As part of our required materials for class this week, we watched the last two videos of a docu-series on Brand Storytelling. This is very relevant to us in our current campaign for the College of Business since we are working on developing our creative idea. This means we have to come up with a story to tell our target market about our product (business education) that is interesting and creates an emotional connection with them. We also have to communicate important information about the business school since a college education is both functional and transformational. The docu-series talked about how interruptive marketing is no longer the best way to reach consumers. Instead you want to provide consumers a story that catches their attention and engages them. One example that I thought was really interesting was the Marriott Hotel's short film movie Two Bellman. I found this very innovative and they seemed to have great success. They have over 5 million views of the movie on YouTube. The movie is something people actually want to watch. They do not view it as an advertisement even though the Marriott is selling their hotels through the story as the hotel is the backdrop of the movie. In the sequel, the Marriott decided to sell the location (Dubai) as well as travel itself instead, which still directly affects their sales. Although WNE will most likely not be making their own feature film, I think this ideology is helpful to consider when creating a strategy for passing our message on to the target market. In addition, the docu-series talked about the power of influencers. Influences include YouTubers and social media stars who have obtained followers that trust them. For example, a famous makeup YouTuber may do an ad on her channel for a new lipstick line from Sephora. However, the video talked about how any influencer can't just sell any product. Their communities are built on a relationship with their viewers and their messages have to be on brand with how they genuinely ask. One YouTuber talked about an example of how a company asked him to do an ad for credit cards, but he couldn't because he had openly discussed his dislike of credit cards with his followers. They would see that the message was not genuine and would lose trust in the YouTuber and the credit card company. I began to think about how this might apply to our campaign. If we could find influencers for Gen Z or even influencers within specific communities that the CoB wants to target, I think it would have a strong potential to effectively reach our target market.
In continuing to think about how to best create a brand story, I read the article "23 Types of Advertising Appeals to Engage and Motivate." This article agreed with the doc-series, stating that in order to persuade a consumer to pick your product, you have to catch the attention of your audience. They then went along to list 23 different appeals that can be used to do just this. The appeals were segmented into rational and emotional appeals. Since, as mentioned earlier, a college education is both informational and transformative, I thought it would be most beneficial to include both kinds of appeals in our messaging. Some emotional appeals that I thought could be applied to our campaign were fear, humor, popularity appeal, music appeal, and potential appeal. Our research showed that Gen Z grew up in a time of poor financial status and have seen many people close to them struggle with money. For this reason, they are afraid of having the same fate and being unsuccessful (not getting a good paying job). We could play off this fear in our creative idea. Gen Z is all about technology and social media. A lot of social media has funny comments, pictures, and more and that is why people share them. Humor is a good way to catch attention and encourage consumers to share your message with others. However, we would need to make sure that any use of humor did not take away from the prestigious/ premier brand image that the CoB wants to portray. Our school already uses popularity appeal through free branded t-shirts as well as apparel that students and their family members choose to purchase. Music appeal may be important if we decide to create a video because "the right music can add to the emotion of an ad and encourage a faster purchase decision." A potential appeal deals with ads that look to the possible future. They provide a sense of empowerment to turn dreams into reality. This has strong implications for higher education since most students dreams are to be successful and have good paying jobs. The CoB can make those dreams happen. There are also various rational appeals that could apply to our campaign and be used in our creative idea. The first is statistical appeal, which uses proof and statistics. This is very important in higher education because students use information such as graduation rate, retention, and job placement rate. Testimonials may also work. Testimonials from current students as well as alumnus about positive CoB experiences could be persuasive to prospective students as long as the interviews were genuine and didn't appeal scripted.
The final thing that I thought was important that I wanted to talk about in my reflection has to do with execution. We are in the execution phase of our campaign. Once we have the creative idea, which we are well on the way to finalizing, we have to decide which platforms we will use and when we will release our message. In order to make a strategy for this, we must first determine important touchpoints for our target market. In chapter 18, "What Timeframe Do Your People Have?" from the book posted, it talks about learning people's timelines and using this to make sure that your message fits with the group. We began to analyze the timeline for the target market and how they make their decision on what college to attend. The first step is the trigger, whether this be through a parent, guidance counselor, friend, or even come from the person themselves. The student begins thinking about going to college. Next they begin initial research to determine types of majors and colleges that they may be interested. It is important to consider these trends because, as stated earlier, consumers are no longer receptive to disruptive advertising. Instead, we as marketers need to capitalize on or create moments of receptivity that the consumer is open to. Next, consumers begin to do more extensive research through college fairs, reviews, school websites, marketing sent by schools, and talking to others, such as guidance counselors, current students, etc. This is the stage were we will want to start sending out informational messages to students. They are looking for what makes one college stand out over another. If you get students interested, they will take the next step towards making inquiries or taking virtual tours. At this point, you need to go beyond purely informational approaches and make an emotional connection with the student. They will be more inclined to take the time to visit a school if they feel emotionally connected to the brand. Our client has stressed that college visits are very important and are one of the most successful ways that our school gets students to enroll. After you have enticed students with statistics and information and then connected with them emotionally, they will be much more likely to apply and, eventually, enroll.
In continuing to think about how to best create a brand story, I read the article "23 Types of Advertising Appeals to Engage and Motivate." This article agreed with the doc-series, stating that in order to persuade a consumer to pick your product, you have to catch the attention of your audience. They then went along to list 23 different appeals that can be used to do just this. The appeals were segmented into rational and emotional appeals. Since, as mentioned earlier, a college education is both informational and transformative, I thought it would be most beneficial to include both kinds of appeals in our messaging. Some emotional appeals that I thought could be applied to our campaign were fear, humor, popularity appeal, music appeal, and potential appeal. Our research showed that Gen Z grew up in a time of poor financial status and have seen many people close to them struggle with money. For this reason, they are afraid of having the same fate and being unsuccessful (not getting a good paying job). We could play off this fear in our creative idea. Gen Z is all about technology and social media. A lot of social media has funny comments, pictures, and more and that is why people share them. Humor is a good way to catch attention and encourage consumers to share your message with others. However, we would need to make sure that any use of humor did not take away from the prestigious/ premier brand image that the CoB wants to portray. Our school already uses popularity appeal through free branded t-shirts as well as apparel that students and their family members choose to purchase. Music appeal may be important if we decide to create a video because "the right music can add to the emotion of an ad and encourage a faster purchase decision." A potential appeal deals with ads that look to the possible future. They provide a sense of empowerment to turn dreams into reality. This has strong implications for higher education since most students dreams are to be successful and have good paying jobs. The CoB can make those dreams happen. There are also various rational appeals that could apply to our campaign and be used in our creative idea. The first is statistical appeal, which uses proof and statistics. This is very important in higher education because students use information such as graduation rate, retention, and job placement rate. Testimonials may also work. Testimonials from current students as well as alumnus about positive CoB experiences could be persuasive to prospective students as long as the interviews were genuine and didn't appeal scripted.
The final thing that I thought was important that I wanted to talk about in my reflection has to do with execution. We are in the execution phase of our campaign. Once we have the creative idea, which we are well on the way to finalizing, we have to decide which platforms we will use and when we will release our message. In order to make a strategy for this, we must first determine important touchpoints for our target market. In chapter 18, "What Timeframe Do Your People Have?" from the book posted, it talks about learning people's timelines and using this to make sure that your message fits with the group. We began to analyze the timeline for the target market and how they make their decision on what college to attend. The first step is the trigger, whether this be through a parent, guidance counselor, friend, or even come from the person themselves. The student begins thinking about going to college. Next they begin initial research to determine types of majors and colleges that they may be interested. It is important to consider these trends because, as stated earlier, consumers are no longer receptive to disruptive advertising. Instead, we as marketers need to capitalize on or create moments of receptivity that the consumer is open to. Next, consumers begin to do more extensive research through college fairs, reviews, school websites, marketing sent by schools, and talking to others, such as guidance counselors, current students, etc. This is the stage were we will want to start sending out informational messages to students. They are looking for what makes one college stand out over another. If you get students interested, they will take the next step towards making inquiries or taking virtual tours. At this point, you need to go beyond purely informational approaches and make an emotional connection with the student. They will be more inclined to take the time to visit a school if they feel emotionally connected to the brand. Our client has stressed that college visits are very important and are one of the most successful ways that our school gets students to enroll. After you have enticed students with statistics and information and then connected with them emotionally, they will be much more likely to apply and, eventually, enroll.
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