DEMYSTIFY THE UNFAMILIAR
 
People are reluctant to buy a product if they are unsure how it works or how they’d use it. Brands introducing new business models, categories, or novel ways of using existing products, can use advertising to educate consumers. By showing how the product works, the advertising makes people more comfortable with the idea of trying something new. It reduces the risk factor that might otherwise have prevented them from considering the brand.
 
When Cazoo launched in the UK in 2018, it represented a revolutionary way to buy a used car. Customers choose from a wide selection of cars on the brand’s website. Once purchased, the car is delivered to their door. If the customer is not happy with the car for any reason, they can return it within seven days without penalty. Cazoo won a Silver IPA Effectiveness Award in 2022 for its advertising. The campaign explained the purchase process and reassured customers who may have been too nervous to buy a car without seeing it or taking a test drive.
 
PROVE COMPETITIVE SUPERIORITY
 
If your product is genuinely superior to your competitors and you have a convincing way to prove it, you should consider communicating this through advertising. Pepsi found that in blind taste tests involving a few sips, their brand was preferred to Coke. They highlighted this through a series of ads during the 1980s.
 
Advertising for kitchen paper brand Plenty has featured a Spanish character called 'Juan Sheet’ who uses just 'one sheet’ of Plenty to mop up a spill that would cause inferior kitchen papers to disintegrate.
 
Duracell wasn’t the first alkaline battery available in the UK, but it was the first to demonstrate their superiority over traditional carbon batteries. They did this using a TV ad in 1973 featuring a fluffy, pink, battery-powered rabbit toy that played a drum. The toy powered by Duracell kept going six times longer than several identical toys foolishly relying on carbon batteries. Duracell’s competitor, Energizer, later acquired the rights to use the bunny in its North American advertising.
 
VISUALIZE UNSEEN FEATURES/BENEFITS
 
Product demonstrations are particularly powerful for brands whose advantages are normally invisible to the consumer. Household appliance manufacturer Dyson sells products that are functionally superior to competitors thanks to its unique technology. Dyson uses stylish visualizations to show what’s special about its technology to help convince consumers that its products are worth paying more for.
 
For many years, Dove cleansing bar was unique because a quarter of its ingredients comprised moisturising cream. The brand used an animated sequence in its advertising showing the moisturiser being poured into the bar to help people remember what made the brand special.
 
Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate uses something similar. The Second World War resulted in food rationing in the UK between 1940 and 1954. Cadbury’s promise of providing nutrition from cocoa fats, sugar and milk was highly relevant during this period. The healthiness of milk has remained a component of the brand’s identity ever since. The brand still talks about containing 'a glass and a half of fresh milk in every half pound’ and uses a visual to reinforce this message in its advertising and on its packaging.
 
DRAMATIZE A STRENGTH
 
Advertising can take a strength of the brand, and make it seem important. The trick is to make the advantage tangible and easy to imagine. This technique is widely used and effective.
 
In 1886, Levi’s introduced a logo featuring two horses trying to pull apart a pair of Levi's jeans. It was designed to symbolize the strength and robustness of their jeans. Other advertisers have successfully brought the strengths of their brand to life in similar ways. In 1978, wallpaper adhesive brand Solvite stuck a man to a panel via his overalls before using a helicopter to lift the panel and fly it with the man still attached. More recently Mous, a brand of durable cases for smartphones and tablets, produced a series of videos for social media and TV to dramatize the damage protection provided by their products. In their first TV ad, 50 passers-by were given Mous cases for their phones, which were filmed being thrown high up and landing on hard paving. None of the phones were damaged – to the relief of the participants and delight of the advertiser.
 
CONVEY PRODUCT’S ACTION VIA METAPHOR
 
Metaphors are a great way to communicate your brand’s benefit in a memorable way. UK breakfast cereal Ready Brek grew rapidly during the 1970s and 80s thanks to its campaign known as 'Central Heating for Kids’. In the ads, children who had eaten Ready Brek porridge in the morning are shown having an orange glow around them, keeping them warm as they walk to school in the cold. Several pharmaceutical brands have developed their own visual metaphors to bring the benefits of their products alive in their advertising. Gaviscon advertising, for example, shows miniature cartoon firemen hosing the product in the oesophagus and stomach of a heartburn sufferer, alleviating the pain.