Educational Materials

Techniques and concepts for Advertising

Below, I describe techniques that are useful to those in advertising. For ambiguities or mistakes on the thumbnail sketches, send e-mail to Scott Armstrong. For more on group process techniques to enhance productivity and creativity, go to Group Process. Revised August 2004.

Brainstorming (and Brainwriting): Brainstorming is a highly structured set of rules to enhance creativity. They should be used only for short sessions, say ten minutes. The rules have one major guideline: to reduce evaluation. To make brainstorming work, you must appoint a facilitator and use a checklist. A more effective alternative, especially for small groups, is “brainwriting,” where you take a short time for individual thinking and writing (I suggest seven to ten minutes) and ask people to write down all their ideas. This is typically used to generate creative solutions, but the problem can be expanded first by brainstorming problems. Brainwriting will save a great deal of time for groups.

Close: A method whereby a person attempts to solidify a deal. Some techniques for this are suggesting realistic action steps, offering an incentive (i.e., low price) to consummate the deal right away, asking directly for the order, or getting the perspective buyer to make minor choices as to color, size, etc. (foot-in-the-door), or asking a client “What do we need to do to implement these proposals?”

Copy testing: While prior research helps in the design of an ad, it is often useful to develop tests of alternative copy to see which of them will be most effective. You can examine whether the ad is understood, or believed, and whether it would lead one to take action. This can be done in a laboratory setting.

Decomposition of judgment: One of the basic strategies of management science: Break a complex problem into pieces, solve each piece, then reassemble. Use for estimating response to an advertisement. Additive breakdowns are safer than multiplicative ones. For more on this see MacGregor’s “Decomposition for Judgmental Forecasting and Estimation.”

Delphi (a procedure named after the oracle at Delphi): This involves first having each of the group members read about a problem. Then each person makes an independent estimate before any discussion takes place. The estimates should be treated anonymously. A summary will then be provided of the group responses. After this summary has been examined, the groups will discuss the various proposals for a period of time, say ten minutes. Then, each person will again make an independent and anonymous estimate and a group summary will be prepared. Additional rounds can be done. This procedure provides substantial improvements in accuracy over ratings by unstructured groups. It can be done on paper or by software.

Diffusion of innovations: Advertising should be tailored to its stage in the diffusion process. For example, special media and messages are needed to reach early adopters. As you plan the campaign for a relatively new product, consider how the plan should change as the product matures.

Experimentation: Consider the use of laboratory and field experiments to test your ads and your campaign. Traditional designs can be used for the laboratory experiments, while the field experiments often call for quasi-experimental design (see Campbell, Donald T. and J. C. Stanley, 1966, Experimental and Quasi-experimental Designs for Research. Chicago: Rand McNally).

Expert systems: Explicit rules derived from studying experts as they solve problems. In addition, previous studies of relationships may be useful. These rules are generally conditional statements (If X then Y).

Focus group: Use the same procedure as for a nondirective interview, but apply it on a group basis. A popular and overused technique that costs more than $2,000 per session, but you can do a decent job (with friends) at a low cost. Used early in project to generate ideas (e.g., about target market needs). It is only useful in rare situations. May be useful for ideas about advertising products that are highly visible and when a buyer’s decision is based on what others think of him (like have you ever heard of a liberal professor who dives a Cadillac?) One cannot draw statistical inferences from focus groups. Interestingly, the skill requirements to run a focus group are not high. In general, non-directive interviewing with individuals (group depth interviews) are more effective. For more, see "When Should You Use Focus Groups?"

Formal planning: Improves group performance only when the group is small enough to reach commitment. Has four stages: (1) set objectives (2) generate alternative strategies, (3) evaluate strategies, and (4) monitor results. New product introductions that do each step explicitly are more likely to succeed. In practice, few firms do this. See Systems Approach, Marketing Planning, and Planning Process Checklist.

Gatekeepers: Who is it that makes the purchase decision? Often this differs according to the consumer, as for household versus industrial purchases. Consider that you may have to target advertising to the gatekeepers in order to reach the final consumers.

Intentions surveys: Ask people whether they intend to purchase your product. In some cases this can provide a useful way to forecast.

Marginal analysis: When setting the media budget, the optimal budget should have equal marginal returns. Thus, if you can get a larger return by spending an additional $100 dollars on radio rather than on newspaper ads, you should shift money into radio until the marginal returns are equal.

Monitoring: A formal process to review the performance against the plan.

Non-directive interviewing: The listener follows a set of rules to help suspend judgment and focus attention on listening.

Objectives: Organizations often confuse objectives (where they want to be) with strategy (how to get there). Studies in organizational behavior show that groups can improve their effectiveness by setting objectives that are (1) explicit, (2) measurable, (3) relevant, (4), ambitious yet achievable, and (5) operational. This should apply to an advertising campaign.

Opinion leaders: We turn to particular friends for advice on certain topics (e.g. what movie should I see?) In the early stages of a product’s life cycle, it is often cost effective to advertise to the opinion leaders in the hopes that they will spread the message by word of mouth.

Parallel processing: Divide your group into two or more subunits and have each unit independently solve the same problem. Then compare the results to select the best solution (or to modify it). Useful for creativity. It also helps to guard against mistakes in analyses (seldom do sub-groups make the same mistakes).

Second solution: Assume that your preferred solution is not feasible. Develop a new solution to compare with the old, and decide which is best. This procedure is useful for improving creativity in groups.

Simulated interaction: A realistic acting out of the relationships involved in a situation. This technique asks subjects to reach decision by going through the same typed of interactions as might occur in the real situation (e.g., in meetings or by exchanging messages). It has been found to be especially useful for situations involving conflicts among groups. See paper by Green (2002).

Stakeholder analysis: The success of a firm depends upon the cooperative efforts of various groups that make contributions (e.g., stockholders, employees, creditors, customers, suppliers). Consider how your advertising campaign will meet the need of each of the stakeholders.

Survey research: Useful for assessing customer needs and also to assess expert opinion about how customers will react to an ad. Extensive research has led to effective procedures - the best summary of these is in Dillman, Don, Mail and Internet Surveys. It is easy to look at a survey and tell whether the creators have used the research in designing it. For more, see surveys.

Systems approach: Look first at objectives then at alternative strategies. In each case, start at the highest conceptual level, then make the objectives and strategies more operational. It sounds easy, but it requires time and discipline. The systems approach enables people to go outside of current solutions and to produce rational yet often surprising solutions. For details, see Systems Approach.

Time line: The process of allocating one's time in accordance with the tasks they must accomplish. This method allows one to break down their jobs into small tasks. One of the essential components of a time budget is slack time. With slack time, people can deal with the inevitable setbacks without upsetting their schedules. PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) can be used to create a time budget. CPM, the Critical Path Method, is another method. Do the time line, show relationships, and estimate times. Then figure what path is determining the time to completion. You might then consider changes to this critical path to shorten the time or to introduce slack. (See Time Lines.)

Two-step-flow: Consider that advertising information often flows from the advertiser to the opinion leader (or to a gate keeper), then to the consumer. What can the advertiser do to ensure that this flow of information is effective? One technique that you can use here is to simulate this flow of information analogous to the game of telephone. Test your ad to see whether the most important information is faithfully transmitted to each person.

Virtual group: A group in which members work on a common problem, yet they do not meet face-to-face. They might interact in other ways, such as via telephone, email, or websites - or they might not interact at all. Delphi is a form of a virtual group that allows for some interaction. Markets are another form, but they do not provide for interaction among group members. Virtual groups avoid many of the problems of groups, such as "group-think." Thus, they use information more effectively and they save time. In face-to-face groups, influence depends on such irrelevant things as how much people talk (people who talk more do not necessarily know more) and gender (males talk much more than females). In virtual groups, influence depends more on performance. Finally, because of the need to write, virtual groups leave a paper trail that aids in communication.

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