Is it More Effective to Hit Low-attention Viewers?
The theories of Robert Heath, the UK communications specialist and academic, have divided marketing researchers for years. Heath believes television advertisements are more effective if they are processed with low attention rather than high attention – an idea that calls into question traditional judgements of communication effectiveness, such as awareness and recall.
This article, published in AdNews (12 March 2010), asks: what if Heath is right? What does it mean for marketing research if unconscious learning is more important to advertising effectiveness than conscious retention? And how could we measure it?
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Is the Big Idea giving way to Marketing Science?
In advertising, evidence shows that creativity and human judgement are steadily giving way to statistics. This article suggests that Marketing Science provides a framework for informed creativity.
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The Brand Equity Fairy Tale
There is no universal meaning for the fabricated term "brand equity". If the output of what you are measuring does not strongly correlate with sales, and therefore market share, then you are measuring the fairytale and not the brand!
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Measuring Averages: Mean, Median and Mode
There are three measures of average: the mean, median and mode. All of them perform the function of estimating the value that represents where the majority of observations fall in a set of data. However, depending on what is being measured and how it is distributed, each of these three measures may produce very different estimates of the average.
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Survey Errors
Survey questionnaires remain the most prevalent mode of data collection in marketing research, but has their high use resulted in diminished errors? Perhaps it is timely to revisit not the strengths – we know there are many – but the weaknesses that we should be cognisant of when analysing data collected using survey questionnaires.
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Collecting Less Responses than the Required Sample Size
Statistically valid sample sizes are calculated based on required levels of precision and reliability – but are there situations where it is OK to collect less than this required sample size?
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At Last! Brand Measurement Equals Brand Performance
Contrary to the belief of generations of marketing graduates, brand equity is not an outcome. At best, based on the myriad of often divergent definitions, it is an input. If the brand outcome is future sales, brand measurement then should also be about future sales.
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The Relationship Between Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis
The most beneficial approach to market research is one that considers quantitative and qualitative research as complements to business outcomes.
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Reliability, Estimates and Significance Testing
It’s a striking fact that the level of reliability commonly used by marketing researchers is the same as that used in human studies for drugs. One would assume the need for reliable estimates in the testing of new drugs is far greater than in business research, yet both fields set the same level of reliability.
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Precision, Reliability and Sample Size
In market research, our primary goal is to find out what is happening in the market place. In most situations, however, a complete census of the relevant market, which would provide that elusive “perfect information”, is prohibited by its large size or lack of documentation. Instead, we seek to examine only part of the population (or market) and still be able to draw valuable conclusions about the market place as a whole.
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Embedding Analytics into Business Decision Processes
It is important to resist treating analytics as an ad hoc activity but instead be prepared to embed them into business decision processes on a repeatable basis.
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Forethought Named as a Finalist in Prestigious Marketing Practice Prize
Forethought Research, in conjunction with leading marketing academics Professor John Roberts and Professor Peter Danaher, have been named as finalists in an internationally prestigious marketing science award. The INFORMS Society for Marketing Science (ISMS) and Marketing Science Institute’s (MSI) Practice Prize recognises outstanding implementation of marketing science concepts and methods.
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Taking Small Populations Into Account
Despite the assumption made in most university statistics courses, in marketing research we are not always dealing with an infinite population. Take business-to-business research as an example. You might be most interested in the 20% of customers who provide 80% of sales.
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Speed and Technology in Data Analysis
When Forethought first offered marketing research services, computer speed was as common a topic as internet speed is today. Some Marketing Scientists at Forethought can recall the grinding torment of waiting for their 50 megahertz computer in the mid 1990’s to produce one regression model.
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The Contribution of Dr. John D.C. Little to Marketing Science
The discipline of marketing science is relatively young. The application of mathematically based algorithms in marketing stem to the undisputed father of marketing science, luminary Professor John Little PhD, Chair Management Science at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
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