In: Root » » Advertising and Media » Advertisements will offer and sell a benefit
Central to the creative concept is an offer, or a promise, or a proposition about what the product or service can do for the customer. It answers an unspoken question: tell me what I get out of this? Or, what is in this product for me? If a product has nothing to offer a customer there is no point in considering it. That is to say, an advertisement must give a customer a reason to buy. It can be presented in two forms: 1. Direct, overt, practical, factual. Such as ‘It pays to specify JCB’; ‘BT call charges are reduced’, or ‘Selfridges Summer Sale opens Saturday. Enormous savings!’ 2. Indirect, implied, emotional, atmospheric. The Häagen-Dazs ice cream advertising does not talk in terms of flavour or product content. But it does show a clear value in the product. The Famous Grouse press advertisement says little in so many words. But its imagery is loaded with signs, of heritage, of tradition, of being long established, of Scottishness. Some situations lend themselves more to the direct and overt route, others more to the image-laden or subconscious imagery route. Markets, uses, customer impressions will vary and so each campaign will require its own language of persuasion. But, direct or indirect, conscious or subconscious, a clear offer to the reader must emerge. Above all else, advertisements will offer and sell a benefit. What will this product do? What will it do for me? What will it do for me better than I am getting now? It could be argued that advertising and product categories split into two basic divisions, each dependent on a kind of market situation: 1. Consumer goods: non-essential choices, emotional to a degree, based sometimes on whim. 2. Business-to-business goods or services: often decided by professionals. A rational decision for rational purposes, based on a rational process. Many consumer goods are bought irrationally, and are emotional to a degree. Many professional or capital goods are bought under practical guidelines, and are rational and conscious choices. But buying situations are not always that cut and dried. The business purchaser is still a human being, with human feelings and needs. Consumers with money to spend generally try to spend it wisely and prudently. So, purchasing is often a mix of the practical and the emotional, the rational and the subconscious. The emphasis varies, but the mix of reasons remains. So the benefit has to reflect this duality. What does my product do for you, in terms of what you are looking for? The benefit will be what the customer wants most: superior performance or lower price or greater speed or better service or greater social satisfaction. Another important factor here is that of ‘added value’. The advertisement should try to add value to the product, since customers in advertising terms do not buy physical products but benefits. In this sphere, my product works better for you. Persil cares for your hands and your clothes as well as making clothes whiter. The advertising and hence the product add value to the basic specification. Martini adds a value of sophistication. BT makes telephoning not just a matter of communication but of an enhanced social life. So, here the advertiser must ask, what value does my product add, and how far can my advertising express this? |
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