Evaluating advertising effects on brand perceptions: Incorporating prior knowledge

Abstract

One of the key objectives of advertising is to influence the perceptions customers hold about a brand in their memory. Therefore, when assessing the effectiveness of an advertising campaign, researchers often look at changes in responses to brand-attribute linkage questions. Drawing on two cases in the fast-food and financial services markets, we show how using known patterns in perceptual data to create expected values can more clearly isolate the effect of advertising on brand perceptions. This technique removes the overall shifts in brand usage or the relevance of the attribute to the category, which when trying to isolate the effects of advertising a specific message are essentially 'noise'. Removal of this 'noise' reduces the number of changes that need attention and highlights advertising-related changes. © 2006 The Market Research Society.