Advertising Research in India: Why It Is Important Today

Research is to find out something new, and advertising research is to find out how advertising works effectively and guide in making effective advertising decisions. There are various kinds of advertising research, and these include pre-testing, post-testing, campaign research, and measuring advertising effectiveness.

 

Introduction

Many similar manufacturers compete in the market, and advertising has become a tough business (Vilanilam and Varghese 2004). Advertisers pay money for advertising services and space bought, and they want these to be effective. The messages and media are to fit audience profile, and advertisers are concerned about their money and what they pay. The advertising industry is estimated to be about Rs 22,000 crore and is booming in India, but publications in India have to fight hard to get advertisement revenues and support.

Advertising research is a highly specialised field, involving the use of statistical research techniques and computers. In India, it is generally done by advertising agencies and market research agencies.

 

Kinds of Advertising Research

There are many kinds of advertising research and advertising research is a form of mass communication research (Ganesh 1995). These include pre-testing, post-testing, advertising effectiveness research, and campaign research. All these research help collect information and go into planning advertising campaigns and the like. Campaign research helps to analyse campaigns and arrive at a suitable decision.

Advertising research is highly advanced in the United States and many advertising decisions are taken only with advertising research. Audience research and advertising research are highly developed in the United States. Nielsen and Arbitron have installed TV meters to track which programmes the public watch.

Advertising research is done for various shows, sponsored serials, and commercials in all nations including India and the United States, and advertising research is taught in mass communication colleges and management colleges in the United States. Research helps in making precise decisions and accurate measurement of audiences.

 

Advertising Research and Market Research

Some advertising research in the form of market research is done by market research agencies such as IMRB and ORG–MARG. The function of marketing research is to gather market information and help in marketing planning, and in launching new products and services. Some form of advertising research in the form of media research, like audience measurement and surveys, is also done by market research agencies. The National Readership Survey (NRS) is done by many agencies and the objective is to measure ratings and readership particulars. Gallup has been researching public opinion and Gallup polls are very popular (Gallup 1940). 

Advertising Research in India

Advertising research is as old as advertising in India and key advertising decisions are made based on advertising research. Many major marketing campaigns are launched in India and advertising research is used for many of these campaigns. Agencies such as Mudra carry out media research and ad recall test to measure effectiveness of commercials and advertisements. Doordarshan’s Audience Research Unit carries out media research pertaining to Doordarshan generally. Advertising research is also called as communication-effect research, according to Kotler, Keller, Koshy, and Jha (Kotler et al 2009). Advertising effectiveness is measured also in seeing whether sales go up or not, and it is called sales-effect research (Kotler et al 2009: 500).

 

Types of Advertising Research

Pre-testing

Before an advertisement campaign is launched, pre-testing is done. The message and copy developed are shown to 2 per cent of the likely target audience, and their reactions are gathered. This is to estimate how successful the campaign will be. If there are problems in the visuals or messages, alterations are made, and the campaign is re-launched with changes effected to suit audiences. Pre-testing is a useful method for many advertisement campaigns in India, and it is done by advertising and market research agencies usually.

Post-testing

Once a campaign is launched, post-testing is done. Like in pre-testing, the launched campaign is taken in the form of messages and copy, to various people, and is tested to understand the effectiveness of the campaign. Sometimes, during the middle of a campaign too, post-testing is done. If necessary, changes are made and the campaign is re-launched. Post-testing is used for the launched campaigns as well as for other campaigns of the future.

Advertising Effectiveness Research

Whether the advertising launched has had any effect or not can be found out by advertising effectiveness research. This research will be a survey or some such thing, and will aim to measure how successful the advertising has been for the organisation’s sales and communication objectives.

Media/ Programme Research

Many advertisement-sponsored serials are on Doordarshan and private channels, and these are tested for their programme and communication effectiveness. This form of research is also related to advertising and or media research generally. Media or programme research helps decide, on the basis of ratings, how successful a programme is and how it is performing in a market. Singhal and Rogers (2001) talk of public sector and private sector TV revolutions and these also have to be researched. Media business has become advanced and the internet medium is a new way of communication (Kohli–Khandekar 2010).

 

Methodology of Advertising Research

Advertising research uses quantitative and qualitative methodologies to conduct research. Leading private and government companies gather data.

In advertising research, survey method is used in most of the cases, and sometimes content analysis is also used. Survey method is used to collect information; the content is shown to people and information is collected in a general way. Advertising research also uses focus groups and other methods to collect information and process information effectively.

Advertising research uses qualitative research to gather qualitative/verbal information and processes this information effectively to arrive at advertising decision-making. Qualitative research is an important method of collecting information for any study, and includes ethnographic research too.

Quantitative research is also used in advertising, to collect data or numbers to justify an advertising decision or advertising policy. Based on Audit Bureau of Circulation data, publications too charge more for advertisements. Big advertisers like government public relations departments enjoy reduced rates so that these can be used effectively for various advertisements; private organisations pay the actual rate for many advertisements for all media. Quantitative research is used to substantiate advertising claims such as NRS. If a publication is widely circulated it will command more advertisement revenues, such as Kumudam among Tamil publications coming out of Chennai.

 

Advertising Research Today

Today there is increasing research on online media and for online publications. Compared to others, the educated and upper class segments of society use online media and constitute a sizeable number. Hence online media and social media usage are analysed among these people. Advertising research too is done among them. 

 

Trends in Advertising Research

1. To gather data effectively and arrive at concrete decisions, advertising research needs good research methodology. A good research methodology is one that is grounded on firm research principles and research interests and can guide research projects effectively and efficiently. 

2. Advertising research is increasingly media and message research.

3. Precise research methodology is yet to be established and more abstract methodologies are being used.

4. Advertising research is done more in private sector as opposed to government sector. When the health ban was not there, cigarette companies used to spend crores of money on market research. There used to be a study called AMPI (Advertising, Marketing, Planning Index) where a lot of research was on the messages of cigarette manufacturers, advertisements, and the like. Even today, private sector organisations spend a lot of research money on the advertising messages of FMCGs such as tea, coffee, detergents, and talcum powder, taking great care on who watches what or who reads what. Private sector researches a lot of the advertising it does and finds out who its customers are.

5. Since we use the latest products and innovations of the West, research and working conditions continue to be like in the United States, especially in advertising. Many advertising agencies have tie-ups with US multinationals or western advertising agencies and use similar research methodologies and techniques. Nielsen and Arbitron ratings of TV came in a different way, and Indian market research agencies use panel research methods. There used to be panels studying consumer or retailer buying mechanisms way back in the 1980s, and similar methods are used. 

6. Competition has grown among research agencies. Many research agencies have come into force and many spinoffs are also found. Advertising research is a competitive field today.

7. Established leaders like IMRB and ORG–MARG continue today and have a pie of the research business. IMRB has been in business since the 1970s and is very popular for research work, and is an affiliate of the world-renowned JWT. 

8. Advertising research is technology-driven today and many new forms of advertising research tests are done in the United States.

9. Advertising research is also academic as many universities in the United States and carry out studies. Academic advertising research is available in advertising research and marketing publications. 

10. Advertising research in the United States is changing, and uses new media and media technology to do research. Internet advertising has assumed new dimensions and is replacing many conventional advertising media. 

Advertising is more precise than it used to be and aims to measure more objectively than in the past. Advertising research has assumed importance and new dimension in today’s media saturated world. There are more than 150 channels, and media research and advertising research have got into new dimensions and forms. With the emergence of TV as powerful medium, TV programmes reach a large number of people, who are glued to TV shows. Reality TV has arrived, including in the United Kingdom (Aslama and Pantti 2006). TV creates mass culture in a large measure (Adorno 1957). Advertising research, TV research, and media research have assumed greater dimensions in this case. Since advertisers spend so much of money on serials and programmes, many would like to see that their programmes reach the target audience and effectively convince them to buy various products and services. Some form of diffusion and diffusion of innovations used in advertising of new products use research methods (Gatignon and Robertson 1985).

 

Advertising Research Tomorrow

Advertising research needs to be more technologically savvy if it is to be useful for tomorrow. Many advertising research methodologies have become old and obsolete. Researchers have to become precise and measure what they intend to measure, and provide marketing and advertising solutions effectively. Advertising research is crucial for tomorrow’s marketers and everyone in business.

 

Advertising by Public Sector

Public sector has also been advertising heavily. Bank of India (BOI) uses a small boy, who carries his savings in a hundi and travels in boat to reach a BOI branch. This advertisement implies that we have to be very careful in our savings and the message is communicated amply. It is not just the private sector that has been advertising; government and public sector have also been advertising to promote products in different sectors—oil companies (Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum) and financial institutions (Bank of Baroda cards, SBI mutual funds) have been advertising heavily. Indian public sector is as dynamic as the private sector when it comes to means of reaching general public in a large number of different race, class, and caste categories using advertisements. Even some government projects have been advertising. Government of India has been advertising family welfare, adult education, and primary health care, and used to have a policy of supporting small and medium publications.

 

Measurement

Advertising research has to measure government advertising and government marketing efforts and should use local languages, local media, and local men for enumerating these. Advertising research has to take government communication strategy into account and not use alien or textbook methodologies unsuited for local people.

 

Advertising Research in 

Today’s Media Technology Societies

Media technology has become well developed in the West, and media technologies involve media and ICT for various purposes. Everett M. Rogers says about Professor Coleman’s research into diffusion of innovation for medical drugs, that media technologies are not restricted to entertainment but to various other arms, including agriculture, telemedicine, and teleconferencing in private sector, and for other communication methods. Advertising and media research have to be more technology savvy and media savvy specifically. Advertising research has to be tailor-made to reach more social media users, such as the educated and upper class segments in India and elsewhere, and should use telephone and internet research methods. More than 40 per cent of the workers in developed societies are in information-related occupations and this situation is changing drastically. As Rogers says, India has five kinds of societies existing, including one from bullock carts to cyber marts; advertising research has to reach cyber mart societies and people too. Stanford University has an institute of quantitative study and this shows the importance research is being given in today’s competitive work and market environment.

 

Advertising Research for future

Advertising research will become more quantitative and would be more computerised in the days to come. The volume of advertising, marketing, and media research will grow considerably in our society and in the United States. Democracies have given importance to what people think and what everyone wants for personal satisfaction; advertising would reflect these and advertising research would find out these. Advertising research will need more trained manpower and advertising industry itself will grow. In tomorrow’s technically trained society, people who are able to cope up with it would stay and those who are not able to would be left out. The United States and the West have embarked on large-scale modernisation and westernisation although problems of technological advancement remain. Horrors of the past in development and underdevelopment sectors will fight clandestinely. Nevertheless, media and advertising would continue to grow in democracies and advertising would come to be a force to be dealt with. Advertising research would have its say in decision-making and in media planning process everywhere.

 

Conclusion

This article has dealt with advertising research and its general role in society and in advertising planning. Advertising planning is important, and for making scientific plans we will need clear and precise advertising research methodologies. These research methodologies will emerge soon as technology and research advance. Media power and advertising power are felt strongly in societies, as if it creates bondage of people. It is debatable whether this force is good, but advertising, media, and advertising research would remain strongly everywhere especially in today’s democracies as a majority of people want it and feel it is necessary. This article has stressed the need for advertising research and its role in today’s marketing, management, and media as well as societal process in today’s democracies.