Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. Chapter 7 Advertising and Promotion Research

7–27–2Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. Key Definitions Advertising and 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.

7–37–3Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. 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

7–47–4Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. 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.

7–57–5Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. Purposes of Developmental Advertising Research Idea Generation –An agency is often called on to invent new, meaningful, ways of presenting a brand to a target audience. Concept Testing –Seeks feedback to screen the quality of new ideas or concepts. Audience Definition –Once a target segment have been identified, advertising planning can proceed with a developing a message that will be meaningful to the consumers. Audience Profiling –Creatives need to know as much as they can about the people to whom their ads will speak.

7–67–6Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. Developmental Advertising Research Methods Focus Groups –Brainstorming session with 6 to 12 customers –May involve projective techniques Allow consumers to project thoughts and feelings onto neutral stimuli –May also use association tests Ask consumers to express thoughts or feelings after hearing a brand or seeing a logo

7–77–7Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. Developmental Advertising Research Methods (cont’d) Other methods include –Projective Techniques –Association Tests –Dialogue Balloons –Story Construction –Sentence and picture completion –Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET)

7–87–8Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. Developmental Advertising Research Methods (cont’d) More methods include –Field Work Embedded consumption: Learn from the experiences of the consumer through direct observation Creative brief: an outline of essential creative ideas “Cool Hunts” –On the prowl for what is cool

7–97–9Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. Developmental Advertising Research Methods (cont’d) Internal company sources Government data sources Commercial sources Professional publications The Internet

7–10Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. Copy Research Research on the actual ads Used to judge the ads against a standard Sometimes a source of agency conflict

7–11Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. Motives and Expectations in 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. Creatives don’t like message testing because it creates a report card and “artists” resent getting report cards from people in suits. Message-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.

7–12Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. Evaluative Criteria in Copy Research “Getting It.” –Do consumers understand the ad? Knowledge –Tests of recall and recognition Attitude change –Determine where a brand stands Feelings and emotions Physiological changes –Changes in eye movements or respiration Behavioral intent –Do people say they will buy the product Actual Behavior –Did people buy the product?

7–13Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. What sort of “feelings and emotions” do you think research would uncover for this ad?

7–14Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. Copy Research Methods Communication Tests –Are consumers getting the message? Resonance Tests –To what extent does the ad ring true? Thought Listings –Determine the thoughts that occur during exposure Recall Tests –How much does the viewer remember from the message?

7–15Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. Copy Research Methods (cont’d) Recognition Tests –Do people remember seeing an ad or sponsor? Attitude Change Studies –Measure attitudes before and after exposure Frame by Frame tests –Tracks emotional responses within an ad Physiological Tests –Eye tracking, psychogalvanometer, voice response analysis

7–16Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. Copy Research Methods (cont’d) Pilot Testing –Split cable, split run, split list Direct Response –Track consumer inquiries or direct responses Single Source Data –Use UPC product codes to track behavior from the TV to the checkout counter

7–17Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. Account Planning versus Advertising Research Planning differs from traditional research in three ways: Account PlannerAd Researcher An account planner works with an account executive Research handled by the ad research department Researchers put in more prominent role Researchers involved when needed Emphasize qualitative and naturalistic research Emphasize quantitative research

7–18Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. Another Thought on Message Testing No single method is perfect. Researchers are employing more naturalistic methods to understand how people use media.

7–19Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. What We Need Ad research could do with some changes. West coast agencies and British agencies have embraced qualitative methods. Ads are often viewed as complex social texts rather than equivalent of high school debates.

7–20Copyright © 2006 Thomson Business and Economics. All rights reserved. Audience definition is important to the advertising/ promotion research process. Which audience for this ad?