It seems so much more art than science and something. However, there is a definite science behind how it's all done!
So do enjoy this article on the art and science behind winning advertising!
Making advertising follows a few basic steps!
Understanding the Core Issue
Before kicking off the creative process, the most critical thing is to get pristine clarity on the task you are working on!
While I was working on Cadbury Gems' "Raho Umarless" campaign, our brand task was to make Gems the 'Brand for me' for the kids and teens.
Again, in Cadbury Celebrations "Toh Iss Diwali Aap Kise Khush Karangay?", we wanted to convert "Aware Non-Purchasers" who were aware of the brand but didn't think about it during their purchase occasions.
Getting precise clarity on what you are solving is the first step!
Understanding the Consumer
The following steps are the most exciting steps for any marketer.
Get everyone into the room – Brand manager, Consumer Insight Manager, R&D Manager, Sales Manager, Agency Planner, Agency Client Servicing, Design Teams, etc.- divide yourselves into teams of 2-3 people each and meet consumers, read about your consumer, and do expert interviews.
Throughout the journey, you keep making small notes of what you observe. At this stage, it's critical to write what you are seeing/ hearing or reading and not your guesses on why the consumer behaves that way!
Finally, each team member brings observations and pastes them on the walls. This is called the Mind Map of your consumer.
Then, you group observations into similar-sounding observations to get large behavior patterns.
Once you have understood the "What" of the consumer, you start debating the "Why," and what's really at the heart of what you observe.
Uncovering the Insight
The entire process is intriguing, and I observed completely different behaviors when conducted in India, Nepal, and Dubai.
According to the observations, consumers in India were so caught up in our passion for progress that our societies are becoming insular, which is the insight that led us to the "Toh Iss Diwali App Kise Khush Karangay" TVC. This insight led to the 'Good Day' creating the Smiles TVC with Deepika Padukone.
However, the consumers in Nepal believed in everyday goodness, contributing towards charity, and helping out at old age homes because the country has seen so much trauma, especially post the earthquake.
Whereas in Dubai, the insight was similar but different. The Expat communities of Indians, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, and Filipinos were lonely in an alien world and wanted to celebrate the togetherness of their cohorts!
Such basis human truth but slightly colored by our individual contexts and hence lead to very different communications and activations.
Making the Creative
Once you have arrived at a clear consumer understanding and have the insight to base your communication, some essential questions need to be answered before the creative team can start showing scripts!
The first question is "Who am I?" or how do you wish to position your product?
An example of a few brilliant campaigns that did this extremely was Cadbury Dairy Milk which positions Chocolates into a Modern Meetha; wherever Mithai was relevant, Cadbury Dairy Milk was too. Coca-Cola did this with "Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola," where they told the consumer that Coke is not a fancy American beverage; but your local roadside thanda!
So why have nimbu pani when you can reach out for a Coke?
The next important question is, "Why should you buy me?"
Again, some brands have done a fabulous job creatively expressing this are Dominoes, cause what other tasty and delightful meal can you get under 30 minutes?
AXE also does it well by saying that it can make you smell like Candy.
Finally, the third question is, "How do I make you feel!" The real currency of advertising is the emotions they evoke; hence, this is perhaps the most important question!
Does the advertising make you feel elevated and joyful like a Coke does, and hence you buy into happiness, or does it reassure you like an insurance player, or does it make you nostalgic as Paper Boat does?
Conclusion
So, while most advertising feels magical and has the power to impact people and society, creating advertising is a clear science and starts with pristine clarity of your core issue.
You next meet consumers and uncover the winning insights. These insights then form the bedrock of your concept or creative briefing.
Then, the magicians at the creative agency help you to de-clutter and break down what you want to say to these three simple questions "What am I" "Why should you buy me" and "How do I make you feel!" And this process results in creating award-winning and, more importantly, advertising that delivers business results!
This article was contributed by our expert Saurabh Bajaj
Frequently Asked Questions Answered by Saurabh Bajaj
Q1. What are the issues of advertising?
When it comes to advertising the following issues are critical to address:
- The first is to clearly understand the business problem that the advertising is trying to address.
- Next is to ensure that the creative solution is both distinctive as well as meaningful to the consumer.
- Finally to ensure that budgets required to create the assets as well as the promotion to create impact are well managed.
Q2. Why understanding consumer is important in advertising?
- Often the consumer really doesn't care much about the brand or category.
- The way the Brand becomes relevant to the consumers life is by latching on to an issue which the consumer really cares about.
- Hence a deep understanding of what the consumer cares about and how the brand can resolve that tension is key to great advertising.
Q3. What is a good strategy for preventing customer dissatisfaction?
In making great advertising while dramatizing the solution in an enjoyable manner is the key however brands must be careful not to over-promise beyond what they can deliver to form a relation of trust with the consumer.
