This presentation proposes that advertising be evaluated in terms of its perceived value to consumers. The discussion is divided into four sections. In the first, some notions about consumer behavior that form the rudiments of a theoretical perspective within which such an approach is anchored are set out. In the second section, a conceptual model of advertising value is presented. A portion of the model that has been tested empirically is then highlighted. The final section concludes with a discussion of applications and implications that the study of advertising value has for assessing as well as enhancing advertising effectiveness.
The purpose of this paper is to present some learnings from IPSOS' extensive experience database in communication evaluation, including Post and Pre-Testing of advertising and the monitoring of "Consumers' State of Mind" towards a brand. The Programme Committee expressed its interest also in including an explanation of the development of advertising tracking in this paper. This subject would be a very extensive one, probably even a subject for extensive research, and so too big to be fully developed in this paper. Nevertheless, without pretending to fully develop the subject I will try to cover some points that I feel are important issues for its understanding.
This paper sets out to demonstrate the effectiveness of consumer direct mail in Great Britain, illustrated by its rapid growth rate and increasing share of advertising expenditure. The importance of direct mail, both now and as an advertising medium of the future, has been influenced by better targeting through individual lifestyle analysis. It also meets the demands of the marketer of the nineties, being very cost-efficient, flexible and more measurable that other forms of media. There are various ways of measuring the effectiveness of consumer direct mail, including the traditional direct response device. One of the most accurate methods is through research which is gathered on a continuous basis by RSGB's Mailmonitor panel survey. The RSGB Mailmonitor panel monitors the volume, targeting and the response of all consumer direct mail campaigns in Great Britain and provides a valuable insight into trends, both for the industry as a whole and for individual campaigns.
The debate globally has centred recently on immediate sales effects (and Persuasion Shift pre testing) in preference to maintenance or theme advertising whose effects, we believe, are often seriously under-estimated. The paper first contrasts different advertising mechanisms, spanning a continuum from immediate to longer term effects. It is these delayed effects that are difficult to measure and therefore, often underestimated - yet which hold the key to long term brand profitability. These observations have profound implications for the expectations of the advertiser. We go on to explain the role of advertising as a multiplier in leveraging the influence of other elements of the marketing mix. Given that delayed effects do exist, triggered by actual experience of the brand, ad associations need to be lodged in long term memory. This leads us onto a discussion of the critical role of creativity in advertising. We then discuss the implications both in pre-testing and especially, in evaluating on-air effectiveness of advertising. The paper concludes with an illustration of some of our observations from the Brazilian yellow fats market. If the full continuum of advertising effects is not appreciated, the pressure for hard sell advertising with immediate results will become ever greater. Tools are now available for enhanced decision making founded upon a real appreciation of how advertising works for individual brands in individual markets.
Marketers who wish to continually improve advertising productivity will begin to apply a Total Quality approach to the advertising development and management processes, using statistically sound (sales-related) measurement feedback at appropriate stages in the process. The empirical evidence observed to date suggests that the persuasion measurement (as collected by RSC) is an appropriate criterion measure for this statistical feedback and truly contributes to continuous business improvement, particularly when applied at the following stages of the advertising process: before creative execution, to find a persuasive selling proposition; before production, to determine the number of executions needed for the media plan (given wear out projections); before airing, to determine which ads are the most persuasive executions of the selling proposition; and while airing, to implement execution refreshment and rotation, maximizing persuasive power (PRPs) delivered to market. On the other hand, the empirical evidence also suggests that marketers who continue to rely on hit and miss processes and measurement feedback (such as liking, recall, weight alone, brand name recall, etc.) will be out-marketed and perhaps out of business in the highly competitive global arena of the 21st Century.
The paper treats the problem of building successful brands from the perspective of a simple yet comprehensive theory of consumer markets. It is practical, using case study material from projects for Premier Biscuits and other clients, to demonstrate how the theory and its associated techniques add objectivity and direction to strategic and tactical market planning. The model and systems which are described were originally developed by Marcos Ltd. and are marketed by Taylor Nelson under the brand name Optima. Premier Biscuits are well known for their biscuit products which are sold internationally under the Cadbury's brand name. To adopt a truly holistic approach to developing and managing successful brands demands a viable understanding of how markets work. This means that it is necessary to get below the observed behaviour of the purchasers to the underlying physics, if we may use the word, of the dynamic systems which we call markets. The Marcos consumer choice model, based essentially on the assumption that purchasers choose the brands which suit them best at the time, fits real markets accurately and consistently. It tells us why those brands which have a clearly defined meaning and a relevant relationship with the consumer are best positioned for success and what other elements are necessary. A brief practical account of the model is given, followed by an illustration of how it is Possible to model consumer panel data using it. The example is used to throw important light on the relative roles of brand positioning and brand enhancement in advertising and to discuss how markets evolve. The application of the model to the problem of managing a brand portfolio is described. An example is given of the way in which the model can be used to identify the gaps in a manufacturers brand portfolio and to describe in detail the brands which would fill them. This illustrates some of the many uses of the techniques and model in ad hoc consumer studies. A technique for predicting the sales of new products by analogy with existing products using ranking methods is described. This leads into a discussion of the processes involved in the establishment of a new brand within a market, focusing in particular on the roles played by advertising and the use of sampling to force trial. Finally spotlight analysis is used to identify the meaningful options available for advertising a particular brand. This leads into further discussion of brand positioning and brand enhancement.
In the course of this paper, are the results of a study which has examined brands over 20 years. Advertising is the continuous theme but each is examined in conjunction with other influential strategies ranging from sales promotions to product diversification. Because of the availability of data over such a long period of time, the focus is on fast moving consumer goods, although many findings may apply to other less frequently purchased fields.
The old medium Videotext, connected by computers to a voice response telephone system, can transfer videotext into interactive television. This new medium is used for several purposes. One of them is to use interactive videotext for media research. In the Netherlands three parties found each other in experimenting in the Phone Text panel. In this panel of 1.000 households Intomart conducts media surveys and ad hoc surveys on advertising effectiveness. The technique is completely in the hands of Teleworld, and IP is the sponsor who also is responsible for the connection to RTL4 text. The paper describes the technique and examples of three surveys. The conclusions are that the opportunities for this new instrument are big, especially in continuous surveys.
Generally speaking, advertisers are not very interested in media research as such. Of late, accountability of advertising expenditures has become a key topic. The popularity of the advertising effectiveness awards is growing, but the focus of the award criteria is still mainly on creative performance of campaigns while the contribution of the media plan to the overall advertising effect plays a minor role, if any. Syndicated media research such as S.U.M.M.O. (the Dutch National Readership Survey), is providing reach and frequency data for media planning, i.e. estimating the efficiency of media in reaching different target groups. How can we show that the efficiency data from a syndicated survey can contribute to a greater effectiveness of a particular advertising campaign? This question has been sought to be answered by the model for effectiveness research developed by S.U.M.- M.O. and Inter/View. This model, combining the measurement of readership and effectiveness in one study, has been tested and proved a promising track. Three case studies are reported to support this conclusion.
April 2, 1993 was a historic day in the U. S. private-label scare. On Marlboro Friday, Philip Morris decreased the price of Marlboro cigarettes by 40 cents a pack in response to tire increasing popularity of cheaper cigarettes. In one day, the company lost $13.4 billion in stock-market value. Whether called private labels, own labels, or store brands, non-branded products have become a source of major concern for consumer-goods manufacturers in the 1990s. If private labels are here to stay, advertisers are going to have to face this challenge head-on. But how? To answer this question, we will explore tire reasons for private labels' increased popularity and the means that advertisers have for fighting back. research systems corporation (RSC) has long advocated the use of advertising as a means of increasing market share; numerous validation studies have demonstrated the link between persuasive advertising and sales. However, until recently, no data was available to support the use of persuasive advertising as a means of dealing with private-label products. Today, the results of a new study will be presented that explores the effects of pricing, television media spending, and advertising effectiveness on both private-label market share and total category volume.
In Germany, retailers frequently use costly, store-wide theme promotions to increase consumer traffic and overall sales. Until recently, promotions were considered a necessary cost-of-doing-business and payback analyses for these events were restricted to the sales side of the equation. To a great extent, consumer reaction to promotions were disregarded because of shortcomings in existing data sources. The 1992 introduction of Nielsen Single Source household panel in Germany is an alternative which fills this information gap. Single Source covers purchases of all Fast Moving Consumer Goods through all outlets, and links household purchases with objectively collected retailer promotion information at the individual household level. Using Single Source, we are investigating consumer response to a June 1993 promotion campaign with which a major German retailer - Tengelmann - celebrated its 100th anniversary. During the month of this event, advertising and aggressive trade promotions were executed in a wide variety of product categories. The effects of the heavy promotions can clearly be seen by looking at changes in penetration rates, unit sales per occasion and total cash bill values across time. Both in total and in many categories, Tengelmann gained a large number of new buyers but these effects were only temporary. The case study demonstrates that data sets having the capability for multi-category analysis in conjunction with analysis of total purchase trip values and retailer loyalty bring real value to retailer event evaluation. Increased category/brand sales under promotion conditions can now be analysed from the consumer side, e.g., separating buyers into stockpilers versus new buyers, and identifying whether the latter are brand- and/or store-switchers.
TV research does not measure peoples' actual contact with advertisements but rather the "opportunity to see" commercials. This paper addresses this issue and looks at various factors which may affect the chances of an opportunity actually being taken. Two new research studies are described along with some of their key findings. These are The Carat Foretel Advertising Recall Study - an examination of the recall of over 200 commercials within 2 to 3 hours of transmission and The Carat Foretel Attention Study - a programme of proprietary research which establishes quality of viewing to thousands of UK TV programmes. The conclusion of this paper is that many media buyers' prejudices about advertising effectiveness are either less important than had previously been thought or are actually wrong. The main factor influencing the recall of TV commercials, aside from the creative impact of the commercials themselves, is found to be the attention paid to the surrounding programmes. Whilst this conclusion may seem blindingly obvious to many readers of this paper, it is an issue widely debated by media practitioners. As the debate goes on, the majority of TV campaigns are planned and bought as if all ratings are equal. The Carat Foretel programme of research demonstrates that this is not so.