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

com, 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, econoTypes

of

advertising research
There are two types of research, customized and syndicated. 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 research is a single research study conducted by a research company with its results available, for sale, to multiple companies.[15] Pre-market research can be conducted to optimize advertisements for any medium: radio, television, print (magazine, newspaper or direct mail), outdoor billboard (highway, bus, or train), or Internet. Different methods would be applied to gather the necessary data appropriately. Post-testing is 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. [edit]Pre-testing Pre-testing, also known as copy testing, is a form of customized research that predicts in-market performance of an ad, before it airs, by analyzing audience levels of attention, brand linkage, motivation, entertainment, and communication, as well as breaking down the ads Flow of Attention and Flow of Emotion.[16] Measuring attention is very important in Pre-testing. The data tells us where customers look at and which parts of the ad they ignore. Attention can be measured with Eye tracking or AttentionTracking. Pre-testing is also used on ads still in rough form e.g., animatics or ripomatics. Pre-testing is also used to identify weak spots within an ad to improve performance, to more effectively edit 60s to 30s or 30s to 15s, to select images from the spot to use in an integrated campaigns print ad, to pull out the key moments for use in ad tracking, and to identify branding moments.[17] [edit]Campaign

pre-testing

A new area of pre-testing driven by the realization that what works on TV does not necessarily translate in other media. Greater budgets allocated to digital media in particular have driven the need for campaign pre-testing. The addition of a media planning tool to this testing approach allows advertisers to test the whole campaign, creative and media, and measures the synergies expected with an integrated campaign.[18] [edit]Post-testing Post-testing/Tracking studies 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. The two types of campaign post-testing that have achieved the greatest use among major advertisers include continuous tracking, in which changes in advertising spending are correlated with changes in brand awareness, and longitudinal studies, in which the same group of respondents are tracked over time. With the longitudinal approach, it is possible to go beyond brand awareness, and to isolate the campaign's impact on specific behavioral and perceptual dimensions, and to isolate campaign impact by medium.[19] mic, and other perspectives.

Advertising Research Advertising research derives its importance from the fact that today, a huge chunk of any organisation's marketing expenditure is spent on advertising. A good advertisement can do wonders to an organizations topline; a bad one can tarnish its image for several years to come. The advent of globalisation has actually left only a nominal significance for national boundaries. The incorporation of practices and beliefs typical to foreign cultures has taken place at a rather fast pace. Our preference for cholle-bhature and idli-dosas has been subtly replaced by that for burgers and pizzas, thanks to the McDonaldisation of India. All this has posed a great challenge for advertisers, and this is precisely where advertising research comes in handy.

Advertising Research (Copy Testing)

Advertising is one of the most important and most expensive marketing functions, but a large share of advertising dollars is wasted every year. Seldom is the foundational strategy of the advertising optimal. Rarely are all of the communication issues fully understood. Rarely are ads and commercials adequately tested before they are aired. Because of the great strategic potential of good advertising, Decision Analyst has devoted more than three decades of research and experimentation to develop the following advertising services.

CopyOpt (Advertising Optimization)

CopyOpt is a Decision Analyst proprietary advertising optimization system, is used to help create prototype advertising concepts by determining the optimal combinations of the variables. How Does CopyOpt Work? The basic variables of a brand's advertising are positioning, messages, and images. Once the basic variables of effective advertising for a brand are identified (based on qualitative research and/or innovation services), those variables are used for CopyOpt, Decision Analyst's Advertising Optimization system. This is achieved by presenting target-audience consumers with choicemodeling experiments. Different positionings, messages, themes, illustrations, imagery, music,

etc., can represent thousands of possible ads. CopyOpt tests subsets of all of these possibilities to predict the effectiveness of every possible combination of elements. Each respondent usually sees five to 10 scenarios (i.e., combinations of variables). Choice modeling is used to derive the potential selling value of all possible combinations. CopyOpt permits hundreds of creative possibilities to be evaluated efficiently. The top 10 or top 15 advertising concepts are identified for additional testing, beginning with CopyScreen.

CopyScreen
An early-stage advertising research system to evaluate embryonic advertising ideas and concepts in print-ad format in batches of 10 to 20 at a time. CopyScreen helps identify the most promising creative concepts. The creative process often begins with a large number of creative concepts (or advertising ideas). How well advertising works depends on the strength of the creative conceptthe basic underlying logic, messages, and images. Once generated, creative concepts can be tested to narrow the choices down to only the best ideas. How does CopyScreen work? The advertising concepts or ideas are translated into rough print adseach with a headline, body copy, and artwork. Then a representative sample of 200 to 300 target-audience respondents review and evaluate the rough print ads online. Each respondent sees all of the rough print ads (up to 20) twice and answers a series of four questions about each advertising concept. The answers to these four questions are fed into a mathematical model that computes an overall score for each ad. These scores identify the advertising concepts that are worthy of further development.

CopyCheck
An online advertising research system to help evaluate and improve advertising concepts, earlystage print ads, TV storyboards, and radio scripts. Advertising tends to work on the strength of the creative concept (i.e., the basic underlying logic, themes, and images). The creative concept can be tested in the form of a rough executionbefore the expense of final production. How Does CopyCheck Work? A representative sample of 75 to 100 target-audience consumers are recruited to view each advertising concept. The respondents see only one ad (i.e., monadic test) and then answer a series of questions about their reactions, including both open-ended and closed-ended questions. CopyCheck provides a directional estimate of an ads probable effectiveness and provides insightful diagnostic feedback in the form of normative data. The report also includes verbatim consumer responses to open-ended questions. The verbatim responses are extremely helpful to the agencys creative staff in guiding creative development as the advertising moves into final production. CopyCheck is often used in place of focus groups to help improve creative concepts.

CopyTest (Copy Testing)

CopyTest is a comprehensive, online advertising pretesting and copy testing system to predict the effectiveness of semifinished to finished commercials and advertisements. Copy testing is a safeguardto make sure you are getting your moneys worth. Decision Analyst's CopyTest system helps take the guesswork out of advertising. CopyTest gives you the diagnostic insight to improve your advertising from year to year. Better advertising, in turn, helps build brand equity and boost long-term profitability. How Does CopyTest Work? Typically, a representative sample of category users is exposed to the advertising under a controlled, forced exposure setting over the Internet. Respondents see the advertising twice. Then the respondents complete a battery of 60 questions and diagnostic ratings about the advertisement. Recommended sample size is 150 to 200. The results are input into the SellingPower analytical model to calculate overall advertising effectiveness. Based on historical normative data, internal diagnostics, and analytical models, the respondents results reveal whether the advertising is likely to be effective or not, and indicates what needs to be changed to improve the advertising. SellingPower Model This analytical mathematical model is the primary measure of overall advertising effectiveness based on 20 key measurements. The major variables in the SellingPower model are:

Persuasion (brand purchase intent) Brand reinforcement Possible increase in frequency of usage Attention value Brand registration Brand remembrance Stimulation Empathy/Identification Wearout Memorability Pass-along potential

CopyTest Advantages:

SellingPower Model. CopyTest relies on a predictive mathematical model to determine overall advertising effectiveness. Diagnostics. CopyTest seeks to explain why a commercial is effective or not. Geographic Flexibility. CopyTest can be executed in any geographic area with its online research methodology. Normative Database. While a normative database of advertising pretests is maintained to serve as a rough benchmark, Decision Analyst strongly recommends the use of competitive and historic pretests to help set action standards for a brands advertising. Worldwide Internet Panels. Decision Analysts global Internet panels, containing over 8 million consumers, provide sampling flexibility and a consistent, precise data collection platform across countries.

Validity. Major measurements in CopyTest are validated for new and established products. Media Breadth. CopyTest is one of the few systems that measures all types of advertising.

CopyRecall (Advertising Recall)

A comprehensive, online, day-after, advertising recall system to measure visibility and memorability of finished commercials through a real-world, on-air test. Respondents answer questions concerning the following topics:

Unaided recall of brands advertised Aided recall of commercials Brand linkage to commercial Advertising message recall Advertising evaluation ratings

CopyRecall is a sound method of determining if a commercial is intrusive enough to be noticed and remembered.

CopyTrack (Advertising Tracking)

A system composed of standard modules for measuring an advertisement's awareness, message recall, trial, usage, brand image, etc., in real-world environments over a period of time. CopyTrackour industry-leading, online advertising tracking system, can help you monitor the effectiveness of your advertising over timecompared to major competitors. It can tell you when a campaign begins to wear out. It can identify which commercials and ads are doing the best job. No one knows for sure how an advertising campaign will play out over time in the real world. Even if the advertising is tested before airing, its virtually impossible to predict its long-term effects. As soon as a campaign goes on air, five types of distortion begin to occur. They include the following:

Competitive Activity. Competitive advertising campaigns can confuse consumers and blur the messages they actually receive. Perception Bias. Consumers tend to notice certain parts of commercials more than other parts. Memory Bias. Consumers tend to remember some messages and images from the advertising better than other messages and images. Threshold Effects. Your advertising campaign (or parts of it) might not achieve threshold levels sufficient to break through the clutter and noise. Contamination. Other marketing variables (sales contests, trade promotions, consumer promotions, distribution levels, publicity, etc.) can interact with media advertising.

The data are collected via continuous, or pulsed, Internet interviews. CopyTrack is tailored to the product category and the clients objectives. CopyTrack is designed to accurately measure an advertising campaigns long-term effects, including:

Brand awareness Advertising awareness Advertising message recall Advertising recognition Brand image Media usage

What Types of Advertising Can Be Copy Tested?

Television advertisements o Television storyboards o Television animatics and photomatics o Television commercials Radio advertisements o Radio scripts o Radio commercials Print advertising o Newspaper and magazine advertising concepts o Newspaper and magazine advertisements Internet advertisements o Banner advertisements o Interstitial advertisements o Rich media advertisements o Unicast advertisements Outdoor advertisements

Qualitative Research For Advertising Research

Nowhere is qualitative research (focus groups, depth interviews, ethnography) more valuable than in the realm of advertising exploration and development. Good qualitative research can help marketing staffs, advertising agencies, and creatives better understand the fundamental issues and help them develop more effective advertising. Qualitative research is especially valuable at the very beginning, before any advertising concepts have been created. At this stage everyone is still open to ideas. The second great opportunity to use qualitative research is to tweak and fine-tune ads and commercials toward the end of the development process.

Innovation Services For Advertising Research

Once basic consumer motivations are understood and some of the basic elements of strategy are visible, consumers can then be used to help in the advertising development process. Not just any consumers will do. Highly creative individuals are the key. They can help create starter ideas for breakthrough advertising. Decision Analyst maintains a panel of over 2,000 highly creative people (called Imaginators), who work in small groups, online or offline, to generate hundreds of advertising ideas for a brand. Naturally, these starter ideas must be developed into final ads by agencies and should go through standard copy-testing procedures.

Advertising Testing Services

Decision Analyst is a leading international marketing research firm and a recognized leader in advertising testing. Our staff has copy tested thousands of different commercials and ads for foods, beverages, restaurants, packaged goods, retailers, and other categories over the 3 decades. Decision Analyst is a leader in the development of analytical techniques to enhance the learning from advertising research. If you would like more information on Advertising Research, please contactJerry W. Thomas, President/CEO (jthomas@decisionanalyst.com), or call 1-800ANALYSIS (262-5974) or 1-817-640-6166.

Advertising Research
by Jerry W. Thomas The rise of scanner data with its ability to measure the short-term effects of promotions, the growing American corporate interest in profits this quarter (never mind next quarter or the future after that), and the rapidly increasing media alternatives to the traditional "big three" (television, radio, print) are all working in concert to diminish the perceived value of traditional advertising in the packaged goods categories. The companies with a longer-term perspective, however, will win the marketing wars through the effective use of advertising in the major media. This is not to say that other media (trade shows, sports marketing, Internet, fax networks, telemarketing, etc.) cannot play an important supporting or supplemental role, for they certainly can. Here are some thoughts about how best to use advertising in the packaged goods categories. Advertising is primarily a strategic weapon. Its total effects must be evaluated in the context of years, not weeks or months. Advertising cannot compete with sales promotion and direct marketing activities in generating short-term (less than one year) sales effects. But in the long term, the cumulative force of good advertising can achieve results which cannot be equaled by sales promotion or direct marketing activities. Print advertising tends to work more slowly than television or radio, typically. Therefore, an especially long period of time (or an especially heavy media schedule) is required to fully evaluate the total effects of print advertising. Advertising for new products is more effective than advertising for established products. It's easier to create effective advertising for new products, in other words, than it is for established products. The inherent "news value" of new products is the principal reason new product advertising is more effective. Given the greater effectiveness of new product advertising, one of the most common marketing mistakes is failure to take advantage of this inherent advantage (i.e., to underspend on introductory advertising for new products). Perhaps up to half of all advertising for established products is not effective, or is only minimally effective, based on Decision Analyst's research. Perhaps no other industry has a failure rate as high as the advertising industry (with the exception of the promotion industries, direct marketing industries, telemarketing industries, and other alternatives to traditional advertising). The persistently high advertising failure rate results primarily from lack of an accurate feedback mechanism, a lack of testing and evaluation. If an agency doesn't know when its advertising is bad or why it's bad, how can the agency possibly improve its advertising? Marketing research can provide this feedback, but it's too expensive for the typical advertisement or commercial.

Among commercials that are effective, the degree of sales effectiveness can vary greatly from one commercial to the next. One commercial might be several times more effective than another. This indicates that the quality of advertising tends to be more important than the quantity of advertising. Nevertheless, the quantity of advertising (i.e., the media weight) must achieve a threshold level for the advertising to have any positive effects. Limited telephone tracking research (and this can be done with small budgets) can monitor the cumulative effects of advertising upon awareness, brand image, and consumer attitudes, and is one of the simplest and most effective ways to make sure that your advertising is doing its job. Recall of specific messages from advertising is not a very good indicator of advertising effectiveness, and some very effective commercials produce little measurable message recall. Message recall is a positive factor, but its importance should not be overstated. Brand registration, however, is always important (as opposed to message/element recall). If consumers don't remember the brand name, the effectiveness of the advertising is correspondingly reduced. Failure to register the brand name is one of the most common weaknesses of commercials. When next you review your advertising, just make sure that the brand name is clearly stated and clearly shown in the commercial. Ultimate truth is elusive. Advertising effectiveness cannot be determined by any one measure, such as persuasion or recall.Recall is a good measure for some commercials, but not for others. Persuasion scores don't work very well for brands with high market shares and cannot be relied upon for brands in poorly defined product categories. Purchase intent works reasonably well for new products, but poorly for established products. A large number of important variables must be examined to judge the potential effectiveness of advertising. Radio commercials can be as effective, or more effective, than television commercials on the basis of sales return per dollar of media. However, radio commercials seldom achieve their true potential because radio commercials tend to be inferior to television commercials in content and production. Typically, radio production budgets are much less than television, and radio commercials are rarely submitted to the rigors of marketing research evaluation. Advertising which offends the viewer, or is in poor taste, is almost always ineffective. The only exception to this rule is the commercial which presents a lot of relevant news, where the message is so important that how it is said doesn't matter much. If viewers like a commercial, its chances of being effective are improved. Likeability, however, is not sufficient (in and of itself) to ensure advertising success. From the researcher's perspective, what are the "secrets" to achieving every company's goal: advertising that really works? There is no simple "success" formula, unfortunately, but here are some thoughts which might be of some value:

Advertising works in the arms of sound strategy. What role is advertising to play in the brand's marketing plan? What messages must the advertising communicate? What images should the advertising project? These are strategy issues, and they bring us to this conclusion: without sound strategy, the chances of advertising success are very low. Several research techniques are available to identify and resolve strategy issues before creative development begins. Homework and hard work are more likely to yield effective advertising than creative brilliance and flashes of creative genius. Great advertising evolves from trial and error, tinkering, and tweaking. Pretesting each commercial is a laboratory experiment, an opportunity to learn how to make the next commercial even better.

Big egos (creative egos, client egos, research egos, and agency egos) are barriers to the creation of effective advertising, because big egos tend to substitute wish and emotion for thinking, reasoning, and objectivity. If your agency (or your client) is unwilling to make creative adjustments-based upon objective consumer feedback-to improve the creative product, then you have the wrong agency (or the wrong client). Test your advertising. Show it to members of your target audience and see how they react. No one (not the client, the agency, or the researcher) is smart enough to know how consumers will perceive and react to a given commercial. If you can't afford one of the advertising testing services, test it yourself. Show the new commercial and a couple of old ones, and ask some consumers which one would most influence their interest in buying the brand. If you can't afford that, then ask your spouse what he/she thinks of your advertising. The method is surprisingly accurate, but often leads to a bloody divorce. Once you have chosen a testing system, stick with it so that you (the agency, the creatives, the brand managers, and the researchers) all learn how to use and how to interpret the test results for your product category and your brand. "Sticking with" and learning a testing system is more important than which system you select. No testing system is perfect. No testing system can be used blindly. A large dose of intelligent human judgment must always be incorporated into the advertising evaluation process. If budgets permit, test at the rough, as well as the finished, stages of creative development. Once you've spent $300,000 producing finished commercials, you will not be very open to any research which questions the effectiveness of those commercials. Testing at the rough stage can help you refine the creative before spending the big dollars on production. The more rough executions you evaluate, the greater the probability that the winning execution will be effective. Testing at the finished stage can help guide final editing or re-editing of commercials or pool-outs, help determine how much weight should be put behind the creative, and provide understanding to help guide campaign evolution and the creation of subsequent commercials. A couple of final suggestions. Be sure your advertising puts enough emphasis upon your brand name so that consumers will remember it. And, don't forget to give consumers some positive information about your product (i.e., a reason to buy it). Good luck at the supermarket.