Measuring the Impact of IMC Bringing It All Together

As marketers continue to allocate dollars to a variety of IMC tools, the question is, How well is the IMC program working? Unfortunately, while numerous efforts have been made to determine effectiveness of specific program elements, only

recently have marketers made attempts to examine the interactive effect of communications methods. Here are some of the results of these studies:

• Online Publishers Association. The Online Publishers Association, in partnership with Millward Brown and IntelliQuest, conducted a test to determine how advertising can work in combination with off-line (traditional) advertising. Specifically, the research was designed to test recall and memorability of online advertising and television advertising—alone and in combination. Using an advertisement for the U.S. Air Force, three groups were exposed to the ad by (1) visiting a web page on ESPN.com, (2) watching an episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, or (3) watching the TV program and visiting the web page. A control group with no exposure to the ads was also included. The results indicated that:

Brand awareness was significantly higher than, and day-after recall was more than double, that of the control group when exposed to online ads.

• Online advertising is more likely to be seen than TV advertising.

• Those exposed to both online and TV ads were significantly more likely to recall the TV commercial.

Overall, the study concluded that there was a synergistic effect when TV and online are used in combination, leading to a 9 percent gain in recall. When the TV and online ads were both used, there was a 48 percent increase in recognition of the online ads, leading to the conclusion that online supports TV commercials and vice versa.

MSN online study. Microsoft joined forces with research company Marketing Evolution, Dynamic Logic, the Advertising Research Foundation, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, and Unilever to examine the impact of online advertising when combined with traditional advertising. Branding metrics such as unaided and aided awareness, brand associations, and purchase intent were measured for Dove and Dove Nutrium Bar soaps, using individual media and a combination of online with TV and print. The results indicated that increasing the frequency of online advertising efficiently improved branding results and that combining online advertising with the more traditional TV and print media increased the effectiveness of the entire campaign.

Differences in media effectiveness. In an examination of four product categories (automobiles, luxury watches, shampoos, and fast food), it was found that TV was the most used medium for all four product categories and that it was most useful for providing information on low-involvement products while the Internet was more useful for high-involvement products. TV was also shown to be more useful for providing information on affective versus rational decisions. The authors of the study concluded that the Internet should be considered in conjunction with other traditional media alternatives, with its role varying depending on the product category. Further, they noted that there is a need to develop an integrative media plan whereby media executives can determine the relative contribution of various media.

So what do we conclude from these studies? In a nutshell, they confirm the fact that the various elements of an IMC program each make their own contributions to the overall impact of the campaign. They also reveal that a combination of the program elements is likely to have a greater impact than the effect of each element used alone. In other words, the whole really is greater than the sum of its parts.

Sources: Online Publishers Association/MBIQ Media Mix Study, April 2002; Sung-Joon Yoon and Joo-Ho Kim, "Is the Internet More Effective Than Traditional Media? Factors Affecting the Choice of Media," Journal of Advertising Research, November-December 2001, pp. 53-60; "Interactive Advertising Bureau, Doubleclick, MSN, and CNET Networks Release Groundbreaking Online Brand Research Findings," www.microsoft.com/press pass, July 1, 2001, pp. 17-18.

As marketers spend their communications dollars in numerous media, the need to determine the effectiveness of these expenditures becomes increasingly important. Both clients and agencies are continually striving to determine whether their communications are working and how well they are working relative to other options. Unfortunately, there seems to be little agreement on the best measures to use. Almost everyone agrees that research is required, but they disagree on how it should be conducted and how the results should be used. At the same time, as can be seen by the lead-in to this chapter, companies and organizations are working together in an attempt to provide answers to these questions.

Measuring the effectiveness of the promotional program is a critical element in the promotional planning process. Research allows the marketing manager to evaluate the performance of specific program elements and provides input into the next period's situation analysis. It is a necessary ingredient to a continuing planning process, yet it is often not carried out.

In this chapter, we discuss some reasons firms should measure the effectiveness of their IMC programs, as well as why many decide not to. We also examine how, when, and where such measurements can be conducted. Most of our attention is devoted to measuring the effects of advertising because much more time and effort have been expended developing evaluation measures in advertising than in the other promotional areas. We will, however, discuss measurement in other areas of the IMC program as well. (In some of these areas, the measures are more directly observable—for example, direct marketing and personal selling.) You'll recall that we addressed the methods used to evaluate many of the other promotional elements in previous chapters.

It is important to understand that in this chapter we are concerned with research that is conducted in an evaluative role—that is, to measure the effectiveness of advertising and promotion and/or to assess various strategies before implementing them. This is not to be confused with research discussed earlier in the text to help develop the promotional program, although the two can (and should) be used together. While evaluative research may occur at various times throughout the promotional process (including the development stage), it is conducted specifically to assess the effects of various strategies. We begin our discussion with the reasons effectiveness should be 620 measured as well as some of the reasons firms do not do so.

Almost any time one engages in a project or activity, whether for work or fun, some measure of performance occurs. In sports you may compare your golf score against par or your time on a ski course to other skiers' performance. In business, employees are generally given objectives to accomplish, and their job evaluations are based on their ability to achieve these objectives. Advertising and promotion should not be an exception. It is important to determine how well the communications program is working and to measure this performance against some standards.

Continue reading here: Reasons to Measure Effectiveness

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