Developing Advertising with Qualitative Market Research

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Developing Advertising with Qualitative Market Research

Judith Wardle eBook covers_pj orange.indd 68

21/4/08 14:53:41

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Developing Advertising with Qualitative Market R e s e a rc h

6 QMR

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The seven volumes of Qualitative Market Research: Principle and Practice provide complete coverage of qualitative market research practice. It offers commercial practitioners authoritative source texts for training and professional development, and provides academic students and researchers an account of qualitative research theory and practice in use today. Each book cross-references others in the series, but can also be used as a stand-alone resource on a key topic. 1

An Introduction to Qualitative Market Research Mike Imms and Gill Ereaut

2

Interviewing Groups and Individuals in Qualitative Market Research Joanna Chrzanowska

3

Methods Beyond Interviewing in Qualitative Market Research Philly Desai

4

Analysis and Interpretation in Qualitative Market Research Gill Ereaut

5

Developing Brands with Qualitative Market Research John Chandler and Mike Owen

6

Developing Advertising with Qualitative Market Research Judith Wardle

7

Delivering Results in Qualitative Market Research Geraldine Lillis

Gill Ereaut has worked in qualitative market research in the UK for more than 20 years. She now combines teaching and writing on qualitative research with commercial research practice. With 25 years’ industry experience, Mike Imms has worked extensively for the Association for Qualitative Research and is a Fellow of Market Research Society. He runs a training organisation for commercial qualitative researchers. Martin Callingham was Group Market Research Director, Whitbread PLC and is now a consultant. He is a Visiting Professor at Birkbeck College, London University and a Fellow of the Market Research Society.

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Developing Advertising with Qualitative Market R e s e a rc h

Judith Wardle

SAGE Publications

London • Thousand Oaks • New Delhi

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© Judith Wardle 2002 First published 2002 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers. SAGE Publications Ltd 6 Bonhill Street London EC2A 4PU SAGE Publications Inc. 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd 32, M-Block Market Greater Kailash - I New Delhi 110 048 British Library Cataloguing in Publication data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 7619 7272 2

Library of Congress Control Number 2002101993

Typeset by SIVA Math Setters, Chennai, India Printed in Great Britain by Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire

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Contents

Acknowledgements Editorial Introduction About this Book 1 Introduction: Why Qualitative Research? The unique contribution of qualitative research The limitations of qualitative research The scope of this book Key Points

vii ix xv 1 2 3 4 6

2 What Is Advertising? The many objectives of advertising The structure of an advertisement Different advertising forms and devices Key Points

7 7 11 16 19

3 How Advertising Works Advertising as a response to business needs How advertising works on consumers: some models and analogies How consumers use advertising How advertising shapes brands Advertising to different target audiences How do consumers think advertising works? What’s your model? Key Points

20 21 23 28 29 30 33 34 34

4 The Planning Process and the Role of Research The planning cycle Developing the advertising strategy From advertising strategy to creative brief Creative development Key Points

36 36 38 42 44 47

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DEVELOPING ADVERTISING WITH QUALITATIVE MARKET RESEARCH

5 The Research Process: From Briefing to Fieldwork Before the fieldwork The briefing A semiotic approach Methodology and sample Planning the discussion Topic guides Interviewing Key Points

49 50 50 52 54 61 63 68 73

6 The Research Process: From Analysis and Interpretation to Presentation The chronological process Researcher mode The structure and narrative of the advertising Brand/advertising/consumer relationships Researching leading edge advertising Likeability Humour and music Key Points

74 74 81 83 86 89 91 93 95

7 Representations of the Advertising The limitations of stimulus material The view of the respondent Different types of stimulus material The politics of stimulus material Key Points

97 97 98 99 102 104

8 The Politics of Advertising Research Three sides of a triangle The particular case of advertising The way forward Key Points

105 106 112 114 117

9 International Advertising Research Opportunities and problems Different perspectives in international advertising The politics of advertising research Qualitative techniques that travel well Key Points

119 119 120 124 127 128

Bibliography Index

130 133

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Acknowledgements

I have had a life-long love of advertising. As a small child I remember discussing advertising with my mother – the two of us were suburban commentators – but it was one ad that sealed that passion. It was a simple press ad, showing a pair of perfect red lipsticked lips poised seductively above a glass of Guinness with the word ‘ladylike’. I have been a Guinness drinker ever since. Special thanks go to the small band of gifted researchers, planners and semioticians of whom I am but an observer and a student: Graham Booth, Roddy Glen, Peter Dann, Lucy Banister, Diane Espley, Adrian Langford, Geoff Bayley, Niki Karet and Jon Cohen, Greg Rowland, Jeremy Nicholas. You all gave me a good chunk of your valuable time, were generous with your opinions and relating your experiences, and I am very grateful. Thank you, too, to David Cowan, Chris Forrest, Clive Nancarrow, Liz Montgomery and Joanna Chrzanowska for reading the text and taking the time and care to suggest improvements. Thanks also to planning teams at BMP (organised by Alex Whelan), O&M (organised by Miranda Ross), Partners BDDH (organised by Sarah Heard) and RKCR/Y&R (organised by Katie Lancaster and Neil Goodlad). A special mention for everyone at my work, Wardle McLean, who all have probably heard enough about the subject of advertising research by now, but especially to Andy Truslove, without whose enthusiasm and interest in the project I would not have had the energy to finish the manuscript. Thank you, too, to my business partner, Kevin McLean, who helped me cope with client-work and book-work for the last six months and for reminding me that we set up our company to serve our life interests and not the other way round. I am also grateful to Dominic Scott-Malden and Clare Mansfield for their bon mots and to Tamsin Feinberg for reading the whole damn thing. My thanks also extend to Martin Callingham for his encouragement and support, and without whom I wouldn’t have had the confidence to start the book, but final and special thanks go to Gill Ereaut, who had the idea in the first place and energy to put it into practice. This text will never quite capture the roller-coaster excitement of working with creative ideas. Advertising is the most challenging and exciting of all qualitative research and I hope that this text conveys my enthusiasm. Finally, there is no one big truth in advertising and I hope that this book reflects that fact. Other than the references, what follows are my words

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and my opinions – and in the spirit of constructive conflict, call me, e-mail me or snail-mail me to tell me what you think. Please. The author and publishers wish to thank the following for permission to reproduce illustrations in this book: The Advertising Archives for the Olivio, Levis, Smash, BT, PG Tips and Britons advertisements, and Global Marketing for the Land Rover advertisement. Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked, or if any additional information can be given, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary amendments at the first opportunity.

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Editorial Introduction About Qualitative Market Research: A Background to the Series Gill Ereaut, Mike Imms and Martin Callingham

This series of books explains the theory and practice of qualitative market research, or commercial qualitative research. There is no single agreed definition of qualitative market research but we can paraphrase some key definitions and describe it thus: A form of market research that seeks to explore and understand people’s attitudes, motivations and behaviours – the ‘why’ and ‘how’ behind the ‘what’ – using methods that seek to reach understanding through dialogue and evocation (rather than measurement). Qualitative research generally attempts to make sense of and interpret phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them. In UK practice, which forms the focus of this series, the most common form of qualitative market research employs the group discussion (or ‘focus group’) and depth interview as its major field methods, although many other methods can be and are increasingly used, such as observational approaches. Common to all methods is the aim of getting beyond public, conscious factors – those things that people can and will say in response to simple questions. Qualitative market research provides effective ways of exploring such issues as private thoughts and feelings, pre-conscious factors (such as intuitive associations, the taken-for-granted, habitual and culturally derived attitudes and behaviours), and the important issue of emotions. Also used within qualitative market research are techniques that enable researchers to overcome the limitations of the verbal. The main objectives of qualitative market research usually involve one or more of the following: • Diagnosis – providing depth of understanding of a current situation, of why things are the way they are. • Prognosis – providing guidance on likely responses to options, plans or proposals.

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• Creativity – using respondents in qualitative market research as a source of ideas, innovation and inspiration. What users of qualitative market research have in common is a need for understanding and sense-making. • It aims to reveal deep and specific understanding of activities, choices and attitudes relevant to client concerns across a range of stakeholders. These stakeholders are not simply consumers and customers, users of the goods and services of commercial organisations – increasingly qualitative market research is used by a wide range of not-for-profit organisations. • The insights generated include an understanding of the interrelationships of issues, as well as the detail of individual issues. • Qualitative market research offers a conceptual and not just descriptive view of these issues. • It may also serve to codify tacit and informal knowledge of the external world and make it accessible to organisations. It is hard to pinpoint the exact date and place of birth of commercial qualitative research but essentially it is a phenomenon of the post-Second World War era and arose in response to changing information needs of organisations. Initially it was marketers who began to recognise that meeting consumer wants and needs required a level of understanding of people’s motivations, usage and attitudes that went beyond measurement of the ‘simple, hard facts’ accessible to survey methods. The qualitative market research profession has undoubtedly ‘come of age’ – with an established and respected role within the decision-making procedures of a wide and diverse variety of commercial, not-for-profit and public sector organisations across the globe. It is hard to find any commercial organisation that does not now use qualitative market research, but within the past decade or so the range of organisations using commercial qualitative market research to aid organisational decisionmaking has broadened considerably. Qualitative market research has become a valuable tool for anyone who needs to take account of any ‘stakeholder’ groups – not just consumers and customers but also staff, users of public services, supporters, voters, inmates and so on. The evolution of the qualitative market research profession has several distinctive characteristics. • It has apparently evolved in parallel with, but completely separately from, the academic qualitative research community which exists today across many disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. • Relatively few textbooks have been written about qualitative market research and many external commentators have noted that the

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EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION

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profession has a sparse literature, and limited discussion of issues that concern academic researchers, such as epistemology. • The early qualitative market researchers drew on a body of theory that came principally from psychology, but over the decades this has broadened to include other social sciences disciplines and methods (anthropology, sociology, cultural analysis, semiotics etc.), as well as continuing to develop methodology from emergent trends in psychology. • Theory has tended to be incorporated and used in qualitative market research in a ‘serendipitous’ way. Few qualitative market researchers have been interested in theory for its own sake, but only for its utility value, applicability and usefulness in meeting clients’ needs for relevant information and insights. A key characteristic of commercial qualitative market research is its eclecticism and important benefits arise from this absence of theoretical or methodological purism. Why has this series been created? First, the industry has an essentially ‘oral’ tradition and a major aim of this series has been to record this tradition in written form. Simply setting down what is common practice, along with beliefs about why things are done like this, has not been done before in such a comprehensive way. Like all oral traditions, that of the qualitative research industry sometimes lacks consistency and its ‘narrators’ do not always agree on its origins. We make no apology for the fact that the reader will find evidence of this in slightly differing accounts and differing attributions of key principles. One of the benefits of creating this series is that such differences become manifest and can be debated and perhaps reconciled by future writers on commercial qualitative market research. Secondly, as the industry has grown in size and matured, and as its body of (largely tacit) knowledge has grown and broadened, the link between the theories originally informing it and day-to-day practice has tended to weaken. The limited interest in questions of methodology and theory for their own sake warrants comment – and there are probably two main reasons for this. • First, the nature of clients’ demand for commercial qualitative market research means that its value rests solely on the value of the findings themselves – rather than the detailed means of reaching those findings. • Secondly, client organisations have, for the same reason, consistently shown little interest in theory – it has restricted commercial value in commercial qualitative market research. This is in contrast to much academic qualitative research, where the contributions of a study to methodological and theoretical knowledge may be regarded as at least as valuable as the substantive findings themselves, and certainly need to be reported. There is now more interest within qualitative market research in understanding the roots of everyday practice in order to enhance training and professional development.

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Thus a second key aim of this series is to attempt to re-connect practice to theory. Commercial qualitative market research has until very recently focused almost, though not entirely, on interview-based methods – ‘groups and depths’. This is quite different from much academic qualitative research, which draws on a far broader range of methods. Here again, the reasons have to do with the nature of the demand for commercial qualitative market research. In short, the commercial qualitative market research industry has very effectively ‘systematised’ interview-based qualitative procedures. In consequence there is a large and established market and a commercially viable established ‘going rate’ for interview-based commercial qualitative research that simply does not exist, at least at present, for other methods. Within the limitations of interviewing methods, commercial qualitative market research has been incredibly creative. This creativity ranges from the application of sophisticated projective and enabling techniques and extensive use of stimulus material, to differing moderating styles, interview lengths, structures and procedures to extend the boundaries of what can be explored and captured within ‘groups and depths’. The qualitative market research business has developed specialisms, involving specific theories, methods and ideas of best practice: • relating to particular types of respondents – children, business-tobusiness, staff etc. • relating to particular types of topic – social policy, advertising development, new product development, packaging design, design and layout of stores, branch offices and websites etc. • relating to specific business sectors – for example the pharmaceutical industry makes extensive use of qualitative market research, but tends to use quite tailored interview procedures and sampling methods, and specialist moderators. Representing the full range of practice across all these fields is beyond the scope of this series, which aims to cover the primary research processes within mainstream practice, and two of the major applications of qualitative market research – the development of brands and the development of advertising. To the extent that many general principles, and certain aspects of practice, are shared across many varieties of qualitative market research, it will nevertheless be of relevance to many of these specialists. The series has been written for the benefit of four main types of reader. • First, practitioners (including those new to the profession) constitute a major audience for the series. By spelling out the key theories and principles that underpin good practice we hope practitioners can use this knowledge to train future generations of qualitative researchers – and also to make more informed choices of methodology and practice. By tracing back relevant theory and linking it to current practice, we aim to raise the conscious competence of current and future practitioners.

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• Secondly we hope users of qualitative market research will find the series interesting and that it will enable them to make more informed assessments about the kind of contribution qualitative market research can make to organisational decision-making. It should also help them assess the quality of qualitative market research provided by their agencies and to recognise good qualitative market research. • Thirdly, students of business and related disciplines may find it a helpful aid to understanding the role and value of qualitative market research in decision-making and how it works in real life practice. • Finally, academic qualitative researchers may find the insight into commercial qualitative market research informative, given that so little is published about it. Commercial confidentiality means that the findings of few commercial qualitative market research projects will ever be made available, but this series at least exposes the principles and practice of qualitative market research in general terms. In a more general sense, we hope that by being more explicit about what we do and why we do it, we can encourage constructive criticism. Specifically we hope to stimulate debate and to challenge others to identify better and different methods and practices. All the books in this series have been written by respected qualitative market research practitioners, and as editors we are pleased that an unexpected benefit has arisen. The act of creating this series often involved analysing and setting down current practice for the first time. In so doing, a level of understanding of our business has emerged which was not evident to any of us before undertaking this comprehensive task. This emergent theory is described within several of the books in the series.

THE SCOPE OF THIS SERIES

The series comprises seven books, covering three broad categories. All the books are written primarily from a UK perspective, but where appropriate, authors have drawn comparisons with other markets, especially the USA. • Book 1 provides an introduction to qualitative market research which contextualises the rest of the series. It also explores why it is that organisations might need qualitative market research and how it fits with their information needs and decision-making processes. This book, in addition, explores important issues not specifically addressed in other volumes, including the detail of project design, and the ethics and professional codes which underpin practice. • Four other volumes describe the theory and methods of the key processes of commercial qualitative market research: interview-based fieldwork (Book 2); other forms of data collection (Book 3); analysis

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and interpretation of findings (Book 4); and the development and ‘delivery’ of recommendations to clients (Book 7). • Two further volumes – Books 5 and 6 – describe the theory and methods of two of the most significant applications of commercial qualitative market research – brand and advertising development. Before going on to outline the scope and role of this particular book in the series, we would like to acknowledge the many people who helped in different ways to make this series a reality. We would particularly like to thank David Silverman for introducing us to Sage and for encouragement at the early stages; and the team at Sage, especially Michael Carmichael and Vanessa Harwood, for their support.

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About this Book

This book about advertising represents one of two within the series that address the content of typical qualitative market research projects, rather than any specific research processes. (The other, Book 5, concerns brands.) Advertising-related projects represent about one-third of all qualitative market research carried out in the UK, and some of the most challenging. These projects are important to those involved and concern very public expenditure of large sums of money. But they are easy to get wrong. Thus it was important for the series to address this contentious topic in a thorough and considered way. The scope of the debate – embracing both the issues surrounding the creation of advertising and the practice of qualitative market research – mean that the book is broad in its remit and necessarily explores theory and thinking in advertising as well as the more specific themes of advertising research. Moreover, there are important issues of practicalities, personality and politics involved and these are also addressed in an informative and useful way. The perennial debate within the industry revolves around the tension between the fact that advertising is, on the one hand a commercial ‘investment’ undertaken for commercial return and advertisers understandably seek guidance from research to assess that investment and the risks it involves in a rigorous way. Yet on the other hand, advertising is not a science, and some advertising practitioners would argue that the development of effective creative ideas is an art that does not benefit from the kind of critical scrutiny that market research represents. Perhaps the most awkward facet of advertising research is the conflict between the principles of interrogation and deconstruction that are inherent in ‘research’ and the fragility and holistic nature of creative ideas. Thus, for many creative people the whole notion of ‘researching’ is at odds with the very nature of ‘creativity’ and creative ideas. In short, good creative ideas are extremely valuable, but the danger is that they are destroyed by the very act of trying to assess that value through research. This book includes a discussion of this crucial issue. The contribution of qualitative market research is that it provides a far more sensitive way of navigating these inherent contradictions and tensions at the levels of theory, personality and practicality. In common with the book in the series about brands (Book 5), this volume demonstrates that it is not enough for the professional qualitative market research practitioner simply to understand and be expert in the skills of qualitative research. Additional sets of skill and knowledge – such as those described below – are also needed if the qualitative market research practitioner is to make a positive contribution to their client’s advertising activity.

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One of the striking things about working with advertising is the realisation that the ‘obvious’ and ‘common sense’ assumptions about the role of advertising research and the types of question to be addressed are, quite often, false. This book guides us through these potential hazards and frames the task for the researcher in a more appropriate way. An understanding of ‘how advertising works’ is clearly a valuable start for the advertising researcher – but in this we are all hampered by the fact that there is no consensus on this seemingly vital issue. Many have tried to explain how advertising works, and within Chapter 3 the reader will find a discussion and review of key theories, plus a consideration of the need for researchers to assess their own models (explicit or implicit) of how they believe advertising works. Similarly, the practitioner working with advertising needs to understand how the process of making advertising works, and the non-consumer issues which influence the decision-making of advertisers. Findings are not useful unless they can directly ease this process. Chapter 8 of this book includes essential insights into the political and practical issues involved here. In a practical sense, much advertising research works with incomplete and unfinished material – stimulus material that seeks to give respondents in research a notion of what the final advertising may look like, without going to the expense of producing finished advertisements. (All within a context where the effectiveness of the advertising is massively influenced by the standard and nature of the ‘finish’.) This has huge implications, both for methodology and fieldwork practices, as well as providing a major challenge when interpreting research response. Separating the effects of ‘the stimulus material’ from the inherent values of the ideas and executions is a particular skill. Chapter 7 provides a valuable digest of the key issues involved here, along with practical guidance for the practitioner. Finally, we cannot forget that whilst consumers may be experts at consuming advertising they have no experience or responsibility for creating it – and recognising the boundaries of their valid contribution is a key consideration in advertising research. Whilst the literature on advertising research is full of criticism – why and how it should not be done – this book represents a constructive and complete appraisal of the ways in which qualitative market research can make a contribution to advertising development.

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1 Introduction: Why Qualitative Research?

Propositions derived by purely rational means are entirely devoid of reality. (Albert Einstein)

This chapter considers the contribution that qualitative market research can make to the development of advertising. It explores the potential contribution made by qualitative research within the specific demands of advertising development, but also reflects on its limitations. It introduces the notion that different types of research will be appropriate at different stages of the development process and that the nature of advertising development itself gives it a special affinity to qualitative research.

Advertising is a risky and expensive business and the search to find a profitable way to evaluate it and predict its effect has been a spur to the development of countless techniques and methods. No wonder then that advertising research was the very first kind of market research. As long ago as 1923, Daniel Starch, professor of psychology at Harvard, launched the first research company, researching advertising, and in the same year published The Principles of Advertising. In 1931, George Gallup, a professor of advertising and journalism, carried out the first large-scale study of people’s memories of ads (and incidentally found that the ads based on sex and vanity were the best recalled, even though respondents had seen fewest of them). Daniel Starch and George Gallop used quantitative methods, and so did many after them. These evaluation methods actually shaped the way that advertising developed, the creators having one eye on the evaluation technique. The focus of these early techniques was very much on evaluation and prediction and it wasn’t until the arrival of qualitative research, in the 1950s, that a research technique could contribute to the process of developing advertising. Qualitative research has transformed our understanding of the structure of advertisements, how they influence consumers, and it has even changed the way that the industry sees consumers: from passive recipient

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to active participant. Not only that, it has made an enormous contribution to the diversity, creativity and ingenuity of present day advertising.

THE UNIQUE CONTRIBUTION OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Advertising, in its infinite manifestations, defies definition. Needless to say, it is closer to an art or a craft than a science and so presents its evaluators and students with difficulties when it comes to understanding and developing it. As with art, our responses to advertising are highly subjective and this in itself presents political and methodological problems when it comes to researching it. There is a restlessness about advertising, too; a fundamental characteristic is its ever-changing nature, always forging forward, discarding the old and donning the new. Bill Bernbach said it better. However much we would like advertising to be a science, because life would be simpler that way, the fact is that it is not. It is a subtle everchanging art, defying formularisation, flowering on freshness and withering on imitation; where what was effective one day, for that very reason, will not be effective the next, because it has lost the maximum impact for originality. (William Bernbach, quoted in Bill Bernbach Said, 1989, DDB Needham Worldwide)

Qualitative research has much to offer the development of advertising and in fact has shaped the way that advertising has developed in the UK. As a methodology, it is not constrained in the planning and interviewing stages by models and assumptions; it can uncover new ways of seeing the brand and its market that were never envisaged. It reveals those things we didn’t know we didn’t know. It sees through the eyes of the consumers; its infinite flexibility can adapt to whatever advertising or target audience it is investigating. Qualitative questioning can be sensitive and gentle or probing and challenging to suit the objectives of the enquiry as well as the needs of the individual respondent. So, in many ways, it is ideally suited to the exploration and evaluation of advertising, its sensitivity and flexibility matching the infinite number of responses that one ad might receive. Quantitative methodologies, based on probability theory, measuring, testing market share etc., have always been central to business decisionmaking. Qualitative research, compared to quantitative, seems wobbly by comparison, based on the opinions of far fewer people. Brands and advertising, however, are held in consumers’ minds in ways that only qualitative enquiries can access. Qualitative research is equipped to reveal the intricacies and mundanities of our everyday lives – not because we can prove it scientifically but because we all recognise it. We don’t need to hear a significant proportion of respondents telling us why cleaning their

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lavatories is important to their self-image. We recognise it when we hear it expressed. As Chris Barnham said during an AQRP Seminar: How many times would you read King Lear in order to make sure that Cordelia dies? … The question is, when framed in this way, clearly nonsensical. We are much more interested in understanding the significance of her death within the context of the play. And this is a qualitative question. (1995: 11–12)

(See Book 1 for a fuller discussion about the advantages of quantitative and qualitative methodologies.) There exists no methodology nor technique, however, that can take in the complex interaction of the various elements that make up any advertisement as well as the infinite varieties of ways that advertisements are received. We will always be looking through the keyhole and seeing only a part of the room next door. THE LIMITATIONS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

All types of research have their limitations, and qualitative research is no exception. So it is as important for all concerned to be aware of the strengths of the research tool they are using as it is to be aware of its weaknesses. Research is only a staging post in the development of an advertisement and a rough idea will be transformed by the time it is broadcast. So research cannot predict, because it will only be considering a part of what will be the whole and so can only reduce some of the risk factors. The research is exploring rough and not fully finished ideas and things can change on the journey, even at the last minute, directors themselves bringing new perspectives when they shoot the ad. Also, if advertising success is thought of as an epidemic, there need to be certain fundamental but unpredictable pre-conditions in place before it can take off – many of which are outside the scope of any research project. Then there is the difference between what respondents might say and the implications that this might have for the campaign. When you watch an articulate and passionate respondent applauding a particular piece of advertising in a group discussion, it is difficult to put those comments into context and not take them at face value. Qualitative research seeks to understand what that respondent meant, going one stage beyond that persuasive declaration and discovering what prompted it. Understanding is what qualitative research is good at; predicting is not. There is conflict, too, between what respondents want and what brand owners and advertising agencies want. The raw material for advertising research comes from respondents, our representatives of the target audience, and so research findings are limited by their perspectives and

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prejudices. None of us is able to see into the future, but most respondents have a preference for keeping things as they are, especially when it comes to one of their preferred brands. Advertising, on the other hand, needs to keep pushing its brand ahead in order to survive and flourish and can find research constraining rather than inspiring. There are fundamentally different points of view, too, that respondents and the three teams (agency, client and researcher) bring to the process. The advertising is of critical importance to the fortunes of the brand owner and the careers of agency and client (in some cases the researcher, too), but is of very little importance to respondents. We cannot ask respondents to care as much as we do. As Alan Hedges (1985) pointed out, consumers have a low level coping relationship with advertising, not an intense search for the ideal product. Developing effective advertising is now more difficult than it has ever been. As members of the public, we all see a vast number of advertising messages every day and the number of brands available in a typical UK supermarket has now reached a staggering fifteen to thirty thousand. Add in the fragmentation of the available media and a more sophisticated and critical consumer, and the advertising world faces a mercurial and critical audience. Conventional advertising is increasingly only one piece of the communications puzzle.

THE SCOPE OF THIS BOOK

The four stages of advertising research are the development of the advertising strategy, the creative development research, the pre-testing and the post-testing. It is mainly the first two which are accomplished entirely or partly with qualitative methodologies and are the subject of this book. Pre-testing is achieved more typically with quantitative research, but the qualitative pre-testing that goes on is approached in very much the same way as creative development work. Once it has been decided to develop a campaign, the first stage is to agree on what the advertising should achieve and how it should achieve it. A game plan is needed, an advertising strategy needs to be written with a creative brief as the goal. Developing the strategy involves casting the net wide, looking for those facts, insights and opinions that have the potential to be motivating to a wider audience. Qualitative research is only one of a number of types of enquiry here; delving into the origins and provenance of a product can be as fruitful as talking to its users. Everyone is eager to discover the optimum strategy and the researcher is in harmony with the brand and agency teams; all are intent on the same outcome. The next task for research is optimising the rough ads, and this stage is called the creative development research. The main players take to their corners, positions are defended and the researcher can feel like a referee.

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INTRODUCTION: WHY QUALITATIVE RESEARCH?

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Creative development research is the most challenging type of qualitative research. Researchers are dealing with abstract ideas, executed in rough form, respondents are often a difficult mixture of disengaged and overtly critical, and all this in a highly charged political atmosphere. The word ‘research’ is something of a misnomer here. It wrongly conjures up an idea of an objective enquiry by a dispassionate researcher, a journey of scientific discovery which will end in the revelation of ‘the truth’. In reality, the researcher takes on a role more like consultant or therapist than a dispassionate observer, because rough advertising needs to be developed and nurtured rather than judged and evaluated. Other types of research are important to the eventual success of an advertising campaign but do not contribute directly to its development and are therefore not tackled in this book. As mentioned briefly above, pre- and post-testing tend to use quantitative methodologies, post-testing usually being accomplished by large-scale tracking studies. Media research is another type of research used to guide the placement of advertising but is also outside the scope of this book. It is only recently that qualitative research has contributed to media plans, putting flesh on quantitative survey findings, and helping media planners understand more fully the effect of the medium on the advertising and the brand. Most research to date, however, has focused on the various media themselves (rather than the interrelationship between medium and execution), commissioned as it usually is by the magazine or TV channel interested in attracting the advertiser. It is common for the choice of medium to be made right at the beginning of the planning cycle, usually decided as a result of the budget available, and so forming the backdrop to any advertising development that goes on rather than a variable element within it. It is easy to run away with the impression that the process of developing advertising is linear, prescribed and sequential with the accompanying research matching the process, each planning stage boxed neatly with a specific type of research. Nothing could be further from the truth. What will become increasingly clear as you read on, is that nothing in advertising research is neat and easily classified. Advertising is developed in step changes rather than smooth progressions. The eureka of the discovery of the strategy leaps up to the creative brief, only to fall down again when the innovative strategy is found not to be workable. Creative development research can reach back to evaluate the strategy and strategic research can accomplish the two tasks in one. Finally, advertising is exciting, glamorous and deals with images and fantasy. It is art writ contemporary. By contrast, research can seem dull and process-driven, dry and systematic, looking carefully rather than shouting joyfully, focused rather than expansive. Hopefully, this book will reveal the excitement of research, the uniquely pioneering nature of research, the inspiration of the everyday, looking closely at those things we rarely look at, having been given permission to explore the private lives of our respondents, those people who seem so ordinary sitting opposite on

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the bus, quite extraordinary when interviewed, and yet so representative of our lives at this time in this place. For the chance to experience the fascination of seeing the things we look at every day with new eyes, get out your tape recorder and do some new improved qualitative research. ‘Research’ and ‘researcher’ will be the words used throughout this book for qualitative research and qualitative researcher, even though the word ‘research’ only describes a part of the task. ‘Agency’ will refer to an advertising agency and ‘planner’ to an advertising account planner. Researchers are referred to interchangeably as ‘he’ and ‘she’ in this text, despite the curious fact that most advertising researchers are men. We are including the ‘she’ in the optimistic hope that this will change before this text becomes obsolete. Finally, most commercial qualitative researchers work with branded products or services. But they also work with public sector ‘brands’ too, like museums, the Department of Social Security, public information and suchlike. For the purposes of this book, we shall be using the word ‘brand’ to denote any such brand, exhortation, product or service.

KEY POINTS

• Advertising research was the first kind of market research. • Methods of development and evaluation have shaped the way that advertising has developed. Qualitative research has not only enhanced our understanding of the way that advertising works but has also influenced its form. • Qualitative research is only a staging post in the development of an advertisement and has limited predictive power. The influence of the shoot director, for example, can well affect the development of an advertisement after the research stage, as can the competitive environment. • This book deals principally with strategic development research and creative development research. Although qualitative research can be used for pre- and post-testing advertising, it is more customary to adopt mainly quantitative methodologies for those tasks.

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2 What Is Advertising?

The codfish lays ten thousand eggs The homely hen lays one. The codfish never cackles To tell you when she’s done. And so we scorn the codfish, While the humble hen we prize. Which only goes to show you That it pays to advertise. (Author unknown, quoted in Bruce Bohle, The Home Book of American Quotations, 1967, New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, p. 5)

Commercial qualitative researchers need to be able to deconstruct an advertisement in order to discover how it is working and how it might work optimally. This chapter describes the structure of an advertisement and how the various elements interrelate. A selection of advertising forms and devices shows the different ways that the brand can be enhanced by advertising. First of all, though, the chapter will outline the types of commercial objective commonly set for advertising with the thought that researchers, for their work to be useful, must have one eye on these objectives for the duration of the project.

THE MANY OBJECTIVES OF ADVERTISING

It is interesting to see how, as business pressures have changed over the past century, pressures on advertising have increased, and the aims of advertising have proliferated and become much more complex. From a simple and probably near universal requirement to increase sales, advertising intentions are now many, although they tend to fall into two types: the intention to have a direct impact on sales and secondly, to influence attitudes.

Impacting on Sales In the short or longer term, the most common intention for advertising is still to increase sales. True, as Sean Brierly (1995) has pointed out, most

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advertisers no longer expect advertising to have an immediate and direct effect on sales, but the hope and long-term expectation behind most advertising is to increase business. While the long-term and overt intention for a lot of advertising is to increase sales, it is very common (although rarely stated as an objective) for brands to need advertising to maintain sales. In many mature markets, penetration levels are nearly at saturation point, with a few large brands fighting to steal market share from each other. Not advertising in these competitive markets is dangerous to brands because it means that their competition will have increased exposure and may steal a march. Within the broader intention of selling more, there is usually a more specific intention of selling more to predefined groups of people, in other words, to segment the market – for example, to those who would be new to the brand – either from a pool of people already using competitive brands or from outside the category altogether. As a general rule of thumb, it is easier and cheaper to target those within the category than those who do not use the category at all. The same rule of thumb applies to research, too. Talking to people who do not use the category can be hard work because they usually have little knowledge or enthusiasm. In very rare cases, advertisers want to discourage sales. There is a natural tendency for brands to fall down the status ladder and, where exclusivity and luxury are intrinsic brand values, there is a need to maintain that status and premium price. It was said that Chanel No. 5 back in the 1960s was concerned for all these reasons and developed advertising that appealed to one sector, the well-heeled, and was intentionally less appealing to the remainder. Some brands may want its users to feel part of a special brand ‘club’. In order for some people to feel they belong to the ‘brand club’, others must feel that it is a club they don’t want to belong to and for both parties to recognise both reactions. How can you feel you belong if the club and its values are appealing to everyone? This is mainly, but not exclusively, the case for youth markets, where its users have a greater need to ‘belong’ with cult, high fashion brands providing the badge of belonging and being ‘in the know’.

To Influence Attitudes Sometimes, the stated objective of an advertising campaign is to influence attitudes in the belief that it is a desirable objective that can stand alone with no concomitant effect on behaviour. Sometimes, it is hoped that if more people become more favourably inclined towards a brand, there is a greater likelihood that sales will be increased – but in the longer term. It has been shown, too, that behaviour can precede a change in attitude, with the advertising performing a reinforcing role. One often-stated intention for the advertising therefore is to change attitudes, either attitudes that harm brand perceptions or where the

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WHAT IS ADVERTISING?

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world has moved on and left the brand and its values behind. British Nuclear Fuels, for example, have invested heavily in advertising to reassure a sceptical public on safety issues. Recently, Volvo in the UK has been moving away from being purely about safety, with its connotations of dullness, to talking about the marque in terms of its performance and handling. Advertising is the most important and arguably the most effective way of establishing or changing attitudes towards a brand. Any of the marketing strategies, like positioning, repositioning, building or changing the imagery of brands, are common advertising intentions. Changing a positioning or an image of a brand is a tall order because brands exist in a multitude of semi-complete forms in our conscious and subconscious minds, built up over the lifetime of that brand. Because of this, it is exceptionally difficult and usually prohibitively expensive to reposition mature brands. The famous and successful repositioning of Lucozade, from restorative for the convalescent to energy provider for the active is a notable exception to the general rule. When the intention of a campaign is not to have any discernible effect on sales, but to improve corporate image, respondents tend to feel mystified. Their model of advertising intentions is to increase sales and they often can’t work out why a corporation should spend such vast sums of money with apparently little return. Social advertising has a long history and relies on the power of advertising to change attitudes. Making reference to issues that touch people very deeply, they have become some of the most memorable examples of advertising in our culture. One famous series of advertisements during the First World War has even entered the vernacular. Lord Kitchener pointing at the viewer, ‘Britons, (Your Country) Wants You’, and ‘Daddy, What Did You Do In the War?’ literally shamed the young men of the nation into taking up arms. In more recent times, the UK anti-drink/drive campaigns have been hugely successful and highly memorable. On occasion, an entire industry comes together to encourage the public to take a particular course of action, with the advertising intention of persuading the public to change their view about an entire category. Sometimes, it is when an entire industry is under threat or where individual companies could not afford to have the impact that their combined forces and funds could. In recent years, it has been noticed that popular advertising can improve employee morale, more by accident than intention. Typically, employees in maligned industries and companies felt better about their work and their employer when the advertising was widely acknowledged

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to show them in a good light. Now, advertising is used intentionally to improve employee morale, admittedly usually as a lesser objective, and employees are being added to the list of stakeholders to be consulted over the development of advertising. Finally, there is cause-related marketing, where companies advertise their brands and services while at the same time promoting a cause, to both parties’ benefit. The advertiser takes on an ethical and more caring stance, the cause benefits from a higher profile, greater credibility and increased funds. Less talked about and rarely acknowledged is the role of advertising in controlling a brand in the way in which it is perceived and used. Advertising is able to attach imagery and a set of values to a brand and manipulate or position these in respect of its competition. (This is not the same as using advertising to control the consumer, which is ‘propaganda’.) Without advertising, each and every consumer takes something different out of the brand, seeing it and using it in his or her individual and idiosyncratic way. It is difficult developing advertising for brands that have been on the market for years without advertising because consumers’ views will differ and inevitably there will be existing users who might be put off by the new identity. Some of the most difficult marketing decisions revolve around these issues. Developing advertising that does not alienate existing users is likely to involve striking the right delicate balance. (Although, as Mark Earls (2001) has said, there is some doubt as to whether advertising could influence existing users in that way.) The overall objectives for a campaign, of which these are but a selection, form the interpretative framework for the research. The researcher will always have one eye on the advertising objectives, assessing each finding in the light of what the advertising is intending to achieve. It can take a long long time to achieve many of these intentions and the ever-increasing subtlety and proliferation of advertising objectives reflect this more realistic view. Drivers do not change their views about Volvo overnight. Despite a radical repositioning, good numbers of people still think of Lucozade as a convalescent tonic. It can take years. Indeed, we carry brand messages and images in our minds that are gathered over our lifetimes. We remember brand images from our childhood. New messages and images are added to the store, they do not necessarily replace previous images. So the detective work during the research process is necessarily painstaking. Researchers are listening out for tiny clues, sifting through comments for signs that brand images are shifting. They are panning for gold. And advertising research is like no other. Its practitioners are looking closely at reactions to the advertising, searching, reframing, zooming in on the detail, zooming out to see the how the impression of the bigger brand picture is changing and whether that new picture is the one the brand team is aiming for.

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THE STRUCTURE OF AN ADVERTISEMENT

Much has been written on how advertising works on consumers but very little on how advertisements are structured. Perhaps this is because it is the more difficult task or perhaps it is due to the resistance of the advertising industry, which rejects anything that looks like a definitive description and its possible stultifying and deadening effects. Even so, it seems to be a profitable avenue for enquiry, given that the remit of the creative development research project is an exploration of the advertising itself. (Strategic development will focus on the target audience.) Why is it important to define the elements that make up an ad? Not only is it useful as a construct for the researcher to carry around in his head, it is useful for members of all teams to use these constructs as a means of communicating and discussing research findings and recommendations amongst themselves. It stands to reason: if you don’t know how something is made up, it is difficult to perfect it, it is difficult to talk about it and difficult to communicate thoughts and worries about it to others. Up till now, it has been left to a relatively small band of planners and advertising researchers, usually planners turned researchers, to apply the knowledge they learnt during their years in advertising, and thus who truly understand this structure. There are several elements to an advertisement, the most important being the creative idea.

The Importance of the Creative Idea To identify and understand the creative idea is the Holy Grail of creative development research. Researchers and planners all stress the importance of separating the creative idea from executional details, but in reality this is easier to say than to do and different people have different ideas about what a creative idea is, both theoretically and when applied to specific advertisements. Why is it so difficult? Partly because we all – planners, researchers, clients and consumers – approach advertisements in a highly subjective frame of mind, because that is exactly the intention of most advertising. Creative teams approach their work in a highly subjective frame of mind, too, which is why they find it so difficult to separate idea from execution. (It is also why those who work in advertising agencies find it more difficult to develop advertising that aims at people quite unlike themselves, people like the elderly, for example. It is also the reason why most of the outstanding work is aimed at people who are like them.) Creative people work intuitively, thinking of whole scripts rather than building them up from constituent parts. Researchers and planners are different; they like to dismantle, examine and understand and then put it all back together again. They approach the task in a far more analytical frame of mind.

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It is nevertheless important to identify the creative idea in a script because it is through these constructs that it is possible to communicate what is an amorphous combination of visual, verbal and aural cues to another person on the team. It is especially important at the research stage because this might be the first time that the creative idea, and the advertising execution that surrounds it, has been handed to anyone outside the originating teams. So, in order to give a clear and full brief, it is useful for the creative idea to have been identified. Not only that, it is the only way that everyone can understand the way that the advertising is working and, as a result, how to make it better and how to extend the campaign. There is a problem, too, with the phrase ‘creative idea’. The word ‘creative’ is a substitute for ‘good’ in our culture. We are all urged to be more creative, to get in touch with our creative side and being told that your child is ‘creative’ brings a glow to any parent’s cheeks. In the world of advertising, the problem is, if anything, exacerbated. Creativity is what advertising is all about and agencies are praised for their ‘creativity’ and criticised for a ‘lack of creativity’. In this way, a creative idea has come to imply a ‘good’ idea and some advertising is condemned for not having a ‘creative idea’. It has become something of a valuejudgement. Like everything else in the world of advertising, the definition of creative idea is slippery. Advertising people shy away from any definition that is unchanging and set in concrete in the fear that it will stifle thinking and impede change. Even so, the creative idea seems to be an infinitely versatile construct, and invaluable to researchers and planners in their attempts to refine and improve advertising ideas, so it seems useful to pursue a definition. Box 2.1 (opposite) offers a few, derived from planners and researchers here and there. A creative idea might be difficult to define, some say, but you know one when you see one! Well, this isn’t true either. It’s a mistake to think that there is one creative idea sitting at the heart of every advertisement, ready and waiting to be identified by the canny researcher or planner. In reality, different people on the teams have different opinions; consumers having different ideas again. In truth, the creative idea often emerges from showing the advertising to the people to whom it will be communicating – consumers, or rather, respondents. Another conception is that, once agreed, a creative idea can be carried forward and executed in different ways in different executions over the lifetime of a campaign. Well, yes and no. Sometimes the creative idea is executed time and again, sometimes it changes and it is here that the effect on the consumer needs to be taken into account. The famous campaigns

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of Smash and PG Tips began with different creative ideas to the ones they ended up with. In the case of Smash, the central idea was viewing the way we normally make mashed potato as being archaic and hopelessly oldfashioned. The way that this was executed was with the help of the famous Martians. Over time, the Martians became the element that signified the old creative idea and became the new creative idea. In the case of PG Tips, the original idea was of the traditional ritual of the meal called ‘tea’. The execution was of a chimpanzees’ tea party, then famous at London Zoo. Over time, the chimps became more central and well-loved, pushing the original creative idea out of the way.

Box 2.1 What is ‘the Creative Idea’? • It’s an interesting/entertaining expression of the advertising strategy. • It’s a device and executional style that’s a clever way of getting the message across. • It’s the bits that grab attention. • It’s the messenger of the strategy's message. • It’s a metaphor for the communicative content, illustrating brand-derived benefits or the ‘problem’ the brand is presented as solving. • It’s the bits that the creative team won’t change (the executional details being the ones that they will). • It’s a pivotal idea, interpreted in a unique combination of sounds, words, and/or pictures which ‘carries’ the brand message to consumers in a motivating way.

How is the Execution Different from the Creative Idea? The creative idea is expressed through the execution. The consumer, in turn, tends not to see the creative idea, but sees the execution of that idea.

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In Figure 2.1 the consumer sees the executional details of the advertising and, hopefully, hears the message but does not see the messenger, the creative idea. This is why researchers have to listen carefully to respondents’ comments on executional detail because this is how respondents critique advertising. On the whole, this is the way that we all see advertising and why one of the most important aims of the creative development phase is to identify the creative idea, lurking like a shy fish behind the bullrushes! The key thought that researchers need to have in their heads when they venture forth with artbags is that the creative idea cannot be changed while the way that the creative idea is executed can. In terms of listening to respondents, it is about identifying those elements of the advertising that can change without losing the critical reason for the creation of that advertisement, its raison d’être. Executional details are important insofar as it is these details through which the consumer sees the message. It is usually when they are the wrong choice that they obscure the message; when they are right, they act like a window into the brand message. All we can do is try to understand whether or not the core creative idea buried at the centre of the vehicle chosen to express it, resonates with the target group in a way that reflects the strategy. (Gordon 1997)

Consumers hear the message

Consumers see the execution

Message

Creative idea

Execution

FIGURE 2.1 The structure of an advertisement

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Other Elements Researchers need to consider the other elements that make up an advertisement and the contribution they make to the overall impression on the consumer. Apart from the creative idea and its execution, the brand message, the tone of voice, the shape of the narrative (for television, radio and cinema advertising) and the endline all need to be explored during the fieldwork and the analysis and interpretation stages. The brand message is closely related to the brand proposition, or at least to part of the proposition. It’s what the brand says or does and consequently reveals what the brand is – its functional properties and its personality, as communicated by the advertising or reflected by the people or circumstances shown. The tone of voice is at once critically important and difficult to research, principally because it is the one factor most influenced by the director and so can change between research stage and shoot. The tone of voice, or mood of the advertising, contributes hugely to the impressions left behind in consumers’ minds and can cling like a limpet to a brand. In TV and radio advertising, music is often a major ingredient to the creation of a mood and here again, is often added well after the research debrief has been committed to the shelf and has started gathering dust. The shape of the narrative, the unfolding of the story over time, is the structure in which the other elements are carried to the consumers’ attention. This presents the researcher with two areas of consideration: the role of the brand within the story and the highs and lows of the action. Endlines are sometimes called ‘slogans’ by respondents, and appear at the end of the ad, usually after the brand name. ‘Oxo – gives a meal man appeal’ and ‘If only everything in life was as reliable as a Volkswagen’ are a couple of famous examples. They have been given less attention, both by creative teams and researchers in recent years, and yet can pull together the content of an ad and present it to the consumer in a way that completes and makes sense of the whole thing. Significantly, they are called ‘signatures’ in French. According to AdSlogans Unlimited, ‘The purpose of the strapline (slogan, claim, endline, signature, etc.) is to leave the key brand message in the mind of the target. It is the sign-off that accompanies the logo. It says, “If you get nothing else from this ad, get this … !”’1 John Crowther (1999) demonstrated the importance of getting the endline right when he wrote in Admap about a quantative comparison between two endlines, one of which improved the communication and appeal of the advertising significantly. The advertising in question was for Sara Lee cakes and showed a woman yearning for a Sara Lee Chocolate Gateau. The two endlines were: ‘Nobody needs Sara Lee’, and ‘Utterly, deliciously Sara Lee’. The client was understandably worried that the former endline would leave a negative impression in consumers’ minds.

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The second endline, ‘Utterly deliciously Sara Lee’, was a paraphrase of what the advertising overall was intending to communicate. In reality, the former endline was by far the most successful in helping the advertising communicate the brand message more effectively, being more likeable and encouraging a positive reaction from the viewer. In response to the first endline, consumers say, ‘Yes they do’, while their response to the second is likely to be more negative and doubtful, if they respond at all.

DIFFERENT ADVERTISING FORMS AND DEVICES

Respondents and brand teams want different things from advertising: consumers want to be informed and brand teams want advertising to inform and persuade. Even a simple flysheet informing the local community about a Christmas Fayre implicity asks local folk to attend. There would be no point in telling without persuading. Just as it is difficult to tell someone something without an element of persuasion creeping in, so it is difficult to list the different advertising forms and devices without touching on how they are intended to persuade. But that belongs to the next chapter. The following are descriptions of the most commonly used devices. Celebrities are often used in advertising and work in a variety of ways. A celebrity endorsement, for example, can bring reassurance to potential users of a brand. In our celebrity-worshipping times, the endorsement of a well-known individual transfers his or her values, usually including values of success and popularity, across to the brand. We often imbue our celebrities with increased powers of judgement, too, so if they choose that brand, we think they must know best. Better still, if the target audience identify with the celebrity and want to be like them, buying the brand will make them a bit more like the celebrity they admire. Having said that, celebrities can overpower the brand, so the advertising vehicle increases the salience of the individual rather than the positive attributes of the brand. Message can be personalised by appealing to the individual, addressing them directly by the use of the word ‘you’. The brand can claim to be new improved – an improved product sounds more appealing and genuine improvements are welcome. But that said, consumers in the twenty-first century have become weary of the language. Advertising-ese, the rhetorical language of advertising, quickly wears out its vocabulary by over-use. ‘New improved’ has come to mean, ‘so what I’ve been buying over the past few years hasn’t been that good!’ and ‘value’ has changed its meaning completely to mean ‘cheap’. Consequently, genuine improvements need to be described carefully. A brand can court controversy for the sake of increased salience or to forge an association between the issue and the brand. Benetton is the best example here, with their advertising about killers on Death Row in the

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USA, the intention being to bring caring, courageous and leadership qualities to the brand. Wonderbra would be another, with their famous ‘Hello Boys’ with Eva Herzogiva. The brand can be given magical qualities – brands that can speak, like ‘Donald’ for Lurpak butter or the Peperami ‘animal’ are good examples here. This type of advertising seeks to engage the Trickster in all of us (see Chapter 5), that part of ourselves which enjoys being outwitted and charmed. We need to suspend our disbelief, become more childlike and playful and take a journey into ‘advertising land’. Then there is the use of fantasy and nostalgia – placing the brand in different scenarios, in the future or in the past, again asking the viewer to take that amble into advertising-land. This type of research presents a particular type of difficulty for research because respondents need to be in a playful and relaxed mode that is more difficult to create in the relative formality of the research interview. Advertising often employs narrative techniques and tells a story in which the brand is the star or an important prop. The research task here, or rather one of them, is to understand what role the brand is playing and what that says about the brand in question. The voice of authority is another commonly used device, where the brand is recommended by experts – the person in a white coat recommending the toothpaste, or the washing machine manufacturer recommending the washing powder. The researcher needs to judge whether the authority figure is appropriate and credible. By the use of demonstrations, scientific and otherwise, the viewer can be shown how the brand works by before and after shots, or how it solves the problem in a scientific way, such as a magnified animation of skin cells for anti-ageing creams, or even a 3-D computer simulation of a vacuum cleaner. The research task here is to judge that the demonstration is adequately (not necessarily completely, as the demonstration can convey an authority which is sufficient in itself) understood, so that it neither patronises nor mystifies the audience. Sometimes references are used that only some people will feel a part of. Here the target audience recognises that they and the brand form a group to which not everyone belongs. Some advertising can be too controversial or risqué for some people, giving those that accept it a feeling of belonging. The recent campaign for French Connection, FCUK, is one such, where the younger target audience enjoys the letterplay in the knowledge that it will shock an older generation. The technique of metonymy substitutes one aspect of the brand for the brand itself, e.g. the purple colour for Cadbury’s or the Schweppes endline, ‘Sch ... You Know Who’. This can be used in a playful and engaging way, creating a bond between viewer and brand, the viewer recognising the brand without seeing it. Metaphors are commonly used in European advertising and in essence transfer the meaning of the brand or the desired communication to

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something else. A particularly powerful example is the hammer slamming into the soft peach, used in UK road safety advertising to demonstrate the terrible harm that a fast-moving vehicle would have when impacting with a child. A well-known visual metaphor is the Andrex puppy, representing a bundle of brand values: a brand that lives with the family, that is loved by the family and has some of its important physical qualities: softness and strength. Advertising often creates powerful stereotypes – the Oxo mum and the Persil mum were two such examples. They represented 1960s motherliness, and contemporary mothers instantly recognised them as such. A mother that cares above all for her family’s well-being is the sort of mother all mothers want to emulate to some degree, but this singleminded devotion to the family’s cause is now somewhat outdated and mothers like to think of themselves as more multi-faceted. At the time, however, these stereotypical women captured what being a mother was all about. Archetypes are different from stereotypes in that they are unchanging representations than can apply across cultures. In Jungian terms, they are inherited from our early ancestors. A grandmother figure was used to powerful effect in a successful Mexican advertisement for milk. She was a powerful representation of stability, conveying wellbeing and a keeper of traditions, conveying a return to traditional foods. As an old woman, she represented wisdom, and communicated milk as a wise choice. To respondents she was the grandmother they wished they had and the grandmother they wanted to become. More than that, she was an archetype that everyone instantly recognised, and connected with deep emotions and dormant yearnings. (Maso-Fleischmann 1997)

Another device is attaching meaning to the brand, such as Kellogg’s .. Corn Flakes with sunshine, and sex and sensuality with Haagen-Dazs ice cream. This has long been a device used by advertisers, broadening and enhancing the values of the brand. It is not the same as metonymy, which substitutes one for the other. Extending the brand beyond the limitations of the physical product is where the brand encompasses its benefit. Charles Revson, of Revlon Cosmetics, famously said that ‘In the factory, we manufacture cosmetics. In the store, we sell hopes.’ Finally, much use is made of rhetoric and repetition, where the brand and the advertising declares superiority and, in many cases, repeats the message to ensure maximum memorability. In conclusion, the advertising researcher is like a historian studying an original contemporary text. He will be focusing intently on the text itself, studying what is written and the way it is written, but also in the back of his mind he will be thinking about what type of document it was, the purpose

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to which the document had been put, who might have commisioned it and who might have authored it. Advertising research has many similarities. The advertising researcher will focus most intently on the advertisement itself but will place it in the context of its intended objectives, the form it takes and the tone of voice it employs.

KEY POINTS

• Markets have become saturated and pressures on advertising have increased. From being a simple objective of increasing sales at the beginning of the last century, advertising is now being asked to influence an enormous number of company measures. • Advertising is an important tool in the organisation’s armoury to manipulate awareness, opinion and behaviour for positive benefit. It is important that researchers know precisely what response the advertising is intended to stimulate in the marketplace. • Advertising objectives tend to fall into two main categories: increasing sales and influencing attitudes. • Of even greater importance to the researcher, and particularly at the creative development stage, is to identify the different elements that make up an advertisement: the creative idea, the executional devices that convey the creative idea, the endline and the tone of voice. The most important of these is the creative idea, which must be separated from the execution because the central creative idea cannot be changed while the way that the idea is executed can. The creative idea need not necessarily remain the same over the lifetime of a campaign. • Identifying these elements becomes important at the research stage because it is at this stage the advertising is handed to an outsider, the researcher, and clear communication about the advertising between all parties becomes increasingly important. • Advertising usually contains devices that help to communicate the brand message. These are not the same as the creative idea, which is unique to each advertisement, but are broadly defined and wellrecognised formats that can contain different creative ideas.

NOTE 1 See the website of AdSlogans unlimited at www.adslogans.co.uk

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3 How Advertising Works

Advertising is, actually, a simple phenomenon in terms of economics. It is merely a substitute for a personal sales force – an extension, if you will, of the merchant who cries aloud his wares.

(Rosser Reeves, Reality in Advertising, 1986, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, p. 145) This chapter offers a short history of advertising theory. It shows how the role of advertising has changed and broadened as the pressures on businesses have changed. At the beginning of the last century, the intention of any piece of advertising was to sell more products and the theory was similarly simple. Now, as businesses need to operate in an increasingly complex environment, advertising needs to respond in a correspondingly sophisticated way. Consumers hold models of what advertising is for and how it works in their heads and their models need to be taken account of. The chapter closes by outlining the differences between key target audiences and how they respond to advertising.

How does advertising work? Hundreds of people have pondered the question, but the only certainty is that there is no complete answer. Like the quest for the Holy Grail, it will always be just out of our reach, although the earthly rewards for answering the question mean there will always be people willing to devote time, energy and money to coming up with an answer. Once we understand the way that advertising influences people – so the thinking goes – we can apply that same model to other fledgling ads and predict whether those will influence people too. Unfortunately, advertising doesn’t work like that. Advertising defies models. Advertising must change over time because human beings become used to formats and messages and literally stop seeing them, hearing them and absorbing them. Newness, novelty and innovation are all essential requisites of most advertising – ‘most advertising’ because you can never be categorical or absolutist about the world of advertising. It has always been thus. ‘Never say never.’ Back in 1966, Mary Wells Lawrence said in an article in Newsweek, People are very sophisticated about advertising now. You have to entertain them. You have to present a product honestly and with a tremendous

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HOW ADVERTISING WORKS

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amount of pizzazz and flair, the way it’s done in a James Bond movie. But you can’t run the same ad over and over again. You have to change your approach constantly to keep on getting their attention.

Over the decades, the relationship between advertising and the prevailing business environment has always been a close one. As the pressures on business have changed, so have the role and aims of advertising and consequently the accompanying theories as to how it works, each new theory discrediting the last.

ADVERTISING AS A RESPONSE TO BUSINESS NEEDS

The role of advertising has changed as business climates have changed but the need to inform people of the existence of products has been with us for as long as businesses have existed. You can’t have one without the other. Town criers in the seventeenth century were shouting out the benefits of products in between the parish notices, and no doubt getting paid for their efforts. Dr Samuel Johnson complained in the middle of the eighteenth century that he was being bombarded with messages from too many advertisements. Advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently perused and it has therefore become necessary to gain attention by magnificence of promises and by eloquences sometimes sublime and sometimes pathetic. (quoted in the International Thesaurus of Quotations, Dr Samuel Johnson and Rhodas Thomas Tripp 1970)

It has been the twentieth century that has seen the most rapid change, however. As key consumer markets have become saturated, so new advertising strategies have been developed to meet those changed market expectations. Brand advertising became necessary during the nineteenth century because of the revolution in industrial techniques making it possible to produce enormous quantities of the same product. The focus was on stimulating demand rather than meeting it. The first advertising agency was set up by Volney B. Palmer in Philadelphia in 1841, and by 1861 there were 20 agencies in New York City. The oldest American advertising agency still in existence, J Walter Thompson, was set up in 1864 by William James Carlton. It was not until the 1940s, however, that the discipline of marketing was developed. Round about this time, Rosser Reeves developed the idea of the unique selling proposition (USP), which advocated the development of product characteristics that differentiated one brand from another, giving each a unique appeal. This powerful idea is still with us, although like everything in the world of business, it has gone in and out of fashion. Recently, the same idea has transformed into the emotional selling

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proposition (ESP), where one brand is differentiated from another by a different and more intangible set of emotional brand values. The 1970s saw the emergence of powerful retailer brands. The success of these ‘own label’ brands saw the manufacturers having to fight back through building even stronger brands, challenging advertising agencies to produce ever more impactful and effective advertising. Manufacturers had to look further than conventional advertising to protect their vulnerable brands. Developments in computer technology meant that databases of consumers’ names and addresses could be compiled and consumers could now be addressed on a one-to-one basis, through the post. Direct marketing was coming into its own. The last two decades, from the 1980s, have seen heavy pressure being brought to bear on all marketing, advertising and research disciplines. As the number of brands has increased, so brand loyalty has been eroding. Andrew Ehrenberg and Goodhart (1970) brought an unwelcome dose of reality when they described consumers buying repertoires of brands rather than remaining loyal to one. Most goods were bought infrequently and the concept of loyalty was exposed as but a twinkle in the marketer’s eye. Advertisers and agencies adjusted their sights and aimed to become one of a preferred repertoire. (For a discussion about how market research has responded to business needs, see Book 7 by Geraldine Lillis.)

What is the Situation Now? At the beginning of the twenty-first century more new brands are being launched than ever before and more are failing than ever before. It has been estimated that 80 per cent of all new products fail. Improvements in technology mean that as soon as a new product is launched, there will be a copy on the shelves ever more quickly, consigning most USPs to fleeting superiority. Advertising, for its part, has to be ever-more ingenious in order to claim a part of the advertiser’s marketing budget. Available media are proliferating. With the expected switch to digital TV in the next few years, the UK public will have access to over 300 television channels, giving the viewer much more choice and therefore power in the brand–consumer relationship. The number of magazines available on newsagents’ shelves is visibly proliferating (and disappearing). Consumers seem to be more knowledgeable about marketing and advertising processes than previously and so there is a pressure on advertisers and agencies to become more transparent in their communications. The emergence of consumers who are concerned about the provenance of their food, about the welfare of the animals they eat, about the way that the company employees are treated all point to the need for greater transparency in the sourcing, manufacture and processing of the goods consumers buy. The 1960s saw the emergence of consumer activists, such as

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Ralph Nader and his campaign against Ford, and the lobby against Nestlé because of their promotion of baby milk in the Third World – but we are all consumer activists now. It is easy to see how the pressures have been building up. Agencies have found it ever more difficult to produce effective advertising and the advertising industry has suffered as a result. The number of staff employed in UK advertising agencies reduced from 15,000 in the 1980s to only 11,000 in the 1990s – a reduction of more than 25 per cent. In response, the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) set up their Effectiveness Awards and the pressure was on agencies to be ever more creative. Consumers have more and more choice – often to ludicrous levels. Mark Earls (2001) describes how Crest Toothpaste has 52 different variants in the USA. He describes how brands are no longer designed to meet consumers’ needs as dictated by classical marketing theory; consumers’ needs are satiated. New products, new brands and brand extensions now need to capture the public’s imagination by their creativity, with the search for innovation being led by the creative ideas of their managers, not by the discovery and fulfilment of their customers’ unmet needs. The criteria by which advertising is judged to be effective have been increased and broadened as it becomes ever more difficult for each individual ad to be heard and to achieve a reasonable ‘share of voice’. A debate hosted by the IPA and the UK Account Planning Group about the former’s Effectiveness Awards agreed that advertising should be judged by measures that included share price and employee satisfaction (Research, March 2001, Issue 418). So, from being a simple task of informing the potential customer (in the days of the town crier), advertising now stretches to achieve an enormous range of objectives including simple information. Not only have the aims of advertising increased exponentially, the consumer has changed, too, or rather the perception of the sensitivities of the consumer has been heightened. Where consumers were once seen as the passive recipients of advertising messages, they are now considered sophisticated consumers of advertising. They see more advertising, they are more aware of their power as a consumer and are more critical – or are advertisers simply hearing them now more than ever before?

HOW ADVERTISING WORKS ON CONSUMERS: SOME MODELS AND ANALOGIES

Just as advertising responds to changing business climates, models of how advertising works have responded over the years to changing advertising styles and learnt from new research methodologies, from qualitative research especially. The pressure on advertising continually to evolve, and the energy and enthusiasm with which it strives to be different, mean

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that advertising is always trying to struggle out of its strait-jacket model. In the same way that older advertising styles are scorned, so too are the models that tried to explain them. Modelling the process has enormous benefits to the research world. It means tests can be constructed to see how any one ad is predicted to work in the real world. In reality, all those models stretching back to the beginning of the twentieth century are true some of the time for some of the people and for some of the ads. All those models co-exist, with new ones being added every decade. We laugh now at the simplicity of the AIDA model but in truth, turn on your television or open your newspaper and you will see ads that work by gaining attention, interesting you and persuading you to buy the product when next you are in the supermarket. The danger, of course, with modelling the advertising process, categorising ads and then testing them is that it affects the advertising itself; ads are created with one eye on passing the tests. It is part of the advertising ethos that the old is discarded in favour of the new shiny replacement, and this is as true of advertising models as it is of anything. However, old models never die. They just hang around. New models are created to fill in the gaps that the old ones failed to explain and attention tends to be focused on the new shiny ones that explain today’s (or should it be yesterday’s?) leading edge creative solutions. Historic Models The most famous, although now the most derided, is the AIDA model, mentioned above and developed in 1900 by Elmo Lewis, which assumed a linear sequential decision-making process on the part of the consumer. The acronym described how the advertising grabbed the viewer’s attention, interested them in the product, led to their desire for the product in question and finally induced some sort of action towards purchasing the product in question. It was memorable, understandable, applicable and measurable. No wonder it has lived on in our memories – it had a memorable endline! DAGMAR stands for Defining Advertising Goals for Measuring Advertising Results and was a model developed in the late 1950s/early 1960s by Russell Colley along the same lines as AIDA and was even more popular. It took the consumer through awareness, comprehension and conviction to action. The problem, of course, with these two sequential models is that they assume an essentially passive consumer, equally receptive to all aspects of the communication and applying logic to what they see and hear. In reality, consumers listen selectively, ignore, change and use advertising to suit who they are and what they want, and they don’t necessarily do all of that in a predictable order. The unique selling proposition (USP) was developed by Rosser Reeves in the 1960s and was a model to help develop brands and advertising. It was dependent on the belief that consumers were more likely to

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buy something that was different from its competitors. The theory recommended that brand owners develop brands with one unique, superior and differentiating characteristic and subsequently communicated that one superior feature single-mindedly. It was popular because it contained a powerful and enduring simplicity. Despite going out of fashion, it has recently re-emerged as the emotional selling proposition (ESP). Given the developments in manufacturing technology and information exchange in recent years, it is now only of limited benefit to companies because competitors can copy advancements so quickly that the original investment in R&D cannot be recouped. As a concept, however it has had a powerful and lasting effect, becoming more of a way of thinking about brands and the necessity of differentiating one brand from another. The persuasion shift model was developed in the 1940s by Schwerin. This assumed that advertising’s intentions were to change people’s attitudes towards a brand or service, resulting in an increased propensity to buy. Respondents were invited to watch what they thought was the pilot of a new television programme, which included a commercial break in the middle. Inserted amongst the commercials was the advertisement being tested. Before they went into the auditorium, they were asked which brands in a list they would like to win. After seeing the programme, they would be asked the same question again and the differences noted. This technique, popular in the USA, came in for a lot of criticism in the UK and has been widely discredited, not least for the assumptions that it makes about the power of advertising, seen only once, on buying behaviour.

The Strong and Weak Theories of Advertising Models are culturally based, too. Theories of advertising have long differed between the United States and Western Europe, particularly in beliefs about how powerful marketing and advertising techniques can be. In Europe, the commonly held belief is that advertising is unable, except in exceptional circumstance, to transform a brand’s fortunes. This is a view led by Andrew Ehrenberg, who declared in the 1970s that advertising was a weak force and reinforced existing opinions and beliefs rather than persuaded people of a different point of view (1972). Ehrenberg refutes the power of the USP and believes instead that brand saliency is more or less the only way of achieving effective advertising. As summarised by Franzen (1999), he says that if one brand is more salient than another, it has more people who … • • • • •

are aware of it have had it in their active brand repertoires have it in their brand consideration set are familiar with the brand feel it has brand assurance

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• • • • • •

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regard it as providing value for money have positive attribute beliefs about it harbour intentions to buy and/or use it in the future would buy it if their normal brand were not available note and recall its advertisements talk spontaneously about it in research.

An astonishing finding for everyone who has cherished the belief that behaviour follows after changed attitudes, Ehrenberg also cites converging research studies that show it is virtually impossible for advertising to change attitudes and that attitudes to brands are changed after use, with advertising providing reinforcement rather than a cause of change (Ehrenberg and Barnard 1997). It seems reasonable to assume that if you would like someone to buy your product or service, it is sensible to influence their attitude towards your product, to persuade them to think positively towards it. However, it has been proved many times, by Fishbein (1975) among others, that the relationship between attitudes and behaviour is complex, varied and, in many cases, may not exist at all; we can happily behave in ways that belie our attitudes and beliefs. In the USA, by contrast, businessmen believe in the transforming power of advertising – the so-called ‘Strong Theory’ – and its ability to persuade non-users to buy a brand and to increase the frequency of purchase for existing users. The belief is that the strongest and longestrunning advertising achieves the highest sales (if that is the aim). These divergent points of view demonstrate the importance of what people believe and the profound effect it has on the advertising industry. Theories help us to understand and predict; they do not describe a reality, but in the fullness of time they often become a reality.

Latest Thinking Despite the difficulties, Mike Hall and Doug Maclay (1991) have made a laudable attempt to take the issue further. The four models developed by them in the early 1990s have been very influential: a simple shorthand for categorising types of advertising on the one hand and a starting point of developing other models on the other. • The sales response model, which describes advertising of special offers, direct response ads etc., and consumers respond by buying. • The persuasion model, which is where advertising tries to convince consumers that the product or service in question is better than others or better than what it used to be, that it is different or that it is simply fantastic; consumers respond by having a higher opinion of the brand.

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• The involvement model, which intends to create empathy with the brand; consumers respond by feeling closer to the brand, possibly feeling empathy with the personality of the brand. • Salience, which generally uses very distinctive forms of advertising; consumers respond by talking spontaneously about the brand and, when asked about the category, are likely to mention this brand pretty quickly. This puts the brand on a ‘consideration’ list in the consumer’s mind. At the time of writting, this model is the most favoured in the UK. It can be very useful for researchers to identify broadly one of these four types and tailor the discussion guide to take account of the particular questions that they raise. Up to this point, it was not thought possible for advertising to have any effect unless it had been consciously registered, and so being noticed was the essential precursor of any successful advertising. The later part of the twentieth century, however, has seen developments in neuroscience that have thrown light on how brands and advertising are captured and retained in the memory even though the individual may be unaware of it. ‘Low involvement processing’, as named by Robert Heath (1999), describes how most advertising receives very low levels of attention and is stored in the brain as broad associations with the brand, service or issue, using very little working memory. We are largely unaware of these stored associations, but they can exert a powerful influence on decisions. Over time, with repetition, these associations can last a lifetime. Robert Heath has cited Daz as the blue whitener and Bach’s ‘Air On a G String’ for Hamlet cigars as enduring associations in UK advertising. It is worth pointing out here that associations with brands do not necessarily come only from advertising. They come from personal memories, from using the brand, from seeing it around, by observing who is using the brand, even by discarded brand packs in litter bins and or ads and logos on the sides of lorries thundering up motorways. Importantly, however, advertising gives the brand owners a chance to control the associations with a particular brand. It is preferable, nevertheless, for a piece of advertising to be registered consciously and to be processed on a ‘higher level’ – it’s more likely to stick if the conscious mind is engaged, but Robert Heath’s valuable and thoughtprovoking contribution was to point out that it is not essential to success. There has long been a cognitive bias to theories on how advertising works. Antonio Damasio (1994) has shown that affective memory is more important for decision-making than cognition, or rather it is a prerequisite for making any sort of decision at all; so our hearts as well as our heads are necessarily involved in decision-making. The implication for advertising and advertising research is that the emotional communication of any ad is as important if not more important than the rational message – something that qualitative researchers have known intuitively for a long time.

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As we have struggled to understand advertising, its nature and effects, we looked to other disciplines for insights. Gary Duckworth (1995) has likened it to literature. Both advertising and literature create meaning by manipulating symbols; both rely entirely on human characteristics to achieve their effect to engage and involve the reader. Much literature depends upon capturing the reader’s imagination and interest by relating a narrative. As a corollary, Chris Forrest (2001) describes the role of the researcher as theatre critic, commenting upon the performance of that literary work on the stage. We have moved beyond the linear sequential models, where the advertising and the audience are seen as an interrelating mechanism: pull this lever, it operates this cog and this is the effect. The intention of advertising is to manipulate and influence man and his immediate universe and these models promised us a chance to achieve our aims. It was never that simple. Brands themselves exist as ‘engrams’: as a network of emotions, colours, shapes and feelings in our brain. They don’t exist as words and yet as professional researchers and marketers all of our communication is in words: we use words to decode and encode advertising and to communicate about advertisements and brands to each other. We need to resort to parcelling brands up as metaphors: as personalities, animals, architecture, so that we can understand them and communicate their values more easily. Finally, the truth about how advertising works lies everywhere and nowhere. All these rules and models are true sometimes. Trying to sum up the plethora of advertising styles and formats and the infinite number of responses they could elicit in one rule is like Stephen Hawking looking for the one overarching law that explains everything in the universe. The complexities of the question ‘How does advertising work?’ point to the inevitable woolly answer, ‘It depends’. But this is not a reason to stop looking. In a sense, how advertising works is less important than the question of how we believe advertising works, because this informs how we create and research advertising and the advertising that emerges and reflects our culture. You only need to watch a reel of American and British advertising to see the profound effects of our different beliefs. The search goes on.

HOW CONSUMERS USE ADVERTISING

Most models of how advertising works assume a passive consumer, the effect of the advertising likened to a hypodermic syringe injecting the message into a receptive mind. As qualitative research has become more commonplace, this view of the consumer as a passive recipient has become more uncomfortable. In 1983, Judie Lannon and Peter Cooper pointed out that consumers were not the passive recipients they were imagined to be, but that they responded to, used and interacted with advertising. Advertising should be viewed as a dialogue, not a monologue. Consumers interact with advertising when they see or hear it; they respond to

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FIGURE 3.1 Consumers respond to messages

it. Advertising should carry its audience to a different place, where they can see the brand differently. The response they have is the researcher’s measure of the place the advertising has transported them to. It is easy, when creating advertising, to make the advertising say what the advertiser wants the consumer to say or feel, mistaking the desired response for the advertising stimulus. In other words, consumers do not repeat messages like automatons, they respond (Figure 3.1). We choose the advertising we take in; we are not equally receptive to all advertising and it is part of the researcher’s task to identify the triggers that pull viewers in, or why they fail to do so. We do not passively absorb advertising, we react to it and bring our own experiences and prejudices to interpret the meaning. Advertising is part of the cultural backdrop of our lives and our own histories are interwined with that of advertising (and the brands it advertises). It creates new meanings and associations and we take these into our own daily lives, referencing advertising and using those new meanings in our relations with our friends and family.

HOW ADVERTISING SHAPES BRANDS

Brands exist in people’s minds, as a collection of impressions about a particular product. These impressions will derive from their own experiences with the brand, their memories and, of course, any communications about the brand that add values, associations and meanings, advertising being only one (see Book 5). Advertising harnesses and enhances existing impressions of a brand, sometimes adding to them in a way that will motivate a group of people to think more favourably about the brand or indeed be more inclined to buy it. Gary Duckworth (1995) describes it as a type of intervention in the brand–user relationship, manipulating and directing the impressions and their meanings. Judie Lannon (1994) has described how advertising has

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the potential to endow brands with charisma, creating cult brands like Nike (who as a result of powerful advertising were able to charge an enormous price premium for a pair of Air Jordan shoes: US$115 compared to US$30–60 charged for other brands). Advertising is also a way for a brand owner to have an element of control over what the public thinks and feels about his or her brand, so that the brand is more controllable in the future. Brands that have never been advertised, or have not been advertised for a long period, exist in consumers’ minds in many more ways than those that have been consistently advertised. Advertising can make brands famous and talked about, more salient. Consumers will be made more aware of the brand and so it will at least be in the conscious mind, ready and waiting on the list of brands to be considered. There is a limit to what advertising can achieve and those limits are largely drawn by experience of the brand itself. An advertisement cannot change one’s experience of a brand or service but it can enhance it, reinforce it, emphasise differences between one brand and another and add to, play down and highlight brand values. It can make a brand famous, make it more familiar, give it authority and greater credibility, invest it with trustworthiness and give us permission to use it. Advertising is the voice of the brand: this is how the brand will speak to you, what it thinks of you, and through that communication, you will find out what sort of brand it is. However, it works both ways. Where the experience of the consumer contradicts the promises made in the advertising, the advertising is discredited as well as the product. Where the advertising promises something that the product lives up to, both brand and advertising benefit in a virtuous circle, each one benefiting from the other. When a bank, for example, advertises that the phone is picked up before it has rung three times and that is what happens when the consumer calls the local branch, it makes the consumer feel that he or she can trust the bank because it keeps its word – and might very well keep its word on other things, too. All in all, the hope of most advertisers is that their brand emerges from the advertising clothed in values that are relevant to the target consumer and the context in which the brand is used and – in an ideal world and low-level processing notwithstanding – memorable and famous.

ADVERTISING TO DIFFERENT TARGET AUDIENCES

Different people react differently to advertisements depending upon their own personalities and histories. It is possible, however, to identify different overall responses to advertising depending on someone’s life stage. While everyone is influenced by the culture in which they live, there are some life stages where the individual is more outward looking and more influenced by contemporary culture. The teens and early twenties have probably the most profound effect on us in this way and we are likely to

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carry the poignancy of those cultural associations around with us for the rest of our lives. Women particularly turn away from contemporary culture when they have a family and metaphorically face inwards towards the home, contemporary culture to an extent passing them by. Advertising, of course, is a fundamental part of our contemporary culture. It reflects what is going on around us, as well as appropriating signs and symbols and changing their contemporary meaning. Children differ from one academic year to another, but the younger they are, the less able they are to see behind the ads and work out the intentions of the advertisers. They tend to exhibit a surprising obedience (surprising to parents!) in wanting to carry out the advertisers’ wishes, and this extends even to products outside their own interest. Parents can be surprised when a 6-year-old tries to persuade them to buy the latest new kitchen roll, using the advertiser’s own superlatives. ‘It’s much stronger, Mummy, and so you will need much less ...’ They are very quick, too, at picking up messages and understanding narratives. In one way, they are a delight to interview because they are so honest about what they think. As a response to this heightened sensitivity to advertising messages, advertising to children, however, is tightly legislated here in the UK and it is worth referring to the Advertising Standards Authority’s Code to make sure that any recommendation the researcher makes is applicable in the real world.1 Teenagers and young people are a favourite target for advertisers and advertising agencies because they have a strong attraction for contemporary culture and use it continually in their daily contacts. They are often an important audience to attract too because advertisers realise that hooking their brand and its associated symbols and values to this age group is important to its long-term health. Zijlmans, quoted in The Mental World of Brands (Franzen and Bouwman 2001), says that age 15–25 years is probably ‘the most important period for the development of our brand relation’. Not only that, we live in a culture that values youthfulness and associating a brand with a youthful user image is good for the brand and good for business. It has to be said that advertisers, researchers and agency planners all like to be involved with brands and services that are young and ‘funky’: the desire is to be youthful by association. Young people are thought to be notoriously difficult to involve because they are very critical. This is only partly true. It’s a love–hate thing. They love advertising, they seek it out and they talk about it with their mates and that makes them a critical audience to please. Ads wear out quickly with this audience because of their relatively high involvement with them. They are also mercurial in their tastes – this week’s ‘flavour of the month’ is next week’s ‘wouldn’t be seen dead’. This is where advertising has to be leading edge – break a few moulds, make those world-weary teenagers sit up and take notice. It is to this audience that advertising forms are pushed to their limits. Intertextuality (O’Donohoe 1997), so characteristic of our postmodern times, where

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themes are borrowed from other genres, is a popular form at the time of writing. Referring back and forth from one genre to another is effective at conveying a sense of being in a club of people in the know and at adopting the values of another brand, film or whatever, that is current at the time. Kirsty Fuller (1995) writes about advertising for Levi 501 jeans, which borrowed from the cult film, The Swimmer, where recognition by the viewers of the storyline and slightly ethereal style of cinematography was intended to enhance their admiration of both the advertising and the brand for knowing and obviously admiring the film. However, Gavin MacDonald (1999) has discovered that while young people are intensely involved with advertising, the ads they like are those based on traditional formats; those that were clear in conveying a branded proposition. Looking at wear-out was instructive, too. Ads with jokes are admired, ads with jokes about jokes rather less so. Greater emphasis on the development of the narrative and more intrinsic product benefit are admired. Young consumers seek the same narrative satisfactions as ‘wrinklies’ do. They admire advertising that espouses leading opinions, not too far ahead of current trends but promoting them and therefore shaping them all the same. Women are a more difficult target for young male creative teams to understand, and exploratory research can be very helpful. Decades of advertising depicting women as one-dimensional mothers, providers, cooks and guardians of the family’s health and well-being have resulted in an extreme sensitivity to being patronised and stereotyped. While these roles are all important, women’s hackles are raised when they are portrayed so one-dimensionally (Wardle 1995). Women who are currently involved with raising a family can also be notoriously difficult to persuade to spend any money on themselves. A good proportion feel strongly that the rest of the family’s needs come before their own. The famous L’Oreal line, ‘Because I’m worth it’, which was written as long ago as 1973 (by Ilon Specht when she was a copywriter in her early twenties at McCann–Erickson see Gladwell, 1999) still has resonance and relevance today. We are living in an increasingly unisex society and men are becoming an important audience across all categories, including those that were traditionally female. The growth in the UK of men’s magazines, like Loaded and Men’s Health, bears witness to this. Characters like tough-man Vinny Jones are advocating men to moisturise more – a message that would have made the brand a laughing stock only a few years previously. Older people are perhaps the most difficult audience to engage. They tend not to need to belong to popular culture in the way that they did when they were young, and in any case believe that popular culture excludes them. In this way, they are as far away culturally and emotionally from the agencies and brand owners that target them as is possible. Strategic research amongst this age group when developing advertising is essential and sometimes surprising – because one can never be sure of

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one’s assumptions and hypotheses. Generally, elderly people dislike seeing people of their own age, identifying more readily with people about ten years younger, which is a problem when developing targeted advertising. The successful Werther’s Original advertising shown in the 1990s neatly got round the problem by aiming at older female empty-nesters by showing a grandfather’s relationship with his grandson.

HOW DO CONSUMERS THINK ADVERTISING WORKS?

It is also helpful to think about how consumers believe advertising works and the models they carry in their minds, because this will influence the way they will respond in research. On the whole, most people still believe that advertising’s principle aim is to affect sales. This means furrowed brows when discussing monopoly operations, like the water companies. Not only is it difficult for consumers to work out what the point is, but they feel their own money is being spent needlessly. Researchers must do their best to come clean and tell respondents what the advertising is intended to achieve because, in this way, respondents can adjust their sights and discuss the advertising within that new framework. Consumers also vaguely believe that advertising intends to change their mind over something or make them feel more warmly towards something. This presents particular problems in research because few people like to present themselves as malleable in a public forum like a group discussion. While most consumers share these beliefs about the intentions of advertising, there are significantly different attitudes towards advertising generally in the population. Wendy Gordon and Colleen Ryan (1983) segmented the population into four different types: • The sophisticated critic, who believes they understand enough about advertising to evaluate good or bad advertisements in terms of effectiveness, not just entertainment. They have some sense of strength of branding and like to work out the underlying advertising objectives. They want a mutual and equal relationship with the advertiser and seek a challenge. This type of consumer has kept pace with changes in advertising. • The uninhibited appreciator likes to be wooed and persuaded by advertising and seeks entertainment. • The careful deliberator exhibits some wariness and caution when the advertising approach is thought to be devious or where the advertising is purely emotionally based – where it does not fit into their idea of how advertising works. They want to understand advertising. • Suspicious rejectors tend to react negatively to advertising except that which is totally rational. They fear being manipulated and they find it difficult to discriminate and judge different advertising claims.

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The importance of Gordon and Ryan’s work was that it showed how people felt differently about advertising and it was a reminder to all researchers to treat respondents’ comments in the context of their overall attitude to advertising. Identifying what type of consumer is present in the group might be important to the evaluation of what is said in a group. A suspicious rejector, for example is likely to reject most advertising out of hand, the quality of the scripts being incidential. Most researchers exclude people who have strong negative attitudes towards advertising in the belief that they will at best contribute little to any discussion about advertising and at worst influence the other respondents around them.

WHAT’S YOUR MODEL?

Ask qualitative researchers and planners the question ‘What’s your model?’ and the answer is loud and unanimous, ‘It depends’. Both disciplines eschew models and like to approach each advertisement with an open mind and work out how it is working with consumers from scratch. Models imply that ads can be categorised, that some ads are like other ads, and that notional ‘rules’ exist about their narrative style or structure. Anything that speaks of ‘sameness’ or ‘rules’ is rejected because it puts up barriers in the quest for standout and difference. Despite the loud rejection of any one model, there is preference amongst advertising researchers for thinking about advertising like a machine, made up of parts that interact like cogs, interlocking and subsequently moving levers. More complicated than the linear models popular in the first half of the last century, these advertising machines have engines (creative ideas) that have different capacities, different gears and drive complex sets of levers (consumers) differentially. Not everyone has such an open mind and we all, from time to time, lapse into using the model we understand best. Just because we understand it doesn’t mean it is the most fitting, and everyone involved in the advertising development process needs to be conscious of the models they might inadvertently be using.

KEY POINTS

• Theories of how advertising works always trail leading edge advertising. Forms need to change constantly because advertising needs to stand out and to bring a unique set of values to each brand or service. Hence the way that advertising is intended to work changes too, different models being continually discredited and replaced.

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• In the race to produce leading edge advertising, research will always be at a disadvantage. If advertising forms change as a response to changing business environments, and advertising models change as a result of changing advertising forms, there will always be a time lag and research will always be of limited use. It might be more helpful to understand how advertising is structured rather than how it works. • Historically, advertising has been thought to work on consumers in a linear causative sequence. AIDA is a famous example of this thinking: attention, interest, desire, action purchase. • The effect of advertising is complex and diverse and we can only ever hope to capture the effect of a limited number of advertisements in any one model. Moreover, consumers are not passive recipients of advertising. They respond to advertising, rather than repeat messages, and they change and manipulate brand messages and advertising vehicles, adopting and using them in their daily lives. • Different people have different relationships with advertising: ¡ ¡

¡ ¡

Young children tend to believe without criticism. Teenagers and young people have an intense love–hate relationship. Women tend to be overly sensitive to being patronised. Older people tend to think it is not aimed at them and so are difficult to reach.

• Different people have different attitudes towards advertising, and some harbour an intense suspicion and dislike. It is worth excluding these consumers from any research into advertising because their strong feelings will overwhelm their responses to particular executions. • Researchers must be wary of inadvertently applying the models they best understand indiscriminately to any advertising.

NOTE 1 The Code is available on the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) website at www.asa.org.uk

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4 The Planning Process and the Role of Research

It’s not the strongest of the species that will survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. (Charles Darwin)

To do a useful job as a researcher, it is essential to understand how far the team at the advertising agency have gone in the planning process. This chapter describes the process of creating and honing advertising within the agency, and where account planning fits in. As the advertising takes shape, the role of research changes and the demands on the researcher change, too.

THE PLANNING CYCLE

The planning cycle (Figure 4.1) is the process through which the account planning team takes the brand and advertising problem (or opportunity). It is usually depicted as a perfect circle. In reality, it is a circle with big and little eddies all around it showing how the process can at times feel like one step forward and two steps back. The search is for motivating advertising, and as the process continues, better strategies can overturn previously agreed ones and effective creative ideas overturn previously agreed strategies. The aim is always to draw back from the current task and look at where it is taking you – if not towards the brand’s business objectives, then it is worth thinking again. The first question is usually ‘Where are we?’ – where is the brand right now, in terms of its price, distribution, advertising and physical product in consumers’ minds? ‘Why are we here?’ asks about the factors that have contributed over time to the current status of the brand. ‘Where could we be?’ reaches into the future and demands a judgement be made about the potential of the brand and where it could go in the future. ‘How could we get there?’ is the first place along the thought process where advertising is being considered and this is where enormous amounts of work, including research, go into the development of the advertising strategy. It is from here onwards that market research becomes increasingly important.

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THE PLANNING PROCESS AND RESEARCH

37

Quan tita ti v er es e

Where are we?

ar

ch

Why are we there?

Are we getting there?

Where could we be?

Qu

a li

ta

ti

ve

re

se

a rc

h How could we get there?

FIGURE 4.1 The planning cycle (after Stephen King, 1977)

Creative development research, usually accomplished with qualitative research, gives way to quantitative research as broadcast dates come and go and pre-testing gives way to tracking. The outputs of the planning process (shown on the left in Figure 4.2) are the statements and documents listed on the right. The positioning is a description of the brand, incorporating both rational and emotional characteristics and values, comparing it to competitive brands. The target audience is the group of people to whom the brand will be marketed. Sometimes this is confused with ‘user imagery’ which is the group of people, often illusory, the brand is thought to appeal to by virtue of its price, packaging, advertising etc. After Eight Mints is an example here, where the imagery is one of an after-dinner mint, consumed by upmarket people at smart dinner parties, while in reality it is a mass market brand, appealing to all adults. A proposition often seems very similar in content to a positioning but it does not necessarily compare the brand to others in the marketplace and does contain the motivation for buying; in other words, it propositions the target consumer. The advertising strategy is a statement of who the target audience is, what the advertising is intending that they do as a result of consuming the advertising and what they need to hear so that their behaviour is influenced. It is not usually given to the researcher, although the important

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Where are we? And why are we here?

Where could we be?

How could we get there?

POSITIONING

POTENTIAL TARGET AUDIENCE, PROPOSITION and ADVERTISING OBJECTIVES

ADVERTISING STRATEGY

CREATIVE BRIEF

Are we getting there?

CREATIVE IDEAS

CAMPAIGN

FIGURE 4.2

The outputs of the planning process

elements are found in the Creative Brief, which is an essential part of the research briefing (and is discussed more fully on p. 42).

DEVELOPING THE ADVERTISING STRATEGY

Sometimes, the strategy for the advertising is obvious and demands little time, energy and discussion. More often, the net is cast as wide as possible and every available document and avenue is trawled. Clearly, the existing brand marketing strategy is the place to start. What is the intention for the brand? How is the brand positioned in the marketplace with reference to the other players? What is the proposition for the brand – what is it about this product or service that could attract people to it? Advertising is sometimes needed as a problem-solver because of a particular set of market conditions; sometimes it is needed to exploit a particularly favourable set of conditions. As has been briefly described above, there are three main pillars to the strategy document. Other factors usually have to be added in, depending on the problem, the brand or the sector, but these are the core elements that will take the strategy smoothly into the shaping of the creative brief. Agency planners embark on the quest for the strategy with a determination that is reminiscent of Jason looking for the Golden Fleece. They leave no avenue unexplored, no stone unturned in their restless search for inspiration, for the insight that will unlock the target audience’s motivation. There are four main avenues of exploration (Figure 4.3). Sometimes the ‘answer’ is found along only one of these avenues, sometimes two, sometimes three or all four.

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LOOKING FOR THE ADVERTISING STRATEGY

rch

a ese

r

CONSUMERS THE COMPANY

THE PRODUCT and THE BRAND

THE CULTURE and THE CLIMATE OF OPINION

FIGURE 4.3 Four avenues of exploration when looking for the advertising strategy

The first place to look is within the brand itself and possibly its competition: what is the brand’s history, why was it developed, where does it come from, how is it different from other brands in the sector ...? The planners on Polaroid, Cindy Gallop and Karen Hand at BBH (APG Creative Planning Awards 1995), gave colleagues a Polaroid camera to take out over a week. This confirmed how outdated Polaroid had become (Cindy and Karen’s colleagues felt embarrassed about using it) but it did reveal how different the Polaroid photographs were to photographs taken with a conventional camera. The conventional photos were stiff and posed by comparison with the spontaneous and uninhibited pictures taken with the Polaroid. It can be worth investigating the company. Richard Huntingdon at AMV BBDO (APG Creative Planning Awards 1997) discovered the seeds of a distinctive strategy for Wranglers when looking back over the history of the company. He found that the original Wranglers were designed for a legendary rodeo star, Rodeo Ben, and had features specifically designed for use by rodeo riders. Features like flat rivets that didn’t scratch or catch the saddle, a watch pocket positioned under the belt so it retained its contents under duress, double stitching on the inside and outside seams for added strength, a plastic rather than a leather pocket patch to stop it sticking to the animal being ridden, and the obligatory boot cut all demonstrated that special

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and unique function. It was inspirational fodder for an advertising campaign. Thirdly, the prevailing climate of opinion or cultural changes can inform a strategy, too. Part of the success of Olivio (APG Creative Planning Awards 1997) in chasing off a serious threat from own label products was in the brand forming a strong association with the unhurried and pleasant lifestyles of the Mediterranean, the home of olive oil.

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The key insight, however, came from looking at health trends over the previous thirty or so years. Dylan Williams at BBH went back over doctors’ recommendations in the popular media and promotional material from successful health farms and clubs and found that attitudes and behaviour had followed three distinct waves. The first was the Era of Denial, the second the Era of Portfolio Management (characterised by a ‘jog to McDonald’s’ and the Bran Flakes advertising of the time) and the third was the Era of Positive Health, which was where Olivio belonged. This last wave was about holistic health, eating more healthy foods as opposed to eating fewer unhealthy ones. The advertising that was eventually developed celebrated long, fulfilled and happy lives and clearly struck the right chord at the right time. The fourth avenue is the one that concerns us here, the research avenue – consulting the target audience. In nearly every case, sooner or later, research is used to provide a picture of the prospective target. On many occasions, qualitative research is the first port of call. While it is generally agreed that this first stage of research is the most valuable and in the context of the planning cycle can inform the decisions still to be taken, there is a real reluctance to commit to large-scale projects at this stage. The very best use of qualitative research is to find out what you didn’t know you didn’t know – to cast the net wide with an open mind – very much in keeping with the quest for an advertising strategy, but it is hard to spend money on such an uncertain outcome. Consequently, research at this stage often lacks scope. Also, findings from this first stage of research amongst consumers can reveal that the answer to the problem lies elsewhere. Research other than qualitative is considered and other avenues are explored. Observation can provide rich data. Hanging around in shops, taking respondents shopping for fashion, being with them while they are doing the washing, surfing the Web or whatever seems productive, can all provide a chance to plant the seeds of inspiration. Bridget Angear and Ian Leslie at J Walter Thompson dressed as staff at Madame Tussaud’s to watch visitors at the waxwork attraction (APG Creative Planning Awards 1997). What they saw were people interacting with the figures, looking into their eyes, expressing surprise at their various physical attributes but, importantly interacting with the figures and with other members of their group. So rather than focusing the advertising on the figures themselves, as had been their initial inclination, they decided to make the interaction with the figures the central plank of the strategy. There are occasions, however, when exploration of these four avenues, brand competition, company, prevailing climate of opinion and target audience, yield little inspiration. This is sometimes the case with brands in markets where there are many similar brands competing for attention – the chocolate bar (or ‘countline’) market being one – or where the brand is a style leader – Nike or Prada, for example. In the case of the chocolate countline market, for instance, the strategy must not contradict the product

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promise but the key requirement is standout and novelty. When it comes to style leader brands, the strategy must be one step ahead … of the competition, of the prevailing climate of opinion and of the target audience – so the inspiration for the strategy is likely to come from other sources, possibly art, cinema or literature. FROM ADVERTISING STRATEGY TO CREATIVE BRIEF

The Creative Brief is a document written by the planner with the intention of informing and inspiring the creative team. The format of the brief is intended to inspire and guide the thinking of the planner. Not only that, it constitutes an agreement between all the team members, agency and client, on what the advertising should incorporate and communicate. It represents a distillation of the thinking so far. No wonder it is such an important document. The creative brief is the most important document for the researcher, too, because it describes the intention of the advertising and the way that the advertising is intended to achieve what it sets out to do. It will be the requirements spelled out in this document that the advertising will be developed to achieve. Almost all agency Creative Briefs follow the pattern described by Gary Duckworth (1999: 140) (see Box 4.1).

Box 4.1 Elements of the Creative Brief • Why are we advertising? The role of advertising What is the advertising doing? What do we want people to think? • Who are we talking to? The target group Type and outlook of person, not just demographics Their behaviour with respect to our objective • What are we saying? Proposition/main thought plus support • How are we saying it? Tone of voice, brand identity • Executional guidelines Things to avoid. Things you must do Other requirements (media considerations, timing etc.)

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Needless to say, the formats of the creative brief differ from agency to agency in the sense that, as such an important document, it needs to be a reflection of their advertising philosophy. J Walter Thompson, for example, include in their creative briefs the important discipline of thinking first of the desired consumer response before creating the stimulus that is to produce that response. At HHCL, a London agency credited for creating mould-breaking and code-breaking (in semiotic terms) advertising, Creative Director Steve Henry (1997) summed up the elements that make up a useful brief – elements that are useful for researchers and planners working on the strategic development phase to have in the backs of their minds when researching strategy and rough ads:

Find out what everyone else is doing and do something different. Forget the logical proposition and find the personality of the brand instead. Define the target audience so that you like and respect it. Put in creative starters (write a few ads yourself) ... and be inspirational!

Within that, planners at HHCL are asked to ask themselves

What are the harsh business realities? What are the mistaken assumptions of the category and the brand? How can we turn these to our advantage, in a surprising way? For three insights that bring the brand to life.

These are intended to help the planner think more broadly and laterally about the bridge from strategy to advertising. Trying to think of creative starters, for example, can iron out problems with the strategy. There is no point in having a strategy based on new and powerful insights if it can’t be translated into advertising. Andrew Truslove (personal communication) has pointed out that interesting but convoluted strategies are likely to be turned into either overly-complicated or banal advertising. The entreaty to describe the target audience respectfully in a way that is likeable and is a powerful thought that will be referred to later in this text. It is common for researchers to see the target audience described by brand and agency teams alike in a disparaging way. The language of marketing, and presumably its culture, is masculine, combative and adversarial: it talks of ‘strategies’, ‘tactics’, ‘targets’, ‘stealing share’ etc., and there is a

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tendency for marketers to see consumers as ‘the enemy’ and to want to control and manipulate them. Liking and respecting the consumer means looking at the world through their eyes and seeking a genuine understanding of their point of view, which can only benefit the brand and its advertising enormously.

CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

Compared to the excitement and the adrenaline-rush of finding the strategy, the creative development is hard work for the planner, with fewer rewards along the way. Members of both the brand and agency teams are becoming committed to particular directions and executions. In an ideal world, the creative development research is a discrete stage of research. Often though, the edges of this research stage are blurred, merging with the development of the strategy and even with the pretesting stage afterwards. Broadly, the purpose is to take the creative idea, or creative ideas, and define and optimise them, helping the agency team to see the underlying structure, and how the ad is working with the target audience. There is often more than one stage of creative development research, the ideas being continously developed and fed back into research. Sometimes, it is a search for the perfect analogy that can represent a positive experience of the brand, or a metaphor that can explain the benefits. Sometimes the research can uncover an executional detail that, when changed, allows the brand message to be heard more clearly and in a more motivating way. Some famous advertising characters have undergone personality changes at the research stage and gone on to be hugely successful. Chris Powell recalled two such examples (cited by Barnett 2001): The Quaker Honey Monster was originally going to be a pretty violent character, but the research showed people didn’t like that so he was changed into a lovable personality. Humphrey’s campaign for Unigate Milk: originally conceived as nasty, grubby creatures who ‘hated Unigate Milk’ – hence their name – they were discovered in research to be too threatening, so they were transformed into cheeky thieves who stole your milk because they liked it so much. An award-winning campaign was thus born.

Land Rover in the 1980s, with their agency Dorlands, was looking for a way of representing the feeling of driving the Land Rover. They had discovered that drivers loved the feeling of sitting high up above most of the other drivers on the road, giving them a better view of the road ahead, but respondents found it difficult to articulate why exactly it was such a good

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feeling. Several series of rough executions were drawn up by the creative team of ways of expressing the feeling and it was clear that it was not about feeling superior, nor was it just about having a better view. Finally, a rough drawing of a boy sitting on his father’s shoulders was identified as expressing the whole feeling: not just about having a better view, although that was important, but about having that better view knowing that your father would never let you fall. One rough sketch was enough to express all those good feelings in one, but without the creative team’s repeated efforts it would never have been discovered. Needless to say, it turned out to be a great success and was one of only a few advertisements for cars that succeeded in expressing a powerful message without sight of the car itself.

KEY POINTS

• The planning cycle prescribes the thinking that drives and shapes the development of an advertising campaign. • It comprises four stages: ¡

Where are we?

¡

Why are we here? Where could we be? How could we get there?

¡ ¡

• The planning cycle encompasses an examination of the factors that have led to the current circumstances of the brand, an assessment of where the brand could go in the future and of how advertising could contribute, the development of advertising (which is where research is used) and the evaluation of whether the advertising is achieving the objectives set out for it. • Documents and statements are written and agreed throughout the planning cycle: the positioning statement, the target audience, the brand proposition, the strategic advertising document and the creative brief. • The advertising strategy is built on three fundamental agreements: ¡ ¡ ¡

A description of the target audience. What they are intended to take out of the advertising. The intended effect on the target audience.

• Planners search enthusiastically for the advertising strategy, especially for the intended message, or take-out. They explore four main avenues: ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡

The brand and possibly the competition. The company and its history with the brand. The prevailing climate of opinion. The target audience – of fundamental importance and unlocked mainly by qualitative research.

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• Creative development research can feel less rewarding to the planning team because the big strategic idea has been discovered and the task is now a more painstaking search for the most engaging and appropriate execution of the creative idea. • Where research is concerned, the creative brief is the most important document because it is a distillation of the thinking so far and represents an agreement as to where to take the advertising. The responses to the advertising ideas are matched to the requirements of the creative brief.

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5 The Research Process: From Briefing to Fieldwork

When science has discovered and explained everything about this world we live in and the humans that inhabit it, there will still be the mystery of the human heart. (paraphrased from Ludwig Wittgenstein)

This chapter describes how commercial qualitative researchers plan advertising research projects and interview respondents. It goes from the point of commissioning through the briefing, developing the sample design and writing the discussion guides. It shows how the project evolves and changes over time, according to the data that are gathered. Of critical importance to any qualitative research is the interviewing process, because this is the raw ingredient for any successful project. The chapter describes how interviewing styles change over the length of each interview session and over the fieldwork period. It makes distinctions between the expansiveness of the strategic development stage and the more focused creative development work.

In any qualitative research project, there are two directions in which the researcher needs to direct their gaze: in the direction of whatever brand, product or service is under investigation, and also at the individuals who are going to make up the sample. In the same way as the respondent is interviewed, so too must the brand be examined and understood. As researchers look, Janus-like, in two directions, so they also adopt three consecutive modes of thinking as they travel through each project: the subjective phase, when all the researcher has to go on is their own experience; the objective phase, when the researcher is occupied with interviewing consumers; and the judgemental phase, which pulls all the subjective and objective learning together and translates them in terms of the clients’ business. This chapter discusses the subjective and objective phases of the process (see Books 1, 4 and 7 for further discussion of the multiple roles that researchers must adopt).

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BEFORE THE FIELDWORK

Time spent before the fieldwork begins is time well invested. Researchers can easily fall into the trap of thinking of the fieldwork as the focus of their energy and time, and the time spent planning the project beforehand as optional. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most advertising researchers will explore their own knowledge, opinions and prejudices – building hypotheses about the market and about the product or service concerned. They will put the brand in the context of its market: what is happening in this market, how the brand is positioned within this market and what is happening to the market leader. Is it a burgeoning exciting market, or is it declining? Is it embarrassing or shameful to talk about or is it glamorous and popular? Does it make us laugh? In the area of public information, what are the expected public responses to the issues that are brought up? It is worth hypothesising, too, about the relationship between the agency and the client. Is there a danger of losing the account? in which case, the research may be sitting as judge and jury – not a task it can comfortably accomplish. Is this a new direction for the advertising? in which case, there will be plenty of enthusiasm and high hopes. What is the researcher’s role in the triumvirate? Therapist, judge, consultant, reporter, third party, critic, paid assassin, nurse, intellectual fitness trainer . . .?

THE BRIEFING

The briefing meeting is critical in any qualitative research project and can make the difference between success or failure. It is up to the client and the advertising agency to give as complete a picture to the researcher as possible, and up to the researcher to use all his skills to discover the bigger picture and to unpick and understand the detail (see Book 7 for further discussion of the briefing process). The first task is to identify the stage the team has reached in the planning process. As has been described elsewhere, the research might not slot easily into the box marked ‘strategic development research’ or ‘creative development research’, but knowing broadly where it fits is helpful in thinking ahead about the sample and discussion guides. In creative development research, and of prime importance here, is to try to find out what the agency team identify as the creative idea. This is often not possible at the briefing meeting because they might not know, but canvassing their opinions is important. The researcher also needs to walk away from that meeting with the creative brief tucked safely away in his briefcase because that is the document which distils all the thinking so far and describes the intentions of the advertising; it is therefore the heart of the research objectives.

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FROM BRIEFING TO FIELDWORK

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There are some details that might not be on the brief and that need to be communicated to the researcher – details about music, atmosphere, pace and shape of the narrative, accents of protagonists – all of which can have a profound effect on how the advertising might be received. Clearly, there are some must-find-outs at that meeting: getting some idea of the research budget, a fix on timings and so forth are all critical. So too are media plans. Is TV or press the only medium or is a website planned to round off the communications package? What about plans to run a PR programme alongside? Possibly even more important is to find out how much exposure is being planned – can the advertising be a slow burn, or must it make its impact quickly because the target won’t be seeing it very often or for very long? Briefings very occasionally take place by fax and phone, which can work efficiently when the researcher has worked on the brand recently and knows the different team members. Brief briefings like this, however, with no face-to-face contact, can be disastrous when the brand is new to the researcher or she doesn’t know some of the team members. Face-toface is always better. Such meetings afford all the players a chance to meet each other, and a chance for issues to come up spontaneously, be discussed and sometimes be resolved or at least noted. On this subject, one of the skills that many experienced researchers bring to the table is the ability to dissect out any opinions and prejudices that might exist. If agency and client have not been able to voice their feelings at this stage, then those feelings are very likely to cause problems further down the line at the presentation. Qualitative research is not an exact science, in fact it is not a science at all, and it is easy to find ways of disputing the findings. The anecdote below, based on a true and painful story, demonstrates how important it is to find out where everyone stands before you embark on a new project. A design agency was asked to come up with some new designs for a mint biscuit. On the appointed day, they turned up armed with carefully crafted illustrations of a selection of designs – all in minty green. ‘Oh,’ said the marketing director, ‘I’m afraid we all hate green here, you’ll have to find another colour to represent mint.’

The client and the agency are not wrong to have preferences and opinions, it is their advertising or packaging after all, but it is important to find out what those preferences and opinions are. The briefing can be very revealing in other ways. If it is the first time the researcher has encountered the client, a lot can be read from their attitude. Are they embarrassed, are they proud … are they enthusiastic, are they weary? This is not a briefing confined to information about the brand and its advertising, after all; it should be about the context in which the advertising is being developed. Listen to this true story … A prestigious FMCG company engaged a research company to work on one of their brands. The briefing meeting was held at the Northern factory

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where the brand was manufactured. Getting out of the taxi, the researchers noticed that one of the 12-foot letters of the name announcing the brand on the building had fallen off and been replaced with a letter which was not quite in the same typeface, nor the same colour and had been put on crooked. At the meeting, held in a Portakabin, the researchers were told that the brand manager was new to the post and that the Marketing Director couldn’t make the meeting and was about to leave anyway. During the meeting, a reel of past advertising was shown, all of which seemed impressive and motivating, although the strategy and campaign ideas seemed to have changed regularly, frequently and in major ways. The researchers also noted hostility in the advertising agency’s attitude towards them. Over the two stages of the project, the researchers met a total of three marketing directors and two brand managers. Needless to say, the project did not go well and the recommendations were not put into practice. Adding up all the clues, it turned out that this was a company which was not proud, even a little ashamed, of this particular brand – a feeling which extended to the people working on it. So much change of personnel meant, too, that the advertising changed continually, which in turn meant disgruntled advertising agency teams. A constant round of new personnel, new agency teams, new advertising and new research agencies all had a lamentable effect on the brand and its fortunes.

A SEMIOTIC APPROACH

At this point, it can be enormously useful to look at the brand, the category and the advertising from a semiotic point of view. Semiotic analysis of advertising and markets is becoming increasing important in the practice of UK qualitative research (see Desai, Book 3) and has been described by Peter Cooper (2000) as one of the ‘three grand pillars’ of qualitative research, alongside traditional motivational research and ethnography. It is not only here that a semiotic approach can be taken when developing advertising but it is at this point that it fits best as an adjunct to traditional research. Sometimes semiotics is used instead of traditional qualitative research, particularly where the advertising intends to take the brand in a new direction or, indeed, the advertising itself is taking a new and radical direction. In these cases, the qualitative researcher has to battle against respondents’ tendency to conservatism when it comes to their favoured brands and seeing and hearing the opportunity above the loud noise of dislike is difficult. Here, at the beginning of the research process, though, is where both applications sit most happily alongside each other. Not only that, semiotic methodology provides a degree of objectivity and method to subjective hypothesis-building. Here are some questions that the researcher might put to the past and potential advertising as well as to the advertising of the competition. These are questions put to the text itself, that is to the advertisements themselves:

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• What are the major signifiers? • What signifieds might they be creating and to whom? • How do the ads work on a symbolic/metaphorical and on a product/ metonymic level? • How does the form and the content of the ad work together? • What codes do the ads use? • How does it measure up to the brand’s historical codes and those of its competitors? • How do they work in relation to the brand’s history and its futures? • Is the ad using a dominant emergent or residual set of codes or are residual codes being applied in an emergent way? • What kind of discourse or discourses are we looking at here, e.g. postmodernism, feminism, etc? This process will illuminate the advertising for the researcher, so that she can see and understand more completely the material she will be showing respondents and the contexts, past and competitive, in which the advertising will be evaluated.

Box 5.1 Terminology of Semiotics Signifier = the material sign (what it is) Signified = the conceptual sign (what it means) Sign = both signified and signifier Symbolic = what the material sign symbolises Codes = a bundle of signs . . . divided into residual, dominant and emergent Residual = old-fashioned and lacking in energy or relevance Dominant = everyday mainstream, widely acceptable Emergent = leading edge, culturally dynamic and fresh Discourse = modernism, humanism, feminism, postmodernism

Box 5.2 An Example from the Heinz Commercial ‘Toast to Life’, Explained by Greg Rowland (Personal Communication) This campaign showed ordinary family scenes, featuring family meals where Heinz products were used. The action was overlaid with stirring African music, by Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and finished with an ‘ancient proverb’ written in white on a black background.

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The everyday family signified an FMCG everyday product. The signifiers were filtered through dreamy exotic forms which are unconventional for the category. The music signified cultural otherness, spirituality and deepness, which on the positive front, signified the family of Man, the specialness of the everyday, the love within the family and eternal values. In terms of discourse, it referred to modernism, making the world less familiar, humanism – the transcultural values that unite humanity – and even postmodern radical disjuncture in form and content, slippage of signifiers, playfulness and transculturalness. This leads to the creation by Heinz of new (emergent) ways of representing family life in popular advertising culture. By comparison, other brands’ advertising and values will begin to look old-fashioned, represented by codes that will appear residual.

Methodology and Sample In terms of designing the sample, the requirements differ between strategic development and creative development. In the strategic development stage, the researcher is looking for insights into consumer opinions and behaviour that could motivate others to buy a particular brand, subscribe to a particular service, change their attitude or behaviour in a certain way. The ground they are working on, or rather the people they will be speaking to, need to provide them with fertile territory, the aim being to inspire the agency’s thinking. This is the type of research enquiry that does not always seek to understand how the whole market operates, but sometimes only a selected few consumers. With this in mind, it can be useful to isolate and interview particular types of people. People who love the brand or the category, for example, bring an enormous energy and self-awareness to the research. They are being asked to talk about an enthusiasm, in some cases a passion, and just experiencing that energy can inspire a flagging team. Talking to professionals in the field can be illuminating, too. Waiters, journalists, cleaners, buyers, cooks … can all be useful in throwing new light on an old problem. Another source of inspiration can be the recruiter who has been asked to recruit these enthusiastic people. How do people react when she runs through the questionnaire? Is it a category where feelings are sharply polarised? Are these people easy to find, or are they thin on the ground? When it comes to creative development research, the sample design is more straightforward and refers directly to the objectives. Researchers need to show the rough advertising to its intended target audience and use their reactions to understand how the advertising is working and how it might be improved. The extreme user’s reactions will be atypical at this stage and therefore not helpful. Does the advertising need to bring new users into the category? If so, non-users of the category must be included in the sample design. Do the

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objectives specifically state that the advertising should not alienate existing users? If so, existing users must be included. Brands that seek to lead need advertising that appeals to leading edge consumers. Someone who is an opinion leader in one category might not be so in another, although there are a tiny number of individuals who are ahead in every game. The best way to find these people is networking – and there is no formal way other than spreading the recruiting tentacles of a company wide and noticing and recruiting people through all company members. Some research companies build up panels of opinion leader types and consult them on a regular basis in the belief that hanging on to helpful respondents is a very good idea. It is important, though, to describe these people by what they do, not by what attitudes they hold, because it makes the recruiter’s work more straightforward and the quota descriptions more than just a subjective opinion. There are people out there, too, who are disproportionately likely to pass news on to others and so are disproportionately important when it comes to advertising. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book The Tipping Point (2000), described these types of people, whom he called ‘Connectors’. It might be useful in particular cases to talk to these types of personalities. It is common practice, particularly for creative development research, to exclude respondents who are anti-advertising. It is not that they may or may not be unimportant to the eventual success of a campaign, just that their negative attitude is not helpful when it comes to developing the scripts. One researcher excludes anyone who works in the public sector because they have a tendency to be suspicious of the commercial world, but most are not that extreme. However, it is a well-validated fact (Bond and Brace 1997) that there exists in the population a significant minority (roughly 20 per cent) of individuals who are against the whole concept of advertising. Advertising rejectors are not always excluded, but they are worth interviewing in a separate group. Box 5.3 shows the screening questions that have been developed, tried and tested to identify and exclude advertising rejectors.

Box 5.3 Excluding Advertising Rejectors … Respondents would be asked which of these statements best matched their attitudes towards advertising. • I find TV advertising interesting and quite often it gives me something to talk about EXCLUDE • Nearly all TV advertising annoys me • I find some TV advertising is OK but I think quite a lot is devious • Quite often, I find TV advertising more entertaining than the programmes

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Some research agencies prefer to recruit respondents who are ‘creative’, in the belief that they will bring new insights and observations to the research and they may have a battery of questions and techniques that can identify such gifted individuals. Given the subject under investigation, usually the relationship between brand and consumer, it is hard to see what a ‘creative’ individual can bring that an enthusiastic loyal user cannot. Moreover, ‘creative’ is a catch-all term that refers to too broad a range of talents to be useful for research purposes, and the techniques used at recruitment are often too blunt to identify these people. Recruiters dislike these techniques (Market Research Society Joint Working Party 1995) anyway and tend either to ignore the relevant questions or have a range of answers up their sleeves they have prepared earlier. What the researcher needs is someone who has insight into their own behaviour and reactions and is sufficiently articulate to express that in a public forum.

How Many Groups and Interviews? Here again, strategic development differs from creative development. In the former, the remit is broad and wide. Researchers are casting their net wide to increase the chance of catching the insight. In the latter, the remit is more focused. In strategic development research, the greater the number of respondents consulted, the more likely it is that the motivating insight will surface. Sometimes it will be one chance comment, usually spontaneous, that will provide the insight that points the way forward and it is important that there are sufficient numbers of respondents to give that comment a chance to spring into someone’s mind (see the example from McCain Foods in Chapter 6). As a general principle, too, the fewer the respondents, the greater the reliance on the researcher and his judgement. Conversely, the greater the number of respondents, the more likely it is that the recommendations will be founded on consumer experience. Creative development research is different. The amount of money left in the research budget might be dwindling, time might be running out and there could be pressure to skip this stage. There are often two or three stages of creative development and it is common for the last stages to consist of only a couple of groups each. Occasionally, it will be the researcher from the research agency who will conduct all the stages, sometimes it will be the planner from the agency, more often than not, it will be a combination of both. Here, the model is ‘consultation’ rather than ‘research’, with respondents contributing to the researcher’s or planner’s thinking. The sample design for a two-group stage needs as much thought as for a more extensive project. It is important that both groups are the same in terms of sample design. If the samples between the two groups are

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Interview, triads ...

Accompanied shops

Pre-tasking diaries, visits, photos ...

ADVERTISING STRATEGY

Group discussions

Observation

FIGURE 5.1 More input, more likelihood of wow!

different and the findings differ radically (as they often do), it is impossible to say whether those differences were due to differing ages, sexes or brand usership, depending on what variables were used, or indeed whether the order in which respondents saw the ads was the reason. Recommendations from such groups will of necessity be so tentative as to be of little value. Better to have two broadly defined identical samples, where different responses can be more reliably traced.

Methodology In strategic development research, the researcher is in a very open frame of mind, considering every possibility. Indeed, this mix of methodologies, sometimes called ‘bricolage’, gives different views of the consumer–brand relationships. Accompanied shopping trips, for example, can give a realtime view of instore decision-making, while group discussions will resolve some of the long-term strategic issues, giving a clearer sense of what the advertising should tackle and in what order.

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Interviewing respondents in twos, threes, fours, fives … eights, all give a slightly different perspective: friendship groups, groups of work colleagues, partners, family groups are all useful. It is the brand and the consumer that is under scrutiny, so it is also worth considering going to where the respondents interact with the brand and observing and interviewing them there. In-home interviews for something like washing powder, for instance, watching the respondent doing the weekly wash, can reveal insights that are unlikely to emerge from normal group discussions. Fewer people in a group means that individuals can be given time to voice their opinions and tell their stories, while larger groups can take issues further through discussion and interaction. Larger groups can show a consensus, which can also be revealing. Where subjects are sensitive, medical subjects for example, groups are usually preferable. Respondents are more likely to feel they can air their opinions if everyone is a sufferer like them. One respondent on their own is likely to feel much more embarrassed about voicing their opinions for fear of what the interviewer (a non-sufferer) would think. Observation can be illuminating, too. For example, it can be useful visiting different pubs and bars when exploring a beer brand – although this is sometimes called a ‘pub crawl’ by the unkind! Just watching the clientele can give more of a flavour of the environment in which the beer lives than tens of groups. Visiting any brand’s natural habitat will add depth and colour to the analysis and presentation. In the pursuit of a complete picture, it is helpful for respondents to be given tasks to complete before they come to any research session. Filling in diaries, taking photographs, networking with friends, gathering favourite shoes, visiting a series of venues can all get the respondent thinking about the subject beforehand, help them feel more confident about their contribution, and thus get them to contribute more fully. If the intention is to discover the nugget that is the key to communicating a powerful message, the greater the number of ways that the consumer and the market are approached, the better. For creative development research, group discussions are usually best for television or poster advertising. The emphasis is on developing ideas and most people need the input of others to spark thoughts and solutions in their own minds. The intense ‘hot-housing’ of ideas in groups is very different from the way that advertising is consumed in reality, and has been criticised accordingly. But the purpose of creative development research is not to evaluate the advertising with the intention of predicting its success, it is to develop the ideas, and the spontaneity and interaction of the group can indeed reveal the way that the advertising is working – in a sense ‘drilling down’ to explain the superficial reaction. Geoff Bayley, in his article ‘Sharp Stick’ (1999), dismisses the criticisms. He says giving scant attention to an advertisement in the real world does not mean that we do not spend any time thinking about it. In reality, we

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can dwell on and absorb advertising we have only briefly seen. He goes on to say: The important point is that hot-housing gets at things that are real – our understanding of products and brands in our culture, the nature of our identity wrapped up in brand experience. The group format may look like an artifice to the onlooker but to the participants it uncovers real truths that they don’t usually glimpse.

The intention of creative development research is not to replicate reality either. Qualitative research, with its small sample sizes and contrived setting, cannot predict the response an ad might receive in the real world. The intention is to develop the idea – to understand and take it further – and there needs to be an element of hot-housing and deconstruction in order for that to happen. As a counterbalance to the intensity of the group discussion, it can be very useful to phone respondents afterwards. Just a 5 minute call can identify what the advertising has left behind in their minds, and indeed, what has been forgotten. It can be useful, too, to hear comments that were not made at the time, which might differ from the general direction that the group took. For press advertising, a mixture of groups and depth interviews are the ideal, and if time and budgets are limited, it is better to choose the individual interview. Rachael Holmes (1998) identified the types of findings that emerged from both methodologies and recommended opting for individual interviews because the medium itself is consumed privately and rarely discussed or commented on and this methodology is the closest match. She found that while groups were better at revealing a richer and broader response to the brand and the category, depth interviews allowed respondents to speak of their private feelings – indeed those very feelings that gave rise to the choice of medium in the first place.

Viewing Facilities Britain is the only country in the world where qualitative research is not routinely conducted in viewing facilities but rather in the homes of the recruiters. The reasons for this are best left to another book, but it has probably got something to do with the way we conduct our social lives and how research has developed in the UK over the years. Having said that, every year an increasing number of groups (depths tend not to be conducted in viewing facilities) are conducted in custom-made facilities. For their part, researchers have reasons both to be thankful for viewing facilities as well as wishing that they had never crossed the Atlantic. Apart from the convenience that they offer the researcher, they are a useful way of meeting up with client and agency during the fieldwork and having a

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chance to discuss the project. More importantly though, where something is clearly going wrong with the advertising, it is a godsend for everyone to see those reactions and share that experience and knowledge. If not, someone, usually the researcher, will end up bringing the bad news to someone else, usually the client and agency, and everyone knows how easy it is to criticise the messenger rather than take the message on board. On the negative side, the one-way mirror has an effect on the people on both sides of it – and it is not an effect that is helpful to the research. The way that research is experienced affects the way that it is interpreted. Moderating a group is different from observing in the same room; watching from behind a mirror is different again and different from watching the proceedings on a video later. The closer contact an individual has with a group, the more he or she can pick up the changing moods, the subtle differences in response, the tensions and conviviality between group members. These elusive changes and impressions can have profound significance when it comes to working out what implications those responses have for the advertising. If the observers behind the mirror have come away with a different interpretation, it can be difficult for the researcher to be believed and to have their recommendations accepted. Graham Booth has pointed out (1997) that clients may hear individual comments and jump to the wrong conclusion, while researchers have the benefit of having conducted many such groups and are able to put those comments into context and interpret them with the benefit of experience. But it is hard not to listen selectively. This is what Jon Steel had to say in Truth, Lies and Advertising: Anyone who has ever sat in the viewing room at a focus group facility will have observed the random and partisan attention often given to research proceedings by clients (both marketing and research executives) and creative people. Many of them arrive at the facility with their own preconceptions which often mean that the clients have concerns and issues and are waiting for consumers to echo their fears, while the creative people think those fears are groundless and are looking for endorsement of their ideas. A comical situation ensues whereby every time a respondent says something positive, the creatives will write furious notes, cast knowing glances in the clients’ direction and on occasion rise from their chairs and high-five anyone within reach. When the comments are negative, it’s the clients’ turn to write notes and shoot knowing glances. Regarding themselves as more rational, sensible and mature, they tend to stay seated and do not engage in overt celebrations of bad news. (1998: 95)

The mirror sets up a judgemental dynamic between respondents and observers (Robson and Wardle 1988). Respondents feel they and their comments are being judged, responding in a more self-conscious and less expansive way, while there is a tendency for those behind the mirror to feel judgemental of the respondents. Harking back to Steve Henry (1997) and his plea to all creatives and planners to respect, even like, their

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respondents, a viewing facility is not an ideal way in which to experience research. It is very difficult to resist the temptation to criticise respondents from the other side of the mirror. The use of viewing facilities is probably less advisable when it comes to advertising research than any other topic, even those topics which are personal, intimate and embarrassing. Opinions about advertising are not strongly held and are not part of the respondent’s bank of attitudes and opinions that they bring to the group discussion. They are easily swayed. It is easy to condemn ideas out of hand and it is easy to follow the crowd. And the presence of the invisible observers encourages respondents to take the easy way out. Our ideal respondent is one who brings energy and enthusiasm to the discussion and who is highly self-aware and articulate. Again, the presence of the invisible observer militates against such selfexploration. The effects of viewing facilities on interviewing are discussed further in Book 2.

PLANNING THE DISCUSSION

Introducing the Research to Respondents Apart from the usual introductory reassurances, there are one or two things that are important to mention to respondents when it comes to creative development. It is worth telling respondents that they are going to be seeing rough ads (emphasising rough), that everyone’s opinion is equally important, that they may well differ in their opinions, indeed they are expected to disagree, and that their opinions are likely to change over the length of the discussion. Permission, permission, permission is what respondents need to have in order to think, feel and say what they find. The atmosphere created at the beginning by the researcher should be as relaxed as possible – respondents should feel no pressure to conform in any way to other group members nor to the research process. The more relaxed and comfortable respondents feel, the more likely they are to express their feelings in the public forum of the group discussion. Respondents are more likely to be challenged while they are helping with creative development research and it is important that they feel they can look inside themselves to explore their reactions rather than be held back by the possible opprobrium of others. In all this, it is the mood created by the researcher in that first introduction that sets the tone for the rest of the session. She will be wittingly (or unwittingly maybe) setting limits, too. A few jokes, a few personal comments from the researcher, all tell the respondents what sort of response she is expecting. Where the advertising that respondents might be watching later is risqué or controversial it is worth including oblique references, showing respondents that this researcher is unshockable and anything goes.

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In the Beginning What is the best question to start respondents off, galloping through the discussion? In projects where respondents will be seeing rough ads, typically creative development research, the question always arises of how to begin. Should respondents be encouraged to talk about the brand itself, about the category in which it sits or maybe about advertising generally? In one sense, the logical place to start is with the brand in question. Such a discussion will reveal how respondents use it and view it, and the effects of the advertising on their beliefs can be seen. We’re talking here of some sort of before and after, although sadly, it doesn’t work like that. Respondents are reluctant to change their minds in group discussions, or more accurately, to reveal that they have changed their minds because it makes them look suggestible and easily influenced. Changes in perception and opinion need careful detective work to see. Owning up to a particular opinion at the beginning of a group is going to mean that a respondent feels reluctant to express a different opinion later on. However, some practitioners like to begin talking about the category because that is what respondents think they are coming to talk about. They find it easy to talk about their own behaviour and slip easily into the discussion because they have already half-prepared their answers to the questions that are asked. Here again, there is a danger that they express views that they don’t feel they can contradict later on in the discussions. Many practitioners like to begin talking about advertising because it has none of the problems associated with talking about the brand and category. However, it can create its own problems. If respondents are asked about ‘advertising they like’, the tenor of the discussion becomes likeable advertising. No matter what the actual question (e.g. ‘advertising you have noticed recently’), the conversations often end up with advertising that they like. There is a tendency to recall long-running, highly acclaimed advertising against which the rough ads are going to have to compete. It can be a bit uncomfortable, too, for some respondents, especially older respondents, to talk about advertising. They feel they have been put on the spot, can’t remember a single ad, let alone one they liked, and are having to express those views to someone who is more of an expert than they are, someone who appears to have come from the world of advertising. Some practitioners like to begin by talking about something completely different that has nothing to do with brands or advertising. Asking respondents how they would like to be reincarnated is a favourite. The name game is another, where each respondent tells the group he or she is called what they are and what they think about it. This has the advantage of helping all group members to remember each others’ names which makes it easier for them to address each other during the discussions. It’s important that respondents know why they are playing a game because it can feel odd that they have been asked to come along and talk about life assurance and they end up talking about reincarnation!

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More important than choosing the appropriate question with which to begin the discussions, is to create a friendly, non-judgemental and relaxed atmosphere in which to show the advertising. You could think of this as the atmosphere that would be around if the respondents were watching or reading the advertising at home. It is worth thinking about the mood of the advertising and attempting to prepare respondents. If the advertising is funny, create a jokey atmosphere, if it’s a bit serious, match that by your demeanour. Give respondents permission to change their minds – and make sure the questions are couched in that way: ‘Do you think people will think differently about this brand in any small way, after seeing these?’

TOPIC GUIDES

Also called discussion guides, there are three principal types of topic guide: • the guide that shows the client how the objectives are going to be tackled; • the guide that rehearses the discussion; and • the one-page guide that provides reminders and prompts during the discussions themselves. All three are different forms of the same information (see also Book 2). The first kind of guide is more of a commercial agreement between client and research agency, reassuring the client that the brief has been understood, while the third is simply an aide-memoire. The second bridges the gap between the two and is the most important in terms of preparing for the fieldwork. This section will deal with the content of the guide rather than its form. Strategic development research explores the perception and meaning of the brand in question and the relationship that it has with its users. Creative development research develops rough advertising. Hence, the focus of the two stages is very different. In strategic development research, the focus of the investigation is on the brand and the practical, emotional and social roles it has, or could have, for consumers. The topic guide needs to cover all three as well as exploring the brand and its competition. The following is by no means an exhaustive list of topics but it provides a good beginning for exploration. • Competition Closest competitor; trends in the market; how much choice; how differentiated; what are the choice criteria, e.g. price, flavour, efficacy. • Brand Purchasing: habitual or considered purchase; part of a repertoire or pretty loyal; how many bought at any one time; decision-making

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process; where bought; how displayed; packaging; buying more or buying less: how encountered first of all. • Advertising recall User and purchaser imagery (if different). Brand imagery and personality. Positives and negatives. • Relationship Practical role: how, when and why the brand is used; how could it be improved; packaging/instructions; design and ease of use. Emotional role: how does using this brand make me feel; what role am I in when I am using it and what are my wants and needs in that role? Social and cultural role: what does this brand say to others about me; does this brand fit with the occasion; does this brand fit with codes that are emergent. Much of this depends, of course, on what has gone before, both in terms of research and advertising. The intended advertising may well have evolved from a previous campaign, or could be another execution for an existing campaign, in which case the existing advertising would need to be explored. If the advertising aims to reposition the brand, then a more lateral approach would need to be taken, possibly not focusing on the brand, with its current imagery and associations.

Box 5.4 Projective Techniques Particularly useful in strategic development, projective techniques are used to discover and explore the deeper associations and meanings brands have for consumers. Strictly speaking, the term ‘projective’ means projecting unconscious or repressed impressions, feelings and opinions onto other people; ‘hearing’ others express one’s own thoughts. The term has come to include all sorts of enabling techniques which can unlock and clarify meanings that are out of conscious reach or deep or difficult to express verbally. Apart from simple questioning techniques, where respondents are asked to consider what other people might be thinking or feeling, an incomplete list could include: • Personification – where respondents are asked to describe the brand as a person and how that person might feel about them • Psycho-drawings – where respondents are asked for some visual brand association. If time is short and respondents anxious, it is best to give respondents a specific task, like ‘the house of the brand and its nearest competitor’.

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• Collage – where respondents are asked to pull pictures from magazines, or sort through a pile of pictures and words, and pull out those that best represent the brand • Brand room or brand planet – where, say, the Coca-Cola room or the Coca-Cola planet is described by respondents. The nearest competitor could be described, too, as a point of comparison • Word association – a simple technique where respondents are asked for the first words they think of after the brand name is mentioned • Buttons – respondents would be asked to pick out buttons from a big selection that best represent different brands in the marketplace • Bubble drawings – where respondents fill in comments and thoughts expressed by the people in the drawings

There is a tendency for projective techniques (see Box 5.4) to be used as part of the performance of research to impress clients, where a simple question might suffice. In these days of increasingly sophisticated consumers, just asking them what the image of the brand might be could take a tenth of the time although admittedly it might not be as much fun and the findings might not be as colourful and broad. Visual material created by the respondents can be particularly inspiring for creative teams, bringing the words in the presentation to life. It is important, though, to involve the respondents in the technique, explaining if necessary why that particular question has been asked, allowing respondents a genuine chance to opt out and, most importantly, asking them what they think of their answers. Their own analysis is more valuable than the researcher’s and will enrich the findings accordingly. Researchers can interpret the meaning and significance. There is no blueprint for a topic guide for strategic development, only suggestions, just as there is no complete list of projective techniques. For each new set of advertising issues to solve, it is worth seeing if there is not a new and more revealing projective technique. Here is one such invention that worked well because respondents could do it so quickly. The task seemed to bypass their conscious reasoning mind, and go straight to their real feelings. A researcher was undertaking strategic development research for a new campaign for a bank. The advertising was intended to attract small business customers and the researcher needed to understand the relationship between the customer and the bank. It soon became clear that there was

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a third important party in the relationship, that of the customer’s accountant. Simple discussion did not seem to get to the heart of the three-way relationship. The researcher bought three large troll dolls and asked the next group to arrange the trolls in a way that represented the three-way relationship as it currently stood and the ideal relationship. Respondents were able to arrange the three dolls quickly and almost without thinking. Many were exasperated with the overbearing character of the bank, one respondent representing it with himself lying on the ground, the bank beating him up and the accountant trying to separate them and protect his client. The ideal relationship was unanimous across the sample: all three standing side by side, accountant nearer to customer, all facing confidently forward and mutually supportive.

Again, Book 2 contains further discussion of projective techniques. Turning now to creative development research, topic guides tend to look much less imaginative than those for strategic development research and yet, as we shall see in the next section, on interviewing, the way that the questions are put is less prescribed and more inventive. The introduction and first question require thought and are important for directing the discussion in the right direction and in the appropriate frame of mind (see ‘In the beginning’ on p. 62). Rotating the order in which the advertising is seen is vitally important and not considering the order carefully can result in important findings not being discovered. The first ad that respondents see is viewed monadically, or rather it is viewed in isolation. The second is viewed comparatively, with the benefit of the learning from the first. The third is also viewed comparatively, this time with the benefit of having seen the previous two. If the ads are nor rotated, they are all going to be seen in different contexts from one another. It is useful therefore to show all the executions first in at least one research session, to find out the response without respondents having the benefit of having seen any of the others. Some campaigns work cumulatively, with the benefit of the first one or two executions setting the scene for the ones that follow. In this instance, it is worth rotating all executions equally in the first few sessions, and subsequently showing the same one or two first in the remaining time or all at once. There are two important responses to rough ads that researchers need to capture: the first response and the thoughts and feelings that emerge over the length of the group. After having shown the rough ad, it is important to capture first impressions and respondents are usually asked to write down their first thoughts, impressions and possibly the message that came across. This will commit their first opinion to paper and goes a long way to dampening down the tendency for a group consensus to appear. After having written their first thoughts down, respondents are usually encouraged to talk about them. After the first showing, the ads can be shown as many times as is necessary and it is helpful to see how understanding and opinion changes

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over time. The research is not trying to replicate reality but trying to understand the sequence in which the ad is understood and how it is working. For each rough ad shown, there are some ‘must-talk-abouts’. • Comprehension • •

• • • • • • •

Tell me the story of what is happening in this ad Brand What is the ad advertising? Communication and message What do you notice? What do you think and what do you feel as a consequence? What is it saying to you and how is it saying it? Brand imagery What sort of brand is it advertising? Product attributes What would someone new to the brand expect of it? Differentiation According to the advertising, what is different about this brand? Proposition Why might protagonists like that brand and why should anyone buy it? Mood How would they describe the mood of the ad – gloomy, happy etc.? Advertising context Imagine it’s on TV, on a poster or magazine, how would it compare to other ads? The protagonists Who are the people in the ad, are they like you; if you met them, how would you feel about them and how would they feel about you?

It is very useful to ask respondents what kind of people wrote or thought up the advertising and how they personally would relate to those people, what those people think of them. This will give an indication of the respect with which respondents are being treated by the advertising and, of course, by the brand – ‘they do or don’t understand how I feel’. Importantly, hypotheses gathered along the way, fears, hopes and expectations, all need to be included in the discussion guide. When it comes to asking the questions, they are best couched in terms such as ‘Someone yesterday commented that … and what are your thoughts about what she said?’ In this way, the researcher will be disassociated from the comment and respondents will feel free to voice their opinion without fear of disagreeing with the researcher or indeed any observer who might be watching.

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In all qualitative projects, the discussion guide and sometimes the stimulus material change over the fieldwork period, and creative development research is no exception. Changing the topic guide, leaving out some stimulus material, adding in different executions, otherwise known more grandly as sequential recycling, all make the most of the limited fieldwork time and take the project further, with the learning from each couple of groups feeding into the next. As findings accumulate and new hypotheses are formed, they can be fed into the next session. Some areas can be probed and some not explored at all. Researchers might tell respondents what other groups have said and get their reactions. The same technique can be used to address the team’s worries, too. ‘Other people have said … What are your thoughts?’ To find out more about how respondents are reacting, researchers can ask respondents to extend the narrative to what happened before the action was captured on camera and what happened afterwards. Towards the end, it is worth turning the conversation away from the advertising under scrutiny for 10 minutes or so and then, before they leave the room, ask them what they remember about the various scripts – what pictures, what words, what colours and what overall emotional response they feel. ‘What do you remember now?’, ‘What would be your name for the different executions?’, ‘How would you describe these ideas to your partner when you get home?’ These are all valuable questions to elicit the big picture and the impressions that these ads are likely to leave behind. INTERVIEWING

Book 2 contains a detailed discussion of the principles of interviewing. Here their specific applications to advertising research is the primary focus. Before discussing the role of the moderator in conducting group interviewing, let’s consider the respondents’ state of mind. It’s fair to say that advertising is probably the least important subject to any normal respondent, in stark contrast to those who pay for it and are paid because of it. As a rule, respondents couldn’t care less, which brings its own problems to the interviewing process. The infamous ‘group effect’, where all members of the group end up agreeing with each other occurs more often with advertising research simply because people care less, and so anticipating and planning for it is important. If you add in the tendency for market research interviewees to be critical rather than positive, there is even more reason to allow for this at the beginning of the interview: • by emphasising in the introduction that respondents can and are likely to disagree with each other; • by emphasising how opinions can change over time and that this is OK; • by asking respondents to jot down their first thoughts about a particular advertising idea, at the same time asking everyone to keep quiet.

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When it comes to strategic advertising research, interviewing techniques are much the same as for any other piece of qualitative research (see Book 2). Having said that, the purpose of strategic work is not to canvass and distil opinion, but to discover an insight that could inspire a creative team and motivate a target audience. Dominic Scott-Malden describes the mode he adopts when conducting strategic development research. We go into a non-judgemental trance. We watch and we listen and we try to detach ourselves from our own opinions and just observe what the group seems to create. We like moderators to be as unobtrusive, neutral and unmanipulative as possible. And like birdwatchers we are alert to fractional changes of atmosphere or temperature. And we are looking for that elusive thing – the insight, the thing we did not know we did not know, the question we did not think to ask or the explanation we never realised was important. Because that is how we make our living. (1998: 3)

If moderating styles could be ranged along a spectrum from ‘fly on the wall’ to ‘participative’, we could place strategic development at the ‘fly on the wall’ end and creative development research, for some of the time at least, at the ‘participative’ end. Towards the beginning of the process, either in the first two groups or at the beginning of all the groups, the method of interviewing would be the objective exploratory questioning that would be used in any qualitative research project, covering the ‘musttalk-abouts’ mentioned above. This gathers all the responses from respondents in as objective a way as possible. Once the way that the rough ads are coming across is known, the task is to develop them into something that is as motivating as possible. The interviewing style changes from listening like blotting paper to a more challenging and interventionist stance. Not only does the moderator challenge the respondents, he manipulates, dissects and challenges the rough advertising, too. He needs to discover how that rough ad is working and what it is that makes it work in that way and how it can be made to be more motivating and captivating. He takes bits away and puts them back in a different place in a different guise to see how that changes the way the ad is received. He throws in opinions, as many as he can remember, controversial and mundane, to see what the reaction might be. Which one is going to make the respondents sit up and take notice? Which is going to engage them? The conversation has stepped away from the brand and is fully engaged with the advertising. Peter Dann (personal communication) couches the discussions in the conditional/future tense – would, will, could (men respond better to conditional, women respond better to future). This gives the questions a sense that the advertising is being developed for the future and that it is not yet perfect, and forces respondents to consider the advertising in a positive future light.

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at wou W Whhat woulldd yyoouu n ottiiccee no tw W Whhaat woouulldd yyoou thin kk?? u W wiilll yyo thin Whhaatt w ouu ffeeeell?? tw W Whhaat woouulldd yyoou w a ntt?? u wan The moderator’s intention is that respondents articulate their responses. This is not easy or familiar territory for any of us, and respondents will need help. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) has provided qualitative research with some useful practical techniques to help moderators access their responses their (Box 5.5). Geoff Bayley (2000) asks respondents where in their body they react to the ad: is it in their heart, in their feet, their backbone? The quest is for respondents to articulate their response, and any way that works is a good way.

Box 5.5 Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) NLP has provided us with some enormously useful techniques that can help us encourage our respondents to respond more fully and deeply. Three techniques that are particularly useful to qualitative researchers are described very briefly here, but there are many more. • NLP has shown us how we all have a preferred thinking mode, and even using different words in questions can access different responses in different respondents. Ask respondents what they heard, what they noticed, what they saw, what they thought, what they tasted and smelt and what they felt and the response will be richer. Researchers need to be aware, too, of their own preferred mode of thinking and steer clear of always asking questions in that mode • Another practical use of NLP is for the moderator to direct his gaze upwards to encourage respondents to think visually and downwards to put them in touch with they way they are feeling • Mirroring is a technique for helping the group move on. Sometimes, groups can get stuck, responding in an over-excited way, or with indifference or perhaps in fits of giggles. If the moderator ‘mirrors’ the group (which feels counter-intuitive), leaning forward when they are leaning forward, talking quickly when they talk quickly, giggling with them etc., and then slowly changes into a more productive stance, the group will follow and all will be well, or certainly improved

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Peter Cooper and Simon Patterson (2000) made an important contribution to the thinking about advertising when they wrote about ‘the Trickster’, the Jungian archetype that is a part of ourselves, that wants to be tricked and enjoys the process, all the while admiring the artist, brand or advertising that has manipulated our feelings in that way. The public forum of the group discussion, where respondents feel pressure to conform and display the logical side of their characters, can work against this impulse – an impulse upon which much advertising relies. [It] is that part of ourselves that secretly desires the fantastic, representing our wishes for exaggeration, seduction and escape from the mundanities and tragedies of everyday life. It is older and more primitive than the modern world of logic, order and rationality … [It] is a master of flux, transition and change. The Trickster breaks taboos, overturns conventions, stretches the mind and challenges the limits of belief. (2000: 105)

Here is Maria Doyle Kennedy describing how she was charmed by the Trickster. Research would be considerably easier if all respondents were as self-aware as this. Now I’m a beauty product freak – I just love all the lotions and potions and promises that aren’t really true. Doesn’t matter how much it costs. I’m so cynical generally about advertising, but if you told me that a beauty product would do a particular thing, I’d be in the shops for it the next morning. Recently, I bought this really expensive cream and when my husband asked me how much it cost I heard myself repeating the blurb to him: ‘It was invented by a rocket scientist. He had burns and to get over them he developed this cream and he harvests seaweed, but only at certain times of the month according to the moon and …’My husband’s eyes were getting bigger and bigger and I caught myself and thought. ‘Oh, God! Get a major grip on reality. It’s just a moisturiser.’ (2001: 62)

Clearly, the advertising itself will indicate whether it wants to appeal to the Trickster in us and the moderator needs to take account of this. Respondents may not want to admit they enjoy the feeling of being ‘tricked’ and so the moderator must give everyone permission to feel that way. The deeper problems connected with advertising come less from the unscrupulousness of our ‘deceivers’ than from our pleasure in being deceived, less from the desire to seduce than from the desire to be seduced. (Daniel J. Boorstin, US historian, quoted in Rhodas Thomas Tripp, The International Thesaurus of Quotations, 1970, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company)

How can we help respondents to be more aware of their responses and brave enough to voice them in the research sessions? There is a role here for the true projective techniques. Asking simple projective questions, for example, like ‘What would other people make of this?’, can help

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respondents say what they think and feel without exposing their true reactions to other group members. Filling in bubble cartoons, using an assortment of characters through which to speak could also reveal their feelings. Another idea is to introduce the ideas of ‘advertising-land’ and ‘advertising-speak’ into the discussions; reminding respondents that we are not talking about a land of realities, can help them admit to the influence of the Trickster. Most important is the creation of a slow and contemplative even dream-like mood, where respondents are given space and time to go inside themselves and think about how they are responding, and a nonjudgemental environment, where they feel they can reveal their responses without fear of criticism. When respondents are given the time and space to explore their own feelings, look inside themselves, they will be able to admit to changes of opinion, personal associations, weird and wacky thoughts, boasts, weaknesses – all of which are the gold dust of qualitative research.

Dealing with Stimulus Material Introducing the stimulus material clearly to respondents at the beginning of the session can avoid problems later in the discussion – and giving a longer explanation rather than a shorter one if that is what it takes. Lucy Banister (personal communication) has found that the more experience she has of conducting advertising research, the more time she devotes to explaining the stimulus material. It is worth emphasising the rough nature of the idea and of the script, setting etc. Respondents nod in agreement when they are told that it costs a lot of money to make a finished ad and better to show it to them in rough form and hear their comments before committing to a large production budget. Yes, they nod. With press advertising, it can be very helpful to pre-place the mocked-up magazine with respondents before they come to the discussions. In this way, they can read (or not read) the magazine at their own pace, in the bath or on the bus, according to their own idiosyncratic tendencies. Otherwise, Rachael Holmes (1998) found that respondents were turning over pages in unison in the groups, obviously finding comfort in going at the same pace as everyone else – but much less useful for research. Now what? The researcher contemplates sheaves of notes, piles of tapes and a jumble of impressions in her head. The next chapter looks at analysis and interpretation of this material.

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KEY POINTS

• Time spent planning beforehand is time well invested for the researcher. • The research planning stage is largely subjective – the researcher building hypotheses derived from his own knowledge, opinions and experiences and those of his colleagues. • The briefing is a critical meeting and best accomplished face-to-face. It is important for the researcher to identify where the advertising has reached in the planning cycle, to understand the thinking behind the creative brief, if possible to identify what the creative team sees as the creative idea and to be informed of the media plans. • A semiotic approach can be used in isolation to develop advertising, and is especially useful when the advertising plans to take the brand in a radical and possibly initially unpopular direction. When it is used in conjunction with qualitative research, it is at the planning stage that it is most useful. • Strategic development research aims to inspire the brand teams and so the design of the sample can afford to be broad and ‘off-thewall’. Creative development research, on the other hand, demands a sample that is representative of the agreed target audience. Developing leading edge advertising needs a sample of leading edge consumers, those individuals who are a step ahead of the game and therefore representative of where tastes and opinions are heading. • About 20 per cent of the population dislike advertising, and these rejectors are worth excluding because they will bring their negative opinions to the research sessions. Sometimes it is important to understand how this group react, in which case it is worth isolating them in separate groups. • As with sample design, anything goes with methodologies for strategic development research. A mix of methodologies allows the researcher to see the brand and the issues from different but complementary points of view. For creative development research, group discussions of any number of individuals usually work best because it will be the interaction of the participants that will develop the ideas. • For strategic development research the researcher needs to create a non-judgemental relaxed atmosphere where respondents feel they can express their opinions freely. Creative development, on the other hand, demands a more participative engaged style, at least in part. • Researchers need to be aware that people delight in being entertained and ‘tricked’ by advertising, as explained by the Jung’s ‘Trickster’ archetype. • Researchers need to explain the stimulus material as fully as possible.

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6 The Research Process: From Analysis and Interpretation to Presentation

Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts. (Albert Einstein: sign hanging on the door of his office at Princeton)

This chapter tackles the second half of the research process: the formal analysis and interpretation. It begins by describing the chronological process and the accompanying mental mode that the researcher adopts. Initially, the focus is on the respondents and the research sessions, going on to focus more on what those findings might mean for the brand and the advertising. At its most fundamental, advertising seeks to improve the relationship between brand and consumer and one section of the chapter deals with this three-way relationship between brand, consumer and advertising. Prior to that, the importance of understanding the structure of the advertising for creative development research is discussed. Likeability has been a subject of controversy for over a decade now, and the arguments for and against using it as a measure of predicting success are outlined. The problems and pitfalls awaiting the researcher when researching leading edge advertising are discussed towards the end of the chapter, as are music and humour. THE CHRONOLOGICAL PROCESS

The analysis and interpretation of any qualitative research data is a complex, multi-layered and chaotic business. There is, though, a sequence of tasks that qualitative researchers follow, which can be broken down into four stages: 1 2 3 4

Planning and fieldwork Analysis of the data derived from the fieldwork Interpretation Conversion into the client’s framework.

The last three stages are not discrete and, to a varying degree, go on all at once in the researcher’s mind. All the way through the process, the

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researcher overlays different perspectives on the data. The two most important perspectives are the respondent’s and the client’s: gleaning and understanding the true point of view of the respondent and working out what that means for the client and the advertising. There are other useful perspectives, too. Commercial qualitative researchers are the magpies of the academic world, sifting their way through new and old theories and constructs, picking them up, trying them out and discarding them if they do not bring clarity and understanding to the research data. See Book 4 for more general discussion of these and other issues within analysis and interpretation. For researchers, this is a time when there is continual movement in their minds. They zoom in on the detail and pan out to see the bigger picture and how that new detail changes the view. They dig deep into the data to discover underlying motivations that explain differing opinions and behaviour visible on the surface. They make sure that repetitive and superficial responses are not dismissed because they are heard so often. They go back and forth over the length of the interviews to see how respondents changed their minds and how the unravelling of the advertising narrative affected perceptions. Importantly, they recall what they heard, what they saw and what they felt. Qualitative analysis and interpretation is a chaotic process. It has a randomness and freedom about it which is at once liberating and frightening. Many times the researcher can feel she is getting nowhere and goes through a period of chaos and fear as precious time ticks away and deadlines loom. Perhaps this is why it has a ‘black box’ reputation. Adrian Langford puts it like this: The reality of advertising development is that it is messy. It is messy when you are sitting behind the mirror watching and it is messy when you are working on it until you can really think hard about it. Changing your mind while you are working on it. A lot of it is contradictory and a lot of it overlaps. The outcomes do not come out as neatly as I have said. You get a different response from different people; some are bored by it, some are irritated by it. Then you get the problem of ‘at the group I was at’ . . . Hundreds of different responses are talking [to you] at the same time. (Personal communication)

Planning and Fieldwork As we have seen in the previous chapter, some of the analysis and interpretation takes place before anyone sees a respondent. Analysis and interpretation is not a discrete process, confined to a dedicated section towards the end, but happens as soon as the project is confirmed and extends into the presentation well after the last presentation chart has been committed to the hard drive. Even the direction that a qualitative interview takes is governed as much by the topic guide as it is by what the researcher hears, sees, analyses and interprets during the interview.

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While the emphasis during the fieldwork is on hearing what respondents are saying, there is also some sifting and evaluating that happens in the researcher’s mind and which steers each interview in a particular way. The researcher needs to keep thinking back and forth about the research objectives because some hypotheses that emerge need to be validated by the same group of respondents that gave rise to that thought in the first place. All qualitative research projects evolve during their course, and advertising research is no exception. The strength of the methodology is that, to an extent, it follows respondents rather than leads them, and while there are clearly areas that each interview must cover and specific questions that must be asked, the more the interviewer can follow the interviewee rather than the other way round, the better. In advertising research especially, where first reactions and top-of-head reactions are so precious, it is doubly important that the respondent does not feel constrained by the discussion guide being clutched in the moderator’s hands. While the respondent is speaking, the moderator is choosing which comments to pursue and probe and which to leave. It might be that previous groups have exhausted particular topics so that the researcher has a profound understanding of them and does not need to pursue them; it might be that it is a point of view that hasn’t been aired before and might throw light on what others have said; alternatively, it may be that the comment has been made from a particularly reticent individual who needs lots of encouragement to speak up. Certainly, at the beginning of a project or at the beginning of the session, the researcher casts his net wide, gathering a more superficial understanding of as broad a set of issues relating to the advertising as possible. Later on in the project or the session (researchers differ), the researcher will pursue some issues more purposively, depending on where the respondents are going or where the researcher wants to take them. There is much that goes on during a group discussion or interview that is interpreted by the researcher and fed back in some way into the group, in order to help the group become more fruitful. This might be helping the group acknowledge difficulties that are preventing it from moving forward or it might be a point of view that needs expanding. In fact, moderators help the group go as far as it can, do its own analysis. Respondents, despite their well-known and documented sophistication, find it difficult to talk about advertising and advertising ideas in particular. Body language, changes in the rhythm of groups, changes of mood (‘temperature’) and the tone of voice used by respondents are all important to note and understand. In most cases, the moderator must feed these more intangible responses back to the group in order to validate his original interpretation. It may well be that a distinct lack of enthusiasm about the last script respondents were shown is because they were worried about missing the kick-off of an important football match to be shown on the TV that night. So what has seemed like a deep and meaningful response has a simple and banal explanation.

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The findings from projective techniques should be matched with respondents’ own analysis of what they said, too. Asking respondents how they felt about doing the projective technique and how they would interpret their own responses is far more valuable an interpretative tool than the researcher listening alone back in the office. Some projective techniques (and strictly speaking, enabling techniques) reveal their findings to all concerned during the research sessions. Collage is just such a technique. As respondents choose pictures to represent the feelings and opinions that they hold, their meaning becomes clear and patterns emerge. Having said that, broader and deeper patterns can emerge by comparing and contrasting collages compiled by different groups across a project. Repeated words and repeated themes, sometimes becoming a leitmotif, can all be indicative of a type of response to the advertising. Just as the researcher gets fed up with a particular response, and stops hearing it, he realises that it is the leitmotif that unlocks something that is as yet unexplained. That needs to be fed back into the group, too.

Analysis This is the process of revisiting, selecting and sorting the data from the research sessions. Many researchers make themselves some quick notes at the end of each group or evening, describing their impressions of the group. These can be jotted down or dictated into a tape recorder afterwards. Disagreements, antipathy, changes of mood during the group, marked order effects can all be diluted or missed when listening back to the audio tape or reading a transcript and having those jotted notes to hand when revisiting the tapes can bring all the colour and life back into the session. Because they tend to be quite personal and impressionistic, too, they can provide a bigger picture, not in the contextual sense of the marketplace, but of the group itself, which can be a counterbalance to the more detailed close-up view that comes when doing content analysis. Every researcher conducts content analysis in his or her own personal way. Some like to structure the comments, constructing grids in which to gather together similar comments, some to do mind maps, some annotate notes and transcripts. However it is done, it is always important to revisit the data because the analysis process is different from the moderating process. As described above, some analysis does go on while moderating, but it is analysis at the service of moderating and there needs to be a distinct and focused stage when analysis and interpretation is the researcher’s sole aim. Memories are famously deficient and reconstruct themselves in the light of what has happened since the remembered event occurred. Hearing is not perfect either; it is highly selective, tending to

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hear the loudest comment, the best expressed comment and the comment that we were wanting to hear at that time. Also, if there is more than one person working on the project, there needs to be an agreement on how the analysis is going to be done in the practical sense so that everyone can contribute effectively. Some researchers listen back to their own tapes, some send tapes out to get them transcribed – it very much depends on personal preference. The ideal is to read the transcript while listening to the tape, but this is a time luxury that few commercial qualitative researchers can afford. Like all qualitative research, the comments from respondents and the interviewer’s impressions are the raw materials and should be treated with care and respect. In advertising research, and creative development especially, this is particularly the case. The first, off-the-cuff comments are especially precious, as are subtle changes of opinion. Respondents prefer not to change their minds in research sessions because it makes them look weak and indecisive, and researchers are looking for tiny shifts in opinion, particularly over the length of the interview. It is easy, too, to be swayed by the mood of the group or interview. Happy noisy respondents that like the advertising can lead the researcher to give the advertising the thumbs up, when in fact it was off brief and not saying the appropriate things about the brand. Also, respondents can banter and use humour not to say what they really think. No qualitative researcher’s analysis is for public consumption, however. No matter how neat and orderly the process of committing respondents’ comments and researchers’ thoughts to paper begins, it inevitably ends up in an incomprehensible mess – only comprehensible, of course, to the researchers concerned – in a sense mirroring the complex nature of an advertisement’s structure and how it is perceived by respondents.

Interpretation – What Does it all Mean? This is the process of comparing the data across the sample and working out what it all means in terms of the advertising being developed. This is where different theories are used to understand patterns and anomalies. The researcher is interrogating the data, addressing a series of questions to the findings and comparing and evaluating the responses, looking for significance. • How does the brand loyalist see it? • How does the repertoire user/lapsed user/non-user see it? • How does the agency and the client see it? The researcher slips on different pairs of ‘spectacles’, and takes a look at the advertising through them. The relationships between the brand, the consumer and the advertising are examined, as are the structure and narrative of the advertising.

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What the respondent said

Who the respondent was e.g. brand lover, lapsed user, advertising hater

What was happening in the group e.g. antagonism, flirtation, status-flaunting Environmental considerations e.g. the weather, in a viewing facility

Cultural/political/moral considerations e.g. being a good parent, fashionability

What the respondent means

FIGURE 6.1 Contextual onion

At the beginning of the analysis and interpretation process, the researcher focuses more on what the respondents have said. He tends to begin with individual comments, thinking hard about the individual response, and then panning out to put it in the broader context of the research session. The onion diagram in Figure 6.1 shows how the researcher will zoom in and out from each comment. The mood of the group and changes in mood can be very telling and bring in clues about how respondents are feeling. Changes in mood when the advertising is introduced, from engaged and excited to bored and disinterested (and vice versa), are telling the researcher something. When respondents sit forward in anticipation of the next execution the researcher will know that something has engaged the audience. Changes in response are very important and sometimes difficult to spot. Checking at the time with respondents about changes of opinion can be very useful. In creative development research, looking for ‘wear in’ and ‘wear out’ is another filter through which to push the data. Sometimes respondents will avoid topics and specific questions, particularly where the subject is frightening. It is pointless to try to press the issue other than to mention it at the end of the session perhaps, but the researcher should note that it has been avoided and the advertising needs to take another route. At times, it can be clear to researchers that respondents are not being entirely truthful. They contradict themselves over the course of an interview, their body language differs from their words or it is clear from looking

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across the data derived from all the interviews that it is a subject where respondents express views publicly that do not correspond to their private feelings. These discrepancies in the data can be the key to uncovering insights that inspire the advertising team. An unexpected response, like anger or disgust, needs shaking out too. Why should an apparently inoffensive piece of advertising create a heated response? The answer is often an executional detail that needs changing and the moderator needs to have her wits about her to suggest calming solutions. A loose structure to the discussion guide will allow comments to emerge from respondents in a particular order and this, in itself, can be very revealing of the market, the brand or the advertising. Noting the order that comments emerge spontaneously will speak volumes about how the respondent is thinking about the subject. As mentioned earlier, it is difficult for respondents to change their minds in a public forum like a group discussion and yet it is the intention of much advertising to get people to do just that, or at least to influence them. It is unlikely therefore that a respondent will declare, ‘When I arrived at the group this evening I thought Brand X was some sort of inferior product and after what I have seen tonight, I now think it is without compare.’ The clues will be elsewhere. There are an infinite number of ways that the researcher will spot the shift in opinion, but they are not likely to be obvious. Psychographic groups of respondents may emerge. This is where there are clear differences in approach and attitude amongst the respondents, often not related to their demographic profile, which are useful to define and isolate. These groups can be given names, to bring them to life, like ‘classic’, ‘adventurous’, ‘cautious’, so that the teams who will eventually work with these ideas will be inspired by a deeper understanding of the differences in the target audience. It is important, however, that these groups be described with empathy – the test being whether the respondents in question would recognise themselves and not be offended by the description. Going back to the requirements of the creative brief, it is important that both agency and client teams like and respect their target consumers. There are several extraneous factors that also must be accounted for. Whether the groups take place in a viewing facility is only one, and has been discussed previously. Others may be a dominant respondent, taking up the expert position. Was it a hot or a cold day? Was it near Christmas or another Bank Holiday? What was the dominant news item that day? Research groups took on strange ethereal qualities the week after Diana, Princess of Wales died, which certainly needed to be taken into account when analysing comments and atmosphere. The events of 11 September 2001 shifted people’s value systems and needed acknowledging in the weeks following. Finally, analysing and interpreting respondents’ responses and comments is like panning for gold. The researcher knows when she has found

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a meaningful association or discovers the comment that is the key to unlocking the strategic insight. It could be that it is a thread running through all respondents’ responses or it could be the repetitive sometimes irritating superficial responses that unlock the meaning. Sometimes, one response makes sense of many disparate responses. Roddy Glen (1999) has made the point many times that it is not incidence that is important, but significance, meaning that it is not how many times something might be said but how significant each comment might be in shaking down our whole understanding. It was one such comment that provided the key to the successful campaign for McCain Foods: The moment that got us excited was when one consumer said this: ‘It [a chip] tastes better if it’s not yours.’ This prompted other comments: ‘You know those really irritating people who say they don’t want any then proceed to eat all yours.’ Then this: ‘Nicking chips is an unwritten rule.’ It is. People feel it’s within their rights to take just a few; it doesn’t matter where they are. . . . We summarised the truth as: ‘Pizza and chips encourage instinctively mischievous behaviour.’ (Charlie Snow and Vicki Cracknell, APG Creative Planning Awards 1999: 54)

Conversion into the Client’s Framework This is the process where the findings from the data will be written from the point of view of the brand. In strategic advertising research, the insights are held up to the brand, in the way that a piece of material is held to a person’s face to see if the colouring matches, to see if advertising based on that insight would motivate the target audience and improve, possibly transform, the reputation and fortunes of the brand. Judie Lannon (1994) sees advertising as one way to create a charismatic personality for a brand, through symbolism, myth or metaphor. She warns, though, that the meanings that these associations give the brand must derive from the brand itself. It is the job of research to discover whether the meanings conveyed by the advertising are truly anchored in the brand. This is also the stage where the business briefs are re-examined in the light of the research findings. Whatever the news, good or bad, it is important to consider how to present the findings so that no one is offended and thus dismisses or discredits the research, and also to ensure that everyone hears what is said. The stance must be positive and constructive.

RESEARCHER MODE

Qualitative research, with its emphasis on understanding, sits uncomfortably beside other scientific research, with its emphasis on replicability.

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And within the discipline of qualitative research, advertising research is the least comfortable. Yet the subjectivity of qualitative researchers, and the judgemental skills they bring to bear, are widely acknowledged and highly valued. It is useful to think of the researcher approaching the advertising research project in three different, consecutive frames of mind:

Subjective mode

Objective mode

Judgemental mode

At the beginning of the project, researchers bring all their subjective reactions into the picture. Everyone finds it difficult not to react subjectively to advertising – after all, that is what it is designed to do. Researchers do not ignore their personal reactions, they use them in the development process to build hypotheses and anticipate reactions. They know that if they do not acknowledge their reactions and opinions, they will somehow get in the way anyway – they will be projected onto respondents’ reactions, so it will be well-nigh impossible to hear respondent’s reactions with an objective ear later on in the research process. Other people’s reactions, anyone’s reactions, are useful too. In most qualitative research offices, advertising ideas are trailed from desk to desk, looking for reactions. Subjectivity is king. Once those reactions have been parked, it is important during the interviewing to hear as objectively as possible what respondents’ reactions are. This does not mean that the researcher cannot throw her own ideas into the ring, but it is critical that respondents do not think they are the researcher’s opinions but ‘someone else’s’. Objectivity is critical. The formal analysis and interpretation stage could be thought of in two stages: the functional (objective) and the interpretative (judgemental). First, respondents comments and other data from the interviews are analysed and then all thoughts, opinions, hypotheses, comments, feelings from all concerned are evaluated. An intrinsic part of this latter stage is the deployment of the researcher’s judgement – which comments are not worthy of note, which comments are, what respondents mean etc. Experienced judgement is the mode. It is worth devoting some space here to discussing the attitudes that researchers have to their own skills and experience. It can feel to the

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qualitative researcher that they are not building up a body of experience because of the ad hoc nature of the work. All projects differ, which means that the researcher is always going back to first principles, always trying to approach the issues in a fresh way. The respondents are always different, the category might be different, the problems are always different. It is easy for researchers to think that their judgement is in fact no more than their opinion, and on a par with the person they sat next to on the bus last night. This, of course, is far from the truth and successful advertising researchers know it. The process is more akin to consultancy than it is to research, with the researcher taking the role of a business partner or consultant. Adrian Langford again: You have to think harder with advertising research. Break it all down, the idea, the brand, the execution. Then I read it all back in that form and then go off for a long walk and think about it. No special analysis but a damn sight more thinking. (Personal communication)

There is no one truth. Different researchers will discover different insights and make different recommendations and all can be equally valid. As Wendy Gordon said at the AQR Paris Conference (2001): Different researchers or marketing professionals find out different things or come to different conclusions about a brand. Recall is like a search engine and it is only as effective as the cue given. Researchers use different accessing cues and stimulate different parts of the brand associative network to come to consciousness. Therefore there is no right or wrong way to access brand memories. And there is no absolute truth in what is described.

THE STRUCTURE AND NARRATIVE OF THE ADVERTISING

The importance of identifying the creative idea and distinguishing it from the executional details is the quest of all creative development research. Every ad contains within it a creative idea, or creative ideas, and in most cases it is difficult to see beyond the execution and identify the essential engine of the advertising. Roddy Glen (personal communication) suggests three good questions that can often help to isolate a creative idea: • What is the name of the activity shown in the advertising? • Who is doing it? • Why? Creative ideas cannot be changed, execution can. So, to repeat, far and away the most important task for creative development research is to describe, or sometimes confirm, the way that the advertising works, identifying the central creative idea and distinguishing it from the execution.

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In an ideal world, the briefing at the agency will include a good discussion about what ‘the idea’ is and how it is intended to work with the target audience. In reality, this rarely happens and it is the research process that reveals the central idea. Sometimes, different people see different creative ideas within an advertisement. The client and agency teams may identify one idea while respondents identify another. Both ideas may well be equally valid but does it really matter whether there is more than one idea? Chris Forrest (2001) described a typical example at an AQR Advertising Research Seminar: Tesco advertising is among the most successful campaigns at the time of writing. Its two main protagonists are a mother and a daughter. The mother is a typically difficult and demanding customer and the daughter exasperated and long-suffering. The Tesco brand emerges from these anecdotes as patient, helpful and above all, able to please even the most awkward and demanding customer. The creative idea identified by the agency and client teams was that of being able to please the difficult customer; respondents identified the idea as being the mother–daughter relationship.

It could be argued here that both ideas are valid. What really matters is applying this learning to subsequent executions in the campaign or to any other decisions that need to be made. Why does the Creative Idea Need to be Nurtured? Big ideas are so hard to recognise, so fragile, so easy to kill. Don’t forget that, all of you who don’t have them. (John Elliot Jr, quoted in Leonard Safir and William Safir, Good Advice, 1982, New York: Times Books)

Ideas are important because they are the key product of the advertising industry, and a powerful and motivating idea can transform the fortunes of any brand. Good ideas are difficult to create and, more importantly for research, they are difficult to recognise. Think back to the last time you sat watching television with your family and you will agree that we all, respondents, clients and researchers, find it far easier to criticise than we do to praise, so unformed embryonic ideas, without their smart production details, are easy to squash. In addition, research is an imperfect tool to evaluate advertising ideas and so it is always possible that extraneous unexpected circumstances can turn a turkey of an idea into a great success en route to market (and vice versa, it has to be said). The principal aim of the creative development research stage is to take the idea forward. If there is more than one idea, then to develop all those

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ideas, not treat them like a beauty contest. Most people, however, when looking at a range of advertising ideas, will tend to compare them, and qualitative researchers are no exception. That one’s better than that one. All the ideas need to be developed as far as they will go. This is the aim of the research. Ideas that respondents do not particularly like can nevertheless be developed into great advertising campaigns, and it is easy to hear and feel a group ‘not liking’ a particular route or execution without paying attention to the accompanying comments: to be bamboozled by the atmosphere. In addition, creative ideas are not fully formed and may not appeal as a result; new ideas always take a while to bed in, and particularly amongst the more loyal consumers. The familiar is more comfortable, less challenging and therefore more appealing. Respondents on the whole are not particularly engaged in any kind of advertising and cannot be relied on to give a reliable ‘clapometer’ reading. They are reluctant to be enthusiastic and positive; much easier and more face-saving to be negative. There are other parts of an advertisement that need to be considered in the light of respondents’ reactions: the message, the role of the brand, the endline, the tone of voice and, if it is a cinema or television advertisement, the narrative and how it unfolds over time. Responses to the endline can be interrogated with a bewildering number of questions. Clearly not all of those shown in Box 6.1 would be applied all of the time, but they form a useful battery of questions through which to evaluate responses. In terms of press and poster advertising, there is a need to examine the sequence in which the advertising’s elements build. Unlike TV and cinema advertising, which arguably has a captive audience, press and poster advertising need to capture the attention of the viewer who then can choose whether to look further. In this case, the first thing people see has not only to encourage them to look further, it would do well to convey the brand message. Each subsequent layer of communication should add to and enhance this first message.

BRAND/ADVERTISING/CONSUMER RELATIONSHIPS

Not only is there a ‘contextual onion’ around consumers’/respondents’ comments in research, there are ‘contextual onions’ around the advertising and the brand. The advertising context, the medium in which it is to appear, is rarely taken into account at the creative development phase and yet the relationship between the brand and the magazine or programme in which it is sandwiched has a profound effect on the way that brand is perceived and how the brand message is heard.

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Box 6.1 Evaluating an Endline Does the endline . . . • recall the brand name? • include a key benefit? • differentiate the brand? • impart positive feelings? • reflect the brand’s personality? • make you say, so what? • make you say, Oh yeah? Is • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

the endline . . . memorable? strategic? campaignable? original? simple? neat? believable? bland, generic or hackneyed? pretentious? negative? meaningless? complicated or clumsy? likeable? sarcastic or negative?

Source: AdSlogans Unlimited (www.adslogans.co.uk)

The magazine Vogue, for example, brings leading edge fashion credentials and luxury to a brand, while a tabloid newspaper brings a sense of good value and popularity. If a brand were to be placed in a very specific slot or in an unusual and unexpected magazine, it would be particularly important to explore the medium as well as the advertising. Radio advertising, long since under-researched, provides a particular type of context. Ingram and Sampson (1995) describe the radio as a friendly medium, usually consumed by individuals on their own. Listeners feel close to their favourite radio station, and see it as down-to-earth, real and caring, much as one would a friend. Consequently, the radio will not bring aspirational values to a brand but closeness and friendliness. Different television programmes, poster sites and websites (for banner advertising) will all bring their own characteristics to the advertising and

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BRAND

ADVERTISING

CONSUMER

FIGURE 6.2 The Brand/advertising/consumer relationship

it is helpful for the researcher to know these contexts, especially if they are at all unusual or novel. The brand, too, sits inside a contextual onion. No brand is an island. The way that a brand is seen depends upon the competition and where it is positioned as well as current and past advertising. All these things change perceptions of a brand. It is worth looking under the microscope at the three relationships shown in Figure 6.2, considering each in turn. The existing relationship between the brand and the consumer needs to be explored in the discussions and interviews and described in the analysis and interpretation process. Is it a repertoire brand, do respondents feel fondly for the brand but no longer have any practical use for it? The descriptions are infinite and will provide the context in which to explore reactions to the advertising. What is the relationship between the brand and the advertising? How is the brand represented in the advertising? What role is it playing? How does the brand speak to the consumer through the advertising? What is it saying about itself? What role does it play in the narrative? Is this the way that the brand is expected to speak and if not, could it speak like that? What does that tone of voice do to the brand? Turning now to the relationship between the advertising and the consumer, it can be helpful to look at the data with the help of the principles of Transactional Analysis (Berne 1970; see Box 6.2). The projective technique used during the discussion – Who created this ad and what do you think were their feelings towards you? – reveals the consumer view of

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that relationship. Advertising can patronise the consumer, can talk down to them, can seem intentionally to baffle them with science-speak or, ideally, can treat them as an equal, adult to adult, child to child.

Box 6.2 Transactional Analysis Transactional Analysis provides us with a way of analysing the relationships and dialogues in our lives through the three phenomenological states of parent, adult and child. We can be said to be in one of these modes when we communicate with others. Communications are usually more successful when both parties are in the same mode

The modes are easy to recognise: Parent: comforting, concerned, or judgemental, authoritative, critical Adult: even, considerate, helpful, reasonable Child: fearful, spontaneous, frustrated, or carefree, naughty and fun-loving ADVERTISING Parent Adult Child

CONSUMER

FEELS P AT R O N I S FEELS IN

ING

APPROP

R I AT E

Parent Adult Child

ADVERTISING

CONSUMER

Parent Adult Child

Parent Adult Child

FEELS RIGHT

Some brands appeal to the child in us; they might be ‘naughty’ (like sweets or chocolate) and so advertising needs to adopt a playful, spontaneous tone of voice. Other brands talk to the rational adult part of us (like house insurance), and probably need to speak in an adult tone of voice.

Finally, how can researchers tell if an advertising idea is working? Naturally, it depends on a multitude of interconnecting factors, especially when all those relationships described above are harmonious. But that said, researchers feel more confident about recommending a particular route when ... • respondents do not take ideas literally; • they understand ideas in their entirety and don’t pick them apart, preferring the ‘woman in that one’ with the ‘kitchen in that’ and the ‘dialogue in that one’;

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• they do not prefer to see ‘something more realistic’; • they can run with the idea and think immediately of ways in which it applies to them; • they respond with energy; • the response is sharply polarised: some loving and some hating; • they can run with the idea and think of other ways of executing the same idea; • they can see the intention of the ad and can take the message on board. Roddy Glen (1999) wrote about this last point, emphasizing that sometimes respondents see the intention of an ad but don’t take the message on board. He tells us to beware of the word ‘suppose’ when respondents use it to preface their comments, as in, ‘I suppose what they’re trying to achieve is . ..’. The word ‘suppose’, used in the way they used it, has a very special function. It means something like, ‘I can see what they are trying to say, and can imagine that there may be some people, more easily amused than I am, who would enjoy the way they’ve gone about it. It doesn’t quite make it for me, however, and so I don’t really feel obliged to take it that seriously. Points for trying, though.’ (Glen, 1999: 122)

When respondents take ideas literally, it is not that they are too stupid and too literal themselves, it is that the advertising has failed to transport them. For a full discussion of researching brands, see Book 5 by Chandler and Owen.

RESEARCHING LEADING EDGE ADVERTISING

There has long been criticism of the inability of research, particularly quantitative but also qualitative, to research leading edge advertising. Typically this would be advertising aimed at a younger audience for ‘leader’ brands. Leader brands are those in categories where some or all brands need to lead consumer taste rather than reflect it and are admired by consumers for their innovation. Many designer fashion brands could be categorised as leader brands. This criticism of research is well founded because there is a limit to what research can achieve. It cannot, for example, indicate what the next trend might be. Indeed, when shown the next trend, most respondents would reject it because it is not trendy at that moment. Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, describes research as a view from the rear-mirror, which in a sense is true. But it is also a view of the present – how consumers feel right now and how the market is working – and isn’t a detailed picture of the past and the present better than no picture at all? Any picture of the future will only ever be an opinion – maybe an informed opinion, but an opinion none the less, and in the pursuit of a risk-free decision, client companies can be guilty of asking too much of research.

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This does not solve the problem of researching leading edge advertising, however. A typical case would be the development of advertising for Levi 501, as described by Kirsty Fuller (1995), who stresses the importance of a long-term trusting relationship between the clients and the research company – the advertising agency needs to know that their new and radical ideas are in safe hands and will not be condemned insensitively. The Levi 501 campaign consisted of numerous executions, each one contributing to and reinforcing a handful of brand values. Not all executions were intended to communicate all values, but over time and several executions, all values were communicated. In addition, each new execution needed to convey a sense of a dynamic and forward-looking brand, leading consumer tastes rather than following them. The aim was to keep the advertising fresh, even though the brand values were intended to remain the same. They began from the premise that leading edge advertising will appeal to leading edge consumers

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in the first instance and would probably not appeal to the remaining brand users. So the initial target for the advertising was a narrow band of atypical young Levi wearers, rather than the bulk of users. What the research team were looking for in this case was ‘wear in’, small positive changes in opinion over the length of the groups, possibly expressed by only a few respondents. There was a need to evaluate the apparent reasons why other respondents continued to reject the execution and work out whether these reasons were substantive or whether they were details that would become more familiar and more engaging over time.

LIKEABILITY?

There has long been a search for a quick and easy way of predicting the effectiveness of a piece of advertising.

TRY THIS PIECE OF ADVERTISING LITMUS! In 1991, a paper was published by R.I. Haley and Allan I. Baldinger in the (American) Journal of Advertising Research that looked like uncovering the key criterion for success. They pointed to a strong correlation between likeability and sales. Here at last was the litmus everyone was looking for. If more people liked an ad, the more likely it was to be effective. Well, yes and no. Haley and Baldinger themselves would probably not be as conclusive. First of all, in the original study only five pairs of brands were compared, each pair from the same category and all (FMCG) packaged goods. Moreover, ‘likeability’ was a more complex set of values than the word suggests, and included warmth, ingenuity, meaningfulness, informative, true to life, believable and convincing. So, likeability was not just how entertaining an ad was, but how informative too. In addition, there were sales effects that were not explained by likeability. But, the likeability notion did lay to rest the widely believed idea that abrasive ads were effective. It is certainly important to everyone connected with the brand and the creation of the advertising that it is likeable. It is important to those on the brand team that the advertising is liked and it is important, as we have seen, that employees in the company like the advertising, too. It makes them feel proud of being connected with a popular brand/ advertising. It is important, too, for those in agencies to be connected with advertising that is admired by their peers. (Hence the importance of creative awards.) There is an inclination, then, for the brand and

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agency teams to place great importance on whether consumers like the advertising. Advertising researchers, however, do not believe so simple a correlation. Indeed, they take nothing for granted at the beginning of a project and apply no one rule indiscriminately. A polarised response at the research stage is possibly the most interesting because it means that there are strong feelings out there and it is often the case that if some people feel strongly positive about something, there will be some people who feel equally strongly the other way. Most advertising researchers say, ‘it depends, it depends, it depends’. For them, likeability is but one of many sets of issues to do with the advertising that need to be explored. As Paul Feldwick said, The fact is, of course, that many ads work because they are liked, while others work in spite of – possibly even because of – the fact that they are heartily disliked, while yet others work while evoking no strong feelings. (1992: 226)

In the real world, it is preferable that consumers like your advertising but it is not a precondition for effectiveness. But research is not the real world and it will be the first time that these particular consumers have seen that advertising. We are all much more likely to feel fondness for things that are familiar to us, and advertising, like so many other things, grows on us. There is a danger that advertising that is liked instantly is so accessible that is has no other delights to offer after the first few showings. Alex Biel (1990) describes liking as a gatekeeper; the portcullis is raised and the ad gets in. He goes on to say that if someone feels warmth towards a piece of advertising, they are less likely to disagree with what it says; they are more likely to trust what it says in the same way that we trust people we like more than those we dislike. Also, liking evokes gratitude – you entertain me and I’ll be grateful to you. Others claim that it is a device for getting and holding attention, that it aids recall and leaves the consumer feeling positive about the advertiser. It does seem then that in the longer term, if someone finds an ad engaging, they are more likely to process the contents consciously. In the very short term, though (and this would include the research stage), liking is far less relevant. Does a likeable ad make the brand more likeable? It’s a more complicated relationship than that. You may not like the brand being portrayed or, for that matter, the advertising that is bringing you that brand, but the values are those that you need in a product like that. Radion was a brand of washing powder that was launched with acclaim. The advertising was famously disliked, but the brand was extremely successful. The brand personality of Domestos was not particularly likeable: he was strong and loud, but he was just the type of brand/chap you needed to kill the germs round the U-bend.

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In terms of interviewing respondents about advertising, we often use likeability as a catch-all term to communicate whether the advertising has been well received. We feel better, too, if the respondents have liked the ads because it creates a more harmonious atmosphere during the sessions. We prefer to moderate such groups and clients and agencies prefer to watch them. They can be deceptive, however. There exits ‘The Myth of the Good Group’ (Robson and Wardle 1988), where, for a multitude of reasons, respondents collude with moderators to approve of advertising ideas and yet actually, when the tape is analysed, they have said very little, occasionally using humour not to say what they really think. A sticky, lumpy group where opinions have differed, where there has been conflict to deal with, where the moderator has struggled to engage respondents, can often much better reveal and explore the issues connected with the advertising and be much more helpful in developing it further.

HUMOUR AND MUSIC

One of the most difficult elements in advertising to evaluate, and one of the most important, is humour a powerful element because it attracts attention, can increase likeability and is a mechanism for the viewer to feel rapport with the brand. Sippit and Flower (1999) found that humour had different effects on different audiences and could be peculiarly culturally and gender-based. Because of this, it can be used to isolate and target audiences – witness the typically male humour used for beers and lagers, humour which is at the expense of others. Castlemaine XXXX, for instance, would not be funny if it were not slightly offensive, the macho boys-together imagery successfully transferring to the brand. When does an ad become too offensive? Respondents can become santimonious in the public forum of a group discussion over ads they would find side-splitting in the comfort of their own armchair. Where they are offended vicariously, on behalf of others, it is worth probing a bit deeper. It may well be that the advertising touches on a nerve for them. An example here is the BT campaign featuring the Jewish mother, depicted by Maureen Lipman. The TV advertising was thought to be offensive to the Jewish community by a worrying number of respondents, but further research carried

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out amongst the Jewish community revealed that they liked to see such a well-loved stereotype portrayed so expertly on their screens. As far as they were concerned, the central character communicated the special love a mother had for her family and they saw nothing offensive in it; she was a mother first and Jewish second. On balance, BT decided to go ahead. Humour can sometimes obscure the real message of an ad, where the joke is not connected to the brand or its personality or its proposition. In the hilarity, it is important to listen carefully to the messages and impressions that are left with respondents. There is also a need for the moderator to match the atmosphere of the group discussion or interview to the ads being looked at. Generating too jokey an atmosphere can allow respondents to hide their true responses behind the laughter. Equally, respondents cannot dissemble when they are laughing. Music is a key component to the success of many advertising campaigns. Sometimes it is a key part of the communications, other times it becomes part of the background and is not particularly noticed. Single-handed, it always creates a particular mood and pace, and seems able to touch our emotions in ways that words rarely can. Branthwaite, Farrell and O’Donoghue (1999) described how it can signal a change of pace, add drama and surprise and enhance excitement, thereby improving communication. For example, in the Caffrey’s advertising of the 1990s the music changes pace from being dissonant at the beginning to becoming smooth and flowing towards the end, reinforcing the brand’s smooth taste. Music has the capacity to communicate brand values and increase salience. Classical music, for example, can imbue brands with notions of high culture and high standards, like the famous mould-breaking advertising for Fiat, in the 1980s. Without the sensual American sound of ‘Heard It Through the Grapevine’ by Marvin Gaye, BBH’s advertising for Levi might not have been as successful nor have broken the moulds that it did. Music belonging to different cultures can quickly communicate provenance, like the sound of the Russian balalaika or the Indian sitar. Sadly, the actual music is rarely available at the time that the rough ads are researched and this leaves a hole in the researcher’s stimulus material. It is better to take some similar music along to the groups, even though it may not be exactly the music that will eventually be used. If music is available, Geoff Bayley (personal communication) recommends playing it to respondents first to achieve a ‘clean’ reading of its meaning. We are so used to watching film and television with music accompanying that we find it difficult to divorce words and pictures from soundtrack, so in order to make useful recommendations about the music, it is better to play it first. (For a more comprehensive description of qualitative analysis and interpretation, see Book 4.)

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KEY POINTS

• Qualitative analysis and interpretation is a complex, multi-layered and chaotic process. There are four distinct stages, but each stage overlaps with the other and at many times the researcher adopts a mindset characteristic of a different stage. • The four stages are: ¡

¡

¡

¡

Planning and fieldwork, where hypotheses and assumptions are fed into the design of the project, from sample design to writing discussion guides. The researcher analyses the data even as it is collected, although this tends to be at the service of moderation, in an effort to learn as much from respondents as possible. The analysis of data derived from the fieldwork involves revisiting the data, either through listening to tapes or reading transcripts, and involves organising the data into categories that make them easier to interpret. The interpretation of the data involves interrogating the data from the respondents’ point of view and working out what it means for the client. It looks at the three relationships: the brand/advertising, the advertising/consumer and the consumer/brand relationship, zooming in on the detail and out to see the bigger picture. Finally, the interpretation must be converted into meaningful recommendations for the client, typically focusing the findings onto the effect that the proposed advertising would have on the brand.

• Researchers adopt three different and consecutive modes during the course of an advertising project. Before the fieldwork they are in subjective mode, acknowledging how they feel about the category, the brand and the advertising themselves, and thinking of hypotheses and assumptions to feed into the research. During the fieldwork they adopt a highly objective mode, putting their own opinions aside and listening openly to respondents. Finally, they analyse the findings, bringing their experienced judgement to bear on the recommendations. • Part of the analysis and interpretation process is an understanding of the structure of an advertisement and the interlinking roles that the various elements have in that overall structure, as well as an appreciation of the unfolding narrative of any ad. • Researching leading edge advertising is particularly challenging because most respondents feel uncomfortable with anything that is very different from what has gone before and respondents are likely to be very critical. It demands a close and trusting relationship between client and researcher and particular sensitivity on the part of the researcher to detect small changes in responses during the research sessions.

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• Likeability is considered by many to be the best available test of predicting eventual advertising success. However, some advertising is liked instantly while other advertising becomes more likeable the more it is seen. Arguably, advertising that is liked more quickly, will wear out more quickly too. For qualitative researchers, therefore, likeability should not take priority over other responses.

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7 Representations of the Advertising

The map is not the territory. (Alfred Korzybski, 1933, Science and Sanity)

This chapter describes the strengths and weaknesses of the different ways of representing rough advertising ideas to respondents, called ‘stimulus material’ by qualitative researchers. It warns of the limitations of the material, from the points of view of the clients, agency, researcher and the respondents themselves.

Researchers call the representation of the rough advertising ideas ‘stimulus material’, a term which usually causes those outside the industry to raise an eyebrow. Stimulus material can also refer to material that helps the respondent to respond more fully and deeply to the advertising, rather than the rough advertising itself, but in this text this will be called ‘enabling material’ for want of a better term.1

THE LIMITATIONS OF STIMULUS MATERIAL

Stimulus material is usually confined to rough advertising for television, cinema and press. In the case of researching radio ads, a whole series of rough ideas can be recorded with much the same quality as you would expect to hear from your radio any day of the week and so producing inexpensive approximations of the advertising is unnecessary. If the cost of making television, press and poster ads were equally low, many of the problems inherent in producing stimulus material for advertising research would disappear. Sadly, this is not the case. Making a TV ad is sufficiently expensive to make the use of stimulus material, material that approximates to someone’s vision of the final ad, a necessity. The most useful thought for a researcher to hold in his mind is that the stimulus material will represent only a part of the final ad – hopefully the most essential part, but a part nevertheless. It is not the advertisement itself. Television advertising is the most difficult to represent because it brings an amalgam of words, music, sounds and pictures to the viewer’s attention, where a small change to any one element can result in a disproportionately different effect.

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Advertising ideas should be represented by stimulus material that best explains ‘the idea’. The stimulus is at the service of the idea and should not be forced into a form that is incompatible with it. With this thought in mind, it is not necessary to use the same type of stimulus material for a series of advertising ideas to be shown in one research project. The process must be idea-centric and not pretend to be a scientific process, where the only way of comparing different ideas is to present them in the same way. Most researchers prefer to work with either very rough or highly finished stimulus material. Rough ads in a nearly finished form are difficult to deal with in discussions, because respondents will see them as the finished ad (despite what they are told) and in reality they will be evaluating a poorly produced ad. Very rough ideas, on the other hand, can signal work-in-progress to respondents who will feel empowered to applaud, change and criticise, as the case might be. With very rough or highly finished ads respondents will be clear about what they are looking at and will be more likely to respond accordingly.

THE VIEW OF THE RESPONDENT

John Rose and Sue Heath (1984) conducted some research amongst consumers to find out how they responded to different types of stimulus material. The following points were amongst their findings. Respondents find it difficult to respond to advertisements monadically, or in isolation. It is always easier to discuss rough ideas comparatively: ‘I like that one more than that, because ...’ For this reason, it is worth putting more than one script into the mix, even though it is agreed beforehand that the extra ones are decoys. If the research is to be a learning exercise, there is no harm in including ideas that will never see the light of day, because people’s responses to the desired script, compared to the others, will be illuminating. Despite being told otherwise, respondents regard all research stimuli as advertisements because that is the format that most resembles what they are seeing and hearing. Visual stimuli are regarded as press or poster advertising and narrative tapes as something resembling a radio play. The problem here is that telling respondents that what they are seeing is not an advertisement tends to encourage them to see it as such. The famous maxim ‘don’t think of a blue tree’ neatly demonstrates the trap it is easy to fall into. Therefore, don’t tell respondents what they are not going to see, but what they are. Most illustrations, storyboards and particularly animatics, are seen as cartoons. This would not be a problem in Eastern Europe, where there is a fine tradition of animation aimed at adults and children alike, but in the UK cartoons tend to carry with them an implicit assumption that they are for children or are childish in some way. In addition, all illustrations have

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their own style – romantic fiction, courtroom scene, comic book hero – and each style will have its own effect on responses. It is useful to go through the various forms of stimulus and discuss their pros and cons from the point of view of the three parties, client, agency and researcher, and most importantly, from the point of view of communicating the advertising idea in its entirety as simply as possible (see also Book 2).

DIFFERENT TYPES OF STIMULUS MATERIAL

Storyboards Respondents are not familiar with storyboards. In the UK, they tend to have encountered illustrations like the ones they see in groups only in court case reports on the television news or illustrating romantic fiction in women’s magazines. This lack of familiarity with the format and style of storyboards leads respondents to be more critical than they might otherwise be and their impressions of the material must be carefully managed. This is where the researcher must be the interpreter of the stimulus for the respondents, so that they can grasp the idea lurking behind the drawings. It is certainly worth asking respondents later on in the groups about the style of the illustration – how they would describe the style of the illustration and where they might have seen such a style before. Storyboards need to comprise individual pictures that respondents can focus on one at a time. A large board with lots of pictures laid out in the form of a strip cartoon (apart from being unwieldy to handle and carry!) will be unlikely to be ‘read’ in the sequence that was intended. Respondents will jump around, picking out the most impactful frames and leaping ahead to the denouement, if there is one. From a practical point of view, however, storyboards are cheap to produce, quick to produce and therefore very flexible. New illustrations can be drawn up and inserted, new scripts quickly formulated as the project progresses, so that the ideas are able to evolve over the lifetime of the project. Storyboards alone cannot communicate mood, so it is useful to play soundtracks to accompany the storyboards which can introduce music and dialogue, adding in dimensions that will give respondents a better idea of the creative intention.

Narrative Tapes These are audio tapes that tell the story of the advertising. They are very flexible, very quick and cheap to produce and can convey the intended atmosphere and mood. Importantly, they do not come across as ‘authored’ by the moderator nor are they dependent on his skills of presentation.

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Where there are no accompanying storyboards, narrative tapes can be difficult to respond to. John Rose and Sue Heath (1984) discovered that respondents found it difficult to retain ideas that were heard rather than seen and struggled to remember them rather than respond to them. They tended to judge narrative tapes, therefore, in the same way that they would something they heard on the radio. The narrator’s voice, particularly, tended to get in the way. First reactions were whether they recognised the voice and where they had heard it previously. A good many respondents found the voices ‘droning or monotonous in tone’. Even when the voice was attractive, it assumed an exaggerated importance and got in the way of their ability to concentrate on the picture of the ad it was painting. Narrative tapes without storyboards also present a problem for respondents who find it uncomfortable to listen to the narrative without having anything specific to look at. They tend to gaze restlessly around the room, occupying themselves with finding something on which to rest their eyes, rather than listening to the tape. A few key frames, or even one, is a great help in concentrating their gaze and their mind on the script. It is also helpful to give a few clues as to the visual content of the idea as, given free rein, their ideas produced can be so wildly different as not to be helpful. The length of narrative tapes is perhaps the most serious shortcoming. It takes much longer to describe an advertisement than to watch one. On the one hand, this makes the experience for respondents rather heavygoing and so they are less inclined to understand. On the other, it can mean that complicated plots are easier to understand when the telling takes three minutes whereas the same tale can be incomprehensible in a 30-second commercial. Problems arise when narrative tapes tell the respondent what they are supposed to be taking out of the ad, for example, where there are elements of the advertising that in the final version will be left to the imagination, like the way that the protagonist is supposed to be feeling, or even the brand message and advertising strategy. It can be difficult, too, to spot words that are value-laden, like ‘suburban’ and ‘ordinary’, or accents that are too ‘posh’ or voices that are too monotonous.

Outdoor Posters It is very important that respondents know whether an ad is intended for a magazine, a newspaper or a hoarding, because it will be consumed in very different ways. Respondents tend to evaluate anything that looks like a poster by how impactful it is. They imagine driving past it and work out in their minds whether they would notice it or not. Posters can seem like press ads and vice versa, and so it is a good idea

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FIGURE 7.1

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Press and billboard advertising

for the stimulus material to show the idea as on a billboard and as a press ad. A simple device like a photograph of a real site with the new ads mounted at a slight angle is a good idea. Figure 7.1 represents two ads for ‘Squibbo’, one representing a double page spread in a Sunday supplement, the other unequivocally a poster.

Magazine Mock-Ups Rachael Holmes (1998) found using a magazine mock-up to explore press ads much more useful than simply pasting the rough ads on boards. Mock-ups of the ads under investigation were pasted into magazines alongside existing ads produced by an illustrator with the same degree of finish. In this case, two magazines were produced, one for men and one for women. In fact, Holmes found that the type of stimulus material proved more critical to the findings than using different methodologies. Much of the individual’s reaction to a press ad was about the context in which the ad was seen and it was through using the mock-up that the contextual data emerged. Clearly there are times, during early development for example, when using a mock-up would not be helpful, but later on it is worth considering the extra time and expense to uncover more meaningful data. Animatic Tapes These are not used as much nowadays for creative development work, partly because they do not leave enough to the imagination of the respondents and partly because they are very expensive to produce.

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Animatics do offer some advantages. First, they are shown to respondents on something which definitely resembles a TV and so have that televisual authority that other stimulus material is denied. Secondly, the story is illustrated and told in real time. So, if the ad relies on a complicated narrative, this is the way that the researcher can work out how well the story is understood, because the tale is told sequentially in real time. Animatics are also good for expressing the ‘left-hand side’ of the script, showing camera angles, dissolves etc., and also where humour is involved and when the timing of the jokes is critical. Researchers don’t like them much, however. They feel finished and yet look poor. Compared to a real TV ad, they are clumsy, stilted and look like badly drawn cartoons. Video clips and steal-o-matics are compilations of material taken from elsewhere, from TV programmes or, more typically, from films. These are intended to show the respondents the intended tone of voice, pace or maybe the genre. Tone of voice is often the one factor that is difficult to convey on conventional stimulus material and yet is fundamental to any piece of advertising, so these short videos can be useful in this respect. If it is only one of many boards or videos to show, however, the impression can be one of a frantic moderator clearly anxious that the respondents will like the advertising idea. ‘Please like my advertising’ is the message.

THE POLITICS OF STIMULUS MATERIAL

The outsider would expect the design of the stimulus material to be governed by whatever is the most straightforward and easily understood representation of the script. But as with most aspects of advertising research, there is a political dimension to stimulus material. The content will constitute an agreement at that time between the agency and the client on the viability of a particular idea, and so can become the focus for passionate discussion and disagreement. A tension exists between researcher, client and agency over stimulus material. Where the researcher sees the main aim as understanding responses and developing the advertisement, clients, with their different pressures, might need the research to evaluate an idea and agencies want to ‘sell’ the idea to respondents, just as they want to ‘sell’ it to clients and consumers. Evaluating, developing and ‘selling’ are different objectives and could require different stimulus material. On the whole, creative teams and clients want the stimulus material to look as finished as possible while planners and researchers prefer to work with rougher material. The agency teams tend not to make the distinction between selling the idea to the client and describing the idea to respondents, wanting to sell equally to both parties and, quite naturally, the

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creative team want their work to look as smart as possible. The clients want the material to look as much like a finished ad as possible because they want the findings from the research to be as certain as they can be. The greater the number of caveats, as in ‘Well, the ads were quite rough …’, the less certain the recommendations seem to be. Having said that, the more finished and elaborate the stimulus material, the greater the expense, and the cost of producing stimulus materials has been known to be greater than the research fee. Researchers, by and large, want stimulus material that is as simple as is practicable, preferring to rely on their understanding of the pivotal idea as well as a knowledge of the fears and expectations of the teams involved. They feel that their experience and their understanding are an important factor in the research process, in a sense more important than the stimulus material. Clients and creative teams believe that the quality of the stimulus material is of the utmost importance, preferring not to rely on the middleman researcher but wanting the stimulus material to speak for itself. This is probably the first time that the idea has had an airing, and even though the audience might number only very few, their respective pride in the brand and the idea mean that they are only comfortable going into research with the idea looking its best. Creative teams often supply an enormous amount of material to the researcher so that respondents can ‘get’ the idea. In reality, this can result in obscuring the idea from view. Peter Dann (personal communication) likens this to wrapping the idea up in cotton wool, like a precious artefact, in order to preserve it but possibly also to protect it from attack. For clients and creatives teams, handing over the stimulus material to the researcher can feel like handing over the baby to a childminder. Better to load them down with lots of instructions and paraphernalia rather than give the new childminder free rein. In stimulus material terms, this can result in over-elaborate stimulus material, lots of bells and whistles, inappropriately beautifully crafted illustrations, a mountain of different ways of conveying the mood of the ad … until the moderator feels like a one-man show – lots of performance and clapping, but little time for responses. In conclusion, it’s best to remember that the person with the most experience in this area is usually the researcher, who has much to contribute to the discussions before the format of the material has been decided. The researcher would also do well to evaluate the limitations of the stimulus material, working out what the material is not able to convey about the advertising and incorporating that into the interpretation of what was said by respondents. The stimulus material chosen and developed should be that which best expresses the central idea of the advertising, and because each ad has a different idea at its heart, so the stimulus material for different ads need not be the same format.

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KEY POINTS

• Stimulus material representing advertising ideas can never replace the advertising itself; it will always be an approximation and a lesser approximation at that. • Storyboards, narrative tapes, animatics and other forms of stimulus material each have their advantages and disadvantages. Advertising ideas should be represented by material that best explains the central creative idea. Stimulus material for different ideas that are shown to the same respondents need not adopt the same format. • Researchers prefer to work with very rough or highly finished stimulus material; clients and creative teams prefer stimulus material to be highly finished. • Respondents view all stimulus material as advertisements even when they are told otherwise. • Respondents find it difficult to respond to advertisements monadically, it being much easier for them to discuss rough ideas comparatively.

NOTE 1 Enabling material would include words written on cards, a collection of satin ribbons, a collection of different buttons, a pile of different types of textured paper or simply a heap of magazines. The list is infinite but the intention behind them is the same: to help respondents articulate their feelings more easily and deeply. What colour is this brand? What does it sound like? What does it feel like? What do its users look like? What sort of relationship do these protagonists have with the brand or with each other?

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8 The Politics of Advertising Research

I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgement; they are coming to rely too much on research and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post – for support rather than for illumination. (David Ogilvy, 1971, Confessions of an Advertising Man)

As well as planning and conducting the research, the researcher has to be careful of the politics at play in advertising research. This chapter outlines the reasons why politics is more of an issue in advertising research than in any other type of qualitative research activity, and looks at the situation through the eyes of the three parties: client/advertiser, agency and researcher. It goes on to rehearse the arguments advanced in the long-running conflict between planners and researchers, and finally offers some suggestions on how to ameliorate the situation

Advertising research is perhaps the most contentious of all research areas. Before the research has even begun, there are three parties concerned: the client/advertiser, the advertising agency and the research company/ researcher, and triangular relationships are rarely stable. It is natural for any two parties to have a warmer and more committed relationship that inevitably leaves the third party in the cold, or at least in a colder place than the other two. At the beginning of the advertising development process, all three parties are keen to understand the target consumer and to gain insights that can be fed into the advertising. The nearer to the broadcast or publication date you get, tensions rise and opinions harden (Figure 8.1). Time is running out and there is an increasing need to commit to one campaign idea. Money has been spent and the agency particularly is keen to reap the rewards of that investment, moving from a consultancy position to taking more of a selling stance. At the same time, the client is likely to feel the need for reassurance from research that defends a particular choice of creative route. Advertising is all about subjectivity; it is designed to engage people’s attention, to involve them and motivate them. So, show anyone an advertising idea and they will (or will not) feel engaged, involved and motivated.

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Increasing tensions

Strategic development

Creative development

Pre-testing

... Broadcast publication date

FIGURE 8.1 Tensions rise as development progresses (after Sue Robson)

This includes planners, clients and researchers. We all experience something when we look at a piece of advertising. So, even for professionals, subjective experience comes before more objective judgement. Then add to the mix the fact that everyone on the client and agency side will have strong opinions, while in sharp contrast respondents will tend not to be very engaged. It makes for a fraught situation.

THREE SIDES OF A TRIANGLE

The tension between the three parties, and in particular the tension between advertising agency and researcher, has existed for as long as there has been pressure on agencies to produce successful advertising and research methods have existed to measure it. Agencies complain that research sits as judge and jury on advertising without having the appropriately sensitive methodologies to evaluate it; client advertisers find it difficult to commit large sums of money to advertising without having some reassurance that it will achieve its objectives. It is no surprise that pre-testing research comes in for most criticism, partly, but not wholly, because it is inevitably carried out after huge amounts of energy, time, money and enthusiasm have been spent. Alan Hedges advocates shifting the weight of research to the beginning of the advertising development process, principally because it is less contentious and therefore can be more useful. At that stage there are more people on the various teams listening with willing ears. Research of this kind must be done very early in the creative process, while ideas are still plastic in everyone’s minds and there is time and scope for proper development. How often do we still see creative research used only

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THE POLITICS OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH

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right at the end of the development of a new campaign when everybody has begun to take up entrenched positions: the creative man crouched to defend the ideas to which he gave birth; the client baulking at putting his money on a commercial which has got only a fourth decile score on his favourite testing service; and the account man who is quite convinced that he had a better idea several months back. (1998: 33)

Within the agency, you can find another triangle; the account handlers, the planners and the creative team. As has been pointed out before, triangles are rarely stable. Then we have the complex three-way relationship between the brand, its advertising and the target audience. Two unstable and interrelated triangles and several relationships to disentangle and understand. Each of the three parties – client, agency and researcher – come from a different company culture and each probably unknowingly has different notional models of how advertising works. In addition, they have different concepts of what ‘valid evidence’ would be. At the beginning of the advertising process, all three parties are, metaphorically speaking, facing in the same direction. At the end, as Paul Feldwick (1997) has described, they are gazing across at each other from the sides of a triangular table. Figure 8.2 demonstrates just how complex the relationships and loyalties can become. Managing Director (local and international) Brand Manager

Account Handler

Client

Brand Cons

Market Research Manager

ume r

Researcher

Ad

ve

is rt

in

g

Creative Team

Agency Planner

FIGURE 8.2 Triangular relationships

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The Client/Advertiser Let us think first of all about the party who has to shoulder most of the risk and foot the bill. Despite the universal belief that advertising can make a positive contribution to the fortunes of brands, it is arguably the one category on the profit and loss account which carries the most risk. While IPA Effectiveness Awards all tell us that advertising can make a huge and positive difference, it can have a positive effect in a different financial year to the year in which the expenditure occurred, it can have no effect and, in thankfully rare cases, it can have a negative effect. So, it’s a risk whichever way you look at it. It is no surprise then that the client advertiser has to defend the campaign to the MD and it is no surprise that they need some way of predicting the outcome – and any way is better than no way at all. At the beginning of the advertising development process, the client has an important and pivotal role. They know the brand well and how it has fared in the previous periods. In a sense, they are handing over some of the decision-making but none of the responsibility to the advertising agency. As the process gathers pace, many clients have little involvement with the creative process and therefore feel little or no sense of ownership of the ideas. Backing the wrong idea could reveal poor judgement and a lack of decision-making skills. They are naturally concerned not to be sold an inadequate idea and in the world of advertising, where the ground is always shifting and good advertising breaks rules, this is one of the most difficult judgements to make. The position of the brand in its life cycle sometimes has a bearing, too, on the company’s willingness to take risks. When there’s little to lose other than the cost of the campaign, it’s less risky to back the riskier idea. Tango was a brand languishing in the shadow of Coke, Pepsi and own labels at the end of the 1980s. It had little to lose by running the ground-breaking ‘orange man’ advertising. A successful brand at the peak of its success, on the other hand, needs to maintain its position and so it is therefore much more difficult to sanction risks with such healthy market shares. The client needs to feel confident in the choices and to feel reassured. They want justification that the ad is worth running and that it will achieve whatever objectives were agreed for it. No surprise then that they look to research to provide that reassurance.

The Advertising Agency The second side of the triangle is the advertising agency, and within the agency, the planner, the creative team and the account handlers all have their differing and at times conflicting needs and opinions. Planners focus most of their energy and enthusiasm at the beginning of the planning cycle on developing the advertising strategy. Translating the

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brand’s strategic intentions into an advertising strategy, crystallised in the creative brief, is the planner’s domain and the one that brings the most reward, both personal and professional. After that, much energy but less enthusiasm is spent on getting the idea to work in print or on TV or in whatever medium is chosen. There are triangular relationships, too, within the agency itself. Without creative teams and their creative ideas there would be no advertising, and consequently, the balance of power is usually with them. Planners can sometimes seem to dance in attendance to creatives, and being the messenger between the researcher and the creatives can stretch loyalties and challenge their autonomy. Account handlers, also in the triangle, are the custodians of the agency’s business interests and can feel the pressure of conflicting loyalties – between the best advertising for the brand and getting the revenue onto the agency’s books as soon as possible. Agencies feel anxious about the choice of researcher, needing to feel that the researcher is sympathetic towards the advertising process. The more sympathetic they are, the reasoning goes, the more likely they are to understand the process and the anxieties of the advertising agency and, more importantly, the more nurturing a stance they take towards the fragile creative idea. Agency planners resent the apparent objectivity of qualitative research, believe that the research process is largely subjective and that if any opinions are going to brought to bear on the outcome of this piece of research, better to have a sympathetic and understanding opinion than not. For these reasons, the vast majority of people conducting advertising research these days are those who have worked previously in advertising agencies. As the development process goes on its way, moving inexorably towards the campaign launch date, so the advertising agency’s approach changes from advertising consultant to advertising salesman. Understandably, the agency teams and the account handlers particularly find their support for particular ideas hardening and the need to sell it increasing. Time, enthusiasm and money have been spent. Maybe the ad presented is not the best ad, but it may well be the best that the creative team have come up with in limited time; the creative director has given it his or her approval and now the account handling team need to convince the client to buy it. As time goes by, it gathers approval like a snowball gathers snow. The teams might feel that there are more reasons not to use research than to use it. If the news from the research is not good, the account director will find it difficult to sell the campaign and the planner is unlikely to feel they want to be the bearer of bad tidings to the creative team.

Researchers What are the hopes and expectations of the researcher? It is they who make the relationship triangular, after all. Researchers above all want to

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be fair, to be useful and, of course, to win more work from the client(s). Their inclination is that a good job is a thorough job and one which, in strategic development research, uncovers an insight that inspires the creative team and motivates the consumer, and, in creative development research, enables the teams to understand the structure of the advertisement and how it could work. Their loyalties tend to be pretty fairly divided between agency and client, although this depends upon who is leading the project and paying the bill. Working out the politics is one of the items on researchers’ agenda and it is important from their point of view to find out a few pertinent facts: • The history of the brand, its advertising and the nature of the relationship between agency and client are all very important and can indicate potential points of conflict, even if none currently exists. If the brand has a track record of memorable and successful advertising, both agency and client may not be in risk-taking mood – and vice versa. One of the most difficult situations to deal with is if the agency is in danger of losing a client and these new ideas could be its last gasp. • How was the researcher chosen, or rather, does one party feel more loyalty towards the researcher than the other? This can cause problems with the party who did not ‘choose’ the researcher, who can feel that the others could ‘gang up’ on them. • What are the various worries, issues and expectations of the planner, the client and their respective organisations? Research can sometimes be used to ‘kill’ an idea, especially an idea that was hatched somewhere else. As Merry Baskin and Neil Coburn put it, ‘No one wants to be the bad guy, so let’s get the researcher to do it. And you let them’ (2001: 367). • Where in the planning cycle are we? While it is sometimes difficult to define this exactly – strategic development, creative development, pretesting or a combination – it will give the researcher a feel for how the findings should be angled. It is no good commenting on the strategy when that is set in European-wide stone. Time is on no one’s side. The closer to the production deadlines the research takes place, the greater the pressure on everyone to push something through. Pressures on the researcher are obvious time ones but they can experience covert pressure too: odd requests from one or other party, being asked to keep information from the third party etc. etc. can all alert the researcher to some irritant between the other two. The researcher can easily become a scapegoat when tensions increase. By the very short-term nature of their contract compared with the longer relationships of agency and client, they are easy to dismiss and blame. For this reason, it is certainly partly the researcher’s responsibility to make the disparate team work successfully together. Researchers are the last to be called to the table and it is they who give the relationship its unwieldy three sides.

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Spare a thought, then, for the poor researcher. No two situations are the same, just as no two ads are the same, so agency and client set-ups are different. Some planners want them to express their views loudly, confidently and clearly – get off the fence – put their money where their mouth is. Other planners want them to keep their recommendations to themselves and to make the audience aware of the limitations of the methodologies they use. It is easy to see that advertising researchers have to walk a tightrope, and in reality they will be guaranteed to fall off occasionally. Qualitative researchers in the past have been likened to chameleons, changing their camouflage depending upon whom they are talking to. Now they have to negotiate their way through quite different expectations, not only changing their spots depending on the stage in the research process they are at, but to pick up on what type of presentation the planner and client want and what stance would be the most productive. Take another example, the need for researchers to nurture the creative idea. This is a stance espoused in public by the vast majority who write on the subject. There is no such thing as a bad creative idea, say many, agreeing with Rosemary Cowan and Maggie Taylor in their MRS conference paper: ‘In advertising, there are no failures, only learning opportunities’ (1998: 214). The research phase must be a nurturing phase. Creative ideas are not fully formed and do not look like fully finished ads. The task is not to find out if it works but how it could be made to work. If you consider that much of what viewers and readers respond to is the execution of the idea rather than the idea itself, you can see that it is easy to throw away the baby with the bathwater. If you add in the fact that respondents in market research are more likely to lean towards being critical than approving then you realise that researchers have to pick their way through responses very carefully. It is clearly important therefore to take as positive and constructive a stance as possible, but, as Sue Robson (2000) says, it is naïve to think that it is always possible to make a distinction between development and evaluation and it is when ads are evaluated that the political and personal issues enter the triangle. Some ideas do not work as well as others. While they do their best to find ways of taking all ideas forward, researchers find that this is not always possible. To paraphrase Graham Booth (1997), there is one fantastic idea to 20 average ones to not a few bad ones, but research is not a substitute for judgement. We like to say that there is a creative development phase and there is an evaluation phase and in the former we do not evaluate and in the latter we do not develop. However, development inevitably involves some evaluation even though the focus is on nurturing and developing ideas. Evaluation is part of development. Mike Hall (1997) agrees. He says that research explores the reactions of respondents to ideas to see if they can work for the brand, and inherent in

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any question about maximisation we must recognise that this leads to the selection of those ideas that have potential while admitting that inevitably there will be ideas that have less potential. This is evaluation. Dominic Scott-Malden would even take it one stage further and likens some creative development research to being handed the poisoned chalice of quality control: Clients can look to the researcher to be the quality control. If they can’t turn poor ads down, who can? (Personal communication)

Each type of product category and each of the different stages at which research is used can bring its own particular problems. Advertising that is ‘leading edge’ is particularly difficult. There is much at stake for the agency because ideas like these demonstrate the agency’s creative abilities to its peers and the wider marketing fraternity. Respondents tend to reject new and different ideas, so it is difficult to assess whether an idea is not working because it is so avant-garde or whether it just isn’t working. Clients themselves can feel understandably nervous about backing leading edge ideas – it feels like more of a risk than simply continuing the advertising along familiar lines. Tensions are high.

THE PARTICULAR CASE OF ADVERTISING

So why is advertising research the most controversial of all types of research? Any research that evaluates the product of human creativity will be contentious. Where the product is the result of the creation of human thought, ingenuity and intuition and there is a business need for that product to be read, bought or watched, there will be an evaluation process and the creator will resent the evaluator. Business and art are not happy bedfellows. Wherever they co-exist, you will find discomfort. Bring in research to television production, editorial teams in publishing companies, to the buying and design departments of fashion companies, to design companies, to PR companies – wherever people have laboured over their ideas – and there will be a degree of conflict. But more ingenuity, and more column inches, have been taken up with the argument against research into advertising than in any of the cases quoted above. This is probably because advertising research has been around longer in this industry than any other and the arguments have been so developed, honed, polished and refined that it is practically an art form in itself. Creative teams in advertising agencies have more of a responsibility, however, than creative people working in other areas. They are responsible for a whole idea, a whole advertisement, rather than just a part of an existing whole (Kevin Casey, personal communication). Nevertheless, for as long as advertising continues to exist, clients will need some reassurance about the return on the money they are investing

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and advertising research will be required. The argument is not about whether advertising research should be used but how. We have to learn to live with the discomforts it brings because it won’t go away. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, tensions between the parties continue. Agencies fear that clients listen more to researchers because they have the validity of their research findings to back them up; researchers fear that agencies discredit their findings when they have left the room and resent the long-term closer relationships agencies have with their clients. Much of the recent criticism is not aimed at qualitative research itself but more at quantitative research, which by its very nature is less flexible and less able to handle the complexity of any advertising idea. Planners themselves rarely take an advertising brief from beginning to end without using qualitative methodologies. However, there is a lot of criticism of qualitative advertising research. It has become acceptable, even laudable for planners to unearth a motivating advertising strategy without consulting consumers, and the new breed of planner likes to dismiss qualitative research out of hand. Some of the criticism is understandable, some is unfair. What is the nature of the criticisms aimed at qualitative research? Top of the list is a failure to understand how advertising is structured, namely the importance of the central pivotal creative idea and distinguishing that from the executional detail. Failing to interpret responses in terms of the advertising under scrutiny and filling pages with reportage and verbatims is another. A particular bugbear is the researcher behaving like judge and jury when the news is not good. (When the news is good, however, researchers are encouraged to give their blessing to the venture.) It is true that many researchers approach advertising research in the same way that they might approach any other type of research, when in reality, it requires a different stance and different pre-planning process. For their side, though, the advertising industry has been poor at educating their complementary industries in the nature of advertising ideas. Briefings can be sketchy and incomplete – with little effort given to explaining the creative idea and how it is intended to work. There is a temptation not to reveal the true history and politics of the project, for understandable reasons, but also because the client and agency want to test the researcher in some way – to see if they come up with the same as the last researcher on the job. Time can be the enemy of proper briefings, too. It is too easy to put the research brief on the fax or e-mail it over and hope for the best. The problem does not always lie in the qualitative methodology itself but in the reliance that many have on its findings. Given the complexity of any advertisement and the interaction of its various elements, there will never exist a methodology that could predict the outcome with a high degree of certainty. When research is used as a way of understanding and illuminating the consumers’ reactions to advertising scripts, the more

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useful it is. Even so, in the uncertain world of advertising, even the opinion of the woman at the bus stop can seem useful. Qualitative research is sometimes greatly resented by agency planners because they believe clients view the findings as the objective truth. They resent, too, what they see as the disproportionate influence that researchers have over the future of advertising ideas. It is true that advertising development research requires much more input from the researcher than all other types of research. The process is more like consultancy and less like the familiar model of scientific research than any other type of qualitative research. The character, experience and judgement of the researcher, therefore, is of critical importance; a lot is resting on the researcher’s shoulders. As Roddy Glen says in his chapter in Excellence in Advertising, It’s better to regard the whole process as one wherein we are being asked to think and to clarify some issues and as part of this, the client is paying for our stimulation in the form of access to relevant groups in the community via structured conversation. (1999: 113)

So, is the emphasis here not what the consumer thinks but what the researcher thinks? No. It is what the researcher thinks as a result of finding out what the consumer thinks. It is not the researcher’s subjective opinion, it is his judgement, reached by a laborious process of listening to consumers and using his experience to evaluate those comments in the light of experience. This is not to say that the researcher’s judgement is more important than the client’s and the planner’s. They, too, are bringing their experience to bear on the advertising being developed. The planner, unlike the researcher, has a better idea about how advertising fares in the real world as well as pragmatic knowledge of the pitfalls of turning ideas into finished ads. The client particularly must feel comfortable that the advertising represents that company’s brand and sits comfortably alongside its culture and ethos. On the whole, researchers feel aggrieved that they are blamed for all the miseries of advertising development research. Yes, there is ‘bad’ research, but there is also good, excellent and illuminating research, too, just as creative teams have good, bad and indifferent ideas. The problems are embedded in the motivations to do the research in the first place, and it benefits us all to work with it rather than rail against it.

THE WAY FORWARD

Top of the list, then, is better teamwork. The more that the parties can work together, understand each other’s worries and expectations, the more respect they will have for each other.

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A degree of conflict and tension is unavoidable in the advertising development process, and because of this, it is tempting for all concerned to stay apart for the duration of the project other than the necessary meetings and phone calls about practicalities. That way, the thinking goes, there will be fewer difficulties. In fact, the opposite is true. The closer the relationships between all three parties the better, because there will be a chance for everyone to see the same issues from others’ points of view. The more that information can be shared – not only about work that has gone before but about where all the parties stand – the better the researcher can deal with particular worries in a sensitive, positive and constructive way. Interchanges before and after more formal meetings are even more important sometimes than the exchange of necessary information and views because they foster mutual respect, and without mutual respect, conflict becomes personal and saps the energy and enthusiasm around the project. Conflict is not always a bad thing when it is focused on the task in hand and not a problem between the individuals. Conflict can develop good ideas into great ideas. According to Paul Feldwick (1997), the critical ingredient is mutual respect and that demands an understanding of each party’s position, their aims and their points of view. Why not accept that the views on the advertising are unlikely to coincide and put time aside for healthy argument and encourage disagreement? When ideas can be freely discussed amongst the people concerned, it is possible to develop them to a state where everyone feels they have been heard, where their worries have been understood and addressed and where there is a consensus on the way forward. The three parties are not equal in status and some are more dependent than others, which makes these relationships difficult to maintain. Winning the battle of words can be a sweet but shortlived victory. For advertising to be successful in the long term, it stands a better chance if all three – consumer, client and agency – are happy with the result. In the words of Leo Burnett: Rarely have I seen any really great advertising created without a certain amount of confusion, throw-aways, bent noses, irritation and downright cursedness. (Burnett 1995)

Kirsty Fuller, in her article about Levi 501 advertising development (1995), describes how important it is to establish a relationship of trust between researcher, advertiser and advertising agency. If there is less focus on each individual’s expertise and more focus on the task in hand, i.e. developing effective advertising, the more everyone will feel they are working in a team and are not an object of scrutiny. Clearly, the onus is on all members of the triangular team to engender this feeling of trust, but the client, being the most powerful in the triangle, needs to lead by example. From the researcher’s point of view, there is much that can done. The researcher must make a conscious effort to praise. The inclination of both

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respondents and researchers is to criticise. Respondents find it easier to criticise than they do to praise and researchers find it easier to explain why something is disliked. It takes very little time to report that a particular piece of advertising was liked – there’s not a lot more say. Conversely, it can take 50 pages to explain why a piece of advertising was not very effective. Imagine the effect on an audience of one page saying that everything is OK and several more saying that a particular executional detail did not do justice to the idea. The effect on the audience is not positive. There is an onus, too, on the researcher to be explicit about the limitations of qualitative research methodology. Just as it is helpful for all the team members to focus on the task rather than each other, it is helpful at the presentation to focus on the advertising itself rather than the respondents’ reactions. This is a way of empowering the audience; they can change the advertising, but they can’t change the respondents. It is important that the researcher be aware of the sensitivities of the audience at the presentation. If the advertising does not do well in research, both parties are likely to become defensive and question the methodology, the accuracy of the sample and how the researcher arrived at his recommendations. Better still, and in the spirit of teamwork, to let everyone know how the findings are emerging so they can come to the presentation forewarned and having shared in the ‘results’. This changes the tone of that meeting into a discussion that takes the advertising development process forward rather than one which feels like turning into a cul-de-sac. It is up to the researcher, in this case, to be constructive and to turn the negative findings into learnings rather than condemnation. Despite the difficulties of the effects on respondents, viewing of group discussions by observers from the client and agency teams can be enormously beneficial to the politics of the situation and is to be recommended where the advertising is meeting with a hostile reaction. It is also useful when tension and conflict are predicted between the three parties. Being able to see and hear problems with the advertising, as experienced by respondents in the group discussions, together at the same time, means that the problems become everyone’s problems rather than solely those of the researcher. So, as a consequence, everyone’s energies are focused on solving the advertising’s problems rather than spending it on in-fighting. Having said that, it is important to control the viewing of the research. The pros and cons have been laid out in Chapter 5, but it is worth saying here that it is not only researchers who can bring the heavy hand of evaluation down on an idea. Members of the client and agency teams can misread and misunderstand comments from respondents when they are heard out of the context of all the other groups. I have seen more creative ideas lost through knee jerk reactions to respondents’ comments than through poor research. What is viewed is only a

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fraction of the whole picture and there is no time to reflect upon what the consumer has said. (Graham Booth, personal communication)

Roddy Glen champions researchers’ becoming more like agency people, reading the advertising press, knowing the terminology, becoming advertising enthusiasts, developing respect for creativity in advertising, learning about how agencies really work. It is up to the researcher to make the agency team feel that they understand the advertising processes and all the anxieties and expectations that accompany the development of any advertisement. In conclusion, researchers need to analyse and understand the needs and relationships of the commissioning advertiser and advertising agency as carefully as they do the responses they hear during the fieldwork. It is incumbent on the client to inculcate an attitude of mutual respect between the three parties, so that each can hear and act upon the needs and recommendations of the others.

KEY POINTS

• Advertising research is very contentious for a whole series of reasons: ¡ ¡

¡ ¡

there are three parties involved; advertising is by its very nature highly subjective, and everyone has strong opinions; it is highly risky, from a professional and financial point of view; it is an art used for a functional purpose.

all of which adds a political element that researchers tend not to encounter in other types of research. • Tensions increase as the launch date approaches and it becomes more difficult to begin again, without financial loss and loss of face. • More research should be accomplished at the beginning and less at the end of the development process, not only because it is at this stage that qualitative research can be most helpful, but also because the brand teams are more likely to be in a position to act on the findings. • Researchers have a responsibility to adopt a nurturing stance to rough creative ideas: to place the emphasis on developing ideas and away from evaluating them. • Top of the list of ways to improve the process is better teamwork, especially in developing a mutual respect. Where there is mutual respect for each others’ skills and experience, any conflict of

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opinions can be used to improve the advertising ideas. Without mutual respect, a hostile stalemate is usually the result. • Researchers can help the process, too, by being sensitive to everyone’s concerns, by making a conscious effort to praise, by focusing on the advertising rather than the respondents’ reactions and, importantly, by being explicit about the limitations of the qualitative methodology.

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9 International Advertising Research

This chapter outlines how account planning and research differs when conducted across more than one market, and discusses the difficulties that multi-country projects present. It describes how companies’ decision-making structures differ and how important it is that the researcher is aware of the autonomy each local country branch has over advertising decisions. Qualitative research is most useful when it comes to understanding the consumer and their culture, so important to international research, but the focus here is on similarities between consumers and what that reveals in terms of the brand. Sometimes, there are deep emotional truths to be discovered that are common to all markets. Unlike research conducted in only one country, it is important to describe the type of market that the brand is operating in and where the brand might be in its life cycle in each of the countries under scrutiny. Sometimes countries can be grouped according to the stage of development they have reached and the characteristics they may have. The chapter closes by outlining those qualitative techniques and processes that are useful across all countries.

There will always be a role for local, regional, national and international brands, but the convergence of people’s tastes, experiences and values across the world, plus the opportunities provided by media with a global reach, has meant a burgeoning of brands that are internationally available. And where brands go, advertising and research follow. Rita Clifton observed in 1997 that campaigns with some international application made up about half of the UK advertising business, and at the time of writing, that proportion must have increased. So the internationalisation of business is here to stay and this presents research with a unique set of opportunities and problems. Book 1 by Imms and Ereaut also contains an outline of the particular issues involved in international qualitative research. OPPORTUNITIES AND PROBLEMS

Any researcher who works across borders talks enthusiastically about getting close to other cultures and being a part of honing brands and creating advertising that could be seen by countless numbers of people.

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Nevertheless, it is important not to assume that advertising formulae that are successful in the UK will work elsewhere, just as it is important not to assume that our familiar qualitative processes and techniques will work as well either. On a national scale, there is often a close fit between outstanding advertising campaigns and the prevailing culture, with the idiosyncrasies of culture and language bringing differentiation, standout and empathy. These need to be created through other devices in international campaigns, as the raw materials provided by local cultures are not available. The way in which research is carried out within national borders, too, is usually in sympathy with a country’s culture and the way that qualitative research practices have evolved. In Germany, for example, there is a preference for depth interviews over group discussions; in France, groups are preferred but respondents are often fewer in number than in the UK and typically the duration is much longer. In the USA most projects are not debriefed, with most of the decisions taken at the time by the clients at the viewing facility, the moderator having a more limited role after the research sessions have been completed. It is easy to see how difficulties and irritations can arise when techniques are imposed on a research agency from an agency in another country, given that there is a need for standardisation across all the different countries in the research plan (see ‘The Politics of International Research’ below).

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES IN INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING

Different corporations organise their multinational operations differently, from being tightly centrally organised at one end of the spectrum to allowing local managements near autonomy over marketing communications. Researchers need to be aware of how much control the brand team with whom they are in contact have over the decisions that are finally made. Restall (1996) places corporations on a spectrum (see Figure 9.1), and it is useful at the beginning of a project to identify where the commissioning client is on that spectrum. In most cases, the commissioning company is placed somewhere between the two extremes, and decisions about how advertising should vary in different countries are made as a result of research findings. It is common, for example, that the advertising strategy be the same across all markets, but the execution of the strategy differs according to local lifestyles, language and references.

Understanding the Planner’s Perspective As the traditional custodian of consumer insights, the representative of the consumer in the agency, the advertising planner has a different focus

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INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING RESEARCH

Decentralised local central management

121

Advertising different in different markets

Operate to central marketing guidelines but local freedom on detailed strategy and execution

Central strategy, local execution with input from the centre

Central strategy and central execution

Advertising the same across all markets

FIGURE 9.1 Degrees of autonomy or control (after Restall, 1996)

when it comes to international advertising. Where a brand operates across different countries and even continents, the attitudes and culture of the people in those different places are going to be too different for brand advertising to accommodate. Restall (1996) says the answer is to focus more on the brand in the advertising, and less on user or occasion imagery, or only so far as they specifically reveal and reflect the brand’s values. Focusing on the brand means that the campaign will be able to travel. As we have seen, referencing and commenting on cultural attitudes is certainly one recipe for eye-catching and relevant advertising, but it is not the only one and is not usually the most effective solution on a global scale.

Understanding the Consumer and the Culture While focusing on the brand in the advertising is the best way to achieve a successful outcome, brands only become understandable and visible through the consumers who use them, and so understanding the consumer is essential. It is here that qualitative research is invaluable: providing an understanding of the consumer, operating within his or her culture, and pulling back to show the brand in the context of its local consumers. Rita Clifton addresses this advice to planners: It’s your task to help clients look beyond corporate dogma and strategic neatness on globalisation/localisation. In particular, it will be your primary task to help clients (and agency people!) concentrate on what touches the people that really matter – i.e. their customers – rather than internal processes and politics. (1997: 138)

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Rita Clifton refers to something that ‘touches the people that really matter’, and there may well be a deep-seated emotional truth or trigger that is common to the brand across all the markets, and which could be exploited in advertising. It is easy in international research to lose the all-important perspective on the consumer, because of the longer and more convoluted chains of command and communication. A deeper and broader understanding of the brand’s consumers is a fundamental building-block in the development of advertising, both at home and abroad.

Understanding the Brand and the Market There are some important decisions that need to be taken about how the brand should operate in each of the markets in which it is available. Often research will contribute to these decisions; sometimes, the decision has already been taken. There are a few global brands, possibly fewer than most people expect, that are the same in every market. They are usually known to come from a country of origin and their provenance is usually one of their brand values. The ones that come most easily to mind are American in origin but feel global: McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. Some global brands celebrate their provenance, like car brands (e.g. Audi and Renault) and fashion brands (e.g. Giorgio Armani and Chanel). The global brands that come less readily to mind are those that are thought to belong in every market in which they appear. Heinz, Kellogg’s and Colgate are all brands and yet feel ‘home-grown’. John Pawle (1999) describes how important it is to understand the local contexts in order to decide whether to use the same advertising concept in every market or to execute that same concept differentially in different markets. He goes on to say that brand values can be remarkably consistent for the same brand across quite divergent cultures, although the advertising devices and imagery that are used to convey and reinforce these values sometimes need to be adapted to local cultures. He cites Lux as a brand whose values are highly consistent across the globe but have lost their relevance in the West: Thus cultural differences modify the way people respond to brand image. A good example of this is Lux soap again, a classic Unilever brand – ‘The Soap of the Stars’. Consumers respond to this image in the West as passé and old-fashioned, and as a result Lux lost shares in the West. However, the escapism of film stars is still completely relevant and very motivating in developing markets and Lux is dominant in many of these.

Some categories are tied more closely to local cultures than others. Most foods, for example, tend to belong to and reflect a particular culture and

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even if that is not the case, the way that the meals are eaten and the role of meals in a culture, even the timing of them, varies enormously. This is not to say that one campaign cannot be developed that is universally effective, just that the meal context may well not provide the way forward. The objectives of an advertising campaign may well differ across a number of markets. For instance, a brand may be at different stages of its life cycle and local advertising needs to reflect that, launching, building and maintaining the brand demanding different advertising solutions. The same brand may well be at the same stage in its life cycle but face different competition; it may well need different supplementary tactical advertising in different markets alongside a more strategic brand-building campaign across all markets. Mary Goodyear (1996) identified a continuum along which different markets could be plotted, from the least developed to the most developed, which are typified by Western markets like Europe and the USA. Type of market

Typified by:

Sellers’ market

Under-supply of goods, little need for marketing Marketing Increasing choice, product differentiation Classic branding Intense competition; brands more fully formed Customer-driven marketing Saturated marketplace, brands as icons/symbols

It is important for the researcher to be aware, however, that while markets tend to develop along a path which affects the supply and distribution of goods, other elements do not necessarily follow. Just as the UK market will never be quite like the US, so less developed markets will never end up quite like the UK, because of different cultural and historical factors. Sometimes a brand can be on different stages of its life cycle in different markets, although, as mentioned above, it is always important not to assume that our Western market represents the most desirable and that all the markets are developing in the same direction. Even so, it can be useful to group countries together where the development of the market and the maturity of the brand do seem to be heading in the same direction. Looking at pregnancy tests, for example, in some countries women may still be visiting their doctor for the test. In other countries, women may prefer to use the over-the-counter tests, while a third category of country might be in a transitionary phase, with some women preferring to visit

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the doctor but increasing numbers buying the tests and administering them themselves. Different markets may be at different stages within the same culture and different groups of consumers may well be at different stages, too. Linda Caller coins the term ‘brand tribe’ to describe the target audience for a particular brand that may well be at the same stage on the continuum but in a different culture. She mentions a beer brand: A beer brand might scatter right across the continuum, country by country because the relationship with a beer is more often local and strongly influenced by the culture. Research can help identify where the brand sits and whether we are looking at (or for) single-country or cross-border tribes of communities for a particular brand. (1998: 1076)

An existing strong advertising idea in one culture may well not translate well when shown in another. Rita Clifton gives the example of Timotei, a shampoo with a strong association with naturalness, the advertising showing a beautiful long-haired blonde girl washing her hair in the open air. Timotei is sold on the basis of ‘outdoor naturalness’ where the rural idyll and blonde naïveté are highly evocative in urbanised Western countries, whereas in Thailand images of country tend to signal backwardness and deprivation, and were inappropriate. (1997: 150)


Before discussing researching international campaigns, it is worth looking briefly at how complicated relationships can become on an international dimension. Figure 9.2 shows the relationships in a typical project which originates in country A. The main client and advertising agency are in country A and they contact an international research agency in the same country. They would like the project to be carried out in the home country A, as well as two more countries: B and C. The headquarters of the client company is in country D but it also has another branch in country B, who could feel a bit put out that the research is being orchestrated in country A. It is highly likely that the advertising agency in question also has branches, or network partners, in countries B, C and D, who also might feel the need to be closely involved in the proceedings. It is easy to see how many interested parties are involved in this relatively simple piece of research and how important it is to know who the decisionmakers are and to keep everyone informed. Caller advocates involving the key decision-makers early on in the process:

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HQ (Country D)

Branch Country B Research Agency Country B

Brand owner Research Agency Country C

First Research Agency Country A

Advertising Agency FIGURE 9.2 Complicated triangular relationships in international research

This can be a real case of too many cooks. It can be hard to reach agreement on the research design and also on the conclusions and recommendations as a solution acceptable to all is sought. All too often, compromises must be made to reach agreement. If care is not taken, these compromises can ignore the consumer or result in lowest-common-denominator recommendations which upset no one but will be ineffective. It is key to ensure that the most important cooks are involved early in the process: those that will raise the most valuable hypothesis. The last thing you want to happen is someone saying after a study has been completed, ‘Why didn’t you ask about …’, the answer being, ‘There was no one on the team who knew we should think about it.’ (1998: 1079)

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One of the principal requirements of research agencies working across more than one country is that the methodology and techniques be standardised so that findings can be compared across countries. But there can be a tendency to impose too tight a structure on research design, that takes little account of the different ways of doing research in the different countries. Clearly, some elements of the design need to be standardised, but others need not. We have seen from previous chapters that the researcher acts more as a consultant than a facilitator when it comes to advertising research and being too prescriptive can be seriously demotivating to the local researcher. It is also dangerous, if not downright arrogant, to believe that what ‘we’ do (especially in the West) is better than what ‘they’ do (everywhere else) and therefore there is a risk of imposing practices that will distort the findings. So, which elements should be standardised and which should not? Peter Cooper (2000) points to the need for standardisation for the purposes of comparing the data, but balanced with the need to adapt to local conventions, both those of the consumer and of the researcher. He makes this suggestion:

Standardised across countries

Adapted to local conventions

The sample frame

Methods of recruitment Recruitment standards (back-checking etc.) Type of interview or group Specific probing and discussion techniques Style of interviewing Stimulus formats Wording and order of discussion guide Translation Method of analysis Timings and interpretation

Taking the recruitment element, it is clearly important to talk to respondents whose definition has been agreed with the commissioning client: the sample frame. How these people are found is another matter and every country has its own way. In some countries, like the USA and the Netherlands, recruitment tends to be done by telephone, using databases. In the UK, most companies use their own network of recruiters, who make personal or phone contact with potential respondents. In less developed countries, the recruitment method tends to be more ad hoc – in Nigeria, for example, some recruitment is done through local ‘leaders’, who give their blessing to the research at the same time as finding suitable candidates to

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interview. In this respect, standardisation is not appropriate and researchers would need to hook up with the local recruitment customs.

QUALITATIVE TECHNIQUES THAT TRAVEL WELL

Group discussions (or ‘focus groups’ as they are known in the USA) travel well all over the world. Certainly, they do need adapting in certain cultures. In the East, for example, with its collectivist tradition, people feel particularly uncomfortable in a group of strangers and groups can work better if people know each other. Projective techniques are invaluable in international work because they are capable of uncovering the emotional side of brands as well as allowing respondents to respond more fully. Fortunately, many techniques travel well. Peter Cooper (2000) has found that techniques such as collage, psychodrawing, analogies and guided dreams all work well across cultures. John Pawle (1999) has seen, for example, that the guided dream works well in Arab cultures, and in India the use of their Gods as an analogy for brands can work well, too. All in all, projective techniques must be culture-free, must address the objectives of the research and must be easy and comfortable for the moderator to use (Cooper 2000). Another useful technique (Pawle 1999; Cooper 2000) is laddering. It works across the world and is particularly useful when looking for the deep emotional truth about a brand. This involves a series of individual depth interviews, where respondents are asked repeatedly the same question, ‘and why is that important to you?’ when they answer questions about brand attributes. The same questions can be asked of competitive brands at the same time. In creative development research, Lucy Banister (1997) says that it is more important when working internationally that the advertising be researched in the context of other advertising. It is important, too, that the researcher gains an understanding of the contexts – medium and advertising – in which the new campaign will be seen. It is useful to begin the discussions with talk of advertising that respondents have noticed recently, and what their general thoughts are about advertising, as this will provide a valuable context for the findings. It may well be that they are exposed to Western advertising on satellite television but the advertising in the category under discussion is only seen in the small ads. While it is not strictly speaking a technique, local researchers are an invaluable source of information about the local culture and general attitudes and prejudices about the brand and category. They can act as a bridge from the visiting researcher into the culture and lives of the respondents they have just been watching through the glass at a viewing facility. Finally, in terms of analysis and interpretation, it is all too easy to spot differences between different country’s responses and overlook similarities.

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The human mind seems to delight in differences and so researchers have to make special efforts to notice what the respondents in different countries have in common. Linda Caller points out (1998) that transnational brands seem to be based on bigger ideas, possibly ‘fulfilling more fundamental human needs and tapping into universal values’, and it is easy to overlook these huge similarities in the fascination that all researchers, and respondents, have for differences. All in all, it is too easy to reach a bland lowest common denominator – an idea that offends no one.

KEY POINTS

• An increasing proportion of UK advertising has some international application. • Global brands include those that celebrate their provenance, like Audi and Chanel, and those that feel more home grown wherever they are available, like Heinz and Kellogg’s. • Multinational advertising ranges from the more centrally organised, where there may be a strong motivation for the same advertising across markets, to situations where local managements have near autonomy, which gives rise to different advertising across markets. A common compromise is a universal strategy with locally tailored executions. • Advertising formulae as well as qualitative processes may not translate across cultures. Some categories, by their very nature, are more culturally based, as in the case of food. • Brand essences may well not be as appealing or motivating in one country as another. Also, a brand may well be at a different stage of its life cycle or face different competition. It is important for research to discover these differences and for advertising to accommodate them. • Focusing more on the brand and less on the target audience better enables a campaign to travel. There is a danger, however, that the consumer’s view gets lost amid the desire for globally ‘neat’ solutions. • The numbers of people involved in international advertising decisions makes international research difficult territory for researchers to navigate. Ideally, all key decision-makers should be involved earlier in the research process than later. • There is a tendency for methodologies and techniques to be standardised in order to draw comparisons across countries but the great advantage of qualitative research is its flexibility, melding with and reflecting local cultures. It is self-defeating to be too prescriptive. • It is useful to distinguish certain elements where standardisation is useful, like the sample frame, recruitment standards, stimulus formats, from those where it is unnecessary, like the style of interviewing,

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methodologies sometimes, and the wording and order of discussion guides. • Techniques said to travel well include group discussions, projective techniques and laddering. In creative development research, advertising needs to be researched in the context of other advertising in the same medium. • It is easier for researchers to uncover differences between cultures than to discover similarities, but in order to develop international brands, it is the brand values that are common across cultures which will form the basis for development. Researchers need to be conscious of their natural inclination to delight in differences and work on the similarities.

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Hedges, A. (1998) ‘Testing To Destruction: A Critical Look at the Uses of Research in Advertising. London: Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. Henry, S. (1997) ‘How to write a great brief’, Admap, November. Holmes, R. (1998) ‘Better qualitative research for press ads’, Admap, June. Imms, M. and Ereaut, G. (2002) An Introduction to Qualitative Market Research. Book 1 in Gill Ereaut, Mike Imms and Martin Callingham (eds), Qualitative Market Research (7 volumes). London: Sage. Ingram, A. and Sampson, J. (1995) ‘Advertisers’ real needs from radio research’, Admap, December. Lannon, J. (1994) ‘Mosaics of meaning: anthropology and marketing’, Journal of Brand Management, 2 (3). Lannon, J. and Cooper, P. (1983) ‘Humanistic advertising: a holistic cultural perspective’, International Journal of Advertising, 2 (3): 195–213. Lillis, G. (2002) Delivering Results in Qualitative Market Research. Book 7 in Gill Ereaut, Mike Imms and Martin Callingham (eds), Qualitative Market Research (7 volumes). London: Sage. MacDonald, G. (1999) ‘Is the way we understand advertising changing?’, Admap, November. Market Research Society Joint Working Party on Qualitative Recruitment (1995) Proceedinigs of the Market Research Society Conference. London: MRS. Maso-Fleischmann, R. (1997) ‘Archetype research for advertising: a Spanish language example’, Journal of Advertising Research, 37 (5). O’ Donohoe, S. (1997) ‘Raiding the postmodern pantry: advertising intertextuality and the young adult audience’, European Journal of Marketing, 31 (3): 4. Pawle, J. (1999) ‘Mining the international consumer’, Journal of the Market Research Society, 41 (1): 19–32. Restall, C. (1996) ‘Managing multinational brands’, in Don Cowley (ed.), Understanding Brands. London: Kogan Page. Robson, S. (2000) ‘The role and value of qualitative research’, (Paper to Advertising Research Seminar), Admap, September. Robson, S. and Wardle J. (1988) ‘Who’s watching whom?: a study of the effects of observers on group discussions’, Proceedings of the Market Research Society Conference. London: MRS. Rose, J. and Heath, S. (1984) ‘Stimulus material: a dual viewpoint’, Proceedings of the Market Research Society Conference. London: MRS. Scott-Malden, D. (1998) Sharp Stick. London: The Account Planning Group. Sippit, I. and Fowler, C. (1991) ‘It makes me laugh, but was it good for you?’, Proceedings of the Market Research Society Conference. London: MRS. Steel, J. (1998) Truth, Lies and Advertising – The Art of Account Planning. New York: John Wiley. Wardle, J. (1995) ‘Advertising to women’, Admap, September.

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accompanied trips/shopping, 41, 57 advertisements, structure of, 11–16 advertising, 2, 20–1 different forms and devices, 16–18 models of, 23–8, 34, 35 objectives, 7–10 relationship with consumers, 87–9 as response to business needs, 21–3 shaping brands, 29–30 used by consumers, 28–9, 33–4 advertising agencies, 4, 21, 23, 91 account holders, 107, 109 creative teams, 11, 107, 109, 112 international campaigns, 120–1, 124, 125, 126 opinions of, 51 planners, 109, 111, 114, 121 relationship with clients, 50 relationship with researchers, 106, 109, 110, 112, 113, 114 and stimulus materials, 102–3, 104 advertising rejectors, 33, 55 advertising research, 1–2, 3, 5 in international research, 124–7 politics of, 105–18 qualitative methods, 2–4 see also creative development research; strategic development research advertising strategy, 4, 37, 38–42, 43, 47 see also strategic development research affective memory, 27 AIDA model, 24 analysis and interpretation, 75–6, 77–81, 95 of international research, 127–8 Angear, B., 41 animatic tapes, 101–2

archetypes, 18 attitudes, influencing, 8–10, 26 authority, voice of, 17 Baldinger, A.I., 91 Banister, L., 72, 127 Barnham, C., 3 Baskin, M., 110 Bayley, G., 58–9, 70, 94 Benetton, 17 Bernbach, B., 2 Biel, A., 92 Booth, G., 60, 111 brand associations, 27, 81 brand images, 10 brand relationships, 87 brand room, 65 brand saliency, 25–6, 30 brand teams, 16 brand values, 10, 90, 122, 128 brands, 8, 28, 121 and campaign risk, 108, 110 controlling, 10, 30 global, 122, 128 impressions of, 29 local contexts, 122–4, 128 markets and, 123–4 shaped by advertising, 29–30, 39 Branthwaite, A., 94 bricolage, 57 briefing meetings, 50–2, 73, 113 Brierly, S., 7 BT, 93–4 bubble drawings, 65, 72 Burnett, L., 115 business, advertising and, 21–3 buttons, 65, 77 Caller, L., 124–5, 128 Carlton, W.J., 21 cartoons, 98 cause-related marketing, 10 celebrity endorsements, 16 charisma, 30, 81 children, targeted by advertisers, 31 clients, 105, 106, 107, 112–13, 117 observing groups, 60 opinions, 51

clients, cont. relationship with agencies, 50, 108, 113 and researchers, 51–2, 113, 114 and stimulus material, 102, 103, 104 Clifton, R., 119, 121–2, 124 Coburn, N., 110 collage, 65, 77, 127 Colley, R., 24 company, and advertising strategy, 39–40 connectors, 55 consultancy, 83, 114 consumers, 22–3, 122 activists, 22–3 beliefs about advertising intentions, 33–4, 35 brand relationships, 87 choice for, 23 culture of, 121–2, 122–3 passive/interactive, 24, 28 relationship with advertising, 87–9 response to advertising, 28–9, 30, 35 see also respondents content analysis, 77 controversy, 17 Cooper, P., 28, 70–1, 126, 127 corporate image, 9 Cowan, R., 111 Creative Brief, 42–4, 50 creative development research, 4–5, 11, 37, 44–7, 48, 62, 73, 112 aim of, 84–5 in international research, 127, 129 methodology, 58–9 sample design, 54, 55, 56–7 topic guides, 66–8 creative ideas,11–13, 14, 44, 50, 83–6, 111 Crowther, J., 15 culture, 40–1, 120–2, 122–3 DAGMAR model, 24 Damasio, A., 27 Dann, P., 69, 103

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demonstrations, use of, 17 depth interviews, 59 direct marketing, 22 Domestos, 92 Duckworth, G., 28, 29, 42 Earls, M., 23 effectiveness of advertising, 23, 91–3, 108 Ehrenberg, A., 22, 25, 26 emotional communication, 27 emotional selling proposition (ESP), 21–2, 25 employee morale, 9–10 enabling material, 97 endlines, 15–16, 85–6 Europe, advertising theory, 25 evaluation, 1, 76–7, 111–12 executional details, 14–15, 44, 83 fantasy, 17 Feldwick, P., 92, 107, 115 fieldwork, evaluation during, 76–7 Fishbein, M., 26 Flower, C., 93 Forrest, C., 28, 84 Franzen, G., 25 Fuller, K., 32, 115 Gallop, C., 39 Gallup, George, 1 Gladwell, M., 55 Glen, R., 81, 83, 89, 114, 117 Goodhart, G.J., 22 Goodyear, M., 123 Gordon, W., 33–4, 83 group discussions, 58, 59, 80, 93 in international research, 120–1, 127, 129 interviewing methods, 69–72 introductory questions, 62–3 number of, 56–7, 58 topic guide, 63–8 viewing, 116 group effect, 68 guided dreams, 127 Haley, R.I., 91 Hall, M., 26, 111 Hand, K., 39 Heath, R., 27 Heath, S., 98, 100 Hedges, A., 4, 106 Heinz, 53–4 Henry, S., 43, 60 HHCL, 43 Holmes, R., 59, 72

hot-housing, 58–9 humour, use of, 93–4 Huntingdon, R., 39 imagery, 10, 37 in-home interviews, 58 Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), 23 international advertising research, 119–29 interpretation, 78–81, 95 interviewing, 68–72 involvement model, 27 Johnson, Dr Samuel, 21 judgement, 49, 82–3 Kennedy, M.D., 71 laddering, 127 Land Rover, 44 Langford, A., 75, 83 Lannon, J., 28, 29, 81 Lawrence, M.W., 20 leader brands, 89 leading edge advertising, 89–91, 95, 112 Leslie, I., 41 Levi 501 jeans, 90–1 Lewis, E., 24 likeability, 91–3 literature, 28 low involvement processing, 27 loyalty to brands, 22 Lucozade, 9 Lux, 122 MacDonald, G., 32 Maclay, D., 26 magazine mock-ups, 101 magical qualities, 17 marketing, 10, 22 markets, 123–4 Maso-Fleischmann, R., 18 meaning, attached to brands, 18 media research, 5 men, targeted by advertisers, 32 metaphors, 18, 28 methodology, 57–9, 73 metonymy, 17–18 modelling advertising process, 24–5 music, use of, 94 narrative, 15, 17, 32 narrative tapes, 99–100 networking, 55 Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), 70 nostalgia, 17

objectivity, 49, 52, 82 observation, 41, 58 older people, targeted by advertisers, 32–3 Olivio, 40–1 own labels, 22 Palmer, V.B., 21 Patterson, S., 70–1 Pawle, J., 122, 127 personalisation, 16 personification, 64 persuasion models, 25, 26 PG Tips, 13 planners, 11, 38, 42, 107, 109, 111, 113, 114 planning cycle, 36–8, 47 Polaroid, 39 positioning/repositioning brands, 9, 37 post-testing, 5 poster advertising, 58, 100–1 Powell, C., 44 praise, 116–17 presentation of findings, 81, 115–16 press advertising, 59, 72, 85, 101 pre-tasks, 58 pre-testing, 4, 5, 106–7 projective techniques, 64–5, 77 in international research, 127, 129 proposition, 37 psychodrawings, 64, 127 psychographic groups, 80 public sector, 6 qualitative research, in advertising, 1–3, 4, 5, 41, 76 criticisms, 3–4, 113–14 quantitative research, 1, 2, 37 questions, 2 in creative development research, 66–7 introductory, 62–3 projective, 71–2 radio advertising, 86, 97 Radion, 92 recruitment, 54–6, 126 Reeves, Rosser, 21, 24 repetition, 18 research process, 74–81 researchers, 5, 11, 19, 75, 105, 107, 115–16 at briefing meetings, 50–2 and clients, 51–2, 113, 114 experience of, 82–3 before fieldwork, 50

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researchers, cont. in international research, 120, 121, 122, 127, 129 moderating styles, 69, 76 modes, 81–3, 95 modes of thinking, 49 planning discussions, 61–3 relationship with agencies, 106, 109, 110, 112, 113, 114 responsibilities, 110, 117 role in group discussions, 76 and stimulus materials, 102, 103, 104 use of viewing facilities, 60 respondents, 3–4, 5, 80 attitudes to advertising, 68, 76, 85, 86 effect on of using viewing facilities, 60–1 introducing research to, 61–2 talking about advertising, 76, 78, 79–80 views on stimulus material, 98–9, 100, 104 see also consumers responses to advertising, 30, 33–4, 66–7, 71–2, 98 changes in, 79–80 Restall, C., 121 revisiting data, 77–8 rhetoric, 18 Robson, S., 111 Roddick, A., 89 Rose, J., 98, 100 rough advertising, 4, 61, 72, 97, 98 Rowland, G., 53 Ryan, C., 33–4

sales, increasing, 7–8 sales response model, 26 saliency, 25–6, 27, 30 sample design, 54–6, 73 Scott-Malden, D., 69, 112 semiotics, 52–4, 73 sequential recycling, 68 Sippit, I., 93 slogans, 15–16 Smash, 13 social advertising, 9 standardization of research design, 126, 128–9 Starch, Daniel, 1 Steel, J., 60 stereotypes, 18 stimulus material, 65, 68, 72 limitations, 97–8 politics of, 102–3 responses to, 98–9, 104 types of, 99–102 storyboards, 99 strategic development research, 11, 32, 36, 41–2, 73, 81 interviewing techniques, 69 methodology, 57–8 sample design, 54, 56 topic guides, 63–6 subjectivity, 49, 82, 105 target audience, 30–3, 35, 37, 41, 43–4 Taylor, M., 111 teamwork, 114–15, 116, 117–18 teenagers, targeted by advertisers, 31–2 television advertising, 58, 85–7, 97

135

tension in research process, 106, 109, 110, 115, 117 Thompson, J Walter, 21, 43 Timotei, 124 tone of voice, 15, 102 topic guides, 63–8, 80 Transactional Analysis, 88 triangular relationships, 106–17 in international research, 124–6 Trickster, 17, 71 Truslove, A., 43 trust, 115 unique selling proposition (USP), 21, 24–5 United States of America, advertising theory, 26 user imagery, 37 viewing facilities, 59–61, 116 voice, tone of, 15, 102 Volvo, 9, 10 Williams, D., 41 women, targeted by advertisers, 31, 32 word association, 65 Wranglers, 39 young people, targeted by advertisers, 31–2 Zijlmans, 31

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