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Introduction

     Advertising research, specifically copy-testing is one of the oldest and most used forms of measuring the effectiveness of ads. Though there is much debate and controversy regarding the ability of statistical methods to determine and predict the efficacy advertisements when it is intuitively a ‘gut reaction’, the simple fact is that there is too much empirical evidence to support it as a valid and valuable method of determining the effectiveness of an advertisement.
      In this survey, three full-page magazine ads for pasta sauce were used. One ad each for the brands Ragu, Bertolli, and Newman’s Own were selected from magazines readily available at the grocery store: Sunset and Real Simple. These advertisements were viewed in conjunction with an online survey by 72 respondents. Their answers to the questions in the 88 question survey were then run through a variety of statistical analyses to find descriptive statistics to illustrate the results of the sample and also to find if some of the results were generalizable to the population from which the sample was drawn. These tests were ranged from general reporting (means, frequencies, and standard deviations for Likert Items) to specific tests (factor analysis to summarize independent variables, MANOVA to see how combinations of independent variables affected the perception of the brand).
      The links to the left discuss the methodology used in the construction of the questionnaire, the selection of the sample, and the tests run. A discussion of the results and a specimen questionnaire along with results of the questionnaire are also included.

	Consumer Preference Survey: The Story of Three Pasta Sauces.
Table of Contents Home Introduction Executive Summary Methodology Analysis Conclusions Summary Appendix A Appendix B	Introduction Advertising research, specifically copy-testing is one of the oldest and most used forms of measuring the effectiveness of ads. Though there is much debate and controversy regarding the ability of statistical methods to determine and predict the efficacy advertisements when it is intuitively a ‘gut reaction’, the simple fact is that there is too much empirical evidence to support it as a valid and valuable method of determining the effectiveness of an advertisement. In this survey, three full-page magazine ads for pasta sauce were used. One ad each for the brands Ragu, Bertolli, and Newman’s Own were selected from magazines readily available at the grocery store: Sunset and Real Simple. These advertisements were viewed in conjunction with an online survey by 72 respondents. Their answers to the questions in the 88 question survey were then run through a variety of statistical analyses to find descriptive statistics to illustrate the results of the sample and also to find if some of the results were generalizable to the population from which the sample was drawn. These tests were ranged from general reporting (means, frequencies, and standard deviations for Likert Items) to specific tests (factor analysis to summarize independent variables, MANOVA to see how combinations of independent variables affected the perception of the brand). The links to the left discuss the methodology used in the construction of the questionnaire, the selection of the sample, and the tests run. A discussion of the results and a specimen questionnaire along with results of the questionnaire are also included.