Advertising Research: A Special

case of Marketing Research

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Advertising Research: A Special case of Marketing

Research!
The advertising research is an application of marketing research
aimed at the measurement of advertising effectiveness and
advertising efficiency. The primary aim of advertising is to sell an
idea, a good or a service whereas the ultimate goal in advertising
research is to measure advertising impact or influence on sales of
that idea, good or service.

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The scope and coverage of advertising research include research in

advertising objectives and product appeals, media selection,
advertising effectiveness and advertising budget/expenditure.

(a) Classification of Advertising Research:

Advertising research can be classified in following
categories:

(i) Setting of Advertising Objectives:

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This implies to specify what people demand from advertising

research. This deals with information about already developed
advertising methods, improvements in advertising strategy, markets
etc. The advertising objectives can be framed in terms of awareness,
changing attitudes, changing predisposition to buy or some
combination of the three.

(ii) Choice of Message to be Advertised:

This aspect of research conducts tests with regard to the total
advertisements, its components and the dominant theme. Here
decision is made by asking some searching questions i.e., how the
message should be communicated to the customer? Information
regarding attitudes, awareness and perception of consumers
regarding the product characteristics can be useful guide for
providing effective message formulation.

(iii) Search for Advertising Media:

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Reaching the right people at the least cost is the aim of every
advertising agent. Newspapers, radio, magazines, TV, posters are
various media. Media research is concerned with measuring the size
and composition of individual media vehicle.

(iv) Evaluation of Advertising Effectiveness:

This research is concerned with analysing different media or their
combinations and evaluating the degree of success with which the
advertising objectives have been achieved.
(b) Objectives of Advertising Research:
The following are main objectives of an advertising
research investigation:
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(i) How will an advertisement accomplishes its objectives?

(ii) Optimum utilisation of advertising budget and media-mix in

implementing an advertising campaign.

(iii) Measurement of advertising impact on audience.

(iv) To bring cost effectiveness in advertising.

 Why advertising research is
important?
One should conduct a full- fledged advertising research as it helps in
 Developing creativity: when all the information is accessible, a well- formed strategy
could be designed to develop the organization further.
 Improves your position in the field: Advertising research enables a company to find a
suitable time and ways to launch their products.
 Rank your image: Advertising research enables comparisons between organizations.
So it helps a company to know its place in the market compared to others.
 Predicts likely issues: Advertising research predicts forthcoming problems that an
organization might face.
 Monitors progress: It analyzes your organization’s performance.
 Less chances of failures: There is reduced risk of failures if the advertising research is
thorough.

Scope of advertising research

 Increases awareness: Advertising research increases the knowledge about the market,
which helps in building a brand campaign.
 Analyzes changing market: Knowing your customer is very important for any business.
A customer’s attitude is subject to change with the change in market conditions. Advertising
research analyzes these changing attitudes of your customers.
 Public feedback: Advertising research records the feedback of your audience.
 Results: Final campaigns that are created are based on the results of the research.

Types of advertising research

Pre-testing advertising research is carried out to test the ads before the launch of the advertising
campaign. Pre-testing research is an important part of the advertising research, as it decides the
key points on which the brand will be built. It factors in preferences of the consumers, public
surveys, and finding out the target audience’s reaction to the brand. The other is the post-testing
advertising research, which is carried out after the launch of the advertising campaign. They get
the feedback of the campaign that they have launched. This helps the company to know how
effective the advertising campaign has been.

Pre-testing research
Every process begins with an idea. Turning an idea into reality is not an easy task. It involves a
lot of risks. The more complex the idea, the more is the risk involved. 65% of the ideas and
campaigns fail due to creative issues. You need to ensure that your idea must take a different
route to reach the same destination, i.e. your target audience. The pre-test phase of the
advertising research helps at this point. The pre-test phase includes a detailed study of your
target audience and the brand. This phase will decide if the idea will be accepted or rejected. As
the pre- test advertising research majorly focuses on the target audience, it will help the agency
to figure out the tastes of the public and work accordingly. Pre-testing provides a final opportunity
to check whether the original idea is still coming through, and whether that the ad does resonate
with the intended audience. This helps the agency to optimize their campaigns before they go
into the tedious process of production. As soon as things are approved, the campaign can be run
on various platforms.
Pre-testing includes three test routes, which are:
Concept testing: This route is a major part of the creative plan. This covers effectiveness and
the basic communication concept.
Theme testing: An advertising campaign is based on a subject, which may revolve around
various themes.
Copy research: After a lot of brain storming, the ideas get noted down and are transformed into
a crisp and precise copy.

Post-testing research
Communication is a two way process. A communication process gets completed only when the
feedback is received. With the launch of the advertising campaign, one-way communication gets
initiated. However, to complete the whole process, it is important to receive the feedback. And to
gain the feedback, a post-study is followed after the launch of an advertisement. It will measure
the output of the campaign that the agency has created. The effectiveness of the brand
campaign is assessed in the post-testing research. A study is conducted to see if the
advertisement has been successful in creating or increasing awareness about the brand or
service of the client. Ultimately it will determine, if the advertisement has been able to influence
customers or not. Post-testing advertising research helps to monitor the brand’s performance,
including awareness, preference product usages and attitudes. Post- testing research involves a
tracking process.
Tracking can be done in many ways, which are:
Inquiry & Coupon Response: These experiments are conducted in a field. The consumers are
sent an inquiry form related to the brand, which they are asked to fill. The responses describe the
effectiveness of the brand advertisements.
Split-run Tests: This enables comparison testing between two or more ads in the same position,
and publication, with each ad reaching a comparable group of audience.
Recall Tests: The respondents are asked to answer what they have seen, heard or read about
the brands, without allowing them to look at or listen to those ads while answering.
Sales Test Method: This is the direct method where the effectiveness of the brand can be
specified. This is done by directly measuring the sales of the product or service once the
campaign has been initiated.

Suppose you get up really early to travel to work. You are in a perfect sync with the day. You get
ready, have breakfast, hop in your car, turn on the radio and start your journey. You are in a
perfect flow but suddenly get stuck in a traffic jam. You spend one and a half hour stuck in a jam
and finally reach your office another hour late. But your fellow member, who wakes up late, and
starts late, has still managed to reach on time just because he managed to check the traffic on
the way. Bad situation right! This happens when a research is not a part of your plan and this is
how advertising research becomes important for an agency to launch a campaign.
Product Research: An
Application of Marketing
Research
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Product Research: An Application of Marketing Research!

A product is any object which has an identifiable physical existence.
According to Philip Kotler “A product is a bundle of physical service
and provides satisfaction to the buyer.” Product planning is the
starting point of all marketing decisions. Products which are
marketed include physical goods, services, and ideas.

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Physical goods are consumer, consumer-durable and industrial

goods and services are of varied types, i.e., courier, Air lines,
transport, communication and hospitality and tourism etc. Idea can
be thought, patent and information etc.

Product research is essentially concerned with satisfying the need of

the consumer in the best possible way by giving him the most
optimum product. Product research would set out to position the
product on its attributes in a manner that the desired benefits are
perceived by the customer.
Depending on the stage of life cycle in which the product
is, the task of product research can be:
1. Development of a new product altogether.

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2. Improvements in product features of an existing product—

Product line extension, brand extension by evaluating what a
product stands for.

3. Introduction of new functional features in the product.

4. Test marketing a new product.

5. Revitalising a declining product.

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Scope of Product Research Product research includes the

study of the following dimensions:
i. Raw Materials used in various proportions in the final mix.

ii. Attributes of the product.

iii. Saleable points of the product.

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iv. Product Planning.

v. Product Appraisal.

vi. Product Classification.

vii. Product Design.

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viii. Product Development.

ix. Product Branding or Trademarks.

Product research includes the study of planned obsolescence or

products. Products grow older, and exit, and make room for new
products.

Product research should cover the decision-making on the

following:
i. Which product should the company produce?

ii. Should company expand or simplify the product line?

iii. What brand, package and label should be used for each product?

iv. How should the product be designed?

v. How should the product be priced?

vi. In what quantities should each item be produced?

Success of marketing management resorts to discovery of new

consumer needs in the changing times. The marketing management
must make an in-depth study of the market in relation to products.