Basics of Effective Ads

Form and Function

It's time to start exploring some principles of effective advertising. One basic tenet of design is that form follows function. Selling the product or service is always the function of your ad, and how you achieve this visually (in form) is secondary.

To function effectively, advertising must:

• Take the customer's point of view. The ad must focus on meeting the customer's needsnot those of the seller or designer.

• Deliver a sales message. If not to persuade, the ad must inform or remind. Advertising is never art for art's sake.

• Communicate in terms of product benefits. The ad must showcase how the product will benefit the customer, as opposed to showing mere product attributes.

While function is essential, form is still important. Creative design can draw attention to ads, making the most important selling features stand out and creating a positive association with the product.

While you must take pride in your work and endeavor to create outstanding ads, don't be too quick to judge other designers' ads as "good" or "bad." Advertising is ultimately about generating sales, and the only way to accurately appraise the quality of an ad is to find out how well it performed. Some ads you may dislike from a design standpoint might well be astoundingly effective when it comes to consumer response. For example, even the most plain-Jane newspaper ad in terms of design might have a strong call-to-action that readers just can't deny.

Consumer Behavior

Effective advertising targets the behavior of its audiencenot simply who the customer is, but what he reads, where he works, his level of education, and how he responds to ads. The designer must understand the different typical stages of consumer behavior and apply these concepts to the anticipated viewership of the ad being created.

The four stages in consumer behavior are:

1. Pre-contemplation Lack of awareness of the product becomes awareness.

2. Contemplation Awareness of the product becomes a notion of buying that product.

3. Action The product is bought.

4. Maintenance The product is bought again (and again, and again).

If a product or service is brand-new to the target audience, the ad must aim at stage 1, pre-contemplation. The goal of such an ad is ultimately to persuade the audience to buy a product, but first the audience must be made aware of the product. That will set the scene for contemplation, in which repeated exposure to the product leads the consumer to think about buying it.

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Ads must foster trust in the product and brand to effectively maintain sales and make customers loyal. It's why you see ads for brands that are already ubiquitous (like a favorite drink or restaurant)loyalty must be maintained.

Ads for products that have already gained recognition in the target market (like Mountain Dew for teenagers and diamonds for men planning engagement) can skip the pre-contemplation stage altogether. These can be highly effective because they can answer questions already in the consumer's mind about buying the product: "Can I afford that?" "What do I do with one of those?" or "Won't I be cheating on my diet if I eat one of those?" Answer the question successfully, and your campaign is well on its way.

Figure 8.8. Excellent copywriting and a focus on the product are hallmarks of this Diamond Trading Company campaign. What sentient man doesn't already know that his wife wants diamonds for Christmas? The ad designers used a familiar conceptthat diamonds are a desirable giftto deliver an ad with punch

Motivation and Appeal

Leo Burnett, the founder of Leo Burnett Worldwide, a Chicago-based ad agency, said, "Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read." The fun and the challenge of advertising design is that it is both utilitarian and aesthetic. As a designer you must try to get the most impact through the simplest means. You are not merely working to get noticed, but also competing for the mind of the consumer through persuasion. A good ad must attract attention and then hold that attention long enough to persuade the viewer. That's where the aesthetic aspect comes in. In advertising, the quality of the design always takes precedence over realism.

Figure 8.9. This subway ad gets attention with an unrealistic situation, asking consumers "What's missing from this picture?" and reminding them of a reason to drink milk.

Persuasion involves the motivation, attitudes, and perceptions behind a person's choices. The power of persuasion is so great that people who are known for their persuasive genius are sometimes mistrusted.

Cultural anthropologists, psychologists, and sociologists all have theories about a phenomenon called the emotional buy. The founders of the London-based Saatchi and Saatchi simply refer to it as "that leap from logic to magic." People buy a product because of the benefits that they expect from it. Most products have many benefitsand many angles that could be used to promote them. The trick is to find which approach, or appeal, will best work for the client and consumer. The underlying premise is that consumers are often motivated by emotions they might not be consciously aware of.