Download Advertising – Research

Advertising – Research
It serves the following purposes :
• Arriving at an appropriate positioning decision for brand
• Help select target market, Advertising message & Media Vehicle
• Creative Concept Research
• Pre-testing of ads
• Post-testing of ads.
Research Objectives : The advertiser has to find out :
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Who are the customers ?
Who are the customers of the competing brands ?
What do these customers like and dislike about the company’s brand
and the competitor’s brands?
What must we do to clarify and improve the customer’s existing
perceptions ?
The Research process :
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Problem Definition
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Exploratory or Informal Research
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Determining research objectives
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Research design
 Sampling Methods and Sample size
 Scaling
 Date Collection
 Analytical Tools
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Data Collection
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Data Tabulation and Analysis
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Interpretation, Conclusions and Reporting
Advertising Research
Strategic (Background information
gathering process that enhances the
design at a creative stage
Evaluative
(Go, No Go decisions about finished Ads)
Data Collection
Pre- Campaign
Organizations
Mid- Campaign
Strategy
Post-campaign
Data Collection
Secondary
• NRS
• IRS
• Internet
• AC Nielson
• ORG-MARG
• Published source
• Govt. Organisation
Primary
• Information from the study
conducted by the org./ agency
Organisation
Data obtained to be organised as Quantitative
and qualitative information by
the account player for developing
a meaningful strategy document
Strategy Document
Account planning deptt. prepares this
document for agency’s
creative deptt. is called
Creative Brief.
Major parts of this document are :
• Marketing objective
• The Product
• The target audience
• Benefits and Characteristics
• Brand personality
Evaluative
Pre-campaign
• Define copy platform or theme
• Pre-test proposed ad.
• Plan the Media Schedule
Physiological measures :
Eye movement tracking
Pupillometer
Psychogalvnometer
The Tachistoscope
The electro encephalograph (EEG)
Mid-Campaign
• Coincidental surveys
• Attitude test
• Tracking studies (Measuring Actual
behaviour)
• Wave analysis
• Consumer diaries
• Pantry checks
• Single-source tracking
Post-Campaign
• To check return on advertising
• To compare and Measure achievement of advertising objectives
Tests used are
 Memory Tests
 Persuasion Tests
 Direct Response counts
 Frame by Frame Tests
 In-Market tests
 Brand Tracking
(ii) During Execution : Concurrent Testing
3 Techniques
Coincidental Surveys
Attitude Tests
Tracking Studies
Evaluate actual
Behavior
Assessing Communication
Effectiveness
a. Coincidental Survey : Broadcast Media
• Random call are made to individuals in the target market
• By discovering what stations or shows people are seeing or
hearing, the advertiser can determine whether the target
audience is getting the message.
• If so, what info. or meaning the audience members receive.
b. Attitude Tests
•
Researchers Survey individuals who were exposed to the ad,
asking questions about the spokesperson, the tone of the ad, its
wording.
• Results that show strong negative attitudes scores may prompt the
advertiser to pull out an ad. immediately.
C. Tracking Studies : Studies that follows the purchase activity of
a specific consumer or groups of consumers over a specified
period of time.
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Tracking studies evaluate copy and Media and changes in sales
Methods of tracking data
Wave Analysis : A series of interviews during a campaign
• Tracking begins with a set of questions asked from a random sample
on predetermined date.
• First question qualify a person who has seen or heard the ad.
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A series of questions follow. The answers serve as a benchmark
for acceptability and allow adjustments in the message content,
media choice and timing.
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Two months later, the researcher makes another series of random
calls and asks the same questions.
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The second wave is compared with the first.
Consumer Diaries : Advertisers ask a group of representative
consumers to keep a diary during a campaign.
• The consumer records activities – brand switches, media usage, brand
purchased, use of coupons and exposure to competitive promotions.
• Advertiser reviews these diaries and determine factors such as
whether the message is reaching right target audience and the audience
is responding to the message as intended.
Pantry checks :
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Provides same info. as the diary method but requires little from the
consumer.
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A researcher goes to homes in the target market and asks what
brands or products have been purchased.
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Researcher counts the products or brands currently stocked by the
consumer.
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The consumer may also be asked to keep empty packages.
Single-Source tracking : (with the help of scanners and computer
technique) using data and electronic media, researcher shows
causal relationship between advertising and sales.
•Researcher makes a consumer panel (volunteer consumers)
•Issued with a card (Id. No.) which is given to checkout clerk in
each purchase.
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Participants (cable subscribers) are split into two matched groups
with each group receiving a different version of TV ad.
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Meters record participant’s TV viewing. What they saw, how long
and what they saw.
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The advertiser controls all the print advertising, coupon distribution,
and other marketing communication activities that the participants
see. Researchers therefore know what influences a household’s
decision to buy or not to buy.
(iii) After Execution :
Most Evaluative research occurs after the ad has run because
businesses are most concerned with the bottom line. Various
research techniques used are :
(a) Memory Tests : Based on the assumption that an Ad. leaves a
mental residue with the person who has been exposed to it. It is
measured by contacting the consumers and find out what they
remember about it. 2 type of tests : Recall test and Recognition
Recall Tests : A finished commercial is run on network TV within a
regular prime-time program. The next evening, interviews in 3 or 4 cities
make thousands of random phone calls until they have contacted few
hundred people who were watching the program at the exact time the
commercial appeared.
Then interviewer asks some questions about commercial.
Day After Recall
• Unaided Recall (Brand not mentioned)
• Aided Recall
Recognition Test : The advertisement is shown to the people and they
are asked whether they remember having seen it before.
It was first used to evaluate print ads.
(b) Persuasions Test : or attitude change test – Consumers are
first asked how likely they are to buy a specific brand. Next they
are exposed to an advertisement for that brand. After exposure,
researchers again ask them what they intend to purchase.
The researcher analyzes the results to determine whether
intention to buy has increased as a result of exposure to the
advertisement.
(c) Direct – Response Counts – Are ads that contain elements that can
be returned. Some TV commercials request direct response via a toll-free
numbers, a coupon, web site or an after embedded in the body copy
(print Ad.)
•Responses to these requests provide direct measures of effectiveness,
the advertiser simply counts the No. of viewers or readers who request
more information or buy the products.
(d) Frame-by-Frame Tests : While a TV commercial unfolds,
viewers’ responses to the commercial change as they view each part of
it.
• Researchers have tried to track those changes in several different
ways.
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Viewers turn a dial or press Nos. on an electronic keypad to indicate
their moment-to-moment reactions to what they are seeing on the
screen.
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That procedure produces a trace – a continuous record of ups and
downs. When the trace is correlated with the commercial frame by
frame, it provides on record of which parts of the commercial
increased attention (or liking or whatever is being measured) and
which parts reduced it.
(e) In-Market Tests : Tests that evaluate ads. by measuring their
influence on sales are known as in-market tests. Sales impact
measurement might appear to be the only measurement an advertiser
should accept.
Practical difficulty in this test are many. Because of the
interrelationship and many factors, the effect of any single. Ad. is
extremely difficult to defect.
(f) Brand Tracking : Tracking the brand is more important than the Ad.
Advertising
Registers
Ad Response
Brand Response
Brand Commitment
Sales Response
Sales Response
Direct Behavioral response
Persuasion : Communicate
a reason why
Persuasion
Beliefs about brand benefits
enhanced
Involvement
Involve audience ‘s
imagination
Involvement
Close identification with
brand values
Salience
Stand out as different
Salience
Sense of something happening
(i) Evaluative Research : Before – Execution
Variety of techniques are used in conjunction with the actual
creation of the ad.
These techniques are attempts to connect with general
components of an effective ad and the stated objectives for
that particular ad.
(A) Message Development Research
• Although facts play an important role in many advertising campaigns,
they are always filtered through and evaluated against a system of
ideas, experiences, prejudices, memories of past successes and
failures, hierarchical relationship and tastes and preferences within
the advertiser’s own company and within the advertising agency.
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As art directors and writers begin working on a specific creative
project they almost always conduct at least some informal research
of their own.
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They may talk to friends, or even stranger who might be in the target
audience. They may visit retail stores, talk to salespeople and watch
people buy. Visit info. Centre, browse through reference books and
borrow subjects and picture files.
• They would look at previous advertising (esp. competition’s) to see
what others have done and they become convinced that they are able
to create something better than and different from, anything that has
been done before.
• This informal, personal research has a powerful influence on what
happens later in advertising process.
• Strategic research and message development research work hand in
hand.
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The advertiser starts by developing alternative message ideas or
creative concepts.
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The team responsible for evaluative research then determines
which creative concept is best. Anyone engaged in the creative
process can request this type of feedback.
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Feedback may occur several times during the creative process,
but eventually the ad. will reach a somewhat finished stage called
comprehensive (comps), or the story board stage where the ad.
has its final artwork and copy. It is at this stage/point that
feedback is sought from members of the target audience.
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The evaluative process has become more structured, follows a set
procedure, and must respond to certain considerations.
These are :
i.
Methods of contact : There are a variety of ways to contact
consumers when conducting evaluation research. The contact can
be in person, by telephone, by mail or through internet. These are
done in malls or other market area.
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Survey Research : Most useful in conducting message evaluation
research
iii Observation Research : Take researchers into natural settings
where they record the behavior of consumers. It reveals what
people actually do.
(iv)Cognitive Psychology and the use of Metaphor : Some
researchers believe that consumers’ wants and needs are so
deeply embedded in their brains that language becomes an
insufficient communication tool, so researchers turn to
metaphor.
• Cognitive psychologists have learned that beings think in
images, not words. But most research uses words to ask
questions and obtain answers.
(v) Content Analysis of Competing Ads :
• In preparation for a new campaign, agency researchers or account
executives often conduct systematic audits of competitor’s
advertisement.
• These audits might include only informal summaries of the slogans,
appeals and images used most often, or they might include more
formal and systematic tabulation of competitors approaches and
strategies.
• The basic question is,
“what are competitors doing and how can we do it
better?”
(vi) Readability Tests: An ad. must be readable before it is set in
final form.
The length of the words and sentences and the impersonality of
the writing are some of the elements that influence readability.
Short words and short sentences make for easier reading.
(vii) Test Marketing : A test market might be used to test some elements
of an ad. or a media mix in two or more potential markets.
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The test markets should be representative of the target market.
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In a typical test market, one or more of the test cities serve as controls
while the others are the test.
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In the control markets the researcher can either (a) run no advertising
or (b) continue to run the old ad.
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New Ad. is used in test cities.
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Before, during and after the advertising is run, sales results in the
test cities are compared by checking inventories in selected stores.
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In addition, test markets can measure communication variables such
as recall, awareness, and correct message interpretation.
(B) Physiological Measures :
Advertisers have experimented with assessing people's physical
reactions to Ad. concepts before the ad. is run. Some of the
techniques are :
(i) Eye Movement Tracking : Participants are asked to look at a
print or TV commercial while a sensor aims a beam of infrared
light at their eyes.
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A portion of the light reflected by the cornea is detected by the same
sensor, which electronically measures the angle between the beam
reflected by the cornea and the centre of the eye’s pupil.
• This info. can be processed to show the exact spot in the ad or on the
TV screen where the eye is focused, indicating what the participant is
looking at and for how long.
(ii) The Pupillomter : This device measure pupil size when a person is
exposed to a visual stimulus such as an Ad. or a package. The assumption
is that pupil size increases with interest.
(iii) Psychogalvanometer : It is part of the lie detector apparatus.
• 2 Zinc electrodes are attached to the subject, one on the palm of the
hand and the other on the forearm.
• When the subject is exposed to an ad, emitted perspiration on the palm
results in lower electrical resistance, which is recorded on a revolving
drum. This suggests an emotional response has occurred.
(iv) The Tachistoscope : This device controls exposure to a print
message so that different parts of the ad. can be shown without
revealing the other parts.
• That way, the tester can tell at what point each part is perceived.
• Advertisers can thus find out how long it takes respondents to get
the intended point of an illustration or headline.
(v) The EEG : Through the use of electroencephalograph (EEG), data
can be collected from several locations on the skull.
•Several electrical frequencies at each location are checked up to 1,000
times per second.
•By Measuring the electrical activity in various parts of the brain,
this technique can tell the researcher when the subject is resting or
when there is attention to a stimulus.