Copy research began with George Gallup when he wrote his Ph. D. Thesis, "An objective method for determining
the reader interest in newspapers" in 1928. Gallup thought that the best test of the reader interest is to measure
what he reads, and pays attention to. By interviewing the readers and going through a copy of newspaper with each
person interviewed, he could obtain accurate measure of the percentage of the readers who saw and read each item
and as in the issue. This is the recognition copy test.
There are two basic criteria or categories of response widely used in advertising copy research: recognition and
recall.
Recognition
The recognition method of copy testing is designed to measure specific responses to individual advertisements
(Lucas, 1950). The method (reading and noting) is intended to reflect reader interest by revealing
precisely which editorial items and which advertisements have been looked at and read. It is worth noting
that the method has been used extensively since it was popularized by Gallup in 1931; and advertisers have probably
preferred recognition surveys to any other form of copy
research.
He was followed in 1932 by Dr. Daniel Starch, a Harvard professor who had made
an important contribution to advertising
through a study of inquiries and copy research (Roper Starch
Worldwide).
Recall
By 1939, the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) had published a four-year study of copy testing, which covered
these tests: opinion, recognition and identification, recall, inquiry and coupon tests and sales. Along with
this, studies revealed weakness in recognition procedures, and then the Impact method emerged. Early in 1949,
Gallup and Robinson made tests of the Impact method on a regular magazine. Gallup & Robinson's Impact Service
utilizes recall of ideas transmitted by advertising to rate the penetration of the message (Aakers and John, 1987).
Day-After-Recall. Gallup first used the day-after-recall measure of advertisements when he was in
Young & Rubicam. The Day-After-Recall was later adopted by
Burke Marketing Research. The procedure is to
telephone 150 to 300 program viewers the day after a television commercial appears. They are asked if they
cannot identify the brand correctly, they are then given the product category and brand and asked if they
recalled the commercial. They are then asked for anything they can recall about the commercial, what was
said, what was shown, and what the main idea was. DAR is the percent of those in the commercial audience who
recalled something specific about the commercial, such as the sales message, the story line, the plot, or
some visual or audio element.
Now, Gallup & Robinson offers pretesting and posttesting services for television and magazine advertising
(Davis, 1997; Dunn, 1969; Eagel, 1980; Fletcher and Thomas, 1988; Haskins and Alice, 1992; McDaniel and Roger, 1993;
O'Guinn, Chris, and Richard, 1998).
Television Testing
Pretesting: InTeleTest
Norms are available for all of the previous mentioned standard InTeleTest measures.
A sample InTeleTest commercial performance summary is shown here.
The summary reports the raw data
for each key measure as well as the InTeleTest norm for that measure. The data indicate that
the test commercial performed well. Measures of intrusiveness are all above the norm, communication is strong
and consumers provided higher than norm favorable buying attitude and brand ratings.
Pilot testing: In-View
In Gallup & Robinson's In-View service, commercials are inserted into prime time programs aired on independent
stations in the East, Midwest, and West metropolitan areas. The sample is made up of 100 men and 100 women
between the age of 18 and 49 and is enlisted by telephone.
For the test of commercial impact, sample respondents are asked
to watch the program in which the commercial is to be broadcast. The next day, interviewers call the respondents
again and check and see if they watched the program. The interviewers read a list of brand names and advertisers
and then ask respondents who watched the program which commercials they can recall. For each one recalled, the
interviewers ask probing questions to elicit details.
To test attitude change, respondents are asked to watch the test program. Before watching the program, they
are questioned about their awareness of and attitudes about six product categories, three of which will be
advertised on the test program. The day after the test, they are asked the same questions about awareness
and attitude. The changes in attitude or awareness are supposed to result from exposure to the commercial.
Here are examples of the In-View test result (Sample A and B).
This test uses in-home viewing of a videotaped program with six test commercials and six normal commercials
embedded. Testing is done in ten different metropolitan areas, with 150 men and women respondents. Respondents
are asked to view a proposed new television program. The day after viewing the program, respondents are asked to
what they saw from the commercials. Later,
respondents view a tape that contains only the test commercials, and they then provide an evaluation of recognition,
likability, and general reaction to each ad.
The InTeleTest interview results in four normative measures:
Gallup & Robinson's In-View testing provides on-air testing of both rough and finished commercials. This service
is designed to conduct pretesting and posttesting of television commercials. The service measures three
main norms of impact of commercials: Intrusiveness of the commercial, Idea Communication, and Persuasion.
Intrusiveness is measured by Proved Commercial Registration (PCR) that is defined as the percent of people
who accurately describe the commercial the day after their exposure to that commercial. PCR is an indicator
of the commercial's impact to draw the viewer's attention. Idea Communication and Persuasion are the same as
those of InTeleTest.
Examples of In-View score distributions for 30-second commercials on intrusiveness and copy points are listed
below (Sample C and D).
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| Sample A | Sample B | Sample C | Sample D |
Magazine Testing
Pilot testing: Rapid Ad Measurement (RAM)
The sample of a RAM test is made up of 150 readers of the magazine in which the test ad appears.
A qualified reader is an individual aged 18 or older in five to ten metropolitan areas
who has read at least two of the last four issues
of the test magazine or others in the same classification.
A magazine containing the test ad is placed in the respondent's home. Respondents are asked to read the magazine as they normally do that day or evening. No specific attention is drawn to the magazine's editorial or advertising content. The next day the respondent is recontacted and interviewed via telephone. After preliminary questions to confirm issue readership, the interview focuses on advertising content. At this point, each respondent is given a list of the ads being tested and is asked to show which of the ads he or she recalls seeing. Foe each ad a respondent claims to recall, he or she is asked a sequence of open-ended questions to determine recall of advertising content and reactions to the ad.
The RAM test provides an advertiser with the following four key measures of advertising effectiveness:
- Proved Name Recognition (PNR) - Proved Name Recognition is the percentage of readers who can provide recall.
- Idea Communication - This measure is an indicator of the ideas communicated by the ad and feelings generated by the ad.
- Favorable Buying Attitude/Favorable Attitude – This is a measure of purchase intent.
- Net Effectiveness - The product of Proved Name Recognition and Favorable Buying Attitude/ Favorable Attitude. Net Effectiveness is a summary measure of the ad's ability to intrude and persuade.
Diagnostic questions can also be asked. Figure below (left) shows normative distributions for RAM score from 1978 to 1990. The average Proved Name Registration, or recall, score is 19.1 for all ads tested. Figure below (right) also shows Proved Name Registration for one-page four-color ads for men and women. It is interesting to note that women's recall scores were higher than those of men.
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In addition, here are samples of a RAM report for the Pontiac advertisement.
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Posttesting: Magazine Impact Research Services (MIRS)
MIRS tests ads that appear selected issues of major consumer, women's, service, and news magazines.
Ads are tested in the respondent's home after natural exposure. Magazines tested include Time, Playboy,
Spots Illustrated, Business Week, Better Homes and Gardens, Bon Appetit, Cosmopolitan, Mademoiselle, Travel
& Leisure, People, and others.
This can also be used to pretest ads that are in the development stage using a "tip-in." An ad that is tipped in is prepared for insertion into copies of the magazine and is added to the copies distributed to respondents. The purpose of the tipping in an ad is to give the ad the natural environment in which it will appear when run nationally or regionally. Then it is tested along with the other ads that actually were published in the magazine.
A recruited sample of 150 men or 150 women is taken from 10 metropolitan areas. Participants must have read
at least two of the last four issues of the test magazine or a similar magazine, but not the current issue to be
tested. Test magazines are delivered to respondents who are asked to read them in a normal manner that day and
evening.
The day after the placement, respondents are contacted by telephone and asked questions to determine readership.
A list of 15 brand/category names is given and respondents are asked which ads they remember seeing.
For each ad they claim to have recalled,, respondents are asked additional questions.
