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Class notes Marketing Communications
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Lecture notes of 14 pages for the course Marketing Communications at UGent (.)
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AdvertisingTable of contents
1. Some key concepts
2. Function of advertising
3. Types of advertising
4. Campaign development
4.1. Creative strategy
4.2. Message strategy
5. Message variables
1.1. Argument quality
1.2. Message structure
1.3. Message content
1.3.1. Conclusion
1.3.2. Message sidedness
1.3.3. Message tone
1.3.3.1. Rational
1.3.3.2. Emotional
6. Source variables
1.1. Credibility
1.2. Attractiveness
7. Advertising in a cross-cultural context
8. Causes and consequences or irritation evoked by advertising
9. How to measure reactions to advertising?
9.1. Pre-testing
9.2. Post-testing
9.3. Campaign evaluation research
10. References
1. Some key concepts
Advertising can be defined as any form of paid communication by an identified sponsor aimed to inform and/or persuade
(i.e. make offer more attractive to them) target audiences about an organization, product service or idea (Belch & Belch,
2004; Tellis, 2004; Yeshin, 2006).
An USP or Unique Selling Proposition is a functional benefit reflecting a functional superiority that is translated in the
positioning strategy as a competitive advantage. (De Pelsmacker et al., 2018)
An ESP or Emotional selling proposition is a non-functional benefit reflecting a unique psychological association to
consumers that is translated in the positioning strategy as a competitive advantage. (Cauberghe & De Pelsmacker, 2010)
2. Function of advertising
Advertising is a commonly used tool. Global ad spending including digital (desktop/laptop, mobile and other internet-
connected devices), magazines, outdoor, radio and TV advertising is slightly increasing with more than 719 billion dollars
estimated by the end of 2019 (eMarketer, 2015). Digital ad spending is predicted to increase in the upcoming years, while
ad spending on traditional media slightly decreases (eMarketer, 2019; Statistica, 2018).
Advertising has two main communication functions. First, it facilitates competition among firms because it enables firms
to communicate with consumers fast and efficiently. It helps firm to compete for consumer attention, consumer
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, preferences, choices and financial resources. Secondly, advertising is the most important means to inform consumers
about new and existing products and/or persuade to buy or use a product and/or service.
Advertising is a means to inform about new and existing products at different stages of the product life cycle. It can be
also be used for more complex products or services or when there are problems associated with the product. However,
an academic paper by Tybout et al. (1981) describes how advertising that was set up to help fight rumours failed to have
a positive effect. Disconfirming the rumour by means of advertising did not remove the rumour from customers’
memory. Rather, reminding (versus no reminding) customers of other good features of the product made customers
think less about the rumour and resulted in more favourable evaluations of the product.
3. Types of advertising
Different types of advertising can be distinguished based on for criteria: sender, receiver, message and medium (De
Pelsmacker et al., 2018). For example, product advertising can be initiated by a manufacturing company, the government,
not-for-profit organizations, and retailers or jointly developed by two or more of these actors. The intended receiver can
be either an individual consumer or another company. The message can focus on informational aspects or
transformational consumer motives and can be generic (promoting a whole product category) or selective (promoting a
specific brand). We can also distinguish campaigns based on the medium in which it is placed (audio-visual, print, point-
of-purchase, direct). Above the line advertising is a commonly used term for audio-visual & print) and below-the-line
advertising denotes in-store communications & direct marketing (De Pelsmacker et al., 2018).
4. Campaign development
Developing a campaign consists of a sequence of steps starting with the marketing strategy. An advertisings strategy
needs to be in line with the marketing strategy and holds three aspects: (1) to or with whom are we going to
communicate; (2) why are we going to communicate or what are we trying to reach and (3) what are we going to
communicate. The next step entails translating the advertising strategy into a creative strategy or ‘how to say it’.
Following the creative strategy, a media strategy is set up detailing the media on which the communication will be
shown, the time period and frequency with which it will be shown. Subsequently, different ideas will be evaluated based
on the created brief and objectives and the winning idea will be produced and implemented. As a last step, the
communication can be tested before or during the campaign and effectiveness is assessed when the campaign has
ended. (De Pelsmacker, et al., 2018)
4.1. Message strategy
The main question that is answered in the message strategy is what are we going to say to our consumer, which ideas,
USP or ESP are we going to postulate. The message strategy has to start from what the consumer wants since it has to
convince the consumer. Therefore, it is crucial to know and understand the problems and motives of the target group
very well. Knowing the target customers’ preferences and aspirations may be essential for deciding on the right
message. It is also important not to confuse consumers and stick to one unique benefit of the brand which can be either
functional (USP) or non-functional (ESP). In order to know which USP or ESP to go for, the advertiser needs to have a
clear consumer insight which are often revealed by qualitative research.
4.2. Creative strategy
Once a message strategy has been developed, the advertising agency develops a creative platform including a creative
idea and creative execution. A creative idea is an original and imaginative thought designed to produce goal-directed and
problem-solving advertisements and commercials (Reid et al., 1998). A creative idea should create a chemical reaction of
immediately understanding the brand’s position (Rossiter & Percy, 2000). A creative idea comes down to a proposition
which makes it possible to communicate a brand’s position in an original, attention getting, but easy-to-catch way ( De
Pelsmacker et al., 2018). Hence, a creative idea is needed to express a brand’s positioning statement attractively. In
addition, this creative idea should summarize the main message and use an approach that is sustainable (i.e. usable in
different tools and media over a longer period of time).
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