Marketing Management, Millenium Edition - epiheirimatikotita.gr

■ Alka-Seltzer Alka-Seltzer antacid tablets have been the beneficiary of someof the most creative advertising in history: In 1969, the company began airingthe classic “prison spot” in which 260 jailbirds, led by actor George Raft,rebelled against prison food by banging tin cups on tables while chanting“Alka-Seltzer.” Later the company aired two more classic Alka-Seltzer TV spots:“Honeymoon,” in which the tablets saved a bridegroom after his bride cookedup such meals as poached oysters and marshmallow meatballs, and ads thatare remembered for the line “That’s a spicy meatball.” The company continuedto push out more classic TV commercials for Alka-Seltzer, utilizing suchlines as “Try it. You’ll like it,” “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing,” and“Plop-plop, fizz-fizz, oh, what a relief it is.” Yet over the past few years, theintroduction of products such as Pepsid and Zantac doubled the antacid category’ssize, leaving Alka-Seltzer’s market share at only 4.2 percent in 1998,down from 25 percent in 1968. 10Advertisers go through four steps to develop a creative strategy: message generation,message evaluation and selection, message execution, and social responsibilityreview.Message GenerationThe product’s “benefit” message should be decided as part of developing the productconcept. Yet there is usually latitude for a number of possible messages. Over time,the marketer might want to change the message, especially if consumers seek new ordifferent benefits from the product.Creative people use several methods to generate possible advertising appeals. Manycreative people proceed inductively by talking to consumers, dealers, experts, and competitors.Leo Burnett advocates “in-depth interviewing where I come realistically faceto face with the people I am trying to sell. I try to get a picture in my mind of thekind of people they are—how they use this product and what it is.” 11Some creative people use a deductive framework for generating advertising messages.Maloney proposed one framework. 12 He saw buyers as expecting one of fourtypes of reward from a product: rational, sensory, social, or ego satisfaction. Buyersmight visualize these rewards from results-of-use experience, product-in-use experience,or incidental-to-use experience. Crossing the four types of rewards with the threetypes of experience generates twelve types of advertising messages. For example, theappeal “gets clothes cleaner” is a rational-reward promise following results-of-use experience.The phrase “real gusto in a great light beer” is a sensory-reward promise connectedwith product-in-use experience.How many alternative ad themes should the advertiser create before making achoice? The more ads that are independently created, the higher the probability offinding an excellent one. Yet the more time spent on creating alternative ads, thehigher the costs. Under the present commission system, the agency does not like togo to the expense of creating and pretesting many ads. Fortunately, the expense ofcreating rough ads is rapidly falling due to computers. An ad agency’s creative departmentcan compose many alternative ads in a short time by drawing from computerfiles containing still and video images, type sets, and so on.Message Evaluation and SelectionA good ad normally focuses on one core selling proposition. Twedt suggested thatmessages be rated on desirability, exclusiveness, and believability. 13 For example:■ The March of Dimes The March of Dimes searched for an advertising themeto raise money for its fight against birth defects. Several messages came outof a brainstorming session. A group of young parents was asked to rate eachmessage for interest, distinctiveness, and believability, assigning up to 100points for each. For example, “Seven hundred children are born each day witha birth defect” scored 70, 62, and 80 on interest, distinctiveness, and believability,whereas “Your next baby could be born with a birth defect” scored 58,1451, and 70. The first message outperformed the second on all accounts. 581