Page 1 of 12

Campaign Planning Brief Handout

THE CAMPAIGN PLANNING BRIEF

Marketing Objectives *
Communications Objectives
Target Customer Description/Profile
Barriers to Purchase
Important and Unique Benefit Claims
Customer Motivations
Principal Competition/Competitive Offers
Current and Desired Perceptions *
Creative Strategies and Tactics
The Customer Promise * - FOR ADVERTISING
Tone and Manner * RESEARCH – This
Media Plan section can be
- FOR ADVERTISING ignored even though
RESEARCH – This Other Marketing Communications’ Activities it is very important in
section can be ignored Budget and Timing * the real world. You
even though it is very would have or will be
important in the real Response and Monitoring Measures
discussing media
world. Mandatories * issues in other
subjects.
HOWEVER, YOU COULD
SPECIFY THE START AND
END DATES OF THIS
CAMPAIGN.

ELEMENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN PLANNING BRIEF

* These elements of the Campaign Planning Brief would be around 1-4 sentences each.

Other unstarred elements would be 1-3 short paragraphs each.

The entire campaign planning brief should typically be 5-8 pages.

The campaign planning brief is worth 15 out of the 35 marks allocated for Assignment 2. The remaining 20 marks are for the
Ad development and pretesting report.
 Page 2 of 12

Overview of the Campaign Planning Brief

Essentially, the idea of campaign planning is to establish a very thorough (tight) brief to
focus/guide the creative processes and, as a result, develop more targeted and effective
campaigns.

Several questions are addressed in the brief, such as:

• What are the campaign objectives?
• Can these objectives be achieved via advertising, or should public relations and sales
promotion be used instead?
• What is the campaign message? i.e., what is to be said?
• To whom is the message directed? i.e., the target audience for the message
• How should the message be said? i.e., the tone & manner of the message, for instance
• What should the campaign achieve? For instance, do we want to reinforce, modify or change
the behaviour of the target audience?

The choice of creative and media elements to be used in the campaign is based on the judgment
of the “buyer readiness” stage and consideration of the type of advertising and promotion
desired.
A vital part of this “buyer readiness” is the level of brand loyalty. If it is high, then advertising
will mainly aim to reinforce the commitment of Brand Loyals. If it is low, then a crucial role of
advertising will be to create brand awareness.

Various types of advertising and sales promotion are available to an advertiser, depending on the
part of the distribution channel that needs attention, including:
• Sales force promotion
• Trade promotion
• Retail promotion and advertising
• End customer promotion and advertising

A “push” campaign strategy will concentrate on the first two, to force stock through the channel.
A “pull” campaign strategy will focus more on the latter two, to pull stock out.
 Page 3 of 12

**You are preparing a fictitious plan for

Campaign Planning Brief Elements launching your product (brand) in the
undergrad uni student market. You need
to identify the launch period. Is it one
• Marketing Objectives month? one semester? etc.

These will typically be expressed in terms of market share and/or sales turnover for a given time
period, and for defined target groups (if more than one).

NOTE- FOR the subject ADVERTISING RESEARCH – these objectives will be fictitious (you make it up). There is no need to do
extensive research or analysis.

• Communications Objectives

One or two of the following considerations are appropriate as a focus of the campaign, i.e., the
campaign’s communications objectives:

* Do we want to generate a need for the product category?

* Do we wish to maintain or increase brand awareness?
* Should we take this awareness further, such that we develop a strong brand
disposition/attitude?
* If we wish to provide a purchase incentive, a short-term, value-added
campaign may be appropriate.
* If everything else is established in the target’s mind, the only next step is to help
facilitate the purchase with information on how, where or when to buy the
product/service.

NOTES - FOR the subject ADVERTISING RESEARCH – one (or two) of these objectives is the communication objective (or
objectives) identified at the end of the TARGET MARKET RESEARCH REPORT.

In other words, remember to include in this section, the communication objective(s) for the print ad that you have
identified at the end of the TARGET MARKET RESEARCH REPORT. In addition to this print ad communication objective,
you are expected to have at least one other type of communication objective for the campaign chosen from the
following types of communication objectives. So, besides brand name and/or brand attribute awareness which are the
communication objectives you have from your Target Market Research Report, you must also chooseat least one more
from the following: category need, brand attitude, purchase intention, purchase facilitation/drive action:

1. Category Need – Objectives could be one of the following: Sell the need for the category. Remind the need for the
category. Omit the need for the category.

Most brands these days are not selling the need for a well-established category. However, if there is a new
category, it must be sold. Maybe a musical microwave? You would typically have to sell the need for this product.

Typically, brands of products that are infrequently purchased, remind consumers of the need for the product
category. For example, Dettol Antiseptic Lotion. You might have to remind consumers of the need for this product
 Page 4 of 12

(i.e., antiseptic lotion) as it is an infrequently purchased product in a previously established (not new) category.
Maybe athlete’s foot anti-fungal cream (e.g. Lamisil brand) would be another example where you might have to
remind (and not sell) the product category (i.e., anti-fungal cream) to most consumers. But a musical
microwave?? For this you would have to sell the need for the category as the need for it has not been previously
established.

2. Brand Awareness – Objectives could be one OR more of the following and will depend on the target audience(s):

Create brand awareness (this objective might be appropriate for new consumers who are unaware of the brand).

Maintain brand awareness (e.g., this objective might be appropriate for existing customers who might have used
the branded product more than once, such as brand loyals and brand switchers).

Increase brand awareness (e.g., this objective might be appropriate for customers who might have tried the
branded product once such as someone who is now loyal to another brand or even if someone has tried your
product many times, you might have to increase brand awareness if you have not advertised for a long time and
competition has increased since your last advertising effort/campaign.)

There are two types of brand awareness: Recall and Recognition.

So, when stating brand awareness as a communication objective, you will need to specify the type of brand
awareness (is it Recall? Recognition? Or both?).
For example, you might state as a communication objective the following:
To create brand awareness, specifically, recall of ______ (a new brand of soap) among __ % of ___________
(the chosen target audience) by the end of _______ (time period).

As suggested above, you could have both recall and recognition or just one of them as communication objectives.

RECALL (usually occurs outside point of purchase):

CN  BN (where CN= category need, BN=brand name)

e.g. I am feeling thirsty (CN)  SOLO (BN)

The consumer then proceeds to go to the convenience shop to purchase a SOLO lemon drink in order to quench
his/her thirst.

RECOGNITION (usually occurs at point of purchase):

BN  CN (where CN= category need, BN= brand name)

e.g.TWISTIES pack is noticed by the consumer  Realises that she needs a snack to curb her hunger pangs.
The consumer chooses the packet of Twisties as she is already in the store.

In other words, with RECALL, the category need (CN) is encountered/felt first, and then the brand name (BN)
comes to mind.
With RECOGNITION, the brand name is encountered first, and then the category need comes to mind.
 Page 5 of 12

Also, note that if brand name recall and recognition is not your focus, your communication objective might be to
create or maintain or increase message recall or recognition. You might want consumers to recall that
“Woolworths are the fresh food people” or recognise this message when they are at the Woolworths store, for
example. Or you might have both brand name and message awareness (recall &/or recognition) as your
communication objectives under the heading of “Brand awareness”.

3. Brand Attitude – Objectives could be one OR more of the following and will depend on the target audience(s) –
(similar to the discussion on Brand awareness objectives): Create brand attitude. Maintain brand attitude.
Increase brand attitude. Change brand attitude (i.e., if you are trying to change consumer perceptions about your
brand).

When stating brand attitude objectives, you will also need to specify the type(s) of brand attitude.
See discussion below regarding the four types of brand attitude:

In section 2 above it was mentioned that there are 2 types of brand awareness – recall and recognition.
In this section, we will discuss 4 types of brand attitude which is reflected in the R&P grid (see R&P article i.e.
Rossiter Percy Donovan article titled, “A Better Advertising Planning Grid” for more information if necessary). The
four types of brand attitude are based on the four quadrants formed by the R&P grid (see R&P article), and are
labelled:

Low involvement – Informational brand attitude (LI-I)

Low involvement – Transformational brand attitude (LI-T)
High involvement – Informational brand attitude (HI-I)
High Involvement – Transformational brand attitude (HI-T)

The concept of Involvement refers to Risk, which is discussed ahead under Barriers to Purchase .
The concepts of Informational (motivation) and Transformational (motivation) are also discussed ahead under
Customer Motivations .

However, these four types of brand attitude are illustrated here with examples.

A mouthwash campaign could be described as creating a low involvement – informational brand attitude. Why?
Mouthwash is a low risk product for most consumers as it is not very expensive [low financial risk], not a socially
visible or consumed product (usually) [low social risk] and taps into an informational or negative motivation [i.e.,
when you are motivated to remove something negative from your life such as bad breath].

A chocolate campaign could be described as creating a low involvement – transformational brand attitude. Why?
Chocolate is a low risk product for most consumers as it is not very expensive [low financial risk], not a socially
visible or consumed product (usually, unless it is a gift) [low social risk], not harmful [low physical risk] etc, and
taps into a transformational or positive motivation [i.e., when you are motivated to add something positive to your
life such as a tasty? experience].

A car campaign could be described as creating a high involvement – informational brand attitude.
Why? A car such as a sedan is a high risk product for most consumers as it is an expensive purchase [high
financial risk], that could cause physical harm if there aren’t many safety features in place [high physical risk] or
 Page 6 of 12

is difficult to drive on all terrains [high performance risk] and taps into an informational or negative motivation
[i.e., when you are motivated to remove something negative from your life such as unsafe or difficult driving].

A vacation destination campaign could be described as creating a high involvement – transformational brand
attitude. Why? A vacation destination could be a high risk product for most consumers as it could be very
expensive [high financial risk], potentially harmful if you are going to an unsafe destination [high physical risk] etc,
and taps into a transformational or positive motivation [i.e., when you are motivated to add something positive to
your life such as an exciting? experience].

(Note; Although in the above examples, a car campaign has been described as tapping into informational
motivations, there could be some car campaigns that tap into transformational motivations of sensory
gratification (Sheer Driving Pleasure), or social approval (Drive this cool car and be the envy of your friends). So,
it is important to understand which approach is relevant and appropriate for the chosen target audience. The
same could be said for chocolate. Maybe chocolate is marketed not to add something positive to your life but to
remove something negative from your life such as the problem of hunger. The chocolate might be promoted as an
easy snack to curb your hunger pangs (hunger pangs are a problem, i.e., something negative).

NOTE: Ideally, there should be only one type of brand attitude for a campaign but sometimes there are two. If there
are two, then it means that either a low involvement informational AND low involvement transformational brand
attitude is the focus of the campaign (i.e. LI-I and LI-T) or a high involvement informational AND high involvement
transformational brand attitude is the focus of the campaign (i.e. HI-I and HI-T).
You cannot have LI-I and HI-I in the same campaign. Similarly, you cannot have LI-T and HI-T in the same
campaign.

4. Purchase Intention – Objective could be: Stimulate purchase intention. This is an objective only if you are offering
a sales promotion (e.g., discount, free gift with purchase, buy one get one free) or you are wanting the target to ‘try’
your product (e.g. try it for yourself and see, or why don’t you take it for a test drive – in the case of a car) or you
are creating a sense of urgency and hence stimulating purchase (e.g., for a limited time period only). NOTE: Not all
ads have this as an objective, i.e., purchase intention is not always stimulated.

5. Purchase facilitation – Objective could be: Facilitate purchase. When an advertiser mentions a phone number, web
address (ie URL), retail outlets from where the product can be purchased, etc., it is enabling the consumer to
purchase the product. This is especially useful if the product is not available everywhere.
NOTE: Not all ads have this as an objective, i.e., purchase facilitation is not always stimulated.
OR Drive Action - Objective for social media: Likes, Retweets, Shares, etc
 Page 7 of 12

• Target Customer Description/Profile

Most importantly, can we define customers in terms of their brand loyalty? i.e.,
* New Category Users
* Brand Loyals
* Brand Switchers
* Other Brand Loyals

NOTES - MAKE SURE YOU DESCRIBE THE TARGET IN TERMS OF DEMOGRAPHICS, PSYCHOGRAPHICS etc and ALSO in terms of
Brand Loyalty, i.e BEHAVIOUR.
*A new category user (i.e. a non-category user) would be someone who has typically NEVER used the product (i.e., good or
service). Many of you would be new (i.e. non-) category users for insurance products like Income Protection Insurance , Life
Insurance etc . There might still be some individuals who have never used a mobile phone, i.e., they are non-category users of
mobile phone and, as such, are potentially new category users.

*A brand loyal consumer might be a single brand loyal (SBL) such as someone who always drinks Coke, never Pepsi. Some
brand loyal consumers might be multibrand loyals (MBL) such as those who are loyal to two frequent flyer programs such as
oneworld and Star Alliance. Brand Loyals are attitudinally committed to the brand and are not influenced by price and other
promotions offered by competitor brands. MBLs are also attitudinally committed to the two or three brands that they are
loyal to and would not turn to other competitor brands if they were offered on sale, for example. MBLs might choose the
second or third brand that they are loyal to, if, for example, the most preferred brand to which they are loyal is out of stock/
unavailable. Or, they might change to the third brand to which they are loyal because of their need for variety. So, even
though MBLs might appear to be Brand Switchers (looking at their behaviour), they are not. They are brand loyals,
specifically, multi-brand loyals.

*Brand Switchers (BS) are not loyal to any brand and unlike BLs they are not attitudinally committed to any brand. They are
easily influenced by price and other promotions offered by competitor brands.

*Other Brand Loyals (OBLs) are those who are always loyal to a competitor brand, and not your brand. So, loyal Pepsi
drinkers would be classified as OBLs by the Coca-Cola Company.
 Page 8 of 12

• Barriers to Purchase

The barriers to purchase may be identified by considering the risk(s) involved in the purchase
decision, using the concept of high versus low involvement, as expressed in the Rossiter and
Percy Grid (refer to R & P article, i.e. Rossiter Percy Donovan article, “A Better Advertising
Planning Grid”).

NOTE - The R&P article suggests that there are low risk and high risk products, i.e., low involvement and high involvement
products. This concept of low and high involvement will depend on the target audience. For most consumers, shampoo
would be a low involvement purchase/product but there might be some consumers who perceive it as a high involvement
product (e.g. consumers with thinning hair?).

In identifying the barriers to purchase, you are identifying the potential risks that consumers might perceive in buying/
using a product.

Types of Risks (which could be labelled as Barriers to Purchase) include one or more of the following:

- Economic or Financial Risk – cost in terms of money ($), time?

- Physical Risk – the perception by consumers (even though it might be incorrect ) that a product will harm them. For
example, hair colour or hair dye. Some consumers might view an unknown brand’s hair dye as having the
potential to cause physical harm (e.g., this unknown hair dye could burn my scalp; this is physical risk).

- Performance Risk – the perception by consumers that the product will not be of a good quality and hence not
perform well. For example, an unknown hair dye will not colour their hair properly/completely or even colour their
hair in the wrong shade! (Anyone game to get their hair dyed blue when they were going for blonde??)

- Psychological Risk – the perception by consumers that a product will be at odds with how they see themselves,
i.e., their self-concept. For example, when cake mixes were first introduced, the “traditional”, stay-at-home
housewife/mum viewed the product as psychologically risky. Why? Let’s say the housewife’s self-concept (or
view of themselves) is that “I am a hardworking housewife.” The cake mix is a short-cut to baking cakes. All you do
is add water to the mix, and bake it. So, in a sense, by using this product, the housewife would not view herself as
“hardworking” but as someone who takes shortcuts, i.e., the easy way out. So, cake mixes were seen as potentially
risky in the minds of some consumers when they were first introduced.

(As an aside, cake mixes these days require you to add more ingredients, not just water. Part of the decision to
include these extra ingredients/steps was to placate/satisfy the traditional housewife from the past, so that she
felt she was doing more to bake a cake using a cake mix.)

- Social Risk – the perception by consumers that they might be ridiculed or looked down upon or excluded by their
reference/social groups if they purchased/used a particular product.
 Page 9 of 12

• Important and Unique Benefit Claims

The differential benefits (derived from product features) should be identified at this stage
and translated into a positioning statement, relevant to each target market.

NOTE – FOR ADVERTISING RESEARCH, see separate handout which illustrates the difference between ‘Important and Unique
Benefit Claims’ and ‘The Customer Promise’ (the latter, i.e. TCP, is another component of this campaign planning brief – see
page 11). Note that in this separate handout (taken from another subject that I teach ), the product was a fictitious one. It
was a shampoo that helps to stimulate the mind. The handout shows the difference between Important and Unique Benefit
Claims and The Customer Promise.

• Customer Motivations ***Pick one motivation

It is important to know something of the customer motivations at this stage. The broad
categories involve either “needs” or “wants”. Often, products serve both; however, one aspect
will generally be more important and therefore call for a particular executional approach. We
can use the concepts of Informational motivations (there are five) and Transformational
motivations (there are three) as outlined in the R & P grid to help us here (refer to R & P article
“A Better Advertising Planning Grid”).

NOTE - According to R&P there are 5 Informational Motivations (i.e., you are motivated to remove something negative from
your life):

1. PROBLEM REMOVAL - e.g., Listerine (problem – bad breath, solution – Listerine mouthwash. Listerine might
tap into the ‘problem removal’ motivation of consumers and get them to solve their problem of bad breath by
using Listerine mouthwash.)

2. PROBLEM AVOIDANCE – e.g. NRMA Car Insurance (avoid paying huge sums of money if your car gets totalled
in a road accident; take out NRMA car insurance to avoid that problem should it occur in the future).

3. INCOMPLETE SATISFACTION – many NEW and IMPROVED products might use this. A consumer might be using a
particular brand of dishwashing liquid that cleans the dishes well but is damaging to her skin/hands. So, she is not
completely satisfied with it. A competitor brand might address this INCOMPLETE satisfaction by communicating that
their product not only cleans dirty dishes well but also softens the skin/hands at the same time. This will leave the
consumer more completely satisfied.

4. MIXED APPROACH-AVOIDANCE – Ice cream. You APPROACH it because you like the taste. You might AVOID it
because you dislike the fat content. So, a low fat ice cream marketer could address this conflict by providing a
tasty, low fat ice-cream.

5. NORMAL DEPLETION – if you run out of a product, you might get annoyed. E.g., when a family is sitting down
together for breakfast and the mum goes to the refrigerator to get the milk only to find out there isn’t any (her
son/daughter has returned the empty carton to the refrigerator!); the mum gets slightly annoyed. This is a MILDLY
NEGATIVE MOTIVATION unlike the previous four, which are stronger negative motivations.
 Page 10 of 12

- According to R&P there are 3 Transformational Motivations (i.e., you are motivated to add something positive to
your life):

6. SENSORY GRATIFICATION -. E.g. chocolate for the taste of it, perfume for the smell of it, etc

7. INTELLECTUAL STIMULATION – products that might be consumed in order to stimulate the intellect (e.g. a good
book/puzzle, computer game?, Rubik’s cube)

8. SOCIAL APPROVAL – E.g., A particular brand of car or a particular brand of clothing/fashion item might often be
bought to get social approval and not merely to provide a means of transport or to protect the body, respectively,

• Principal Competition/Competitive Offers

Competitive positionings must be known to avoid saying the same thing about your
brand/product as is being said by your competitor. Together with the section on “Important and
Unique Benefit Claims”, this part should clearly identify the differential position of your
brand/product.

NOTE - FOR ADVERTISING RESEARCH – you could name the direct and/or indirect competitors here, and if known, their
positioning statements (sometimes reflected in their tag lines – Ultimate Driving Machine, The burgers are better at Hungry
Jack’s, etc.), recommended retail price (RRP) etc.

**Eg. Current perception: "What is this

• Current and Desired Perceptions **Perceptual STATEMENTS (not words) in the target
product? Never heard of it."
Desired perception: "This shampoo is awesome,
audience's language must be provided. mate!"
For each target group (if there is more than one), it is appropriate to provide a statement in
their language (e.g., “this product is so cool”, “this is the first time I have found something
totally awesome in this category”, etc.) describing what they feel/believe about the brand/
product NOW, and what you want them to feel/believe about the brand/product AFTER your
campaign has had its effect.
• Creative Strategies and Tactics

These can now be developed by taking account of the above, and by applying the tactical
“considerations” suggested for the relevant ‘involvement:motivation’ quadrant in the R & P
planning grid (refer to R & P article “A Better Advertising Planning Grid”).

NOTE- FOR ADVERTISING RESEARCH

You could ignore the above statement, i.e. statement below the heading “Creative Strategies and Tactics”. That is, do not
consider/apply the tactical “considerations”. Instead, you could briefly describe/explain the print ad you will be creating and
then state “see Appendix __ for print ad”. Make sure you attach a screenshot of your print ad in the appendix. Attach a
screenshot because your original print ad will be included in your Ad Development and Pretesting Report .
 **If Important and Unique Benefit Claims (IAUBC) on
Page 11 of 12
page 9 was about all the benefits of your product, the
customer promise refers to which single benefit or set of
benefits from all those listed or described under IAUBC will
• The Customer Promise be the focus of this launch campaign aimed at undergrad
uni students.
This is a statement of the specific benefits and “goodies” the target group/s receive if they
respond to the communications (for instance, advertising and/or promotional) campaign.

NOTE – FOR ADVERTISING RESEARCH, see separate handout which illustrates the difference between ‘Important and Unique
Benefit Claims’ and ‘The Customer Promise’ (the former, i.e., IAUBC is another component of this campaign planning brief –
see page 9). Note that in this separate handout (taken from another subject that I teach ), the product was a fictitious one.
It was a shampoo that helps to stimulate the mind. The handout illustrates the difference between ‘Important and Unique
Benefit Claims’ and ‘The Customer Promise’ for the shampoo named ‘B Sharp’.

• Tone and Manner

Statements and words describing the feeling (and look) you want the advertising and/or
promotion to have - these naturally should complement all of the above.

NOTE – FOR ADVERTISING RESEARCH - Basically you will describe how the advertising will look, feel, and sound so that the
target can hear and best relate to the brand. You could use statements and/or words.

For example, you could state the following but make it appropriate for your product:
The tone of this campaign will be conservative and scientific and communicated in a straightforward but compelling
manner.
The tone of this campaign will be humourous and feminine and communicated in a light-hearted manner.

For example, you could use the following words but obviously come up with words that are appropriate for your product:
Scientific, conservative, factual
Feminine, humourous, light-hearted

• Media Plan

NOTE -
- FOR ADVERTISING RESEARCH – This section can be ignored even though it is very important in the real world. You
would have or will be discussing media issues in other subjects.
**For OMCA:Here you need to provide details of say, a competition that you might
run (eg name of competition, prizes - what does first prize get, what is the hashtag
• Other Marketing Communications’ Activities for entering a competition if it is run in social media, etc., will you offer discounts
when launching this in the undergrad uni student market, if so, what type of
discount, etc.). This section requires details. details. details.
What are the other marketing communications’ activities (e.g., public relations, direct marketing,
etc.) that will complement your advertising and/or promotional campaign? All campaign
components need to be integrated!!
 Page 12 of 12

• Budget and Timing **Ignore BUDGET for the purpose of this assignment but talk about Timing, ie the start and end
dates of this LAUNCH campagin

NOTE -
- FOR ADVERTISING RESEARCH – This section can be ignored even though it is very important in the real world.

HOWEVER, YOU COULD SPECIFY THE START AND END DATES OF THIS CAMPAIGN.

**How will you evaluate/measure (a) the achievement of your communication objectives? Answer:
• Response and Monitoring Measures Surveys- brand recall will be measured; (b) the success of your OTHER MARKETING
COMMUNICATIONS' ACTIVITIES (see previous page) Answer: Examples -. no. of entries to
the competition, or no. of vouchers redeemed if you are offering vouchers as part of your other
A vital question to ask/agree on is: marketing communications' activities.
“How will you know that your advertising is achieving the objectives set?’ The answer
lies in using various methods (pre- and post-campaign, either formal or informal) to gauge the
reaction/s of the target group/s and compare these reaction/s to those desired.

NOTE -
- FOR ADVERTISING RESEARCH – You could state how you will monitor whether or not your communication
objectives and marketing objectives are being met as well as how you will gauge the effectiveness of your other
marketing communications’ activities (e.g., if coupons are used, then the no. of consumers who redeem /use the
coupons will be a measure of the effectiveness of coupons etc).
- For your communication objectives, you will be testing for awareness or attitude or both. A brief statement
describing how you might test this/these objective/s should be included.

• Mandatories

These are often compulsory inclusions or considerations (e.g., legal requirements, cultural
considerations, etc.) for a brand/product or campaign, and these need to be included in the
campaign planning brief.

NOTE – FOR ADVERTISING RESEARCH - If there are no mandatories, you could simply state, “None”.
However, just to illustrate, an example would be:
Must mention that Twisties are available in three different pack sizes.