Contents
Meaning of Advertising Effectiveness
Advertising is the most effective form of marketing. As we all know the most commonly used promotion technique irrespective of the size of the firm is advertising. But just mere advertisement will not do the job. It is important that the firm continuously looks into the effect that this advertising has created in the market.
DIFFERENT METHODS USED IN ADVERTISING
What is Advertising Effectiveness?
A firm needs to know whether the advertising they have done ploughed the expected result. Thus, the effectiveness of advertising is ought to be measured. The process of measuring the impact of advertising done in the market is known as advertising effectiveness. They measure the depth of the impact the ads have made on the targeted audience and also make sure that the right message is conveyed.
It is very important to know if the correct message is conveyed to the targeted audience. And if not, corrective measures are to be taken. Measuring advertising effectiveness plays a vital role in the proper functioning of the marketing procedures of the company. The effectiveness is measured based on different factors affecting the functioning of the company like sales, brand equity etc.
Advertising effectiveness helps the company to understand its strength, weakness, opportunities and threats to the organisation. They often provide solutions to all the problems that arise at the time of promotion. This measure ensures that all the work is done perfectly.
Arguments for Advertising Effectiveness
The following are the different advantages of Advertising Effectiveness:
- Helps to understand the current market scenario: Measuring the effectiveness results in understanding the effectiveness of the advertisement in the target market. In case of any discrepancy is found it can be mended through advertising effectiveness.
- Put forward alternatives available: In case the expected sales do not occur, they can be mended by using the alternative advertising measures available to us. Only if the advertising is correctly measured, we can find the lack of effectiveness.
- Avoid wastage of resources: We can identify the loopholes in the advertising strategy which is currently used. When we identify the flaws and replace them with the correct alternative, we can avoid wastage of financial resources as well as optimize production accordingly.
- Achieve the expected advertising goal: Continuous evaluation of the advertising which is put forward helps the firm to analyse if they have correctly understood the market and if the expected target audience has understood the product and in return if the sale increased.
- Increase the overall marketing activity: As advertising comprises the majority of the marketing strategy performed by the firm if the effectiveness is best of it the overall performance of the firm can be increased. This in turn increases the economic stability of the firm.
Arguments Against Advertising Effectiveness
As we discussed earlier there are numerous advantages to measuring effectiveness. But as we all know there are 2 sides to every coin. Let us look into the limitations of advertising effectiveness.
- Cost and time-consuming: As there is a need for an expert team to analyse the market and understand its effectiveness it is an additional cost to the firm. The process of analysing the market is continuous and spreads over a long period.
- Lack of idea on what to test: The company engaged in different products will have an initial confusion on which product advertising to test or which market to test. This may even include confusion about what test to undertake in case of a lack of experts.
- Systematic and does not give room to innovation: Certain cases when the company uses innovative and creative ideas to advertise may take time to act in the market. But at a glance that won’t be successful when the experts measure the effectiveness. This might result in a negative impact on what is planned as the plan might be dropped because it does not give results in a short period.
- Barriers to market research: There might be cases where it is difficult for the researcher to search for the suitable market in which the product was introduced. The lack of information that is available to the researcher might give an opposite result of what is the actual situation in the market. Now we have a clear idea of what are the catches for measuring advertising effectiveness. Now we are going to discuss the advertising testing process
Advertising Testing Process
The above is the main advertising testing methods used. The process followed depends on the nature of each test.
Pre-test and Post-test
Just as the name indicates pre-test is when the test is carried out before the advertisement is introduced to the target market. It is mainly the market analysis and the understanding of the nature of the market and the plan accordingly. Post-test is the case in which after the advertising is introduced the impact is analysed and measured.
Laboratory and Field test
It is the extreme level of the test. When testing is done in a controlled environment it is known as a laboratory test and when the researcher goes out on the field and the test is done it is a field test. The former is done in an artificial environment while the other is done in the original setting.
Experimental and Survey test
In this kind of process, there is a manipulated independent variable and the impact of this independent on the dependent variable is analysed. In the case of marketing, the independent variable will be the advertising methods and the dependent variable will be sales, profit etc. A survey test as the name suggests is done by surveying the customers who have experienced the advertisement.
Message and media test
Message test makes sure that the correct idea of the message is portrayed and it is believable to the target audience whereas media test involves the testing of the effectiveness of the media which is chosen for distribution.
Communication and sales effect test
This is the most common type of test used irrespective of the nature of the product. Just as the name suggests communication involves checking whether the message is correctly communicated and the sales effect test helps us to understand the impact of advertising on the sales volume. In all the above processes this identification of the correct target market is important and the continuous evaluation of the effect of advertisement is also necessary.
As we mentioned earlier the communication and sales effect test is the most commonly used let us know a little more about the same.
Evaluation of Communication and Sales Effect Test
When a communication test involves understanding whether the communication is prompt sales test make sure that this communication has affected the sales volume of the firm. There are different ways to know the same
Communication test
| Direct Test | Customers are directly asked to rank the ads. They rank them based on the criteria given. |
| Recall Test | Ensures that the as has a retention value. They are asked to see or listen to the ad and they are asked to recall the same. |
| Portfolio Test | They listen to a portfolio of ads given to them according to their time preferences. They are asked to recall their ads and contents |
| Laboratory Test | The ad is played and the physical changes like the heartbeat of the customers are measured |
Sales effect test
| Historical test | They compare the current state to the past figures obtained using statistical tools. They will compare if the advertisement has made an increase or decrease in the sales |
| Experimental test | They conduct experiments to know the impact. The company spend different amount for advertising in different markets and analyse if higher spending has resulted in increased sales. |
Let us now sum up both the evaluation in the following diagram
Conclusion
Anything we do should be evaluated to know the effect of that action. Likewise, when we advertise our product we should know if they have the correct impact on the targeted audience. Measuring the effectiveness of the advertisement plays the most important role in the success of the product in the market. It is not a one-time process but a continuous process till the end of the product. Thus, we can conclude that advertising effectiveness, even though it is expensive, ensures that the company yield higher profits than before and optimize the resources.