ABC's of IMC: Evaluation

Implementation & Evaluation

To create a ‘PERFECT ADVERTISEMENT’, not just the message, but also how well the message is communicated should be well thought of. There are many appeals and execution styles that can be adopted by the advertisers to complete the creation of the advertisement. But the right combination of appeal and style should be chosen to create the desired effect on the customers.

To measure this desired effect once the advertisement is made, the client and other promoters can use certain tools to evaluate the creative work of their agencies.

Appeals & Execution Styles

The advertising appeal refers to the approach used to attract the attention of consumers and/or to influence their feelings toward the product, service, or cause. An advertising appeal can also be viewed as “something that moves people, speaks to their wants or needs, and excites their interest.”

The creative execution style is the way a particular appeal is turned into an advertising message presented to the consumer.

Advertising Appeals

Hundreds of advertising appeals are used as the basis for advertising messages. But these appeals can be broadly divided into two broad categories –

1 Informational/Rational appeal- This kind of appeal focuses on the consumer’s practical, functional, or utilitarian need for the product or service and emphasizes features of a product or service and/or the beneﬁts or reasons for owning or using a particular brand on the consumer’s rational. The objective is to persuade the target audience to buy the brand because it is the best available or does a better job of meeting consumers’ needs by appealing rationally.

Some of the rational appeals are feature appeal, competitive advantage appeal, favorable price appeals, news appeal, etc.

Below is the table for examples:

Examples of Rational Appeals

2 Emotional Appeal -Emotional appeals relate to the customers’ social and/or psychological needs for purchasing a product or service. Many consumers’ motives for their purchase decisions are emotional, and their feelings about a brand can be more important than knowledge of its features or attributes. Advertisers for many products and services view rational, information-based appeals as dull.

Examples of emotional appeals are self-esteem, safety, fear factor, pleasure, ambition, comfort, acceptance, achievement and rejection.

For example, Mountain Dew advertised by appealing to the feeling of achievement. McDonald’s changed its advertising strategy recently and is putting more emotion in its commercials to evoke a feel-good connection with consumers.

A reason to use the emotionally appealing advertisements is to influence customer’s interpretations of the usage of a product. This can be done by using Transformational advertisements. A transformational ad is defined as “one which associates the experience of using (consuming) the advertised brand with a unique set of psychological characteristics which would not typically be associated with the brand experience to the same degree without exposure to the advertisement.

The “reach out and touch someone” campaign used by AT&T for many years to encourage consumers to keep in touch with family and friends by phone is an example of the successful use of transformational advertising.

Combining Rational & Emotional appeal: Generally the question is not whether to use emotional or rational appeal but how to combine both of them to create the desired effect as consumers use both rational and emotional motives while purchasing the product.

Advertising Execution

Creative execution is the way an advertising appeal is presented. While it is obviously important for an ad to have a meaningful appeal or message to communicate to the consumer, the manner in which the ad is executed is also important.

An advertising message can be presented in numerous ways:

· Straight sell or factual message
· Animation
· Scientiﬁc/technical evidence
· Personality symbol
· Demonstration
· Fantasy
· Comparison
· Dramatization
· Testimonial
· Humor
· Slice of life
· Combinations

Components of Advertising

Print Ads

Headlines – the text in the leading position of the Ad

Body Copy – the main text portion of a Print Ad

Visual Elements – Illustrations Such As Drawings or Photos

Layout - How Elements Are Blended Into a Finished Ad

TV Ads

Videos & Audios using jingles, voice-over, music, needle drop, etc.

Once, the story board and the animation is finalised, the advertisement is moved to production phase which involves three stages:

Preproduction stage – all the work and activities that occur before the actual shooting/ recording of the commercial.

Production - the period during which the commercial is ﬁlmed or videotaped and recorded.

Post production - activities and work that occur after the commercial has been ﬁlmed and recorded.

Tasks at each step

Guidelines for Evaluation & Approval of the creative work

The evaluation of the advertisements is mostly subjective in nature though sometimes the evaluators use quantitative information.

Some of the subjective cues that are used to evaluate an advertisement are:

· Is the creative approach consistent with the brand’s marketing and advertising objectives?
· Is the creative approach consistent with the creative strategy and objectives? Does it communicate what it is supposed to?
· Is the creative approach appropriate for the target audience?
· Does the creative approach communicate a clear and convincing message to the customer?
· Does the creative execution keep from overwhelming the message?
· Is the creative approach appropriate for the media environment in which it is likely to be seen?
· Is the ad truthful and tasteful?

Evaluation