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Part Four Objectives and Budgeting for Integrated Marketing
Communications Programs
Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
IV. Objectives and
Budgeting for Integrated
Marketing
Communications Programs
DAGMAR: An Approach
to Setting Objectives
7. Establishing Objectives
and Budgeting for the
Promotional Program
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
In 1961, Russell Colley prepared a report for the Association of
National Advertisers titled Defining Advertising Goals for Measured
Advertising Results (DAGMAR). 13 In it, Colley developed a
model for setting advertising objectives and measuring the results
of an ad campaign. The major thesis of the DAGMAR model is
that communications effects are the logical basis for advertising goals and objectives
against which success or failure should be measured. Colley’s rationale for communications-based
objectives was as follows:
Advertising’s job, purely and simply, is to communicate to a defined audience information and
a frame of mind that stimulates action. Advertising succeeds or fails depending on how well it
communicates the desired information and attitudes to the right people at the right time and at
the right cost. 14
Under the DAGMAR approach, an advertising goal involves a communications
task that is specific and measurable. A communications task, as opposed to a marketing
task, can be performed by, and attributed to, advertising rather than to a combination
of several marketing factors. Colley proposed that the communications task be
based on a hierarchical model of the communications process with four stages:
• Awareness—making the consumer aware of the existence of the brand or
company.
• Comprehension—developing an understanding of what the product is and what it
will do for the consumer.
• Conviction—developing a mental disposition in the consumer to buy the product.
• Action—getting the consumer to purchase the product.
As discussed earlier, other hierarchical models of advertising effects can be used as
a basis for analyzing the communications response process. Some advertising theorists
prefer the Lavidge and Steiner hierarchy of effects model, since it is more specific
and provides a better way to establish and measure results. 15
While the hierarchical model of advertising effects was the basic model of the communications
response process used in DAGMAR, Colley also studied other specific
tasks that advertising might be expected to perform in leading to the ultimate objective
of a sale. He developed a checklist of 52 advertising tasks to characterize the contribution
of advertising and serve as a starting point for establishing objectives.
Characteristics of Objectives
A second major contribution of DAGMAR to the advertising planning process was its
definition of what constitutes a good objective. Colley argued that advertising objectives
should be stated in terms of concrete and measurable communications tasks,
specify a target audience, indicate a benchmark starting point and the degree of change
sought, and specify a time period for accomplishing the objective(s).
Concrete, Measurable Tasks The communications task specified in the
objective should be a precise statement of what appeal or message the advertiser wants
to communicate to the target audience. Advertisers generally use a copy platform to
describe their basic message. The objective or copy platform statement should be specific
and clear enough to guide the creative specialists who develop the advertising
message. For example, Foster’s Beer, after a successful introduction, saw sales decline
significantly. Knowing that to reverse the downward trend something significant had
to be done, Fosters developed an entirely new positioning campaign with the following
objectives:
• Strengthen the brand’s image
• Maximize brand presence
• Broaden the market base beyond traditional import beer drinkers
• Increase sales