Evaluating IMC Effectiveness

Lecture Outline

 Why is it important to evaluate brand

communication effectiveness?
 What role do campaign objectives play
in the measurement of campaign
success?
 What are the key ways in which post-
campaign evaluation is conducted?
 What are some key challenges faced in
evaluating IMC effectiveness?
Brand communication impact: did it work?

First things first: the campaign objectives

Typically, a brand communication
campaign has multiple objectives.
For example, one (attitudinal) objective
may be to change brand perceptions.
Another (behavioral) objective may be to
make people engage in some way with the
brand.
Brand communication impact: did it work?

First things first: the campaign objectives

Regardless of the number of objectives,
they must be established up front, because
they provide the all-important framework
for evaluating whether a campaign was a
success.
Campaign objectives and evaluation work
hand in hand. In the absence of solid
campaign objectives, evaluation becomes a
much murkier task.
Brand communication impact: did it work?

The campaign purpose: brand building

Determining advertising’s impact on sales
can be very difficult because of the impact
of other environmental factors.
Sales are not the only reason brands
advertise.
One of the major objectives of advertising
is to create higher levels of brand awareness
among consumers.
Brand communication impact: did it work?

The campaign purpose: brand building

Marketers intend their messages to
accomplish a variety of goals.

Brand communication can be deemed

successful when set objectives—attitudinal,
behavioral, or both—have been met.
Brand communication impact: did it work?

Why evaluation matters

All campaigns require multiple, formal
evaluation mechanisms.
These should be “planned in” to any
campaign.
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage
it.
The sheer costs of brand communication
demand evaluation in order to judge its
effectiveness.
Brand communication impact: did it work?

How evaluation fits into the stages

of brand communication testing
A complete understanding of the strength
of your brand communication is
accomplished through testing, monitoring
and measurement.
The results of preliminary testing should
be available before large sums of money are
invested in finished work or media buys.
Evaluating the IMC message

How do we find out whether brand

communication was effective?
How do we know whether the messaging
worked?
 Questions about impact are critical, and
must be addressed.
Evaluating the IMC message

Brand messaging impact is measured in

terms of communication effects—the
mental responses to a message that serve as
surrogate measures for sales impact.
These can include:
 Brand awareness
 Knowledge of what a brand offers
 Liking of a brand
 Intent to purchase a brand
Evaluating the IMC message
Experts in message evaluation
 Many research companies specialize in
measuring the various dimensions of
effectiveness.
 The most successful have conducted so
many tests that they have developed norms
for common product and service
categories.
 Norms allow planners to determine
whether a message has performed above or
below the category average in terms of
“moving the needle.”
Message evaluation techniques

Tracking Studies
 Conducted from the time a campaign is
launched until after it has concluded.
 Involves the collection of information
from random samples of consumers who
live in markets where they were exposed
to a campaign.
Message evaluation techniques

Scanner analysis
 Many retail outlets use scanners to tally
purchases and collect consumer buying
information.
 Scanner research is also used to see what
type of sales spikes are crated when certain
ads and promotions are used in a given
market.
Message evaluation techniques

 Using single-source research, advertising

and brand purchase data come from the
same households, linking advertising to
sales.

 The result is single-source data because

brand communication exposure and brand
purchasing data come from the same
household source.
Message evaluation techniques

Memory tests
 In a recognition test, people are asked
whether they remember having seen a
message before.

 In a recall test, respondents who have seen

a message are asked to report what they
remember from the ad about the brand.
Message evaluation techniques
Inquiry tests
 These measure the number of responses to
an advertisement or other form of brand
communication.
 Examples:
 Calls to a toll-free number
 An e-mail or website visit
 A coupon return
 A visit to a dealer
 An entry in a contest
 A call to a salesperson
Evaluating the performance
of various IMC tools

IMC synergy exists when all campaign

components work together to create a solid and
understandable brand meaning.

The overarching campaign impact is strongest

when the right mix of IMC tools is used.

Before overarching campaign synergy is

measured, evaluation usually is conducted on a
tool-by-tool basis.
Advertising

 Advertising can accomplish objectives

including increased brand awareness,
improved brand image.

 The tracking study is the most common

post testing evaluation technique used to
evaluate advertising.
Public Relations

 Evaluation should be based on measurable

objectives set at the beginning of
campaign planning.
 Practitioners typically track the impact of
a public relations campaign in terms of
successful output and outcome.
Consumer, trade and
point-of-purchase promotions

 Sales promotion managers need to

evaluate the impact of consumer, retailer,
and other promotions.
 A payout analysis compares the costs of a
promotion to the forecasted sales
generated by the promotion.
 A break-even analysis determines the
point at which the total cost of a
promotion exceeds the total revenues
generated.
Consumer, trade and
point-of-purchase promotions

 Direct marketing mechanisms are the

easiest IMC tools to evaluate in terms of
message efficiency and in terms of return
on marketing investment.

 The primary objective of direct-marketing

communication is to drive a transaction or
generate some other type of immediate
behavioral response, such as a donation or
visit to a dealer.
Consumer, trade and
point-of-purchase promotions

 Evaluation of digital IMC components

 Performance indicators include:
 Page views
 Click-through rates
 Cost per lead
 Conversion rate
Evaluating the performance
of media vehicles

 Advertising has little chance to be

effective if no one sees it.
 Key media questions:
 Did the plan actually achieve reach and
frequency objectives?
 Did the newspaper and magazine placements
run in positions expected and produce the
intended GRP and CPM levels?
 Did the advertisers get what they paid for?
Evaluating the performance
of media vehicles

Media optimization
A major challenge in media planning is
media efficiency—getting the most for the
money invested.
Media planners operate with computer
models of media optimization to make
decisions about media selection, scheduling,
and weights.
Evaluating exposure

 Verifying audience measurement

estimates is a challenge.
 Services including Experian Simmons,
Arbitron, MediaMark provide data.
Vehicle-by-vehicle evaluation

 Out-of-home media
For outdoor, traffic counts don’t equal
exposure.
 Digital media
Evaluation is complex. Analytic firms are
developing more sophisticated evaluation
programs.
 Alternative media
Even harder to measure; many obstacles
remain.
Vehicle-by-vehicle evaluation

Newspaper readership measurement

For newspapers and other traditional
media, assessment is more straightforward.
Newspapers measure their audiences in two
ways:
Circulation or number of subscribers
Readership or number of readers
Vehicle-by-vehicle evaluation

Magazine readership measurement

Rates are based on the guaranteed
circulation that a publisher promises to
provide.
Magazine circulation is the number of
copies of an issue sold, not the readership of
the publication.
Magazines also offer advertisers figures for
their total audience.
Vehicle-by-vehicle evaluation

Measuring the broadcast audience

Coverage is similar to circulation for print
media.
Ratings, as delivered by Arbitron, are re-
visited post-campaign by marketers to ensure
that the radio medium delivered.
For television, A. C. Nielsen data help
advertisers understand the audience that a
campaign actually delivered.
IMC campaign evaluation challenges

Measuring ROI
Advertisers continue to improve how they
measure brand communication ROI.
How much spending is too much?
The best way to answer this question is to
use test marketing.
IMC campaign evaluation challenges

The synergy problem

Another challenge with evaluating
campaigns is estimating the impact of
synergy.
The most common way of measuring total
impact is the brand tracking approach.
Planners must consider other messages and
contact points beyond the brand
communication campaign.
IMC campaign evaluation challenges

Digital challenges
Marketers must start digital measurement
planning with the desired business outcomes
in mind.
Marketers must also develop the right
digital key performance indicators.
Digital communication evaluation must be
phrased so that broader business leaders can
understand it.
IMC campaign evaluation challenges

International challenges
International brand communication is
difficult to evaluate because of market
differences.
Evaluation should focus initially on
pretesting to help head off major problems
due to unfamiliarity with:
 Different cultures
 Languages
 Consumer behaviors
Bringing it all together

 Advertisers continue to search for

evaluation methods that bring all the
individual metrics together to efficiently
and effectively evaluate and predict brand
communication effectiveness.
 The ultimate goal is to arrive at holistic,
cross-functional metrics that are relevant
for integrated communication.
 Many pieces are still missing in the
evaluation of complex IMC programs.
Bibliography
Principles of Advertising & IMC by Tom Duncan 2nd

Edition, Published by McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Event Management For Tourism, Cultural, Business

and Sporting Events by Lynn Van Der Wagen Brenda R.
Carlos Published by Pearson Prentice Hall.

Advertising Principles and Practice by W. Wells, S.

Moriarty and J. Burnett, Published by Prentice Hall
International.

Integrated Marketing Communications by David

Pickton & Amanda Broderick Published by Prentice
Hall.
The End:

“In matters of style, swim with

the current;
in matters of principle, stand like
a rock.”