Critique of Published Work: Serial Positions Effects in Recall of Television Commercials - Essay Example

 Critique of Published Work:Serial Positions Effects in Recall of Television Commercials Television advertising has become a powerful tool in modern commercialism and marketing, and although seemingly random at first, is there really a method to the madness? And is there a way to truly determine whether or not the position of commercials within a particular television program will have a more profound effect on the overall power of the advertisement? There is proof that there are changes in the placement of an advertisement and how it is retained by the human mind, in the form of a published article. The aforementioned article described various research experiments which were used to help answer the questions I have posed. In certain aspects, the article did a great job helping to fully explain the effects of advertisement positioning, but it left much more to be answered. While it did answer many questions, like whether earlier placement of an advertisement makes it more memorable, and why they are more memorable (primal retention 1). But, the study seemed centered around college students, which although are part of the largest group of television viewers, they aren't always the ones who pay the most attention to television advertisements 2. Many advertisements are geared towards teenagers but its generally those in their thirties and forties who make most of the purchases which are advertised on television. Thusly, more studies should be shown how these advertisements effect the main product purchasers, because I'm fairly sure that many companies have thought of the overall "man with the money". Also, authentic recordings of actual television shows with commercials already in them, although they might be a loose control 3, they could help to provide a more authentic view of how past approaches have worked. In this way, it could be possible to understand how advertisements wholly effect the entire consumer body, not just a particular group, but I'm getting ahead of myself here. We should discuss the research processes used and the idea behind the whole study. The group of scientists used various methods to help research the effects of advertising in television. Basically, they used a simple but effective strategy which mixed the use of two separate lists of fifteen second commercials, and two lists of thirty second commercials. They then brought in various groups of college students to sit through the commercials, and without telling them, asked them to write down all of the brands which they remembered throughout the experiment. This was only the first experiment however. With the second and third, they decided to authenticate the whole process more by adding in the commercials within a pre-recorded program. This way, it would seem more natural to see the commercials and thusly more natural results could be garnered 3. Although seemingly flawed the study did provide several interesting clues and facts about placement of commercials throughout a television program. It seems that the primal instincts take over and remember the first things portrayed during a string of commercials, whereas generally only the last commercial has a profound effect on the retention of the advertisement's information 4. There have been more studies done, but the results are often inconclusive or flawed. For instance, another study was mentioned about Super Bowl commercials. Although longer, the study was conducted by phone. The commercials, being longer, seemed to have a more profound effect on the memory. Local advertising was taken into effect since people seem more self absorbed in their local surroundings than happenings outside of their own lives 5. Thusly, the study was generally disregarded throughout the scientific community, and future studies would include more controlled groups than anything else. But my question about all of this still remains; why simply throw a study like that out? Granted, it was still probably included in the overall conclusion of the paper but disregarded simply because it had less control? You need to have variable experiments as well as controlled experiments in order to authenticate the study more 6. When you have both real world examples and people in their natural surroundings, you can study the real effects of how well the advertising works. For instance, many of the people in the said study mentioned that they generally left the room after the first commercial or so. So this does help to give ground to the overall theory of the paper. And speaking of theories within the paper, the overall hypothesis was that lengthening commercials and placing them first rather than last would have a more profound effect on memory retention than placing them last and using shorter commercials 7. Although this did prove to be fairly true, the last commercial in a string of commercials did show up more often within the studies when the students were asked to remember the information for a longer period of time. So long term memory is generally effected more by the last commercial, and the longer the commercial, the more profound the effect of the commercial 8. As for the study itself, it was done in a rather professional and controlled manner. The variable were set out, and genders seemed to be split approximately 50-50. The group also properly had the students sign waivers of disclosure, with closely follows with many research facilities codes of conduct 9. The groups were kept approximately the same number as well, about seven or eight people per group. Maintaining consistency within an experiment is key to getting similar results, which can help to develop a pattern. And a pattern was developed, so the overall effectiveness of their experiment was rather good. Like I mentioned before, though, there are some things which could have been done to improve the results of the experiment. Since the experiment was rather short, the group could've taken more time to perform the experiment. Only three total tests were run, which is a relatively small amount. Larger test groups also should have been used, since advertising effects a large amount of people. The controls could have been varied a bit more, with people from different age groups included in the testing procedures. And finally more variations on advertisements could have been used, such as forty-five second commercials as well. I'm fairly sure a commercial that long may be difficult to find, but could have possible profound effects on the study at large. The data itself is another matter. It was displayed in a neatly organized manner, with headings for each section of the experiment. First they described the theory or hypothesis behind the experiment, the controls which would be used and the overall procedure of the experiment. Next, they would describe how the processes were performed, and finally tell us the results and interpret them in a numerical manner. Basically, a value was assigned to the number of commercials recalled during the beginning, middle, and end of the advertisement string. The findings were well organized and you could easily interpret the information, even if you didn't quite understand the numbers. Basically, people were nearly twice as likely 9 to remember the advertisement during the first half of the string of commercials. The ending commercial was also more likely to be memorized than any other commercials in the string. This could be a powerful tool for advertisers to use when purchasing their time slots for their commercials. As mentioned before, students were more likely to memorize brand names from local products and companies as well. And when the commercials were embedded within a television program, the students were even more likely to memorize the advertisements. This is another reason why I believe more studies should be done with people in a natural setting, and why these studies should be accounted for. People seem to remember the advertisements more often than not when they view it within their homes or within an actual program. It just makes sense since people are more concerned with themselves and their surroundings than anything out of place 10. As far as the validity and methods involved in the research process, they seemed well thought out and formulated. Once again, there did seem to be some biased focus towards teenagers and people in their early twenties, but the controls were kept in good measure. However, they never did list the ages of the individuals involved in the study itself, or even an approximation, which could help to further refine the study. The study seemed very relevant towards its topic, which helps to give it more merit and value. The data helped to explain why more and more companies concerned with advertisements should take different approaches to how they advertise. For instance, placing longer ads within the middle of the string of commercials would have a more profound effect. The data suggest that longer commercials are easier to remember than shorter ones, and if placed in the middle, this could help companies to get more for their money as far as advertising goes. And as far as the ad agencies are concerned, they could increase prices for the first and last time slots within a string of commercials. Since they seem to be the most valuable slots as far as commercial advertisement retention goes, it would only be natural to increase the price for these slots. Once again, the experiment is fairly accurate and through several other publications and marketing studies, seems to coincide with their findings as well. But, advertising on the whole can have a negative effect on commercial ratings for a particular show as well. In fact, according to a recent study, nearly six in ten people think more negatively about advertising than positively, and about five percent of an audience is lost when national advertising strings come on during a program 11. This almost degrades the quality of the research done, since it could all be in vain. But, advertising will continue, and studies like this should always be closely approached and looked at by any company wishing to do advertising. The guidelines are simple; increase the length of your ads, and shell out more cash for the early and late spots during a commercial string. The study has opened my eyes, and I'm pretty sure it would definitely open the eyes of anyone out there who always wonders why they can remember that last commercial so well. Abstract The research paper on television advertising and retention of commercial advertisements was a fairly well written paper. The experiment itself did have its flaws, but was very relevant to the topic and helped to shed some light on the effects of commercial advertising and ad placement within a string of advertisements. It is a strong possibility that this study can help many ad agencies change their prices and many companies to begin producing longer and higher quality commercials than before. The data was presented in a manner that although confusing at first when you approach it mathematically, it is spelled out in English as well, making it easier for the reader to interpret what they are reading. All in all, a very well done experiment with a lot of control, and a well written paper, with few flaws. In Text Citations 1 AlleyDog, Definition of Primacy, 1999-2003, viewed December 13, 2005, available at http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.cfm?term=Primacy%20Effect 2 Sourcebook for Teaching Science, Television and the Family, viewed December 11, 2005, available at http://www.csun.edu/~vceed002/health/docs/tv&health.html 3 Intelliseek Press Release, Consumer-Generated Media, partial article referenced, 2005 4 Published Article: Serial Positions Effects in Recall of Television Commercial, viewed December 12, 2005 5 TMCNet, Consumers Have High Superbowl Advertising Expectations from Pepsi, Budweiser, ..., modified January 18, 2005, viewed December 12, 2005, available at http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2005/Jan/1108927.htm 6 Queensland University of Technology, Experimental Guidelines, subject on variables covered, online university rule-book, http://www.mopp.qut.edu.au/D/D_02_06.html 7 Lilla Ignácz, Importance of a Hypothesis, viewed on December 11, 2005, available at http://www.geocities.com/elianaszabo/IMPORTANCEOFHYPOTHESIS.htm 8 Heidi Dawley, With ads, the brain is of a mind of its own, December 1, 2005, viewed December 11, 2005, an online medical magazine, available at http://medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_1556.asp 9 Queensland University of Technology, subject on general guidelines and data interpretation inquired, viewed December 12, 2005, online university rule-book, http://www.mopp.qut.edu.au/D/D_02_06.html 10 Comment garnered from a personal interview with Andrew Michelson, on December 12, 2005 11 Vox Marketing, Ad Industries Studies, September 9, 2005, viewed December 12, 2005, available at http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2005/09/09/ad_industry_studies_tv_program_vs_commercial_ratings/index.php Other Sources Serial Positions Effects in Recall of Television Commercials published article, viewed December 11, 2005 Bryan, J. and D. Zillion, Media Effect: Television Psychology, pgs. 2-6 referenced and studied Copernicus, Superbowl XXXVII Advertising, was it worth the investment? A study on prices paid for advertising during the Superbowl and its rather bleak effects, available at http://www.copernicusmarketing.com/about/docs/super_bowl_XXXVII_ad_study.htm Television Education Commission, a group dedicated to using television to help educate children in school, http://www.showmecable.org/ Read More