Advertising Research System - Term Paper Example

Advertising Research System. Peter Wright. Research System. Advertising is one of the biggest investments that companies make in a brand. As such it’s often necessary to conduct research prior to, after or during advertising campaigns to establish if the investment in the brand was worth it. By conducting an advertising research some of the key questions that marketers will seek to answer includes will/did advertising work? Did/will the company get any value of the air buys? Are/were the advertisements perfectly tuned to their message and audience?

For copy review, refinement and development to enhance the safety and care features of the kid’s nutritional products, both one-on-one interviews and focus groups will be equally applicable research methods. The focus group is a technique used in marketing research to gather data through topic based interactions as determined by the marketing researcher. The data comes from the group while the researcher determines the focus of the group. The use of focus groups in advertising can be traced back to the Second World War when they were used to evaluate the effectiveness of training materials that the groups were using and the effectiveness of war propaganda efforts.

By using focus groups it was realized that respondents to a particular research became were able to reveal information that they deemed as sensitive when they were in the confines of a comfortable and safe place with people like themselves. Any form of effective advertising is directed to a human audience. It’s on this fact that focus groups derive their strength from. One of the key characteristics of focus groups as a research tool, just like advertising, is that it actively involves people.

The nutritional food product in this case is targeted for consumption by 4-6 year olds. The first step by the marketing researcher would be thus to select an appropriate focus group for the research aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of a particular advertising channel in carrying the brands message. The first instinct by the researcher would be obviously to include only kids among the focus groups audience but this approach will not be effective since as much as the product is targeted at kids, the kids are not the ultimate decision makers when it comes to product purchases in the family.

The advertisement should be appealing to both the kids and the parents who eventually make the buying decisions. An appropriate focus group for this research therefore should include an appropriate blend of the kids who will consume the products and the parents who make the buying decisions. The focus group that involves parents will be best suited for identifying the advertisements that are potentially misleading since the safety of a child is any parent’s primary concern. The ad message on the type of children who should not use the particular product is also targeted at parents who are the children’s official guardians and caregivers and thus it’s imperative that they are included in the focus groups.

The kid’s participants in a focus group can be tapped for their creativeness especially due to their objectivity. In discussing the product, their consumer language, ideas and thoughts often sparks the creative teams. Since the product safety measures are targeted at kids, the research should seek to learn from the kids on the best way to communicate the safety message. The focus groups give an immediate feedback that can be effectively put into copy refinement to enhance the safety concerns that the advertisements should carry.

The kid’s in the focus group can be used to test the extent that the care and safety responsibilities can be transferred from their parents to themselves. For example, the kid’s effectiveness at reminding their parents to read the safety and care requirements for the products can be put to test. Interviews are one of the oldest data gathering tools in the research industry. One-on-one in depth interviews as advertisement research techniques are known to be more effective when advertisement seeks to involves the moods and emotions of the target audience (David, 2009).

Issues related to risk, safety and care for their children are of concern to any parent. As such they would want the safety issues related to the kid’s product to be effectively communicated to their caregivers and would be purchasers of the product. One on one interviews are also a reserve for experts in a particular field. No one understands the safety of children more than their parents and one on one in-depth interview with the parents can reveal the potentially misleading advertisements or other marketing materials that may compromise the kid’s safety.

Their emotional concern about the subject can also be tapped upon to suggest further improvement on the ad during the interview. The key reaction variable that advertisers target includes learning, liking and attention. The message is rarely communicated if the attention of the advertisement’s target audience is not captured. During the one on one interview, the advertisements and other marketing material can be played or displayed to the respondents and their reaction immediately noted. An example of a question that may be used to assess the likeability of the ad is by directly asking how the particular advertisement ranks among the advertisements that the respondent has recently encountered.

One on one interview can also be efficiently deployed to assess how the advertisement meets the learning objective. The respondents can be asked what care and safety measures they learned from the advertisement if any. Reference. David, K. (2009). Contemporary Marketing. New York: Cengage Learning.