ADVERTISING RESEARCH

ADVERTISING RESEARCH
 Advertising research is a specialized form of
marketing research conducted to improve the
efficiency of advertising.
 “It 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.”
SCOPE OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH

 Ad research is a branch of marketing research. It is a

sort of insurance to avoid wasting money on
ineffective advertising and a means of monitoring the
effectiveness of a campaign while it is running and
after the campaign has ended.
 To ensure that it produces and conducts successful
advertising.
 Copy testing to establish the best idea, theme, selling
points or presentation before entering into costly
artwork or production of commercials and the buying
of space and airtime.
 Research is not confined to testing creativity.
 Statistical information on sales, readership and
audience figures regarding all the principal media so
that the most economic media can be used.
 To control the duration of appearance of an ad by
assessing when enough people have the opportunity
to see the ad a sufficient number of times.
 “ The most persuasive selling message to the right
prospects for the product or service at the lowest
possible cost.” Ad research can help to achieve this
effectively.
Marketing Research/
Advertising Research
 Product Research – Finds out information
about the product from the consumer
 Consumer Research - Finds out consumers
motivation or attitude about a product
 Market Research – Research that gathers
information about specific markets
 Competitive Analysis Research – Research
about the competitions advertising and
promotion
Strategic Advertising
Research
 Target audience analysis
 Message research
 Media audience research
Strategic Vs. Evaluative
Research & Marketing
Research
 Strategic research is an extension of the
marketing strategy and is used to help develop
creative designs and media plans.
 Evaluative research measures how well the
advertiser has reached its goals.
 Marketing research is used to identify consumer
needs, develop new products, evaluate pricing
levels, assess distribution methods, and test the
effectiveness of various promotional strategies.
Primary Techniques

 Questionnaires
 Open-response
 Dichotomous
 Multiple-choice
 Rank-order
 Numerical scaling
 Observational methods
 Structured vs unstructured – limit observations to predetermined
behaviors of note whatever happens
 Natural vs contrived – Wait for behavior to occur or create an
artificial situation
 Human vs mechanical – observations made by people or
mechanically
 E a rly F e e dba c k
M e thods

Contact M ethods S urvey Research

i.e. in p ers on i.e. p op u lation or s am p le

Observation Research Use of M etaphors

i.e. p eop le-w atc h in g i.e. im ag es , n ot w ord s

Content Analysis In-Depth Interview s

i.e. au d its of c om p etitors ' i.e. on e-on -on e
ad vertis em en ts

Focus G roups
i.e. g rou p in -d ep th
in terview s
MEASURING ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS

 Evidence for advertisers that the ads they are

doing is really paying.
 PACT principle of advertising
 DAGMAR approach
PACT
 Positioning Advertising Copy Testing have emerged to
measure ad effectiveness and sales results.
 PACT principles of advertising states that ad evaluation
:
 Is related to ad objectives.
 Consists of several measures to ensure performance of an ad.
 Is based on human responses to stimuli-communication,
comprehension and response.
 Clear about result expected through each test.
 clear about whether the stimulus is to be repeated.
 Acknowledges that more finished the copy is, the better is the
testing.
 Providing controls to filter the biased effects.
 Clear about sampling.
 Demonstrates reliability and validity.
DAGMAR Approach

 Russel H Colley pioneered an approach known by the

acronym DAGMAR- Defining Advertising Goals for
Measured Advertising Results where to establish an
explicit link between ad goals and ad results. These
goals may pertain to sales, image, attitude and
awareness.
 According to DAGMAR approach, the communication
task of the brand is to :
 Awareness
 Comprehension
 Conviction
 Image and
 Action
 DAGMAR model suggests that the ultimate objective
of advertising must carry a consumer through four
levels of understanding:
 Unawareness to Awareness—the consumer must
first be aware of a brand or company
 Comprehension—he or she must have a
comprehension of what the product is and its
benefits;
 Conviction—he or she must arrive at the mental
disposition or conviction to buys the brand;
 Action—finally, he or she actually buy that product.
CHARACTERISTICS OF OBJECTIVES
A major contribution of DAGMAR was Colley’s specification
of what constitutes a good objective. Four requirements
or characteristics of good objectives were noted
 Concrete and measurable—the communications task or
objective should be a precise statement of what appeal
or message the advertiser wants to communicate to the
target audience. Furthermore the specification should
include a description of the measurement procedure
 Target audience –a key tenet to DAGMAR is that the
target audience be well defined. For example –if the goal
was to increase awareness, it is essential to know the
target audience precisely. The benchmark measure
cannot be developed without a specification of the
target segment
 Benchmark and degree of change sought—
another important part of setting objectives is
having benchmark measures to determine where
the target audience stands at the beginning of the
campaign with respect to various communication
response variables such as awareness, knowledge,
attitudes, image, etc.

The objectives should also specify how much change

or movement is being sought such as increase in
awareness levels, creation of favourable attitudes or
number of consumers intending to purchase the
brand, etc. a benchmark is also a prerequisite to the
ultimate measurement of results, an essential part
of any planning program and DAGMAR in particular.
 Specified time period—a final characteristic of
good objectives is the specification of the time
period during which the objective is to be
accomplished, e.g. 6months, 1 year etc. With a
time period specified a survey to generate a set
if measures can be planned and anticipated.
 Written Goal - finally goals should be
committed to paper. When the goals are clearly
written, basic shortcomings and
misunderstandings become exposed and it
becomes easy to determine whether the goal
contains the crucial aspects of the DAGMAR
approach.
Pre and post test

 The ever increasing expense of running an ad

campaign and the growing uncertainty resulting
from market, media, etc., advertisers and agencies
want to know whether the money they’re
spending is producing results, and they like to
know before they invest a major portion of their
budgets whether an ad campaign will be effective.
This is known as pre-testing which involves testing
one or more versions of an ad. Before completing
production and buying time and space in the
media.