The Art of Copywriting

Creative Approaches The Art of Copy writing Copy Testing and Diagnosis

Rational creative Approach

Comparative Advertising– it is a form in which two or more named or

recognizable brand of the same product class are compared and the comparison is made in terms of one or more product attributes.

– Comparison can be implicit or explicit.

Effectiveness of Comparative Ads

Lowers preference rating of comparison brands

Increases the perceived similarity without affecting preference

Comparative ads get more attention and higher recall

Direct or explicit comparative advertising can lead to consumer confusion

Misidentification

Small share follower firms should adopt comparative advertising– consumers put both the advertised and

compared to brand in the same consideration set

– New brand can gain instant recognition

Leader Vs. Follower

Comparative ads often fail to sway attitudes and preferences because it may gain notice but may be considered offensive, less credible and less informative.

Can result in counter arguments by the consumers.

Effects on Persuasion

Two sided ads are seen as more credible as they admit that the advertised brand also has certain shortcomings.

Two Sided Vs. One Sided Comparative Ads

Two sided ads are credible when

A) a relatively unimportant but not trivial attribute is chosen

B) Perceived to be negatively correlated with the attribute

with which superiority is claimed

C) Ones that would otherwise not gain customers notice.

Inoculative Advertising: Building Resistant Attitudes

How to keep loyal customers Loyal– show brand as enhancing self image or

ego– Inoculation

Explicitly or implicitly stating competitive appeals and then refuting them

Refutational Advertising

They are more stimulating than supportive messages

They refute counterclaims and therefore make competitive attacks less credible

Contain some supportive information e.g Calcium Sandoz Soft chew chocolate Captain Cook Salt

Why Refutational ads work

Most useful low involvement - Feeling Good category

Do not appear to be very useful in “high Involvement thinking” situations.

Emotional Creative Approaches

Endorsers enhance advertising readership

Endorsers can induce positive attitude change toward a company and its products; More credible the endorser, more persuasive his message.

Personality characteristics of the endorser gets associated with the brands imagery.

Using An Endorser

Use of Pictures or photographs to convey central idea with very little copy points.

The picture should “tell a story” Use picture of at least some or all of the

product.

Illustrating

Involves decisions on what identification marks to use– company or trade name– Brand name– Trade Marks

Illustrating

Desirable characteristics of a good Trademark

Should be– brief– easy to remember– easily readable and speakable– Easily adapted to any media– Suitable for export– Subtle– No unpleasant connotations– Lends itself for pictorialization

Layout

A layout activity involves bringing all the pieces together before production

Can be in any form:– primary Layout (rough)– Comprehensive Layout (detailed)

Layout

Headline Illustration Copy Identification Marks

Layout components

Five considerations in developing Print Ads

Balance Contrast Proportion Gaze Motion Unity

Five considerations in developing Print Ads

Balance: Decision between– Formal/Symmetrical or – informal/ Asymmetrical

• Formal balance has a strong sense of axis, or vertical line, with elements distributed evenly on either side of the axis

• Informal Balance has components arranged irregularly on either side of the imaginary line, has a dynamic feeling

Formal Vs. Informal An irregular shape has more weight

than a regular shape Dark has more weight than light Larger elements appear heavier than

smaller ones A shape with texture has more weight

than a smooth one. Color has more weight than non color

one.

Contrast

Using various sizes, densities, shapes, and colors to enhance attention value and readability.

Hue, Intensity, Tint, Shade, Value/tone

Proportion

Relationship of one element to the other

Gaze Motion and Sequence Direction Sequence direction means the way eye

is led through the layout, Common one is a ‘reverse S”.

Takes advantage of our natural propensity o read from left to right.

Unity

The qualities of balance, contrast, proportion and gaze motion is combined to develop unity of thought, appearance and design in the layout

Classification for print Ad layout Styles Picture Window: visual dominates other

elements and takes up two thirds or more of the space and is accompanied by small single line headline over limited copy.

Mondrian:– named after Dutch artist Piet Mondrian

whose painting consisted of squares of of unequal sizes of varied, pure colors.

– Style is logical, well organized and easy to follow

Grid: series of equal rectangles Type Specimen:

– large headline with little or no art

Copy Heavy: Big headline, long copy and small or no illustration

Frame offbeat arrangement in which visual frames the copy or copy frames the art

Circus: combination of art and copy mixed in orderly confusion

Silhouette : image usually large without a background and type follows the lines, white space is used for dramatic emphasis.

Multipanel: looks like comic strips Rebus: photographs, illustrations or

diagrams are inserted into the copy which is usually quite long

Types of television commercials

Story Line Problem- Solution Cronology Special effects Testimonial Satire Spokesperson

Demonstration Suspense Slice of life Analogy Fantasy Personality/ celebrity

Read excerpts on Creative Styles

followed by the veterans in advertising

Page 439 to 457

Advertising Copy Testing and Diagnosis

Think of an ad not as what you put into it, but as what the consumer takes out of it.

Rosser Reeves

Copy Testing Strategy

Factors to be addressed in Copy Testing

1. Whether or not to test

2. What or when to test

3. What criteria or test to use

Should you test copy?

Copy testing involves Time cost and Money Costs, therefore should be done when:

New product entry and when too much is at stake

When and what should you test

When– In the beginning of the creative process– End of the creative process(at the layout

stage)– End of the production stage– After the campaign has been launched

Pretest

Posttest

Testing at the beginning of the creative process involves– Qualitative Research such as focus group

interviews to get reactions to copy ideas.– Test the rough mock ups of the finished

copy . animatics, photomatics etc

What criteria should be used

There are five criteria or categories of response

1. Advertisement Recognition

2. Recall of the commercial and its contents

3. Persuasion (attitude change)

4. Purchase behavior

5. Affect on brand loyalty or the amount of product or service consumed

Recognition

Can recognize an advertisement as one they have seen before.

It is the minimal test of effectiveness High recognition scores are easier to

attain than high recall.

Examples of Recognition Testing

Bruzzone Research Company (BRC tests of TV Commercials.– Questionnaires mailed to 1000

respondents with a dollar bill enclosed.– At the top is the recognition qs.– At the bottom is the brand association qs.

Communicus uses recognition measures for Tv or radio commercials

On TV– Respondents shown brief edited portions,

excluding advertiser identification– Asked to indicate if they have seen or

heard before– Identify Advertiser– play back other identifying copy points

Starch INRA Hooper Respondents taken through a

magazine, and for each ad, asked if they have seen it in the issue. Three measures are generated– Noted– seen Associated– Read Most

Recall

Refers to the proportion os a sample audience that can recall an ad

Two types of recall– Aided recall– Unaided recall

TV recall tests Day After Recall (DAR) is an on air test

where the commercial occurs in a natural realistic in-home setting

DAR is the percentage of those who were watching the show in which the commercial was shown and recalled something specific, such as– Sales Message– Story line– The plot– Some visual or audio element

Percent proven recallPercent related recall

Recall percentages are compared against norms

Tests also provides specific verbatims DAR is an On Air test In Print

– Place a magazine with its 150 regular readers and ask them to read in a normal manner

– Next day ask them to describe ads for any brands of interest

Similarly with Radio

Problems with Recall Scores DAR is much lower for Feelings commercial

– Recall goes up if prompted by the description of an opening scene for emotional ads

DAR score is affected by the liking and nature of the program

DAR score vary with the nature of the consumer being tested I.e. a recent purchaser and an unlikely target

Practically no association between recall and measures of persuasion or sales

Persuasion

Forced – Exposure Brand Preference Change– The Mc Collum/Spielman test uses 450

person sample, spread over 4 geographically dispersed location.

Respondents recruited by telephone to a central location to preview TV programming

Seated in groups of 25, they respond to a set of demographic and brand product usage qs.

Performer A

Performer B

T

1

C T2

C T3

C T4

Performer C

Performer

D

C= Constant CommercialsT= Test Commercials

Gather audience reactions Unaided brand name recall test for

clutter awareness score (C/A) Second exposure of the test

commercials surrounded by program material. (A/S)

Program

Intro

T

1

Program T2

Program T3

Program T3

Program

An attitude shift (A/S) measure is obtained Finally Diagnostic questions are asked:

– Comprehension of message slogan– Communication of secondary copy– Evaluation of demonstrations, spokesperson,

message– Perception of brand uniqueness/ brand

differentiation– Irritating or confusing elements– Viewer involvement

The Buy Test Design of the Sherman Group Involves respondents, recruited and exposed

to advertising in shopping malls A series of unaided questions on

advertisement and recall, classify individuals into three groups– Recall/ Understand Group– Involvement Group– Buying Urgency group

On -Air Tests: Brand Preference Change Mapes and Ross test – measure pre and post

brand preference change)– Commercials aired on a pre-selected prime time

position– Sample size 200– Respondents provide unaided brand awareness

and brand preference for a no. of different product categories

– The day following exposure, respondents again answer brand preference and DAR Qs.

Purchase Behavior

Checks actual brand choice in an in-store, real world setting

Tests affects of exposure on actual purchase behavior

There are two well known tests– Coupon Stimulated Purchasing

• Split Run Tests

– Split Cable Testing

Split Cable Testing is the ultimate in testing validity because it allows the advertiser to control experimentally the effects of other marketing mix elements and accurately measure the effect of advertising on short term sales.

Measuring Increases in Loyalty and in Consumption frequency Normed Vs Customized Measure of

Effect

Diagnostic Copy Tests

1. Qualitative Research- focus group research

2. Audience impressions of the Ad

3. Adjective Checklists

4. Copy-Testing Emotional Response

5. Physiological Measures1. Eye Camera2. Pupillometrics3. CONPAD (Conjugately Programmed

Analysis of Advertising)4. Brain Waves

6. On-Line monitoring of Commercial Response

Tracking Studies

After the campaign is launched, study its effectiveness

Selecting Copy Tests- Validity and Reliability Appropriate Copy-test Measures

– Should be guided by the riskiness of the decision involved

Competitive Context Target Market Reactivity Rough Versus Finished Number of Exposures Natural Versus Forced Exposure Copy Test Reliability

Copy Test Sensitivity and other considerations

Sensitivity Independence of Measures Comprehensiveness Relationships of other tests Acceptability

PACT (Positioning Advertising Copy Testing) Principles Developed by a coalition of 21 Ad agencies in 1982 A good copy testing systems

– Provides relevant measurements for the objectives of the advertising

– Is one which requires agreement about how the results will be used in advance of each specific test.

– Provides multiple measures– Based on a model of human response I.e. the

reception, comprehension and response to the stimulus.

Allows for consideration of whether the advertising stimulus should be exposed more than once.

Recognizes that the more finished the piece of copy is the more soundly it can be evaluated

Provides controls to avoid the blasing effects of the exposure context

Takes into account the basic considerations of sample definition

It should demonstrate reliability and validity