Advertising strategy – Concept and Definition

Advertising is an essential element in any business or organizations, so it represents an element that must be present within the strategic and investment plans that the company undertakes.

Direct communication with the consumer market is established with it, it tells you what the company does, how it does it and where it finds it, in this way it reveals the image and brand in order to position it in the mind of the consumer.

What is Advertising Strategy?

An advertising strategy is an action plan drawn up in order to encourage sales of certain products, persuading future buyers.

There is a wide variety of advertising skills, as well as goods per advertising plan, where each company can design its own action plan. However, it is worth highlighting the existence of advertising tactics and maneuvers based on basic principles such as product characteristics or benefits and market knowledge.

The advertising strategy is part of the brand’s communication strategy, since advertising is nothing more than a communication channel in which the brand seeks to have a direct impact on its potential customers and at the lowest possible cost. Therefore, the advertising strategy is considered a paid, biased, segmented and calculated communication where the brand chooses what, how, where, to whom, when it will communicate.

It seeks to convey a brand message, values, benefits of the product or service, promotions and discounts, feelings and emotions, always in connection with the strategic plan and the business model.

Objective of Advertising Strategy

The advertising strategy pursues as its main objective the design of a campaign that allows the company to reach a specific response from the target audience, which is finally reflected in the loyalty of the consumer and the increase in sales and profits.

To achieve this, the company needs to know and analyze the tastes and preferences of the potential client, in order to announce the product that said client is waiting to find, then the message to be communicated is defined and once said message is clear, the form of communicate it using the correct means to reach the specific target.

What should be taken into account to develop an advertising strategy?

Before starting to define its advertising strategy, the company must:

  • Keep in mind the characteristics of the product or service, the objective or purpose of the product, advantages over other similar products.
  • Emphasize the characteristics mentioned as they will contribute to the scope of the achievements of the strategy.
  • To launch a market investigation that allows to determine to whom the product or service should be directed, specifying specific characteristics such as age, gender and social status.
  • It is also necessary to specify the proportion of the market that is occupied by the competition and its products.
  • Know the characteristics of competing products.
  • Keep in mind the economic situation of the country, to adapt to these, in order to specify the sales capacity.

Steps to establish an Advertising Strategy

As part of the communication strategy, it is established following the same steps.

  • Analysis of the situation: It consists of gathering the necessary data of the product, the market and the competition.
  • Communication in all directions and directions: Once the data is collected, conclusions and conclusions are drawn to establish internal, external and advertising communication lines.
  • Guide the objectives: the strategic objectives of advertising are defined, maintaining consistency with the objectives of the company, marketing and communication.
  • Strategic lines: having clear objectives, strategic lines of action are established, which will allow the achievement of these objectives, the action plan is developed, that is, the advertising campaign. Working the lines of: content on which the campaign, creativity, time and planning are based.
  • Action plan: The different advertising campaigns are outlined by type of campaign, content, theme, target, objectives, etc.
  • Measurement and monitoring: It is very important based on monitoring in order to measure the return on investment.

Types of Advertising Strategies

In the world of advertising the limit is creativity, however, the use of advertising strategies such as the following is frequent:

Comparative strategies

They are those that use as a technique and objective the exposure of the characteristics and advantages of the product to be advertised against the characteristics of the product of the competition.

Financial strategies

They are those strategies that are based on the power of being present in the mind of the recipient, making himself noticed by capturing the audience.

Positioning strategies

Its objective is to achieve a place in the mind of the consumer, as opposed to the place occupied by the competition, by associating a series of related values ​​with the recipient.

Promotional strategies

They are distinguished by their aggressiveness, in search of maintaining and increasing the consumption of the product and inciting the use or consumption of the product.

Thrust strategies

Designed with the purpose of inciting the points of sale, distributors and the general sales force of the company.

Traction strategy

It is a strategy oriented towards the motivation of the end customer, through the approval of the product.