1. Assessing Ad Message Effectiveness
Chapter Twelve
Assessing Ad Message Effectiveness

2. Chapter Twelve Objectives
Explain the rationale and importance of message research.
Describe the various research techniques used to measure consumer’s recognition and recall of advertising messages.
Illustrate measures of physiological arousal to advertisements.

3. Chapter Twelve Objectives
Explicate the role of persuasion measurement, including pre- and post- testing of consumer preference.
Explain the meaning and operation of single-source measures of advertising effectiveness.
Examine some key conclusions regarding television advertising effectiveness.

4. Overview of Advertising Research
It’s not easy or inexpensive
but the value outweighs the drawbacks.
More than 80% of advertisers and agencies pretest television commercials before airing them on a national basis.

5. What Does Advertising Research Involve?
Media Effectiveness (covered later)
Message Research
To test effectiveness of messages
Pretesting ads during developmental stages
Posttesting to determine if messages achieve their established objectives

6. Four Stages At Which Ad Message Research Might Be Conducted
Copy development stage
“Rough” stage
Final production stage
After the ad has been run in the media

7. Industry Standards for Message Research
PACT Principles
Principle 1: provide measurements that are relevant to the advertising objectives
Principle 2: requires agreement about how the results will be used in advance of each specific test
Principle 3: provides multiple measurements because single measurements are generally inadequate

8. Industry Standards for Message Research
PACT Principles
Principle 4: based on a model of human response to communications
Reception of a stimulus
Comprehension of the stimulus
The response of the stimulus
Principle 5: allows for consideration of whether the advertising stimulus should be exposed more than once

9. Industry Standards for Message Research
PACT Principles
Principle 6: recognizes that a more finished piece of copy can be evaluated more soundly
Alternative executions be tested in the same degree of finish
Principle 7: system provides controls to avoid the bias normally found in the exposure context

10. Industry Standards for Message Research
PACT Principles
Principle 8: takes into account basic considerations of sample definition
Requires that the sample be representative of the target audience
Principle 9: can demonstrate reliability and validity
A reliable test is one that yields consistent results
A valid test is one that is predictive of the marketplace performance

11. What Can Be Learned from Message Research?
Message research is needed to diagnose an advertisement’s prospective equity-enhancing and sales-expanding potential.
The ARF assessed which of 35 measures best predicts the sales effectiveness of television commercials. The only definitive conclusion of their study is that no one measure is universally appropriate or best.

12. Message Research Methods
Qualitative Message
Research
Quantitative Message Research

13. Quantitative Message Research
Measurement
Understanding
Control
Improvement

14. Illustrative Message Research Methods

15. Advertising Research Methods
Message
Research
Methods
Recognition & Recall
Physiological Arousal
Persuasion
Sales Response

16. Message Research Methods
Starch readership service (magazines)
Bruzzone tests (TV)
Burke day-after recall (TV)
Recognition & Recall
Physiological Arousal
Persuasion
Sales Response

17. Starch Readership Service
Measures the primary objective of a magazine ad—to be seen and read
Examines reader awareness of ads in consumer magazines and business publications
Readers are classified

18. Starch Readership Service
Classifications
Noted—remember having previously seen the ad in the issue being studied
Associated—noted the ad and saw or read some part of it that clearly indicated the name of the brand or advertiser

19. Starch Readership Service
Classifications
Read Some—read any part of the ad’s copy
Read Most—read half or more of the written material in the ad

20. Starch Readership Service
Indices are developed
ADNORM index: compares an advertisement’s scores against other ads in the same product category as well as the same size (e.g., full page) and color classifications (e.g., four-color ads)

21. Measures of Recognition & Recall
39% of people noted the ad,
37% associated it,
27% read some of it, and
10% read most of the body copy contained in the ad.

22. Measures of Recognition & Recall
58% of people noted the ad,
54% associated it,
39% read some of it, and
39% read most of the body copy contained in the ad.

23. Starch Readership Service
Kia Sorento ad Adnorm index scores
72 (noted)
74 (associated)
73 (read some)
59 (read most)
The ad performed 28% worse than the average noted score for similar ads.
Jose Cuervo Especial Tequila ad
107 (noted)
108 (associated)
105 (read some)
229 (read most)
The ad performed slightly above average noted score for similar ads.

24. Bruzzone Tests
Bruzzone test provides advertisers with a test of consumer recognition of television commercials. Anything identifying the brand is removed, to test whether viewers remember the name of the advertiser.

25. Measures of Recognition & Recall
Bruzzone test
Advertising Response Model (ARM) links responses to the 27 descriptive adjectives to consumers’ attitudes toward both the ad and the advertised brand and to purchase interest.

26. ARM for the “Thanking the Troops” Commercial

27. Measures of Recognition & Recall
Bruzzone test
Provides valid prediction of actual marketplace performance along with being relatively inexpensive
Doesn’t provide a before-the-fact indication
Tests offer important info for evaluating a commercial’s effectiveness and whether it should continue to run
Tests are performed online

28. Measures of Recognition & Recall
Burke Day-After Recall Testing
Used to assess the effectiveness of test commercials and to ID strengths and weaknesses
(1) Claimed-recall scores—indicate the percentage of respondents who recall seeing the ad
(2) Related-recall scores—indicate the percentage of respondents who accurately describe specific advertising elements

29. Measures of Recognition & Recall
Burke Day-After Recall Testing
Coke execs reject recall as a valid measure
1) Recall simply measures whether an ad is received but not whether the message is accepted
2) Recall is biased in favor of younger consumers

30. Measures of Recognition & Recall
Burke Day-After Recall Testing
3) Recall scores generated by ads are not predictive of sales performance
4) Day-after recall testing is biased against certain types of advertising content
Understate the memorability of commercials that employ emotional or feeling-oriented themes and are biased in favor of rational or thought-oriented commercials

31. Day-After Recall Vs. Masked-Recognition Research Findings

32. Message Research Methods
Psychogalvanometer
Pupilometer
Recognition & Recall
Physiological Arousal
Persuasion
Sales Response

33. Measures of Recognition & Recall
Measures of Physiological Arousal
Ads that are better liked are more likely to be remembered and to persuade
Efforts are now made to measure consumer’s affective and emotional reactions to ads

34. Measures of Recognition & Recall
Measures of Physiological Arousal
Galvanometer—measures minute levels of perspiration in response to emotional arousal
Pupillometric tests—measure pupil dilation
Advertising researchers use changes in physiological functions to indicate the actual, unbiased amount of arousal resulting from ads.

35. Message Research Methods
Ipsos-ASI Next*TV method
Rsc’s ARS Persuasion method
Recognition & Recall
Physiological Arousal
Persuasion
Sales Response

36. Measures of Persuasion
Used when an advertiser’s objective is to influence consumers’ attitudes toward and preference for the advertised brand.

37. Measures of Persuasion
Ipsos-ASI Next*TV Method
Performs ad research in more than 50 countries
Tests television commercials in consumers’ homes
Tells consumers to evaluate a TV program, but actually evaluating the commercials within the program

38. Measures of Persuasion
Ipsos-ASI Next*TV Method
One day after viewing—personal contact with sampled consumers and measure their reactions to the TV program and the advertisements
Measures message recall and persuasion

39. Measures of Persuasion
Ipsos-ASI Next*TV Method
Persuasion measured by:
Consumers’ attitudes toward advertised brands
Shift in brand preferences
Brand-related purchase intent and frequency

40. Measures of Persuasion
Ipsos-ASI Next*TV Method
Tests in a natural environment
Assesses the ability of TV commercials to break through the clutter
Determines how well tested commercials are remembered after this delay period
Allows the use of a representative national sampling

41. Measures of Persuasion
The ARS Persuasion Method--rsc
Respondents indicate what brands they prefer to receive among a “basket” of options—the pre measure.
After exposure to a television program respondents again indicate what brands they would prefer to receive if their name were selected in a drawing—the post measure.
ARS Persuasion Score = Post % for target brand –
Pre % for target brand

42. Measures of Persuasion
The ARS Persuasion Method--rsc
The ARS Persuasion score simply represents the post-measure percentage of respondents preferring the target brand minus the pre-measure percentage who prefer that brand
A positive score indicates a shifted preference toward the target brand
A higher-scoring commercial generates greater sales volume and larger market share gains

43. Measures of Persuasion
The ARS Persuasion Method--rsc
ARS Persuasion scores are valid predictors of in-market performance
The higher the score, the greater the likelihood that a tested commercial will produce positive sales gains when the focal brand is advertised under real-world, in-market conditions

44. Predictive Validity of ARS Persuasion Scores

45. Message Research Methods
AC Nielsen’s SCANTRACK
IRI’s BehaviorScan
Recognition & Recall
Physiological Arousal
Persuasion
Sales Response

46. Measures of Sales Response
Single-Source Systems
Gather purchase data from panels of
households using:
(1) electronic television meters
(2) optical laser scanning of universal product codes (UPC) at retail checkout
(3) split-cable technology

47. Measures of Sales Response
Nielsen’s SCANTRACK
SCANTRACK collects purchase data by having panel households use handheld scanners
Panelists record purchases of every bar-coded product purchased regardless of the store where purchased

48. Measures of Sales Response
Nielsen’s SCANTRACK
Use handheld scanners to enter:
Any coupons used
Record all store deals
Record in-store features that influenced their purchasing decisions

49. Measures of Sales Response
IRI’s BehaviorScan
IRI knows what items each household purchases by linking up optically scanned purchases with ID numbers
Members provide IRI with detailed demographic information

50. Measures of Sales Response
IRI’s BehaviorScan
Single source data consists of:
(1) household demographic info
(2) household purchase behavior
(3) household exposure to new television commercials that are tested under real world test conditions

51. Measures of Sales Response
IRI’s BehaviorScan
Uses optically scanned purchase data to know exactly which commercial each household had the opportunity to see and how much of a brand is purchased

52. Measures of Sales Response
IRI’s BehaviorScan
Two types of tests are offered: (1) weight tests and (2) copy tests
Weight tests—panel households are divided into test and control groups
Copy tests—holds the amount of weight constant but varies commercial content

53. Conclusions by rsc Ad copy must be distinctive
Ad weight without persuasiveness is insufficient
The selling power of advertising wears out over time
Advertising works quickly if it works at all

54. Conclusion 1: All Commercials Are Not Created Equal: Ad Copy Must Be Distinctive
Commercials having strong selling propositions are distinctive and tend to achieve higher ARS Persuasion scores.
Commercials for new brands tend to be most persuasive, but commercials for established brands can be made persuasive via brand differentiation.

55. Illustration
Of a
Commercial
With a Strong
Selling
Proposition

56. Evidence from Frito-Lay’s Copy Tests

57. Conclusion 2—More is Not Necessarily Better: Weight Is Not Enough
Ad weight means the number of gross rating points (GRP) that support an advertising campaign.
An ineffective ad (not distinctive or persuasive) has no likelihood of increasing sales even if the ad weight is doubled or tripled.

58. Relations
Among
Advertising
Weight,
Persuasion
Scores,
and Sales.

59. The Role of Sales-Effective Advertising for an Undisclosed Campbell Soup Brand

60. The Relationship Between Media Weight and Creative Content
47 commercials for established brands were tested and classified as:
Rational information
Heuristic appeals
Affectively based cues
Finding: increased advertising weight led to significant sales increases in sales only for commercials using affective cues.

61. Conclusion 3—All Good Things Must End: Advertising Eventually Wears Out
Advertising ultimately wears out and must be refreshed to maintain or increase brand sales.
Familiar brands have been shown to wear out more slowly than unfamiliar brands.

62. Conclusion 4—Don’t Be Stubborn: Advertising Works Quickly or Not at All
Some advertisers tend to “hang in there” and wait for an ad to increase sales.
Most of the sales impact occurs in the first three months of a new ad.
“Sunk costs” are an issue to consider, but if an ad is not working at first, it probably never will.