ADVERTISING RESEARCH

Importance Of
Advertising 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.