Copy Writing Assignment 2: Matrimonial Ad

Write an ad (about 60 words) for yourself in the matrimonial column of your daily newspaper. Give a
short note on the type of reader of this newspaper (less than 100 words). Would the kind of person you
would like to marry be likely to read this newspaper? Choose your words carefully, making each word
work hard for you. Remember you are paying for this ad – not your father.

Due: 15th November, 2010. (Monday: 10:00 am).

Writing the Creative Brief – A primer

The client brief was the format that was used for collecting and putting down the information from the
client in a comprehensive manner.

The creative brief is derived out of the client brief to build the communication’s creative strategy and
agenda.

From the table on page 1, you might be able to note that the first 5 or even 6 points can be directly
derived from the client brief. You job on building the creative strategy should start with topics 6 and 7.
While I have provided you with listing of information for advertising, similar set of objectives and tasks
can be developed for any other communication function and media. You should have as many creative
briefs as the number of functions you choose to use. This will help to build the synergy and harmony
linked to communication strategy.

So, what is communication strategy?

The strategy should take stock of the client’s current position (in communication function terms) in the
light of future goals – both marketing and communication. You must list the obstacles that may come up
when you are trying to reach the goal and identify options for how to overcome them. For example, a
new competition might be a problem or consumer’s attitude towards the product may be a problem.
This is the crux for building the strategy. Finding creative ways to solve the problems is the basis for the
creative strategy. However, the solutions must be within the constraints and demands of the client brief
and creative brief.

Once you have the information for the creative brief put together, some important parameters for you
campaign solutions will start to emerge:

 Target Audience
 Proposition/Brand positioning
 Brand Image
 Tone of Voice
 Further recommendations, e.g., research

Now recast the information collected for the creative brief in terms of the parameters listed above.

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Target Audience:

Consumer profile is useful in understanding what you must say to appeal to the consumer. To
identifying the target audience is even more basic and critical than understanding the profile. For
example - all in the family use toothpaste. Chances are all – the mother, father and children, use the
same brand. But, who will you address? If you decide that it is the mother, then understanding how to
appeal to her becomes most critical in your creative strategy. For the mother, health and hygiene might
be the most important concern, but if you decide that it is the child, then your strategy might be
something else all together, such as taste (or sometimes marketers try to talk to moms about hygiene
and appeal to kids with toys and other promos).

Having identified the target audience, you must then profile them from the perspective of your client
brief and creative brief, sourcing information from the analysis of consumer profiles that you have
collected earlier. You must imagine the target audience in terms of how they will dress, how they live,
what their concerns are, their dreams and ambitions and any which way it is relevant to your
communication objective. So, a target audience profile is not just the demographic and psychographic
profiling – it should be a picture of a person that captures them in and out.

Proposition/Brand Positioning:

Proposition is the positioning strategy that you want to use. One rule of thumb is to think in terms of
consumer benefit + reason why. You may have a primary proposition and secondary ones as well. Keep
in mind that it is a good idea not to over sell – one strong proposition which a really strong reason why
should be good enough. The reason why is the support you must offer for the claim that your offering
provides some benefit. While we talk of brand positioning from the perspective of marketing, we talk of
the proposition or ‘offer’ meaning ‘benefit and reason why’ in communication.

Brand Image:

The word Image refers to:

1. Impression ( a mental conception held in common by members of a group and symbolic of a

This varies from personality in the sense that personality is set of complex characteristics that
distinguished the person, totality of the person’s behavior and emotional tendencies and a set or traits,
attitude and habits. So, personality is what the brand is, but image is what others think the brand is.
Brand image goes beyond the personality and you can think of personality as an aspect of image.

A lot goes into building the brand image. The name of the product, in the first place. Its quality and
price. The packaging, most of all. And where the product is sold, and what media is used to advertise the

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product. A brand is known by the company it keeps. The medium is the message. All of this adds up. So
it is important to make a mental picture of how you want the product to be perceived by your consumer
– the target audience. This must be done with the cognizance of the client.

Tone of Voice: Even when you close your eyes and listen to someone talking in a language you don’t
know, you can make out if they are happy or sad, excited or cool etc., Sometimes, this makes all the
difference in the delivery of your communication – remember the case of Lalithaji from your case on
Lintas?

The copy must carry that voice. What kind of voice must your communication convey – confidence,
command, evoke fear? Usually it’s a good idea to keep the tonality of all your communication the same
– so that harmony in your communication can be achieved. For example, you might use the same tone
and style but change the various attributes of the product you want to convey – think Zoo Zoos. The
tonality is a very useful tool in managing your harmony aspect as well as to build the attraction to the
communication. A lot of creativity can be used here. All soaps look the same, all hotels serve the same
way……. but to create the image and build the attitude and voice of your brand the Tone of Voice is most
important.

Your creative brief should include all these aspects and be a blueprint that drives your communication
strategy.