Pre-testing ads is important to make changes to an advertisement before it is publicly viewed. A viewer's perception can be altered based on what the ad represents and what changes can be made to it before the world is exposed to it. Marketers pre-test ads to measure reactions about a product or service. A type of pre-testing is called portfolio tests where people respond with what they remember or "recall" from the ads that are presented to them (Belch 615). Portfolio testing incorporates advertisements that can be compared and contrasted from one another based on creativity and other factors. Marketers may not want to use portfolio testing as a pre-testing method because viewers may recall various aspects of an ad and it would not yield sufficient results. There is also an issue of "low involvement" that is associated with advertisements that lack the same features as another ad.
Another type of pre-testing is measuring physiological features in advertisements and commercials. This pre-testing focuses on "involuntary responses" to an ad which is a driving force behind many impulsive buying behavior choices (Belch 618). Different types of physiological measuring include: pupil dilation, galvanic skin responses, eye tracking, and brain waves. Pupil dilation shows if the viewer likes or dislikes a product/service in an ad by how big or small the pupils shift. Galvanic skin responses focus on a person's skin resisting currents that pass throughout the body. Eye tracking is when a person's eyes advert towards or away from an image. Brain waves determine frequencies in the brain while looking at an image. All of these physiological measurements have advantages of conducting data about whether people respond to specific advertisements. However, each aspect of tracking and measuring also have disadvantages on what type of people to test, how many to test, and if the tests are effective or ineffective.
Pre-testing has the purpose of improving advertisements and commercials to the best level they can be before showing them to the world and potentially gaining or losing advertising funds. It is the fundamental type of testing that can start when rough ideas are still being passed around and it can be a testing tool right before a final idea is executed to the public. The main advantage is that "feedback is inexpensive" but the main disadvantage is that when an idea is still in a rough draft phase, it may not communicate the same message as it would if it were final and complete.
No comments:
Post a Comment