Creative ideas & messages

Problem: Turning ideas into messages 

After watching the video in class and defining a related problem, we came up with the following learning objectives:

1. Idea gathering process

    a) sources of creative ideas for marketing communication

    b) tools for creation process

2. How people perceive/understand the message?

    a) How to align the message according to to the objectives 

1. Idea gathering process

A message has to have an appeal- an idea that motivates an audience to respond. Therefore the idea gathering process is a first and very important step. 

In the initial idea generation phase marketers use a lot of different sources to come up with great ideas that provide customer benefits and are compatible with the overall objectives. 

a) Sources of creative ideas:

• R&D department
• Employees
• Search Engines and Corporate Web Sites
• Publications: learn about general business trends
• Trade Shows and Associations
• Salespeople: eyes and ears of a company, know how products are faring in the marketplace, what the competition is doing, and what customers are looking for
• Suppliers and Industry Experts
• Customers
• Competitors
• Experience 

b) Tools for creation process:

• Brainstorming
• Mindmapping
• Focus Groups and surveys

2. How people perceive/ understand the message

As everyone should know, people perceive the message and the brand through their five senses:

• visual: colors, shapes, movements, light, (already talked about this aspect in the PbL about visual identity)
• acoustic: language, music, sound logo, product sound (eg. Harley)
• olfactory: aroma, perfume; excellent activator of emotional memories
• haptic: material, shape, temperature, surface
• gustative: taste
• multisensual

However, everyone interpret and understand the message and its information in a different way than the others do. According to Solomon, Marshall & Stuart (2012), there are several internal factors that influence the way people perceive the message and the decision making process. 

Perception = process by which people select, organize, and interpret information from the outside world. People receive information  through sensory receptors (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, skin). They further try to interpret the receiving sensations with the background of past experiences. However, there are many different information that compete for our attention and if people do notice the message, there is no guarantee that the meaning we give it will be the same the marketers intended. Exposure, attention and interpretation are important issues, marketers need to understand. 

• Exposure: extent to which a person's sensory receptors are capable of registering a stimulus. For example, the text an highway billboards must be gib enough to be read easily
• Attention: extent to which we devote mental-processing activity to a particular stimulus. Consumers are more likely to pay attention to messages that speak to their current needs. However, people's attention spans are becoming shorter than ever and we can do things multitasking
• Interpretation: process of assigning meaning to a stimulus based on prior associations and assumptions we have with it

Motivation = internal aspect that drives us to satisfy needs. Marketers also need to understand the level of needs relevant to consumers in their target market in order to be able to tailor their messages to them. (MASLOW)

Learning = change in behaviour caused by information or experience.

Attitudes = long lasting evaluation of a person, object, or issue. Consists of different components which are affect (the feeling component), cognition (the knowing component) and behaviour (the doing component)

However, creative does not directly mean that the message really stays in the mind of the customers. 

http://visual.ly/how-come-creative-ideas-ten-rhetorical-concepts-will-make-your-ideas-more-distinctive-innovative-and

 

According to previous courses at my home university, another important aspect that needs consideration is a good balance between an emotional appeal or story and a functional value or informational appeal. Customers can identify themselves more with a product, compaign, etc. when it tells a story and offer an emotional bond.

This video shows a discussion by Lindstrom and Harrop. They mention that the majority of signals send out by corporations appeal to the sense of sight and that 83% of information is received visually but the remaining 17% are left behind. In fact, it is more effective to bond with the consumers on more then one sense because the more senses you appeal to the more loyalty you genereate. It has kind of a multiplying effect and creates synergies. Furthermore, they highlight that the majority (85%) of decisions taking place in the brain's non-conscious segments and only 15% occure in the conscious ones.

Another aspect within this video is the high investment of adding an additional sense. On the one hand, it may increase marketing costs, but on the other hand it may increase the number of customer retention.  

According to Lindstrom, retailers who appeal to three of consumers' senses double their marketing effort.  

Examples:

Starbucks:

Starbucks is doing quite well in multisensory marketing. Through their smell and taste of fresh they occupy all of our senses. They even stopped serving breakfasts because the smell of eggs interferred with the smell of their fresh coffee.

BMW

The following video shows the old sound logo of the german car manufacturer BMW in comparism with the new one. The slogan of the company is "Freude am Fahren" which means pleasure of driving. The customers should enjoy the ride with any BMW. However, the old sound logo that was called "Ambossschlag" (anvil beat/hit) was mainly associated with coldness, dark, technic, power but not with pleasure at all. After BMW received feedback and conducted research, they changed their sound logo to a more joyful one which is now associated with pleasure and joy. 

Therefore, it is very important not to underestimate the power of the composition of different senses because they play along with each other and need to be aligned.  

Sources:

Bevz, N. (2014). Sensory marketing - 5 senses. URL: http://www.slideshare.net/nadezhdabevz/5senses-sensory-marketing?qid=5048cea3-a702-4230-96f4-f2805926c5d6&v=qf1&b=&from_search=2. Accessed: 10.04.2016

Fill C. 2013. Marketing Communications. 

Solomon. M.R., Marshall. G.W. & Stuart. E.W. 2012. Marketing - Real People Real Choices. 7th ed. Pearson