Firebrand

You have to consider the wording of your advertising of copy very carefully because it has a great impact on your brand. Just as with everytouch point of your brand, you need to approach it from the perspective of your customers, particularly your target market. A message using the proper language directed at your target audience can be recieved, where otherwise it would be ignored. In the long term, it has a marked impact on a customer relationship particularly on how they percieve the personality and consistency of the brand.

The most obvious example is talking with children. Say Fisher Price came to me to design a new Power Wheels ridable car, and I found out that kids wanted better wheels and a larger battery for more play time per charge and designed it. If I was marketing to the parents who might buy it for their kids I would say: “The Power Wheels’ Kawasaki mini rider has a new 6V Lithium Ion battery for less charging, and full rubber tires to roll over anything.” (24 words) Not very effective for a the child though. More effective copy in children centric media would be “Roll over anything with the Kawasaki Power Wheel’s awesome wheels! And  the rider keeps rolling all afternoon!” (16 words) Both convey the same information.

Here are the differences-

• Maturity of language: “Tires”, “charging”, and voltages doesn’t have meaning for the children. It should be noted that overly sophisticated vocabulary should be avoided in any situation; few appreciate it.
• Need state: Parent’s need stats is to compare, while a kid’s just want to have more fun.
• Length of Meme: Kids would prefer shorter sentences, and will be taken with the sentence that speaks to them ignoring the rest. Car buyers want more structure with a linked sentence, that are quicker to the point.
• Tone: The tone of the car buyer line is calm and fact’s based. The wording of the kids one is agressive and gets the kids imagining the moment of play with phases like “rolling” and “awesome.”
• Personality: I want the car buyer line to feel like it is being said by a impartial reviewer. On the kids side, I would like it to come from a 10 year old boy because the target market of 6-8 year old boys look up to their older peers.

Question of the Post: Is the same wording and tone always effective for the same target market?

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By Colin Finkle. Colin Finkle is an award winning industrial designer who works with large multinational brands everyday designing retail displays for FX Displays in Toronto, Canada. He is the principle designer at Firebrand Creative. He also writes for AMD’s FireUser.com blog.

Interact with the Firebrand community – Please Comment or Email.

In the last post, we reviewed CPM. I highly recomend you go back and read that post because it will make this post more meaningful. We also talked about how advertising in places that target audiences that match your target market may make sense even though they will command a higher CPM. Now to take it up a notch.

Advertising to people who need your product at some point is the first step. But to take it into the next level, you need to advertise to people who need your product and where they need it right now! A few examples:

- a movie billboard near a movie theatre
- a poster for golf clubs in a pro shop
- a gas ad on the radio in rush hour
- a wine affiliate promotion through a wedding planner
- a skateboard logo painted in a skate part

Targeting your advertising to a specific audience will increase your meaningful impressions. Placing your advertisements in places where people need your product right now will increase how many people actually purchase based on the advertisement, i.e. conversions. This is why point of purchase (POP) promotion is so critical for mass merchandise, because patons are right their ready to react to the ad and purchase; but I could talk about that all day as a retail fixture designer.

Let’s break down the gas franchise advertising on the radio in rush hours as an example. Sure, having a nice rich advertisement on the TV is nice, and most of the audience will be drivers. But none of them are jumping off the couch hopping into the car and filling up after the TV spot… unless you have some screaming deal going (if you do: firebrandblog@gmail.com!) But if you advertise on the radio in rush hour, you are reaching people who are in their car right now possibly watching their guage swing down to E in traffic. They are much more likely to convert. Even if they do not buy gas based on the ad, the impression will be much more meaningful because they are in that need state right now. They will be engaged with the ad; that is a much more valuable impression.

Another good thing about that example is that the radio CPM will probably be lower than the TV CPM. So you are getting more meaningful impressions, those impressions are more  valuable (greater conversion) and you are doing it for a smaller price. Now that is the power of thoughtful advertising.

Question of the Post: Where can you advertise where your patrons need your product or service right there?

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By Colin Finkle. Colin Finkle is an award winning industrial designer who works with large multinational brands everyday designing retail displays for FX Displays in Toronto, Canada. He is the principle designer at Firebrand Creative. He also writes for AMD’s FireUser.com blog.

Interact with the Firebrand community – Please Comment or Email.