One of the main aspects of marketing is to communicate the brand's message to the target audience. Marketing communications are effective when the message is delivered clearly and consistently across all marketing channels. A key component of marketing is advertising. Advertising aims to persuade customers to buy and increase sales for the company. To make advertising effective, it is crucial to have an advertising strategy in place. This explanation covers the concepts of advertising strategy.
Advertising Strategy Definition
There are many ways to advertise a company's product, though they don't all work the same for different companies. The key to finding a suitable strategy is to align it with the brand's objectives. Thus comes the term "advertising strategy."
An advertising strategy is a roadmap through which marketers communicate and convince the target audience to buy their products/services.
Companies can have different advertising objectives, but the overall strategy must match the overall objectives of the company. For instance, a new brand would advertise to catch the target audience's attention, while an established company conducts advertising to maintain its awareness and acquire new customers.
It is important to develop a strategy before implementing any advertising campaign because it will provide a roadmap for achieving marketing objectives. A good advertising strategy considers factors like the market environment, the target audience's preferences, and the actions of competitors. It also helps marketers optimize the marketing budget as they would know the specific areas where they need to spend.
Developing Advertising Strategy
Two things need to be considered to develop the advertising strategy: the message content and the advertising media to communicate the message. Marketers need to make the message's content engaging and comprehensive as it will help to break the clutter.
Clutter is a collection of unorganized and untidy things.
Advertising on different channels could be costly, and if the message is not captivating or relevant, it won't catch the target audience's attention. This can result in a huge waste for the company. Marketers can make advertising messages more effective by combining entertainment with brand integration.
A good example of this is the company Red Bull.
Red Bull associates its brand with extreme adventure sports like car racing, rock climbing, and wind-surfing, which gives it a cool image among young people and sports enthusiasts.
Fig 1 - Red Bull brand integration with adventure sports
Another way to improve advertising messages is to develop a content strategy. In today's competitive market, brand messages must be customer-centric. They have to scratch customers' itch and provide useful solutions to them. Effective advertising messages will show what kind of value the brand intends to provide to its customers.
Advertising strategy also includes selecting the advertising media for the created messages. Marketers should choose advertising media based on marketing objectives. For instance, if the goal is to reach a wide-scale audience, marketers need to deliver the message on mass media such as television, popular magazines, and the Internet.
Check out our explanation of Advertising Media to learn more.
Reach and frequency are the two factors marketers must determine before selecting advertising media.
Reach is the amount of the percentage of people in the target market exposed to the message.
Frequency is how many times a person in the target market is exposed to a message.
A wide reach does not guarantee the success of the advertising plan. To successfully capture the audience's attention, marketers need to craft messages that are engaging and relevant to customers. Relevant messages create a more lasting impact in the minds of customers.
Here are some types of the common media types, along with their pros and cons:
| Medium | Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Television | Mass marketing, low cost per exposure, engages multiple senses | High clutter/ is not suitable for targeted advertising |
| Digital media | Highly targeted, more engagement, low cost, immediacy | Low impact, the audience has control over exposure |
| Newspapers | Local market coverage, broad acceptability, more flexibility | Shorter life |
| Direct mail | Highly targeted, more customization | High cost per exposure |
Table 1. Advantages and disadvantages of common advertising media.
Types of Advertising Strategy
Depending on advertising objectives, we can split advertising strategies into two types: push advertising and pull advertising.
Types of Advertising Strategy: Push Advertising
This type of advertising strategy aims to raise awareness about the product or service among the target audience. It is appropriate for relatively new brands in the market. It informs potential customers about the quality or features of a specific product/service. This strategy can be implemented using traditional or modern advertising channels. Push advertising can be costly to implement as the aim is to reach as many potential customers as possible.
A new product launch show where marketers use the platform to raise awareness about the product to potential customers.
Types of Advertising Strategy: Pull Advertising
Pull advertising creates a unique brand identity in the minds of the target audience. The focus is to get the target audience to purchase by pulling them towards the brand. It is ideal for forming long-term and sustainable relationships with customers. Established brands tend to opt for this advertising strategy.
Creative Strategy in Advertising
Customers are exposed to countless daily advertisements from multiple channels; how can marketers stand out in such fierce competition? The answer is to design a creative advertising strategy.
A creative advertising strategy is a strategy that helps marketers stand out from the competition.
A creative advertising strategy means creating unique advertising campaigns to garner attention and build brand awareness. Like any other marketing strategy, a creative advertising strategy must align with the overall business objectives and focus on content aspects, such as the message tone and target audience. When done right, creative advertising strategies will generate a strong brand identity in customers' minds and improve the company's economic performance.
The concept of "Big Idea" is related to creative advertising strategy whereby the advertising message strategy is brought to life uniquely and memorably.
All in all, creative advertising provides a blueprint for businesses to keep introducing innovative approaches to the public and stay ahead of the curve.
Advertising Strategy Examples
Brands opt for advertising strategies based on their business objectives. From the beverage industry to social media platforms, every brand is looking to stand out from the competition. Here we look at some examples of advertising strategies used by famous brands.
Advertising Strategy Examples: Spotify
Launched in 2008, Spotify is now one of the leading music streaming platforms in the world. Unique marketing and advertising activities have played a big role in the brand's popularity. Spotify uses multiple advertising channels to promote the brand. Their campaigns also use data-driven techniques to target users more effectively and give them a personalized experience. Ideas such as Spotify Wrapped are a testament to how ahead Spotify is of its competition.
Fig 2 - Spotify's unique ways of advertising
Advertising Strategy Examples: Coca Cola
Coca-Cola is one of the leading brands in the beverage industry. The company has always been known for its creative and memorable promotional campaigns. Its strategy is based on aggressive marketing through multiple channels such as television, social media, and celebrity endorsements. They also use sports sponsorship to access the younger target groups. Coca-cola ads also bring a sense of nostalgia - they remind us of the happy memories we have with friends and family.
Figure 3. Coca-cola's ad on a wall
Advertising strategy - Key takeaways
- Advertising is a key component of marketing; the goal is to have maximum impact through advertising among the target audience.
- Advertising strategy provides directions on achieving the marketing objectives.
- Developing an advertising strategy requires developing message content and selecting advertising media.
- Reach and frequency are the two factors that must be determined before selecting advertising media.
- A creative advertising strategy aligns the creative aspects of advertising with overall business objectives.
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