A good advertisement pre-test provides a view on how successful an ad will be and it provides insight on how to improve the creative idea and execution to optimise its impact. This research argued very clearly for the textured sort of copy test and against the single measure, single exposure, unnatural setting type of copy test. He also learned that there was usually a need for some print in a "campaign" in order to achieve maximum effect. As this work began, we began to realize that the repetition function or wear out problem in advertising was really only one of a number of general recurring problems that needed to be attacked in a more SYStematic was than had PreviouslY been done. Pre-testing is carried out to evaluate advertising prior to its first use. The analysis of this study is not complete, but surprisingly enough, there does not seem to be a great effect caused by the during-exposure measurement. There would be significant advantages if it were possible to get some measurement during exposure without affecting the exposure itself. The general finding (reported in detail in Part II of the December,1971,Management Science) was that the model ran much more efficiently and produced better results when the more textured data from the laboratory pretests were used as opposed to a single function run of the model. Field Study II: Split Cable Experiment with Anti-Drug Abuse Messages. Such pretesting can be done quickly with less cost than the limited posttesting type. The basic assumption of this research system is that the problems can be most efficiently handled with a combination of the best aspects of each of the three approaches shown in the chart. The brand launched an Advertisement Pre-test study to predict how consumers would respond to the launch and if they were willing to pay a 25% price increase for it. Contrary to previous research in this series, the advertising was placed in the context of program material, and the cover story consisted of the "television violence-humor project." This research involved an observational measure of respondent attention while viewing the commercials. The first was the advertising media modelers' or management scientists' approach. The disadvantages are a limitation in both measurement and possible variation of alternatives. What is being described here is the "one shot immediate measurement copy test." indago advertising optimizing testing creative It is not always true that variation in message can extend the life of a campaign. The paragraphs below simply give a general indication of the development of our thinking. This is representative of the type of general, recurring problem that should be studied by such a research system.

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Studies IV through VI: Repetition with Variation. The second form of pretesting is what might be called selection-scheduling pretesting. The third type of pretesting might be called limited posttesting.

Model Application Study. The advertising pretest, when it is used correctly, is part of a managerial process. In addition, they usually view the commercials in a "living room" setting along with two or three other individuals. Embedded into the mailings were weekly, bi-weekly and monthly schedules of advertising for six different ads or ad campaigns. It provides a solution to another of the validational problems of pretests. Thus this set of studies pushed the ability of the general technique to its boundaries. In addition, there was a test of a color versus a black and white version of a campaign (four advertisements) for a grocery product. The strong but irritating commercial did best on all field measures, with the exception of those measures having to do with advertisement liking. (1973) and Ward and Ray (1974). The respondents are not told to concentrate on the commercials themselves. Since these copy tests do not have the variations that might allow them to be related to the field, it is very difficult for copy testers to say anything more than Ad A seems to be better than Ad B. The usual question given to a copy tester is a very short term and narrow one such as: Is Ad A Better Than Ad B? We conduct marketing research to identify current and potential users of your brand and test your creative concepts to optimize their impact on current and potential users of your brand. These were the first studies that were not done in 8 mobile unit parked in a shopping center. Heeler studied in one project repetition with variation in message, in another repetition with variation in media and in a third study the effect of repetition on perceptual maps. It can be used to deal with general, recurring questions that keep coming up in specific advertising decision situations. Study VII Methods of Continuous Repetition Response Measurement. Heeler was able to develop a general simulation of effects, given his data on mixed media. Certified Advertising Manager. REFERENCES Ray, Michael L., A proposal for validating measures and models in highly competitive decision situations. Studies I through III: Repetition Pretest Technique DeveloPment. ), New models for mass communications research. Peter Webb, with support from the Marketing Science Institute, has done two large-scale studies in which the key independent variable was the degree and nature of television clutter, i.e., the amount of nonprogram interruptions (primarily advertising) and the way they are scheduled within a program. At Persuadable Research, we are experts in helping brands get the most out of their advertising. As part of his dissertation research, Michael Rothschild also collected extensive data on one political campaign for the Senate in a midwestern state and on a number of ballot propositions in California. The other during-exposure measure was a teletype-activated scale by which respondents can indicate how interested they were in the material they were seeing. Michael L., in collaboration with Sawyer, A.G., Rothschild, M.L. Identifies strengths of weaknesses of an advertisement, Measures the overall appeal and appeal to different target groups. This study was a replication with variation of the mail print advertisement field experiment that was done originally by H. Zielske in 1959. In essence, there were three general types of attacks on advertising problems, none of which was totally satisfactory.

This kind of "translation" from the lab to the field has been necessary in all the validational work we have done. By using response function estimations from the lab within the context of the other media models inputs, it is possible to make very precise and realistic predictions to the field. Stella Artois ignored the findings, and the ad helped Stella turn from a niche product into a top-five grocery brand in the UK. For an investment of just under 1 million, the advertising generated an additional 2.59 million in sales. Heeler found that the effect of television advertising was more dramatic than the effect of magazine advertising.

We also ask questions about recall, i.e. It combines the advantages of experimental control with an effective cover story and relatively natural exposure conditions. More important for the present purposes is the fact that his findings were also supportive of the results of studies I-III. Professor Alvin J. One of the measures was galvanic skin response. These results are reported in Ray et al. The measures tend to be either gross physiological ones or, on the other hand, consumer "expert" opinions about the content of advertising. We believe we have a useful pretesting technique that can be used in a wide variety of situations. The analysis of this study is not complete, but surprisingly enough, there does not seem to be a great effect caused by the during-exposure measurement. Studies IV through VI: Repetition with Variation. Parents, junior high school and senior high school students were the three kinds of audiences for the study, and they came to central school and organization locations for the test interviewing. During the six months following the launch, the brand continued tracking Brand Awareness and managed to increase the categorys Brand Awareness from 23% to 55%. Copy testing or laboratory experimentation is emphasized because it provides a quick and low cost method to separate out those alternatives that should be considered further. Presidential campaign advertising seems to operate in a more high involvement way than the product advertising; whereas the congressional and state assembly advertising seems to operate in a more low involvement manner than the product advertising.

It is with these types of goals in mind that the pretesting research and techniques of our project have been developed. The advantage of limited posttesting are natural exposure and quick measurement. It seems that psychological, organizational and political factors are often a greater reason for copy tests than anything else. Following whatever presentation the respondents see, they fill out a self-administered questionnaire that first has questions related to the cover story and then questions on play-back of the messages, cognitive response to the messages, attitude and purchase intention, and cued recall and response to the messages. The fourth stage of the research system is an attempt to eliminate some of these problems, which come from lack of attention to field situation variables in making the predictions to the field. Such a system promises the potential of validation of both the pretest and the models. The general technique we have developed has been tentatively validated by two large-scale field experiments, one on print advertising and one on television advertising. (1973) as well as in an article by Rothschild and Ray in the July 1974 issue of Communication Research. Although these data were not in a form that allowed a precise test of the ideas that were supported in the laboratory experiment, there was some support as far as the analysis could go. In addition, these were the first studies done with television advertising. The advantage of limited posttesting are natural exposure and quick measurement. The system includes managerial aspects with multimeasures representing managerial goals, behavioral aspects with multimethods representing the main contributions of the behavioral sciences, and quantitative concerns with multisituations bringing in the quantitative sciences. It combines the advantages of experimental control with an effective cover story and relatively natural exposure conditions. This is usually used at a later stage in the decision-making process when the alternatives have been narrowed down to a very few, often times one. The pretest is quite inefficient if it is used in isolation or if a new form of pretest is developed for each individual situation. San Diego, August, 1974. In some studies we have departed from the "Shopping of the Future" cover. The Stanford research started with the general goal of developing a pretesting technique that could be used to determine the repetition response function for advertising in specific situations. Because all products and ad campaigns were developed in Spain, the brand would have to make sure the message would have a positive impact on brand image, and not confuse consumers in the countries. The measures tend to be either gross physiological ones or, on the other hand, consumer "expert" opinions about the content of advertising. But, every once in a while, what might seem like genius in the conference room, can: Testing your advertising gives you valuable insight into your creative execution prior to its launch. In a sense, then, this is used as a final check in many cases to assure decision makers that the commercial they are about to run is an excellent one. The Stanford research has opted for the middle ground in pretesting; that is, we have worked with just the selection-scheduling type of pretest. Michael L., in collaboration with Sawyer, A.G., Rothschild, M.L. And feedback is almost non-existent. Studies XI and XII: Television Clutter Research. Following whatever presentation the respondents see, they fill out a self-administered questionnaire that first has questions related to the cover story and then questions on play-back of the messages, cognitive response to the messages, attitude and purchase intention, and cued recall and response to the messages. The third type of approach to advertising decision making problems is the academic application of behavioral science ideas. A small scale developmental study was done to determine the effects of asking for response during the exposure to repetitive advertising. We have told respondents that the research was being conducted to investigate television violence and humor or television ratings. The copy testing procedures that are used are also deficient in several ways. For instance, in the color versus black and white test, the black and white ads that did well on depth response in the lab tended to out-perform the color ads in ad and brand awareness in the field. The article from which this figure came indicates how such field experimentation might be developed to test these two components of the research system. Also, sometimes, the cost can be too high. We believe we have a useful pretesting technique that can be used in a wide variety of situations. Their analysis revealed that emotional response - the intensity with which people feel any emotion after seeing an ad - could indeed be a better predictor of effectiveness than commonly used evaluative information-processing measures. By varying the amount of competitive advertising, Heeler was able to show that response was quite different depending on the measure. All of the advertising used in this print field study was previously used in studies I through III. It is not always true that variation in message can extend the life of a campaign. There were strong refutational versus supportive differences when considered by usage groups. Given the ambivalent state of affairs with regard to the repetition function problem and others which recur in advertising, we felt that there was a need to develop a research system which could be applied to such problems. The fourth case talks about a food brand specialising in sauces that decided to improve the quality of its top-performing products formula, which makes the Board of Directors want to communicate it to promote the added value of the brand and increase sales. One thing that was learned, however, is that strong response measures from the laboratory were likely to be good predictors of weak response measures in the field. Unlike the management science modeling one, the copy testing approach does not specify a problem that can be dealt with in a continuing and ordered way. Professor Alvin J. The field experimentation recommended by the research system would not have to be done often, but it would have to be done from time to time to accurately validate both the copy tests and the media models. As a result, both Brand Health and the Top-of-Mind improved significantly, reducing the awareness gap with the category leader which went from 9pp to 1.5pp. (Stanford GSB Research Paper No. Two of the messages that were found to have quite opposite and interesting effects on the parents audience were run in a month long split cable field experiment in the Ad Tel West split cable market. These two large-scale laboratory studies convinced us that the response to advertising is much more complex than would be indicated by even the three-orders model mentioned in Ray et al. But it had a negative effect on attitude and purchase intention measures. Heeler was able to develop a general simulation of effects, given his data on mixed media. The second approach shown on the following page is the one this paper and workshop are most concerned with. The name of the game here is to predict to the response that is in fact the objective of the campaign. The results lead to a relaunch of the product with its original name and identity but communicating the new formula, packaging and design as an evolution. It is with these types of goals in mind that the pretesting research and techniques of our project have been developed. In Descartes Error, neurologist Antonio Damasio recounts the case of a patient with ventromedial prefrontal brain damage who lost his ability to feel emotion. This technique has been used for several problem areas and in a variety of types of locations. As the repetition project has developed, we have moved from a belief in the straight learning hierarchy of effects ideas with common exponential functions of response toward one in which there are a variety of hierarchy possibilities with unusual functional relationships. The fourth stage of the research system is an attempt to eliminate some of these problems, which come from lack of attention to field situation variables in making the predictions to the field. In this research he used the "Television Violence-Humor Project" and a new "Television Program Rating Evaluation Project" cover stories. (1973).

However, might the pre-testing model itself be flawed, and measuring the 'wrong' criteria for an ad's success? These cookies do not store any personal information. Certify and Increase Opportunity. (Stanford GSB Research Paper No. The paragraphs below simply give a general indication of the development of our thinking.

We'd love to hear from you so do drop us a line or follow us on Twitter. Studies IX and X: Anti-drug Abuse Advertising Pretesting Procedure. For the more low involvement state assembly race, there were effects on the cognitive and extremely strong effects on the attitudinal measure. The fourth stage of the research system has to do with media model runs. Media models have been developed which include as part of their data base, many of the factors which might affect the operation of various commercials in the field. Typically there are repetitive exposures of test commercials embedded in a stream of messages, and there is multiple measurement after test exposures to determine the nature of communication response. The third type of approach to advertising decision making problems is the academic application of behavioral science ideas. (1973). At the same time that this natural setting is achieved, it is possible to show respondents commercials at 0 through 3 exposures in competition with the normal commercial fare that is offered on television.

This is the campaign monitoring stage. FIGURE THE STATE OF BEHAVIORAL APPLICATION IN ADVERTISING. The second stage of the research system is one in which behavioral science and past experience is tapped to develop alternative strategies, in the case of Figure 1, this meant the develoPment of alternate message strategies. Becoming an Association for Consumer Research member is simple. Field Study 1. On the basis of that discussion and references to simple-minded behavioral science ideas, media models were created. Since these copy tests do not have the variations that might allow them to be related to the field, it is very difficult for copy testers to say anything more than Ad A seems to be better than Ad B. The main problems with this approach, as can be seen in the chart, is that the behavioral scientist tends to start with propositions and then attempt to find a problem to which to apply the propositions. Advertising is fun. The two messages were run on alternate cables with a 400 GRP weight over a 4-week period in May and early June 1973. Beyond that difficulty, the propositions sometimes get applied in actual campaigns, but seldom is there application in copy tests or field experimentation. One of ourSolutions Expertswould love to talk with you. ----------------------------------------, Advances in Consumer Research Volume 2, 1975 Pages 577-588, THE ADVERTISING PRETEST AS PART OF A MULTIMEASURE, MULTIMETHOD, MULTISITUATION VALIDATION AND APPLICATION RESEARCH SYSTEM. can they name the brand that was advertised? More competitive advertising actually helped the recall of test advertising. The management science model builder tended to use a single function, adapted from the findings of nonsense syllable verbal learning research, to depict all of the possible responses in all possible situations. of respondents declared they were happy to pay the price, as long as the new product replaced the old one, it became a new and empowered version of the original fragrance. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Instead Heeler did these studies in a central research facility. The article from which this figure came indicates how such field experimentation might be developed to test these two components of the research system. The end result of such an approach should be not only better pretesting but also more extensive, efficient utilization of both behavioral science hints and media models in advertising decision-making. Later, a communication plan was then created and several ad Pre-Tests were carried out to find the most relevant content to include in the communication. They conducted a research experiment in conjunction with the IPA and analysed a total of 18 historical TV ads, comparing how this new emotional measure fared next to traditional pre-testing methods. These findings,,which are presented in more detail in Ward and Ray (1974), indicated a planning procedure in which the three-orders hierarchy model is used as an initial planning step but copy testing with multiple measurement is essential to determine the nature of communication response in each specific advertising situation. The field experimentation recommended by the research system would not have to be done often, but it would have to be done from time to time to accurately validate both the copy tests and the media models. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. In the first three studies we were concerned with determining whether we could get repetition response functions in the laboratory setting that were realistic and consistent from study to study. In some situations, these models are used to plan campaigns, but they are never satisfactorily validated. After all, it's impossible to replicate a Sunday afternoon in front of the telly during a research situation. Could it be that we're assuming decision-making requires lots of thought? Advertising is creative. Field Study II: Split Cable Experiment with Anti-Drug Abuse Messages. Your new concepts are tested against your existing ones, as well as competitors, in an effort to ensure that your campaign will out-perform those already in place. Sometimes there are behavioral measures which follow the test itself. By using response function estimations from the lab within the context of the other media models inputs, it is possible to make very precise and realistic predictions to the field. Two methods were tried in a small pilot project done at the U.C. Its done at a late stage using finished materials, such as the final version of a TV commercial. Studies IX and X: Anti-drug Abuse Advertising Pretesting Procedure. This research involved an observational measure of respondent attention while viewing the commercials. San Diego, August, 1974. There is almost always some element within an ad that connects with consumers. The third type of pretesting might be called limited posttesting. Identifies memorable phrases and moments, Analyzes the ability to recall ad elements.



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