Advertising

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1. Introduction to Advertising Advertising facilitates large scale marketing. It is a medium of mass communication. Manufacturers supply information about new products through advertising. The fact that companies spend crores of rupees on advertising through TV, radio and newspapers indicates its benefits in sales promotion. Advertising is within the scope of promotion which is one element in the marketing mix. It is getting popularity in the present highly competitive and consumer oriented marketing. All products old and new, consumer and durable, cheap and costly need extensive advertising for sales promotion and consumer support. New communication techniques are now used for making advertising attractive and agreeable. The basic purpose of advertising is to give information, to attract attention, to create awareness and finally to influence the buying behavior of consumers. Advertising is certainly needed in marketing but is equally important and essential in social, cultural and political aspects of our life. The term 'Advertising' originates from the Latin word 'advertere' which means "to turn the mind towards". The dictionary meaning of the term advertising is "to give public notice or to announce publicity". This suggests that advertising acts as a marketing vehicle and is useful for drawing the attention of people (prospects) towards a specific product/service/manufacturer. 2. Definition of Advertising Advertising is defined differently by different authorities and the institutions dealing with the subject of advertising. The American Marketing Association defines advertising as "any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor." This definition suggests the following features of advertising. Firstly, advertisement is paid for by the sponsor/advertiser. Naturally, he exercises control over the advertisement. Secondly, advertising is non-personal selling. It is a medium of mass communication for large scale selling. Thirdly, advertising acts as important marketing tool for presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services. Finally, advertising needs the sponsor of the message known. Advertising will be meaningless if the advertiser is not clearly identified.

Transcript of Advertising

Page 1: Advertising

1. Introduction to Advertising

Advertising facilitates large scale marketing. It is a medium of mass communication. Manufacturers supply information about new

products through advertising. The fact that companies spend crores of rupees on advertising through TV, radio and newspapers

indicates its benefits in sales promotion. Advertising is within the scope of promotion which is one element in the marketing mix. It is

getting popularity in the present highly competitive and consumer oriented marketing. All products old and new, consumer and

durable, cheap and costly need extensive advertising for sales promotion and consumer support. New communication techniques

are now used for making advertising attractive and agreeable. The basic purpose of advertising is to give information, to attract

attention, to create awareness and finally to influence the buying behavior of consumers. Advertising is certainly needed in

marketing but is equally important and essential in social, cultural and political aspects of our life.

The term 'Advertising' originates from the Latin word 'advertere' which means "to turn the mind towards". The dictionary meaning of

the term advertising is "to give public notice or to announce publicity". This suggests that advertising acts as a marketing vehicle and

is useful for drawing the attention of people (prospects) towards a specific product/service/manufacturer.

2. Definition of Advertising

Advertising is defined differently by different authorities and the institutions dealing with the subject of advertising. The American

Marketing Association defines advertising as "any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services

by an identified sponsor." This definition suggests the following features of advertising. Firstly, advertisement is paid for by the

sponsor/advertiser. Naturally, he exercises control over the advertisement. Secondly, advertising is non-personal selling. It is a

medium of mass communication for large scale selling. Thirdly, advertising acts as important marketing tool for presentation and

promotion of ideas, goods and services. Finally, advertising needs the sponsor of the message known. Advertising will be

meaningless if the advertiser is not clearly identified.

3. Features of Advertising

1. Advertising provides information : The basic purpose of advertising is to provide information about products/services to

prospective buyers. The details of products such as features, uses, prices, benefits, manufacturer's name, and instructions to be

followed while using the product are given in the advertisements. The advertising message and brand name are also given. The

information supplied gives education and guidance to consumers and facilitates correct selection of goods by them.

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2. Paid form of communication : The advertiser has to pay to the media for giving publicity to his advertising message. He pays

for the advertisement and naturally he decides the size, slogan, etc. given in the advertisement. Advertising is a form of paid

communication.

3. Non-personal presentation : Advertising is non-personal in character as against salesmanship which is personal (face to face

communication) in character. In advertising, the message is given to all and not to one specific individual. This rule is applicable

to all advertising media including press. However even in advertising target consumers or target market can be selected for

making an advertising appeal.

4. Gives publicity to goods, services and ideas : Advertising is basically for giving information to consumers. This information is

always related to the features and benefits of goods and services of different types. Advertising gives new ideas to consumers as

its contents are meaningful. The aim is to make the ideas popular and thereby to promote sales. For example, advertising on

family planning, family welfare, and life insurance is useful for placing new ideas before the people.

5. Basically for persuasion : Advertising aims at persuasion of potential customers. Advertising attracts attention towards a

product, creates desire to have the same and finally induces consumers to visit the market and purchase the same. Advertising

has psychological impact on consumers. It influences the buying decisions of consumers.

6. Target oriented : It is possible to make intensive advertising by selecting a specific market or specific segment of consumers

(e.g. children, housewives, etc.) for the purpose of advertising. This selection of a specific market is called target market.

Advertising becomes effective and result oriented when it is target oriented. The waste in advertising can be minimized through

such target oriented advertising.

7. An Art, Science and Profession : It is now universally accepted that advertising is an art, science and a profession. It is an art

as it needs creativity for raising its effectiveness. Advertising is a science as it has its principles and rules. Advertising is now

treated as a profession with its professional bodies and code of conduct for members. Advertising agencies and space brokers

function as professionals in the field of advertising.

8. Important element in marketing mix : Advertising is an important element in marketing mix. It supports the sales promotion

efforts of the manufacturer and makes positive contribution in sales promotion provided other elements in the marketing mix are

reasonably favorable. This is natural as advertising alone is not adequate for promoting sales. Many companies now spend huge

funds on advertising and public relations

9. Creativity - the essence of advertising : Advertising is a method of presenting a product in an artistic, attractive and agreeable

manner. This is possible through the element of creativity which is the essence of advertising. Creativity can be introduced by

creative people (professionals) in the field of advertising. They introduce new techniques for introducing creativity. Without

creativity, advertising will be like a body without a soul.

4. Advantages of Advertising

The advantages of advertising can be divided into two main groups. One group denotes benefits to manufactures and other group

denotes benefit to consumers. Let's find out how each of them gets benefited by advertising.

4.1 Benefits of Advertising to Manufacturers

1. Large scale production and marketing : Advertising is useful as a sales promotion technique. It gives information to consumers

and encourages them to purchase more. Manufacturers expand their production base due to higher market demand created

through advertising.

2. Introduction of new products : Advertising facilitates the introduction of new products. Due to advertising, information about

new products is given to the prospects. This creates demand and the manufacturer is able to sell new products along with the

existing ones.

3. Creates new demand : Advertising spreads information and encourages consumers to purchase new products. Such advertising

leads to the creation of new demand. Various concessions are offered to consumers in the initial period. This gives positive

response from the consumers. Thus, advertising creates new demand from non-users.

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4. Facilitates effective personal selling : Advertising creates proper background for personal selling. It gives advance information

to the prospects. They visit the shop in order to purchase a particular product which they know through advertising media. The

job of a salesman becomes easy as consumers develop affinity to specific products. In brief, advertising supports and

supplements personal selling.

5. Builds brand image : Manufacturers introduce branding for making their products popular with distinct personality. The brands

are made popular through advertising. As a result, consumers develop loyalty towards a specific brand. Advertising builds brand

image and this develops consumer loyalty towards a specific brand.

6. Reduces cost of production : Advertising creates demand and promotes sales. This enables a manufacturer to conduct

production on a large scale. This leads to reduction in the cost of production and distribution. As a result, the profit margin of the

manufacturer increases.

7. Facing competition : A manufacturer can face market competition effectively and can make his products popular through

advertising. He can remove misunderstanding among consumers about his products through appropriate advertising.

8. Sales promotion : A manufacturer can make his sales promotion campaign successful by using the support of advertising. He

can prepare proper background for the success of such campaign as advertising facilitates direct communication with consumers.

9. Goodwill builder : A manufacturer can build up goodwill and good image in the business world and also among the consumers

through advertising. The social welfare programmes and community service activities can be given wide publicity through

advertising. Even the progress of the Organisation can be brought to the notice of the public through advertising.

4.2 Benefits of Advertising to Consumers

1. Information and guidance : Consumers get information and guidance from advertising. They can study the advertisements of

competitors and select the products which are profitable to them. This avoids their cheating and exploitation at the hands of

middlemen.

2. Acts as reminder : Advertising acts as a reminder to consumers. They remember what is urgently required to be purchased

through advertising.

3. Special attraction to consumers : Advertising leads to competition among manufacturers and retailers. They have to offer

something special in order to attract consumers. Such attraction offers benefits to consumers. For example, manufactures have

to bring down the price in order to attract customers. They have to supply quality goods in order to attract more customers. All

this is beneficial to consumers in terms of price and quality of goods.

4. Raises living standards : Advertising raises the standard of living of people by supplying information about goods and services

which can offer convenience and pleasure to them. Advertising guides consumers in the selection of most suitable goods for their

daily life. Thus advertising provides higher standard of living to consumers as a social group

5. Effective product use : Consumers get information about uses/benefits of different products through advertising. They also get

guidance as regards the right manner of using the product. This avoids possible damage of the product purchased. Even the

product can be used for different purposes because of the information supplied through advertisements.

6. Removes misunderstanding : Advertising helps consumers in removing their misunderstanding about certain products. They

change their attitudes towards certain products and services due to advertising.

5. Role of Advertising in Selling Consumer Durables

The following points suggest the role of advertising in selling sales promotion of consumer durables.

1. Advertising is useful for giving information and guidance to prospective buyers of consumer durables. Here, advertising gives the

details of special features, benefits, price discount, and other concessions offered, etc. to the purchasers of consumer durables

and encourage interested customers to take initiative in purchasing the durable articles.

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2. Effective advertising of consumer durables creates proper background for personal selling. An attraction is created in the minds

of consumers and they are encouraged to visit retail shop in order to see the article or look at the demonstration of its working.

Here, the salesman can use his skills and see that the article is purchased by his visitors.

3. Advertising of consumer products enables a manufacturer to face market competition effectively. He can give special features of

his product and also suggest how his product is superior to that of his competitors. This is useful for sales promotion of consumer

durables. Even consumers can make appropriate selection of a suitable product by studying the advertisements of competitors.

4. Advertising of consumer durables during the festival period acts as a reminder to consumers. They remember to purchase a

useful product on the eve of the festival. This technique facilitates sales promotion during the festival period.

5. The seller of consumer products (manufacturing company) may like to offer attractive gift or price discount to interested

consumers. Here, advertising can be made effectively. This encourages consumers to purchase a durable product. Such

advertisements are common during festivals. Even local dealer may offer certain concession to his customers. He can make

suitable advertisement of such concession for large scale selling at the local level.

In short, effective advertising of consumer durables is necessary and useful for regular selling, for providing information and

guidance to consumers and finally for sales promotion.

6. Types of Advertising Media

Advertising media are as noted in the chart given below:

It may be noted that advertising media have their special features, merits, limitations and suitability. An advertiser has to consider

his advertising budget and select the most appropriate advertising media and use them for advertising purpose.

7. Decision-making in Advertising

While undertaking advertising campaign or while organising an advertising programme for products : consumer products, (tooth

paste, chocolate, soap, face powder, skin cream, etc.) or durable products, (car, TV, etc.) or industrial products, (machine, etc.)

concerned company has to take certain decisions and adjust the advertising activity accordingly. Such advertising decision-making

is a five-step process (Five Ms of advertising) consisting of mission, money, message, media and measurement. In other words,

evaluation and broad decisions need to be taken in regard to these five areas while organising an advertising programme/campaign.

Five Ms of advertising are five basic considerations which need to be given proper attention so as to have positive/favorable effect

of advertising efforts. These considerations are particularly applicable to consumer product marketing such as tooth paste, face

powder, body creams, soaps, chocolates and so on.

Advertising will be effective/result oriented when it is made with proper planning and appropriate decisions as regards the

objectives, media used, funds provided and so on. In short, advertising activity needs appropriate decision-making on various

matters. Such decisions constitute the steps in the advertising.

8. Five Ms of Advertising

An advertiser has to take decisions on the following aspects:

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1. Mission : This refers to the purpose/objective behind advertising. The objectives behind advertising are varied in character. They

include sales promotion, information and guidance to consumers, developing brand loyalty, market goodwill, facing market

competition effectively, making the products popular/successful and introduction of a new product. Decision in regard to mission

is a basic one as other decisions are to be adjusted as per the mission or objective or purpose of advertising decided. For

consumer products like chocolate, tooth paste, soap, the mission/objective include facing market competition, sales promotion

and making the product popular in the market.

2. Money : This refers to the finance provided for advertising purpose (advertising budget). It means the budget allocation made by

the company for advertising. Money provided is a limiting factor as effectiveness of advertising, media used, coverage of

advertising, etc. are related to the funds provided for advertising purpose. Advertising is costly and companies have to spend

crores of rupees for this purpose. Advertising should be always within the limits of funds provided. Naturally, decisions on

advertising package should be adjusted as per the budget allocation for advertising.

It may be noted that consumer products like tooth paste or chocolate are highly competitive with many substitutes easily available

in the market. Naturally, extensive advertising on TV, newspapers, radio, etc. is required. These media are costly. Naturally, the

manufacturing/marketing company will have to provide huge money for advertising purpose.

3. Message : Message is provided through the text of advertisement. The message is given through written words, pictures,

slogans and so on. The message is for the information, guidance and motivation of prospective buyers. Attractive and meaningful

messages give positive results and the advertising becomes result-oriented. The services of creative writers, artists, etc. are used

for giving attractive message to the consumers. Here, the advertiser has to decide the message to be given, the media to be

used for communicating the message, the extent of creativity, the specific customer group selected for giving the message and

so on. The message is also related to the decisions taken as regards mission and money provided for advertising.

For advertising consumer product like chocolate, the message is important. The buyers are mainly children and others of lower

age groups or for the benefit (pleasure and satisfaction) of younger generation. The advertising message should be simple and

easily understandable with the help of picture or slogan. It should be also attractive and agreeable to younger generation. The

pictures or slogans used should be short and impressive.

4. Media : Media of advertising are already noted previously. The advertiser has to take decision about the media to be used for

advertising purpose. Media differ as regards cost, coverage, effectiveness and so on. The selection of media depends on the

budget provided, products to be advertised, and features of prospective buyers and so on. Wrong decision on media may make

advertising ineffective and money spent will be wasted. This suggests that media should be selected properly and decision in this

regard is important and critical.

For advertising popular and extensively used consumer items like chocolate, the media should be selected properly. TV

advertising particularly a cartoon channel, advertising in children books or newspaper supplements for children, advertising on

radio programmes for children, etc.

5. Measure : Measure relates to the effectiveness of advertising. An advertiser will like to make evaluation of advertisement in order

to judge its effectiveness. If an advertisement is not effective /purposeful, it will be modified or withdrawn. This is necessary for

avoiding expenditure on the advertisement which is not effective or is not likely to give positive results. An advertiser has to

measure the effectiveness of his advertisement programme/ campaign and take suitable decisions. This decision-making as

regards effectiveness of advertising is equally important and essential. Such testing facilitates introduction of suitable remedial

measures, if required.

For measuring effectiveness of chocolate advertising, the post advertising sale is one major consideration. Demand creation in new

market segments or in new age groups is another consideration for the measurement of advertising effectiveness. Even success of

sales promotion programme is useful for measuring advertising effectiveness.

In brief, like other areas of marketing management, decision-making is necessary in advertising. This relates to Five Ms - mission,

money, message, media and measurement.

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Another one of the 4P's is 'promotion'. This includes all of the tools available to the marketer for

'marketing communication'. As with Neil H.Borden's marketing mix, marketing communications has its

own 'promotions mix.' Think of it like a cake mix, the basic ingredients are always the same. However

if you vary the amounts of one of the ingredients, the final outcome is different. It is the same with

promotions. You can 'integrate' different aspects of the promotions mix to deliver a unique campaign.

The elements of the promotions mix are:

Personal Selling.

Sales Promotion.

Public Relations.

Direct Mail.

Trade Fairs and Exhibitions.

Advertising.

Sponsorship.

The elements of the promotions mix are integrated to form a coherent campaign. As with all forms of

communication. The message from the marketer follows the 'communications process' as illustrated

above. For example, a radio advert is made for a car manufacturer. The car manufacturer (sender)

pays for a specific advert with contains a message specific to a target audience (encoding). It is

transmitted during a set of commercials from a radio station (Message / media).

The message is decoded by a car radio (decoding) and the target consumer interprets the message

(receiver). He or she might visit a dealership or seek further information from a web site (Response).

The consumer might buy a car or express an interest or dislike (feedback). This information will inform

future elements of an integrated promotional campaign. Perhaps a direct mail campaign would push

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the consumer to the point of purchase. Noise represent the thousand of marketing communications

that a consumer is exposed to everyday, all competing for attention.

The Promotions Mix.Let us look at the individual components of the promotions mix in more detail. Remember all of the

elements are 'integrated' to form a specific communications campaign.

1. Personal Selling.Personal Selling is an effective way to manage personal customer relationships. The sales person acts

on behalf of the organization. They tend to be well trained in the approaches and techniques of

personal selling. However sales people are very expensive and should only be used where there is a

genuine return on investment. For example salesmen are often used to sell cars or home

improvements where the margin is high.

2. Sales Promotion.Sales promotion tend to be thought of as being all promotions apart from advertising, personal selling,

and public relations. For example the BOGOF promotion, or Buy One Get One Free. Others include

couponing, money-off promotions, competitions, free accessories (such as free blades with a new

razor), introductory offers (such as buy digital TV and get free installation), and so on. Each sales

promotion should be carefully costed and compared with the next best alternative.

3. Public Relations (PR).Public Relations is defined as 'the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain

mutual understanding between an organization and its publics' (Institute of Public Relations). It is

relatively cheap, but certainly not cheap. Successful strategies tend to be long-term and plan for all

eventualities. All airlines exploit PR; just watch what happens when there is a disaster. The pre-

planned PR machine clicks in very quickly with a very effective rehearsed plan.

4. Direct Mail.Direct mail is very highly focussed upon targeting consumers based upon a database. As with all

marketing, the potential consumer is 'defined' based upon a series of attributes and similarities.

Creative agencies work with marketers to design a highly focussed communication in the form of a

mailing. The mail is sent out to the potential consumers and responses are carefully monitored. For

example, if you are marketing medical text books, you would use a database of doctors' surgeries as

the basis of your mail shot.

5. Trade Fairs and Exhibitions.Such approaches are very good for making new contacts and renewing old ones. Companies will

seldom sell much at such events. The purpose is to increase awareness and to encourage trial. They

offer the opportunity for companies to meet with both the trade and the consumer. Expo has recently

finish in Germany with the next one planned for Japan in 2005, despite a recent decline in interest in

such events.

6. Advertising.Advertising is a 'paid for' communication. It is used to develop attitudes, create awareness, and

transmit information in order to gain a response from the target market. There are many advertising

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'media' such as newspapers (local, national, free, trade), magazines and journals, television (local,

national, terrestrial, satellite) cinema, outdoor advertising (such as posters, bus sides).

7. Sponsorship.Sponsorship is where an organization pays to be associated with a particular event, cause or image.

Companies will sponsor sports events such as the Olympics or Formula One. The attributes of the

event are then associated with the sponsoring organization.

The elements of the promotional mix are then integrated to form a unique, but coherent campaign.

Morph marketing:

morph marketing is strategy in which marketer provides a product with an envelope of service...so product with service... example MARUTI service with car, AQUA GUARD providing a water purifying m/c with service every 6 months

THE ZEIGARNIK EFFECT IN ADVERTISING

James T. Heimbach, Nationwide Research Center

Jacob Jacoby, Purdue University

If advertising is to be effective, its impact should persist over time. It is not enough that an advertisement have some effect at the moment of presentation; rather, it must continue to exert its effect throughout the decision-making process.

In general, there are two broad approaches to enhancing the persistence of an advertisement's effect. First, the strength of the initial impact may be raised, thus raising the residual impact at any point along the decay curve. Second, the slope of the decay curve (i.e., the rate of loss of effectiveness) may be decreased. Either of these processes will lead to an advertisement presented at time t retaining greater impact at time t + x, the time of decision-making or purchase. The primary purpose of this investigation was to examine a technique for increasing the initial impact of an advertisement and the slope of the subsequent decay curve.

Numerous operational definitions of "advertising impact" have been developed. In general, they fall into three categories:

1.  Memorial effect (e.g., awareness, recognition, recall, knowledge of product)

2.  Attitudinal effect (e.g., opinion, liking, belief, preference, intention, conviction)

3.  Behavioral effect (e.g., inquiry, purchase).

The pair of studies to be discussed in this paper focus on two types of memorial effects--awareness and recall. The assumption which underlies this investigation is: "That version of an advertisement which produces the greater memorial impact is the more successful version of the advertisement." Immediate measures (e.g., awareness, immediate recall) reveal changes in the initial impact of the

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advertisement, while delayed measures (e.g., awareness change, delayed recall) reveal the compound effect of changes in the initial impact and changes in the rate of decay of effectiveness. Both types of measures were employed in this investigation.

Since Zeigarnik's (1927) classic study, it has repeatedly been demonstrated that incomplete tasks are better remembered than complete tasks (cf. Butterfield, 1964). Zeigarnik's explanation for this effect (now named for her) was that the subject beginning a task develops a need to complete it. If he is prevented from doing so, he is left in a state of tension. which manifests itself in improved memory for the uncompleted task.

Extending this explanation from tasks to messages (i.e., advertisements), one could suggest that hearing the beginning of a message leads to the development of a need to hear the rest of it--rather like waiting for the second shoe to drop. The resulting tension leads to improvement in memory for that part of the message which has already been heard.

As might be supposed, this is a rather short-term phenomenon--one does not stay up all night waiting for the second shoe to drop. So what is its significance for advertisers? The key lies in the fact that, in the situation discussed, the subject is unable to complete the task on his own--he does not know the rest of the message. This is not the case with an advertisement. Few people hearing "Winston tastes good like a " would be unable to complete the message. Most probably, a good proportion of readers have completed it just now. This illustrates two further forces leading to improved recall for the message. The first, suggested by Heller (1956), is that completing the message is positively reinforcing, thereby improving learning and memory. A second force is provided by the fact that the audience will have actively participated in the message, and it is a well-known learning principle that active participation, as opposed to passive reception, improves learning and memory. These effects would be expected to persist over extended periods of time.

In addition to testing the general hypothesis (i.e., that incomplete ads would be better remembered than complete ads), the two experiments also examined other factors which could be hypothesized to strengthen or diminish the magnitude of the Zeigarnik effect.

1.  Subject's need for achievement (nAch). Several studies (e.g., Atkinson, 1953; Weiner, 1966) have found that high n-Achievers show a stronger Zeigarnik effect than low n-Achievers.

2.  Subject's prior familiarity with the advertisement. It is expected that greater familiarity will lead to better ability to complete an interrupted message, thus strengthening the Zeigarnik effect.

3.  Subject's prior involvement with the product and brand advertised. It is predicted that subjects more involved and interested in the subject of the commercial will pay closer attention to it and will make more effort to complete an interrupted message.

4.  Presence or absence of a jingle in the advertisement. The presence of a jingle should strengthen the Zeigarnik effect in three ways: (a) by adding strain for completion of the musical phrase to that strain already present for the verbal material; (b) by increasing the awareness of the interruption; and (c) by providing a well-known slogan which should be highly familiar and therefore easy to complete when interrupted.

5.  Presence or absence of a post-commercial pause. Providing a brief pause between the termination of the commercial and the resumption of the program should enhance the Zeigarnik effect by giving subjects a chance to complete the commercial without interference.

Positioning:

Positioning is the act of designing the company’s offering and image to occupy a distinctive place

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in the minds of the target market.

There are four key components to a superior competitive positioning: 1) a competitive frame of

reference in terms of the target market and nature of competition; 2) the points-of-difference

in terms of strong, favorable, and unique brand associations; 3) the points-of-parity in terms of

brand associations that negate any existing or potential points-of-difference by competitors;

and 4) a brand mantra that summarizes the essence of the brand and key points-of-difference

in 3-5 words.

Competitive Frame of Reference

The competitive frame of reference defines which other brands a brand competes with and

therefore which brands should be the focus of analysis and study.

Points-of-difference (PODs) are attributes or benefits consumers strongly associate with a

brand, positively evaluate, and believe they could not find to the same extent with a competitive

brand. Examples in the automobile market are Volvo (safety), Toyota (quality and dependability),

and Mercedes-Benz (quality and prestige).

There are three key criteria that determine whether or not a brand association can truly function

as a point-of-difference:

1. Desirable to consumer

2. Deliverable by the company

3. Differentiating from competitors7 BRAND PLANNING: eARTICLE KEVIN LANE KELLER

< CONTENTS PAGE

Points-of-parity (POPs), on the other hand, are associations that are not necessarily unique to

the brand but may in fact be shared with other brands.

Competitive points-of-parity are associations designed to negate competitors’ points-ofdifference. If, in the eyes of consumers, a brand can “break even” in those areas where the

competitors are trying to find an advantage and achieve advantages in other areas, the brand

should be in a strong—and perhaps unbeatable—competitive position.

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Creating POPs and PODs

One common difficulty in creating a strong, competitive brand positioning is that many of the

attributes or benefits that make up the points-of-parity and points-of-difference are negatively

correlated. For example, it might be difficult to position a brand as “inexpensive” and at the same

tine assert that it is of the same quality.

EMOTIONAL SELLING PROPOSITION

So what’s an Emotional Selling Proposition?

Sure, your USP will provide logic and reasoning as to why someone should select you but their primary reason will

be an emotional one.

Your ESP’s are your products/service/companies emotional levers that help the prospect to buy. They are the

“beneath the service” triggers to creates emotion.

So think about the feelings and the emotions that you want to stir up with your prospects and clients and use this in

your sales. Can your product/service make the prospect:

* Feel important

* Feel valued

* Feel part of a unique group or select band of people

* Feel whole

* Feel remembered

* Feel attractive

* Feel trendy

* Feel hip

* Feel safe

* Feel accepted

You get the picture!

So, next time you are revisiting your USP’s make sure you take just as long if not longer on your emotional selling

proposition too.