Advertising Effectiveness

Reasons for ad research Pre-testing Post-testing

SAY WHAT
After more than 190,000 blind taste tests, Coca-Cola discovered that consumers preferred New Coke over Coke and Pepsi New Coke replaced CokeFailed miserably!!! Letter from one consumer: I dont drink alcoholic beverages, I dont smoke, and I dont chase other women, my only vice has been Coke. Now you have taken that pleasure from me. Would it be right to rewrite the Constitution? The Bible? To me, changing the Coke formula is of such a serious matter

What Happened??
Why didnt the scientific research lead to the right decision? The right question was never asked Did the customer mind the original Coke being taken away? They confused socio-cultural meaning with physical reality Never ever confuse a brand and a product

Levels of relationship with brands

COKE

Emotions Personality Product benefits

What is Advertising Research?

The systematic gathering and analysis of information to help develop or evaluate advertising strategies, individual ads, and whole campaigns

Account Planning
A broader view than traditional research that introduces data earlier in the development process and relies on a wider variety of research techniques.

Advertising and Promotion Research

Used to assist in determining market segments Plays a key role in helping creatives understand the audience Used to make go/no go ad decisions and when to pull ads Used to evaluate agency performance

Reasons to Measure Effectiveness

Avoiding costly mistakes
Achieving objectives Budget optimization

Evaluating alternative strategies

Between two promotional program elements Options within a tool
Eg: Within sales promos, to do couponing or price-off

Reasons to Measure Effectiveness

Increasing the efficiency of advertising in general
Technical jargons Too creative or too sophisticated

Determining if objectives are achieved

Linking program elements to specific objectives

Reasons not to Measure Effectiveness

Cost
Opportunity cost Time

Research Problems
Accuracy in measuring effect on sales is absent Communications effectiveness

Disagreement on what to test The objections of creative

Applying measures stifles creativity Ad effectiveness is directly proportional to creativity

What to Test?
Source Factors
Sources attractiveness, likeability, authenticity
Eg:Tiger Woods is a successful salesperson for Nike or Aamir Khan for Coca-Cola

Message Variables
Strength of the message memorability, delivery Linkage with the brand factors

What to Test?
Media Strategies
Which media class? Which media vehicle? Geographic location? Vehicle option source effect differential impact due to media Scheduling decisions

Budgeting Decisions
Budget size on ad effectiveness

When to Test
Pretesting
Before the campaign from idea generation to rough execution to final version Finding communication gaps
Eg: Print layouts, headlines, body copy, illustrations TVC storyboards, animatics

Mood-testing and emotional aspects cannot be tested in storyboard

Posttesting
After the campaign objectives achieved, inputs for future planning

Pretesting Methods
Direct Questioning Basically used for testing alternative ads in the early stages For print ads focus groups, paired comparisons, portfolio tests for highest recall Central Location Projection Test TVCs are tested in a commercial location Clutter Tests Measure comprehension and attitude shifts

Posttesting Methods
For Print Ads Inquiry Tests
Response cards, phone calls, same ad successively in same medium (cumulative effects), in different media (effectiveness of the medium) Getting or not getting inquiries is not a true measure of ad effectiveness

Post-testing Methods
Recall Tests Effectiveness of ad elements size, colour, themes,brand name, benefits Disadvantages objectivity is difficult because the viewers recall is influenced by his prior involvement with the product

Posttesting Methods
For Broadcast commercials
Day-After Recall (DAR) Tests Field tests recall, persuasive measures, and diagnostics Recall might be higher for thinking messages than emotional ones Single-Source Tracking Studies Commercial exposures are correlated with purchase behaviours in selected households Ad impact on sales can be measured