ADVERTISING RESEARCH

1. ADVERTISING RESEARCH

2. IMPORTANCE OF ADVERTISING: • A recent study done by the centre for media studies emphasizes the phenomenal growth in advertising that has taken place in recent years. • Advertising expenditure in India has crossed the Rs.1000Crore mark. • A number of factors have contributed to this growth. • These forces are more purchasing power with consumers, availability of a wide variety of products and brands, availability of greater information about products and brands, and changes in the socio economic environment in the country.

3. In view of these developments, advertising has assumed more importance in recent years. • This rising trend will continue on account of a number of factors such as increase in urbanization, expansion of education, increase in per capita income etc. • This would mean that companies will give far more attention to their advertising efforts, use more sophisticated and improved advertising techniques and be more concerned about knowing the impact of their advertising efforts.

4. NEED FOR ADVERTISING RESEARCH: • First what should be the objectives of advertising? Unless the objectives are clear, advertising cannot be useful. Research would enable the company to be clear in its objectives. • Another aspect where research can be useful is the selection of message that an advertisement should carry and through what media it should be conveyed. This is a major area of advertising research. • Finally research has to concern itself with the evaluation of advertising in order to find out whether the expenditure on advertising has been justified or not. If not, the reasons should be ascertained so that an improvement in advertising can be made in the future.

5. MEDIA RESEARCH The main issues in media research are: • How to choose among media types – television, radio and news papers? • How to decide on a specific insert within a particular type of media, say, television? The advertising research foundation (ARF) suggested the following type of data for this purpose.

6. Media vehicle distribution: The circulation number for a magazine or newspaper or the number of television or radio sets available to carry the advertising. • Media vehicle audience: The number of people exposed to the media vehicle. This would be larger than the number in 1 above as more than one person reads the same newspaper/ magazine or watches on the same television set. • Advertising exposure: The number of people exposed to specific advertisement in the media vehicle. This number would be less than the number in 2 above as all those who are exposed to a newspaper / magazine may not notice a particular advertisement.

7. 4. Advertising perception: The number of people who perceive the advertisement in question. This number would be less than that in 3 above. The people may perceive an advertisement because of several factors such as its large size, use of attractive colours or its positioning in the media vehicle or on account of the product involved. 5. Advertising communication: The number of people who comprehend specific things about the advertising. This number would obviously be less than the number of people who perceived. 6. Sales response: The number of people who buy the product in question as a result of advertising. This number would be far less than that in 5 above.

8. MEDIA AUDIENCES I. Print media: The ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation) compiles its reports which gives the size of circulation of a newspaper / magazine on the basis of certified audits. This information while being useful, is not sufficient. It is difficult to estimate the size of the audience for a particular publication.

9. The data collected by merely asking respondents as to whether they have looked at a particular copy would be unreliable. • This is because some respondents may regard reading a particular magazine as a status symbol and hence they may report exaggerated readership. • Likewise reading of some magazines may be regarded as below one’s status and hence their readership may be reported to be much less than in reality

10. II. Radio and Television: There are 4 methods to measure the size of the audience for any radio or television programme. 1. Coincidental method: First of all, a sample of households having a telephone is selected. This is followed by an enquiry on telephone as to whether a particular programme on radio is being listened or being watched on television. • Other information such as the name of the sponsor and the product being advertised is also collected. • The main advantage of this method are it is quick and economical. • The limitation is, the method has to be confined to only those households who own telephone.

11. 2. Roster recall: • As the name implies, a roster os list of programmes is used to facilitate the respondents to recall what programmes were listened to or watched. Respondents are contacted personally by interviewers. • The limitations of the method are : • The responses are dependent upon memory. • Depending on the status or popularity or otherwise of a particular programme, respondents may give their replies reagrdless of whether they have listened to a programme.

12. 3. Diary method: As the name implies, this method uses a diary for estimating the number of persons listening to or watching different programmes. A diary especially designed for this purpose, is issued to tespondents who have agreed to furnish the desired information. Each respondent records his radio listening or television viewing, along with personal data such as age and sex in this diary. If respondents accurately record their ardio listening or television viewing, this method would give accurate and complete information. It is cheaper than other methods involving personal interviewing and recall.

13. 4. Audimeter: • An audimeter is an electronic machine attached to a television set. • As soon as the television set is turned on, the machine records it on the tape. • In advanced countries this method is frequently used. • The audimeter ensures acontinuous flow of information, which is not possible in other methods. • Another advantage of this method is that there is complete objectivity in the information thus collected. • The limitations of the method are: • First, turning a set on does not necessarily mean that the programme in question is being watched. • Second, the method cannot indicate as to who is watching a programme.