a Caucasian baby which was celebrated as an image of racial diversity. The same ad though was criticized for being comparative at periods of slavery when African women were kept as caretakers for White children. Use of Metaphor: Metaphorical ads work very well as long as you are working with creative advertising ideas. Comparison of products with other items and placing them in situations that cannot be thought of under normal conditions can work very well for a viewer. An ad that was praised for the way it used metaphor was the ad for Spontex which is well-known brand of sponge. The ad that they created showed an African woman carrying a super-absorbent sponge manufactured by Spontex, instead of a bucket to carry water. Emotional Appeal: One of the best advertising techniques and examples to learn from are those ads that use emotions to tug at the heart strings of viewers. Many organizations that work with social causes use this technique effectively to spread the message about the issue at hand. RSPCA uses this technique very effectively. Their print ad which has animals like horses and dogs shedding their battered skin for a healthy coat with a tag line that says, "Help neglected animals leave their old lives behind," works very well on almost everyone who is slightly emotional by nature. David Ogilvy wrote in his book, Confessions of an Advertising Man, " The consumer isn't a moron. She is your wife." Whenever you take a look at different advertising techniques and those examples that you would like to use in order to design your own advertising strategies, keep in mind this little tip from Mr. Ogilvy. After all he is not called the father of modern advertising for no reason.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/advertising-techniques-and-examples.html