Topic—ADVERTISING RESEARCH

Assignment on Marketing Research

• Advertising research is a specialized form of marketing research conducted to improve the efficiency of advertising.

Meaning

• 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.

“Advertising research may focus on a specific ad or campaign, or may be directed at a more general understanding of how advertising works or how consumers use the information in advertising. It can entail a variety of research approaches, including psychological, sociological, economic, and other perspectives.”

Types of Advertising ResearchCustomized Customized research is conducted for a specific client to address that client’s needs. Only that client has access to the results of the research.

Syndicated Syndicated research is a single research study conducted by a research company with its results available, for sale, to multiple companies.

Pre-market research

can be conducted to optimize ads for any medium optimize advertisement for any medium: radio, television, print (magazine, newspaper or direct mail), outdoor billboard (highway, bus, or train), or Internet.

Post-market research conducted after the advertising, either a single ad or an entire multimedia campaign has been run in-market. The focus is on what the advertising has done for the brand, for example increasing brand awareness, trial, frequency of purchasing.

Method of Advertising Research

Pre testing or Copy TestingEvaluation 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 • Consumer Jury.• Rating Scales.• Portfolio Tests.• Psychological Tests.• Physiological Tests.• Sales Tests.• Day-after recall 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.

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.

Portfolio Tests:Sometimes the ad is placed in dummy copiesof 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.

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

Sales tests

Sales tests are a useful measure of advertisingeffectiveness when advertising is the dominantelement, or the only variable, in the company'smarketing plan. Sales response may not be immediate and sales

tests, particularly field studies, are often costly and time-consuming.

Day-after recall Tests:

Research method that tests consumers‘memories the day after they have seen anad, to assess the ad's effectiveness.

Post-testingProvide either periodic or continuous in-market research monitoring a brand’s performance.Including brand awareness, brand preference, product usage and attitudes. Some post-testing approaches simply track changes over time, while others use various methods to quantify the specific changes produced by advertising—either the campaign as a whole or by the different media utilized.Overall, advertisers use post-testing to plan future advertising campaigns, so the approaches that provide the most detailed information on the accomplishments of the campaign are most valued.

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.

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.

ConclusionAd effectiveness is dicey proposition. Though it is necessary to know how the Ads works for us, it is difficult to do it, especially by relating advertising to sale.

References

• Foundation of Adverting theory and practices

by S.A. Chunawalla & K.C. Sethia • www.wikipedia.com