struggling to understand a commercial and the creators passing the difficulties off by saying they may not be the targeted people . But shrewd planners get to ask for concept pretests on the storyboards and radio scripts before going into production . My point is that the media planner has no choice but to increase exposure budgets to obtain the required learning and impact from his schedule .
It is necessary to distinguish target audience from consumers . Some of the audience could be tomorrow ’ s consumers . Therefore the planner may need to provide for them . And so the audience media characteristic is significant in this discussion . Whenever we are analyzing media consumption we are largely looking at fragmentation and whether that would be big enough to affect how we allocate resources . Whenever audiences are spread across many channels and many time slots in channels , brands have to spend more to collect these audiences . Messages would need to go to more contact points and that requires more spots on the schedule . That also translates to more budget which if not mitigated leads to less impact .
In our penultimate , we look at the role of creativity . I remember some memorable ads that aired when I joined advertising in early nineties . The Barclaycard dancing Robot is distinct . The method of delivery was unique at that time and got everyone
Whenever audiences are spread across many channels and many time slots in channels , brands have to spend more to collect these audiences . Messages would need to go to more contact points and that requires more spots on the schedule . That also translates to more budget which if not mitigated leads to less impact .
Well , brands are like people . They communicate themselves . And so the brand must have done its foundational study of self . In a brand ’ s understanding of self , there are things that are paramount . These things are set out to the planners by knowledgeable brand owners and creators . And this goes a long way in determining whether the brand will speak well and get to be understood .
interested . When creatives are able to identify such unique creative aides , delivery is more immediate . And that saves media money while increasing the chance of success .
We will leave media impact discussions at the point of competitive pressure . It is true that what competition is doing at any given time determines how much a brand will be required to invest in order to succeed . When most of the brands in a competitive set are active , everyone spends more . Beating clutter requires more money . The advertiser invests in a louder voice to be heard , understood and stand out .
The six factors discussed above ; Consumer learning , media mix , brand concept complexity , messaging creativity , media fragmentation and competitive pressure are major determinants of success . But they are not by any means exhaustive . Actually , they only get the brand to the door . And so what have we not looked at ? You may want to know .
Well , brands are like people . They communicate themselves . And so the brand must have done its foundational study of self . In a brand ’ s understanding of self , there are things that are paramount . These things are set out to the planners by knowledgeable brand owners and creators . And this goes a long way in determining whether the brand will speak well and get to be understood . I will isolate three such things using Jean Kapferer ’ s brand identity prism .
The first one I like is Personality . Everyone loves a show of personality . We who are human have strong and identifiable traits that help us to survive challenges and navigate life . Some are aggressive , some controlling but some will be subtle dependent characters . Whenever brands express themselves , they borrow from these human-like traits . Actually , most of these traits , they have borrowed from their human origins and years of industry rub-on . Defining and getting personality for a brand is a key success factor for communication . Today , you will see advertising that is indistinguishable because planners fail to get personality sorted and go with what looks fashionable .
The other internal consideration is Selfimage . How does a brand see itself living and adding value in this world ? If you think you are a frog , then so you are . If you ask people why chameleons change color to whichever is immediate to them , they will say it is camouflage for security , but the chameleons may want to hear none of it ! They may say it is for love of nature ! What chameleons would have told you is called self-image . Camouflage is what we see and perceive , it is called reflection . And it is the other factor of the important three . Reflection is external . It originates from how a brand rubs on the surroundings .
It is my uncontested view that a brand gets its recipients to understand its personality and self-image before it starts to push the good and noble reflections of its surroundings .
Christian Masika is a seasoned brand and media consultant . He is a keen observer of life as it unravels . You can commune with him vide mail at : CMasika2 @ yahoo . com .