Brand marketing promotion: Understand advertising creation skills from 3 aspects!

When it comes to "advertising creation", many people may feel a headache and don't know where to start. This article provides you with basic strategies for advertising creation, allowing you to find a new way of thinking.

For advertising creation, is there a most basic and core creative strategy?

Of course – yes!

Based on my years of reading and work experience, I have summarized the basic strategies for advertising creation, as follows:

1. Focus on “seizing the user’s mind”.

2. Achieve differentiated positioning and brand exposure.

3. Four principles of advertising creation:

• First, adhere to the mass psychology of blindly following the crowd
• Second, the powerful effect of insisting on the endorsement of experts
• Third, insist that I have the unique value of being number one
• Fourth, insist on highlighting the benefits of functions

Please note that this is the most basic core path for advertising creation and does not include unconventional advertising. If you create an advertisement along this line of thinking, you will at least get a passing product. If you want to create better works, you need to practice more and keep learning.

Just like learning Shaolin Kung Fu, the basic strategies for advertising creation that I have summarized are just basic skills like stretching and standing still, just for beginners.

However, never ignore the most basic things. Only by laying a solid foundation can you build tall buildings. Next, let me explain them in detail one by one:

1. Focus on seizing the user’s mind

• What should I drink if I’m afraid of getting a sore throat?
• Where can I learn English?
• Which mobile phone should I choose?
• What do we use to learn knowledge?
• What do you need to wear clothes?

For questions like these, there must be a fixed answer in your mind.

You will find that: through constant repetition, advertisements quietly enter people's minds and invisibly influence the public's consumption choices.

For example, a few years ago when folk singer Song Dong was very popular, a friend of mine particularly liked "Miss Dong" and listened to it often. At the end of the song, he changed his usual "Green White Sand" to "Lanzhou". I asked him if he changed his cigarettes? He added, "Stranger, please give me a Lanzhou." I used to think that this was the charm of the song, but after I entered the advertising industry, I realized: he was "brainwashed".

Just like when I often eat braised chicken with rice, or hot pot, I am afraid that I will get a sore throat, so I always order a can of "Gia Duo Bao". Because when choosing a beverage, the only option that enters the brain's decision-making mechanism is "If you're afraid of getting a sore throat, drink Jiaduobao."

When I realized this problem, I suddenly found it amazing, and began to pay close attention to people's decisions when making shopping choices. For example, when buying toothpaste, if you want to buy a herbal toothpaste, you think of Yunnan Baiyao; if you want to buy an anti-allergic toothpaste, you think of Lengshenling, and so on.

Every consumer has an anchored brand in his or her mind, which will automatically come out and influence decision-making in the consumption scenario. In other words, real advertising is the art of capturing the user's mind.

Making the brand stand out and triggering user reactions is the essence of advertising. Therefore, the focus of advertising creation is to capture the minds of users.

2. Adhere to differentiated positioning and brand exposure

The core of advertising creation is to capture the user’s mind, so how can we capture the user’s mind?

For example, when I was in college, I loved shaving my head for a while. Because of that, I was very recognizable during that period. Both teachers and classmates, on the street and in the classroom, could spot me at a glance.

During that period, when the teacher called the roll, he would say "Hey, that bald guy". So much so that at a reunion a few years after graduation, female classmates who I had hardly ever interacted with in school would specifically mention "You are the bald guy"!

Suddenly I thought, this is what it means to occupy the user’s mind! I = bald head. This simple comparison distinguishes me from other students and increases memorability and relevance. Isn’t that what creating advertising is all about? Isn’t giving a brand a differentiated identity the core task of advertising?

1. Adhere to differentiated positioning

Differentiated positioning, at first glance, sounds like a brand strategy. In fact, good advertising is integrated with brand strategy.

For example, when buying a camera phone, OPPO will come to your mind first, and its advertising slogans are almost all about photography selling points such as "20 million front and back pixels, illuminate your beauty";

Another example is the Zulijian senior shoes I saw recently, which immediately occupied the elderly crowd in the shoe market...

These brands, through differentiated positioning, immediately stand out from their categories and quickly become the leaders in their categories through a main selling point.

Following this line of thought, before creating an advertisement, you must think about what your differentiation is. How can I differentiate myself from my competitors so that the public can better know me, remember me, and love me?

Just as William Bernbach wrote in a series of classic advertisements for the Beetle, "Think about it, smaller is better" and "Live within your means", the small and exquisite car model suddenly became a hot item on the streets.

Therefore, before creating an advertisement, you must make it clear what the differentiation is: is it riding safety? Or the spirit of craftsmanship? Is it cost-effective? Or is it a must-have for literature and art?

Differentiated positioning determines the life and death of a brand and also the life and death of its advertising.

2. Maintain brand exposure

Why should we emphasize the role of "brand exposure" in advertising creation?

Because I have discovered that many advertising ideas nowadays are great, the commercials are shot like blockbusters, and the advertising images are made like works of art, but brand exposure is often weakened. Party A spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to shoot an advertisement. After watching the touching or cool scenes, no one remembered the brand name, let alone the benefits and information points conveyed by the brand. What is the point of such advertising?

What are the good advertisements that I understand? —— Melatonin, Tianqi toothpaste, Wanglaoji, Shandong Lanxiang, BBK reading machine, Tingmei underwear, Xiaotiancai children's watch, etc.

Without exception, these advertisements greatly enhance brand exposure. Whether it is in the pictures or the text, there are brands and interest points everywhere.

Let’s take Guazi used cars as an example:

In this 15-second ad, the subtitle banner, spokesperson clothing, and background decoration color all use the logo color of Guazi Second-Hand Car. The entire ad is green from beginning to end.

But it is precisely this design that, firstly, allows the image of Guazi Used Cars to continue to penetrate into the minds of consumers, and secondly, distinguishes it from other advertisements that are broadcast at the same frequency. There is a 60-second advertisement before the web drama is broadcast, and three advertisements of different brands can be played. Other brands have no memorability, but the green of Guazi Used Cars is the only one that people remember.

From the text:

"Why are more people using Guazi? There are no middlemen making a profit from the price difference. There are more individual sellers and more individual buyers. Guazi.com is the leader in the used car industry."

In just fifty words, Guazi Used Cars’ benefits are described very specifically, and “Guazi” appears twice and “used cars” appears twice, making the brand exposure very obvious. By continuously strengthening the branding of Guazi Used Cars and coordinating it with the green color of its logo, it is memorable.

In addition, the background music of the advertisement is even more surprising. “Guaguaguaguaguaguaguagua”, what is the devilish music dubbing doing? Still insisting on brand exposure and brainwashing. Imagine that someone keeps saying “I love you, I love you, I love you” to you all day long. Wouldn’t you be very annoyed? But what is behind the annoyance? You will always remember the person who said “I love you”.

This is the basic creative mechanism of advertising: repetition. A good advertisement must have brand exposure and repeat the brand name more than once to convey the brand value.

3. Four principles of advertising creation

The above article talks about clarifying the core purpose of advertising, "seizing the minds of users", and emphasizing the importance of brand exposure and differentiated positioning. The specific practical principles or laws of practice are the four principles of advertising creation:

First, adhere to the mass psychology of blindly following the crowd

Herd mentality is a high-frequency word in social psychology, and almost everyone has herd mentality. When people are in a group, in order to gain a sense of security, individual behavior will also be group-oriented.

The herd mentality is widely used in advertisements, such as "Four friends, three use Didi", "Redmi is the national mobile phone", "Three hundred million people are using it", etc. These all use hot sales and trends as the packaging of the herd mentality, and the subtext is "With so many people choosing it, it must be right."

Second, the powerful effect of insisting on the endorsement of experts

Endorsement by famous people is a frequently used technique in advertising. Founders, celebrities, stars, entrepreneurs, KOLs, deep users, ordinary people, etc. all fall into the category of endorsement by famous people.

By using someone who is trustworthy and influential as the spokesperson for communication, we can attract more consumers' trust and recognition.

a) Founder endorsement: Chen Ou

b) Celebrity endorsement: Jackie Chan - Overlord

C) Expert endorsement: Sensodyne

Small Pot Tea-Masterpiece

d) Entrepreneur endorsement: Wang Shi 8848

e) User endorsement: Huabei #Live the way I want#

Third, insist that I have the unique value of being number one

The so-called "I am the first" is actually an interpretation of the unique selling point.

• For example, highlighting the brand's leadership, "Leading the pack for many consecutive years", "Leader in herbal tea", "Leader in high-end kitchen appliances", etc.
• There are also some from classical heritage, such as "Founded in 1949, a time-honored Chinese brand", "Tang Dynasty imperial wine, prosperous Jiannanchun", "Gathering the essence of Xifeng for three thousand years, brewing a cup of Huaao wine", etc.
• There are also interpretations of the pioneering identity, such as "redefining the mobile phone", "the inventor of the car invents the car again", etc.; all of these emphasize the unique value of "I am the first".

• Brand first, I am the leader of XXX;
• Heritage comes first, thousands of years of heritage must be a classic;
• First in category, I invented the car, redefined the mobile phone, and so on.

Whether in the market or in the competition and contest in various industries, people only remember the first, so the first means occupying a position and capturing the mind.

The first astronaut to land on the moon was called "Armstrong", the highest peak in the world is called "Mount Everest", and who can remember the second and third ones?

Fourth, insist on highlighting the benefits of functions

The benefit presentation that highlights the production process and benefit value can highlight the interest relationship between the brand and the user, allowing consumers to understand the product characteristics at once and enter their own selection sequence. For example, "The journey of three millimeters is the ten years it takes for a good grape to grow," etc.

Emphasize multiple processes and fine workmanship to enhance recognition of quality.

IV. Conclusion

The basic strategy of advertising creation is the process of capturing the minds of users. It is not complicated, but it requires us to learn to analyze and make choices. By highlighting the value of uniqueness, we can make users remember the brand firmly and make it the first choice in the actual consumption process. This is what is called truly good advertising.

Related reading:

1. How to plan product portfolio strategy for marketing promotion?

2. Marketing promotion: How does fission marketing achieve market “fission”?

3. Brand marketing promotion, 6 common psychological effects!

4. Crisis and challenges of marketing promotion in the first half of 2019!

5. Marketing and promotion skills: turn the masses into a “mob”!

6. Marketing and promotion skills | The marketing of Uniqlo’s co-branded T-shirts that were snapped up!

Author: Qu Tailang

Source: Qu Tailang