Building an Advertising Strategy
Автор: Rex Stewart
Источник: Cooperative Grocer
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.
Define Product or Service: Third World is a whole foods store servicing the metropolitan area with the finest in fresh foods, including produce, dairy, cheeses, freshly prepared foods, coffees and teas. The store also carries a large assortment of bulk foods, herbs, vitamins, body care products and natural food groceries.
In a simple paragraph, the product or service being offered by the store has been clearly defined; the next step is to state the foremost objective of the storefront.
The objective of Third World is to service its customers with the highest quality foodstuffs and to educate the consumer on the benefits of the products offered and their contribution to a healthy lifestyle.
The storefront may have many objectives, but it is important to concentrate on what you consider to be the primary one. This could be a rewording or a larger version of your mission statement, included in your strategic plan.
The next step is to define what your target markets are. Once again, this should be determined by the results of your market surveys.
Target Markets: Third World has the fortunate distinction of being located in a downtown area that is close to a university and office buildings, and is also surrounded by its own residential area. There are four distinct markets targeted as Third World customers. Each market has its own distinct buying patterns, demographics, and psychographics. Therefore, each market must have a different advertising approach and product mix. But at the same time, the Third World "message" must be consistent in each advertising group
The four targeted groups are:
- university students;
- residential neighborhood;
- office workers
- natural food community.
This store is unusual in that it serves four distinct markets; your store may service one or two, or could also have as many as four. Now that the market has been defined, the actual strategy for each market is ready to take form. Each market has to be defined for its demographic characteristics, its psychographic characteristics, and the products to be targeted for each group.