Assignment on Marketing

Research
Topic
ADVERTISING 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 Research

Customized
Customized research is conducted for a specific client
to address that clients 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.

Method of Advertising
Research research
Pre-market
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.

Pre testing or Copy Testing

Evaluation
of
alternative
ways
advertisers to present their messages.

for

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
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.

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
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.

Day-after recall Tests:

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

Post-testing
Provide either periodic or continuous in-market
research monitoring a brands 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 advertisingeither 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

Its 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.

Conclusion
Ad 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