COMM 320 Test #2 Study Guide: FALL 2025

COMM 320 Test #2 Study Guide

Coverage Details

• Test #2 will encompass materials from seven class dates:- Tuesday, September 16: Slides posted

  • Tuesday, September 23: Slides posted

  • Thursday, September 25: Slides posted

  • Tuesday, September 30: Slides posted

  • Thursday, October 2: Slides posted

  • Tuesday, October 7: Slides posted

  • Thursday, October 9: Slides posted

• Additionally, there is one reading assignment.

Human Truth

• Human truth is described as a fundamental aspect of human nature and behavior. For instance:- The insight that teens rebel against authority informed the creation of the Truth anti-smoking campaign, which emphasizes, "Don’t get played while big tobacco gets paid."

  • The understanding that hunger leads to irritability is illustrated through the famous Snickers advertisement featuring the tagline, "You’re not you when you’re hungry."

Qualitative Research

• Defined as research that seeks to provide insights into consumer motivations—aiming to discover why consumers think, feel, and act in certain ways.

• Qualitative research questions should typically avoid “yes” or “no” answers.

• Focus Groups: Developed by Robert Merton in the 1940s, they generate qualitative data through open-ended questions, enabling respondents to express their thoughts in their own words.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

• Know how to calculate the Net Promoter Score for a brand:- Formula: ext{NPS} = ext{% thumbs up} - ext{% thumbs down}

• Example Calculation: In a Net Promoter Score survey for Urban Decay, if there are 20% detractors, 10% passives, and 70% promoters, the NPS would be calculated as:- $ext{Urban Decay NPS} = 70 - 20 = 50$

Sentiment Analysis

• Sentiment analysis involves applying a mathematical formula to assess online mentions of a brand, products, and competitors.

• It categorizes comments as positive, neutral, or negative in nature.

Likert Scale Survey

• Know the advantages of conducting a Likert Scale survey. Likert scales are employed to measure attitudes and opinions, offering greater accuracy than simple yes/no questions.

Marketing Analytics

• Analytics is the practice of identifying patterns in data to describe, predict, and improve marketing performance.

Strategic Planning

• Defined as the process of identifying a communication problem that can be solved through targeted messaging.

• Its purpose is to determine how a brand can effectively compete in the marketplace.

• Strategic planning takes place in a complex business environment and includes four levels:1. The Business Plan: Directs the overall operation of the company or business unit, stating its mission and goals.

  2. The Marketing Plan: Developed specifically for a brand or product line with a focus on identifying major problems.

Six Steps of the Marketing Plan

1. Situation Analysis: Involves SWOT and PESTLE analysis.

2. Setting Objectives: Typically pertaining to sales figures and market share.

3. Assessing Consumer Wants and Needs: This relates specifically to product segmentation.

4. Developing Brand Strategy: This includes differentiating and positioning the product against competitors.

5. Developing Marketing Mix Strategy.

6. Implementation of Tactics: Executes specific marketing efforts.

SWOT Analysis

• Goal: Determine the most significant problem a brand faces that communications can solve:- Strengths: Internal factors indicating what the brand excels at.

  • Weaknesses: Internal factors indicating areas for improvement.

  • Opportunities: External factors that could benefit the company.

  • Threats: External factors that could harm the company.

• PESTLE Analysis: Part of the SWOT Analysis that evaluates external factors; PESTLE stands for:- Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental factors.

Marketing Strategy Development

• A pivotal aspect of creating a marketing plan is formulating the strategy:- Defined as the claim or promise made to consumers about the value of a product.

• Reference the article titled “Got Milk?” for examples of ineffective strategies and successful ones.

Visual Communications

• Generally more effective at retaining attention compared to text-based content.

• People tend to remember visuals more easily than words.

• Typography: The art and technique of arranging type to enhance legibility, readability, and visual appeal.

Font Selection Considerations

• Readability: The ease of reading text.

• Style Match: The font should align with the brand image, personality, and message.

• Traditional vs Modern Image.

• Should function well in both all caps and mixed case.

• Needs to align with the logos and thematic phrases of the company.

• Proxima Nova: A popular sans serif font known for its readability, used by over 25,000 websites.

Kerning, Tracking, and Line Spacing

• Kerning: Adjusting the distance between two characters.

• Tracking: Adjusting the distance between groups of characters (e.g., letters in a headline).

• Line Spacing: Adjusting the space between lines, significantly affecting readability.

Understanding Color

• Color results from light reflecting off an object:- Unseen colors are absorbed, and perceived colors are reflected.

• The three properties of color:1. Hue: The identifiable name of a color (e.g., red, yellow, blue).

  2. Intensity: The vividness or saturation of a color.

  3. Value: The lightness or darkness of a color. Shade and tint indicate variations in value.

• Primary Colors: Red, yellow, blue; they can be mixed to produce other colors. Secondary colors come from mixing primary colors.

• Emotional Implications of Color: Each color has different emotional connotations:- Blue: Conveys trust.

  • Green: Suggests harmony.

  • Red: Represents boldness.

• Child Color Perception: Primary colors appeal to young children due to their visibility as their vision develops.

Principles of Design

• Principles are established rules to follow for effective communication through design. The seven principles of design include:1. Emphasis

  2. Balance and Alignment

  3. Contrast

  4. Repetition

  5. Proportion

  6. Movement

  7. White Space (also known as negative space)

• Advertising Goals: Advertisements must simultaneously entertain and convey a marketing strategy.

Product Features and Benefits

• Features refer to traits or specifications of a product, such as:- Attributes, ingredients, parts, or operational times.

• Benefits: The value or advantage the consumer derives from a feature.

• Clients often find it challenging to decide on a singular benefit to communicate, leading to the use of creative briefs.

Creative Brief Questionnaire

To assist clients in defining their strategy, a creative brief typically includes six questions:

1. Why are we advertising? (Identify the marketing problem to solve)

2. Who are we talking to? (Define the target market)

3. What do they currently think? (Understand brand perception today)

4. What do we want them to think? (Vision for brand perception in the future)

5. What are we promising? (Promise consumers value they care about)

6. Why should they believe us? (Support claims with credible details)

• Questions 3 and 4 pertain to destination planning, which aims to define a brand’s future vision and identify barriers to achieving it.

Copywriting as Communication

• Copywriting is defined as non-fiction prose that supports a specific viewpoint. The five principles of effective prose and advertisement copy are:

1. Voice: Reflecting the brand’s personality through language.

2. Details: Incorporation of specifics rather than vague descriptions.

3. Style: Ensures form is congruent with content; avoids overwriting.

4. Thesis: Presence of a central unifying idea in the text.

5. Organization: The clarity of message structure, comprising a clear beginning, middle, and end.

Headline Techniques

• Six techniques for constructing impactful headlines include:

1. Parallelism: Maintaining identical grammatical forms for elements expressing related thoughts.

2. Misdirection: Employing surprise twists in storytelling.

3. Repetition: Reinforcing words or phrases in messaging.

4. Opposition: Using contrasting words to create drama and impact, including visual dramatization by showing contrary actions in broadcasts.

5. Omission: Leaving out elements of the headline to engender intrigue.

6. Puns: Using words or phrases that create multiple meanings.

Storytelling and Campaign Development

• The essence of storytelling in marketing hinges upon conflict. A storyboard is a visual tool employed in developing television commercials, outlining key actions and frames.

Strategic Approaches in Campaigns

• Seven strategic approaches can be used in creating marketing campaigns:- Four Product-Oriented Approaches:

  1. Generic Claim: Marketing the product category rather than a specific brand. Example: "Got Milk?" campaign promoting milk consumption generally, not a specific dairy brand.

  2. Product Feature: Focusing on specific product attributes, appealing to rational decision-making. Example: A car advertisement highlighting its exceptional fuel efficiency of 50 MPG.

  3. USP (Unique Selling Proposition): Highlighting a distinctive benefit associated with the brand. *Example: Domino's old slogan, "You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less, or it's free."

  4. Positioning: Establishing the perceived position of a product relative to competitors. Example: Volvo positioning itself as the safest car brand.

  • Three Consumer-Oriented Approaches:

  1. Brand Image: Crafting and promoting a brand personality. Example: Nike's "Just Do It" campaign associated with athletic achievement and overcoming challenges.

  2. Lifestyle: Aligning the product with a specific lifestyle. Example: Red Bull associating its product with extreme sports and adventurous lifestyles.

  3. Attitude: Associating the brand with a particular state of mind or emotional appeal. Example: Apple's "Think Different" campaign appealing to creativity and non-conformity.

Media Planning Challenges

• A major challenge in media planning is audience fragmentation, due to the vast array of media alternatives available to consumers.

• Key terms related to media planning include:- Rating: The percentage of all TV households tuned into a show, regardless of whether the TV is turned on.

  • Share: The percentage of televisions in use at a specific time that is tuned into a particular program.

• Programmatic Advertising: Utilizes machine learning to automate the buying and selling of ad inventory in real-time, ensuring optimal target reach for advertisements based on precise timing and pricing.

Media Basics

• Media planners typically define media based on four categories—PESO:1. Paid Media: Advertisers purchase ad space or imprints.

  2. Earned Media: Public relations efforts leading to free media representation, such as press mentions.

  3. Shared Media: Content shared on social media platforms, reflecting public engagement, which the company cannot control.

  4. Owned Media: Channels owned by the company, including websites, blogs, and other corporate communications platforms.