Advertising concepts and applications

Marketing Advertising

The XYZ Company has just developed a new product and advertising for this product has begun in earnest. The company desires to test the effectiveness of advertising on the public.

In the marketing advertising research initiative the questions that must be asked are: (1) Who are the customers and potential customers? (2) Are they able to purchase and will they purchase? (3) Will they purchase the goods that are being offered? (4) Are the prices consistent with what buyers believe the products are worth? (5) Are the promotional programs being used effective? (6) How is the business perceived by buyers? (7) How does the business compare with those of the competition? The Small Business Administration states that: "Marketing research is not a perfect science. It dealt with people and their constantly changing feelings and behaviors, which are influenced by countless subjective factors. To conduct marketing research it is important to gather facts and opinions in an orderly objective way to find out what people want to buy..." (Marketing Research, U.S. SBA, 2006)

Advertising research is an attempt to assess the likely impact of an advertising campaign in advance, and also measure the success of a recent campaign." (Wikipedia; Marketing Research

Types of marketing research are inclusive of 'advertising and promotion' research which deal with the effectiveness of ads (i.e. do the customers remember the ad, do they understand the message; and does the ad influence the purchasing behavior of consumers?) According to Jerry W. Thomas in the work entitled "New Products" published at the Decision Analyst website "New products are a 'state of mind' an attitude. Mental rigidity is the antithesis of new products thinking. A negative attitude is the kiss of death. Creating a new product requires openness, optimism, imagination, freedom, risk-taking, and persistence. These psychological qualities must be nurtured within the organization generally, and specifically within the individuals or group responsible for new products development." (1994) Additionally stated by Thomas is:,," new product thinking is an ongoing activity. It's not a one-time thing. The world and everything in it are motion, evolving, changing. The search for product improvements and new products, therefore, must be continuous- or the world will quickly pass you by." (1994) Thomas offers advice concerning the development and promotion of new products which is inclusive of: (1) Start small; (2) Opportunity is everywhere; (3) Start anywhere; and (4) Find a need and fill it." (1994)

In the work entitled: "Hang the Innocent" Jerry W. Thomas asks the question of: "What is Marketing Research?" According to Thomas: "Marketing research consists of both informal and formal research. Marketing research is listening, looking, reading, and asking questions - let's call this informal research. Marketing research is collecting data in an unbiased manner and translating that data into information, which can help solve marketing problems - let's call this formal research." (1997) Thomas states that there are several necessary types of research involved in testing the market for a product which are those as follows:

Strategy research is critical - What is the grand scheme? Where are you going? What's the optimal target market? What is the optimum strategic positioning for your concept? How will you differentiate your concept from others? What the best product line for your concept?

Product testing is the single most important research you'll ever do?

Advertising pre-testing is extremely important. - Much media advertising is wasted because the commercials are simply not very effective. (1997)

In the work entitled: "Advertising Tracking" Jerry W. Thomas states that: The promise of media advertising is great. It's an opportunity for a brand to tell its story directly to the ultimate consumer. It's an opportunity to build awareness and project a powerful brand image. It's an opportunity to create and build brand equity. It's an opportunity to bypass the trade, an opportunity to circumvent competitors. In actual practice however, the promise of media advertising is seldom realize." (1995) Media advertising's potential is seldom realized because "few companies do basic strategy research to develop a creative blueprint to guide the development of their advertising. Second few companies pretest their advertising creative to make sure it has a change to work. Third, even fewer companies track their advertising once it's 'on air' to measure the effects of the advertising over time."(Thomas, 1995)

Thomas holds that a tracking questionnaire is required in order to truly know how effective advertising actually is. The tracking questions if well-designed should include the following:

Unaided and Aided Brand Awareness - "The creation and maintenance of brand awareness is one of the most fundamental goals of media advertising." (Thomas, 1995)

Unaided and Aided Advertising Awareness - "These tend to be diagnostic measures. These measures help indicate if the changes in brand awareness or market share are related to the advertising itself." (Thomas, 1995)

Advertising Message Recall - "What messages and ideas from the advertising do consumers remember? Do the remembered messages correspond to the advertising messages that the advertising was intended to communicate? (Thomas, 1995)

Brand Images - "Advertising can shape and magnify a brand image over time. This is one of the most important strategic benefits of advertising." (Thomas, 1995)

Brand Trial and Usage - "Trail of the subject brand and major competitive brands is a useful measure to track. Usage of the subject brand and major competitive brands allows market share estimates to be calculated and tracked over time." (Thomas, 1995)

Demographics - "Key demographics such as geography, age, sex, education and income should always be included. These variables are extremely valuable in analyzing tracking survey results and in defining the optimal target market for a brand." (Thomas, 1995)

Other measurements that Thomas believes should be considered are:

Aided Advertising Message Recall;

Aided Commercial Recall;

Promotion Awareness;

Market Segment Characteristics;

Media Habits; and Lifestyle Psychographics. (1995)

According to Tom Brown in the work entitled: "Brands Crafting and Strategy: When Focus Groups Make Sense and When They Don't" the focus group research "is a useful strategy-building tool for harvesting information from customers, competitor customers, suppliers, and employees. Focus groups are often an excellent starting point when scanning and uncovering opportunities for new products, branding, naming, positioning, and generating strategic options. A well-designed focus group study can help decision makers understand the range of beliefs, opinions and buying behavior among key segments." (2006) Brown additionally states that: "Management people like focus groups because it literally puts them in the same room as 8 to 10 segment members talk about their brand and the competitors' brands; about what they'd really like to have if they could; and the sometimes unusual ways they use the product or service. (Remember the ads about putting a box Arm and Hammer baking soda in refrigerator as a deodorant? That extended, years-long campaign to expand product use came from a comment by one person in one focus group.) This face-to-face qualitative research experience with prospects and customers is a way to get the strategy team "next to the customer." Expressions and attitudes are seen on faces and in body language, and heard from their voices. Often heard is the VP or CEO in the group observation room after two or three groups, "Now I know what they really want. I heard it several times tonight. We've got to explore this opportunity." This first hand involvement is good: it provokes creative thinking about how to attack the future." (2006) Brown states the following rules for appropriate use of the focus group:

Rule 1 - Use a focus group study only for an appropriate purpose.

To learn about the range of beliefs, attitudes, and usage habits of the target segment. The goal is to hear and understand the range: if it's said once in a focus group, it's important.

To become acquainted with unfamiliar territory. Group research is achieves some fast track knowledge about new market, new segment or new product categories. If you've found an interesting opportunity, but know little about the market, it's an excellent use of groups.

To screen concepts. Concept screening is valuable in the opportunity scan stage. The focus group setting is suitable for screening a range of concepts: product ideas, advertising, store design, web experience, and brand names. Remember, however, that this is for screening, gathering ideas, and gathering attitudes and perceptions about the concepts, not measuring the magnitude of their appeal.

Rule 2 - Carefully manage the group recruitment and setting. Get the right people in the right setting.

Insist on 'fresh respondents' if conducting a study among consumers. This means they haven't participated in a group in over a year. Avoid using lists of pre-recruiting willing participants offered by research field services.

Think through the exact profile of people desired for each group. If your objective is to reposition your brand, for example, it might be smart to have group participants be aware of or have bought two different brands in the category. A recruitment questionnaire should be tailored to screen for exactly the people appropriate for the group.

For hard-to-recruit people consider remote techniques. These include phone conference call groups, web-based groups; or as a substitute use telephone depth interviews. (You don't get the group interaction, but the results can be better than group settings.)

Rule 3 - Request that the moderator use a non-directive approach. (A non-directive approach is one that constructs questions for the group that encourages participants to be free flowing with their descriptions)

Projective techniques are often useful in easing participants out of an analytical mode. One projective technique, asks, "If this company were an animal what animal would it be? What would the competitors be?" In this way, they talk about brand image without being peppered with a series of brand questions.

Use advance written questionnaires. This primes respondents on key issues to be discussed, and it gives them a reference for the group discussion, thus making it easier for the unpopular viewpoint to be mentioned. ("Well, no one else has said this, but...")

Rule 4 - Don't count heads! (It's tempting, but this is not a projectable quantitative method, no matter how many groups

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the research are to gauge the effectiveness of brand and advertising on the consumer public.

RESEARCH PROCEDURE - METHODOLOGY

Qualitative marketing research is generally used for exploratory purposes, has a small number of respondents and is not generalizable to the whole population - the statistical significance and confidence are not calculated such as in focus groups, in-depth interviews and projective techniques. (Market Research Tools: Qualitative Market Research, 2006)

Methods used in Qualitative market research are:

1) Focus discussion studies;

2) Depth interviews triads (one interviewer and two respondents) dyads (one interviewer and one respondent)

3) Observational techniques combined with interviewing.

Qualitative research is suggested by the Power Decisions Group when:

You're in new territory and little is known - When considering products or new markets, qualitative research can deliver an early landscape profile of consumer or business buyer attitudes and behavior.

Customer perceptions or attitudes may be hidden from easy view - When the product category may represent unspoken meaning to buyers, qualitative market research may provide needed tools.

Generate ideas for products, advertising, or brand positioning - The nuances of buyer attitudes and beliefs can often provide stimulus for fresh new ideas, and feed a formal idea generation process.

Screening ideas and concepts - Qualitative market research can be a useful first step, prior to quantitative research, to screen new advertising, product, or positioning concepts. This allows time for refining concepts prior to quantitative market research. (Power Decisions Group, 2006)

RESEARCH DESIGN

The following chart labeled Figure 1 illustrates the Qualitative Research Methodology structure.

Qualitative Research Structure

Source: Power Decisions Group (2006)

Qualitative research is "a marketing research method that plays an important market research role in conducting customer value analysis, customer satisfaction research, market segmentation research, branding and naming research, brand equity research, and new product research." (Power Decisions Groups, 2006) Additionally stated is that qualitative market research."..means "quality." Conversely, and importantly, it does not mean "quantity." Qualitative research methods are designed to talk to a relatively few people in the target audience of interest. The purpose of qualitative research is to plumb the depths and range of buyer attitudes and beliefs, not to measure incidence, project, or forecast quantity." (Power Decisions Group, 2006)