(This post is part of a series created to help you help your advertising agency create effective communications for your business.)

So you’ve finally crafted your proposition, and it’s a good one.

You’re now on the last leg of finishing your agency brief. This part is easy. It’s basically giving your audience (or target market, if you want to be technical about it) very good reasons to believe you.

This comes in two parts: the reasons to believe (RTB) section, and the substantiation.

Often a cause of confusion among advertisers (and even their agencies) the  difference between the RTB and the substantiation is very simple: one is logical, while the other is often technical. If your proposition is a case you are building for your product or service, the RTB are the arguments that support your case, while the substantiation is the different form of proof why your arguments are valid.

Say, for example, you want to say that your product is the best defense against turning into a zombie.

For your RTB, you may want to include why it’s the best (i.e. unlike other products that still cause loss of brain cells, the number of people who  have managed to avoid being turned into zombies by using your product versus that of other products), that it helps prevent brains from being turned into mush, and the fact that it is both zombie and zombie-master repellent.

For your substantiation you will want to include the ingredients, the endorsements of the anti-zombie invasion researchers as well as the clinical tests that have proven it so.

Yes, it’s that easy.

If you’ve been following this series so far, by this point you will have completed your agency brief. Now all you need to do is send it to your agency. Don’t have one yet? Drop us a line, and we’ll see how we can help you with that.

(This post is part of a series created to help you help your advertising agency create effective communications for your business.)

If you’re like any good, sensible businessman  who’s proud of their product or service, this part of the brief should be the most fun for you.

Here’s where you get to talk about your product, to define it, and say just how wonderfully awesome it is and why.

There’s just one catch. It has to be a single idea, and you should be able to capture it in just one sentence.

Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as it sounds.

What do you want to say about your product? What’s the story, morning glory?

Is it the greatest thing since sliced bread? (Yes you can say that, we just can’t guarantee the ASC will give your ad clearance for that without substantiation.  Also, it’s been done so often, you may want to rethink.)

What is your product?  Define it in the best way you can. Is it the next best thing to sunlight? Is it the lawnmower of razors? Is it the Kobe Bryant of vacuum cleaners?

What does it do better than the rest?

Many agencies (including ours) call this part of the brief “the proposition.”  It’s the one single message you want to convey to your audience, but distilled in only one, concise, clear sentence that will both define your product and what you want it to stand for in the minds of your consumer.

Here’s the good news. Crafting the proposition isn’t just your job– it’s also your agency’s. In the ideal scenario we’ll sit with you and craft that one sentence that captures everything you want to say in your communications.

Yes, it can be done.

Call us and we’ll show you just how.

(This post is part of a series created to help you help your advertising agency create effective communications for your business.)

In most briefs to the agency, there will often be a segment where product differentiation is discussed. Simple marketing dictates that you will need to differentiate your product from your competitors. Finding it is the key.

Here’s the bad news: in this day and age of fierce competition and parity products, chances are, you will have trouble filling in that blank, especially since the USP (unique selling point) has been dead since perhaps the seventies.

Here’s the good news: your customer or potential customer can and will probably find one for you anyway.   If there is something that will set apart your product from the rest, or better yet, make it seem like the better the deal, the more advanced formula, the better, faster, bigger or  more effective product, your target  market/customer  will be able to see it.

And even more good news, it’s better that way. Many advertisers have tried time and again to dictate the consumer perception of their product. Some succeed, but many more fail– and for the obvious reasons. They’re too close to the product, and too stuck in what they think of the product.

So here’s a piece of advice. Do a bit of research: test perceptions. If you have the budget, go get the works from a research agency of you can. If you don’t, you can perhaps do a backyard study from among objective and disinterested parties. (No, gathering all the secretaries and messengers from your company does not count.  Well, okay, it does, but that may not be as dependable as, say, people you are not related to or are being paid by you.)

Don’t skip this, and chances are, you’ll get your communications off to a running start. Need help doing that? We’re right here.

(This post is part of a series created to help you help your advertising agency create  effective communications for your business.)

What does your customer think about your product? Or about your competition? Or about the situation where they need your product? Do they even think they need it?  Even the fact that they do not think about these things at all  is relevant.

Knowing the answer to these questions – what others often (but mistakenly) call ‘ the insight”– more about that some other time –  is another key to giving your advertising what it needs to make an impact.  Making your customers receptive to your message requires knowing how they think – it is what makes your pitch to them relevant and meaningful.  More importantly, it provides the jumping-off point from where to launch your sales message.

If you’re selling laundry detergent, what do they think  about laundry? What do they think laundry detergents are like? What do they like, and what do they hate?

Your answers to all these questions is your key to making what you’re selling more attractive to your customer.

Just a quick note, however: All these answers will not necessarily appear in your advertising brief. Which one to pick? That depends on which one your product answers.  Need a little help with this? Email us at info@prodigyads.com