Before we can explore how to create a Strategy you can base your campaign on, we need to understand the Context of Copywriting and the Strategic Framework that Creative campaigns build off.

In order to develop a Strategy, you must investigate three areas:

1) The Product

2) The Consumer

3) The Marketplace.

Where these three components meet is the spot where you can discover what’s in it for the consumer.

Let’s start with the Product.

The product is what it is, right? Wrong. In order to know what it is about the product that you’re selling to your consumer, you need to understand the WIIFM – the What’s In It For Me – for your consumer. So you need to do your research to find out:

• Features – Tangible/intangible facts/features (ingredients, parts, price, history, company values, personality, where it’s sold, how it comes to market). For example: A feature of a chair – it has little rubber bumpers on the bottom of each leg.
• Advantages – Translate features into the Advantages, e.g. chair tilts but doesn’t flip. What’s the Benefit?
• Benefits – WIIFM (the consumer). You can relax without worrying you’ll flip your chair and look like an idiot.

Next let’s examine the Consumer. Our goal is to understand who they truly are.

• • Demographics tells us who the consumer is from the outside – gender, age, education, marital status, ethnicity, household income, religion, etc.
  • Psychographics tell us who the consumer is on the inside – their mindset as expressed by aspects of their lifestyle: hobbies, way of life, personality, politics, buying habits.

For the purposes of this class, demographics are less important than psychographics. After all, you could have two women with the same exact demographics, of the same age, with the same amount of education, household income, education, religion, etc. but who are completely different. To one of them, self-care is critical; to the other, it’s not a factor at all.

Here are multiple women whose demographics are similar. They’re all 40-year-old women who live in an urban area with roughly the same income and education level. On paper, they might seem the same. But clearly they’re not. This is why psychographics is so important.

Finally, let’s investigate the Marketplace.

• This is how we understand the competitive environment and the context we’re operating in.
  • Know your competition – direct & indirect (greeting card company, email, text…)
  • Know market segments
  • Know current trends in: culture, politics, economy, fashion, tech, season

Watch the video below to gain a deeper understanding of the Context of Copywriting and the Strategic Framework. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Who creates the Strategy? In advertising, a Strategist creates the Strategy. But in this class, you’ll take on the dual roles of Strategist and Creative. This will help you understand why I call these the Twin Wonders – because when they are equally strong and equally connected, you can create magnetic ideas that people are not just drawn to – but that they want to be part of.

Which comes first, the Strategy or the Creative? The Strategy MUST come first. Before you know how to speak to a consumer, you need to know what to say that they’ll care about. The strategy tells you who you’re speaking to, what you’re saying to them, and why it matters. The strategy defines the creative playground. Without a clearly defined strategy, the creative idea will be disconnected.