These are the tangible things that make up what a product is and will be shown or listed in some way on the creative execution or in the copy.
The benefits of these individual features are intangible benefits to the consumer:
The benefit to the consumer with the Chromebook is the ability to be more productive because of multitasking (processing speed enables productivity)
Depending on your perspective, the benefit to the consumer with the Dyson could be no more excuses for avoiding large family gatherings because of the ease of cleanup due to the increased maneuverability (the ball enables easy cleanup)
The benefit to the consumer using the white glove service of Restoration Hardware is knowing how easy it is to return or replace at no additional cost if you don’t like the furniture when you get it home (white-glove furniture delivery)
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
These features and benefits allow us to write headlines, write copy, and design campaigns compelling to the target by ensuring that we are defining the utility of the product in terms that demonstrate what’s in it for the consumer. These benefits can express themselves in the scenario being shown in the visual or written portion of the work being described in the headlines or body copy.
WHAT JOB TITLE/ROLE IS CONCERNED WITH THIS?
Writers, designers, art directors, and creative directors will find this useful when developing concepts to execute. For example, headlines can be feature statements or benefit statements. Visual concepts can be developed around demonstrating a particular scenario that shows the absence of a particular benefit to highlight having it.
FOR MORE ON THE SUBJECT
Read Words that Sell: More than 6,000 Entries to Help You Promote Your Products, Services, and Ideas by Richard Bayan.
[ THE PURCHASE FUNNEL ]
WHAT IS IT?
The purchase funnel is a way to understand the stages a customer goes through on the way to a purchase, and then to becoming loyal to a brand or product. The concept is really a business-y way to explain the process of buying something, beginning with making you aware that it exists. After you know that it exists, you may want to read up on it and some others like it to determine which one is right for you based on its features. You might also dive into online reviews, ask people who already have one if they like it, or head to the store to try it yourself. After gathering enough information and making a selection, you cough up the cash and make the transition from prospect to proud owner. Once it’s yours, you may need help from the manufacturer to take care of it or get it serviced, and now you’ll rate how well they are doing in online reviews. Based on the overall experience, you’ll either recommend it to others or begin the process anew because you were unhappy with it or have a different need based on how your life has evolved.
Think back to your decision-making process when you bought your first iPhone. You knew you wanted it; the questions were what color and how many gigs. Or, remember when you bought your first MacBook. Since we are creatives, there was no internal debate, only a decision to go with the retina screen and solid-state drive or opt for the largest storage capacity. Pretty simple, right?
Well, think of all the people who don’t automatically go for Apple products. Those people have a much harder time making these decisions, because they also consider many other brands that can meet their needs: e.g., Samsung, Nokia, Google or HP, Microsoft, Lenovo. Then they must research these options and compare each of them to determine which features best serve their needs. Then at some point they decide and purchase. If they are satisfied with their purchase, they may become “advocates”—recommending the same choice to friends and family.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Understanding these points along the consumer’s journey will help us recommend the correct format and media channels based on the decisions the consumer needs to make in each stage. Let’s say Lenovo (which acquired IBM’s personal computer division in 2005) has a new laptop. In order for the public to consider it, they would first need a brand campaign to make the public aware of the new name the new offering comes from. Once aware of this choice, it would be helpful for consumers to have a website they could visit to learn about all the features and benefits of the product. Since the public may be comparing on their mobile devices, this website design would need to work in any channel the consumer is researching in. When the choice is made to purchase, the website would need e-commerce capabilities in case the consumer wanted to buy.
After the purchase, the brand would do well to make it easy to engage with the customer’s friends in various ways, through social media or making a support site easily accessible. This will give the new customer a sense that the brand is supporting his or her purchase by standing behind the product and therefore give something positive to tweet or post about in social media (and the opposite is true if the experience or product fails to live up to what was advertised). Some view this concept as old, and yes, the funnel concept was developed before social media, digital natives, or smartphones. The customer journey and the ability to track it (if crafted right) could tend to offer more specific behavioral insights that acknowledge the point of entry according to behavior versus assuming it would be from traditional mass-media channels that yield large audiences. Regardless of the tool you or your organization uses, it is important to understand the stages in order to craft messaging that achieves the objectives in each stage.
WHAT JOB TITLE/ROLE IS CONCERNED WITH THIS?
Creative directors, freelance designers, and writers who are making strategy recommendations are likely to use the purchase funnel concept. This tool can be used to determine what tangible design deliverables, written offers, or calls to action will be needed in the creative work.
FOR MORE ON THE SUBJECT
Read Targeted: How Technology Is Revolutionizing Advertising and the Way Companies Reach Consumers by Mike Smith.
[ MARKETING ALLOWABLE ]
WHAT IS IT?
A marketing allowable is the amount of money a brand has determined it can spend on a new customer. Ever wonder why those timeshare sellers offer to give you all that free stuff in exchange for your time? It’s because they’ve calculated that the free surf-and-turf dinner at the upscale restaurant, the jet ski voucher for two, and the glass-bottom boat tour are all well within what they stand to gain should you sign on the dotted line. In fact, the marketing folks have already subtracted it from the overall amount of profit they will make over the lifetime value or money they’ll gain from their relationship with you. So in other words, free shipping, the free tote bag with purchase, and the free steak and lobster are, you guessed it—not free. The higher the item’s price, the higher marketing allowable in the budget, and the more expensive the items offered to get your attention.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
Though I don’t want to give you nightmares by bringing up the numbers, knowing what they are in some situations will give you an understanding of what you have to spend on gifts to sweeten the pot. To sum it up, a marketing allowable is a part of a broader acquisition initiative designed to turn leads or prospects into new customers. If you work in promotions, often you’ll need to gain your target’s attention by building a design idea around a premium. An HGTV promotion for a house could include a welcome to the neighborhood basket with an antique key inside the brochure. In this example, the basket, the fruit, the key, and the printing for the brochure would all need to be within the allowable. The ideas for the offer need to be compelling so as to attract the most responses, and the profit gained from each successful purchase should more than cover what it cost to produce. As new platforms emerge and digital behavior evolves, new-customer-acquisition costs change.
WHAT JOB TITLE/ROLE IS CONCERNED WITH THIS?
Marketing allowables are most relevant for freelancers, art directors, and designers working in promotions for various media properties, or designers embedded with marketing departments. This concept is essential when pitching promotional d
esign concepts in a data-driven marketing context.
FOR MORE ON THE SUBJECT
Read Digilogue: How to Win the Digital Minds and Analogue Hearts of Tomorrow’s Customer by Anders Sorman-Nilsson.
[ METRIC ]
WHAT IS IT?
Peter Drucker, the writer, professor, and management consultant BusinessWeek dubbed “the man who invented management,” is quoted as saying, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Metrics are points of information that businesses or brands use to determine how well they are doing with the “numbers”—such as reducing cost, increasing response rate to an ad, or setting a sales benchmark to beat. The success of a business is determined through metrics that include:
time on website
response rate
click-through rate (CTR)
cost per thousand (CPM, the cost of 1,000 “impressions” in advertising)
conversion rate
open rate
number of unsubscribes, likes, retweets, and referrals
recency of purchase
frequency of purchase
monetary value (the previous three are RFM)
average order value of customers (AOV)
With these measures, you can better manage common key objectives of increasing the time on site, reducing the number of unsubscribes, and increasing monetary value of orders through creative campaigns.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
When you understand what a business or brand is trying to accomplish, you can propose solutions that answer the business problem with creativity. Since each organization is different, creatives may or may not have access to these metrics, but a smart creative director or informed designer can make these assumptions in order to focus on them in the work. For instance:
If your assignment is to design a digital ad campaign, you can assume that the goal is to drive as much traffic as possible somewhere.
If you are designing packaging for a product, then the number of sales is being measured.
If you are designing signage or exhibition materials for an event, the number of people who will visit the booth is important to keep track of.
Knowing what is being measured allows you to do the detective work of finding out more about where the campaign will be seen, where the ads click through to, what other products your packaging will be seen with, and so on. With this information, you can look for insights that differentiate your concepts relative to competitors or that leverage the context they will be seen in to achieve the goals or the metrics you aim to measure.
WHAT JOB TITLE/ROLE IS CONCERNED WITH THIS?
Creative directors and everyone involved in developing creative business solutions will work with metrics.
FOR MORE ON THE SUBJECT
Read The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott.
[ THE BRAND LADDER ]
WHAT IS IT?
This methodology originated at Procter & Gamble in the 1960s and has been used at agencies such as WPP’s Y&R to build brands. Think of a brand ladder as the foundation of a house because it’s built from the ground up:
First, you start with the features (or attributes of a brand) that express the tangible aspects of what a brand is.
Next, you layer on top of the features the corresponding benefits to the target consumer.
On top of those benefits, you identify and list the values the target uses to make decisions about whatever it is that your brand is selling.
Lastly, you use each of these three pieces to create a “positioning statement” that was developed from the content below it—what’s known as “laddering up.”
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
This is a tool that helps connect the brand and the target. Using this ladder technique, a designer can ensure that he or she is creating in the voice of the brand within what is relevant to the target. With a sound brand ladder connecting the brand and target, creative people can take risks that are rooted firmly in relevance.
WHAT JOB TITLE/ROLE IS CONCERNED WITH THIS?
Creative directors, senior designers, and writers will use the brand ladder. Anyone on a pitch team or looking for new business will need to understand these elements because of their strategic relevance to creative execution.
FOR MORE ON THE SUBJECT
Read Understanding Consumer Decision Making: The Means-End Approach to Marketing and Advertising Strategy by Thomas J. Reynolds and Jerry C. Olson.
[ THE POSITIONING STATEMENT ]
WHAT IS IT?
This tool is a succinct articulation of the target, brand, business category, point of difference (see Chapter 9 for more information), and “reason to believe” associated with a product or service. (I’m simplifying this for our discussion—these consumer-behavior concepts are rigorous and in-depth research tools and are actually far more complicated.) I use the following framework for crafting a positioning statement after doing the research needed to fill in the blanks: “For (target), (brand or product) is the (category) that delivers (benefit/point of difference) because only (brand name) is (reason to believe based on a tangible attribute or feature).”
Whether you’re developing a brand from scratch or repositioning a brand, you must have a crystal-clear understanding of the people you are targeting because the objective is to “position” the brand in their minds. In order to do that, it is essential to zero in on what it is that makes your product a perfect match for the consumer and vice versa. Once you as a designer, art director, copywriter, or creative services manager have a sense of the specifics of a project from a client meeting, strategic planner, or your own research, it may be helpful to take a stab at developing the brand positioning statement.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
This statement will allow clarity in direction by precisely defining the chemistry between the brand and target. Clarity in articulation means less time wasted in the creative conceptualization and execution phases. It also allows the thread of strategy to help inspire and justify the creative executions proposed. Note that you cannot create a sound positioning statement without building it from the ground up in a brand ladder.
WHAT JOB TITLE/ROLE IS CONCERNED WITH THIS?
Creative directors, senior designers, and writers will rely on positioning statements. Anyone on a pitch team or who is trying to get new business will need to understand these elements because of their strategic relevance to creative execution.
FOR MORE ON THE SUBJECT
Read Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout.
[ BRAND ACTIVATION ]
WHAT IS IT?
Brand activation is the tangible experience a consumer has as a result of the communications they encounter from that brand. As brands communicate their values to consumers through promises, creative people are charged with bringing these promises to life through experiences we develop on behalf of these brands. With that, we “activate,” or build, a branded experience through an app, event, website, identity, package, point of purchase display, pop-up store concept, or advertising campaign. This activation can be as simple as building an event around an organization’s tagline or developing creative concepts that focus on demonstrating a distinguishing feature of a product. Think BMW’s Performance Driving School, where they teach you to handle their Ultimate Driving Machines like a pro, or an American Gladiator–styled event called a Gentleman’s Disagreement where contestants wear Haggar casual clothing, a brand that boasts unbreakable buttons and unbustable seams.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
Creative people are an invaluable part of the communications that bring brands to life. Understanding what a brand stands for and the intended target’s profile helps to develop experiences that are on brand, on strategy, and on message. The moment of truth comes when customers experience the product itself and then determine whether what was advertised match
es up with the experience. We’ve all been disappointed or felt lied to when we’ve paid for products that haven’t performed as advertised. If the product itself falls short, no amount of great design or advertising can fix that (as in the case of the recent Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal). On the other end of the spectrum, we’ve all been delighted when a product exceeds expectations and performs well beyond what was advertised (like the cracked iPhone that still works perfectly though you drop it like you hate it). Some scenarios exist where the product is average but the creative idea, design, or packaging is what’s memorable. It is clear that the creative team has done their job when the advertising and experience match.
WHAT JOB TITLE/ROLE IS CONCERNED WITH THIS?
Creative directors and everyone involved in developing creative business solutions will pay a lot of attention to brand activation strategies.
FOR MORE ON THE SUBJECT
Read How 30 Great Ads Were Made: From Idea to Campaign by Eliza Williams.
Creative Strategy and the Business of Design Page 3
