white paper Back to Basics Series: What Can Advertising Accomplish SUMMARY • Product advertising differentiates product
• Promotional
advertising communicates a compelling reason to buy now
All too often advertising is created without a clear understanding of what it is supposed to accomplish. As a result, the creative can be stifled and the campaign can lose its effectiveness. But the key to deciding what the role of the advertising should be lies in an understanding of the what the advertising can do. A review of these principles from time to time can be helpful even though we've all heard it a thousand times before.
• Brand
advertising communicates brand attributes
All too often advertising is created
portant to tell consumers about su-
without a clear understanding of
perior features or attributes of one
what it is supposed to accomplish. As
product versus another. As products
a result, the creative can be stifled
became more homogeneous it be-
and the campaign can lose its effec-
came harder to differentiate on the
tiveness. But the key to deciding
basis of features and attributes, and
what the role of the advertising
advertisers were forced to uncover
should be lies in an understanding of
subtle "benefit" differentiators.
the what the advertising can do. A review of these principles from time to time can be helpful - even though we've all heard it a thousand times before. It is useful to think of advertising in
tween a feature, an attribute and a benefit is important because they are hierarchical in terms of their ability to communicate. A feature is something about the product (e.g. twin
terms of three broad categories:
rear-view mirrors; a price of $100;
Product, Promotional and Brand.
Teflon coated). An attribute is the
Product Advertising Historically, this is why advertising
functional result of the feature
was invented - to inform consumers about a product. As competition 416.967.3337 www.proteanstrategies.com
Understanding the difference be-
grew, so it became increasingly im-
(unobstructed rear view, priced lower than the competition, easy to clean) and a benefit clarifies how this is important to the consumer (safer driv-