Chapter 19

This chapter talked about the issues involved in measuring the effects of advertising and promotions. These issues include reasons for testing, reasons companies do not test, and the review and evaluation of various
research methodologies.

And the following conclusions were drawn:
(1) Advertising research to measure effectiveness is important to the promotional program,
(2) Not enough companies test their ads, and
(3) Problems exist with current research methodologies.

In addition some ways were suggested to accomplish effective studies. All marketing managers want to
know how well their promotional programs are working. This information is critical to planning for the next period, since program adjustments and/or maintenance are based on evaluation of current strategies. Problems often result when the measures taken to determine such effects are inaccurate or improperly
used.

Throughout the chapter, we talk about the importance of measuring the effectiveness of the promotional program and the value of measuring their contribution to the program’s success. A number of studies have been implemented to determine the combined effects of two or more media as well as their synergistic impact. Companies as large as Microsoft, spend millions of dollars on communications, or employ large research agencies to measure effectiveness. Heart-wear, a small jewellery manufacturer with almost no advertising budget, relies to a large degree on word of mouth and its Internet site as the primary means of creating awareness and interest in the brand. By tracking visitors to its site, Heart-wear was able to determine the impact of having its product appear in various publications, thus getting an indication of the value of publicity.

In February 2002, Heart-wear page requests ranged from a low of 5 to as high as 726 per day, with an average of 199. In March, the average number dropped. Then the jewellery was shown in various magazines—not as an ad but with someone wearing the product or just with a small print name mention. As can be seen, the appearances in Teen People, YM, and US Weekly significantly increased the number of hits to almost 4,000 each time the jewellery appeared. The actual exposures were minimal but still led to significant
increases in visits, with lower numbers associated with no exposure periods. The August and September spikes were associated with appearances in Victoria’s Secret catalogue mailings, with each increase correlated with the mailing period. Sales figures also correlated highly with the site visits.

The Heart-wear example is just one more indication of the value of measuring the effectiveness of the impact of various IMC elements. Perhaps just as important, it indicates that the excuse of not measuring due to costs has little or no merit.

All the advertising effectiveness measures discussed here have their inherent strengths and weaknesses. They offer the advertiser some information that may be useful in evaluating the effectiveness of promotional efforts. While not all promotional efforts can be evaluated effectively, progress is being made.

This chapter demonstrated that testing must meet a number of criteria (defined by PACT) to be successful. These evaluations should occur both before and after the campaigns are implemented. A variety of research methods were discussed. Many companies have developed their own testing systems. There has been an
increase in testing through the Internet. Single-source research data were discussed. These single source systems offer strong potential for improving the effectiveness of ad measures in the future, since commercial
exposures and reactions may be correlated to actual purchase behaviours.

It is important to recognize that different measures of effectiveness may lead to different results. Depending
on the criteria used, one measure may show that an ad or promotion is effective while another states that it is not. This is why clearly defined objectives and the use of multiple measures are critical to determining the true
effects of an IMC program.