How to come up with a creative
idea that communicates your message?
· How creative ideas become messages?
Having a “big” idea at the heart of your marketing strategy is the only
way to ensure that your target audiences will take any notice of your campaign.
But how often do you actually create an engaging big idea that they cannot
resist?
What is a big idea?
A ‘big idea’ is what underpins your marketing campaign. It’s the
recurrent theme that runs throughout, the key thing that ties everything
together. It helps to inform and determine which marketing channels you use to
promote your message – such as advertising, PR or social media. Sometimes, the
media used can be the making of a great idea!
However, with millions of creative marketing agencies across the world,
and some of the biggest brands all clawing for our attention, it seems the best
ideas have already been seen and done. Nowadays, brand differentiation has
become more difficult to achieve than ever before because all businesses can
claim USPs such as quality and service – but what makes your brand truly stand
out? How can you create marketing campaigns that attract customers? That’s down
to your big idea.
Key principles to creating
your big idea
1. Understand exactly what
your objective is
Your objective sets the benchmark for your campaign. Your big idea will
form once you really know what you’re trying to achieve. It also acts as a
yardstick upon which you will measure the campaign’s success – were the goals
and objectives met, if not, why not?
2. Know your customer…
“You need to really understand your customer and that requires
’empathy’. You’ve got to become the customer and imagine what is going to get
them to take notice, what language is going to get them to remember your
message, and take action”, says our Creative Services Manager Christos.
3. …and what their needs are
People have a range of needs/motivations that act on their decision to
purchase. Individuals and business professionals buy things for a combination
of different rational, emotional and psychological reasons, in different ways,
within different time scales. For example, in B2B says our Marketing Manager
Hannah “triggers can include the need to save money, change suppliers, save
time. Does your product/service fill that need? Can your ‘big idea’ demonstrate
this?”
4. Match the message with the
audience
You need to be absolutely clear why your target audience will believe
your message/proposition. What is the support for it? Can you engage them in a
conversation across their favoured media channels i.e.
Twitter/television/radio? How can you interact with them? Get them to
participate? Sample your product/service? Find out more information?
Tell your brand’s story
Good marketing is often about good storytelling, and people respond
better to marketing messages if they trigger emotion and use storytelling to
deliver their messages. For a big idea to work, what you need is not only a
good unique selling point, but a strong story for your brand that only you can
tell. Your big idea should play on the big E of marketing – Emotion, and
captivate your audience.
For example: You’re an independent food retailer and your ‘big idea’
centres around provenance and ethics in your supply chain. You can then tell a
story through your marketing communications – perhaps a series of e-shots,
in-store demonstrations, and blog posts/case studies about the local suppliers
you work with, to show how the food you sell in your shop makes its journey
from ‘farm to fork’ using local suppliers and demonstrating your commitment to
ethical sourcing of produce and being transparent about where your products
come from.
The best way to get your big idea across is to employ a strong
copywriter who is a master of the written word, along with powerful visual
imagery, to make your marketing message cut through the clutter and attract
your audiences’ attention. There is a reason why great fiction writers such as
Tolkien and J.K. Rowling have sold millions of books – it’s because they were
able to conjure vivid images that draw people in and make them feel as though
they were actually there, feeling whatever emotion it is the characters are
dealing with. “Communicating your BIG ideas using powerful visual and
written imageries are hard to resist and will make your audience more receptive
to your messages” adds Hannah.
· What factors should be taken into consideration
when designing the message?
When developing the message, the marketer must take
into consideration several factors including:
Characteristics
of the Target Audience – The makeup of the target audience
(e.g., age, location, attitudes, etc.) impacts what is conveyed in the message.
Type of Media
Used – The media outlet (e.g., television, print,
Internet, etc.) used to deliver the message impacts the way a message will be
created.
Product Factors –
Products that are highly complex require a different message than simpler
products. Additionally, the target market’s familiarity with a product affects
what is contained in a message. For instance, a new product attempting to gain
awareness in the market will have a message that is much different than a
product that is well-known.
Overall Advertising Objective – As
mentioned, the objective of the advertising campaign can affect the type of ad
that is designed. For example, an advertisement with the objective of
stimulating immediate sales for an existing product will be different than an
advertisement that seeks to build initial awareness of a new product.
· Which are the consequences if the company send the
wrong message?
Communication is the life blood of your organization.
Just like your physical body, when blood stops moving through your body bad
things are about to happen.
Clear communication is necessary if we want others to
understand us. The lack of good communication can breed:
Frustration:
Frustration takes place when your expectations are not
met. If you haven’t clearly communicated what you are looking for, you probably
won’t receive it.
How can I expect my wife to bring me home a bottle of
Dr. Pepper if I haven’t clearly communicated it to her what I want?
Lack of Understanding:
When communication isn’t clear, it is not understood.
Understanding is the point of information transfer.
Is what you are saying getting through? For the answer
to be yes, the person must have understood you.
Understanding happens when the person you are
communicating to is able to make use of your information.
I have misunderstood driving directions before and this
has caused me to get to the wrong place, but more on this in the next point.
Anxiety:
When communication isn’t understood, anxiety builds.
When I misunderstood the driving directions to my
meeting in a city I wasn’t familiar with, it caused some anxiety! I was in the
wrong place, time was running out and I would soon be late. All of this anxiety
due to a simple misunderstanding.
Had I taken a few extra minutes to review the
directions before I left, I would have understood where I was going.
Broken Relationships:
When communication breakdown, the relationships of the
people trying to communicate also breaks down. A misunderstanding can be taken
as an attack or something done on purpose or out of deceit.
Generally this isn’t true, but miscommunication fuels
these types of relationship break downs.
Lost Production:
Any time you have to re-explain or re-communicate or
re-anything because you didn’t properly communicate it the first time is a
waste of time.
When you use time to communicate, make it worth your
time and the person’s time you are sharing with.
Let me repeat something I said above. Communication is
the life blood of your organization. Communication is the foundation of your
relationships that allows trust, productivity and influence to build from this.
Taking time to communicate clearly is never a waste of
time.
Sources
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