Methodology

 

Structure of the Survey

The questionnaire was developed using Dreamweaver as the primary design tool. The survey is comprised of nine sections, which are described in more detail below.

Introduction/Welcome page:

The survey opened with a brief introduction asking recipients to take part in the survey and at the same time assuring them that the survey was for educational purposes only and that all responses would be kept strictly confidential.

Section I:

Top of Mind Awareness
This section consists of three questions that asked respondents to recall the last brand of fruit juice, soft drink, and flavored water they purchased. If respondents had never purchased one of these products before or had forgotten which brand they purchased last, they were asked to name the first brand that came to mind. The purpose of this question was to determine which brands come to mind first, which suggests that respondents feel a sense of loyalty to these “top of mind” brands.

Section II:

Pre Ad Exposure Rating
Using a constant sum scale, respondents were asked to divide 10 points between three brands of fruit juice, three brands of soft drinks, and three brands of flavored water to show how likely they are to purchase each of the brands provided. Only the flavored water scores were used in this analysis.

Section III:

Print Ad Viewing
In section III respondents were asked to view one full-page, four-color magazine advertisement for each of the three brands. Respondents were directed to study each ad for 15 seconds before continuing the survey. In addition, they were asked not to click back to the ads after the initial exposure.

Section IV:

Post Ad Exposure Rating
After viewing the ads, respondents were asked to once again indicate purchase intent for each brand of flavored water using the same constant-sum scale as in section II. This question was designed to discover any change in brand preference after viewing the ads, and allows for a comparison of pre-exposure and post-exposure index scores in order to successfully obtain the change score for each brand of flavored water.

Section V :

Post Ad Exposure Differences
In section V respondents were asked if their impression of any of the brands changed after viewing the ads. If 'no' was selected, respondents were able to skip ahead to Section VI; however, if 'yes' was selected, they were asked which brand they felt most different about, whether the impact was favorable or unfavorable, and to describe the attributes of the ad that made them feel that way.

Section VI :

Brand Attitudes
For each of the three brands, respondents were presented with the same ten statements associated with flavored water. A Likert scale was used to measure attitudes, preferences, and subjective reactions, and allowed qualitative opinions to be converted into quantitative data (each answer was coded with a numerical value with 5 being the highest value indicating more positive perceptions of the brand and 1 being the lowest one indicating more negative perceptions of the brand). Survey participants were instructed to choose only one of the following answers for each attribute: Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Disagree, or Strongly Disagree. Respondents selected the response that best reflected their feelings about the following:
1. [Brand] is a good brand of flavored water.
2. Drinking [brand] flavored water makes me feel healthy.
3. [Brand] flavored water tastes great.
4. [Brand] is a brand I trust.
5. [Brand] flavored water fits my lifestyle.
6. [Brand] flavored water is too expensive.
7. [Brand] is just like any other flavored water.
8. I would recommend [brand] flavored water to my friends.
9. I prefer [brand] flavored water over regular water.
10. [Brand] flavored water doesn't taste artificial.

Section VII :

Ad Impressions
Section VII asked respondents to agree or disagree with 10 descriptive adjectives (both negative and positive associations) related to the print ads they saw. The same ten adjectives were used to describe each brand of flavored water. Selecting a checkbox indicated agreement and an unchecked box indicated disagreement with the respective adjective. Again, the responses were numerically coded for quantitative analyses.

Section VIII :

Ad Effectiveness
Respondents were asked to evaluate the overall effectiveness of each print ad by selecting a checkbox. Again, respondents were asked to select a checkbox if they agreed with a statement and leave it unchecked if they disagreed. The same statements were used for all three brands.

Section IX :

Demographic and Lifestyle Information
The final eight questions gathered basic demographic and lifestyle information: respondents' gender, age, education level, household income, how often they purchase non-alcoholic beverages, what kind of non-alcoholic beverages they prefer, and what attributes are important when purchasing non-alcoholic beverages. Finally, respondents were asked if they had any additional comments and were instructed to click the "Submit" button to finish the survey.

To view the original survey, please refer to Appendix A. If you would like to see the survey including basic statistics results, please refer to Appendix B.

 

Study Design

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. The difference between the "pre-exposure" score and the "post-exposure" score was used to determine the effectiveness of the ads. Survey participants either moved up, down, or stayed the same; a move up the constant sum scale indicated a positive attitude change, and a move down the constant sum scale indicated a negative attitude change after seeing the ads. In addition, several other brand attributes were measured after exposure to the ads. Due to time constraints and limited resources, this study was conducted without a control group with which responses could have been compared.

 

Sampling Description

This study used a convenience sample made up mostly of friends, family, and colleagues. An email that contained the URL to the survey was sent out asking email recipients for their participation. Additionally, the email asked to forward the link to other people. Sixty responses were considered sufficient for analysis, and 82 responses were collected and used for this analysis. All respondents agreed to participate in the study by clicking the submit button at the end of the survey.

 

Online Data Collection

The data for this survey was collected using the online questionnaire that can be found in Appendix A. Respondents accessed the questionnaire using the link included in an e-mail sent to friends, family, and colleagues. The questionnaire contained detailed instructions on how to answer each question and employed the use of text fields, to gather written comments, and drop-down menus, radio buttons and check boxes for easy selection of the appropriate answers. The responses were collected using Cold Fusion in a Microsoft Access database, which was later imported into SPSS for statistical analysis.