Evaluating Your Advertising Results
Because
your budget is limited you must see that your advertising does the job you
want it to. Measuring the results on a continuing basis can help you see
that your ads keep your business's name before the public and contribute
to increasing sales.
Planning is important. Before you can evaluate results, you must decide
what purpose your ads should accomplish. This Guide gives pointers on
planning ads and discusses several ways you can compare advertising and
sales.
Advertising is necessary today. Whether you have a small business or a
large one, you must tell groups of people who you are, what you sell, and
where you are located. You must tell them when they wish to hear or read
about such things. So you must place ads in newspapers, on radio, TV, and
outdoor posters, or send out direct mail pieces.
As a business owner-manager, you know the money that you spend on
advertising must return enough sales and profits in added business to
justify the cost of the advertising. In most firms, neither time nor money
is sufficient to engage in complicated ad measurement methods. Even so,
you can use certain rule-of-thumb devices to get a good idea about the
results of your advertising.
What Results Do You Expect?
Essentially, measuring results means comparing sales with advertising.
In order to do it you have to start early in the process - before you even
make up the advertisement. The question to the answer is: What do you
expect the advertising to do for your firm?
Immediate response advertising
Is designed to cause the potential customer to buy a particular product
from you within a short time - today, tomorrow, the or next week. An
example of such decision-triggering ads is one that promotes regular price
merchandise with immediate appeal. Other examples are ads which use price
appeals in combination with clearance sales, special purchases, seasonal
items, (for example, white sales, Easter sales, etc.), and "family of
items" purchases.
Such advertising should be checked for results daily or at the end of 1
week from appearance. Because all advertising has some carry-over effect,
it is a good idea to check also at the end of 2 weeks from advertising
runs, 3 weeks from runs, and so on to insure that no opportunity for using
profit-making messages is lost.
Attitude Advertising
Is the type you use to keep your store's name and merchandise before
the public. Some people think of this type as "image-building"
advertising. With it, you remind people week after week about your regular
merchandise or services or tell them about new or special services or
policies. Such advertising should create in the minds of your customers
the attitude you want them to have about your store, its merchandise, its
services, and its policies.
To some degree, all advertising should be attitude advertising. It is
your reputation builder.
Attitude (or image-building) advertising is harder to measure than
immediate response advertising because you cannot always attribute a
specific sale to it. Its sales are usually created long after the ad has
appeared. However, you should keep in mind that there is a lead time
relationship in such advertising. For example, an ad or a series of ads
that announces you have the exclusive franchise for a particular brand
starts to pay off when you begin to get customers who want that brand only
and ask no questions about competing brands.
In short, attitude advertising messages linger in the minds of those
who have some contact with the ad. These messages sooner or later are
acted upon by people when they decide that they will make a certain
purchase.
Because the purpose of attitude advertising is spread out over an
extended period of time, the measurement of results can be more leisurely.
Some attitude advertising - such as a series of ads can be measured at the
end of 1 month from the appearance of the ads or at the end of a campaign.
Planning for Results
Whether you are trying to measure immediate response or attitude
advertising, your success will depend on how well the ads have been
planned. The trick is to work out points against which you can check after
customers have seen or heard the advertisement.
Certain things are basic to planning advertisements whose results can
be measured. First of all, advertise products or services that have merit
in themselves.
Unless a product or service is good, few customers will make repeat
purchases no matter how much advertising you do.
Many people will not make an initial purchase of a shoddy item because
of doubt or unfavorable word-of-mouth publicity. The ad that successfully
sells inferior merchandise usually loses customers in the long run.
Marketers, as a rule, should treat their messages seriously. Humor is
risky as well as difficult to write. Be on the safe side and tell people
the facts about your merchandise and services.
Another basic element in planning advertisements is to know exactly
what you wish a particular ad to accomplish. In an immediate response ad,
you want customers to come in and buy a certain item, or items in the next
several days. In attitude advertising, you decide what attitude you are
trying to
create and plan each individual ad to that end.
Plan the ad around one idea
Each ad should have a single message. If the message needs reinforcing
with other ideas, keep them in the background. If you have several
important things to say, use a different ad for each one and run the ads
on succeeding days or weeks.
The pointers which follow are designed to help you plan ads so they
will make your store stand out consistently when people read or hear about
it:
Identify your business fully and clearly
Make sure your radio and television ads identify your sponsorship as
fully and frequently as possible without interfering with the message.
Logotypes and signatures in visual ads should be clean-lined, uncluttered,
and prominently displayed. Give your address and telephone number. It's
possible to use a musical or sound effect signature identified with your
store to
create a "logo" on radio, too.
Pick illustrations which are similar in character
Graphics - that is, drawings, photos, borders, and layouts - that are
similar in character help people to recognize your advertising
immediately.
Pick the audio format or type face and stick to it
Using the same type face or the audio format for radio or television
helps people to recognize your ads quickly. Using the same format or kind
of type and illustrations also allows you to concentrate on the message
when checking ad response changes.
Make copy easy to understand
Printed messages should be broken up with white space to allow the
reader to see the lines quickly.
Broadcast messages should be written conversationally. Remember, these
messages are human beings talking to human beings.
Tell your listeners how what you're advertising will help them.
Consumers buy benefits, not products.
Get the main message in the first sentence, if you can. Sentences
should be short. Be direct. Go straight to the point. Get the audiences'
attention in the first five seconds of the radio or TV commercial.
Try out your script on somebody else or read it into a tape recorder.
When you play the tape back, you'll easily spot phrases that are hard to
understand (or believe!). Your ears are better than your eyes for judging
broadcasts ads.
Use coupons for direct mail advertising response as often as possible
Coupons give an immediate sales check. Key the coupon in some manner so
that you can measure the response easily. In your radio ads, you can have
listeners create their own "coupons". One fast food chain asked listeners
to hand draw a coupon and bring it in for a free hamburger.
Tests for Immediate Response Ads
In weighing the results of your immediate response advertisements the
following devices should be helpful:
Coupons brought in
Usually these coupons represent sales of the product. When the coupons
represent requests of additional information or contact with a
salesperson, were enough leads obtained to pay for the ad? If the coupon
is dated, you can determine the number of returns for the first, second,
and third weeks.
Requests by phone or letter referring to the ad
A "hidden offer" can cause people to call or write. Include - for
example, in the middle of an ad - a statement that on request the product
or additional information will be supplied. Results should be checked over
a 1-week through 6-months or 12-months period because this type ad may
have considerable carry-over effect.
Testing ads
Prepare two ads (different in some way you'd like to test or set for
different stations or broadcast times) and run them on the same day.
Identify the ads - in the message or with a coded coupon - so you can tell
them apart. Ask customers to bring in the coupon or to use a special
phrase. Run two broadcast ads at different times or on different stations
on the same day with different times or on different station on the same
day with different "discount phrases." Ask a newspaper to give you a
"split run" - that is, to print "ad A" in part of its press run and "ad B"
in the rest of the run. Count the responses to each ad.
Sales made of particular item
If the ad is on a bargain or limited-time offer, you can consider that
sales at the end of 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, and 4 weeks came from the
ad. You may need to judge how many sales came from in-store display and
personal selling.
Check store traffic
An important function of advertising is to build store traffic which
results in purchases of items that are not advertised. Pilot studies show,
for example, that many customers who are brought to the store by an ad for
a blouse also bought a handbag. Some bought the bag in addition to the
blouse, others instead of the blouse.
You may be able to use a local college or high school distributive
education class to check store traffic. Class members could interview
customers as they leave the store to determine: 1. which advertised
items they bought, 2. what other items they bought, and 3. what they
shopped for but did not buy.
Testing Attitude Advertising
When advertising is spread out over a selling season or several
seasons, part of the measurement job is keeping records. Your aim is
comparing records of ads and sales for extended time.
An easy way to set up a file is by marking the date of the run on tear
sheets of newspaper ads (many radio stations now provide "radio tear
sheets", too), log reports of radio and television ads, and copies of
direct mail ads. The file may be broken down into monthly quarterly, or
semiannual blocks. By recording the sales of the advertised items on each
ad or log, you can make comparisons.
In attitude (or image-building) advertising, the individual ads
are building blocks, so to speak, which make up your advertising over a
selling season. The problem is trying to measure each ad and the effects
of all of the ads taken together.
One approach is making your comparisons on a weekly basis. If you run
an ad, for example, each week, at the end of the first week after the ad
appears or is broadcast, compare that week's sales with sales for the same
week a year ago. At the end of the second week, compare your sales
with those of the end of the first week as week as year-ago figures.
At the end of the third week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 month, and 12 months
from the running of the ad, repeat the process even though additional ads
may have appeared or been aired in the meantime. For each of these ads,
you will also make the same type of comparisons. You will, of course, be
measuring the "momentum" of all your ads as well as the results of a
single ad.
After a time, you probably will be able to estimate how much of the
results are due to the individual ad and how much to the momentum of all
your advertising. You may then make changes in specific details of the ad
to increase response.
When comparing sales increases over some preceding period, allowances
must be made for situations that are not normal. For example, your
experience may be than rain on the day an ad appears cuts its pulling
power by 50 percent. Similarly, advertising response will be affected by
the fact that your customers work in a factory that is out on strike.
Some of the techniques which you can use for keeping on top and
improving attitude advertising follow:
Repeat an ad
If response to an ad is good, run it - without change - two or three
times and check the responses of each appearance or broadcast against
previous ones.
Keep repeating the process. Much advertising loses effectiveness
because the advertiser doesn't keep reminding people. Repetition help
increase knowledge of and interest in, the product. You can soon estimate
how often you should repeat each ad - exactly or with minor changes.
Analyze all ads in relation to response
Divide ads into at least two classes: high-response ads and
low-response ads. Then look for differences between the two classes.
The time the ad was broadcast or run may be responsible for a
particular response level. Other factors, however, may be just as
influential as time or even more so, though in radio time is often
crucial.
Consider the message and how well it was expressed. Did the copy stick
to the theme or did it wander? If you used slogans, did they help make the
point? For print, consider the effects of illustrations, type, size,
color, and ad location. In broadcast, consider whether or not the voice of
the person doing the ad or music used may have had an effect.
Emphasis on brand names should also be checked. Price figures should be
analyzed. If price lines are involved either in the ad or in the
merchandise line of which the advertised product is a part, you should
consider them also.
Check the effect of the length of broadcast ads. Did you get the best
results with 10-second, 30-second, or 60-second announcements?
Check the size of print ads. Size often has a bearing on response. As a
general rule, the larger the ad, the larger the response.
Try to see a pattern of dominance
Your analysis of high-and-low response ads, may show that certain
details make the difference between a high or low response. Try to find
the combinations which work best for your firm and merchandise.
Note changes occurring over time
You should never take a winning combination for granted. There is no
single formula that will insure high response ads every time. Advertising
changes. Therefore, you should watch the ads of others to see what changes
are occurring. Continue to analyze your own ads, make small changes
occasionally, and note any variations in response.
Listen to what people say about your ads
In doing so, try to discover your mental framework within which any
comment about your ad was made. Then try to find points which reinforce
believability and a feeling that your product fulfills some wish or need.
However, you should not be misled by what people say. An ad can cause a
great deal of comment and bring in practically no sales. An ad may be so
beautiful or clever that as far as the customer is concerned the sales
message is lost.
When You Use Several Media
When your ads appear simultaneously in different media - such as the
newspapers, on radio and television, in direct mail pieces, and as
handbills - you should try to evaluate the relative effectiveness of each.
You can check one printed medium against the other by using companion (
the same or almost identical) ads in the newspapers, direct mail, and
handbills.
You can make the job of analyzing and comparing results from the media
easier by varying your copy - the message. Your ad copy, thus, becomes the
means of identifying your ad response.
You can check broadcast media - radio and TV - by slanting your
message. Suppose, for example, that you advertise an item at 20 percent
reduction. Your radio or TV ad might say something like this; "Come in and
tell us you want this product at 20 percent off."
You can compare these responses with results from your "20 percent off"
newspaper ad. Require the customer to bring in the newspaper ad - or a
coupon from it.
Some of the ways to vary the copy are; a combination of the brand name
with a word or some words indicating the product type; tone of voice;
speed of delivery; picture variation; size variations; and color
variations. Check your printed ads against each other as well as against
your radio and TV ads.
Be careful that the copy variation is not so great that a different
impression is received from each medium. Here you would, in effect, have
two different ads.
Short-Term and Long-Term Effects of Advertising
Even one ad or commercial or highway poster can result in sales for one
product and attention for your business. You should remember, however,
that a series of ads that are related will result in sales over a longer
period of time than the campaign lasts. Your business name will become
very much better know. Your expenditures for advertising therefore, should
be scheduled over a period of three, six, and twelve months. Avoid
deciding to advertise this week and putting off the decision about when
you will next advertise.
Where to Get Help
Most newspaper offices have at least one person who can help you plan
the overall layout, design of your ad, provide illustrations for your ad,
and make suggestions about the copy that will be contained in the ad.
Radio stations will frequently help write copy and provide a music
background for the commercial. Television stations may produce your
commercial, usually for a fee. Outdoor advertising agencies may paint or
design a poster or bulletin for you, again at a price. Specialty
advertising firms may recommend gift items, some at very low cost.
Many small towns, as well as all cities, will have one or more
advertising agencies that are organized to create and place retail
advertising for advertisers.
These agencies will probably charge you a specific fee, as local media
may not pay an ad agency fee.
If a college, university or other school is near you, you might find
that students will be happy to create your ads and even plan your
campaign.
Food For Thought
Beauty cannot be truly owned,
or even adequately defined. It is completely subjective, and often
fleeting. It is free and it is costly. It has the ability to inspire.
No one can really say what beauty is, but everyone knows it when they
see it.
Beauty has its physical manifestations, but it goes far beyond the
material world.
Beauty talks in the language of the heart. The magnificence of a
sunset, or of a violin concerto, cannot be adequately conveyed in
words. Just as food nourishes our body, beauty nourishes our spirit.
It inspires and challenges us to do great things.
People of great wealth and accomplishment often surround themselves
with beauty. Those who have no need or desire to impress anyone else
choose to impress themselves with beauty. Perhaps, just perhaps,
that's part of how they got where they are.
But you don't need to be rich or powerful to enjoy the sublime
pleasure of beauty. The only thing you need is the willingness to
appreciate the beauty that is already around you -- in nature, in
other people, in works of art, architecture, music and literature.
In a world where creativity and innovation are essential in every
aspect of life, beauty is a powerful fuel for successful living.
By now, the whole world knows the story of Kerri Strug's inspiring
performance Tuesday evening.
It was in the Olympic women's team gymnastics competition. The United
States team had been comfortably in the lead. Then, in the vault
competition, US team member Dominique Moceanu fell on her first try.
As she walked back to the starting line for her second attempt, the
loss of momentum was palpable. As Moceanu executed her vault for her
second and final time, it was clear that one thing dominated her
thoughts -- the fact that she had just fallen. Sure enough, she fell
again.
Next up was Strug. She, too, was obviously fixated on Moceanu's fall,
because she did exactly the same thing. And when Strug fell, she
suffered an injury to her left ankle. As she limped and stumbled back
to the starting line for her second attempt, she was clearly in pain.
Ironically, in her pain, Kerri Strug suddenly had something that was
capable of pushing away all other thoughts. Something that could get
her mind off her previous fall, or the two previous falls of Dominique
Moceanu, or the crowd of 30,000 that was watching, or the fact that
she was in Olympic competition, and that her final vault would make
the difference betweem a silver medal and a gold.
Freed from those negative pressures, and wanting to get off her feet
as soon as possible, she just did it. Just as she had done thousands
of times in practice, Kerri Strug executed a near-perfect vault and
landing, without a fall. She stood straight, with arms outstretched,
long enough to satisfy the judges, and then collapsed in agonizing
pain. Her performance was good enough to make up for the earlier falls
and win the gold medal for her team. Within moments she was being
celebrated around the world.
Sometimes when we think that things can't get any worse, they do. And
yet, it is that extreme adversity which forces us to reach deep inside
ourselves, and find strength and capability we never knew we had.
People, including yourself, will generally do almost exactly what you
expect them to do. When you expect a child to misbehave, he probably
will. When you expect a sales clerk to be rude, she probably will be.
Yes, sometimes you'll be pleasantly surprised or sadly disappointed,
but those are the exceptions that prove the rule.
The obvious strategy is to expect the best of everyone, including
yourself. You'll generally get it. When you ask a child to pick up his
toys, ask as if you expect him to do it. You'll be amazed at how
willingly he complies. When you approach a sales clerk, assume that
she is anxious to politely serve you, and she will be.
If your expectations have so much influence on the behavior of others,
just imagine the impact that your own expectations have on you. By all
means expect the best of yourself. Because what you expect of yourself
is exactly what you'll get.
Negative expectations bring negative results, and those results
reinforce the expectations, which bring more negative results. It ends
up being a self-perpetuating downward spiral. Just as powerfully,
positive expectations create positive results. These serve to
reinforce the original expectations, and the result is ever-increasing
success.
What do you expect of yourself? Of others? Choose to expect the best. |
