BATA: FINAL

Week 15: Bata Final

Advertising: Project 4 (40%) Bata (Power: men's and women's shoes)

With the completion of Project 1, 2 & 3 you have gained empirical knowledge of Bernbach’s principles in advertising and the role and functions of an advertising art director. In the process, you have developed a basic understanding of advertising strategy, which you will further develop as you embark on Project 4.

Bata shoes first store opened in the Capitol Building, Singapore in 1930. In July the same year, Tomas Bata had established Bata Shoe Company Limited to carry on the business as manufacturers, distributors and marketers of footwear, as well as dealers in leather and rubber goods. Five years later, a factory was built in Klang, Selangor to produce PVC injected footwear for both domestic and overseas markets.

Bata is synonymous with affordable shoes of good quality, and seems to be a popular choice amongst the working class Malaysians. In order to cater to a wider market segment Bata has created different branded products e.g.: Marie Claire, North Star, Weinbrenner, Power, school shoes and others.

For the purpose of this project, your focus will be limited to Bata's Power brand of shoes (sports sneakers) for women and men. Your task is to identify the market segment, research competitor strategies, develop a distinct strategy upon which the visual and copy direction will be based on. As part of Project 4's requirement, the advertisement created must be copy heavy and typographically intensive. Visuals can be used to enhance and support the copy. (Examples have been furnished in the Facebook Group). 

The type of print media used must be determined based on sound reasoning; research, strategy and target segment. Upon completion of the print media, the ad needs to be translated into a TVC (Television or Online Commercial). The TVC ad must be based on the same strategy and consist of the same Ad/Campaign message. 

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Resource in Bata:

https://www.behance.net/gallery/16208835/Bata-Shoe-Museum-rebranding

http://www.bata.com

Deadline: Week 15 (28th April 2016)

Assessment Plan

Project 04 (40% Summative)

20% STRATEGY

10% Strategy: Research Strategy (Client strategy, Market Segment Study/Identification, Competitor Strategies)

10% Strategy: Direction & Communication Strategy (Copy/Visual Message & Media)

20% CAMPAIGN

10% Communication

10% Art Direction

Marking Criteria 

STRATEGY 20% 

Research strategy (10%)

There must be evidence of research on the client and competitors current marketing and advertising strategies. The targeted consumer must be clearly identified and described (using behavioral, demographic, psychographic and geographic segmentation would be an advantage). The journey from start to finish must be methodically documented and dated. Oral or written Feedback must be documented on a week by week basis. The written reflections must be clear, concise, revealing and insightful.

Direction & Communication Strategy (10%)

There must be visible evidence of exploration of a number of different strategies using mind maps, sketches, thoughts and epiphanies on the basis of the outcome of the research strategy. The exploration should result in a distinctive strategy that relates to the targeted consumer segment. The developed strategy needs to set the brand apart from its competitors within that market segment.

CAMPAIGN 20%

Communication (10%)

The message needs to be creative, clear and concise. The message has to be truthful and not gimmicky. The message must be unique in order to stand out from the rest of the competitors. The message must have a sense of personality that relates to, or reflects the target audience.

Art Direction (10%)

Art direction here refers to the visual and copy "style" for the overall design. The crafting of the visual and copy must reflect good composition, appropriate choice of typeface & visual, hierarchy in communication, appropriate choice of colour and a synergy of style between visual and copy. Good art direction (visual & copy style) will reflect strong proficiency in the use of relevant software to realize the style sought after. Good art direction (layout, visual & copy style) must consist of the detailing that is involved in the creation of the advertisement.

Strategies & Ideas

Copy:

• It's my OUCH first Sports Day. I'm so excited i can barely OUCH still. There's mum and dad cheering OUCH there. I hope I can beat OUCH the others. Oh no, we're about OUCH start! Time to do the ready-set-GO! Wheee... I'm OUCH in front. Uh oh, she's catching up! Is OUCH Mum screaming my name? Wow, I'm so close. Just a OUCH more... YAY, I WON! I turn and see Daddy taking a picture OUCH me at the finish line. I'm so excited, this is OUCH best day ever!

         Don't let precious memories get tainted.

• It's my OUCH first Sports Day. I'm so excited i can barely OUCH still. There's mum and dad cheering OUCH there. I hope I can beat OUCH the others. Oh no, we're about OUCH start! Time to do the ready-set-GO! Wheee... I'm OUCH in front. Uh oh, Jay's catching up! Is OUCH Mum screaming my name? She's telling me OUCH go faster! Wow, Jay's so close OUCH me now. Ahh, run faster OUCH catch up before I lose... OH NO, JAY WON! I stop OUCH the finish line, turn and see Daddy smiling and taking a picture OUCH me. I'm so sad, this should have OUCH best day ever...

         Don't let precious memories get tainted.

Strategy:

I wanted to illicit an emotional reaction while at the same time steering clear of the stereotypical ads of this nature. The strategy was not planned, but rather came to me in a brainwave after 1 wrote the first copy and let my mind wander. I had first thought of just writing the copy like that of a child reminiscing of his/her first sports day and then subtly link the 'memory' with the Power shoes. Later, I thought why not take a slightly negative approach and make it seem like the memory was laced with pain. I toyed with the idea of adding elements that would psychologically link to pain, but I felt that it might be a little too subtle and I wasn't sure if it was something I could accomplish graphically. As I was imagining the advert's story, I hit me that when we're thinking and we're in pain, our internal voice verbalizes everything. Therefore I could just replace some of the words with 'OUCH' to depict that same internal voice. This idea stuck with me as I felt it was relevant, bold, memorable, as well as something people could relate to. The latter as I'm sure everyone has experienced nasty and annoying shoe bite at least once.

I also liked Mr. Vinod's idea of altering the story so that the child loses the race, as it reinforces the need for good shoes.

I decided that I would like the advertisement to be placed in one of the backlit poster display cases in popular places such as malls, train stations, and parks. The reasoning behind this is to maximize visibility to the relevant crowd. I also felt that placing it in places where people are walking, most likely tired and aching, would help the ad message resonate.

In deciding whether or not to use an image in the ad, I had to reflect and imagine what would help the direction and message of the advert. In the end, I decided that as visual creatures, an accompanying image would increase attention-grabbing power and if done correctly, reinforce it's message. As the copy is that of a memory, I decided I would need an image that matches that. I narrowed it down to either having a child with a thought bubble or just making the ad look like a diary entry. I connected more with it being a diary entry, especially as it would be gender neutral and each person would imagine their own version of a child. These are what I found relevant as the paper background:

Drafts

As there was no indication of shoes anywhere in the text, I added "Sport Shoes" under the Power logo.

I attempted to see if I could create a paper-like look by adding the underlines.

I finally managed to fix what was causing the images to be exported smaller and longer.

The text was justified to test if it looked better that way

Finally managed to alter the background image to sync with the text. 

I added the torn part from a spiral notebook as a final touch to add some character. 

Final Submission

Media: Poster

Location: Public areas and spaces (parks, train stations, malls)

Size: 16.54" × 23.39"
Fonts: San Serif Raleway Black, Kate the Great, Rockwell Extra Bold

Feedback

Reflection:

Experience

For this project, I really hadn't thought that I would be able to come up with a advertisement that even I found up to par. The first two weeks I was completely stumped as to where this would go. But I really am very satisfied with the final product and I look forward to the feedback on it.

Observation

As I have been using CorelDraw X3 for this project, despite being familiar with Illustrator, I have numerous times gotten stuck in looking for the right tool and whatnot. But I really should not have judged the internet merely because I hadn't heard of CorelDraw before. It was extemely beneficial in bridging the gap in knowledge. 

Findings

Upon starting this project and seeing sample copy's, I was concerned mainly because I felt that people these days aren't as much into reading as they used to me. I had thought that people may see the ad, glance through the first line of text and then move on. So my main struggle was figuring out a copy that would not be subject to that. I like that I came up with a copy that is a lot like a story, as I have found that people don't like reading stories mid way. Psychologically, us humans like complete thoughts, hence why we make assumptions. When faced with this copy, it is my hope that once they pick up the first line and identify it as a story, they would stop to read it to the end.