Advertising Research

Advertising research is a systematic process of marketing research conducted to improve the efficiency of advertising. Advertising research is a detailed study conducted to know how customers respond to a particular ad or advertising campaign.

Objectives of Advertising Research

• To Enhance Awareness: Through research, it is easy to plan the marketing strategy of any product/service.
• To Know Attitudinal Pattern: A thorough research predicts the people’s attitude. It analyses the changing attitudinal pattern of a geographic area. Knowing the consumers’ attitude is very important before launching a new product and its advertisement.
• To Know People’s Action/Re-action: Research also records and analyzes people’s action or re-action regarding a particular product/service.
• Analysis: Based on deep research and analysis, it is simple to design and develop a creative ad, effective enough to influence consumers.

Types

There are two types of research, customized and syndicated. Customized research is conducted for a specific client to address that client’s needs. Only that client has access to the results of the research. Syndicated research is a single research study conducted by a research company with its results available, for sale, to multiple companies. Pre-market research can be conducted to optimize advertisements for any medium: radio, television, print (magazine, newspaper or direct mail), outdoor billboard (highway, bus, or train), or Internet. Different methods would be applied to gather the necessary data appropriately. Post-testing is conducted after the advertising, either a single ad or an entire multimedia campaign has been run in-market. The focus is on what the advertising has done for the brand, for example increasing brand awareness, trial, frequency of purchasing.

Pre-testing

Pre-testing, also known as copy testing, is a specialized field of marketing research that determines an ad’s effectiveness based on consumer responses, feedback, and behaviour. Pre-testing is conducted before implementing the advertisement to customers. The following methods can be followed to pre-test an advertisement:

• Focus group discussion
• In-depth interview
• Projective techniques
• Checklist method
• Consumer jury method
• Sales area test
• Questionnaire method
• Recall test
• Readability test
• Eye movement test

Campaign pre-testing

A new area of pre-testing driven by the realization that what works on TV does not necessarily translate in other media. Greater budgets allocated to digital media in particular have driven the need for campaign pre-testing. The addition of a media planning tool to this testing approach allows advertisers to test the whole campaign, creative and media, and measures the synergies expected with an integrated campaign.

Post-testing

Post-testing/Tracking studies provide either periodic or continuous in-market research monitoring a brand’s performance, including brand awareness, brand preference, product usage and attitudes. Some post-testing approaches simply track changes over time, while others use various methods to quantify the specific changes produced by advertising either the campaign as a whole or by the different media utilized.

Overall, advertisers use post-testing to plan future advertising campaigns, so the approaches that provide the most detailed information on the accomplishments of the campaign are most valued. The two types of campaign post-testing that have achieved the greatest use among major advertisers include continuous tracking, in which changes in advertising spending are correlated with changes in brand awareness, and longitudinal studies, in which the same group of respondents are tracked over time. With the longitudinal approach, it is possible to go beyond brand awareness, and to isolate the campaign’s impact on specific behavioral and perceptual dimensions, and to isolate campaign impact by media.

Essentials of Advertising Research

• Research Equipment: It is the basic requirement of advertising research. It includes a skilled person, computer system with internet, and relevant newspapers and magazine. However, field research is also important. For example, interviewing people in the market or their residential places.
• Marketing Trends: Knowledge of marketing trends help advertisers to know what products people are buying and what are the specific features of the products, which compels people to buy. With this information, manufacturers can modify their product according to the trend on competitive price.
• Media Research: To determine, which media is the most effective advertisement vehicle, media research is necessary. It helps to reach the potential customers in a short period of time and at lower cost.
• Target Audience: For any advertising research, it is very important to identify target audience and geographic location.

Benefits of Advertising Research

• Develops creative design and strategy: Once, all information is available, it is very simple to develop an eye-catching design. It also helps in making a well-defined strategy to develop your business.
• Identifies Opportunity in the Market: Research suggests: what is the right time to launch the product. It also tells which geographical location is the best for the product.
• Measures Your Reputation: It is always beneficial to know your competitor’s reputation and credit in the market. It helps to develop faultless strategy.
• Identifies Major Problems: Research helps to identify the potential problems.
• Analyzes Progress: It helps to analyze the performance of your product. Likewise, you can monitor your progress.
• Minimize the Risk: If you have done a thorough market research, there is least chance of failure.