B : Advertising, Branding and Creativity DRAFT SYLLABUS

Transcription

1 Professor Gita Johar 101 Uris Hall COURSE DESCRIPTION B : Advertising, Branding and Creativity DRAFT SYLLABUS Over the past decade, the number of choices that consumers have to consume different brands and different media has exploded. This means that now, more than ever, brands must engage with potential consumers. How do you get through to your core audience effectively and efficiently and move them from the point of awareness to the point of purchase and repeat purchase? This is the main question that this course addresses. Understanding and leveraging the brand consumer interface requires managers to be creative. In this course, you will be exposed to cutting edge marketing tools, methods and cases. You will learn different approaches to innovative thinking about advertising and branding and will get a chance to practice these skills in various exercises that will form part of the larger Advertising Plan that you will develop for a brand. Many of these tools come from Systematic Inventive Thinking, practiced by more than 600 companies worldwide, and based on academic research. The SIT Systematic Inventive Thinking method is based on recognizing "creative patterns", and applying a set of thinking tools based on those patterns in order to bring about innovation. The thinking tools were developed by systematically analyzing, mapping, and locating common patterns in successful products and advertising campaigns patterns which were lacking in the unsuccessful attempts. At the end of the course, you will know how to develop innovative ideas; how to conduct constructive assessment of creative work; and how to align brand, product, and communications. CONNECTION TO THE CORE This course is closely related to the Marketing core course and builds on concepts that were briefly discussed there. In the marketing core course, you learnt about segmenting the market, selecting target segments and positioning your brand to the target. In this course, we develop the idea of positioning further by using tools (attribute value mapping) to help position the brand appropriately given the competitive landscape. We also build on consumer decision making concepts and do primary research to understand how consumers make their decisions in a specific product category (the one your group will develop an Ad Plan for) and what motivates them to choose/consume in this category. This knowledge will be used to set advertising objectives what the advertising needs to accomplish given where the target segment is in terms of their relationship to the brand as well as what the advertising should communicate (the theme). The Marketing core also briefly

2 touched on advertising and media. We develop those ideas further in this course including hands on guidance on how to develop ads. COURSE DETAILS On the first day of class you are expected to form groups of four students and finalize the product/brand that you will be working on during the course. You will also be provided with a list of brand related questions, and are expected to do the necessary research to answer these questions outside of class. Each group will create an Advertising Plan that includes sections on: Advertising Goals, Primary Research into Target Market, Message Strategy, Message Execution Ideas, Advertisements, Media Strategy (old and new media), and Recommendations on Tracking Effectiveness. This Advertising Plan will be presented in class on the last day. The course focus is on the design of suitable messages, as well as on the utility of different media vehicles, at different points of the consumer decision chain. If you are interested in consumer marketing then this course is a crucial element of your marketing toolkit. You will learn to appreciate the key communication challenges in today s rapidly changing marketing environment and understand how to utilize frameworks to guide your conversations with customers and to build your brand as the environment evolves. INSTRUCTOR BIO Gita Johar (PhD: NYU; MBA: Indian Institute of Management) has been on the faculty of Columbia Business School since 1992 and is currently the Senior Vice Dean and Meyer Feldberg Professor of Business. Professor Johar s expertise lies in consumer psychology, focusing on how consumers react to marketing efforts, especially advertising. She has published several influential articles in the areas of consumer persuasion and decision making in leading marketing academic journals. Professor Johar serves as the Associate Editor of the Journal of Consumer Research and sits on the Editorial Review Boards of the Journal of Marketing Research and the Journal of Consumer Psychology. Professor Johar teaches courses on Advertising and Branding, Global Marketing Consulting for Social Enterprise, Research Methods, and Consumer Behavior to MBA, Executive MBA and PhD students. READINGS Text Book: Cracking the Ad Code by Jacob Goldenberg, Amnon Levav, David Mazursky, and Sorin Solomon Case Packet: The first case (AdoptUSKids) can be accessed on the Internet (see URL listed on first day of class. This will be activated in September.). Readings, cases and class notes will be posted on Canvass.

3 COURSE OBJECTIVES This course is designed for students in careers in which you will make marketing decisions (e.g., advertising and direct marketing; brand management; media and entertainment). It is also appropriate for students who just desire an understanding of how communication strategies work (e.g., consultants). The more specific objectives of this course are to: 1. increase your understanding of the communication process. 2. make you knowledgeable about the important issues in planning and evaluating integrated marketing communications. 3. help you to apply the appropriate tools to plan, develop, and evaluate marketing communications. 4. give you hands on experience with constructing a complete advertising plan (a group advertising plan will be the main assignment in the course). COURSE ORGANIZATION We will answer questions such as: Who are the targets of the communication program? What are the objectives of the communication program? What is to be communicated? How should it be communicated? What is the impact of the communications program? And finally, which means of communication are to be used? Cases are assigned to provide you with an opportunity to apply your knowledge. On the days in which a case is assigned, it is expected that you have not only read the case but you ve already formed strategic decisions that you are willing to share (and perhaps modify!) in the class discussion. GRADING Your overall evaluation is based on class participation and your group advertising plan (quality of ideas and presentation). Assignment: Due Date: % of Grade: Class Participation (individual) 25% Ad Plan Project (group): Presentation Session 12 25% Slides (including ads) Session 12 50%

4 DESCRIPTION OF EACH ELEMENT OF YOUR GRADE For the purpose of the ad plan project, you will work in groups of four students. You may select your own group members. CLASS PARTICIPATION Participation includes regular on time attendance and contribution to class discussions. There will be plenty of time for students to contribute to class discussions. You ll be graded based on the quality of your contribution, not the amount of time you demand in the discussion. In case discussions, high quality class participation includes comments that add to our understanding of a situation and go beyond mere repetition of case facts. You should also take into account the comments and analyses of your classmates to move our discussion forward. Case preparation guidelines for each case are provided in the case. AD PLAN PROJECT The project involves secondary research to understand the brand s competitive environment and consumer promise. The segments in the market need to be described and a cogent argument made for who should be the target for the communication campaign. You will develop a detailed advertising objectives document that will provide input into the message strategy and the creative brief. The message strategy should be based on your research into the target market s motivations using focus groups and surveys. You will then create ads in the appropriate media as well as develop a new media campaign that dovetails with your proposed traditional campaign. You will test your ads using surveys/focus groups and refine them based on feedback. You will allocate the budget across different media. Finally, you will make recommendations to the brand team on the right metrics to judge the effectiveness of your campaign. Final submission: Submit your presentation slides (with detailed annotations as needed) as well as all the ads created in different media.

5 COURSE SCHEDULE Date Topic Reading Assignment Session 1 Introduction MODULE 1: OBJECTIVES AND MESSAGE 9/10 3:45pm 6:45pm Case: The Ad Council and AdoptUsKids A & B Presentation of Ad Plan Project Case A at caseworks.ccnmtl.columbia.edu (will be active in September) What would Don Draper do? Rules for Restoring the Contemporary Agency Mojo Submit assignment 1 for Case A online by noon the day prior to session 1 (individual assignment) Session 2 9/11 8:30am 11:30am Communication Objectives (Target, Task, and Theme) Complete survey at before class Use data to understand market segments and select target market for your group s Ad Plan Case: Propecia Conduct interviews with members of your target market and capture insights on their product choice and usage. What should be the task of your advertising? Session 3 9/12 8:30am 11:30am Theme or What to say: Attribute Value Mapping Workshop Case: Clean Edge Razor Create Attribute Value Maps for your group s Ad Plan and select value to emphasize in advertising. What should be the theme of your advertising Session 4 Case: Metabicil Finalize target, task and theme. Interview members of target

6 9/13 12:30pm 3:30pm Guest Speaker (see end of this syllabus) segment to get reaction to theme Session 5 10/21 12:30pm 3:30pm How to say it: Creativity templates (Absurd Alternative and Extreme Consequence) Case: Mountain Dew Creative Sparks, Science, volume 285, (5433) September p (on Angel) Read the case (on CD), carefully analyze the Dew ads, and prepare to discuss which ads should be aired and why. Create ads using the creativity templates and test them with your target segment Session 6 10/21 How to say it: Creativity Templates (Activation) Ensure fusion in your ads. 3:45pm 6:45pm Fusion of Theme and Creative Execution Session 7 10/22 Innovative Use of Traditional Media (Task Unification Template) Design ads for traditional media using task unification 3:45pm 6:45pm Guest Speaker Session 8 10/23 Media Strategy Adding Social Media to the Marketing Mix 8:30am 11:30am Case: UnME Jeans: Branding in Web 2.0 Session 9 12/3 New Media and Web Metrics media/flashtools/webmetrics/ index.html 12:30pm 3:30pm Case:MedNet.Com Session 10 12/4 Advertising Effectiveness Advertising s New Medium: Human Experience 8:30am 11:30am Guest Speaker

7 Session 11 12/5 12:30pm 3:30pm Advertising Research Case: It's a New Day: Microsoft's Office 2007 Launch Campaign Online Metrics: What Are You Measuring and Why? Session 12 12/5 3:45pm 6:45pm Prepare final presentations Presentations Submit slides and ads

8 Suggested Readings and Reference Sources Books: Goldenberg, Jacob et al. (2009), Cracking the Ad Code, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Berger, Jonah (2013), Contagious: Why Things Catch On. Cialdini, Robert B. (1993), Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Fox, Stephen (1984), The Mirror Makers, Random House Vintage Books: New York. Heath, Chip and Dan Heath, (2007), Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Random House. Holt, Doug, (2004), How Brands Become Icons, Harvard Business School Press. Ogilvy, David (1963) Confessions of an Advertising Man, Atheneum: New York. Ogilvy, David (1983), Ogilvy on Advertising, Random House Vintage Books: New York. Packard, Vance (1961) The Hidden Persuaders Rothenberg, Randall (1995), Where the Suckers Moon: The Life and Death of an Advertising Campaign, Random House Vintage Books: New York. Underhill, Paco (2000), Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping. Weston, Drew (2007), The Political Brain.