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Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
VI. Monitoring, Evaluation,
and Control
traditional TV and print media increased the
effectiveness of the entire campaign.
• Differences in media effectiveness. In an examination
of four product categories
(automobiles, luxury watches, shampoos, and
fast food), it was found that TV was the most
used medium for all four product categories
and that it was most useful for providing
information on low-involvement products
while the Internet was more useful for highinvolvement
products. TV was also shown to
be more useful for providing information on
affective versus rational decisions. The authors
of the study concluded that the Internet
should be considered in conjunction with
other traditional media alternatives, with its
role varying depending on the product
category. Further, they noted that there is a
19. Measuring the
Effectiveness of the
Promotional Program
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
need to develop an integrative media plan
whereby media executives can determine the
relative contribution of various media.
So what do we conclude from these studies? In a
nutshell, they confirm the fact that the various elements
of an IMC program each make their own
contributions to the overall impact of the campaign.
They also reveal that a combination of the
program elements is likely to have a greater impact
than the effect of each element used alone. In
other words, the whole really is greater than the
sum of its parts.
Sources: Online Publishers Association/MBIQ Media Mix Study,
April 2002; Sung-Joon Yoon and Joo-Ho Kim, “Is the Internet
More Effective Than Traditional Media? Factors Affecting the
Choice of Media,” Journal of Advertising Research,
November–December 2001, pp. 53–60; “Interactive Advertising
Bureau, Doubleclick, MSN, and CNET Networks Release Groundbreaking
Online Brand Research Findings,”
www.microsoft.com/press pass, July 1, 2001, pp. 17–18.
As marketers spend their communications dollars in numerous media, the need to
determine the effectiveness of these expenditures becomes increasingly important.
Both clients and agencies are continually striving to determine whether their communications
are working and how well they are working relative to other options. Unfortunately,
there seems to be little agreement on the best measures to use. Almost
everyone agrees that research is required, but they disagree on how it should be conducted
and how the results should be used. At the same time, as can be seen by the
lead-in to this chapter, companies and organizations are working together in an
attempt to provide answers to these questions.
Measuring the effectiveness of the promotional program is a critical element in the
promotional planning process. Research allows the marketing manager to evaluate the
performance of specific program elements and provides input into the next period’s
situation analysis. It is a necessary ingredient to a continuing planning process, yet it is
often not carried out.
In this chapter, we discuss some reasons firms should measure the effectiveness of
their IMC programs, as well as why many decide not to. We also examine how, when,
and where such measurements can be conducted. Most of our attention is devoted to
measuring the effects of advertising because much more time and effort have been
expended developing evaluation measures in advertising than in the other promotional
areas. We will, however, discuss measurement in other areas of the IMC program as
well. (In some of these areas, the measures are more directly observable—for example,
direct marketing and personal selling.) You’ll recall that we addressed the methods
used to evaluate many of the other promotional elements in previous chapters.
It is important to understand that in this chapter we are concerned with research that
is conducted in an evaluative role—that is, to measure the effectiveness of advertising
and promotion and/or to assess various strategies before implementing them. This is
not to be confused with research discussed earlier in the text to help develop the promotional
program, although the two can (and should) be used together. While evaluative
research may occur at various times throughout the promotional process
(including the development stage), it is conducted specifically to assess the effects of
various strategies. We begin our discussion with the reasons effectiveness should be
measured as well as some of the reasons firms do not do so.