The Strategic Message Planner

"The Strategic Message Planner (SMP) helps create one, clear strategic message that is the heart of a successful advertisement. You must complete a SMP before you begin to consider the more creative aspects of the ad. If you begin to plan the ad before you develop the ad's strategic message, your creative ideas may disort your vision of what the strategic message should truly be." -- Strategic Writing. Marsh, Guth and Short. Allyn & Bacon 2005. p. 104.

An SMP involves summarizing research or drawing conclusions in 10 areas:

  1. Client and product. What is the product? What is the product made of? Who and what made the product?
  2. Target audience. Paint a demographic and pyschographic picture of the target. Specify one well-defined target audience. When creating strategic messages, one size does not fit all.
  3. Product benefits. Benefits are product feature that appeals to self-interests of the ad's target audience.
  4. Current brand image. Avoid wishing thinking. Paint a true picture of how others see the brand.
  5. Desired brand image. What is the image you want to have of the brand/product?
  6. Direct competitors and brand images. Name the leading products in the brand's/product's category.
  7. Indirect competitors and brand images.These competitors are in a different product category than your brand, but can still keep the target from adopting your brand/product.
  8. Advertising goal. What do you want to accomplish with this ad? What audience do you wish to attract? What behavior do you wish to encourage?
  9. Strategic Message. This is the one, clear message (theme) of your ad. It is not a slogan. It is the completion to this question: "Target audience, you should buy/use this product because ______." Ensure that your strategic message is unique. It should not make a claim that a competitor can also make. Remember that when advertising the same product to different audiences, the strategic message will change.
  10. Supporting benefits. Also known as the selling points, these are the bits of information that you include in the ad to support the claim made in the strategic message.

This information comes from Strategic Writing: Multimedia Writing for Public Relations, Advertising, Sales and Marketing, and Business Communication. Charles Marsh, David Guth and Bonnie Poovey Short. Allyn & Bacon. 2005. ISBN 0-205-40573-8.

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Last updated June 16, 2005