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Part Five Developing the Integrated Marketing Communications Program
Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
V. Developing the
Integrated Marketing
Communications Program
9. Creative Strategy:
Implementation and
Evaluation
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
emotional motives such as self-esteem and respect by using a clever visual image to
suggest what might happen to women who eat pastry in the morning. The “Respect
yourself” campaign has been very effective in positioning Nutri-Grain as a healthy
alternative for those who don’t take time to eat breakfast.
Advertisers can use emotional appeals in many ways in their creative strategy.
Kamp and Macinnis note that commercials often rely on the concept of emotional
integration, whereby they portray the characters in the ad as experiencing an emotional
benefit or outcome from using a product or service. 5 Ads using humor, sex,
and other appeals that are very entertaining, arousing, upbeat, and/or exciting can
affect the emotions of consumers and put them in a favorable frame of mind. Many
TV advertisers use poignant ads that bring a lump to viewers’ throats. Hallmark,
AT&T, Kodak, and Oscar Mayer often create commercials that evoke feelings of
warmth, nostalgia, and/or sentiment. IMC Perspective 9-1 discusses how many marketers
have been using nostalgic appeals by bringing back some of their classic
advertising characters and commercials as well as using television stars from the 80s
in their ads.
Marketers use emotional appeals in hopes that the positive feeling they evoke will
transfer to the brand and/or company. Research shows that positive mood states and
feelings created by advertising can have a favorable effect on consumers’ evaluations
of a brand. 6 Studies also show that emotional advertising is better remembered than
nonemotional messages. 7
McDonald’s changed its advertising strategy recently and is putting more emotion
in its commercials to evoke a feel-good connection with consumers. The company’s
senior vice president of marketing explained the change by stating, “Over the last couple
of years, we had been very good on the humor side but we really hadn’t done a lot
to reach and touch people with heartwarming or wholesome or romantic or hearttugging
emotions.” 8 McDonald’s feels the emotional ads take advantage of the chain’s
unique bond with consumers, which is a significant point of differentiation in the
highly competitive fast-food business.
Another reason for using emotional appeals is to influence consumers’ interpretations
of their product usage experience. One way of doing this is through what
is known as transformational advertising. 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.” 9
Transformational ads create feelings, images, meanings, and beliefs about the product
or service that may be activated when consumers use it, transforming their interpretation
of the usage experience. Christopher Puto and William Wells note that a
transformational ad has two characteristics:
1. It must make the experience of using the product richer, warmer, more exciting,
and/or more enjoyable than that obtained solely from an objective description of
the advertised brand.
2. It must connect the experience of the advertisement so tightly with the experience
of using the brand that consumers cannot remember the brand without recalling the
experience generated by the advertisement. 10
Transformational advertising can differentiate a product or service by making the
consumption experience more enjoyable. 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. McDonald’s has also used transformational advertising very effectively to
position itself as the fast-food chain where parents (or grandparents) can enjoy a
warm, happy experience with their children. Norwegian Cruise Lines used transformational
advertising to create a unique image of the cruise experience and differentiate
itself from competitors with its “As far from the everyday as a ship can take you.
That’s the Norwegian Way” campaign. The goal of the campaign was to demonstrate
how Norwegian provides each guest with a unique reprieve from the mundane routines
of everyday life. Both the dramatic visuals and ad copy depicted the vast array of