Striking the right chords in terms of values/preferences with your target market in your advertising strategy is essential for the success of any advertisement campaign. Because people buy things that closely relates/Connects to their preferences, values (1).

 

Advertisement strategies that are developed considering target market values/preferences (values/preferences of your target market when it comes to your product/service) not only helps your target customers to take right decisions but also results in repeat purchase behavior (2) and that's what all businesses, enterprises strive for, to achieve constant repeat purchase behavior.

 

Now to develop your advertisement strategy according to your target market values, preferences you need to first identify precisely those values/preferences. Because any miscalculation, misconception here would negatively affect the effectiveness of your advertisement strategy therefore it is imperative for marketing strategists to precisely identify the exact target market values, preferences etc when it comes to a particular brand, product/service.

 

Okay now let's start with first step that is target market research.

 

Target Market Research

To identify those precise, exact target market values, you need to conduct target market research. Traditional research (qualitative and quantitative) techniques are effective means of researching target market, its trends, structures, customers behaviors, attitudes so and so forth (3).

 

And we all know that every research techniques have its strengths and weaknesses therefore I would advice to use each method in such combination with other methods that the weaknesses of one method/technique are covered by strengths of other and vice versa (4).

 

While any areas that can't be covered by traditional research techniques or where traditional research isn't able to deliver effectively, in such cases web and social media research techniques have proven effective (5) therefore it is recommended to utilize web and social media research approaches to further refine the data collected through traditional approaches.

 

Big Values

Big values or preferences are those identified values/preferences through research, to which major portion of your target market relates when it comes to your product/service or any similar product/service.

 

Developing Advertisement Strategies

Now on the basis of those "Big Values" develop a certain number of advertisement strategies.

 

Launch & Assess

This step is similar to soft launch that we do for any product/service before going for hard launch. The concept is similar; all you have to do is to assess; each and every marketing strategy effectiveness in achieving the desired results. For instance, like the desired result in sales increase/decrease, revenues, branding, brand Positioning, so on and so forth.

 

Finally determine which strategy or strategies is/are effective in achieving desired outcomes and utilize it/them for that purpose.

 

And that way you would know exactly which half of your advertisement budget is wasted and which one is isn't, (A reference to a famous quote by John Wanamaker (1838-1922) "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted - the trouble is I don't know which half.")

 

References:

1. Kardes, F.R., 2002. Consumer Behaviour and Managerial Decision Making. Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

2. Allen, M., Ng, S.H., Wilson, M., 2002. A functional approach to instrumental and terminal values and the value-attitude-behaviour system of consumer choice. European Journal of Marketing 36 (1/2), 111-135.

3. Proctor, T. (2000), Essentials of Marketing Research, Pearson Education Limited, Essex.

4. Deshpande, R. (1983) 'Paradigms lost': on theory and method in research in marketing. Journal of Marketing, 47, 101-110.

5. Mahr, D. (2011), "Customer co-creation of knowledge during the innovation process", European Marketing Academy Conference (EMAC 2011), Ljubljana, May 24-27, 2011.