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 :

•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 :

• Problem Definition

• Exploratory or Informal Research

• Determining research objectives

• Research design

Sampling Methods and Sample size

Scaling

Date Collection

Analytical Tools

• Data Collection

• Data Tabulation and Analysis

• 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

Organizations

Strategy

Pre- Campaign

Mid- Campaign

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

OrganisationStrategy Document

Data obtained to be organised as Quantitativeand qualitative information by

the account player for developing a meaningful 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 Mid-Campaign

• Define copy platform or theme • Pre-test proposed ad.• Plan the Media SchedulePhysiological measures :Eye movement trackingPupillometerPsychogalvnometerThe TachistoscopeThe electro encephalograph (EEG)

• 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

Assessing Communication Effectiveness

Evaluate actual Behavior

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.

•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.

• A series of questions follow. The answers serve as a benchmark

for acceptability and allow adjustments in the message content,

media choice and timing.

• Two months later, the researcher makes another series of random

calls and asks the same questions.

• 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 :

• Provides same info. as the diary method but requires little from the

consumer.

• A researcher goes to homes in the target market and asks what

brands or products have been purchased.

• Researcher counts the products or brands currently stocked by the

consumer.

• 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.

• Participants (cable subscribers) are split into two matched groups

with each group receiving a different version of TV ad.

• Meters record participant’s TV viewing. What they saw, how long

and what they saw.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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

Sales Response

Persuasion : Communicatea reason why

InvolvementInvolve audience ‘s

imagination

Sales ResponseDirect Behavioral response

PersuasionBeliefs about brand benefits

enhanced

InvolvementClose identification with

brand values

Salience Sense of something happening

SalienceStand out as different

Brand Commitment

(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.

• As art directors and writers begin working on a specific creative

project they almost always conduct at least some informal research

of their own.

• 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.

• The advertiser starts by developing alternative message ideas or creative concepts.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

ii 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.

•The test markets should be representative of the target market.

•In a typical test market, one or more of the test cities serve as controls

while the others are the test.

•In the control markets the researcher can either (a) run no advertising

or (b) continue to run the old ad.

• New Ad. is used in test cities.

• Before, during and after the advertising is run, sales results in the

test cities are compared by checking inventories in selected stores.

• 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.

• 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.