Marketing Models: AIDA, Kapferer Prism, and More

Posted on Feb 21, 2025 in Marketing

Kapferer Brand Identity Prism

The Kapferer Brand Identity Prism is a model that helps define a brand’s identity through six key facets:

  1. Physique: The physical characteristics and iconography of your brand. Examples include the Nike swoosh, Apple’s sleek styling, or easyJet’s bold orange color. The physique is the visual representation of your brand’s aspirations and desired perception. Consider the look, feel, and emotions inspired by your products or services.
  2. Personality: How a brand communicates, expressed through its tone of voice, design, and copywriting. Coca-Cola’s playful persona is conveyed through its colors, font, and messaging focused on fun with friends and family. Define your brand’s tone and design assets, integrating them across all communication channels.
  3. Culture: The value system and principles guiding a brand’s behavior. Tesla’s culture encourages innovation, while Google promotes flexibility, creativity, and a fun environment. These values shape how the brand is perceived.
  4. Relationship: The connection between the brand and its customers, encompassing what customers expect beyond the product or service. John Lewis is known for its warranties and after-sales service, fostering trust and respect.
  5. Reflection: The stereotypical user of the brand. While a brand may have multiple buyer personas, it often targets a specific subset. Apple, for example, associates its products with vibrant, adventurous, and energetic individuals.
  6. Self-Image: How the customer sees their ideal self. By understanding a customer’s aspirations, brands can tailor their messaging accordingly. Consider whether your customer’s ideal self is outgoing, intellectual, refined, or budget-conscious, and align your brand’s aspirations with theirs.

AIDA Model

The AIDA model describes the stages a customer goes through when purchasing a product. It has been used since the late 19th century and has been modified over time.

The AIDA model consists of four stages:

  1. Attract Attention: The product must capture the consumer’s attention through advertising materials, such as a striking window display, a sensational YouTube clip, a themed newsletter, or a graphic on a landing page.
  2. Maintain Interest: Once attention is captured, interest in the product or service should be aroused. This can be achieved through detailed product information, such as product descriptions on a website, brochures, flyers, photos, or video clips.
  3. Create Desire: Persuade the customer that they want to own the product by highlighting its advantages and aligning them with the target group’s daily lives. Use bullet points in online shops or advertising that appeals to the customer’s emotions.
  4. Take Action: Convert the desire to buy into a purchase. For online shops, this involves a seamless shopping cart process with a clear call-to-action to encourage conversion.

Central Route and Peripheral Route to Persuasion

There are two types of consumers: highly involved and uninvolved. Two routes can be taken to effectively interact with them: the central route and the peripheral route to persuasion.

  • Central Route: Directed at highly involved consumers. It focuses on the specific attributes of the product and requires thoughtful consideration of the message. This route is based on logic and is used for significant purchase decisions, such as buying a new car. Central processing requires both motivation and the ability to understand the message.
  • Peripheral Route: Directed at uninvolved consumers. It attracts customers through peripheral advertising cues, such as an attractive model or setting. This route relies on the consumer’s emotions and interests to engage them. ‘Spur of the moment purchases’ often result from these types of ads.

Hierarchy of Effects Model

Created in 1961 by Robert J. Lavidge and Gary A. Steiner, this model suggests six steps from viewing a product advertisement to purchase. The advertiser’s job is to guide the customer through these steps:

  1. Awareness: The customer becomes aware of the product through advertising. This is a challenging step, as customers see many ads daily but remember only a few brands.
  2. Knowledge: The customer gains knowledge about the product through the internet, retail advisors, and product packaging. In today’s digital world, this step is crucial, as consumers expect to find product information easily. Advertisers must ensure product information is readily available.
  3. Liking: Ensure the customer likes your product. Promote features that encourage positive feelings.
  4. Preference: Consumers may like multiple brands. Advertisers should encourage consumers to disconnect from rivals and focus on their product by highlighting benefits and unique selling points.
  5. Conviction: Create the customer’s desire to purchase the product. Offer opportunities to test or sample the product, reassuring them that the purchase is a safe one.
  6. Purchase: The customer purchases the product. This stage should be simple and easy, with various payment options and a user-friendly website.

Types of Advertising Copy

  1. Educational Copy: Educates people about the uses of a product, introducing new products in a way that highlights their features, uses, and benefits. It can be introductory or missionary, propagating an existing product.
  2. Institutional Copy: Sells the name of the company, building goodwill through its philosophies, objectives, and policies.
  3. Reason-Why Copy: Provides consumers with reasons to buy the product, convincing them with sound arguments.
  4. Topical Copy: Integrated with recent happenings or events, such as political events, sports, or global events.
  5. Questioning Copy: Uses questions to emphasize a certain attribute of the product.
  6. Prestige Copy: Creates a favorable atmosphere for the sale of the product, building an image of success.
  7. Testimonial Copy: Features celebrities or popular personalities endorsing the product.
  8. Dialogue Copy: Uses well-written dialogue to be interesting, convincing, and persuasive.
  9. Descriptive Copy: Focuses on describing the product or service, emphasizing its appearance or the rewards it promises.
  10. Narrative Copy: Uses storytelling to communicate an advertising point, such as short stories, pictures with captions, or comic strips.

Slice-of-Life Execution

Slice-of-life advertisements present everyday situations where a person faces a consumption problem that is solved by the advertiser’s product. These ads depict social scenarios where people discuss a problem, and someone provides a solution in the form of the advertised brand. The key is simplicity, focusing on a key benefit presented realistically. Many household cleaning products use this approach.

Target Ratings Points (TRPs)

TRPs measure the number of times and the number of individuals in the primary target audience that the media will reach. Data is collected weekly by a panel of adults who record TV viewership data in diaries.

Gross Ratings Points (GRPs)

GRPs indicate the number of potential audience members likely to be exposed to a series of commercials. It combines program rating and the average number of times the household is reached during the advertising cycle.

GRP = Reach x Frequency

Reasons for the Rapid Growth of Sales Promotion

  1. Increased number of brands.
  2. Frequent use of promotions by competitors.
  3. Parity among many brands.
  4. Use of sales promotions to introduce new products.
  5. Increased consumer focus on sales promotions.
  6. Demand for more deals from manufacturers by the trade.
  7. Difficulty in forecasting demand for new brands.
  8. Potential decline in advertising efficiency.
  9. Difficulty in determining the effects of advertising.
  10. Shift from long-term brand building to short-term sales promotions.

Innovation Adoption Model

  1. Awareness (Cognitive Stage): The consumer becomes aware of a brand or product, often through advertisements.
  2. Interest (Affective Stage): Information about the brand or product spreads, triggering interest in potential buyers to gain more knowledge.
  3. Evaluation (Affective Stage): Consumers evaluate and try to gain a deeper understanding of the product.
  4. Trial (Behavior Stage): Customers try the product before making a final purchase decision.
  5. Adoption (Behavior Stage): The customer accepts the product, makes a purchase decision, and buys the product.

Challenges of Branding

  1. Financial Concerns: Balancing short-term financial results with long-term brand building.

    Branding Doom Loop: A manager reduces investment in brand building programs to fund short-term sales promotions, impacting long-term brand health.

  2. Consistency: Ensuring consistent brand messaging and experiences across all touchpoints.
  3. Clutter: Standing out in a competitive and crowded market requires innovative marketing and advertising.
  4. Connectivity: Building strong connections with customers through various touchpoints.
  5. Communication: Encouraging customers to become brand evangelists and share their experiences.