Identify Specific Evaluative Research

MKT 108

Advertising

Worksheet #2 (chapter 7)

1. Focus groups are one of the advertising researcher’s most versatile tools. Describe the basic features of focus group research that could lead to inappropriate generalizations about the preferences of the target audience.

It is inappropriate for gathering quantitative data because the six to twelve chosen respondents in the focus group may or may not represent the population from which they are drawn. Focus group members also feel empowered and privileged; they will sometimes give the moderator all sorts of strange answers that may be more a function of trying to impress other group members than anything having to do with the product in question.

2. List the sources and uses of secondary data. What are the benefits of
secondary data? What are the limitations?

Sources of secondary data are internal company sources, government sources, commercial sources, professional publications, and the Internet.
Secondary data may be obtained with less time, effort and money. In addition, they may also be more pertinent to the situation at hand. Limitations would be the data is outdated, accuracy of the data is unknown, and the information may not be same, as we require.

3. Criteria for judging ad effectiveness include “getting it,” cognitive residue, knowledge, attitude change, feelings and emotions, physiological changes, and behavior. Identify specific evaluative advertising research methods that could be used to test an ad’s impact on any of these dimensions.

Specific evaluative advertising research methods would include a communications test, thought listings, recall tests, recognition tests, surveys, attitude studies, and so on. Communication tests seek to discover whether a message is communicating something close to what the advertiser desired. They are done in a group setting, with data coming from a combination of pen-and-paper questionnaires and group discussion. Thought listings or cognitive response analysis are tests of knowledge,
cognitive residue, and to a lesser degree feelings and emotions. Thought listing tests are either conducted in-house or obtained from a commercial testing service. They are most often used with television ads but can be applied to all ads. The researcher is interested in the thoughts that an ad or promotion generates in the mind of the audience. The objective of a recall test is to see how much, if anything, the viewer of an ad remembers of the message. The basic recall procedure is to recruit a group of individuals from the target market who will be watching a certain channel during a certain time on a test date. A day after exposure, the testing company calls the individual s on the phone and determines, of those who actually saw the ad, how much they can recall. Recognition tests are the standard memory test for print ads and promotions. This type of testing attempts to get at little more than evidence of exposure. In surveys, consumers are asked to answer questions about the advertised brand after the commercial. Sometimes this is immediately after, other times it is hours, days, or even weeks later. Attitude studies measure consumer attitudes after an exposure to an ad. Television ads are typically seen in a group setting; print ads are often shown one-on-one. Essentially, people from the target market are recruited, and their attitudes toward the advertised brand as well as toward competitors’ brands are noted. Many advertisers believe that commercials don’t register their impact until after three or four exposures in a real environment; others believe the number is much higher.

4. How would you explain the finding that ads that achieve high recall scores don’t always turn out to be ads that do a good job in generating sales? Are there some features of ads that make them memorable but could also turn off consumers and dissuade them from buying the brand? Give an example from your experience.

Recall tests is based on cognitive residue of the ads. If a consumer watching the ad doesn’t like the ad or reacts negatively to it, more than likely the consumer will not be purchasing the product. Well, for example of laundry detergents, when I think of Tide, I picture the color orange with blue writing. Gain-bright green with orange and yellow. Cheer-main color blue with red, white, and yellow lettering. That’s all I can remember right now but just because I can picture or remember the advertisement of a specific brand does not mean I am going to buy it.

5. What is single-source research, and what is its connection to the universal product codes (UPCs) one finds on nearly every product in the grocery store?

Single-source research is how firms document the behavior of individuals/households in a respondent pool by tracking their behavior from the television set to the checkout counter. With UPCs (universal product codes) information about brand purchases and grocery store scanner data are combined with devices attached to the households’ televisions (people monitors) that monitor viewing behavior, and measure the impact of advertising/promotions on actual purchases. However the exact aspect of the ad that has the positive effect is not calculable.