Advertising expression strategy: I summarized 15 ways to express advertising

Last week, a reader sent me a private message: "I am good at all kinds of advertising copywriting , please add me on WeChat ! xxxx".

It seems like I have met an expert... I was shocked and quickly replied: "Do you know how many expression strategies there are in advertising?"

He replied, 8 kinds.

Okay, this is new.

When writing copy, we may unconsciously use many techniques and strategies, and then, after repeated consideration and repair, it becomes bad.

One of the reasons is that most advertisers who seem to have unlimited imagination lack a solid professional foundation.

For example, look at this title : "Small advertising expression strategies: Guess how many types I have in total?" ”, what advertising strategies does it embody?

Here is a brief list of them.

1. Product Proof-of-Sales Strategy

Use realistic techniques to directly promote products or themes to consumers. To bring a realistic sense of reality. The key is to solve the problem of consumer distrust.

"Is this pair of military rubber good? Look at me, I can be chopped with a kitchen knife, scalded with boiling water, and hit with a rock, but it doesn't get deformed at all!"

There used to be advertisements on TV: "Pure gold necklace, a whole piece! Only 399! Call and order now!" Then, there was a product demonstration scene, with a man using this gold necklace to hammer! Car pressure! Chemical blisters! Spit fire! No deformation or discoloration.

Regardless of whether this necklace is real or fake, the product verification strategy is truly shocking.

2. Use the associative strategy

Human beings have a broad network of thoughts. One thing and one object at a time, connections are established in the brain through external forces and one's own thinking.

I remember an advertisement: a group of innocent children are watching a group of chicks. The chicks are very cute. The children are laughing and saying things like "how cute!". Then the chicks chirp and walk to the right side of the screen. Then the camera turns to the right, and it shows the same group of children happily eating chicken nuggets. (I forgot which fast food brand’s advertisement it was)

Subsequently, sales of chicken nuggets increased significantly, and the advertisement weakened consumers' "fear" of fried foods.

By using association, you can also bring precise attributes to the product, such as accurately targeting a certain group of people, a certain concept, a certain hobby, improving the grade and so on.

Many years ago, the Li Ning sports brand, facing the challenges of new markets, discovered that people born in the 1990s had become active participants in sports activities. Therefore, the brand image, product design and advertising style are all geared towards the post-90s generation.

Logically, Li Ning would have done something, but the survey turned out to be inaccurate, or maybe there was no survey at all. People born in the 1980s were Li Ning's main consumer group, and at that time they were disgusted by the "post-90s attributes".

Since Li Ning announced its brand reshaping in July 2010, the company has encountered a series of problems, including the resignation of many senior executives, layoffs, and excess inventory. Its stock price has fallen from a high of HK$32 to below HK$5.

3. Metaphorical Symbolism Strategy

Using the external form or internal specific meaning of a certain thing to express another thing, implicitly conforming to certain thoughts and feelings, and arousing customers' ideas and psychology to have a new and profound feeling about the thing.

When I was a child, my teacher asked us to make sentences using the word “像”. I will always only say, "The crescent moon is like a boat."

Around 1850, "Magic Laundry Detergent" launched an advertisement based on current events, using metaphors and symbolism.

At that time, there were a large number of Chinese laborers living in the United States. They did not mind the dirt and hard work and did the work of several people, causing the unemployment rate in the United States to continue to rise. Later, the United States issued a restriction order on China.

An American man wearing an American flag uniform, holding a magic laundry detergent in his left hand and wearing an Uncle Sam hat, kicked a dirty-dressed Chinese man away. The sun was smiling in the distance, and other Chinese were also running away.

Next to it is written this small note: "If you want it to be dirty, don't use magic laundry detergent"

4. Reasonable exaggeration strategy

Does anyone have this question - should we exaggerate in advertising?

In most cases, we definitely need to exaggerate the description of the product.

This is because most consumers see the ad first and then buy; they don’t buy many times before seeing the ad.

For example, a consumer wants a certain product (motive), so he goes online/offline to choose it. Usually, there is not only one brand of the same type of product. They are all displayed in a pile, and this pile of similar products can all meet the consumer's motive. Therefore, non-specific consumers can only judge by the advertising copy on the product.

For example, one night, I suddenly wanted to eat imported instant noodles (motivation), so I rushed to the supermarket and went to the snack area, where I saw more than twenty kinds of imported instant noodles displayed on the shelves. I was not obsessed with any brand, but I kept thinking about which one tasted good!

Assuming there is no interference from a shopping guide, at this time it is entirely up to the product itself to "sell melons and brag about them".

The difficulty of a reasonable exaggeration strategy lies in the degree of exaggeration and the distance between it and the product itself. If the exaggeration is too great, consumers will "curse" after buying it.

Tips to deal with being "scolded" by consumers: make a small mark of authenticity.

"This picture is for reference only", "Any similarity is purely coincidental", "This is for performance purposes only, please imitate with caution"

5. Feature-focused strategy

In fact, this one is not even a strategy; it’s a necessity. But that's not the case. If it's a resource-oriented product, there's no need to highlight the features. A straightforward approach is the most appropriate.

When I was in school, I only had a few cents of pocket money a month. In my spare time, I liked to browse the school forum, and then I found out why so many people wanted to come to the school to eat and read books in the library. How about I help them? So, I collected ten cards, posted the information on the forum, and rented them out in a few days. Each card cost 100 yuan per month, with 0 cost and 1,000 yuan extra pocket money in one month.

This is a resource-oriented product, but now most products are market-oriented. They need to compete with many similar products, so it is particularly important to highlight the characteristics.

6. Anthropomorphic processing strategy

This concept seems to be very popular recently, and it refers to "personality".

Public service announcements often play: "We must treat nature equally."

But it's difficult. The more we voluntarily come into contact with something, the closer we will be to it.

For example, he lived with wolves since he was a child. After seven or eight years, he started to avoid people and was not close to them.

People who have been exposed to mathematics since childhood and are good at mathematics often do not do well in English because they are too close to logic.

I have been close to the profession of marketing since I was a child, so I am used to using it to explain many things. In other words, if you explain something to me with marketing thinking, I can naturally absorb it quickly.

Being close means habit, preference, better memory, better attitude, and taking things for granted.

So, why do we humanize advertisements and products? A playing moon is likened to a boat with people sitting on it. Because the audience is people, it is natural for people to be close to each other.

It is actually nothing if a person is very afraid of others, but he will definitely be labeled as "having problems" by the people.

7. High-potential endorsement strategy

This is often referred to as "celebrity endorsement", including some teaching materials, and I think it's time for a reform.

Celebrity endorsement is just one type of high-potential endorsement strategy. In terms of public communication, celebrities have much higher potential energy than products. Finding a suitable high-potential celebrity (a relatively popular celebrity) to endorse a product will naturally make the low-potential product popular.

However, high-potential endorsements also include finding a rich dad (owned by a large company).

Or, they put their products in a big ranking. For example, Chrysler, as the third largest car manufacturer in the industry, was often crushed by General Motors, the world's largest car manufacturer. So Chrysler changed its advertising slogan to: "One of the world's top three automakers."

You can also use colors, emotions, authority, etc. to represent high potential, as mentioned in "37 Pictures on Using Marketing to Eliminate Users' Misplaced Psychology".

By the way, there is one more point, is it better to choose a big V or a small V as the spokesperson?

"In terms of communication and operation effects, big Vs are not necessarily better than small bloggers. Because when the number of fans of a certain social KOL reaches a certain level, the overall level of interaction in this community will begin to weaken." Korn Ferry Research believes.

• 
  “Pan-influencers”: entertainment stars, Weibo million-follower Vs, etc.
• “Micro-influencers”: beauty bloggers, food bloggers, etc. who have tens of thousands or even thousands of followers and whose reach is relatively limited.

8. Aesthetic conception strategy

Emotional resonance and subtle influence may depend on it. This... requires a bit of literary literacy, I don’t think I’m up to it, so I’ll skip it.

9. Humorous strategy

By focusing on the local aspects, humorous advertisements can create an interesting, funny and thought-provoking mood, thus easily expressing the product.

When expressing advertisements, the use of humorous strategies, as well as the strategies of seeing the big picture from the small details and life fragment strategies mentioned later, all require grasping local details. On the one hand, this is relevant to users, but on the other hand, it can easily cause disgust among some users.

Humorous strategies are generally expressed using the following techniques: praise and criticism, exaggeration, sarcasm, ridicule, innuendo, and pun.

In fact, the funniest advertisement I have seen is the government’s “Clean Government, Integrity” advertisement on the subway. Do you get the humor? The "clean government and honest government" on the subway is seen by tens of thousands of office workers every day, but government officials of a certain level do not take the subway!

10. Contrast and highlight strategy

A method of expression that tends toward opposition and conflict, creating a concentrated, concise, and tortuous effect from the differences.

The significance of the contrast strategy is to more clearly emphasize and suggest the performance and characteristics of the product.

QiaoBi laundry detergent beads - encouraging change "Look at how good their bleaching effect is!"

11. Suspense plot strategy

Create a suspicious and tense psychological state in the conception, which drives consumers' curiosity and strong actions, arouses consumers' strong desire to further explore the meaning of the advertisement title, and then resolves the suspense and leaves a deep impression on consumers.

This is a real test of the advertiser's level. If the suspense is set in an ordinary way and consumers find it ordinary, your subsequent content will collapse directly. So beginners go deep.

In addition, the lucky draw for forwarding in WeChat; the gift of 8,000 Q coins for forwarding " Ma Huateng's birthday" to 8 groups in QQ; the "loophole marketing" once used by Baidu Netdisk, etc., all use the "suspense plot strategy" for promotion .

12. See the big picture from the small

The "small" in "seeing the big through the small" is the focus of the advertising copy/image and the center of interest.

I personally like the following advertisement very much and have watched it about 20 times.

【New Balance advertising video: https://v.qq.com/x/page/k03026n4odj.html】

13.3B Application Strategy

The 3B strategy: Beauty, baby, and beast was proposed by David Ordway many years ago. Is it still effective today? Please watch the video below.

[Coconut Tree Coconut Milk Advertising Video: https://v.qq.com/x/page/p0390ntzdx7.html]

14. Slice of Life Strategy

Describe a certain episode in real life and use small plots in life to express the product. This expression strategy is close to life, and the plot design conforms to the living habits of target consumers. Through lifelike clips, it is easy to arouse consumer participation.

【China Merchants Bank Advertisement: https://v.qq.com/x/page/m05688wcoku.html】

15. Continuous Series Strategy

Through several advertisements from different periods, a complete visual impression is formed, showing the same theme, making the cultural content conveyed by images and texts very clear.

This strategy is mainly used among big brands, and it makes a certain brand culture deeply rooted in people's hearts - big brands no longer need to do advertising that inspires action, they have complete front-end sales and a strong market position. Their advertisements focus on "pioneering" and "cultural influence".

There is no need to give examples, this is true for any big brand.

We should understand the "big brand" mentioned in the "continuous series strategy" as a brand that solves sales problems.

Is this strategy suitable for my product?

If your product requires shopping guides, salespeople, salespeople, and countless hard advertisements to sell, and has almost no self-growth capability, then the "continuous series" strategy is not suitable for you. Otherwise, it will work.

For example, some internet celebrity snacks, niche bloggers’ tutorials, and time-honored shops, their products all have the ability to grow on their own, and they can still sell even when there are no shopping guides or hard advertising. At this time, they made some "small documentary" advertisements, which were very effective.

Summarize

Advertising expression strategy

1. Product Verification
2. Use association
3. Metaphor and Symbolism
4. Reasonable exaggeration
5. Highlight Features
6. Anthropomorphic treatment
7. High Potential Endorsement
8. Beautiful artistic conception
9. Humor
10. Contrast
11. Suspenseful plot
12. See the big picture from the small
13.3B Application
14. Slices of Life
15. Continuous Series

Well, that’s the end of the article, thank you for reading!

Dozens of kinds? Only write about these 15? Yes, that’s the entire advertising expression strategy.

This article was compiled and published by @非大陆朱由 (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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