Adverising Effectiveness

Gaurab Rajbhandari MBA (day shift)

Advertising copy testing:

Many companies spend millions every year on advertising, but not all of them measure the

effect of this investment. At the same time we know that only a small percentage of

advertising has an effect and that as a result it is vital to know exactly which adverts this is

true for.

Everyone has a relationship with advertising, whether on the TV, in the cinema, on the

radio, on the web, on a billboard, in a newspaper or a magazine. We know that consumers

often talk about advertising campaigns but that these campaigns still do not achieve the

desired effect for example increased sales (the entertainment effect of advertising should

not be at the cost of a return on the investment). An advertising test tells us what works,

what does not work and importantly why and thus helps to optimize the campaign’s

different elements and give an increased effect.

Advertisement is to be tested both before and after it’s ‘on the air’. Pre-testing is a valuable

tool with which to evaluate form and message and to allow measures to be put in place to

optimize the effect. Post-testing should be seen in conjunction with advertising spend to

measure the real effect in relation to investment.

Pretest methods:

1. Consumer jury method

a) Order of merit test

b) Paired comparison test

2. Advertising concept test

3. Trial area test

4. Eye movement camera test

5. Direct mail test

6. in home projection test

7. Telecast test

8. Theatre test


9. Laboratory test (mechanical test)

a. Galvanometer test

b. pupil meter test

c. Techistoscope test

The methods used to pre-test advertisements are based upon either qualitative or

quantitative criteria. The primary purpose of testing advertisements during the

developmental process is to ensure that the final creative will meet the advertising

objectives. The practical objective of pre-testing unfinished and finished creative work is

that it is more effective for an advertiser to terminate an advertisement before costs

become so large and commitment too final. Changes to an advertisement that are made too

late may be resisted partly because of the sunk costs and partly because of the political

consequences that ‘pulling’ an advertisement might have. Once a series of advertisements

has been roughed or developed so that its messages can be clearly understood, advertisers

seek reassurance and guidance regarding which of the alternatives should be developed

further.

In consumer jury method ad effectiveness is evaluated by panel of selected consumers. The

members of the panel are selected form different geographical areas, different

backgrounds, and representing different classes of customers. In order of merit test jury

members rank different ads according to their preferences and in paired comparison test

jury members rank the ads on one to one basis.

Advertising concept test is done while developing advertisement copy. Various aspects of

ad copy viz., proposed statements, headlines, visuals, clours, print type etc are selected and

are shown to selected individuals in different geographical areas. These individuals are

raised questions as to which headlines are most appealing, which visuals, colours or designs

are most suitable. Trial area test is adopted to evaluate the effectiveness of ad before

finally launching it into total marketing area. In this test, two cities are selected, where one

city is known as test city and other city is known as control city. The selected cities have

almost same type of economic and market conditions. In test city, advertisement is


launched and in control city, advertisement is not launched. Increase in sales in test city is

compared with increase in sales in control city.

In home projection and telecast test methods, test –ads are shown to the consumers (at

consumers home in home projection and in actual TV programmes in telecast test). Later

viewers are interviewed to know their reactions. These questions are related to different

contents of the ads, their interest generating abilities and their effectiveness. Whereas in

theatre test methods, participants are invited to view a proposed theatre programmes. The

free tickets along with a questionnaire are sent to the selected group of customers. The

responses from this questionnaire are analyzed to assess the advertising effectiveness.

Laboratory tests or mechanical test includes galvanometer test, pupilometer test and

techistoscope test. In this method, some scientific instruments are used to assess the ad-

effectiveness. Scientific instruments like psycho galvanometer, techistoscope, pupilomoeter

are used to measure physiological reactions of viewers on seeing the advertisement.

Post test methods:

1. Recognition test

2. Gallup Robinson recall test

3. Association test

4. Sale result test

5. Split result test

6. Rating scale test

7. Day after recall test

8. Inquiry test

9. Portfolio test

These methods evaluate the effectiveness of advertisement after ad has actually been

launched in the total market area. Objective of such test is to determine that ad campaign is

accomplishing the advertising objectives or not. Following are the main post-testing

methods:


Recognition test also known as readership/viewership test means identifying something as

having been seen before. This test considers degree of memory as the basis of ad

effectiveness. In this test, selected persons are shown the advertisement and asked if they

had previously seen or read any part of it. If they answer in affirmation, it is considered that

the advertisement is effective. Gallup and Robinson recall test is an aided recall test to

evaluate advertising effectiveness. In this test, selected person is shown a magazine cover

and he is asked if he has read it. If the answer is ‘yes’, he is asked to quote anything from

that magazine to confirm that the respondents has actually read the magazine. , then he is

given some cards indicating names of some brands and advertisers. Then he is asked which

of this advertisement he has seen in this magazine. If the respondent names our

advertisement and is able to recall more about our ad, then the advertisement is treated as

more effective.

In association test, any clue, idea, slogan or phrase form the advertisement is provided to

the respondents and he is asked to associate it with the brand name, i.e. the respondent is

to identify the brand name or advertiser’s name. If he correctly relates this phrase with

advertiser’s name, then the advertisement is evaluated as effective.

Sales result test measures the increase or decrease in sales after and before the

advertisement. Increase in sales justifies that the advertisement as effective.

Split test is conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of different advertisement copies. In

this case, two advertisement copies are prepared and then issued in the same media. In

both of these ad copies coupons are attached. The readers of advertisement are directed to

mail the coupon along with advertisement cuttings to avail free gifts. Later on, ad is

evaluated by analyzing the actual response to these advertisement copies by comparing

number of coupons mailed to the advertiser.

Respondents are asked to recall the advertisement shown a day before in day after recall

test. If respondents are able to recall the advertisement after one day then the

advertisement is considered as effective. Ad effectiveness is evaluated on the basis of

number of enquires generated in response to advertisement in inquiry test. Generally

telephone number of advertiser is given in the advertisement. Number of inquires received


after the advertisement is launched are counted and the ad is considered effective if the ad

has been able to arouse the interest in respondents. In portfolio test, portfolio of various

advertisement copies is made. One of the ad-copy is actual while other ad copies are

dummy. The respondents are asked to identify the actual ad copy from the given portfolio.

If more respondents are able to identify the actual ad copy then advertisement is

considered as effective.

DAGMAR (Defining Advertisement Goals for Measured Advertisement

Results):

For effective advertising setting the objective of advertising is very important. Well defined

objectives serve as standard with actual performance can be measured. Advertising

objectives serve as guidelines in approaching advertising budget and in measuring ad-

effectiveness.

DAGMAR approach is related to setting of advertising objectives in such a way against which

advertising can be easily measured. DAGMAR means “Defining Advertising Goals for

Measured Advertising Results”. This approach was given by Russell Collay in 1961. In this

report Collay developed model based on communications and measuring the results of

advertising campaign. DAGMAR moves to comprehension, then conviction and ends with

action.

According to Russell collay, “the main objective of advertising is to communicate with the

defined audience, the necessary information that stimulates action. Advertising succeeds or

fails depending on how well it communicates the desired information to the right people, at

the right time and at the right cost”.

Objectives

Under DAGMAR approach the main objective of advertising is to communicate the desired

message to the target audience. In this model main focus is one communication task of

advertising. This communication task involves following four stages:

1. Awareness: making the consumer aware of the existence of the brand or company.


2. Comprehension (understanding): making consumer understand the product and its

uses.

3. Conviction (persuasion): persuading the consumer to buy the product.

4. Action: getting the consumer to actually purchase the product

From the above stages, it is clear that initial task of the advertisement is to gain awareness

of the brand presence in the market. The second step is to make the individual understand

and learn about the brand, that is individual will learn about product features, uses of the

product, method of using the product, place of availability etc. the third step is to convince

the individuals buy the product. For this the advertiser will highlight that his brand is better

then that of competitor. In the last stage the individual will be made to actually buy the

product. Thus, according to DAGMAR model target audience pass through four steps while

purchasing the advertiser’s product.

Characteristics of advertising objectives in DAGMAR approach:

1. Well defined objectives:

Advertising objectives should be clear, precise, measurable and specific. These clear

precise, specific objectives must be communicated to the copywriters/creative specialist

who develops the advertising message.

2. Benchmark and degree of change sought:

Benchmark means the present status of target audience in the communication

model. It means to know how many target audience are at various stages of communication

model i.e. the advertiser must know the number of target audience who are at awareness

stage, understanding stage, persuasion stage and at action stage. Knowing the present

status of number of target audience at various levels is very important to design

appropriate advertising goals.

3. Well defined target audience:

The audience to whom advertising message is to be communicated must be well

defined. The advertiser has to identify the person at each stage of communication

hierarchy. The characteristics of target audience who are at each stage of communication


process are identified. The advertiser should identify the characteristics of target audience

at all the stages, so that the ad message and ad objectives can be designed keeping in view

the characteristics of target audience.

4. Specified time period:

The time period in which ad objective are to be achieved must be specified. Most

advertising campaigns specify the time period from a few months to a year depending on

the situation and degree of change sought.

DAGMAR approach has made significant contribution in setting advertising objectives and

planning advertising campaign. Many advertising planners use this model as the basis for

setting advertising objectives and assessing the effectiveness of their advertising campaign.

DAGMAR also focused on communication objectives as the criteria for evaluating

advertising effectiveness. According to this approach sales objective is not the appropriate

measure of ad-effectiveness, because of two main reasons:

Advertising is not the only factor affecting sales. There are many other factors affecting

sales, so change in sales may be because of factors other than advertising.

The imPACT of advertising on sales can be measured only in the long run. Advertising may

not result in increase in sales in the short run

PACT (Positioning Advertising Copy Testing):

Us ad-agency have developed PACT principles of ad copy testing. PACT stands for

Positioning Advertising Copy Testing. A good copy testing system needs to provide

measurements that are relevant to the advertising objectives. The specific objectives that

an advertising campaign is intended to accomplish (such as creating brand awareness,

influencing brand image or creating warmth) should be the first consideration in

determining the methods to assess advertising effectiveness. For example, if the objective


for a particular advertising campaign is to evoke strong emotional reactions form viewers,

measure of brand awareness would likely be insufficient for determining if the message

succeeded in accomplishing its objectives.

The PACT document consists of message testing principles. More than mere

pronouncements, these principles represent useful guides to how advertisement research

should be conducted. Following are the main PACT principles for evaluating ad:

1. Ad copy testing method should ensure that ad is achieving objectives.

2. For better results of measuring ad-effectiveness, more than one method should be

used, rather than depending on one method only.

3. Most of the methods of measuring ad- effectiveness are based on sampling

methods. For reliable results sample size should be large.

4. Sample selection should be random (unbiased) and samples should represent the

whole target audience group. Wrong sample selection can lead to wrong results.

5. Repeated samples should be used at sufficient time intervals before reaching

conclusion regarding ad effectiveness, i.e. we should not make hurry in drawing

conclusions.

6. When two market areas (test city and control city) are selected for evaluating ad-

effectiveness, these two cities should be identical with regard to income level,

culture, fashion, tastes, religion etc.

7. If an ad copy is to evaluate for its various ad concepts, like color scheme, illustration,

headline, etc, then identical ad copies should be distributed among selected sample

audience i.e. the ad copies distributed to all audience should be same with regard to

various elements like color, design, paper quality etc.


References:

Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated marketing communications

By Terence A. Shimp

Advertising and Sales management

By Mukesh Trehan and

Ranju Trehan

Documents

Adverising Effectiveness