Magazine Advertising Effectiveness
How would u analyze the case study below?
Prominent adv agency measured sales response to a magazine advertisemnt of Brand A soap. It was advertised initially with Jan 5th issue of Magazine M, a monthly mag. The agency selected 300 random subscribing families to Mag M & interviewed each on Feb 5th. The interview was to determine: 1) did the family shopper read the soap adv 2) whether Brand A soap was purchased within Jan 5 – Feb 5.
Results:
# purchasing Brand A during Jan 5-Feb 5 and Subscribers who read advertmnt in Jan 5 issue = 16
# purchasing Brand A during Jan 5-Feb 5 and Subscribers who did not read advertmnt in Jan 5 issue = 29
# not purchasing Brand A during Jan 5-Feb 5 and Subscribers who read advertmnt in Jan 5 issue = 66
# not purchasing Brand A during Jan 5-Feb 5 and Subscribers who read advertmnt in Jan 5 issue = 189
So knowing this:
1)What was effectiveness of magazine advertisemnt & why?
2)What recommendations would u make to client?
3)What additional questions would u ask & why?
I don’t think there is enough data to answer the question. “Effectiveness” can either be defined as how many people saw the ad or it can be defined as how many people saw it and acted upon it during the short time frame immediately after the ad ran. It can also be measured by number of eyeballs who see the ad for the money spent.
Ultimately, I believe that what is important is whether the magazine ad caused people to buy the product who would have otherwise not bought it. Unless there was an urgent call to action in the ad, the magazine may have provided value that has not yet been realized (because some shoppers may not have yet bought).
Without a benchmark to compare these results to, the results are without context. You know that 15% recall seeing the ad. My guess is that is a pretty good ad recall rate, but without knowing historical recall rates for the product, for the magazine or for similar advertising, I think it is difficult to know for certain whether that is a good number in light of the advertising dollars spent. Secondly, you know that 35.5% of those who saw the ad bought the product. My guess is that is phenomenal, but without having benchmarks it would be difficult to say for certain. To say for certain whether the ad was effective, you simply must have some benchmarks for comparisons.
I would recommend that the client provide similar data from other magazines for comparison purposes. It would also be helpful to know the circulation of the magazine. Knowing that information, one could extrapolate your statistics (assuming statistically valid samples) to see how many people likely bought the product after seeing the ad. Of course, that would need to be considered alongside the results seen in other magazines, and the respective costs of the ads in the magazines.
I would ask the client their goals. Are they trying to build brand identity? Are they trying to get immediate sales? Is the cost of the advertising justified by the results? Is the question whether the “ad” gets results or whether the magazine gets results? You may have a great ad but be putting it in front fo the wrong target market. Conversely, your ad may completely suck but you happened to get into a magazine that nailed your target market.
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