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Part Six Monitoring, Evaluation, and Control
Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
Exhibit 19-7 Tracking
studies provide useful
measures
Figure 19-17 Factors that
make or break tracking
studies
VI. Monitoring, Evaluation,
and Control
19. Measuring the
Effectiveness of the
Promotional Program
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
Pepsi-Cola, Leo Burnett, and J. Walter Thompson. After using scanner data
to review the advertising/sales relationship for 78 brands, John Jones concluded
that single-source data are beginning to fulfill their promise now that
more measurements are available. 33
While single-source testing is a valuable tool, it still has some problems.
One researcher says, “Scanner data focus on short-term sales effects, and as
a result capture only 10 to 30 percent of what advertising does.” 34 Others
complain that the data are too complicated to deal with, as an overabundance
of information is available. Still another disadvantage is the high cost
of collecting single-source data. While the complexity of single-source data
resulted in a slow adoption rate, this method of tracking advertising effectiveness
became widely adopted in the 1990s by the research companies
mentioned earlier (Gallup & Robinson, Millward-Brown, and Ipsos-ASI).
Tracking Print/Broadcast Ads One of the more useful and adaptable
forms of posttesting involves tracking the effects of the ad campaign by taking
measurements at regular intervals. Tracking studies have been used to
measure the effects of advertising on awareness, recall, interest, and attitudes
toward the ad and/or brand as well as purchase intentions. (Ad tracking
may be applied to both print and broadcast ads but is much more common with the
latter.) Personal interviews, phone surveys, mall intercepts, and even mail surveys have
been used. Sample sizes typically range from 250 to 500 cases per period (usually quarterly
or semiannually). Tracking studies yield perhaps the most valuable information
available to the marketing manager for assessing current programs and planning for the
future. (See Exhibit 19-7.)
The major advantage of tracking studies is that they can be tailored to each specific
campaign and/or situation. A standard set of questions can track effects of the campaign
over time. The effects of various media can also be determined, although with
much less effectiveness. Tracking studies have also been used to measure the differential
impact of different budget sizes, the effects of flighting, brand or corporate image,
and recall of specific copy points. Finally, when designed properly, as shown in Figure
19-17, tracking studies offer a high degree of reliability and validity. 35
Some of the problems of recall and recognition measures are inherent in tracking
studies, since many other factors may affect both brand and advertising recall. Despite
1. Properly defined objectives
2. Alignment with sales objectives
3. Properly designed measures (e.g., adequate sample size, maximum control over
interviewing process, adequate time between tracking periods)
4. Consistency through replication of the sampling plan
5. Random samples
6. Continuous interviewing (that is, not seasonal)
7. Evaluate measures related to behavior (attitudes meet this criterion; recall of ads
does not)
8. Critical evaluative questions asked early to eliminate bias
9. Measurement of competitors’ performance
10. Skepticism about questions that ask where the advertising was seen or heard (TV
always wins)
11. Building of news value into the study
12. “Moving averages” used to spot long-term trends and avoid seasonality
13. Data reported in terms of relationships rather than as isolated facts
14. Integration of key marketplace events with tracking results (e.g., advertising
expenditures of self and competitors, promotional activities associated with price
changes in ad campaigns, introductions of new brands, government
announcements, changes in economic conditions)