Advertising research. Advertisements Testing promotional materials

  • testing advertising concepts and materials;
  • research of the effectiveness of an advertising campaign;
  • media research.

Testing advertising concepts and materials

Testing of advertising materials is carried out before the advertising campaign to increase the effectiveness of the impact of the advertising message. Pre-testing of print, television and audio advertisements - newspaper and magazine advertisements, video and audio clips, outdoor advertising layouts - is a widespread and very important area of \u200b\u200bmarketing research.

Typically, the development of promotional materials is most often carried out using qualitative research methods. “We actively use, in particular, standard, mini and special creative focus groups, in-depth interviews, as well as such special techniques as brainstorming and interactive interaction. Using the methods of analogy, association, personification and various projective situations, the search for advertising ideas takes place, the development of the advertising concept is carried out, and additions to it are developed. Such preliminary research allows you to outline the main directions, determine the "style" of the advertising campaign, formulate key ideas, sometimes - build storylines and select advertising characters. Ideas expressed directly by representatives of target audiences are extremely important in the development of promotional products. ”

  • what the representatives of target audiences like or dislike in the proposed advertising concepts;
  • how clear and unique are the proposed options for advertising concepts;
  • assessment of the importance for potential consumers of individual elements of the product (service);
  • assessment of the intention to purchase products (subject to knowing the price and without it);
  • if two or more versions of concepts are tested, comparing them with each other and choosing the option most preferable in the opinion of representatives of target audiences.

Next, you need to test the developed advertising materials. “Analysis of the reaction of representatives of target groups to the developed advertising models is carried out both within the framework of a direct survey (for example, during the Hall test), and in the process of conducting focus groups or in-depth interviews”.

  • understanding the main idea of \u200b\u200bthe advertising message;
  • the perception of the advertising message and the assessment of individual elements of the advertising materials, what the target audience likes or dislikes in the proposed options;
  • compliance of the advertising message with the needs and specifics of the perception of the target audience;
  • compliance of advertising with the brand image already established in the minds of the audience if the product is not new to the market;
  • persuasiveness of the advertising message;
  • study of various parameters of advertising message illustration - color scheme, characters, text, slogan;
  • uniqueness of advertising materials;
  • memorability of advertising materials;
  • the degree of consumer confidence in the tested materials.

“Besides choosing the most attractive option

advertising, it is of great importance to study the reasons and motives for choosing or rejecting one or another layout or its individual parts. This information helps to “fix” existing options or create a new one. At the same time, the option that received more positive responses is usually the basis for drawing up an optimal advertising concept. By bringing together the positive features of all advertising concepts, developers will be able to get a "close to ideal" option. "

"According to experts, if we take the entire number of tested advertising concepts as 100%, somewhere around 20% of them are fully accepted after testing, 20% are simply rejected by the developers, and the remaining 60% are accepted, but with certain modifications." Testing advertising concepts and materials is an essential element of an effective advertising campaign and allows you to form recommendations for choosing and improving the concept.

The effectiveness of advertising is a change under its influence of the following parameters: the number of new buyers; the number of all buyers; the amount of sales or purchases; the number of customers attracted by this advertisement; share of regular customers.

Let's consider three factors of testing and evaluating advertising: test or not; what to test and when; what criterion or test to use.

Usually tests in the first three stages are called preliminary, and at the final stage - final testing. At each of the four stages, different types of tests can be used, which will differ depending on the type of advertising - print or broadcast.


costly mistakes and define parameters for measuring advertising success.

The objects of testing are product characteristics, the reaction of target groups, the perception of the content of advertising messages (and their parts), the choice of a means of distribution, general; perception of advertising.

To test advertising at the preliminary stage, memory tests, portfolio and theatrical tests, focus groups (traditional and electronic), information technology, etc. are used. The key question of choosing one of the methods: what is the measure of the effectiveness of advertising for a product of a given brand, for a given company in the current marketing situation?

Memory tests.This testing method is aimed at assessing the recognition and memorization of an advertising video (message).

Recognition means whether a customer can recognize in a new ad message what he saw before. An example of recognition testing is the tests of TV commercials (“Red Up” drinks) by Wimm-Bill-Dann (see Fig. 12.2). These tests were performed as a mail-order survey, in which questionnaires were sent to 1,000 customers whose children receive the color illustrated magazine Red Up. Interest in the task aroused 500 response letters. The question about recognition is given at the beginning of the questionnaire. Below are questions about product brand association, which is a critical aspect for most companies. On average, 60% learned the advertisement, and 73% were able to choose the right brand from the three options offered. The correlation coefficient between repeated tests was 0.98.

Recognition is a prerequisite for advertising effectiveness. If an ad fails this test, it is ineffective. Nestlé advertisements are very recognizable (Figure 13.2).

recall with a hint (the buyer's reaction is stimulated by showing an illustration from an advertisement);

self-remembering.

The most famous method for determining memorability on television - polling TV viewers 24 ... 30 hours after the advertisement was shown - is called the day-after-recall test (DAR). The essence of DAR is to poll by telephone from 150 to 300 viewers 24 hours after the appearance of a television advertisement according to an approved questionnaire, for example:

Think of the ad from the previous day for one of the product categories. If respondents cannot correctly identify the brand, they are told the category and brand of the product and asked again if they can remember the ad.

Using the DAR method, the percentage of ad viewers who remembered something specific from the ads they saw more than a day ago is determined. This indicator is called the percentage of proven memorization. The DAR method also provides a special verbatim transmission (reproduction) of what viewers remember from advertising messages, and allows you to analyze the information remembered by viewers about the essence of the main message that was transmitted.

Problems with Memorability Score are that memory tests are inappropriate for emotional ads; The memorability score of an ad that evokes feelings increases if the memory is not stimulated by the name of the product or brand, but instead is given a hint - a description of the first scene of the ad. In addition, the reliability of memory tests is questionable. When advertising for one of the many product classes was examined, it was found that the repeat test correlation coefficient is extremely low (below 0.3).

Memory tests overly depend on the appeal and nature of the TV program (the DAR method for advertisements on new TV programs is on average 25% lower than for advertisements shown on other TV programs).

The results of the memorability test change noticeably depending on the nature of the buyers involved in the test (the effect of the DAR method is higher for loyal customers and lower for disloyal customers). In one study, seven out of eight studies evaluating the effectiveness of memory tests found little to no relationship between ad recall and ad persuasiveness.

Portfolio and theater tests.Portfolio tests are associated with a change in brand preference caused by a TV ad. The portfolio test technology includes the following stages:

a sample of up to 450 respondents from different places of residence is formed (by phone);

the respondents form groups of 25 people and ask them questions related to the use of the product brand;

the respondents are asked to watch a certain half-hour musical program with the participation of four professional performers. In the middle of the program, for example, seven commercials are included, of which four are tested;

after viewing the program, respondents are asked a question without prompting about the memorability of the brand name, the answer to which forms the basis for assessing random awareness (the percentage of those who remembered that this brand was advertised).

An important element of the portfolio test is the use of multiple ad impressions. Advertisers should remember the following: Emotional ads should be tested in replay mode, because compared to rational ads, such ads receive a response to it more slowly when repeated, therefore a one-time display of the tested ad will not objectively evaluate the responses that would be obtained with frequently repeated ad impressions.

At the end of the portfolio test, respondents are asked how they understand the slogan of the message, secondary advertising ideas, evaluate the announcer presenting the advertisement, the advertising message as a whole, whether they perceive the uniqueness of the advertised brand and see differences with similar brands, whether there are annoying or embarrassing elements in the advertising message, is it capable of luring the viewer, etc.

Memorability score has only diagnostic value and is weakly related to the success of an advertising campaign.

The theater test helps to assess how easy it is to read and perceive the advertising material in the presented advertising messages by a potential consumer.

Using focus groups to test ads.Focus group is a method of advertising testing used in conducting high-quality marketing research. Focus groups in advertising are used in cases when it is necessary to obtain information from buyers about the perception of advertising materials, about associations and opinions related to advertising, about consumer behavior after the display of advertising materials.

This method is based on a special form of in-depth interview conducted in a group.

During the work of the focus group, its participants, according to a specific scenario agreed with the customer, exchange views under the guidance of a moderator (presenter). To organize focus groups, recruitment is carried out and buyers from the target audience of the customer of this study are invited. The entire conversation is recorded on video or audio media for further transcription and analysis.

Traditional focus groups can precede and follow quantitative research on promotional materials. In the first case, the main task of the focus group is to determine the main directions for conducting quantitative research. In the second case, the focus group work is aimed at clarifying the data of the quantitative study, its addition as a result of a more detailed study of the previously obtained information.

The use of an electronic focus group (EFG) is a method of studying the assessments and opinions of respondents, based on the use of modern electronic equipment. The fields of application of EFG are:

a) television: analysis of television programs - identifying the sequence of strong and weak episodes; forecasting the viewers' rating, identifying "prime moments";

c) testing design solutions: comparative assessments of various design solutions in the field of architecture, fashion
and others, including at the development stage; quality assessment of video and computer presentation fragments;

d) political consulting: training the customer for communication
with the audience; "Fine-tuning" of political advertising; express analysis
and adjustment of the election campaign in the final period
before the elections; analysis of video recordings of public speeches and pre-election debates of political leaders - identifying

episodes with high and low ratings to adjust the content and style of public speaking.

The method of using the EFG is based on the work of the group participating | whose members are selected randomly or according to some specific principle, depending on the research task.

Each participant receives a special electronic sensor with a five-point scale, with which he must record his reaction to what is happening.

In the course of the group's work, electronic equipment every second removes and stores the readings of the sensors, systematizes, summarizes them and combines them with video material.

Electronic registration of EFG participants allows you to divide the audience into a certain number of groups in accordance with the purpose and objective of the study. After the appropriate explanations and the statement of the problem by the moderator (presenter) of the audience, the tested video material is shown. Each participant, using an electronic sensor, records his reaction to what is happening on the screen (like - dislike, interesting - not interesting, agree - disagree, etc.) on a five-point scale.

Conducting at the end of the EFG work a group interview with a part of the respondents - EFG participants allows you to find out the motivation of the registered reactions, to compare the verbal and non-verbal assessments of the respondents.

The use of information technology.To study the reaction to advertising, information technologies are widely used, with the help of which they try to catch changes in the functioning of the nervous system in potential buyers or their emotional arousal in the process of displaying advertising. This method of testing advertising messages uses the following methods:

photographing eyes.This method uses a device that captures the movement of a person's eyes, photographing a small point of light reflected from the eyes, or filming the movement of the eyes. The device shows a dot on a print advertisement or packaging, where the gaze is focused 60 times per second. You can analytically determine what the viewer (reader) saw, what he returned to and at what point his gaze was fixed;

measuring pupil dilation(Pupilometry). This method is associated with the definition of the dilation of the pupils, which, as you know, dilate when they see something interesting and pleasant, and narrow when faced with an unpleasant or uninteresting phenomenon. One of the applications of this property is when testing a new television program;

adjointly programmed ad analysis(conjugately programmed analysis of advertising - CONPAAD). This method of testing advertisements uses a responder-controlled foot or hand device that adjusts the intensity of the TV's sound and picture. The viewer must make an effort to withstand the signals programmed to destroy a particular image;

electroencephalogram(EEG). Some companies test advertisements for the number, nature, and distribution of brain signals triggered. Volunteer respondents are seated in places, and sensors are connected to different parts of the head. During the display of advertisements, signals from sensors are recorded using electroencephalography and analyzed to determine the effectiveness of the impact on respondents of the tested advertisement.

The economic efficiency of advertising is the economic result obtained from the use of an advertising medium or the organization of an advertising campaign. This result is usually determined by the ratio between the gross income from additional sales as a consequence of advertising and the cost of advertising. The general condition of the economic result is that the gross income should be equal to the amount of advertising costs or exceed it.

Psychological effectiveness is the degree of influence of advertising on a person (attracting the attention of buyers, memorability, influence on the purchase motive, etc.).

The main materials for analyzing the economic efficiency of the results of the company's promotional activities are statistical and accounting reports on the growth of turnover. Based on this information, you can investigate the economic efficiency of one advertising medium, advertising campaign and the entire advertising activity of the company as a whole.

To study the effect of the psychological impact of advertising on buyers, methods are used that are based on taking into account and assessing the nature of the impact of certain advertising media on a person.

The effectiveness of the psychological impact of advertising media is characterized by the number of buyers, the brightness and depth of impressions that these funds leave in the memory of a particular person, the degree of attracting his attention.

The effectiveness of the psychological impact of advertising on the consumer can be determined through observations and experiments.

The observation method is used to study the impact on consumers of individual advertising media. This method is passive, since the observer does not influence the buyer in any way.

In the experimental method, the experimenter can create a variety of combinations of advertising media and, by comparing the reaction of buyers, choose the most successful one.

Evaluative methods for determining the effectiveness of advertising.These methods are direct and indirect.

Direct estimation methodsdirectly reveal the effectiveness of advertising by interviewing or testing buyers, company employees, experts, random persons and using point (Table 13.1) and rating (Table 13.2) scores, as well as comparison with a known advertisement during testing.

Indirect valuation methodsbased on survey methods (phone, fax, visitors, customers), comparison (differences in advertising, advertising costs and the number of new customers, the volume of advertising and the number of new customers), calculation (potential, potential audience, target audience, share of responses from outside target audience).

When interviewing callers by phone (“How did you find us?”), You need to decide when to ask a question, register all calls or selectively, as well as the degree of applicability of the survey method for various types of advertising. In this case, the following parameters are recorded - the absolute number of callers for a certain period, the number of callers in a given period compared to the number of callers in other periods, the number of callers for a specific advertisement.

Use an interactive layout testing service and see your ad through the eyes of a consumer.

The task of any designer is to make the poster stand out from the surrounding space. But even a lot of experience is not always able to help in this.

To take into account more nuances of the environment, it is necessary to "tie" to the area - a photomontage of the layout and a photograph of the place. When designing outdoor advertising objects, it is necessary to take into account the conditions of their "binding" to the terrain. The binding is carried out using a computer and a graphics package.

The place of the future installation of the billboard is photographed from different angles, the photographs are scanned, then a model of outdoor advertising is superimposed on them in a computer graphics program.

The result can be viewed on a monitor and output to a color printer. This linking allows you to eliminate possible errors in the production and placement of outdoor advertising, as well as to coordinate with the advertiser and in the future - with local authorities.

All work on the production of outdoor advertising begins with the design. An important rule is the general style of the company. It includes the general color scheme used by the company on advertising booklets, posters, on the website and other media about the company.

The style should be uniform, this increases the recognition. In addition, it is easier to work when the client knows what he wants from the advertising sign and prepares this with the terms of reference for the project.

If your company does not have a person who is responsible and versed in design, then you need to listen to the opinion of professionals who design according to all the rules of advertising, and its colorfulness and brightness does not always guarantee success.

Design workflow:

  • § provision by the client of a technical assignment for the implementation of the layout with the analysis of the target audience of the advertising message;
  • § Provision of photo referencing and the exact dimensions of the sign (a technician goes to the site and takes photos and measurements);
  • § providing the client with all the graphic information required for the production of the layout (logos in graphic design, photos, if any);
  • § designers provide from 3 to 5 layout options;
  • § the client makes corrections and comments;
  • § approval of the final version of the layout.
  • § should be very clearly visible and immediately catch the eye from different angles;
  • § should not only be clearly visible, but also easily and permanently remembered by a person.

To improve efficiency, outdoor advertising must literally burst into the minds of consumers. Advertising design should make the call clear and impressive; in addition, advertising should help increase sales. Correct placement of outdoor advertising helps to reach a huge audience with a non-standard solution and the creation of a particular sign.

Personalize your posters if possible. Such advertising is more practical. Enter the city name or the name of the nearest store in the text. For more effective memorization, strive to find an emotional context. Your ad must be recognizable. Research has shown that ads with unusual graphics, layouts, and typefaces are more likely to attract attention when compared to plain, standardized ads.

Try to make your ad look different from your competitors' ads, and then keep your ad style consistent. Keep in mind that attention to outdoor advertising is directly proportional to its size.

During further testing, the entire research toolkit is used: polls, in-depth interviews, etc. The questions asked during the testing of the concept are aimed, firstly, at collecting information on brand use, demographic characteristics of respondents, etc., and secondly , to find out the effectiveness of the transmission of the main idea, the credibility of the transmission of the main idea, the intention to buy, etc. and, thirdly, to determine the specific characteristics of a particular concept.

Testing usually involves four stages. The first is the definition of the target audience. On the second, the research methodology is selected. On the third, a questionnaire is drawn up. The fourth stage defines the procedure for presenting the concept.

In the course of creating an ad the transmission of the advertising intent is being tested, which also includes four stages. First of all, trial advertising messages (announcements, clips) are created in a "draft". Next, the key characteristics of the consumer audience are determined, a research methodology is selected and a questionnaire is drawn up. The test results should show how the consumer audience perceived the proposed advertising message project, and also explain the reasons for this perception.

An example of a design transfer test questionnaire is :

It should be noted that according to the estimates of the Association of National Advertising Manufacturers ( Association of National Advertisers), “Most ad creation firms test their creative ad ideas before producing ads and placing them in the media. These companies resort to testing the transfer of advertising intent, testing the effectiveness of the finished advertising product, or both forms of verification. " .

In addition to the ad design, message variables are tested at the initial stage of its creation. For example, when testing individual ad elements, the effectiveness of the illustration, heading, body text, layout, typesetting, etc. is checked. You can also test the structure, argumentation, various visual and verbal approaches in terms of how well they convey certain information, etc. .d.

Interestingly, according to recent research from leading advertisers and ad agencies, “most pre-test TV commercials are currently made using animation (hand-drawn images of overlaid ad episodes), consumer focus groups, or randomly selected consumers in a shopping mall. with key tests on the clarity of information and the reliability of the main points of advertising ... Over the past ten years, there has been a tendency to bias towards such faster, high-quality research, using draft advertising options " .

During verification at the final stage of advertising creation it is tested to what extent the advertisement corresponds to the set strategic and communicative goals, whether it can be placed.

The difference between testing a finished advertising product and testing the transmission of an advertising plan is that: “it 1) is more evaluative than diagnostic in nature; 2) is usually carried out on the basis of a completed advertising product; 3) usually carried out by specialized research companies; 4) there are standards with which the results obtained during testing are compared " ... At the end of the ad creation, several variations of the message are usually tested.

The choice of methods for testing the effectiveness of a finished advertising product is largely determined by the specifics of the advertising distribution medium planned for use. Most of the tools for testing in the final stage of advertising production are developed for television advertising, since the cost of error in advertising on television is very high.

One of the popular advertising message tests, the Kotler Scoring System, is focused on the AIDA model. In the course of this test, the experts must distribute points for the individual stages of advertising influence on the score sheet. The sum of the points (from 0 to 100) is an indicator of the ad quality.

Ad rating on the Kotler points system :

“Espe and Walter have added other quality criteria to Kotler's list that are more important from a design perspective than from a marketing perspective. According to members of the club of heads of advertising design departments (Germany), good advertising is characterized by the following features: originality, clarity, persuasiveness, aesthetics and joy " ... One general list of 10 criteria was compiled, according to which 71 experts rated 24 ads. The scores obtained were brought together. The analysis showed that good advertising is characterized by:

“Originality:“ new, unusual, changes norms, awakens attention, encourages further reading, it is a pleasure to watch it ”.

Clarity: “accessible to understanding, its meaning is immediately comprehended, the essence of the information is clear, the advantages are clear, the arguments are justified”.

Impact on behavior: "evokes desired feelings and behaviors" " .

Factor analysis using criteria from the list of Kotler and the Association of Artistic Art Directors :

Originality

Clarity

Influence at

behavior

Originality

0,87

Clarity

0,85

Persuasiveness

0,72

Aesthetics

0,59

0,63

Joy

0,79

Signal influence

0,76

Influence on interest in further reading

0,77

Cognitive influence

0,74

Affective influence

0,72

Impact on behavior

0,84

Note:factor value\u003e 0.50


Also, at the final stage, legal testing is carried out (testing from a legal point of view). Such verification helps to protect against allegations of placing unfair advertising, from stopping the advertising campaign and possible prosecution. Both the main idea and all elements of advertising must follow both external and internal rules of legal regulation.

Legal regulations should apply not only to advertising as a finished product, but also to the methods of testing it. For example, in the United States, the FTC also assesses the quality of “testing, the acceptability of advertising research results, and the reliability of its findings in the following areas:

‒ definition of the general population and selection of observations;

‒ study planning and use of control groups;

‒ drawing up a questionnaire and format of questions;

‒ qualification and training of interviewers, analysis of the methods they use;

‒ data analysis and presentation of results;

‒ research project management " .

In general, testing at the beginning, during and at the end of advertising creation helps to feel the structure of the message, gives relatively prompt results, has significant flexibility and has a fairly low cost. When conducting testing at the stage of advertising creation, researchers "are faced with a classic dilemma facing events of this kind: the more accurate and more often the measurements of advertising, the less they say about the subsequent behavior ..."

Researchers note that a good testing system should measure not one indicator, but several at once - for example, attitude, memorization, etc., and not one thing.

Final testing (post-testing) of advertising

Testing carried out after the advertisement has appeared in its final form in the media is called final testing (post-testing, post-facto testing, tracking, post hoc measurement, control measurement, etc.). Final testing does not have the main disadvantage of preliminary testing - a certain amount of artificiality. In the final testing, people's behavior is not distorted, it is natural, realistic. To this it should be added that during the final test, a number of factors are taken into account, which also seriously affect the results. First of all, these are the specifics of the means of advertising distribution, the time of advertising placement, the frequency of its presentation to consumers, etc.

Post-placement testing of your ad allows you to assess its real impact on real buyers. The final stage usually monitors advertising and brand awareness, knowledge of advertising elements, brand preference, etc. Post-testing gives the advertiser the opportunity to find recurring factors in order to further establish general trends and principles, as well as "points" that can be influenced further enhance the effectiveness of advertising. Analyzing the results of advertising testing after publication or broadcast, the advertiser comes to an understanding of what exactly he needs to change: the advertisement itself or the advertising medium.

In order to know exactly what to do in a given situation, an advertiser using "post-testing" should get answers to questions like the following:

- how much has increased the number of people who understand the properties, advantages and benefits of the product,

- how much has the number of people predisposed to buying goods increased,

- how much has the number of people who applied for a product increased,

- how much has the number of people who bought the product increased,

etc.

In search of answers to these questions, the advertiser collects, summarizes and analyzes data on the number of visitors to his store (office, etc.), on the number of real and potential buyers, on money turnover (daily, weekly, monthly, annual); compares several of its advertising campaigns with each other, its ads - with those of competitors, advertisements for goods of a certain type of the current year with the same advertisements from last year, etc.

The disadvantage of final testing is that it requires a lot of money and time. sx costs.

When conducting post-testing, a basic measurement is first made (behavior of target consumers, product positioning; sales data, etc.). After some time, a control measurement is made and the obtained data are compared with the data of the base measurement. More accurate post-testing will be multiple measurements.

For example, “Eric Marder offered their own approach to doing data tracking without doing individual research for the client ... It brought together a group of 3,000 women from 1,000 regions. Each woman keeps a record of all the TV commercials she saw during one randomly selected day in each month. Before watching TV on the appointed day, she writes down her shopping intentions for each product category. On the appointed day, she watches TV as usual, in addition, records the time, channel and advertised brands of all advertisements she has seen and her purchase intentions immediately after the advertisement is shown. Received messages (RMs) are defined as the total amount of advertisements recorded per 100 women. The persuasion rate (PR) is defined as the cumulative percentage of RM that creates a bias in purchase intent from some other brand to the advertised brand. Subscribers receive quarterly RM and PR reports for all competitive brands for a given product class. " .

To assess the real results, monitoring (tracking) studies are carried out, which are often divided into continuous and waveform. The first are held daily, the second in waves, for example, once a quarter. Tracking is usually used to measure the change in product consumption, awareness, etc.

A reference market can be used in post-testing. For this, two approximately identical markets are taken: one is advertised, and the other (control) is not. After the placement, the sales results are compared, thus establishing whether they are affected by the advertisement or not.

Very complex testing systems are often used. Thus, Alvin Ehenbaum proposed “to use the so-called chess technology to check and process the results of trial marketing. It has three main elements ...

1. Division of the entire economic space into separate groups of markets. These markets are randomly selected and must be of equal size (for example, three TV groups from 10 regions described by Nielsen).

2. Using different strategies when working with groups. For example, the level of investments in one group will be 80% of operating costs, in another - 100%, and in the third - 120%. Echenbaum also proposes to use local media - newspapers, local television and magazines - as advertising carriers for testing. Thus, three media plans will correspond to each level of spending.

3. With the help of the relevant audit services, the results are monitored throughout the year. The keys to the success of this plan are representativeness, tight control, and ease of assessment (using the regions specified by Nielsen). " .

It is believed that the optimal number of markets to be tested is at least 5-6 regions. Some advertisers prefer to use the largest markets in testing, while others consider it sufficient to test medium. Moreover, testing in large markets is too expensive. However, it is easier to estimate sales in a large region than in several isolated markets.


The tested market should represent not only a certain composition of the audience, but also the information preferences corresponding to it, both in the channels of obtaining information and in the time of its receipt.

The tested market should not have a monopoly of the tested media. It is believed that the minimum number of speakers present is the market average for the country.

The tested market must be sufficiently "isolated" from the neighboring ones, from which advertising "leakage" can occur. It can influence consumers and distort the test results. To counter the leak, advertisements are placed in local media, programs or headings with a pronounced local informational character.

According to experts, to test the market, it is necessary to ensure 95% coverage of its territory.

Disadvantages - high cost and disclosure of their plans to competitors.

It is important to understand that when testing on reference markets, there is still no guarantee that the target market will react exactly the same - there are too many different interrelated factors.

Using averages of not one, but several placements will help reduce the risk of distortion of test results. And also, the advertiser should always correlate the results obtained with common sense.

So, to check the effectiveness of completed or nearly completed advertising, various evaluative studies or tests are carried out. They allow you to save money by adjusting your ad before distribution funds are funded. Thus, testing helps to avoid multi-million dollar errors. Also, evaluative studies can be useful after advertising placement, for example, when assessing the processes of the influence of advertising on current sales.

However, from the point of view of practitioners, not all research and not always have value. Sometimes they can not only help, but also harm the job. Practitioners' intuition can be a more accurate tool than scientific inquiry. Tests and their results are not decisions themselves; they only provide practitioners with information that, when used in conjunction with the advertiser's empirical experience, enables them to make informed decisions.

We have covered the stages of testing. Particular attention was paid to preliminary testing (pretesting), as it increases the likelihood of preparing the most effective texts before the money is spent on advertising.

Another type of testing - post-testing (or final testing), for its part, does not have the main disadvantage inherent in preliminary testing - a certain amount of artificiality. In the final testing, people's behavior is not distorted, it is natural, realistic. During the final test, a number of factors are taken into account, which also seriously affect the results. First of all, these are the specifics of the means of advertising distribution, the time of advertising placement, the frequency of its presentation to consumers, etc.

More detailed information on this topic can be found in the book by A. Nazaykin

Advertising testing must be carried out at all stages of its development and placement. At the planning stage, the concept is checked, at the execution stage - the submission of materials, at the placement stage - its effectiveness. Distinguish between pre-testing and post-testing.

Preliminary testing, in turn, is divided into three stages: at the beginning of development, at the stage of layout, at the end of advertising production.

Pretesting is done to measure the variables of the hit itself, but is not suitable for measuring variables related to media selection, ad placement schedules, or budgeting.

High-quality advertising testing involves conducting it in a comprehensive manner, from development to implementation. For example, Millward Brown's Link test study examines the emotional and rational response to an ad message. This testing method is aimed at predicting the effectiveness of advertising and identifying the reasons for the positive impact of advertising on respondents.

Advertising pre-testing minimizes the possibility of unnecessary spending on ineffective advertising. Testing ads during the development phase helps to determine with a high degree of probability whether the ad will be successful or will fail.

Preliminary testing can be carried out at all stages of advertising creation. At the beginning of creation, the general concept is tested without analyzing its individual elements. “A concept is a detailed written definition of positioning, product advantages, reasons for its production or a unique product offer ... The main task of the concept is to present the key idea simply and realistically, creating the most complete understanding of the product for consumers, and to ensure that they receive a reliable assessment of their responses to this idea ".

During testing, at the beginning of creating an advertisement, researchers will find out how accurately the essence of the advertisement is conveyed, how the product is positioned in the minds of consumers. Some people resort to testing several variants of the concept to select the optimal one.

In the course of further testing, polls, in-depth interviews and other methods are used. The questions that are asked to respondents when testing the concept are aimed at collecting general information about the respondents (demographic and social characteristics) and to find out the effectiveness of the transmission of the main idea.

Typically, testing is carried out in four stages:

Determination of the target audience;

Choice of research methodology;

Drawing up a questionnaire for a survey;

The procedure for presenting the concept is determined.

The key characteristics of the consumer audience are determined;

The research methodology is selected;

A questionnaire is being drawn up.

The test results should show how the consumer audience perceived the proposed advertising message draft, as well as explain the reasons for this perception.

According to the Association of National Advertising Manufacturers, “Most advertising firms test their creative advertising ideas before producing advertisements and placing them in the media. These companies resort to testing the transfer of ad intent, testing the effectiveness of the finished ad product, or both. "

In addition to the general concept, variable messages are also tested at the initial stage when developing advertising. For example, when testing advertisements, the compliance of illustrations, body text, typesetting, etc. is checked. In addition, the structure of the message, visual and verbal characteristics in terms of their transmission of information are tested.

According to the latest marketing research, in recent years, there has been a tendency towards testing commercials at the stage of their creation with the involvement of focus groups of potential consumers.

It is necessary to distinguish between testing a finished advertising product and testing an advertising concept. Testing a finished advertising product has the following characteristics:

Is more evaluative;

Conducted on the basis of a fully completed advertising product;

There are standards against which the test results are compared.

The choice of a method for testing the effectiveness of advertising largely depends on the specifics of the chosen means of advertising distribution. Usually, most of the advertising testing methods are adapted for their application to television advertising, which is due to the high cost of this information carrier and, accordingly, the cost of an error here is very high.

A widely used test of advertising messages is the Kotler Scoring System, which focuses on the AIDA model. During this test, experts distribute points for individual stages of advertising impact on the score sheet. The amount of points is an indicator of the quality of the advertisement.

Kotler's standard list has been supplemented by other researchers with additional criteria that are more important from a design point of view than marketing. Most experts come to the conclusion that good advertising must be endowed with the following qualities: clarity, originality, aesthetics, persuasiveness, joy.

After the ad is developed, several variants of the ad message are usually tested. Also, at the final stage, advertising is tested from a legal point of view. This screening helps to anticipate allegations of advertising fraud and potential prosecution. The main idea of \u200b\u200bthe audit is that all elements of advertising must comply with external and internal legal regulations.

It should be noted that legal norms regulate not only the advertisement itself and the means of its placement, but also the testing methods. For example, in the United States, the quality of testing, the acceptability of its results and the reliability of the conclusions drawn are also assessed by the following indicators:

Definition of the general population;

Test planning and application of control groups;

Drawing up a questionnaire and its questions;

Analysis of the data obtained and the form of presentation of the results;

Project management.

Testing advertising at the stage of development and at the end of its creation allows you to feel the structure of the advertising message, gives operational results, has flexibility and has a fairly low cost. When conducting research during the development phase, experts are faced with the following dilemma: the more often and more accurately the measurements of the advertisement, the less they say about the subsequent behavior.

Experts note that a high-quality testing system should measure not one indicator, but several at once in the aggregate.

The final testing that takes place after the ad appears is called the final testing. Final testing, unlike preliminary testing, does not have a certain amount of artificiality. During the final testing, people's behavior is realistic and not subject to distortion. Also, during its implementation, a number of factors are taken into account, which also affect the final result, such as: advertising means, advertising placement time, frequency of its outputs, etc.

Final testing allows you to assess the real impact of advertising on real, not just potential buyers. At this stage, as a rule, consumer awareness about advertising, knowledge of its elements, brand preference, etc. is monitored. This testing gives the advertiser the opportunity to see recurring factors in order to further establish general trends and principles aimed at increasing the impact of advertising. When analyzing the results of advertising testing, the advertiser comes to the conclusion that he needs to change - an advertisement or an advertising medium.

By conducting final testing, the advertiser seeks to get answers to the following questions:

How much has increased the number of people who have understood the properties, advantages and benefits of the product;

How much has the number of people predisposed to buying a product increased;

How much has the number of people applying for a product increased;

How much the number of people who bought the product has increased.

The main disadvantage of final testing is that it is time consuming and costly.

During the final testing, a baseline measurement is first performed, and after a certain time, a control measurement is made, the results of which are compared with the baseline.

In order to assess the real results, tracking studies are carried out, which are divided into wave and continuous. Continuous ones are held every day, and the second with a frequency, for example, once a quarter. Trekking is usually used to measure the dynamics of changes in product consumption, the degree of awareness about it, and other indicators.

In final testing, a reference market is often used by looking at two similar markets, one with advertisements and the other not. After advertising is placed in one of the markets, the results of sales on them are compared, thus establishing the degree of advertising impact.

It is generally accepted that the optimal number of tested markets is 5-6 regions. Most advertisers use large and medium markets for these purposes. The tested market should represent a certain composition of the buying audience and the corresponding informational preferences. Also, this market should be relatively isolated from neighboring ones, from which advertising leakage can occur. Advertising in these markets should be approximately the same in terms of the level of spending on it. It is important to understand that testing in individual markets is not always a guarantee that the whole market will ultimately react in the same way. The use of averages from multiple placements rather than one placements helps to reduce this risk of biased results.

Thus, in order to check the effectiveness of advertising, various studies and tests are carried out that allow you to reduce the costs of an advertising campaign by adjusting the advertising before it is placed on the mass market. Also, evaluative studies can be useful after advertising placement, for example, when assessing the processes of the influence of advertising on current sales.

 

It might be useful to read: