Question

Verizon spends millions of dollars each year on advertising for many different purposes. Provide an example of how it might design an informative ad, a persuasive ad, and a reminder ad.

Answer 1

Advertising should always be in line with promotional and marketing objectives, and the business strategy or mission of the organization.

Advertising is classified into three types: informative, persuasive and reminder. Persuasive ads are used to advertise established products and services in an attempt to get consumers to switch brands. Reminder ads are used for established products and services to keep the name in front of consumers. Companies use informative advertising to introduce a new product or service or to inform consumers when an existing product or service is altered. Federal laws mandate that commercial advertising cannot be deceptive, unfair or false.

Briefing :

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

• Explain different types of advertising; informative, persuasive and reminder oriented

KEY POINTS

• Reminder advertising reinforces previous promotional activity by keeping the name of good, service, person, or cause before the public.
• Marketers use persuasive advertising to increase the demand for an existing good, service, or organization.
• Informative advertising is often used when launching a new product or for an updated or relaunched product.

EXAMPLE

• Coca-Cola is a well-established brand that uses reminder advertising to maintain its position in the market. It brings back past packaging as well as advertisements that go back to the beginning of the brand.

Let's jump into this now :

Introduction

Advertising objectives should always be in line with promotional and marketing objectives, as well as the business strategy or mission of the organization. Group advertising objectives fall into three categories:

• To Inform
• To Persuade
• To Remind

1) Informative Advertising

Informative advertising is often used when launching a new product, or for an updated or relaunched product. The objective is to develop initial demand for a good, service, organization, or cause. It is used when a new product is put on the market on when an old product has been re-launched or updated.

Informative advertising will tell the consumer and marketplace about the product, explain how it works, provide pricing and product information, and should build awareness for the product as well as the company. The image of the product and the company should be compatible and complementary. There should be enough information to motivate the consumer to take some sort of action.

Informative Advertising Focuses on Accuracy

One of the key qualities of informative advertising is that it's focused on making the material educational. If you decide to go that way, you’ll want to protect your brand’s reputation for being accurate; otherwise, you will put its future in jeopardy. To prevent that, make sure you check and recheck every fact in your advertisement. Of course, you probably won’t misstate the facts or provide wrong information. That’s not where the real danger is. The greatest risk comes from presenting the information in a misleading manner. For instance, take a company that is selling health-centric fruit juice blends. It releases advertisements about some exotic fruit that isn’t very well known and that has been found to be a rich source of healthy antioxidants. Now, let’s say that these antioxidants were found only in one variety of the fruit, but that variety isn't the variety that the business is selling. In that instance, the information is blatantly misleading, which could land the company in serious legal hot water.

2) Persuasive Advertising

Marketers use persuasive advertising to increase the demand for an existing good, service, or organization. The idea is persuade a target audience to change brands, buy their product, and develop customer loyalty. After the purchase, the quality of the product will dictate whether or not the customer will remain loyal or return to the previous brand.

Persuasive advertising is highly competitive when there are similar products in the marketplace, and products are competing for their share of the market. In this situation, the winning product will differentiate itself from the competition and possess benefits that are superior to, or compete strongly with, the competition. Comparative approaches are common place, either directly or indirectly.

Characterisitcs of persuasive advertisement

Effectiveness and persuasiveness of ads are closely linked. While you often have different goals with ads, the general intent of each is to persuade customers to think, feel or act in a certain way toward your brand. With this in mind, effective, persuasive ads have several common traits.

Appealing to Emotions

Persuasion normally requires that you connect with someone's rational or emotional motives in a purchase situation. In many cases, emotional appeals carry more influence. Effective ads typically rely on strong market research to uncover what makes target customers tick, or what benefits and message content will get their intention. Emphasizing the benefits that most appeal to a target audience in a way that makes an emotional impact is a key ingredient. For example, associating a perfume with sensuality can appeal to a potential customer's yearning to be attractive.

Using Subtlety

The most memorable and resonating ads usually walk a fine line between clarity and subtlety. You want customers to "get" your message, but you also want them to have to think a little bit so you can create some cognitive residue, or lasting impact. This is where the role of creativity becomes important. Companies often use metaphors to depict the benefits of their brand in a slightly unique or different message situation. This forces customers to connect the dots to the point you make, without completely confusing them about your brand. For example, a gum maker's TV ad might associate a cool mint flavor with a brisk, crisp wintry day by releasing an ad showing someone popping the gum into their mouth, then playing a distant wintry-wind sound effect in the background.

Telling a Story

Effective ads can tell stories to connect with customers, often creating settings with characters that can cause the viewer or listener to identify with a character's plight in the ad. For instance, an ad for auto insurance might depict a driver getting into a fender bender and experiencing the frustration of not having adequate auto coverage. Potential customers might relate, either because they have been in this predicament or can imagine the stress they would feel if they were.

The Medium and the Message

Effective and persuasive ads are delivered in the right way through the right medium. In a TV ad, setting, lighting, sound, character expressions and dialogue all contribute to the mood of the message. In print ads, the design, use of color and copy impact tone. On the radio, the blend of sound and copy set the tone. The medium and message should work together for clarity and impact. Commercials for cologne or perfume often use sensual music, lighting and character gestures to convey messages that the brand offers an attractive, alluring smell.

3) Reminder Advertising

Reminder advertising reinforces previous promotional information. The name of the product, testimonials of past customers, public response, and sales techniques are repeated in the hopes of reminding past customers and garnering new ones. It is used to keep the public interested in, and aware of, a well-established product that is most likely at the end of the product life cycle.

Coca cola is an established brand that uses reminder advertising.