Throughout the survey, respondents were permitted to move only forward, not backward. Certain responses were required and the respondent could not advance without answering them.
The survey opened with a brief introduction, assuring respondents that the survey was for educational purposes,
In Step 1, the respondent was asked to identify, without prompting, the last brand of shampoo, deodorant and and body was they purchased.
In Step 2, the respondent was asked to divide ten points on a constant-sum scale between three brands in each of these categories: over-the-counter allergy medication, over-the-counter liquid antacid and over-the-counter pain relief medication. Only the over-the-counter pain relief medication scores were used in this analysis. The respondent was asked to divide these 10 points immediately before and immediately after viewing the three ads under consideration. The difference between the score for each brand before and after exposure is referred to in this study as the "change score."
In Step 3, the respondent was shown one full-page, four-colour ad for each of the three brands (Axe, 0ld Spice and Zest) for fifteen seconds. The ads can be seen by clicking the links below:
After viewing the ads, the respondent was asked to rate their likelihood of purchasing each of the brands using the same constant-sum scale as in Step 2. In Step 5, the respondent was asked if their impression of any of the brands changed after viewing the ads and, if so, which one.
For each of the three brands, the respondent was presented with ten Likert items asking her if they strongly agreed, agreed, neither agreed nor disagreed, disagreed or strongly disagreed with ten statements about the brand. Although some questions were phrased negatively, scores were coded so that higher scores (with 5 being the highest and 1 being the lowest) indicated more positive perceptions of the brand.
The next two steps asked questions about the advertisements the respondent was shown earlier. In Step 9, the respondent was asked to check all the boxes beside the words that they felt applied to the advertising for each brand. Similarly, in Step 10, the respondent was asked to check all the boxes beside the phrases they felt applied to the advertising for each brand. The Advertising Index Score was calculated by counting the number of boxes that were checked representing positive attributes.
The respondent was asked basic demographic questions including their sex, age, household income and level of education. They were also asked if they prefered showers or baths.
The study was designed to measure brand perceptions and the impact of advertising using a copy-testing method that took measurements before and after exposure to the ads. Respondents were asked to score three brands immediately before and after viewing ads for those brands. Other attitudes were measured after exposure to the ad. Due to time constraints and limited resources, this study was conducted without a control group with which to compare responses.
Due to time and resource constraints, this study used a convenience sample made up mostly of friends and family.
Respondents were in turn asked to forward the link to the survey to their own friends and colleagues, creating a snowball sample. Sixty responses were considered sufficient for analysis, and 66 responses were collected, of which 58 were complete enough for analysis.
The data for this survey were collected using the online questionnaire in Appendix B. Respondents accessed the questionnaire using the link contained in an e-mail sent to friends and colleagues. The responses were collected using Cold Fusion in a Microsoft Access database, which was imported into SPSS for analysis.
