Managing the Advertising Campaign

Message Structure

Most advertising messages share common components within the message including:

• The Appeal – This refers to the underlying idea that captures the attention of a message receiver.  Appeals can fall into such categories as emotional, fearful, humorous, and sexual.
• Value Proposition – The advertising message often contains a reason for customers to be interested in the product which often means the ad will emphasize the benefits obtained from using the product.
• Slogan – To help position the product in a customer’s mind and distinguish it from competitors’ offerings, advertisements will contain a word or phrase that is repeated across several different messages and different media outlets.

Message Testing

Before choosing a specific message marketers running large advertising campaigns will want to have confidence in their message by having potential members of the targeted audience provide feedback.  The most popular method of testing advertising for the marketer (or their ad agency) is to conduct focus groups where several advertising messages are presented.  On the Internet, advertising delivery technology allows for testing of ads by randomly exposing website visitors to different ads and then measuring their response.