Brand -building campaigns have to be "tracked," that is, monitored by survey research.

(Survey tracking, on the other hand, is not necessary for direct -response marcoms because
the manager can observe the sales results directly.) Originally called campaign tracking, this
type of research is nowadays often called "dashboarding." However, we strongly
recommend not to use this term because it nearly always refers to the inadequate practice of
looking at the latest advertising and brand "metrics," to use another vague buzzword, in
isolation - instead of being organized sequentially into the buyer response steps as shown in
Chapter 1. Only by conducting validly measured campaign tracking over time can the brand
manager be sure that the campaign is working as planned and, if not, will know from the
tracking measures what to do about it. In fact, it is a major mistake to not track campaigns
for new brands or new campaigns for older brands. You should track every new campaign.
The reason for this is that, without tracking, the manager sees only the brand's sales trend
during and after the campaign and then infers that the campaign has caused the sales trend.
If sales go up, the ad agency is congratulated, when it could have been other elements of
the marketing mix that pushed up sales such as increased distribution attained for the
product. If sales stay flat or sales decline, the ad agency is nearly always blamed and often
dumped, when again the sales failure could have been caused by other elements of the
marketing mix - or by a competitor's superior advertising or marketing. You as the manager
will never know the truth unless you track. To find out if the campaign is working and to
manage the campaign while it is ongoing requires survey tracking, using either the panel
method, the wave method, or what is called the continuous tracking method. These tracking
methods are described in this chapter, together with how to best manage tracking research
to detect and prevent campaign wearout. Also covered in this chapter is survey data
collection for the direct -matching method of media vehicle selection, which is essential for
designing and maintaining an accurate media plan for the campaign. CAMPAIGN
TRACKING 395 SURVEY TRACKING Large brand advertisers conduct survey tracking
research even when all signs in the marketplace imply that the marcoms campaign is
meeting its sales goal. The manager wants to be sure that the campaign components are
causally contributing to sales. Remember, sales changes could be caused by changes in
other parts of the brand's marketing mix, such as a change in the brand's distribution, a
change in the selling effectiveness of the brand's sales force, or a meaningful change in
price; or changes in competitors' marketing mixes; or even by a change in category demand
industry -wide. A campaign tracking survey, however, is expensive. First of all, the manager
will need to conduct a pre -campaign survey to obtain a "benchmark" reading (covering our
brand and competing brands). Then one or more "waves" of surveys will be needed dur ing
the campaign, to compare the findings against their benchmark readings and thus "track" the
campaign's progress. Typical costs for a year of tracking range from about $100,000 to
$200,000, depending on sample size, the length of the survey questionnaire, and the
incidence of target -audience respondents in the general population. This is "chickenfeed"
for the 100 or so brands that spend $20 million a year on advertising - $200,000 would be
only about 1% of that - but, for managers of small brands, it is more of a cost vs. benefit
decision. We suggest that if you suspect that your projected first -year sales results are more
than $100,000 below your expectation despite continued advertising with no other changes
in the marketing mix, then you should try tracking for at least 6 months to see what the
problem is. METHODOLOGIES USED IN TRACKING There are two major methodological
considerations to be made when designing a tracking survey. First, there is the choice of a
survey method, and second the choice of an interview method. Survey method Campaign
tracking surveys can employ one of three interview methodologies: panel, wave, or
continuous. Each has advantages and disadvantages but, as we explain shortly, the
continuous survey method - called continuous tracking - is the method that we recommend.
Panel method - A panel survey is the only tracking method that can truly diagnose the
causality of advertising through each of the buyer response steps of exposure, processing,
communication effects, and action. In a panel survey, the sa me people are interviewed in
the benchmark (pre -campaign) wave and in each successive (during -campaign) wave. This
allows cause -andeffect relationships to be revealed at the individual buyer or consumer
level. However, there are three disadvantages of panels. Firstly, they are very expensive to
maintain or to access from a commercial research company, with the cost going up
considerably if you 396 CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT CAMPAIGN TRACKING 397 want to
use customized questions. Secondly, there is some evidence that successive interviews can
sensitize respondents and make them more likely to buy in the product category - although
this could be adjusted -for in the findings once you know the extent of bias. Finally, panels
typically provide the data at long intervals of 3 months or more, intervals that prevent the
manager from acting quickly. Wave method - The wave method refers to the practice of
interviewing different people as respondents during each survey period. The wave method is
basically the opposite of the panel method, where the same people are re -interviewed
during the entire survey period. The major disadvantage of the wave method is that it allows
us to relate the buyer response steps only on a group level rather than on an individual level.
We can relate the percent exposed to the campaign to the percent who processed its
message, or percent processing to percent acquiring the communication effects, or percent
acquiring the communication effects to percent taking action. But we can't causally conclude
that exposure led to processing and that the processing led to communication effects and
then to action, because we have not tracked the same individuals over time. Also, if the
survey waves are far apart - say, 3 months or 6 months, as is typical - the data are slow and,
again, so is management response. Continuous method - In the continuous survey method,
called continuous tracking, small random samples of different respondents from the target
audience population are interviewed each week (and in frequently -purchased product
categories these interviews can be spread during days of the week so as to cover and
record advertising exposure and buyer behavior for the seven shopping days). Instead of
interviewing, say, 600 respondents nationwide every quarter in a wave survey, the
continuous method would interview SO respondents a week - a new sample of SO
respondents every week - for 12 weeks. These weekly samples of 50 cumulate to 600 each
quarter (or actually 650, since there are 13 weeks in a quarter). Thus, for survey period of 1
year, instead of four waves of 600 respondents measured at quarterly intervals, we would
have 2,600 interviews spread evenly throughout the year. In continuous tracking, the small
sample size of, say, 50 interviews in any one week, which produces imprecise results due to
small -sample error, is overcome by plotting the results as a moving average. This is called
"rolling the data." The moving average is an unweighted moving average; that is, each
week's data in the window of the roll carries equal weight. For instance, a 4 -week roll would
plot the first data -point as weeks 1-4, the second point as weeks 2-5, the third point as
weeks 3-6, and so forth, yielding data points based on 200 observations each. These rolled
observations are not independent, as they overlap many of the same respondents with each
roll. Not being independent, classical statistical analysis therefore cannot be applied to the
rolled results but it can be applied to the raw data which can then be aggregated over longer
periods for analysis. Meanwhile, the graph of rolled data is simply "eyeballed" by the
manager every week as it progresses during the campaign, then anything visibly untoward
can be checked for statistical significance, if the manager so desires, by waiting several
weeks and then aggregating the raw data. Continuous tracking has emerged as the method
of choice. There is no sensitization of respondents, as the continuous method is not a panel.
Continuous tracking is essentially a wave survey (a very short -cycle wave survey) rather
than a panel and therefore does not allow causality to be inferred at the individual level.
However, by rolling the output results and not rolling the inputs - the effective reach of the
advertising campaign and of any sales promotions or other marketing communications - the
manager can "read" what look like causes and effects as they occur. We therefore describe
continuous tracking as quasi -causal. An example of continuous tracking results is shown in
Exhibit 12-1. The data are from a worldwide campaign by Tourism Australia, previously the
Australian Tourism Commission. Since the data are proprietary, we have not named the
country in which the survey was taken. The various tracking measures depicted in the graph
will be explained shortly. o a) Four -week period Visual Ad Recognition (old campaign) ----
Visual Ad Recognition (new campaign) — Brand -Prompted Ad Recall — Category -
Prompted Ad Recall I-1 Total G R Ps The country of survey and year of survey are not
identified to protect confidentiality. Exhibit 12-1 Continuous tracking results from a campaign
by Tourism Australia. (Source: Courtesy of Tourism Australia and MarketMind research
company, Australia) Interview methods Unless you are planning a radio -only campaign -
which might well be the case for a local retail advertiser, by the way - you will need to be
able to show (print) or play (TV) the ads during the interviews, and you also need to be able
to show packages and logos if brand 398 CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT CAMPAIGN
TRACKING 399 recognition is the communication objective. The visual requirement basically
rules out landline telephone interviews, which used to be the major method of tracking, and
the reason for this is that print ads, TV commercials, brand packs and logos cannot be
adequately described over the phone. One proprietary study showed, for instance, that ad
recognition averaged 61% in face-to-face interviews where the actual commercial could be
shown but fell to 37% in telephone interviews where the same commercial could only be
described! This leaves only two good options for tracking interviews: face-to-face and
Internet, the latter on PCs, tablets, or smartphones. Face-to-face interviews - Face-to-face
interviews have the big advantage of being able to provide the most representative sample
for just about every product and service category. This is especially true in most of the world
outside Western countries. And even in Western countries - North America, Europe, the
U.K., and Australia and New Zealand - there are still about 20% of people of all ages who do
not use a mobile phone and at least 50% of people who do not use a smartphone to be able
to see advertising stimuli presented over the Internet. If you are tracking a consumer product
of any type, then shopping -center interviews conducted mornings, evenings, and weekends
will yield a very representative sample. Remembering that business people also have to
shop, you can also obtain a good sample for B2B products and services by limiting the
shopping -center interviews to late -night shopping nights and weekends. You will need a
highly professional market research service for these interviews and often you will have to
use the particular service that has an arrangement with the shopping center. It is up to you,
the client, to conduct the interview briefing properly and up to the research service to ensure
that their interviewers are presentable, persistent, and polite. Internet interviews - If 80% or
more (to pick a reasonable rule of thumb) of the target population for the survey owns a
smartp hone, then online tracking interviews become feasible.' Only a select few products
and services have such a target population and the manager must check this in the media
section of the tracking survey, which should of course be done with face-to-face interviews.
TRACKING SURVEY SAMPLE An important consideration in tracking -survey design is the
sampling frame for the interviews. Advertisers often limit the sample to current buyers of the
product or service category, but this is a big mistake. What you want in a tracking survey is a
random sample of the total potential market. To see why, we have to go back to the five
target audience groups, or 13 subgroups for a large brand, which we introduced in Chapter
3. This is because one major indicator of the campaign's performance is the changing
incidence of target -audience group membership.2 Think about what should happen as a
result of the campaign. If the campaign is successful, the current buyer individuals in the
"inner" target audiences of brand loyals (BLs) and favorable brand switchers (FBSs) should
stay, while individuals who were in the "outer" target audiences of OBSs, OBLs, or NCUs
prior to the campaign should move out of those audiences and into one of the two inner
audiences. • For example, newcategory users, if a target, should become category users,
not stay as NCUs. This means that the percentage of survey respondents who are NCUs
should getsmaller and we won't know this if we have interviewed only category users. • For
example, at the other end of the target audience spectrum, the percentage of consumers
who are BLs should get larger. A further good reason for tracking changes in target audience
status is that the campaign's required minimum effective frequency per advertising cycle
(MEF/c) in individual continuity reach patterns (see Chapter 9) depends on the feedback
from tracking. The manager can gradually reduce MEF/c during the campaign only if the
tracking proves that individuals are becoming more loyal. MEASURES USED IN TRACKING
Survey tracking uses measures of all four steps of the buyer response sequence: (1)
exposure, (2) ad processing, (3) brand communication effects, and (4) target audience
action. The order of these measures on the tracking survey is shown in Exhibit 12-2. The
order is particularly important for avoiding biased answers to later questions from having
answered a previous question. This ordering will make more sense if you come back to it
after we have explained the various measures themselves. 1. Category need 2. Brand recall
3. Brand recognition 4. Purchase or purchase -related action 5. Brand attitude 6. Masked ad
recognition 7. Recall of ad exposure frequency 8. Media survey 9. Target audience
classification Exhibit 12-2 Order of measures on the tracking survey. Exposure measures
Exposure is a media measure - specifically, a rate of media input which can then be related
to the intermediate steps of the buyer response sequence. The rate of media input can be
measured in various ways, ranging from gross measures such as advertising dollars or
gross rating points (GRPs), to measures that more closely approximate exposure, such as
reach at minimum effective frequency (effective reach). 400 CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT
CAMPAIGN TRACKING 401 The media input measure is expressed as a rate for a
particular time period. The time period can be weekly or monthly but usually it is 4 -weekly to
correspond with the 13 media -months that make up the calendar year. There are two main
options for the media input measure: gross rating points (GRPs) or effective reach (ER). As
we will see, only the second measure should be used. Gross rating points (GRPs) - Total
GRPs per week or per media -month can be found by adding the audience figures
(percentages reached) for all vehicles in which the ad was placed in the time period. The
rate of GRPs achieved per time period, however, provides - in the worst sense of the word
ironically enough - much too gross a measure of exposure. GRPs take no account of how
many exposures an individual receives and are simply a count of the (often repeated)
exposures that are "out there" to be attended to. GRPs should not be used in the advertising
plan and neither should GRPs be used in tracking. Effective reach (ER) -The only proper
media input measure to use is effective reach.Effective reach is defined as the number of
people reached at the minimum effective frequency level - or more often, of course - during
the advertising cycle (which is either 1 week for very short campaigns or 4 weeks - media -
months - for continuing campaigns). In tracking, effective reach is usually expressed as a
percentage of the total survey population. For example, if the MEF/c = 4 and half of the
survey population reports seeing the advertising 4+ times during the advertising cycle, then
the effective reach for that cycle is 50%. Ad processing measures Ad processing consists of
the individual's immediate responses to the ad (attention, learning, emotional responses,
and acceptance). The "ad" could equally well be a promotion or a sponsorship or some other
marcoms event, but we will focus on ads here. Ad processing cannot be measured directly in
a tracking survey because interviewers obviously cannot be present when every exposure
occurs. Instead, processing is measured indirectly by a delayed self -report of attention to
the ad. Reported attention means that there has been at least partial processing of the ad,
because the respondent must have learned something from the ad in order to remember the
ad when the interviewer calls. The two relevant attention measures are masked ad
recognition, and ad recognition frequency. We will now define these measures and explain
their purpose. Masked ad recognition - In the masked ad recognition measure, the ad is
shown or played with the brand identifier - the pack, logo or brand name - blanked out. The
tracking survey respondents are asked two questions: (1) whether they have seen or heard
the ad before - Yes, Not sure, No - and then (2) those who answer "Yes" are asked to name
the brand or specific brand -item that is being advertised. It takes more effort to prepare the
advertising stimuli for this measure to be used in tracking but this is well worth it because
masked ad recognition provides a great diagnostic advantage: it measures the ad's
"branding" ability or, more importantly, the lack of it as reflected in the extent to which
respondents can remember the ad but not which brand it was advertising. Branding failure is
a major problem for TV commercials, where the average incidence of branding loss is a
massive 45%. After seeing the average new TV commercial for the first time, only 55% of
viewers can, a short time later, correctly name the advertised brand. The 45% of viewers
who cannot correctly name the brand are made up of 35% who can't remember the brand
and 10% who mistakenly attributed the commercial to a competitor's brand.' Branding failure
is somewhat less of a problem for print ads, where the incidence of branding loss averages
14% and is only about 20% at most. For nearly every magazine ad, for example, at least
80% of consumers who recognized the ad say that they looked at the advertiser's brand
name or logo.4 Masked ad recognition results, based on the two questions above, are
interpreted as follows: (1) Answers to question 1, which measures the incidence of basic ad
recognition, provides a good estimate of the reach of this ad in the campaign. If the ad
recognition incidence is lower than expected, this signals a problem with either the reach
estimate in the media plan, or with the ad itself not being distinctive enough to even achieve
basic recognition by many respondents. If the ad recognition incidence is higher than
expected, indicating a degree of false recognition, this usually means that our ad is too
"generic" in the category and is confused with ads for competing brands - meaning in turn
that you should revise the ad immediately to make the execution unique to the brand. (2)
Answers to question 2, asked only of those who answered affirmatively to question 1,
concern the ad's branding ability and can have three possible answers: brand named
correctly, brand named incorrectly, or no brand named. A high incidence - say 20% or more -
of answers falling into the last two categories means that you have to fix the ad. If it's a TV
commercial, the failure is usually in not following the "2 -second rule" for brand name, pack,
or logo exposure duration. If it's a print ad, simply make the brand name, pack, or logo more
prominent. Ad recognition frequency -Those respondents who recognize the ad are then
asked about ad recognition frequency: how many times they have seen, read, or heard the
ad, usually asked with reference to a given time period, typically the last 4 weeks if the
tracking results are being analyzed on that basis. Research in cognitive psychology' reveals
that people are remarkably accurate in recalling the frequency of distinct events, up to 6 of
them, and higher frequencies can be grouped meaningfully as "7 to 10 times" and "more
than 10 times." This claimed exposure frequency provides a check on the achieved reach of
the media plan. The claimed reach per time period is called "mental reach."6 Diagnosis is as
follows: (A) If the percentage of people claiming mental reach - that is, to have seen or heard
the ad at/east once in the 4 -week period - is lower than you had estimated from the media
plan, the problem will be with ad recognition.Specifically, you will find that the ads have an
attention value that is too low (see Chapter 7 for appropriate remedies) or that your ads are
too generic and are being "lost in the clutter." (B) if the percentage of people claiming mental
reach at the effective frequency level is lower than the plan's estimate, then the problem is
most likely with actual delivery of the media plan. You have to go back to the advertising
agency or media agency and obtain verification that the ads were actually placed as
promised. (This is historically a big problem for TV commercial placements 402 CAMPAIGN
MANAGEMENT 91ir CAMPAIGN TRACKING 403 and has now become an even bigger
problem for ads placed on Internet sites, especially with so-called programmatic buying of ad
placements.) Tedious as it may be, it is absolutely vital that you, the advertising manager,
check the delivery of the agency's promised media plan. After all, it is your money going
down the drain whenever the promised placements are not achieved. The placement of the
ad processing measures in the tracking survey questionnaire is very important. You should
look back to Exhibit 12-2 to see where these should be placed. Brand communication effects
measures The brand communication effects measures in the tracking study, as you can see
by looking back at Exhibit 12-2, have to be taken in a particular order so that the answers to
later questions are not biased by answers to a previous question. Our discussion of the
measures corresponds with this order. We will use as an example the category of laptop
computers, where our brand is the Apple MacBook laptop computer. Category need - As
explained in Chapter 4, category need is a communication effect that applies to all brands in
the product or service category. A typical question would be: "Do you intend to buy a laptop
computer in the near future? o No, no need for one, o No, already have one (ASK: What
brand is it? ___________________), o Yes, most probably." The interviewer records the
answers for incidence purposes and then proceeds with the rest of the survey with only
those respondents who answered "Yes." Brand recall - A typical question for brand recall,
category -cued - if brand recall is a campaign communication objectives - is: "When you
think of laptop computers, which brands come first to mind? WRITE IN: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
__________." Usually only the first three brands recalled need to be recorded because - and
you should check this for your particular product or service category - most people make
their final brand choice from just two or three brands that they are carefully considering and
thus will be the first ones to come to mind. If category -cued brand recall is your campaign
communication objective, you can omit the next brand awareness question on brand
recognition. If, however, the objective is brand recallboosted recognition, then you will need
to ask both brand awareness questions. Brand recognition - The brand recognition question
has to come after the brand recall question, obviously, because to show the brand for
recognition purposes would totally bias brand recall. Actual brand names, brand packs, or
brand logos (according to the actual stimulus that has to be recognized in the purchase
situation) have to be shown; these should be shown in exact font and color and can be
placed in a six -brand display that includes your brand and the five leading competitors'
brands. A typical question would be "Which of these brands have you seen before?" The
interviewer then records "Yes," "Not sure," or "No" answers, but only "Yes" answers count as
brand recognition. Purchase or purchase -related action - Depending on the specific action
objective of the campaign, the action question could relate to pre -purchase action, such as
"Which, if any, actual or online computer stores or retail stores that sell computers have you
visited recently?" or even post -purchase action, such as "Which, if any, brands of laptop
computer have you recommended to a friend or colleague recently?" Most often, though, the
action question will relate to purchase, such as "Which, if any, brand of laptop computer
have you bought recently?" In each case the interviewer records the brand or brands
mentioned, as well as "None" if the respondent has not bought in the category recently. For
the brand recently bought, so you can relate this to your campaign's schedule of "on" weeks,
ask: "How long ago was that, approximately?" Brand attitude - The best diagnostic measure
of brand attitude to use in product tracking - as distinct from service tracking, discussed
below - is to use the measure from Chapter 4. On the questionnaire, provide the respondent
with the name of your brand and the several leading competitors' brands, in turn, and ask
the respondents to place each brand into one of five categories as follows: "a My single
preferred brand, o One of my several preferred brands, o An acceptable brand that I would
buy only if it was offered on a price deal, o A brand that I would not buy under any
circumstances, o I do not know enough about this brand to consider buying it." In the
example of Apple laptops, the brands might include in addition to Apple and depending on
the country, brands such as Samsung, Dell, HP, and Acer. For tracking brands of services, a
different attitudinal measure is needed - a measure that focuses on customer satisfaction.
(The reason for this change to brand satisfaction for services is that service delivery can vary
on every occasion - whereas product quality usually does not, so that brand attitude suffices
for branded product tracking.) You need two slightly different versions of the brand
satisfaction measure depending on whether the survey respondent is a potential customer or
current customer of your branded service.' These two measures can get somewhat tedious
on a tracking survey, so we recommend that you use them for your brand and for no more
than two of the main competing brands. We will use the example of U.S. telephone services,
where your brand is Verizon, and the two main competitors are AT&T and Deutsche
Telekom's T -Mobile. For potential customers, the brand satisfaction question has to ask
about expected satisfaction and would be something like the following: "Imagine you were to
become a customer of Verizon. Based on what you know or might have heard about
Verizon, how satisfied or dissatisfied would you expect to be with that company's overall
service? Would you say you would expect to be: o Very satisfied, o Satisfied enough, o
Really cannot say, o Somewhat dissatisfied, or o Very dissatisfied." For current customers,
the brand satisfaction question might be as follows: "Think back to your most recent
transaction with Verizon. Would you say that you were: o Very satisfied, o Satisfied enough
and will continue with the company, o Haven't really thought about it - neither satisfied nor
dissatisfied, o Dissatisfied enough to think about going to another company, or o So
dissatisfied that you will definitely not buy from or use Verizon again." Of course, there is a
third type of service customer not yet covered: an ex -customer. You will have a list of your
own ex -customers and we recommend that you conduct a survey (a telephone survey)
apart from the tracking study survey to interview them. For ex -customers, we recommend
an approach such as the following: "I hope you don't mind my calling but I am Bill Jones,
representing Verizon, and our records indicate that you may have decided to no longer be
one of our customers. Is that correct? If a good reason is given for no longer being a
customer - such as CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT CAMPAIGN TRACKING moving out of the
area, divorce, death in family, or whatever — then record this fact, apologize, thank, and
terminate. Was it dissatisfaction with one of our services or was it something that we did or
didn't do that caused you to leave? If Yes: Could you please tell me more about that. Record
the answer, thank, and terminate. If No: Thank and terminate."

Media survey
As we emphasized in Chapter 10, the manager must use the direct -matching method of
selecting media vehicles for the campaign's media plan. The ideal place to do this is at the
end of the tracking survey questionnaire. But even if you are not doing a tracking study, it is
well worth commissioning a separate media survey that includes after it the target audience
classification questions. You will require a sample of about 500 respondents to ensure
sufficient accuracy, so if you are doing the media survey in conjunction with the tracking
survey you will need to boost the sample to 500 for that week of tracking. The media survey
need only be done once a year. This can be at any time other than during TV's "summer
reruns" period. A typical media survey questionnaire for the U.S. city of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, for the TV season 2016-2017 is shown in Exhibit 12-3. This covers
magazines, newspapers, radio, free -to -air TV channels where advertising is allowed, and
major Internet sites. 1. Following is a list of magazines. Please tick the ones that you read:
Skim occasionally Always read it AARP Magazine O 0 Allrecipes 0 0 Better Homes &
Gardens O 0 Bon Appetit O 0 Cooking Light O O Food Network Magazine 0 0 Good
Housekeeping 0 0 National Geographic O 0 Reader's Digest O 0 2. Following is a list of daily
and Sunday newspapers. Please tick the ones that you read regularly: Read online only
Read actual New York Times The Wall Street Journal The Post -Gazette The Tribune -
Review Local free newspaper O o E o E E E E E E 3. Following is a list of radio stations.
Please tick the ones that you listen to: Sometimes listen Listen daily VVWSW-FM 0 0
WDVE-FM 0 0 WKST-FM O 0 WRRK-FM O 0 KDKA-FM 0 0 WSHH-FM O O WXDX-FM 0 0
KDKA-AM 0 O WBZZ-FM O 0 WDSY-FM 0 O WPGB-FM O 0 WLTJ-FM 0 0 4. During a
typical week, how often do you watch television during the following time periods: Every day
Most days Some days Never Before 9.00am 9.00am - 12.00 noon 12.00 noon - 2.00pm
2.00pm - 4.00pm 4.00pm - 6.00pm 6.00pm - 730pm 730pm - 8.30pm 8.30pm - 10.30pm
After 10.30pm E o o o E o o o E o o o O o o o E o o E E o E o E o o o O o o o E o o o 5.
During a typical week, which of these evening programs do you usually watch(please circle
no more than one program for each time slot on each evening): MONDAY 8.00 Dancing with
the The Big Bang Gotham Stars Theory 8.30 Man with a Plan 9.00 2 Broke Girls Lucifer 9.30
The Odd Couple 10.00 Conviction Scorpion The Voice Timeless Supergirl Jane the Virgin
(Continued) 406 CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT CAMPAIGN TRACKING 407 (Continued)
TUESDAY 8.00 The Middle NCIS 8.30 American Housewife Brooklyn NineNine New Girl
The Voice 9.00 Fresh off the Bull Scream Queens This is Us Boat 9.30 The Real O'Neals
10.00 Marvel's Agents NCIS: New of S.H.I.E.L.D. Orleans Chicago Fire The Flash No
Tomorrow WEDNESDAY 8.00 The Goldbergs Survivor 8.30 Speechless 9.00 Modern
Family Criminal Minds Empire 9.30 Black-ish 10.00 Designated Code Black Survivor Lethal
Weapon Blindspot Law & Order: SVU Chicago P.D. Arrow Frequency THURSDAY 8.00
Grey's Anatomy 8.30 9.00 9.30 10.00 Notoriously How to Get Away with Murder Big Bang
Theory / NFL Thursday Night Football The Great Indoors Mom Life in Pieces Pure Genius
Rosewood's Pitch Superstore / DC's Legends of Thursday Night Tomorrow Football The
Good Place Chicago Med Supernatural The Blacklist FRIDAY 8.00 Last Man MacGyver
Standing 8.30 Dr Ken 9.00 Shark Tank Hawaii Five -0 9.30 10.00 20/20 Blue Bloods Hell's
Kitchen Caught on Camera Simpsons The Exorcist / Grimm Sleepy Hollow Dateline The
Vampire Diaries Living Black Crazy Ex -Girlfriend SATURDAY ~ 8.00 8.30 9.00 9.30 10.00
Saturday Night Football Crimetime Saturday Crimetime Saturday 48 Hours Saturday Night
Live Encores SUNDAY 8.00 8.30 9.00 9.30 10.00 Dancing with the Stars NCIS: Los Angeles
Secrets and Lies Madame Secretary Son of Zorn The Last Man on Earth Quantico
Elementary 6. Which one of the following Internet search engines, if any, do you use most
often? Google Bing Yahoo Ask.com AOL.com Baidu Wolframalpha DuckDuckGo 7. Which
one of the following Internet messaging services, if any, do you use most often? WhatsApp
Facebook Messenger Apple iMessage Skype Snapchat 8. Which of the following Internet
social networking sites, if any, do you visit regularly? Facebook LinkedIn Instag ram Twitter
Pinterest Google+ Tumblr Snapchat Exhibit 12-3 Example of media survey questions for
Pittsburgh, U.S.A., for Fall 2016 season. 408 CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT CAMPAIGN
TRACKING 409 Target audience classification To accomplish direct matching in the media
plan, the media survey results have to be aligned (by cross -tabulation) with the target
audience groups. Large advertisers should include the 13 -subgroups classification
questionnaire from Chapter 3. Smaller advertisers, however, could achieve reasonable
targeting by using the category need question given above followed by, for category
intenders and category users, the five -category brand attitude question given above. By
sorting the answers on the computer, it should be relatively straightforward to classify each
individual survey respondent as to whether he or she is a prospective new category user for
your brand, or is a brand loyal, favorable brand switcher, other -brand switcher, or other
brand loyal. ANALYSIS OF TRACKING STUDY RESULTS There are two major
considerations for the analysis of tracking study data. The first is the need to analyze results
from every measure at the individual level. The second, not unrelated as we shall see, is to
try to derive a causal analysis or at least a quasi -causal analysis. Individual -level analysis
The biggest mistake made in tracking studies is to record the tracking measures' results
separately - thus one table or graph for advertising awareness, another for brand
awareness, another for brand purchase incidence, and so forth. Exhibit 12-1, earlier, showed
an example of this where advertising awareness was graphed independently of the other
measure's results. What needs to be done instead is the tracking of every individual
respondent sequentially through a hierarchy of campaign effects by placing them in a "tree"
diagram,8 as shown in Exhibit 12-4. Causal analysis For a causal analysis, the survey
results have to come from a panel. Strictly speaking, individual -level causal analysis (over
time) is possible only with panel surveys, that is, with the same respondents interviewed at
time t, time t +1, time t +2, and so on, through to the end of the tracking. (Shortly, we will
comment on what can be inferred if you used wave or continuous surveys.) At minimum, two
interviews with the same respondents (most often the benchmark interview and one follow-
up interview at the peak of or immediately after the campaign) would be required. With a
panel sample, the results are arrayed into a series of "turnover" tables, which link successive
pairs of measures that represent the buyer response steps, or the more specific hierarchy of
effects hypothesized for the campaign, for successive time periods. Turnover tables track
what No, not sure Ad recognition 1 40 Yes Category need NoI201 Yes Other 1 1 of 3
preferred 2 20 Brand recall No114I Yes 6 Brand attitude 1 of 2 preferred 3 Single preferred
No Other 1 60 Category need 30 1 1 of 3 preferred 1 Yes 30 Brand recall No 9 Yes 21 Brand
attitude 1 1 of 2 preferred 2 Single preferred 2 Exhibit 12-4 Sequential "tree" diagram
showing how tracking study results should be analyzed at the individual level. Simplifying
assumptions are made in this example - see text. happened to respondents from time t to
time t +1 and to successive time periods if surveyed - for example, whether exposure did or
did not result in brand recognition, or whether a favorable brand attitude (given brand
recognition) did or did not produce brand action intention - until all the steps of exposure -›
ad processing -› brand communication effects -› target audience action are linked. An
example of a turnover table for one pair of hypothesized successive measures is shown in
Exhibit 12-5. The turnover incidence for each cell indicates which diagnosis of causality is
appropriate. If the campaign is working - here, by increasing brand recognition - most
(exposed) respondents should be in the top right-hand cell, indicating that (recent) exposure
caused brand recognition. The lower right-hand cell shows the incidence of brand
recognition due to other causes — such as advertising exposure prior to time t, or in-store
exposure to the brand. 410 CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT CAMPAIGN TRACKING 411 Did
not recognize brand at time t + 1 Recognized brand at time t +1 Exposed at time t Not
exposed at time t Campaign not working Most of the exposed respondents should end up in
this cell Most of the unexposed Campaign not the cause of brand respondents should be
here recognition Exhibit 12-5 Turnover analysis for inferring causality in panel survey results
(example). Quasi -causal analysis If the manager has not used the panel method and
tracked the same individuals over time, what is called quasi -causal analysis is the only
analysis option. With the wave tracking method, causal inference is not possible, a major
problem - and more so the further apart the waves are, as the causes and effects are
dislocated in time. With the recommended continuous tracking method, however, the
observations of inferred causes and effects are virtually continuous, and although different
individuals are observed, causality is a reasonable conclusion. Aggregate tracking So far, we
have assumed that the manager is interested in knowing how the advertising campaign is
working. However, the manager, once convinced that a good understanding of the likely
causal process has been gained, may then choose to track on a more general level without
doing a tracking survey. This is called "aggregate tracking" because it jumps from the
exposure step in aggregate to the brand's or brand item'ssales in aggregate. Most often, it
consists of relating one of the gross exposure measures - such as advertising expenditure
rate - to a gross sales measure such as unit sales or dollar sales, or if a new brand in a new
category then unit market share should be tracked as well to see how your brand is
progressing against other new brands. Aggregate tracking requires some form of input-
output analysis. This is usually just an "eyeball analysis" of advertising expenditure rate per
media -month related to unit sales per media -month (directly if it is a direct -response
campaign, or delayed by "lagging" the sales data if it is a brandbuilding campaign). Some of
the larger companies with a long time series of aggregate tracking data use econometric
modeling, also called sales modeling, to do this. However, based on honest reports in the
literature on sales modeling as to the subjectivity that this modeling involves underneath its
objective -looking results,' we do not recommend it over basic eyeball analysis. TRACKING
AND CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT Campaign tracking is used to manage the campaign. Five
managerial actions can result from tracking: 1. Determining why the marcoms campaign is or
is not working 2. Adjusting the budget 3. Adjusting the media plan 4. Adjusting the exposure
ratio of individual ads in the pool 5, Making minor improvements in ads Determining why the
campaign is or is not working The most important managerial result of tracking, at least
initially, is to determine why the marcoms campaign is or is not working (meeting its sales
goal). Up until the campaign is actually launched, the manager has been operating only with
the marcoms plan - which, all things considered, is no more than a hypothesis about how the
advertising, or other marcoms, is expected to work. A smart manager always will want to test
this hypothesis and survey tracking is the only way to test it. (The exception, as we noted in
the introduction of this chapter, is for direct -response advertisers, who have a relatively easy
tracking job because sales are immediate and inevitably caused by the ad or ads, which they
can experimentally vary to find out what specific advertising content is most effective.)
Adjusting the budget Media budget adjustments - increases or decreases in the rate of
advertising spending - can usually be made without conducting survey tracking. Aggregate
input-output tracking, which relates the advertising expenditure rate to the sales rate, is
usually sufficient to reveal whether you need to adjust the media budget up or down.
However, if the campaign is clearly not working, then you will need survey tracking to find
out why. Adjusting the media plan Gross adjustments of the media plan - such as increasing
or decreasing your share of advertising expenditure in various geographic markets, as in
Schroer's method of budgeting (see previous chapter) - require only aggregate analysis as
above. However, fine-tuning of the media plan, in terms of adjusting the reach and frequency
of ad placements to increase effective reach, requires survey tracking. The incidence of
masked ad recognition (mental reach) and the claimed frequency of recognizing the ads
(mental frequency) can come only from a survey. Adjusting the exposure ratio of individual
ads in the pool Ad processing measures can be used to adjust the exposure ratio of ads in
the campaign's pool of ads. The "winner" in pretesting, for example, may turn out to be no
more attention -getting 412 CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT F CAMPAIGN TRACKING 413 in
campaign conditions than the number two ad, which means that their exposures should be
equalized. Or, a new winner may be found, meaning that its frequency should be upgraded
to dominant in the pool; or an unexpected loser may be discovered that should be
downweighted or even removed from the pool. • Agood example is the classic "Do you know
me?" TV commercials for the American Express card some years ago.1° American Express
adjusted the on -air ratio of the TV commercials, while the campaign was being run, to reflect
their relative effectiveness. In this clever campaign, celebrity cardholders with, at the time,
famous names but not -so -famous faces - Robert Ludlum, Mel Blanc, and Benny Goodman
were some of the presenters - plonked down their American Express card in hotels and
restaurants to receive the extra respect they would, unrecognized, not have received. As it
turned out, according to our tracking, some of the presenters - the Australian film director
Peter Weir, for instance, and American country and western singer Roger Miller - were
hardly even known by name, so they didn't fit the creative idea and were dropped (or
"rotated out" would be a kinder way of putting it). Certain other presenters - Disney voice-
over expert Mel Blanc was one, and mystery writer Robert Ludlum, at the peak of his fame at
the time for his "Jason Bourne" novels that Matt Damon later brought to life in movies, was
another - worked spectacularly well in conveying the campaign message and were duly
awarded most of the airtime. With continuous tracking, ratio adjustments within the pool of
ads can be made frequently. This greatly helps to forestall "wearout," as explained later in
this chapter. Making minor improvements in ads The final and more emergency -initiated
management action from survey tracking is, if necessary, to make small improvements in the
executional content of particular ads while they are in the campaign. For example, a TV
video "super" (written text superimposed over the video images) can be added to reinforce a
benefit claim. Or the audio can be re-recorded to mention the brand name more often - in
association with the category need. Magazine ads and traditional outdoor ads have quite a
long insertion commitment to the media, meaning that revised ads cannot appear
immediately. Changes to newspapers and radio ads - and now electronic billboard ads - can
be made at short notice. HOW OFTEN TO TRACK How often, or for how long, should you
track the campaign? Even "continuous" tracking is rarely continued for 52 weeks of the year.
Only by understanding the purpose and methods of tracking can this decision be made
correctly. Initiation, change, and maintenance are the three campaign considerations that
determine the frequency and the type of tracking research that should be conducted (Exhibit
12-6). Status of campaign Frequency of tracking Type of tracking Initiation Several purchase
cycles minimum for FMCG; or 6 months minimum for durables Major change One purchase
cycle (two waves) initially for FMCG; then several more if needed; or 3 months for durables
Maintenance 4 -weekly, with major review at mid -year and end -of -year planning period
Complete causal: survey with panel or quasicausal survey with continuous methodology
Aggregate at first, then complete causal or quasi -causal if serious problem Aggregate
Exhibit 12-6 How often to track and what type of tracking to conduct. Campaign initiation
When a new campaign is initiated - either a new brand's first campaign or a new campaign
for an existing brand - the causality of the campaign's plan should be tested. This will require
a survey, using the panel method or the continuous tracking method, for a minimum of 6
months. All measures are needed. (It is even wise to include brand recall as well as brand
recognition in case the new brand or the new strategy causes a change in the way the
product is purchased.) Use of lead -indicator measures only, or less than complete
measurement, will leave gaps in the causal sequence of effects. To establish reliable causal
inferences in campaign initiation, a sufficient time period of tracking must be allowed for. For
short purchase -cycle products and services, the period should be at least three to four
purchase cycles, which for most FMCG products will cumulate to about 6 months. For long
purchase -cycle products and services, the tracking period should be at least 6 months. Six
months should mean that enough purchases or service transactions have occurred to build
up a causal picture of the campaign's effects. PR should be tracked as well - For a new
product launch especially but also for a major new campaign, it is additionally worthwhile to
track PR coverage - positive and negative publicity in the media. PR coverage is easy and
inexpensive to track online using a topic search, and someone in your company or
organization should be assigned to do this on a weekly basis. Whereas PR tracking used to
be done by a commercial "clipping service" whereby stay-at-home adults used to be
instructed to watch certain TV programs, listen to certain radio stations, and read certain
newspapers and magazines to see what is being said about the brand, this method has
largely been replaced by online tracking, which requires far less time. • A good example of
the value of PR tracking is shown in Exhibit 12-7 for the Coca-Cola company's ill-fated
mineral water brand, Dasani, in the U.K. market." The top line in the chart shows overall
mentions of Dasani and the next line down shows negative coverage of the bromide content
of the product which caused the brand to fail among consumers. Negative publicity about the
closure of the company's factory where Dasani was produced also contributed to a small
extent. -11911 414 CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT CAMPAIGN TRACKING 415 M e ntio n c o
u nt 130 -1 120 - 110 - 100 - 90 - 80 - 70 - 60 - 50 - 40 - 30 -1 20 .1 o Ç('‘ çc,'`‘ •• •Ç\ ,Ç\ „„).
t„.‘` 3 \.‘•(t' \\?, \,‘\?: <*) «\ v (1' q• rf, "). Kç‘` ,) c§‘ co cb>• `?/- OÇ\ co b ,<(‘ co 4 Aspects of
news coverage of Coca-Cola's mineral water, Dasani, in the UK — Dasani — Bromide
content ---- Withdrawal from sale ---- Sidcup factory Exhibit 12-7 Example of PR tracking
using a topic search in online versions of newspapers during the launch of Coca-Cola's
Dasani mineral water brand in the U.K. market. (Source: F. Hampton, 2004, reference in
note 11. This figure is reproduced with the kind permission of Admap.For more details go
to ). Maior change Major change refers to major changes that occur (1) in a competitor's
strategy or (2) in the market itself, such as a new government regulation, or consumer
boycotting of a product because of a health scare, or perhaps unexpected positive publicity
that could substitute for the frequency of advertising exposures for our brand. Any change
likely to affect our brand's marcoms performance should be tracked as soon as it occurs.
First, a quick and inexpensive aggregate tracking assessment of the market should be
made. Aggregate measures, notably sales and market shares, taken over one purchase
cycle (two waves) for FMCG products, or 1 month apart for 3 months (four waves) for
durables, should be enough to decide whether the change is serious and likely to continue
(hence the multiple waves, to measure the trend). If a substantial effect on our brand's sales
looks likely, then complete causal tracking - ideally panel -based, but quasi -causal
continuous tracking usually suffices to pick up big effects - should be resumed, again for
several purchase cycles or several months as applicable. The purpose of this second phase
is to determine whether our brand will need to react with a new advertising strategy or even
with a new marketing strategy - which would take the campaign back to initiation status.
Maintenance tracking Aggregate tracking should be undertaken during the remaining
periods of market "equilibrium" and this can be regarded as maintenance tracking.
Aggregate data are easy to compile - the company usually has the necessary figures. The
usual aggregation period is 4 -weekly, that is, by media month. Graphic (not just numeric)
reports or computer displays regularly signal whether the market is indeed steady and
whether the company's advertising is proceeding as planned. The more sophisticated of
these graphic reporting procedures incorporate expert system software to statistically detect
deviations from the normal effects pattern. Information Resources Inc. (IRI) offers an
aggregate tracking model that is notable for providing expert system -generated periodic
reports to the manager that prompt corrective actions when needed. It is good management
practice to schedule major reviews in which the client and agency are required to read and
submit written comments on all available marketing communications inputs and outputs,
then for the two parties to meet to discuss. Quarterly reviews are best and, if not, 6 -monthly
reviews should be the minimum basis of planning during maintenance periods. These
regular reviews will help managers to decide when the current advertising campaign has run
its course. This leads to our final topic in campaign management: campaign wearout.
CAMPAIGN WEAROUT Most marketing managers think they know what "wearout" is - they
think wearout is simply "when the ad or ads aren't working any more." However, the situation
is much more complicated than this. We will see that there are three possible conclusions to
be drawn when the advertising campaign does not seem to be working any more. The three
possibilities are: 1. Positioning strategy out of date 2. Media plan slippage 3. Creative idea
or execution wearout To detect where the problem lies, and thus to draw the right conclusion
and apply the right corrective actions, you need potentially three types of audit. These
potential audits cover (1) the marketing plan - to check for the positioning strategy not being
current; (2) the media plan - to check for media plan slippage; and (3) the ads themselves -
to check for "advertising wearout" in its proper sense, that is, wearout of the creative idea or
the creative executions themselves. The audits should be conducted in the stated order,
because if the problem is found in an earlier audit, you won't need the next one. 416
CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT CAMPAIGN TRACKING 417 First audit: the marketing plan
Before the manager can conclude that a sales decline is caused by advertising wearout,
alternative causes must be considered. A complete marketing audit has to be conducted
because the problem may extend to the marketing plan. A marketing audit should be
conducted first because, if undetected, a marketing plan mistake will cause the most
damage, and very quickly. There are three possible problems that could affect the marketing
plan: changes in our marketing mix, changes in a large competitor's marketing mix, and
changes in consumer or customer values. Changes in our brand's marketing mix - A first set
of reasons for a decline in sales is changes in (other) components of our brand's marketing
mix - a change in one or more of the 4Ps without a change in advertising. A change in
product formulation or service design, a loss of distribution, a higher relative price, or our
promotion rather than our advertising could be the cause of the sales decline. (A) Even a
small change in our brand's marketing mix can act as a purchase inhibitor. If it is a small
change, the advertising strategy should be adapted to counter the inhibition. (See the
discussion of purchase facilitation as a communication objective in Chapter 4.) This is a
minor correction within the same advertising strategy. (B) A major change in our brand's
marketing mix would, however, call for a new advertising strategy. This has to be a
completely new strategy, not just a tweaking of the present strategy, but sometimes when
the marketing mix change has been large not even a new advertising strategy is enough. •
For instance, Burger King in the U.S.A. some years ago suffered an alarming 6 -year 22%
drop in patronage, mainly due to the inconsistent quality of its burgers and fries.12 Over the
6 years, four different agencies were engaged to try to turn the brand around, without
success. Despite a generous advertising budget of $335 million, no advertising strategy was
likely to succeed until Burger King fixed its product problem - which it subsequently of
course did. New brands of FMCG products represent a special case. With new brands of
fast-moving consumer goods, a sales decline is often the result of the brand -item achieving
its true repeat -purchase rate. H igh initial sales in most cases include the inflationary effect
of introductory promotions, so that a drop-off occurs when less than 100% of the triers
repeat, or when repeaters' rate of purchase without price promotions stabilizes to the
brand's true repeat rate. For a new FMCG brand, the settling down to a true repeat rate
would not normally call for a change in advertising strategy - but, if the repeat rate starts out
too low it could mean that you have to re-examine your promotion strategy (see Chapter 8's
discussion of repeat -purchase promotions) and if that's not where the problem lies the
problem must be with the product itself. Changes in a large competitor's marketing mix - A
second set of reasons for a sales decline is changes in a large competitor's marketing mix.
A major new brand introduction, such as Apple's iMac range of computer products, can
redefine the market and cause sales and market share declines for other brands. Or, a
change in one brand's marketing mix, such as a large gain in distribution outlets through
acquisition or merger, can produce declines for other brands. Under the heading of changes
in a large competitor's marketing mix we include changes in a large competing brand's
advertising strategy (the target audience or the key benefit) but not changes in the
competitor's media strategy unless the latter changes follow from a changed advertising
strategy. Changes in a large competitor's media strategy alone are discussed later. (A)
Changes in a large competitor's marketing mix other than advertising or promotion that
cause our brand's sales to decline will call for a revised marketing plan and, along with it, a
completely revised advertising strategy. (B) Changes in a large competitor's advertising (or
promotion) strategy that cause our brand's sales to decline can, more narrowly, often be
countered by a change in our brand's advertising (or promotion) strategy alone. • For
example, when Miller Beer some years ago changed its advertising strategy (specifically its
positioning strategy) to the "It's Miller time" theme, which brought the Miller High -Life brand
out of the doldrums in the beer market, rival Budweiser countered by simply revising its
positioning strategy to reflect even broader situational use than Miller's, with the theme
"When do you say Budweiser?" Changes in consumer or customer values - A third set of
reasons for a sales decline is changes in consumers' or business customers' values. A
change in values can cause an alteration in attribute or benefit importance weights (Ii's in
our multiattribute formula for the I -D -U model; see Chapter 2). • The toothpaste market, for
instance, underwent changes in consumers' benefit importance with the emergence of
decay prevention as a major consideration, and later, plaque reduction, and still later,
whitening. • Likewise, health -initiated sociocultural changes saw several big changes in
values - low tar emerged as a consumer benefit in the cigarette market (offset, unfortunately,
by smokers smoking more and inhaling harder); low carbohydrates emerged as a consumer
benefit in the food and beverage markets; and "lite" emerged as a consumer benefit in the
U.S.A. for just about anything! Changes in consumer or customer values resulting in altered
benefit importance weights (including the emergence of a new benefit, such as whitening in
toothpaste, which previously had little importance except for a small segment of adults who
smoked a lot or drank lots of red wine or strong coffee) can be addressed in two ways: (A) If
the altered or new benefit threatens tosubstantially re -partition the category (see Chapter
2), then the usual response will be to quickly seek a product reformulation or new
formulation, resulting in a change in the marketing plan that will enable our brand to
compete successfully in the new submarket. • For example, Crest toothpaste brought out its
own whitening toothpaste to match Colgate's Whitening. 418 CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT
rCAMPAIGN TRACKING 419 (B) Alternatively, an adequate response may be to revise the
advertising strategy and, in particular, focus on a narrower target audience and emphasize
what for them is the key benefit. • In the toothpaste example, you could focus on those
toothpaste users truly concerned about whiter teeth - and try to boost the importance of the
whitening benefit above all others. This is what Colgate's Optic White did in choosing this
single -benefit -focused name. Second audit: the media plan The first audit, above, is what
may be called an external audit - that is, external to your brand's advertising campaign. If the
first audit reveals no external problems and your brand's sales are still slowing or going
down, the next thing you should audit is the media plan. Media vehicle audience check - The
pattern of exposures to the advertising could have changed because of changes in media
vehicle audiences. Television programs, in particular, wax and wane in popularity, and
seasonal differences in the ratings of established programs are remarkably large — it is not
unusual for prime -time TV program ratings, for instance, to vary by 25-30% over the four
quarters of the year, and this is not just during summer re -runs. Magazines, too, especially
those magazines that experience a large proportion of their sales from newsstands, can
have marked fluctuations in readership. What all this means is that the effective reach of
your media plan can change, and if sales are going down despite no obvious external
causes then it is quite likely that you are losing effective reach in some or all of your media
vehicles. (A) If you are using continuous tracking, you should be getting from your tracking
service a continuous estimate of 4 -weekly effective reach. If the effective reach of the media
plan is falling, then you must contact the media companies, or ask your advertising agency
or media agency to do so, to give you the most recent audience figures for the various
vehicles to see whether the problem lies with the media plan. (B) If not, the other possibility
is that a substantial number of your target audience has shifted its viewing or reading or
listening patterns. The only way you can find this out is to rerun the direct -matching media
survey. Whereas that might seem to be quite expensive, it is almost always worth it in terms
of recovered effective reach which in turn should flow on to sales. Effective frequency check
-As we stated in Chapter 10, the minimum effective frequency per advertising cycle, MEF/c,
is initially an estimate.The MEF/c estimate is made prior to the start of the campaign and it
assumes averagely effective ads. However, the ads could be so weak or so strong that they
require more (if weak) or less (if strong) frequency to achieve the brand's communication
effects. If so, the MEF/c will need to be adjusted upward or downward, as appropriate. A
common problem that looks like wearout, but is not, is to run the ad at too low a frequency
rate so that it never "wears in." Wear -in - a good thing to have, by the way - refers to the
tendency of an ad to require fewer and fewer exposures on successive cycles (as in the
wedge reach pattern) to achieve its communication objectives. MEF/c can be checked in
continuous or panel -method tracking, as we noted before, by asking respondents, in
conjunction with the ad recognition question, the ad recognition frequency question: How
many times they think they have seen or heard the ad in the last 4 weeks. Frequency
reports are remarkably accurate up to about 6 and probably 10 exposures." The reported
frequency can be checked against the media plan's intended frequency for each advertising
cycle. (A) If too few of the target audience report a recalled frequency below MEF, then you
need to up the ad's insertion rate in the media schedule. (B) On the other hand, very
attention -getting ads will tend to have their frequency over -reported. This is a nice bonus
and it means that you could try reducing the ad's insertion rate, though we would suggest
not reducing it by more than 1 insertion per advertising cycle. Maintenance plans - For a
new brand campaign or for a new campaign for an existing brand, after the heavy initial
burst, the advertising is often cut back to a "maintenance" level. But usually too little thought
is given to what the maintenance plan actually delivers. Again, gross statistics, such as "half
the GRPs" (an especially common statistic) or "half the reach" or "half the average
frequency" tell us nothing about what the plan is actually delivering. A so-called
maintenance plan may look like it is achieving half the "impact" of the original plan, but in
fact it may be delivering far below this, particularly if it drops nearly everyone below the
minimum effective frequency level required in the advertising cycle! There is also the
question of what is being maintained in a maintenance plan. It is one thing, for example, to
maintain a target audience of brand loyals with relatively low -frequency advertising, but
quite another to attempt to maintain a target audience of brand switchers with the same
plan. Yet such distinctions rarely enter into the evaluation of reduced media plans. Instead,
all detailed consideration is buried in meaningless figures like GRPs. Make sure, then, that
you know what "maintenance" means in terms of the required effective reach and MEF.
Final audit: the ads themselves Finally, we arrive at advertising wearout in the proper sense
of the term. Advertising wearout means that the creative idea itself, or the creative
executions of it, are no longer meeting the sales goal - even though the advertising strategy
is correct and the media plan is sound. The advertising wearout problem could be due to a
failure in any of the processing responses: attention, learning, emotional responses, or if a
high -involvement campaign, in target audience acceptance of the benefit claims. We will
see that the solutions may require changes in the creative or changes in the media plan.
Attention wear out - The first response in the processing of all advertisements - or all
advertised promotion offers - is attention. Initial attention to ads was examined extensively in
Chapter 7. Diminished attention to an advertisement, at the individual audience member
level, after it has been processed several times, is a common cause of wearout. Diminished
attention is -1;41111111 420 CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT particularly likely to affect
campaigns in print media where the easy response for the prospective customer is to turn
the page. It is less of a problem in broadcast media, particularly TV or radio, where the easy
response is to watch or listen. However, for TV, the greatly increased prevalence of time -
delayed viewing of programs, which allows ad -skipping, has now made it a problem. (A) To
alleviate the problem of diminished attention to a TV or radio campaign, slightly different
advertising executions of the same advertising strategy (the same benefit positioning and
creative idea) are the lowest -cost solution. • The beer brand Miller Lite in the U.S.A. was
perhaps the first to do this on a comprehensive scale on TV, with its "ex -jock" pool of
commercials, and Blue Nun wine was an early example on U.S. radio. (B) But in print
advertising, where the problem of holding the reader's attention can be severe, advertisers
have been somewhat slower to use variations on a theme. Continuous tracking data from
Millward Brown suggests that print ads (magazine and probably newspaper ads) experience
a major drop in attention - as measured by brand -prompted ad recall, which measures the
proportion of people who link the ad to the brand - after 3 OTS, that is, 3 exposures to the
same person.14 (Note that this may require considerably more than three insertions,
depending on the reach pattern of the media schedule; and it may be less than three
insertions in a particular publication if multiple publications are used in the plan.) • Exhibit
12-8 shows an excellent example of variations on a theme in two slightly different outdoor
ads for Burberry high -fashion clothing. Exhibit 12-8 Variations on a theme for a Burberry's
outdoor campaign. (Source: Courtesy of The Advertising Archives.) If executional variations
don't seem to be sufficient to restore attention to the campaign (easily measurable in
continuous tracking), then it is time to start looking for a new creative idea. As emphasized
in Chapter 5, prospective new creative ideas must be thoroughly management -judgment
pretested to ensure that the idea selected does not go "off -message," which in our
terminology from Chapter 2 means that it does not depart from the brand's T -C -B
positioning. p. CAMPAIGN TRACKING 421 Learning (interference) wearout - Wearout can
also occur in the second response in processing: (rote) learning. As explained in Chapter 6,
rote learning is necessary for two communication effects - br and awar eness, in which the
customer must learn the connection between the category need and the brand or brand -
item name, pack or logo; and low -involvement/ infor mational br and attitude, in which the
customer must learn the connection between the brand or brand -item and its key benefit or
benefits. (A) Learning failure is very often due to prior attention failure, in which case it would
be diagnosed in the foregoing attention analysis. If so, the solution would be, as before,
variations on a theme - whereby the slightly changed TV video content, radio audio content,
or print ad illustration content should be sufficient to regain attention. (B) However, learning
failure can also occur in its own right due to interference from learning produced by one of
the large competing brands. Learning -based interference is especially likely to occur when
one of your major competitors changes its media schedule to attain greater frequency
against target audience individuals than previously (dominance); or changes the ratio to
favor more effective ads in its executional pool; or improves its advertising message
execution to achieve stronger associative learning of the competitor's brand awareness or
brand attitude. (C) Quite apart from interference caused by a competitor's campaign, your
brand's previous campaign can interfere for weeks or months when you introduce a new
campaign - see Max Sutherland's practitioner -based book for examples of this type of
"carryover interference" happening to your own brand.15 The possible solutions to this
problem are the same as for interference described in the previous paragraph. It is important
for the manager to realize that the remedies for interference wearout differ depending on
whether the br and awar eness objective is brand recall or alternatively brand recognition:
(A) If brand recall is the appropriate type of brand awareness communication objective for
the brand, then dominance in the advertising cycle (increasing MEF/c above that of the
largest competitor - see Chapter 10) is the best corrective tactic. Note that if the media
budget is to be held constant, this will require wider gaps between advertising cycles. (B) If
brand recognition is the objective, then the problem is almost certainly due to insufficient
brand package or brand logo exposure (size in print, size and duration in TV ads) in the ad
itself. Acceptance (overexposure) wearout - Negative reactions due to overexposure are
most unlikely with pr int ads, because the consumer or customer can simply turn the page
(for a magazine or newspaper ad or figuratively for a website ad), or look away (from an
outdoor ad), or throw out or delete the ad (direct mail or email advertising). The wearout
problem with print ads, therefore, is almost certain to be either attentional wearout or
learning wearout caused by interference, not wearout due to overexposure. On the other
hand, broadcast ads are very susceptible to overexposure wearout - because most people
sit passively and attend to the ad. This is particularly true of television commercials, 422
CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT CAMPAIGN TRACKING 423 though less true of radio
commercials because of radio's frequent use as a background medium. In fact, attitudinal
wearout (negative shifts in attitude upon repeated exposure to the ad) has been
demonstrated only with television commercials and not with advertising in any other
medium.'6 What corrective actions should be tried for advertising that has worn out due to
overexposure - that is, due to counterarguing and rejection of the brand attitude message by
too many members of the target audience? (A) If the advertising is
low-involvement/informational: then ignore the rejection responses, as they are not relevant
to this brand attitude quadrant. (B) If the advertising is low-involvement/transformational:
thendrop the ad immediately, as negative reactions are fatal in this quadrant. (C) For high -
involvement brand attitude advertising - informational or transformational - the best solution
is to implement variations on a theme. A related and less expensive but less satisfactory
solution which may work in the short run is torotate the individual ads more often. (D) A very
different solution applies to target audiences who have fully attained a strong brand attitude
toward your brand - these would be your brand loyals or your routinized favorable brand
switchers - and this is to use shorter ads. Brief TV or radio commercials (10 -second or 15 -
second spots) and smaller or reduced -copy print ads should be quite sufficient to maintain
brand awareness. Brand awareness should, in turn, "carry" the favorable brand attitude (by
reminder). Indeed, further exposures of yourloyal audience to the full ad could backfire and
stimulate counterarguing and wearout. Before assuming overexposure is the cause, we
again emphasize that in campaign tracking the advertiser has to be alert for the other
internal causes of wearout, including exposure slippage (which is not wearout but rather
constitutes a problem with the media plan), attention, and learning. A summary of
advertising wearout causes and remedies is given in Exhibit 12-9. Cause of wearout
Corrective action Attention — diminished attention (especially to print ads) Learning —
unlearning due to competitive interference (brand recall and low -involvement brand attitude)
or to too brief or small the exposure of the pack or brand mark (brand recognition)
Acceptance — rejection responses (especially to broadcast ads) emerging with prolonged
repetition; affects category need, high -involvement and lowinvolvement/transformational
brand attitude, induced brand purchase intention, and purchase facilitation (when these are
objectives) Variations — different executions of the same advertising message strategy, to
hold attention Dominance — extra frequency per cycle to offset competitive interference
Variations — different executions of the same advertising message strategy to delay
rejection of elements: faster rotation of existing ads, although this is only a short-term
solution; also shorter ads for favorable target audience Exhibit 12-9 Advertising wearout:
causes and solutions. SUMMARY When you launch an expensive marcoms campaign, you
need to find out as soon as possible whether it is working as planned, and if not, you need
immediate feedback to detect where the problem lies so that you can take corrective action.
For a brand -building campaign, the best way to do this is to conduct continuous tracking
research using a consumer tracking survey, which consists of benchmark interviews before
the campaign commences and daily or weekly interviews during the campaign with different
random samples of respondents, the results of which are graphed on a rolling (usually 4 -
weekly) basis. Direct -response campaigns are different: these produce immediate target
audience action - such as store visits, inquiries, or direct purchases - and continuous
interviewing of prospects is not necessary (although periodic interviews can be helpful to
find out what is going wrong if the direct response ads are not working). The consumer
tracking survey is complicated to design and conduct properly. We recommend that you
design and commission your own tracking research, rather than use a syndicated service,
because this allows you to select an appropriate survey method (continuous is best),
interviewing method (face-to-face is the most valid), and to base your survey on the most
valid measures of campaign effects. These measures cover media plan delivery (effective
reach); exposure (masked ad recognition and ad recognition frequency); attainment of
communication objectives (brand communication effects); and the behavioral effects of the
campaign (target audience action representing the relevant behavior or behaviors).
"Eyeballing" graphical results, supplemented by turnover table analysis of monthly data, is
sufficient to dictate changes and corrections to the campaign. It is important to conduct a
tracking survey for campaign initiation and whenever an evident change occurs in the
market. At other times, called maintenance periods, it is sufficient to conduct only aggregate
tracking, which consists of relating the main advertising input (usually advertising
expenditure but preferably effective reach per 4 -week period) to the main output (usually
sales, in units and dollars). A major purpose of the tracking survey is to detect advertising
wearout - the tendency of individual ads to lose their selling effectiveness during the
campaign. Advertising wearout is difficult to diagnose correctly - although the solutions are
straightforward once the right cause has been detected. For the manager who is spending a
million -plus dollars on the brand's or brand -item's campaign, campaign tracking is a vital
and necessary stage of marcoms management.