A

Seminar Paper
On
Measuring Of Advertisement
Effectiveness
MBA SEM :-3(SFI)
Academic Year :-2015-2017
Submitted By:
Bhavesh Joliya

(Signature Of Student and Date)

Guided By :Dr. Jay Badiyani
Submitted To :Department Of Business Administration
M.K. Bhavnagar University
Bhavnagar.

Abstract
In todays highly competitive, dynamic and technology driven business
circumstances, marketers are under steady pressure to deliver the best.
Organizations are continuously improving and upgrading themselves to meet
customer expectations and demands. Technology has not only changed the way
in which business is done in modern times but has also transformed the way to
reach out to target audience. Marketers have identified most recent media
options to communicate and convince potential customers. Numerous scholars
have studied the research domain of advertising and have tried to recognize
different measures of advertisement effectiveness in context of various media.
The objective of this paper is to critically review accessible literature on
advertisement effectiveness in context of varied advertising media, recognize
major gaps in the literature and identify future research prospects on the basis of
critical analysis of literature.

INTRODUCTION
TODAYS business scenario is characterized by high competition,
dynamism and operational complexities. Competition has forced corporate to
change and upgrade continuously due to rising customer expectations. Markets
are cluttered worldwide and delivering finest to the consumers is at the top
priority for each of the business unit whether large or small. In such an
aggressive

business

situation,

advertising

plays

an

important

role

in

communicating with customers, both current and potential. With the advent of
new technology and development of various modern media, advertisers have
discovered several innovative promotional options to lure target audience. The
rapid proliferation of internet, cell phones, movies and video games has
convinced

marketing

personnel

to

consider

these

as

emerging

media

alternatives. Therefore understanding advertisement effectiveness in context of

these emerging media choices is essential as it would contribute significantly to
the productivity of advertisers in terms of effective allocation of their marketing
budgets

ADVERTISEMENT EFFECTIVENESS: CONCEPTS AND ITS MEASURES

The early scholars in the area of advertisement effectiveness focused on

theoretical considerations and developed conceptual frameworks to understand
and measure advertisement effectiveness.
Starch suggested a conceptual framework to measure the probable
effectiveness of a series of proposed advertisements before they are used while
examined three different aspects of effectiveness of advertising communication.
Bendixen developed an advertising effectiveness model and some practical sets
of propositions that relates to long-term consumer behavior and have profound
practical implications for the management of the advertising function.
IV. TELEVISION ADVERTISEMENTS
Numerous

researchers

have

examined

the

effectiveness

of

TV

advertisements with diverse perspectives. Alpert et al. in their study measured

the impact of repetition on advertisement miscomprehension and advertisement
effectiveness while in their research focused on cross-national standardization of
advertisements and measured the effectiveness of TV advertisements targeted
at Chinese Canadians in Canada. In a study, compared the effectiveness of four
telescopic advertisements with advertisements for same products using the
traditional 30-sec TV commercial format and the infomercial format while
explored relative effectiveness of 15 and 30 second TV advertisements using
intermediate

variable

viz.

advertising

recall,

liking

and

correct

brand

identification. In another study, incorporated AIDA model for measuring

effectiveness of the TV advertisement for electric conservation in Isfahan city.
V.INTERNET ADVERTISEMENTS
Scholars have also investigated the area of measuring effectiveness of
internet advertisements. studied banner advertisement and web site congruity
effects on consumer website perceptions while

tested the effectiveness of a

mouse pointer image in increasing the click through for a web banner
advertisement. explored various online advertisement factors that affect the
recall of online advertisements and revealed that embedded videos, product
price, product or services itself and credibility are key elements that makes
consumers to recall online advertisements.
VI. IN-FILM AND IN-GAME ADVERTISEMENTS

With the advent of modern media options, the focus of researchers shifted
from measurement of advertisement effectiveness for conventional media to
films and video games. Most of the researches on effectiveness of product
placements measured it in terms of how well they were remembered. According
to, effectiveness of placements depends on the extent of conscious processing of
the brand and its association in the memory. Russell tested the effect of different
levels of plot connection on brand placements while in their study revealed that
execution style of placement had significant impact on the audience memory for
the

brand.

Genre

of

the

movie

where

placements

appear

along

with

characteristics of placements like the category of the brand placed, the mode,
the kind of actor, his/her role in the film and integration had differential impact
on effectiveness of placements. It is evident that explicit memory measures such
as recall or recognition are used in majority of the studies. Thus researchers the
use of implicit memory in testing advertising and brand placement effectiveness
is also proposed by various researchers.
VII. PRINT ADVERTISEMENTS
Measuring the Effectiveness of print advertisements is another area that
has been widely researched. Hanssens and Weitz identified the specific
characteristics of industrial print advertisements that are related to the
effectiveness of advertising functions while examined influence of variety of
factors such as size of an advertisement, number of colors used, the product
advertised and characteristics of the audience on recall and recognition of
advertisements. Patterson and Richards developed a structural latent variable
model to determine the affect of newspaper advertisement characteristics while
identified the factors predicting the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement print
advertisements. Kothari et al.

in their research explored the factors viz.

attractive visuals, believability, informational content, relevance, memo ability

and persuasiveness that make service print advertisement more effective. Table I
summarizes major research studies examined for the present review paper in
context of varied advertising media.
A long-term perspective of advertising effectiveness would focus
more on cumulative perceptions. Here too, it would be important to show that
outcomes match the prime focus of a brand's campaigns over the years.
Because other elements of the marketing mix will normally be consistent with
the long-term advertising image or benefit when a campaign is successful, it will

be more difficult here to identify advertising's unique contribution. Short-term

effectiveness is best assessed by demonstrating a chain of effects that includes
sales, brand perceptions, and advertising awareness or attitudes. Failure to show
any of these effects would raise questions about either effectiveness or causality.
The more clearly and convincingly the ties between each of these effects can be
made and the greater the degree to which alternative causes can be ruled out,
the more compelling the case that advertising created an impact
In assessments of short-term advertising effectiveness, the most
common measurement is the change in awareness, brand knowledge, attitudes,
or sales. Because it is also important to show that changes are due to advertising
and not some other cause, the test brand's change scores should be compared
with 10 Wright-Isak, Faber, Horner those of its major competitors. This
comparison can help allay concerns that the change was due to a change in
economic or market conditions or some other confounding factor.

Measuring Advertising Effectiveness

The managerial responsibility in the area of advertising does not
come to an end with the execution of an advertising programmer. Any sound
managerial effort is finally interested in goal attainment and, therefore, always
ready to evaluate the results.
Evaluation of advertising or advertising effectiveness refers to the
managerial exercise aimed at relating the advertising results to the established
standard of performance and objectives so as to assess the real value of the
advertising performance.
This evolution exercise is also known as advertising research. It is an
attempt to know whether the message designed properly has reached the
greatest number of prospects at the least practical cost.
The managerial responsibility in the area of advertising does not come to
an end with the execution of an advertising programme. Any sound managerial
effort is finally interested in goal attainment and, therefore, always ready to
evaluate the results.
Evaluation of advertising or advertising effectiveness refers to the
managerial exercise aimed at relating the advertising results to the established
standard of performance and objectives so as to assess the real value of the
advertising performance.
This evolution exercise is also known as advertising research. It is an
attempt to know whether the message designed properly has reached the
greatest number of prospects at the least practical cost.
It is an attempt to measure whether the time, talents, and the treasure
invested in the creative activity has resulted in attaining the goals of profit

maximization to the advertiser and the maximization of satisfaction to the

consumers.

Objectives

To understand reasons for measuring promotional program effectiveness

To know the various measures used in assessing promotional program

effectiveness

To evaluate alternative methods for measuring promotional program

effectiveness

To understand the requirements of proper effectiveness research

What is to be measured?
It is quite obvious that in the area of ad effectiveness evaluation, the advertiser
is to measure the ad effectiveness.
However, it is not clear as to what is ad effectiveness?
Ad effectiveness evaluation is a research activity and by its very nature, it
is to establish the cause and effect relation between the efforts and the results.
This ad effectiveness is to be seen in five areas namely, markets, motives,
messages, media and overall results.
In each area, one is to look in for the advertising ability and the
achievements

in

the

light

of

preset

objectives.

Advertising

testing

is

indispensable because, it enables to get down to the facts, to decide on spending

to guard against the mistaken notion that you have to keep in touch with latest
trends, to separate wheat from the chaff, the sheep from goats, the winning
ideas from the duds, to multiply the results from the rupee investments so made.

Reasons to Measure Effectiveness

1. Avoiding costly mistakes
2. Evaluating alternative strategies
3. Increasing the efficiency of advertising in general
4. Determining if objectives are achieved

When to test?
Testing of ad effectiveness is possible at any stage of advertising process.
It can be done before the advertising campaign begins or during its run or after
the campaign is fully run. Pre-testing gives the maximum safety as much is not
lost; concurrent testing makes him to lose little more as the advertising process
has advanced.
Post-testing results in maximum loss if it fails as the whole show is over
and he gets the post- mortem report, as to what has happened. Nothing is

certain unless and until, we are sure about the accuracy and reliability of feedback that the advertiser gets from such research

How to test?
Fortunately, the advertising has wide range of testing techniques or the
methods to choose for evaluation purpose. What methods or techniques he is
going to use is dependent on when he is going to measure the ad effectiveness.
Accordingly, there can be three sets of methods to meet his needs
namely, pre-testing, concurrent testing and post-testing methods.

I. Pre-testing methods:
1. Check-list test:
A check-list is a list of good qualities to be possessed by an effective
advertisement. A typical check- list provides rating scale or basis for ranking the
ads in terms of the characteristics.
These characteristics may be honesty, attention getting, readability,
reliability, convincing ability, selling ability and the like. The ad that gets highest
score is considered as the best.

2. Opinion test:
Opinion test or consumer jury test is one that obtains the preference of a
sample group of typical prospective consumers of the product or the service for
an ad or part of it. The members of the jury rate the ads as to their head-lines,
themes, illustrations, slogans, by direct comparison.

Getting preference from a juror is better than getting it from a member of

general public or an ad expert.
Jurys preference is arrived at by seeking answers to the questions as to which ad
was seen first?
Which was most convincing?
Which was most interesting? And so on.
Accordingly, the top ranking ad gets selected.
3. Dummy magazine and port-folio test:
Dummy magazines are used to pre-test the ads under conditions of
approximation resembling normal exposure. A dummy magazine contains
standard editorial material, control ads that have been already tested and the
ads to be tested. The sample households receive these magazines and the
interviews are conducted to determine recall scores.
Port-folio test is like that of dummy magazine test except that the test ads
are placed in a folder that contains control ads. The respondents are given these
folders for their reading and reactions. The test scores are determined in the
interview. The ad with highest score is taken as the best.
4. Inquiry test:
It involves running two or more ads on a limited scale to determine which
is most effective in terms of maximum inquiries for the offers made. These
inquiry tests are used exclusively to test copy appeals, copies, illustrations, and
other components.
Any of these elements may be checked. The point that is to be checked is
changed and all other components are unaltered, to get the score.

5. Mechanical tests:
These mechanical tests are objective in nature unlike the one already
explained. These help in provide good measures as to how respondent are eyes
and emotions reaching a given advertisement.

The most widely used mechanical devices are:

1. Eye Movement Camera
2. Perceptoscope
3. Psycho-galvanometer and
4. Tachistoscope.

II. Concurrent Testing Methods:

1. Co-incidental surveys:
This is called as coincidental telephone method also whereby a sample of
households is selected, calls are made during the time programme broadcast,
the respondents are asked whether their radio or television is on, and if so, to
what station or programme it is tuned? The results of the survey are used to
determine the share of response for the advertisement or the programme.

2. Consumer diaries:

This method involves giving the families selected in advance of diary or

individual diaries to the members of the family. The selected families and
individual respondents are asked to record the details about the programme they
listen or view. The diaries are collected periodically to determine the scores.

3. Mechanical devices:
The mechanical devices used to measure the ad differences concurrently
are more common to broadcast media.
These are:
1. Audio meters
2. Psychogalvanometer
3. Tachistoscope and
4. Truck Electronic Unit.

4. Traffic counts:
Traffic counts are of special applicability to outdoor advertising. One can
get good deal of information through traffic counts. This counting is done by
independent organisations may be private or public. This work is also undertaken
by advertising agencies. For instance, how many automobiles and other vehicles
were exposed to a bulletin board or a poster or a wall painting and how many
times? Can be determined.

III. Post-testing methods:

1. Inquiry tests:
It is controlled experiment conducted in the field. In inquiry test, the
number of consumer inquiries produced by an advertising copy or the medium is
considered as to the measure of its communication effectiveness.
Therefore, the number of inquiries is the test of effectiveness which can be
produced only when the ad copy or the medium succeeds in attracting and

retaining reader or viewer attention. To encourage inquiries, the advertiser offers

to send something complimentary to the reader or the viewer, if he replies.
2. Split-run test:
A split-run test is a technique that makes possible testing of two or more
ads in the same position, publication, issued with a guarantee of each ad
reaching a comparable group of readers. It is an improvement over the inquiry
test in that the ad copy is split into elements like appeal layout headline and so
on. Here also, the readers are encouraged to reply the inquiries to the keyed or
the given address.
3. Recognition tests:
Recognition is a matter of identifying something as having seen or heard
before. It is based on the memory of the respondent. It attempts to measure the
ad effectiveness by determining the number of respondents who have read or
seen the ads before. To arrive at the results, readership or listenership surveys
are conducted.
4. Recall tests:
Recalling is more demanding than recognizing as a test of memory. It
involves respondents to answer as to what they have read, seen or heard without
allowing them to look at or listen to the ad while they are answering.
There are several variations of this test. One such test is Triple Association
Test which is designed to test copy themes or the slogans and reveals the extent
to which they have remembered.
5. Sales tests:
Sales tests represent controlled experiment under which actual field
conditions than the simulated are faced. It attempts to establish a direct
relationship between one or more variables and sales of a product or service. It
facilitates testing of one ad against another and one medium against another.

To sum-up, ad effectiveness testing is a must to avoid costly mistakes, to select

the best alternative from the apparently equal alternatives, to resolve the
differences of opinion and to add to the store of knowledge having deep bearing
on advertising effectiveness and efficiency. Ad effectiveness testing can be at
three levels namely, prior to, during and after the release of an ad.

Where to test
Measuring AdvertisingLaboratory
Effectiveness
tests
.
Field tests
Conducting Research to Measure
Advertising Effectiveness
What to test
Source factors
Message
variables
Media strategies

Budget decisions

How to test
Testing guidelines
Appropriate tests
When to test
Pretesting
Posttesting

Testing for campaign development

Occurs at various stages

of
development

campaign

1. Occurs at various stages

of campaign development

2. Finished art orcommercialtesting

Concept testing

Alternatives are exposed to consumers who match the target audience

. Finished
art and
Reactions
orco
mme
rcialt

evaluations are sought through focus groups, direct questioning, s

Objective

How to measure the effectiveness of advertising?

12-18

Rough Art, Copy and Commercial Testing:

Comprehension and reaction tests

Conveying meaning intended by assessing responses

Qualitative and/or quantitative data are used to evaluate and

compare alternative concepts.
Advantages

Disadvantages

Control
Consumer may become a selfappointed expert

Cost effectiveness
Number of ads that can be
evaluated is limited
Endorsements
third parties

by

independent
A halo effect is possible

Achievement of credibility

Preference for ad types

may overshadow objectivity

Pretesting finished print ads

Portfolio tests
Portfolio tests
Includes test and control ads

Portfolio test have problems

Based on syllables per 100 words
Readability tests

Distributed
to random
homes
Product interest
may sample
still biasofresults

Dummy
advertising
vehicles

Dummy
advertising
vehicles

A LONG-TERM VIEW OF ADVERTISING Effectiveness

Brand knowledge and image are cumulative effects of many

campaigns; it may take years to assess the full impact of advertising.
Ironically, the group that stresses long-term effects the most is the critics
of advertising.
Critics tend to make assertions such as:

Advertised products lead children to develop poor nutritional

habits.

Commercial messages promote materialistic values.

Models shown in ads lead to an overemphasis on beauty and

thinness for women.

Adolescents start to smoke because cigarette ads show

attractive, adventurous, and popular people smoking.

Stress on superficial attributes (both for products and political

candidates) leads people to develop poor decision-making
strategies.

Although these issues involve a range of target audiences and

outcomes, the common underlying theme is that consistent messages
over long periods of time have important impacts on beliefs, and these
beliefs influence behavior. Applied more generally to our understanding of

advertising effectiveness, this theme suggests that consistent messages

over time create beliefs about brands and 8 Wright-Isak, Faber, Homer
brand users that ultimately influence choice processes and create tangible
benefits for the advertiser.
Originally,

May

tag

stressed

dependability

to

overcome

the

perceived financial risk inherent in buying a washing machine instead of a

washboard. Today, in a more hectic and complex world, families are
concerned about the potential loss of time and convenience that can be
caused by an undependable appliance. May tag has understood this and
expressed its equity through the lonely May tag repairman who is never
called because May tag appliances never break. Thus, May tag capitalized
on its initial efforts by updating its imagery to fit the times, while
continuing to stand for the same value: dependability.
There are many methods to choose. The final results depend on the
validity, reliability and the relevance of each method employed. Testing, if done
in good faith, can payout its costs and rich dividends too

Measuring the effectiveness of advertising programmed in the limited

market area is one of the important task of the advertising manager. If different
media and different advertisements are used in different markets, the
effectiveness of the different media and advertisement can be evaluated. These
measures will help the manager to adjust the budget to obtain the most effective
media scheduling.

The revision of the budget is necessary because of the impact of other

promotional measures. Changes in the budget for other programmed compel the

manager to redesign his budget so that he may stay within the available
resources.

Procedures to evaluate effectiveness of Advertisements

A well-conceived advertising programmed is an integral part of the firms
overall marketing strategy. Therefore, it is obligatory on the part of the
management to know whether the campaign has really attained its advertising
objectives, and whether its advertisements are as good as those of its
competitors.
A number of alternative procedures are available for the evaluation of the
effectiveness of advertisements, of which the three important ones are:
1.

Evaluating individual advertising messages in order to assess their relative

importance;

2.

Evaluating the achievement of awareness-and-attitude objectives;

3.

Evaluating the impact of advertisement as reflected in the sales reports.

These can be measured by a variety of tests. In fact, the tests of

effectiveness are needed to determine whether the proposed advertisements
should be used, or they need some improvement; or should be stopped,
continued or significantly changed. The advertising measurements usually take
two forms;

one involves the sales effect of advertising that is, the sales volume
generated by advertising.

other involves the communications effect on advertising, or the degree to

which the audience perceives the content of the message.

Both of these forms of measurement are important. Sales measurements help

determine the optimum advertising budget, and communications measurements
help to tell us if the message is working.

How to measure sales results?

To measure sales results, an analysis is made of consumer purchases
before and after advertising has been introduced to stimulate sales. Such
analysis can be used to estimate whether and to what extent the brands
position has been improved as a result of advertising, and among which
consumer segments it has been most effective. Sometimes, store inventory is
done before and after the effects of advertising to measure the sales results.
Many advertisements give some idea of the product so that consumer may
be persuaded to purchase it. For this purpose, advertisements are pretested before target consumers are exposed to them, and post tests are
conducted after these consumers have been exposed to the advertisements.
Pre-tests are conducted to find out whether the information communicated
to consumers has been successfully communicated. If the tests indicate that
advertisements are not potentially effective, they may be modified, or dropped.
Post-tests indicate whether they have been effective or not. If a significant
difference is found in sales, the management may decide that the effort is
successful and should be continued as planned.
Other measures of effectiveness are: readership, awareness of advertising
themes, and attitude changes.

Kinds of tests to measure effectiveness of advertising

Various kinds of tests are used to measure the effectiveness of
advertising. These are: exposure; attention, comprehension, attitude change,
and behavior or action.
Exposure:
In order to be effective, an advertisement must gain exposure, i.e.,
how many consumers have seen or heard about the message. Without exposure,
advertising is doomed to failure. Whether the media used has exposed the idea
can be found out by:

Examining its circulation or audience data (i.e., number of print copies

sold, persons passing billboards or riding in city buses, persons living in
radio-listening area, etc.); or

Conducting readership or listenership surveys.

Attention:
Advertisement cannot be effective unless they get the attention of target
consumers. This attention getting response can be obtained by asking
consumers to indicate the degree to which they recognize or recall each
advertisement. Various mechanical devices provide indices of attention.

Comprehension:
Consumers utilize advertisements as a means of obtaining information.
They cannot be informed unless they comprehend the message. Marketers use
various tests of comprehension, such as recall tests, i.e., consumers will recall

what they comprehend. They may also ask consumers how much they
comprehend of a message they recently heard or viewed.

Attitude Change:
Attitudes towards the product or organization, both before and after the
appearance of an advertisement, are measured by measuring instruments which
normally contains 15 to 20 sales.

Action:
Advertising aims at stimulating action or behavior. The intention can be
measured by instruments, and the answers to certain questions may be analyzed
to find out the future trends in purchasing.

Which is the effective test to measure the effectiveness of

Advertisement?
Which of the tests may be used will depend upon the advertising objective
of the campaign and the research budget of the organization. The test used
should assess the degree to which advertising campaign helps achieve the
managements objectives. Thus, if the objective is to increase brand awareness,
readership or listenership surveys may be quite suitable. But if the objective is to
generate immediate action, sales or coupon measurements may be adopted.
Sales and readership studies are very expensive for small-scale organizations;
these should, therefore, use less expensive tests, such as inquiry tests to
evaluate the advertising effectiveness.

In the evaluation process, the role of advertising managers and product

managers is quite critical with regard to monitoring the achievement
of advertising objectives. Advertising agencies and specialists play a vital role
in determining the relative worth of different messages. The evaluation
procedures, to be effective, should be diagnostic; that is, it should not merely
indicate which of the alternative messages in superior or how well advertising

objectives are being attained; it should also provide for remedial action,
wherever necessary.
CONCLUSION
An attempt is made through this research paper to review various studies
on advertisement effectiveness and identify a range of measures used in context
of a specific media. Select studies with reference to different media forms are
summarized in Table I. It may be noted that the development of the
advertisement effectiveness literature from 1964 to 2013 highlights the change
in the focus of researchers from traditional to modern media. It is further
observed that different dimensions are considered in different media for
measuring advertisement effectiveness which adds to the complexities and
vagueness of the subject.
Advertising is under increasing pressure to demonstrate that it makes a
difference and is worth its cost. However, given advertising's salience, there is a
surprising lack of consensus regarding its effectiveness. We have tried to resolve
some

of

the

problems

by

differentiating

advertising

effectiveness

from

advertising effects. Effectiveness involves assessments of actual campaigns in

natural settings, whereas effects involve responses to individual ads. We
proposed that effectiveness may best be thought of as a societal-level concept
whose meaning is established by the consensus of a community of professionals.
As such, a first step in future research might be to determine what information
professionals use in judging effectiveness. One potential source of useful data is
the Advertising Effectiveness Awards, commonly known as Effies. Entrants for
this award provide descriptions of campaign objectives and background
situation, creative and media strategy, and most importantly, evidence of the
results of the campaign. A pool of more than 300 judges representing clients,
agencies, marketing research companies, and a few academics, assess the
effectiveness of each entry. The research question would be what criteria these
professionals use to judge effectiveness in this context. As useful as it might be,
this information is limited to short-term effectiveness. A more complete
conceptualization of effectiveness must take into account a campaign's ability to
contribute to long-term brand equity. Greater consideration of ways to measure
this contribution is clearly needed.

References

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http://www.managementstudyguide.com/advertisingeffectiveness.htm

https://www.scribd.com/doc/48424357/Importance-of-measuringthe-Effectiveness-of-Advertising

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