Advertising campaigns vary in their creativity. The creativity factor can be more important than the number of rupees spent. Only after gaining the attention can a commercial help to increase the sales.

Advertisers go through four steps to develop a creative strategy viz:

Message generation:

At this stage, the advertiser decides on what message he wants to communicate to the consumers regarding the product.

For example, the product’s “benefit” message should be decided as a part of developing the product concept.  Over time, the marketer might want to change the message, especially if the consumers seek new or different benefits from the product.

Also, at this stage various alternative advertisements are prepared and finally the excellent one is chosen. But also, higher costs are incurred in preparing these advertisements.

Message:

A good ad evaluation and selection normally focuses on one core selling proposition. The advertiser should conduct market research to determine which appeal works best with its target audience.

Message execution:

The impact of the message depends not only on what is said but how it is said. Some of the ads aim at rational positioning and others for emotional positioning.

While preparing an ad campaign, the advertiser usually prepares a copy strategy statement describing the objective, content, support, and tone of the desired ad. The creative people also find a cohesive style, tone, words, and format for executing the message.

Social responsibility review:

The advertisers and their ad agencies must be very careful that their “creative” advertising doesn’t overstep social and legal norms. Advertisers must not make false claims, such as stating that a product cures something when it does not. To be socially responsible, advertisers must be careful not to offend ethic groups, racial minorities, or a special – interest groups.