How to Design an Advertisement
Regardless of the product or service you want to write an advertisement for,the guidelines for designing a strong,effective advertisement are the same.Product focus,clarity,and audience appeal are the keys to a successful advertising for any business.The next is how you can design an advertisement that will show your product or service in its best light and make your business successful.
5.1 Positioning
In order to be successful in the fierce competition,advertising language is often directed to one or more segments of the broad market so as to set the advertised product or service apart from the competition without making any change in the product or service.This process is known as“positioning”.For example,in a soft drink market dominated by colas,Seven Up successfully competed by positioning itself as the“uncola”.Pepsi cola positions itself as different and fashionable cola, which is prominent because of its different color blue and its spokesman including fashionable singers.Seeing sunbathers highly conscious of the risk of skin cancer due to over-exposure,Bain de Soleil repositioned its product to stress the protection angle.
5.2 Identifying Target Audience
After understanding the product or service you want to design an advertisement for,you then can identify the target audience.This will be the audience the advertisement is aimed at.An advertisement that misses its target audience will fall short every time.For example,Seven Up regards young people as its target audience and customers,so in its advertisement,it invites pop singers as the spokesmen,who enjoy the cool and refreshing Seven Up after skating.
5.3 Forming the Theme
After the positioning,an overall idea or theme must be formed.In the early 1980s,for example,Delta Airlines had positioned itself as an airline catering to the needs of business travelers.But what specific item should be stressed in Delta's ads: food?Courteous service?Extensive mutes?Research revealed that the most important factor to the business flyer was convenience,so Delta's agency came up with the theme:“Delta is ready when you are.”In order to please its diet and health conscious buyers,TCBY yogurt based its ad campaign on the theme:“Say goodbye to high calories.Say goodbye to ice cream.”
5.4 Choosing the Medium
Consider the medium for your advertisement.Will it be in a major glossy magazine or a newspaper?How much space will you have to work with?A full page color magazine advertisement will give you more freedom to use graphics than a 5 by 5-inch black and white ad in a newspaper.
5.5 Writing a Strong and Catchy Headline
The headline will be the word or phrase that draws attention to your advertisement.You want the headline to ask a question your audience will want to know the answer to.The headline should say something to pique audience interest. Make reference in your headline to a universal issue when possible.All in all, headlines can be presented in several ways.
Headlines with benefit
Your audience is very likely to be attracted by one thing from which he can benefit a lot.For example,an advertisement had the headlines:“HOW TO SOLVE YOUR EMISSIONS PROBLEMS—at half the energy cost on conventional venturi scrubbers.”The headline combines a powerful benefit（“half the energy cost”) with the promise of useful information（“how to”)addressed directly at the reader's specific problem（“solve your emissions problems”).
Headlines with useful information
One way to increase readership is to promise the reader useful information in your headline,then deliver it in your ad copy.For example,for an ad offering business people a book on how to collect overdue bills,Milt Pierce wrote this headline:
“7 WAYS TO COLLECT YOUR UNPAID BILLS.
New from Dow Jones-Irwin…
A Successful and Proven Way to Get Your Bills Paid Faster.”
The information-type ad is highly effective in business-to-business advertising. Why?Because the reason business people read trade journals is for information.
Direct headlines
Direct headlines are no less effective when used appropriately.For example,an advertisement for a company that repairs and restores old surgical tables is written like this:
“SURGICAL TABLES REBUILT
Free Loaners Available!”
The ad was successful,and demonstrates that when you are the only one advertising a particular product or service,or when the nature of your offer is hard to grasp,direct headlines can be extremely effective.Another direct headline is shown in an ad running in Network World:
“LINIK 8 PCS TO YOUR MAINFRAME
ONLY＄2，395”
Such direct headlines,being clear and impressive,immediately meet the audience's need,so they can be directly chosen by the customers.
Headlines with multiple parts
Your headlines can have multiple parts:A headline does not have to contain just one sentence or phrase set in one uniform type size.Often,you can create a more eye-catching and effective headline using the so-called a three-part headline. The first part,or kicker,is an“eyebrow”or short line that goes in the upper left corner of the ad,either straight or at a slant.One good use of the kicker is to select a specific type of reader for the ad（e.g.,“Attention COBOL Programmers”).Another effective technique is to let the reader know you are offering something free（“Special Free Offer—See Coupon Below”).Next,set in larger type,comes your main headline,which states your central benefit and makes a powerful promise.Then,in the subhead,you expand on the benefit or reveal the specific nature of the promise. If your headline is designed to arouse curiosity or grab attention and does so at the expense of clarity,then be sure to make nature of your proposition immediately clear in a subhead or within the first sentence.Otherwise you will lose the interest of the reader whose attention you worked so hard to gain.
5.6 Using Eye-appealing Graphics
In order to make an advertisement prominent,attractive and impressive,you can use eye-appealing graphics if space permits.Firstly,make prominent use of pictures.The old saying“A picture is worth a thousand words”is true.The image should be at the forefront of the text if the image can say what you want better than words.Consider the images you use in your advertisement wisely.Secondly,make full use of graphic contrasts.Most display ads have sharp graphic contrasts to achieve the best possible eye-catching effect.Thirdly,have clear identification of the advertiser.The names such as GM,KFC,Windows,IBM,etc.are very prominent in their advertisements.
5.7 Keeping the Content to the Point
Set up the situation（what the problem is),suggest a solution（what will fix the problem),and name the product.For example,the audience is thirsty,so he wants to buy a refreshing drink.What about this drink?Convince the audience with a few selected details that will ensure them the drink you're advertising is the best drink for him.