INTRODUCTION
For advertising to flourish, it needs to be created and consumed by people free to embrace and celebrate their sense of humor, irreverence, intelligence and tolerance all the aspect of a free people (Grain 2011, P. 37). Advertising began from creation of the world as noted in the chapter on introduction to advertising. But advertising has acquired new and high sophistication as there is growth and development in information and communication technologies.
It is now an imperative that every company in the world, in order to beat competition, tries to make its product different in any way possible to attract patronage of the consumers. The fact that a manufacturer can advertise a particular product of his, gives him the needed boost to manufacture more brands of even the same product or entirely different products.
Advertising allows the advertiser/ manufacturer to have firm grip of his market and carve a niche for his product, thereby developing brand loyalty. The manufacturer is always confronted with the reality of each new product in the market may lead to loss of patronage of the old brands. Therefore, he tries to improve the old products and constantly keep them in the minds of the consumers using advertising. Advertising makes certain brands of product household names.
For instance, Omo and Elephant brands of detergent are popular in Nigeria due, mainly, to intensive and extensive advertisement about the two detergent products. Advertising these two brands of detergent has involved constant and consistent messages on them by their producers. Through repeat communication of sales messages of these brands, an image of quality has been created In the consumers sub-conscious and this has encouraged repeat purchases. Although the two brands of detergent are going through product cycle of a declining stage.
·        Creative Advertisement
Creativity in advertising is mostly a matter of looking at the ordinary from an unusual angle (White & Woods 1997, P141). The business of creative advertisement involves a variety of people and attracts a good number of creative people with different backgrounds. When a producer decides to advertise his product, it is the business of virtually everybody in the advertising firm. To trail effect, certain factors determine the extent of creativity in advertising.
Definition
Creativity in advertising is the ability to use words, illustrations and other product features to write or create an acceptable and memorable message for a product or service through creative and imaginative thinking. Therefore, the copywriter tries to position a product by effectively using words, pictures illustrations, demonstrations and spaces to attract the attention and interest of the consumers. Why creative advertising? Creative advertising copy helps in product positioning and encourages product purchase. When a good product is skillfully advertised, the attention of the consumer is automatically drawn to it. This can make old brand lose brand loyalty and attract patronage to new brands.
For this reason, old and well-known products are still creatively and constantly advertised to avoid them slipping from their positions in the advertising spiral. A good case is that of Omo Blue Detergent, which has become a household name but is still being advertised. Also, coca-cola products, despite their acceptability, are still advertised daily and frequently too. Such Ad allows for the repeat communication of the brand’s message which is creatively repackaged from time to time to allow the product’s image get into the sub-conscious minds of the consumer in order to create repeat purchase opportunity.
Considerations for creative Advert Copy Writing
For effective creative advert copy, consideration is given to certain factors, such as:
Target Audience
These are the target consumers of the product to be advertised. For copywriter to write an effective copy, he must understand the consumers’ preference that will make the difference in the copy and write the copy along that line.
Geographical Location
The knowledge of where the brand users are located and finding a way of reaching them are necessary in creative copy writing. The audience geographical locations determine whether the advert will be regional, national or international. In talking about geographical locations, we are dealing with the following questions: where can we find the consumers? What is the most possible and effective way of reaching them? Answers to these questions determine whether our advertisement will be national, international, regional or local.
Medium
The creative copywriter must put into consideration the features of the various media of advertising, in terms of their strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This will be in line with an understanding of the consumers (target audience) and geographical location of the products and their consumers.
The Purpose
Every advertisement must have a purpose. We cannot write a creative advert copy unless; we understand the aim of the advert message. Sometimes, the aim may be to inform the consumer about the existence of a new product or to re-enforce an existing consumer buying habit, which favors a particular product. The essence of deciding on the purpose of the advertising is to tailor our message to our main objective.
Apart from the above considerations, a copywriter needs to be a psychologist because it will allow him to understand the psychological makeup of the consumer. Also, it will enable him know why people buy certain products and how the wants of consumers must be met in the copy. As a sociologist, the copywriter tries to understand the society very well. He must know the different societies have different value systems. The copywriter as a historian, tries to understand the origin and growth of the consumers. Also, the history of the product is necessary for the effective copy writing.
He must research why some products are successful, while others fail. . Anthropology allows the copy writer understands human culture, in terms of their origins, classification and relationship with other cultures. Also, it enables the copy writer understand how environment and social relationship affect product choice and consumption. Since culture affects our behavior, consumer choice and preferences are greatly affected by culture and tradition.
Therefore, a good copy writer must write culture-friendly copy based on their understanding of the consumers and their cultural beliefs. The knowledge of economics allow the copy writer to understand the relationship between income, (purchasing power), economic growth and ability to buy a product. It helps him to advice the manufacturer on what to manufacture, for whom, and at what price. Marketing gives the copy writer an idea on how products are positioned for effective sales, using marketing concepts and strategies especially marketing and product mix.
The Purpose of Creative Strategies in Advertising
At any stage or position of a product in the market, (the pioneering, competitive or retentive), the essence of creative advertising may be:
·       To increase the use of a product;
·       To increase the frequency of use;
·       To increase the variety of use;
·       To increase the quantity purchased;
·       To increase the frequency of replacement.
To increase the use of a product
What makes a consumer buy a product? We buy goods or subscribe to services because we want to satisfy certain needs in us. Therefore, every creative advertising message is aimed at increasing the use of a product, as well as increasing purchase and consumption of the said product. Hence, advertising message should contain why and how a product can be used more frequently.
To increase the frequency of use
The essence of every advert message is to tell the consumers why he needs a particular product more often than the others. For instance the advertisers of beverages try to convince mothers on why their children need to take food beverages more than once a day. When a product is need-satisfying, the advert message can be aimed at increasing the number of times such product is used. Those who advertise food supplements tell us that since we cannot take balanced-diet more often, we need to take food supplements frequently to make up for what our food may lack. Such advert messages is aimed at repeat purchase, which in turn increases sales.
To increase the variety of uses
Most products can be used in a variety of ways. A good product advert tries to show additional uses for the product. The advertiser in order to give relevance to the product creatively suggest a variety of uses for the product, thereby, automatically increasing its purchase and consumption. For instance, a motor (vehicle) can be advertised as both pleasure and utility car. Some kitchen equipment are advertised for a variety of uses. A blender is used for both grinding tomatoes and for grinding and blending fruits.
To increase quantity purchased
A good ad copy will contain information that offers a variety of sizes of a product, some products offer a variety of sizes ranging from large-size (king size) family-size, economy-size and so on. For beverage and milk companies, the trend is to offer sachet packages of different economy sizes. For some other products, a package can be meant to contain several units of product. Some soft drinks and beer are offered in portable case of several bottles or cans. Every advertising campaign may be aimed at either push or pull strategy. And whichever is the case, the essence is to increase the quantity of the product purchased at any given time.
To Increase the frequency of replacement
Another way of increasing the use of a particular product is to advertise it in a way as to increase the frequency of replacing it. No product is manufactured to last forever. Therefore, consumers are encouraged to use a product as often as possible, in order to be able to replace it, from time to time. The manufacturers may; use the expiring date of the product to encourage replacement.
