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Advertising Techniques
ESSENTIAL FACTORS IN PREPARING PRINT ADVERTISEMENT
Print advertisements are those appearing in print media like newspaper, magazines, billboards and car
cards. In preparing print advertisement, these essential factors must be considered:
- The advertisement objective.
- Determination of advertising target.
- Formulation of the campaign theme.
- Making of the advertising copy.
- Making of the copy layout.
- The finished artwork.
- Printing advertising production.
THE ADVERTISEMENT OBJECTIVE
The creation of advertisement requires a set of objectives to guide the formation of the advertising
programme and the advertisement. Advertising objectives, properly set, guide the creation of all
advertisements whether the media in which they are run are indispensable or not to the advertising
campaign.
DETERMINING THE ADVERTISING TARGET
In order for an advertiser to construct and place advertisements in the proper media vehicles, the
advertising target or targets must clearly be identified and segmented. This target is usually the same as
the promotion target.
The target must be identified and regimented in a profile that includes the demographic characteristics so
that the segmentation can be useful to copywriters, artists and others concerned with the creative aspects
of the advertisement. The segmentation is also useful for positioning the communication to fit its target.
FORMULATING THE CAMPAIGN THEME
An advertising agency is taken to be efficient if it has a high creative ability, its ability to bring up a big
selling idea and communicate it effectively to the right prospects.
The big idea is referred to as the UNIQUE SALES PROPOSITION (USP). This is the central theme of the
advertising campaign. It can be communicated through copy, artwork or both, the big idea is essential
to the advertisement, especially in consumer advertising because of competing advertisements.
The theory of the USP is that the differentiating qualities of a product or service should be determined
and every advertisement should promise the potential buyer a specific benefit based on the USP which
competition cannot offer. The proposition must be enticing enough to gain many new customers for
the product. A good advertising agency should be able to create a central selling theme that will attract
the right prospect.