Advertising and Promotion Research

1. Advertising and Promotion Research Marketing 3344

2. Key Definitions • Advertising and Brand Promotion Research: Any research that helps in the development, execution or evaluation of advertising and promotion. • 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.

3. 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

4. Key Issues in Advertising and Promotion Research • Reliability: The research method produces consistent findings over time. • Validity: The information generated is relevant to the research questions being investigated. • Trustworthiness: Usually applied to qualitative data; does the data seem to make sense? • Meaningfulness: An assessment of limitations of the data.

5. Advertising and IBP Research • Developmental research (before ads are made) • Copy research (as ads are begin finished) • Results-oriented research (while the ads are running)

6. Stage One: Developmental Advertising and IBP Research • Concept Testing: Designed to screen the quality of new ideas or concepts. • Audience Profiling: Creatives need to know as much as they can about the people to whom their ads will speak. Profiles present the creative staff with a fine-grained picture of the target audience, and its needs, wants, and motivations. • Real Usage (what the consumer really wants): Qualitative research methods are being used to discover how consumers really use brands and why. • Focus groups: Brainstorming session with target customers (6-12) to come up with new insights about the brand. Focus groups offer the opportunity to gather in-depth data.

7. More Developmental Advertising and IBP Research Methods Other methods include: • Projective Techniques • Association Tests • Dialogue Balloons • Story Construction • Sentence and picture completion • Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) • Field Tests—including “cool hunts”

8. Developmental Advertising Research Methods: Other Sources of Information • Internal company sources • Government data sources • Commercial sources • Professional publications • The Internet

9. Stage Two: Copy Research • Research on the actual ads • Used to judge the ads and promotion text finished or unfinished • Often referred to as “evaluative research”

10. Motives and Expectations for Copy Research • Account team wants assurance that the ad does what it is supposed to do. • The client wants to see how well a particular ad scores against the average commercial of its type (a “normative test.”) • Creatives don’t like copy testing because it creates a report card and “artists” resent getting report cards from people in suits. (Who wouldn’t?) • Copy testing research is a good idea most of the time--it can yield important data that management can use to determine the suitability of an ad.

11. Evaluative Criteria and Methods in Copy Research • “Getting It.” • Communications Test • What do they remember? • Cognitive Residue • Thought listings • Recall: Aided, unaided, claim, related • Recognition testing • Implicit memory measures

12. Evaluative Criteria and Methods in Copy Research (con’t) • Knowledge—consumer brand claim or belief • Communication tests • Surveys • Attitude Change • Attitude Studies • Resonance Tests • Frame by Frame Tests • Physiological Changes • Eye Tracking • Voice Analysis • Behavioral Intent • Pilot Testing • Split cable transmission

13. Ad in Context Example What sort of problems would these two ads create in the advertising research process?

14. State Three: Results Oriented Research • Tracking Studies • Assess attitude, knowledge, behavioral intent and behavior over time • Direct Response • Inquiry/direct response measures through mail, phone, internet • Estimated Sales Derived from Research • Advertising and promotions differ greatly • Internet is ideal given “click-throughs” • Multiple factors can effect sales • All-in-One Single Source Data • Links shopping to media use through store scanners

15. Account Planning versus Advertising Research Planning differs from traditional research in 3 ways:

16. One last thought on message testing • No single method is perfect • Researchers are employing more naturalistic methods to understand how people use media

17. What we need • Advertisements and promotions are complex social text—are recall and recognition appropriate tests? • Research is not “magic truth” • It is difficult to match research methods with real world situations

18. Ad in Context Example How is this ad “social text” and what sort of research method can capture its meaning?