ADVERTISING RESEARCH

Importance OfAdvertising Research

• 1983- American business spent- $73 Billion

• Definition:– Advertising research is the systematic

gathering and analysis of information to help develop or evaluate advertising strategies, ads and commercials, and media campaigns. A subset of marketing research.

Types of Advertising Research

• Setting advertising objectives:– Payout in terms of sales or profit, or both

• Deciding upon the message– Try to analyze effect of copy on target

segments• Presentation of message• Deciding upon the copy• Headlines• Pictures• Situations

Types of Advertising Research contd..

• Choosing appropriate vehicles – Examples of vehicles like:

• Newspapers, Radio, Magazines, Television, Billboards- or some combination thereof– If you choose- Radio or Television– (1) Then Decide-

• What program?• What day of week?• What time of the day?

– (2) Assumptions made-• No. of people to be reached• Type of people forming the market• Desired frequency of message receipts by selected audiences• Periodicity with which the message should be received• Context in which the message can best be presented

– (1)+(2)= Can be researched• Advertising Research uses most of the techniques of Marketing Research

Flow Of Advertising Research

• Advertising objectives and product appeals

• Copy testing

• Selection of media

Advertising objectives and product appeals

• Attitude maintenance or shift as a measure of advertising effectiveness has grown in importance– Attitude of the individuals depends

• On the product attributes • On their perceptions of the extent to which different brands posses the

desired attributes• Measuring the attitudes of target audiences toward products and

then attempting to determine the effect of advertising on those attitudes

• Advertisers must evaluate attitudes towards – Their product’s salient characteristics– Those of competing brands

• Assumption- Attitudes are predictors of behavior• Goal of Advertising- Attempting to alter the attitudes of consumers

toward a specific brand

Copy Testing

Copy testing:- Evaluation of alternative ways for advertisers to present their

messages.

“Copy” refers to an entire advertisement, including the verbal message, pictures, colors, and dramatizations, whether the advertisement appears in print, on radio or television, or some other medium.

Copy Testing

• Two types:“Before” tests (made before the copy is

released on a full run basis)

The objective is to make improvements in the advertising copy prior to full run release of the advertising.

“After” tests (applied after the copy is run)

Copy Testing / “Before” tests

• Consumer Jury.

• Rating Scales.

• Portfolio Tests.

• Psychological Tests.

• Physiological Tests.

• Inquiries.

• Sales Tests.

• Day-after recall Tests.

Copy Testing / “Before” tests

• Consumer Jury:- Oldest & simplest test.- Personal interview may be used or a group may be assembled & asked to vote on an alternative based on their preferences, interests, or influences to buy the product .

- Provides a “rating” given by a group of consumers who may represent potential buyers of the product.

- Assumption: The respondent must like at least one advertisement.

e.g. : analyzing T.V. programs and commercials by using Program Analyzer.

Copy Testing / “Before” tests• Rating Scales:

– Requires the establishment of standards for effective copy and numerical weights for each standard.

– Ads are then “rated” in accordance with the scale values and a numerical score is obtained.

Advantage: – Provides a list against which to check an ad & helps

to single out the elements that are good or bad.

Disadvantages: – Different judges will rate the ad differently.

Copy Testing / “Before” tests

• Portfolio Tests:– Sometimes the ad is placed in dummy copies

of newspapers or magazines.– A group of ads, usually a mixture of test ads

and control ads, is placed in a portfolio.• Physiological Tests:

– Tests are obtained using special laboratory equipments which record an individuals physiological responses to ads.

e.g.-Galvanic skin response, Eye movement test, Pupillometer.

Copy Testing / “Before” tests

• Psychological Tests:– A list of reactions like self pity, security, fear

or nostalgia is set up.– Alternative ads are then rated on how readers

respond w.r.t those reactions. – A no. of techniques including word

association, sentence completion, depth interview & story telling are adopted.

– Difficult to implement, since skilled interviewers are required

Copy Testing / “Before” tests• Inquiries:

– The same offer may be placed in different pieces of copy which are placed in different issues of the same medium. The offers are so keyed that they can be traced to the specific ad copy.

Assumption: all other factors remain constant between issues the difference between the no. of inquiries received should indicate the “pulling” power of the copy.

– The same offer is placed in different ad copy which appears in magazines or papers.

Assumption: The difference between media are either negligible or can corrected for & that the adjusted returns will reflect the best copy.

– The same offer is placed in a medium which provides a split run service.

Copy Testing / “Before” tests

• Sales tests– Sales tests are a useful measure of

advertising effectiveness when advertising is the dominant element, or the only variable, in the company's marketing plan. Sales response may not be immediate and sales tests, particularly field studies, are often costly and time-consuming.

Copy Testing / “Before” tests

• Day-after recall Tests:– Research method that tests consumers'

memories the day after they have seen an ad, to assess the ad's effectiveness.

Copy Testing / “After” tests

• After tests– Once the ad is run, it’s impossible to measure

the effects of the message separately.

– Recall test

– Recognition test

Media selection

• The goal of the advertiser is to select a media schedule from among many available alternatives which will maximize some combination of number of people reached and frequency with which they are reached.

Problems in media selection

• It’s not sufficient to select the major media, you also need to make specific selections within these general types of media.

• Character of media has to be considered before selecting it as it has great influence on effectiveness of the advertisement.

Contribution of media vehicle to effectiveness of advertisement:

• Vehicle distribution

• Vehicle exposure

• Advertising exposure

• Advertising perception

• Advertising communication

Problem of audience measurement:

• Variation in composition and sizes of audience of given media vehicle.

• Variation due to geography• Variation due to rate at which different vehicles

accumulate audiences• Difficulty of estimating value of different sizes of

message units within and between media.• Estimating actual geographical area covered.

Media scheduling

• Need for media scheduling– Advertising is forgotten over time.– Also continuous advertising may add to unnecessary

expenditure.– Increase in advertising weight produces sharp rise in

sales, which declines even though advertising is maintained over a period of time.

• Conclusion– Empirical evidence stemmed from field studies gives

strong support for cyclic pulsation.

Media Audience

• Print Media

Individuals who say they have seen one or more major editorial features

• Radio &Television

Sets tuned to program or number of people listening or watching

Print Media

How does one define a reader?

The typical method,recognition, defines reader as individuals who are exposed to any of the editorial contents of the particular issue.

Respondents are classified on the basis of whether they “claim” to have read any of the editorial content of a particular issue.

How to measure better the readership

• Editorial interest

-Major magazines

-A respondent is declared a reader only when he or she affirms having prior exposure to the issue.

• Recent reading

-smaller monthly magazines

Issues!

• When to interview the respondents

-To interview “early” means that someone who will read the issue “later” will be excluded.

-To interview “late” means some who were exposed will forget.

• What issue to study.

• Order effects.

Radio & Television

Measurement of Audience 1.Coincidental Method

Advantages

Speed and Cost

Disadvantages

Only homes with Telephone.

Total audience not know.

Calls limited to certain Hours

2.Roster Call-This is a technique which consists of aided recall via personal interview.

3.Audimeter-Meter attached to the T.V sets-Records to what station it is tuned to.

Disadvantage- A set that is “on” does not indicate it is being viewed.-Nor does it indicate who is viewing.

4.Diary Method

-Respondents record in a specially

designed diary their radio or T.V

listening.