ADVERTISING PLANNING AND

RESEARCH

Christ University, Bangalore

Agenda

• Advertising Research and

Account Planning
• Strategic Research
• Evaluative Research
• Challenges in Research
• How communication
works?
• Message development
research
r • The advertising plan

Christ University, Bangalore 2

Advertising Research
• Advertising Research is a specialized form of marketing research that
focuses on all elements of advertising, including advertising design,
media planning and evaluation
• Although information plays a big role in every major advertising
campaign, it is always assimilated into, combined with, and altered by
the professional and personal experiences of those who plan, create,
execute, and approve the advertising
Strategic Research

• The Components of Advertising Research- Refer the figure on Page

125 of Wells and Moriarty Text
• Strategic Research is an information- gathering process that enhances
the design at a creative strategy level
• It covers all the issues that lead to the actual creation of advertising
• Think of strategic research as collecting all relevant background
information needed to make a decision
• For example, you are engaged in strategic research when you are
looking for an acceptable college to attend
Evaluative Research

• Evaluative Research assesses the effectiveness of your advertising

decisions
• An advertisement goes through various stages of development and
evaluation takes place at each stage
• Evaluative Research is used to make final go/ no- go decisions about
finished or nearly finished ads, as distinguished from strategic
research, which is used to understand the strengths and weaknesses of
different strategies and different versions of a concept or approach
• Marketers also use evaluative research to assess the ad during the
actual execution as well as to assess to what extent the ad achieved its
objective, after it runs
• This research identifies and implements various effectiveness
measures
Evaluative Research Techniques
• We now discuss a variety of evaluation techniques that are used in
conjunction with the actual creation of the ad.
• Before Execution:
• There are a variety of evaluation techniques that are used in
conjunction with the actual creation of the ad. These techniques are
attempts to connect with general components of an effective ad and
the stated objectives for that particular ad.
• Message Development Research: Although facts play an important
role in many advertising campaigns, they are always filtered through
and evaluated against a system of ideas, experiences, prejudices,
memories of past successes and failures, hierarchical relationships,
and tastes and preferences within the advertiser’s own company and
within the advertising agency. Research is needed to develop
messages.
Evaluative Research Techniques
• Furthermore, as writers and art directors begin working on a specific
creative project, they almost always conduct at least some informal
research of their own. They may talk to friends, or even strangers,
who might be in the target audience. They may visit retail stores, talk
to salespeople, and watch people buy. They may visit the information
center, browse through reference books, and borrow subject and
picture files. They will look at previous advertising (especially the
competition’s ) to see what others have done, and in their hearts they
will become absolutely convinced that they are able to create
something better than, and different from, anything that has been done
before.
• This informal, personal research has a powerful influence on what
, happens later in the advertising process.
Evaluative Research Techniques

• Strategic research and Message Development Research work hand in

hand. The advertiser starts by developing alternative message ideas or
creative concepts. The team responsible for evaluative research then
determines which creative concept is best. Anyone engaged in the
creative process can request this type of feedback. It may be as simple
as speaking with others assigned to the project, or as complex as focus
group.
• Feedback may occur several times during the creative process, but
eventually the ad will reach a somewhat finished stage called
comprehensive (comps), or the story board stage where the ad has
its final artwork and copy. It is at this point that feedback is sought
from members of the target audience.
Evaluative Research Techniques

• The evaluative process has become more structured, follows a set

procedure, and must respond to certain considerations. These
considerations are discussed below:
• Methods of Contact: There are a variety of ways to contact
consumers when conducting message evaluation research. The
contact can be in person, by telephone, by mail, or through the
Internet.
• Survey Research: uses structured interviews to ask large numbers of
people the same question. The questions can deal with personal
characteristics, such as age, income, behavior, or attitudes. The people
can be from an entire group, or population, (i.e. Census Survey) or
they can be a representative sample of a much larger group. Sampling
uses a smaller number of people to represent the entire population.
Evaluative Research Techniques
• Observation Research: Like anthropologists, observation researchers
study consumers where they live, work, and play. Basically, they have
elevated people- watching to a science. Direct observation takes
researchers into natural settings where they record the behavior of
consumers. Many research firms use video and disposable cameras to
record consumers’ behavior at home (with consumer consent), in
stores, or wherever people use their products.
• Cognitive Psychology and the Use of Metaphor: Some researchers
believe that consumers’ wants and needs are so deeply embedded in
their brains that language becomes an insufficient communication
tool, so researchers turn to metaphor. Cognitive psychologists have
learned that human beings think in images, not words.
• Communication Assessment: These are one- on- one interviews,
usually conducted in shopping malls that supply central interviewing
facilities.
Evaluative Research Techniques
• Content Analysis of Competing Ads: In preparation for a new
campaign, agency researchers or account executives often conduct
systematic audits of competitor’s advertisements.
• Readability Tests: An ad must be readable before it is set in final
form. The length of the words and sentences and the impersonality of
the writing are some of the elements that influence readability.
• Test Marketing: A test market might be used to test some elements
of an ad or a media mix in two or more potential markets. The test
markets should be representative of the target market. Some cities,
such as Buffalo, Indianapolis, and San Antonio, are considered
excellent test markets because their demographic and socio- economic
profiles are very broad. That is, they have virtually all income, race,
ethnic, and education categories represented within the city.
Evaluative Research Techniques
• Physiological Measures: Over the years, advertisers have
experimented with assessing people’s physical reactions to ad
concepts before the ad is run. Of the main techniques tried, five are
worthy of special note:
1. Eye movement tracking: Participants are asked to look at a print ad
or television commercial while a sensor aims a beam of infra red light
at their eyes. A portion of the light reflected by the cornea is detected
by the same sensor, which electronically measures the angle between
the beam reflected by the cornea and the center of the eye’s pupil.
This information can be processed to show the exact spot in the ad or
on the television screen where the eye is focused, indicating what the
participant is looking at and for how long.
2. The pupillometer: This device measures pupil size when a person is
exposed to a visual stimulus such as an ad or a package. The
assumption is that pupil size increases with interest.
Evaluative Research Techniques
3. The psychogalvanometer: This device is part of
the lie detector apparatus. Two zinc electrodes are
attached to the subject, one on the palm of the hand
and the other on the forearm. When the subject is
exposed to an ad, emitted perspiration on the palm
results in lower electrical resistance, which is
recorded on a revolving drum. This suggests an
emotional response has occurred.
4. The tachistoscope: This device controls exposure
to a print message so that different parts of the ad can
be shown without revealing the other parts. That
way, the tester can tell at what point each part is
perceived. Advertisers can thus find out how long it
takes respondents to get the intended point of an
illustration or headline.
Evaluative Research Techniques

5. The EEG: Through the use of the electroencephalograph(EEG), data

can be collected from several locations on the skull. Several electrical
frequencies at each location are checked up to 1, 000 times per second.
By measuring the electrical activity in various parts of the brain, this
technique can tell the researcher when the subject is resting or when
there is attention to a stimulus.
•Limitations of Physiological Tests
a.Because the respondents may feel threatened by these devices, the
validity of the results is questionable
b.There is a great deal of uncertainty as to what this machinery actually
measures. Increased perspiration may provide a measure of emotional
arousal, but is it a meaningful sign of advertising effectiveness?
Evaluative Research Techniques
• During Execution: Concurrent Testing
• Concurrent testing takes place while the advertising is actually being
run. There are three primary techniques:
i. Coincidental Surveys
ii. Attitude Tests. And,
iii.Tracking Studies
• The first two techniques assess communication effectiveness while
Tracking Studies evaluate actual behavior.
i. Coincidental Surveys: This technique is most often used with
broadcast media. Random calls are made to individuals in the target
market. By discovering what stations or shows people are seeing or
hearing, the advertiser can determine whether the target audience is
getting the message and, if so, what information or meaning the
audience members receive. This technique can be useful in
Evaluative Research Techniques
identifying basic problems. For example, several years ago, Pepsi
discovered that the use of Madonna as a spokesperson was a terrible
mistake.
ii. Attitude Tests: The attitude measurement techniques for print and
broadcast are virtually identical. Researchers survey individuals who
were exposed to the ad, asking questions about the spokesperson, the
tone of the ad, its wording, and so forth. Results that show strong
negative attitude scores may prompt the advertiser to pull an ad
immediately.
iii. Tracking Studies: Studies that follow the purchase activity of a
specific consumer or group of consumers over a specified period of time
are market tracking studies. These studies combine conventional
marketing research data with information on marketing communication
spending. Compared with other tests, tracking studies provide fuller
integration of data and a more complete view of the market.
Evaluative Research Techniques
• Account planners use several methods to collect tracking data:
a. Wave Analysis: looks at a series of interviews during a campaign.
The tracking begins with a set of questions asked of a random sample
of consumers on a predetermined date. The first questions usually
qualify the person as someone who remembers hearing or seeing the
ad. Once the person is qualified, the researcher asks a series of follow-
up questions. The answers serve as a benchmark for acceptability and
allow adjustments in the message content, media choice, and timing.
Perhaps two months later, the researcher makes another series of
random calls and asks the same questions. The second wave is
compared with the first. The periodic questioning may continue until
management is satisfied with the ad’s market penetration.
Evaluative Research Techniques
b. Consumer Diaries: Sometimes
advertisers ask a group of representative
consumers to keep a diary during a
campaign. The advertisers asks the
consumers to record activities such as
brands purchased, brands used for various
activities, brand switches, media usage,
exposure to competitive promotions, and
use of coupons. The advertiser can then
review these diaries and determine factors
such as whether the message is reaching
the right target audience and if the
audience is responding to the message as
intended.
Evaluative Research Techniques
c. Pantry Checks: The pantry check provides much of the same
information as the diary method but requires little from the consumer. A
researcher goes to homes in the target market and asks what brands or
products they have purchased or used recently. In one variation of this
procedure, the researcher counts the products or brands currently stocked
by the consumer. The consumer may also be asked to keep empty
packages, which the researcher then collects and tallies. The purpose is
to correlate product use with the introduction and completion of the
campaign.
d. Single- Source Tracking: Thanks to scanners, combined with
computer technology and data and the use of electronic media,
researchers are closer to showing a causal relationship between
advertising and sales. To set up a single- source tracking system,
researchers first recruit people living in a particular market to join a
consumer panel. The system has 4 elements: Refer Pg 139 of Wells Text
Evaluative Research Techniques
• After Execution:
1. Memory Tests: are based on the assumption
that an advertisement leaves a mental
residue with the person who has been
exposed to it. One way to measure an
advertisement’s effectiveness, then, is to
contact consumers and find out what they
remember about it. Memory tests fall into
two major groups: Recall Tests and
Recognition Tests
Evaluative Research Techniques
a. Recall Tests: .The company most commonly associated with day-
after recall tests is Burke Marketing Services. Gallup & Robinson’s
In- View Service is another recall test company. In a traditional
recall test, a finished commercial is run on network television within
a regular prime- time program. The next evening, interviewers in
three or four cities make thousands of random phone calls until they
have contacted about 200 people who were watching the program at
the exact time the commercial appeared. The interviewer then asks a
series of questions. (Refer Page 141 of Wells Text for examples of
questions asked). Researchers analyze recall test results by
examining the verbatim responses (what was said word for word), to
determine how many viewers remembered something specific about
the ad.
Evaluative Research Techniques
b. Recognition Tests: Another way to measure memory is to show the
advertisement to people and ask them whether they remember having
seen it before. This kind of test is generally called a recognition test.
Researchers first used recognition tests to evaluate print advertising. One
of the earliest recognition tests is named after its inventor, Daniel Starch.
2. Persuasion Tests: Another evaluative research technique is to use
after execution is a persuasion test. The basic format for a persuasion
test, or attitude change test, is this: consumers are first asked how likely
they are to buy a specific brand. Next they are exposed to an
advertisement for the brand. After exposure, researchers again ask them
what they intend to purchase. The researcher analyzes the results to
determine whether intention to buy has increased as a result of exposure
to the advertisement.
•Assessing Persuasion Tests: Ref Pg 142 of Wells and Moriarty Text
•Cost of Persuasion Tests: Refer Pg 142 of Wells and Moriarty Text
Evaluative Research Techniques
3. Direct- Response Counts: are ads that contain elements that can be
returned. Some television commercials request direct response via a toll-
free number. Some printed ads request direct response via a toll- free
number, a coupon, a website, or an offer embedded in a body copy.
Responses to these requests provide direct measures of effectiveness.
4. Frame- by- Frame Tests: While a television commercial unfolds,
viewers’ responses to the commercial change as they view each part of
it. Researchers have tried to track those changes in several different
ways. In one form of frame- by- frame test, viewers turn a dial or press
numbers on an electronic keypad to indicate their moment- to- moment
reactions to what they are seeing on the screen. That procedure produces
a trace- a continuous record of ups and downs. When the trace is
correlated with the commercial frame by frame , it provides a record of
which parts of the commercial increased increased attention and which
parts reduced it.
Evaluative Research Techniques
5. In- Market Tests: Tests that evaluate advertisements by measuring
their influence on sales are known as In- market tests.
•Substitutes for In- Market Tests: Refer Page 144 of Wells and
Moriarty Text
6. Brand Tracking: is a relatively new kind of advertising research. The
underlying assumption of this type of research is that with fragmented
media and an abundance of high- quality products, tracking the brand is
more important than tracking the ad. The relationship with the customer
is built in large part on the brand’s values rather than the product’s
attributes. Instead of arguing that a product works better, advertisers
show consumers that their brand means more. The thinking is that
advertising and other marketing communications should involve
customers in the brand’s values so they are more favorably disposed
toward it.
•Implications of Evaluative Research- Refer Page 144 of Text
Research Challenges
1. Globalization: Advertisers are becoming increasingly more global.
Developing research methods aimed at solving global problems
would establish a new and important advertising research tradition.
2. New Media Technology: The expansion from three on- air
television networks to a plethora of cable channels changed
television programming, television program audiences, and
television advertising throughout the United States. Because of this
media fragmentation, researchers and account planners must help to
develop message strategies that enable media planners to reach
consumers most effectively.
3. Virtual Research: Measuring the effectiveness of ads through
interactive media is a challenge.
4. Embedded Research: The development of embedded research is
related to online research. In this case, the research methods are
embedded directly into real purchase and use situations.
DAGMAR Approach

•DAGMAR stands for ‘Defining Advertising Goals for Measured

Advertising Result’
• It means that the goal of advertising is to achieve specialized objectives
and it recognizes that different advertisements could have a number of
objectives
DAGMAR Model:

a) Emphasizes the communication task of advertising as against

marketing objectives of the firm
b) Advertising goal to be specific, written, measurable task involving a
starting point, a defined audience and a fixed period of time. That is
advertising goal must be- a. Measurable, b. Act as a benchmark, c. Have
a defined audience, d. Time- bound and e. Written