Identify and Discuss the Issues and Challenges Involved in Measuring

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The Answer is Evaluating the effectiveness of advertising is one of the most challenging tasks facing marketers. Many of the effects and outcomes of advertising take a long time to develop, especially regarding important outcomes such as enhanced brand image, corporate reputation, and positive product attitudes. The effect of advertising on sales lags in some cases, with the effect occurring long after the campaign has ended. The seemingly unending methods that can be used to evaluate advertising effectiveness further complicate the task of measuring advertising results. Some methods include evaluating the achievement of advertising objectives; assessing the effectiveness of advertising copy, illustrations, and layouts; and evaluating the effectiveness of various media. Effectiveness measures can also look at different market segments and their responses to advertising-including brand image; attitudes toward the advertising, the brand, or the firm; and actual customer purchasing behavior.
Advertising effectiveness can be evaluated before, during, or after the campaign. A pretest attempts to evaluate the potential effectiveness of one or more elements of the advertising program. To pretest advertisements, firms often use a panel of actual or potential buyers who judge one or more aspects of an advertisement. Pretests are founded on the belief that customers are more likely to know what type of advertising will influence them. During an ad campaign, the company typically measures effectiveness by looking at actual customer behavior patterns such as purchases, responses to toll-free telephone numbers, rate of coupon redemption, page visits to the firm's website, or even personal communications. The firm may record the number of inquiries or communication contacts, and judge advertising effectiveness based on industry norms or the firm's own internal benchmarks. Firms may even peruse blogs for evidence of the effectiveness of their promotional campaigns.
The evaluation of advertising effectiveness after a campaign is a posttest. The nature of the firm's advertising objectives will determine what kind of posttest is most appropriate. For example, if a campaign's objective is to increase brand awareness or create a more favorable attitude toward the firm, then the posttest will measure changes in these variables. Customer surveys, panels, or experiments may be used to evaluate a campaign based on communication objectives. Firms will also use performance outcomes such as sales or market share changes to determine campaign effectiveness. Unfortunately, the connection between advertising and these types of outcomes is not always clear. The difficulty in linking advertising to sales becomes compounded by the fact that many factors can affect sales. Furthermore, most of these factors are beyond the control of the firm. For instance, competitors' actions, regulatory decisions, changes in economic conditions, and even the weather might influence or diminish a firm's sales or market share during a specific time period when advertising effectiveness is under scrutiny.

Identify and Discuss the Issues and Challenges Involved in Measuring

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Identify and Discuss the Issues and Challenges Involved in Measuring

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