Effectiveness Of Advertisement: Measuring, Testing And Print Media Advantage

Advertisement Effectiveness

Discuss about the Effectiveness Of Advertisement.

Advertising is one of the means of communication, which is used by the companies to interact with the consumers of their product. Advertisements are messages that are sent by the organizations to the consumers so that they can be pursued and influenced to buy the products in the market. The current world consists of advertising but many of the population are not aware of the fact but advertising is using every possible medium to penetrate the market and get through the message to the consumers (Aaker and Biel 2013).. The ideas of the organization are converted by the agencies in an effective manner in form of text, visuals, themes and layout which are used for the purpose of communicating with the consumers. The organization hires the advertisement agency and provides them with all the details such a brand image, values and the ideals. These are transformed by the agency for influencing the target consumers in the market (De Mooij 2013).

The multinational companies use advertisement to gain new consumers and retain the present consumers so that profit of the organization is maximized. The organization spent huge amount of money on this advertising campaigns so they will have to monitor the return on investment on the programs. The organizations measure whether the talent, treasures and time invested in the advertisement campaigns have been able to make an improvement in the performance of the organization. The measurement factors include profit maximization and the consumer satisfaction which will indicate the effectiveness. According to (Moriarty et al. 2014), it is essential to measure the effectiveness of the advertisements and the author has provided valid reasons for it. As stated by the author, it facilitates in making future decisions sound and have a clear breakup of the overall situation in the market. this also assists in impressing the higher-level officials and identify the point of saturation so that the organizations can be prepared for it. Moreover, it will help to identify the new trends in the market and be in touch with them.

The two measures that are generally used for the measurement of the effectiveness of the advertisement are brand recall and persuasion. The connectivity of the consumers with the product can be considered as brand recall. This can be measured with surveys and questionnaires which will assist to understand the loyalty of the consumers towards a particular brand. There are generally two types of brand recall one is the aided recall and the other is the unaided recall. The aided recall can be done by bringing up a discussion about a particular product and the unaided recall happens when the consumer is connected to the product and is well aware of the brand. Persuasion is another which used to pursue the consumers to buy a particular product by catering to the needs of the target audience.

Advantages Of Print Media Advertisement

Print media is one of the forms of advertisement which is being used by the companies as it has its own sets of advantage over the other form of media. The print media provides unlimited exposure for the organizations, magazines and newspapers do not have any scheduled timing so the potential exposure is more than radio and television. Moreover, the print media gets repeated viewership which is one of the biggest advantage of using the print media. Print media is non-intrusive when compared to other forms of media. The viewer has control over it and they can read it according to their own time. This means that it eliminates the chances of interruptions and thus, avoids annoyance to its consumers (Valette-Florence and De Barnier 2013). There are certain forms of print media which can be used for target marketing at high level such as the companies who manufacture upscale clothes for corporate officials will target their [print towards professional target group. Print media have loyal readership which means that the people subscribe to newspapers and magazines for a long period of time. This helps to reinforce message to the regular user of the content and improves their credibility in the market. Print media has position flexibility which means that the organizations can chose the location where they want to publish their advertisements depending upon their budget (Ghersetti 2014). The print ads provide the flexibility of choosing the size of the poster and the adviser may choose the location which will provide them with highest level of visibility.

As stated by (Kilbourne 2012), it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of the advertisement, as it cannot be measured empirically, mathematically and standards. Advertisements are quite different from selling of products in the market.  Various other factors are included in advertising such as quality, price, product and packaging. These factors will help in the increase of the sales and this is the sole reason that the organizations spent a large amount of money on advertising.  The testing of the advertisement effectiveness will have to measured based on four factors which are market, message, motive and media. Initially the target market will have to be identified and then the effect of the advertisement on the target market will have to be measured.  When talking about the motives identification of the motivational factors for the target consumers has to be analysed after the consumers have made their actions and reactions. The best possible way of conveying the message will have to be identified so that the communication is effective. This will be measured by identifying the extent the message is registered within the minds of the consumers. Media is the most important factor and the combination of the processes, which are best for market penetration, will have to be used. These four factors will have to be analysed to identify the most appropriate advertisement campaign, which will able to obtain the desired objectives. This will facilitate in making the decision of choosing the advertising that is suitable (Song 2013).

Measuring The Effectiveness Of Advertisement

Olbrich and Schultz (2014) states that testing of the advertisement campaign can be done at any stage of the process and it can analyse the advertisement campaign before its commencement, during the process and after full execution of the process. There are three types of testing and they are pretesting, post testing and concurrent testing. Pretesting is executed before the commencement of the campaign and a huge amount of capital is invested in pretesting.  The main objective of using the pretesting to choose the best headlines, copy appeals, slogans, matter, media and illustrations.  The methods that are used in pretesting are opinion test, checklist test, inquiry test, mechanical test, portfolio and dummy magazine test. The checklist method provides rating scale or ranking to the advertisement based on their characteristics. The different parameters of characteristics are attention, honesty, convincing ability, readability and selling ability. These factors are used to evaluate various advertisements and the scores given will determine the best advertisement. The opinion will gather opinion of group of potential consumers to gain feedback about the advertisement and their understanding about the product. The consumers rate the advertisement based on their attributes to identify the most effective one. The dummy magazine will consist of the standard materials along with ads which have already been tested. However, it will also contain the ad which has to be tested. These sample magazines are being distributed to all the potential consumers and they are requested to read the magazine. Then the consumers are asked questions and based on that the effectiveness of the advertisements are decided. The portfolio test is similar to the dummy test but in this scenario the ads are placed in a folder along with the control ads. These folders are distributed to the consumers and then are asked to choose the most interesting advertisements among all of them (Stevens et al. 2014).

These two advertisements are promoting health drinks, one under the brand name of Tropicana, another as Capri Sun, with both behaving different approaches to the delivery of the message to the readers.

Advertisement A (most effective)

Main message: Introduction of a healthy drink that is enriched with 100% Vitamin E and contains essential antioxidants that are supposed to be helping in the maintenance of a healthy immune system.

Target market: Women and men, especially those who are health concerned

Persuasion tactics: Promotion of the major benefits like presence of vitamins and antioxidants for healthier lifestyle (unique selling promotion)

Testing The Advertisement Campaign

This advertisement was published in the People magazine, which is a weekly magazine for the general audience, both men and women, specifically concentrating on celebrities who are currently popular and in news or special events (like Grammys or Oscars) and present offerings in TV or movies, books and records. Tropicana ad has been able to successfully reach the target market as their commercial has concentrated on the men and women who are sensitive to a healthy lifestyle.

The tagline of “You’re cold, you’re wet, you’ve never felt healthier” has been able to grab the attention of the audience with the help of using a different text font than the rest of the ad, limited words and located just beside the focal area of the print ad for communicating their key selling point. Moreover, the message has an implication in the tagline, which is stimulating the reader’s interest for putting effort in understanding what the advertisement, and the advertiser is actually attempting to say and deliver. Based on that the desire of consumers is generated. Remarkably, the image in the ad is placed sufficiently and in a position, that would make it easier for the reader in acting on the message and promoting the offering (Danaher and Dagger 2013).

Advertisement B

Main message: The old Capri Sun mix that was available in solver pouches is now available in drink mix package.

Target market: general audience, especially women

Persuasion tactics: using of the particular situation for highlighting the brand trust

This advertisement was placed in the Ladies’ Home Journal, which is a service magazine catering to women and covers stories and articles like beauty, home design, fashion, health and interesting personalities. The ad is attempted at reaching out the mothers who are readers of this magazine, but it failed in attracting eth attention of the potential customers due to the writing style, which is hard to read even if any reader attempts at engaging into comprehending the ad’s content. It might be touching the feelings of some audience by the demonstration of a typical activity of children’s lives, but it was still not attractive enough in pulling people. The mentioned benefit of the product displays appreciation of the product and the likeability of the customers and their expectations from it, but still there was room for more persuasiveness. The ad also displays a poor colour and font combination for catching the attention of the audience in the first impression and the conveyance of the benefits are also not clear enough. Even though the ad has a clear and simple construction, it lacks in good appeal and impact on customers.

Criteria	Advertisement A	Advertisement B
Attention grabbing capability	4	3
Depicting product benefits	4	3
Visual attraction and clarity	2	4
Believability of the ad	4	3

Print Advertisement A vs Print Advertisement B

Table 1: Advertisements rated based on their effectiveness on a scale of 0 to 5.

The next pair of ads are from the category of zip bags with different brands. One advertisement is from Glad Stand, the second one from Ziploc, both of them competing with each other in the market.

Advertisement C

Main message: The sturdy plastic and large space would be helpful in easy filling and standing up all by themselves

Target market: General audience

Persuasion tactics: Use of visuals in effectively highlighting the benefits

Starting with, the ad manages to attract attention of both new and existing customers, majorly influencing women audience of Bon Appetit, which is a monthly magazine, focused on food, travels, wines and interior designs. The picture used in the ad is colourful but actually fails in conveying the message of the product offering or creating any lasting impression.

Advertisement D (most effective)

Main message: Hard material, easy use, stands up tall and stays open. Available in different sizes.

Target market: General audience

Persuasion tactics: Attractive visuals

Clearly, the ad has managed to attract the attention of the reader by means of the comparison picture of two Ziploc bags. The picture clearly shows the difference of this Ziploc from other similar bags and why we should be interested in choosing Ziploc. The ad was published in Ladies’ Home Journal, which is a service magazine catering to women and covers stories and articles like beauty, home design, fashion, health and interesting personalities. The picture makes an effective product statement, with large words used to differentiate actually why Ziploc is easier to use and why the consumers would desire to buy it. Blue and white colour of the ad creates a good contrast in making the text stand out from the background, which has ultimately built up the visual attractiveness through the print ad, tumbling the ad towards action from the side of the consumers.

Criteria	Advertisement C	Advertisement D
Attention grabbing capability	3	5
Depicting product benefits	2	4
Visual attraction and clarity	2	5
Believability of the ad	3	4

Table 2: Advertisements rated based on their effectiveness on a scale of 0 to 5.

The above analysis of the comparison of the two pair of print ads is effectively showing the real significance of increasing the pulling power of advertisements. The main idea is not about acquiring the maximum number of people but actually getting conveyed to the appropriate target audience. It is necessary that successful advertisements are able to acquire the attention of consumers, convey the benefits and motivate them in the direction of the offering with a proper and clear message. As per evaluation, ads B and C needs improvement as per below recommendations:

Advertisement B

As per the main problem, this ad needs improvement with the visual picture, font style and size and colour combination.

Advertisement C

As per the main problem, this ad requires to convey the message with a proper picture, with detailed reasons of why this should be chosen over others.

Conclusion

On a concluding note, it has been understood that print ads are still holding a strong place in the advertising industry for enhancing the awareness of the consumers and communication with them. Effective advertisements are there for gaining customer attention and reflecting a particular benefit that would make customers easily recall and identify the product.

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