Do You Know the Results of
Your Advertising
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Promotional Ideas
Summary
Because your budget is limited, you, as
the owner-manager of a small retail or service firm, 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 publication
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
newspaper, on radio, television and outdoor posters, or send out
direct mail pieces.
As a small 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 small 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.
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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 answer is: What do you expect the advertising to do for your
store?
Immediate response advertising is designed to cause the
potential customer to buy a particular product from you within a
short time - today, tomorrow, the weekend, 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 sale, 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 one week from appearance. Because all advertising has some
carry-over effect, it is a good idea to check also at the end of two
weeks from advertising runs, three weeks from runs, and so on to
ensure 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 about
the brands which the store carries - can be measured at the end of
one month from the appearance of the ads or at the end of a
campaign.
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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
the store does.
Many people will not make an initial purchase of a shoddy item
because of doubt or unfavourable word-of-mouth publicity. The ad
that successfully sells inferior merchandise usually loses customers
in the long run.
Small marketers, as a rule, should treat their messages seriously.
Humour 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 store 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.
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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 one audio format or type face and stick to it.
Using the same type face or the same 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 are 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
television 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 broadcast ads.
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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 one week through six months or 12 months period
because this type ad may have considerable carry-over effect.
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Testing ads
Prepare two ads (different in some way you would 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 "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 one week, two weeks, three weeks, and four
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 which
advertised items they bought, what other items they bought and what
they shopped for but did not buy.
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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"), 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 well
as year-ago figures.
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At the end of the third week, one month, three months, six months
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
of 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 that 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 of 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.
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Keep repeating the process. Much advertising loses effectiveness
because the advertiser doesn't keep reminding people. Repetition
helps 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, colour, 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?
Try to see a pattern of dominance.
Your analysis of high-and-low response ads, may show that certain
details are the difference between a high or low response. Try to
find the combinations which work best for your firm and merchandise.
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Note changes occurring over time
A small retailer 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 the 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.
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When you Use Several Media
When your ads appear simultaneously in different media -- such as
the newspaper, 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
newspaper, direct mail, and handbills.
You can make the job of analysing and comparing results from among
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 television -- by slanting
your message. Suppose, for example, that you advertise an item at 20
percent reduction. Your radio or television 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 variations; size variations; and
colour variations. Check your printed ads against each other as well
as against your radio and television 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.
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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 known. Your expenditures for
advertising therefore, should be scheduled over a period of three,
six and 12 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 costs.
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 small 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.
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Government Regulations
Advertising is now being more closely regulated by the Federal and
local governments, than ever before. You should make it a practice
to search for news items about such regulations that apply to your
business.
Consumer Groups
Most cities and towns now have organizations that are entirely or in
part concerned with the consumer movement. Know about such groups in
your community and if possible, work with them in relation to the
works, illustrations, and even forms of your advertising. The
opinions of the members of these groups can determine the success or
failure of both your advertising and your business.
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