This paper describes the methods of measuring the effectivity of ads in print media after their insertion, in the competitive environment . The traditional methods for measuring physical contacts are recognition and recall. A discussion of the validity of these methods clearly shows that "recognition" does not measure whether or not a given ad has been recognized but- it measures interest in the ad. In case of "recall" the results are influenced by the consumer brand awareness of the brand and, when it comes to "proven recall", they are influenced by duration and intensity of the advertising campaign. In a further chapter techniques for measuring the emotional engagement are described, techniques which tell something about the impression which the ad leaves in regard to the importance of the message, the credibility of the message. All the test methods are of some importance for determining the effectivity of an ad or an advertising campaign.
A communication model based upon exposure, information transmission and attitude change is proposed. Particularly the information transmission is dealt with in connection with a campaign for the Danish Railroads. This campaign has as its main purpose to inform about the introduction of the Intercity trains in Denmark. To control the extent to which this purpose was met a test program was designed covering a sequence of pre and post campaign measures. In both pre- and post-tests, attention, attitude and knowledge was measured. The latter which was of major importance for the campaign was measured with the use of true/false statements covering items being critical for the campaign. Results of the pre-test suggest that the campaign is communicating extremely efficiently. When exposure is obtained, the post-test shows that the campaign actually did get across the information to an extent which was predicted by the pretest. In conclusion it is discussed how the combined use of pre and the post-test procedures provides a way of increasing our understanding of the communication process, and how the definition of campaign content and communication purpose is vital to the testing procedure.
There is probably very little early post-launch research in the life of a new product which is true concept testing. An informal analysis is made in this paper of the kinds of situation in which a company might feel that post-launch concept research is needed. The likely needs of companies in these situations are discussed. Ideas are presented for improving the efficiency of early post-launch research. These are ideas on sampling, on interviewing and on the use of mapping techniques.
This paper concerns itself with two major areas of New Product Research. Firstly some of the causes of high new product failure rate are discussed. These are attributed partly to political pressures within marketing teams and partly to the inadequacy of market research techniques currently available to provide a quantitative estimate of likely offtake. Quantitative Techniques, generally placing of samples and subsequent call back, suffer from "nice lady" bias or a predisposition to say nice things about the free sample. Anything from 70-90% saying "Will buy" is not uncommon. The second part of the paper describes a technique which has been developed over several years. It starts off with an Action Standard, expressed units to be sold, and works through a system which ends with an indication of whether or not the Action Standard is likely to be achieved. The system is not perfect, it is not for the inexperienced or "by the book" researcher but has been shown to give reasonable answers as tested by later launch of products. It contains within it a means whereby "nice lady" bias is overcome.
BP Trading Ltd. decided in 1970 to embark upon an advertising campaign, initially in Europe, designed to create a more favourable image for BP amongst authoritative opinion-formers or media communicators, to influence purchasing decisions in BP's favour. The campaign was designed essentially to promote sales rather than to generate public goodwill for the corpor ation, which demanded a notable product theme. What follows is a description of how pre-testing research was employed to validate the creative premises and the communication promises, and post-testing to measure the extent of achievement, if any. And, finally, the reasons - mostly external to the research findings and considerations - which nipped the campaign's promise in the bud.
The subject of this paper is the basic research on the measurement of the effect of advertising on purchasing probability at the pre- and post-test stage for all media advertising which IVE has been carrying out systematically over the last eight years.
There were four main points which emerged: 1. Disagreement with the view that "a brand is never the same after a price-off promotion"; 2. The need to define clearly the objectives of a particular promotion; 3. A discussion of the merits of post-testing as opposed to pre-testing in below-the-line compared with above-the-line advertising; 4. A fairly strong view was put forward that different processes were at work in below-the-line as opposed to above-the-line advertising.
There is little sense in testing advertising efforts without having a theory about what advertising is supposed to do. It is equally without much sense to pre-test advertisements (or elements that would go into advertisements like themes, artwork, slogans etc.) without assumptions about what post-testing of the same advertisements is supposed to show. And finally: theories that cannot be tested for proof or disproof are not very useful. It should also be realised that in most fields of scientific endeavour the theories have followed rather than preceded every day life and observations of what went on in actual practice.
The present report deals with the results of an extensive experiment of pre-testing and post-testing advertisements. The basic motive behind this experiments the present situation with regard to advertising research in general pre-testing in particular. Several European countries are using a wide range of pre-testing and post-testing techniques, which nobody is quite sure as suitable. The object of our experiment is to test suitability of these techniques. It is not intended, therefore, to analyse and comment on the advertisements tested, these being only the means to experiment with the research techniques which will be discussed in the following chapters. Pre-testing occupies an important place in advertising research because, of course, a certain theme can be designed and presented in various ways. The usual pre-testing techniques aim at selecting the most appropriate presentation of a certain advertisement. In such a selection - and therefore also in designing and applying research techniques - the goal of the advertisement or advertising campaign should always be borne in mind. The goal is defined in terms of communication which can be said to have two aspects: a quantitative one (i. e. the number of persons remembering an ad after a certain exposure) and a qualitative one (i. e. the mental effect on these persons e. g. a change of attitude or image). Our experiment covers both aspects.
After lasting preliminary studies, since January 1962 the Research Institute of the "Schweizerische Gesellschaft fllr Marktforschung" is carrying out a periodical post-testing survey, the GfM-TREND. Thus, till now about 30 ,000 interviews have been done. The four most important Swiss magazines in German are canvased each month: Beobachter, PRO, Sie und Er, Schweizer Illustrierte Zeitung. In the most important cities of German-speaking Switzerland: Zurich, Basle, Berne, Lucerne and St. Gall, 200 women are interviewed for each magazine; the sample of each magazine being quoted according to the stratification of age and social classes of the periodical in question. The interviews take place before the next issue of the magazine has appeared. Only those women are interviewed who prove in a pre-test having read the issue to be tested. The interview will cover only one magazine, even if the interviewee should have read more than one of the four periodicals. The interviews aim to clarify: - How far are the articles of the editorial staff read; - How far are the advertisements noted; - How far are the advertisements identified; - How far are the copy and illustration of the noted advertisement seen; - Which image is the advertisement noted by: 1. degree of interest; 2. credibility of the message; 3. being tasteful. Identification and image were tested in a split-run by two different methods. In the following are shown the differences in the results due to the chosen method.
Let list all the copy-test methods which we Included in our research programme. One of the methods has been used since 1961 in our agency, the other tests are such offered by market research institutes as standardised methods. The tests described in this paper are divided into pre-test methods and post-test methods according to the order of sequence at which they were examined during this research programme.