Bee & Gee's T.V Audience Measures

Bee & Gee is a multi-product, multi-brand, packaged goods company with a significant presence in the personal care and grooming category. Within each product category, it has numerous brands that sometimes compete with each other in the same geographical markets. In the shampoo category, Bee & Gee has four different brands, each targeted towards a different consumer segment, but available in the same geographic markets. Bee & Gee uses multiple full-service ad agencies (also called integrated marketing communication or IMC agencies) for its various brands. Each year, the brand managers of each individual brand at Bee & Gee review the audience measures for their brand's T.V. advertising.

One of the most important considerations in T.V. advertising is the size and composition of the viewing audience. Audience measurement is critical to advertisers as well as to the networks and stations. Advertisers want to know the size and characteristics of the audience they are reaching when they purchase time on a particular program. And since the rates they pay are a function of audience size, advertisers want to be sure audience measurements are accurate.

Read the report below, which provides a summary of the T.V. ads for Bee & Gee's shampoo brands and answer the questions that follow.

The four brands in Bee & Gee's shampoo category are Fansheen, Hair & Neck, Herb Essentials, and Brilette. The brand managers of these four brands are reviewing the current month's audience measures for their brand's T.V. advertising.

Fansheen is the oldest of the four brands in Bee & Gee's shampoo category. It is an established, mature brand, targeted primarily towards women, aged 3060, whose primary concern is nourishment and healthy hair. Fansheen sponsors the popular Sunday night T.V. drama, Frantic Housewives.

Hair & Neck is an anti-dandruff shampoo updated at least once a year with breakthroughs in technology. Past ads for Hair & Neck appeared in different T.V. programs. However, during this current year, Hair & Neck ads were primarily on the hit talent show, U.S. Idol.

Herb Essentials is a shampoo targeted at teenagers and young adults. Given its target audience, ads for Herb Essentials were broadcast nationally on a popular musical show set in a high school, called Glee Club.

Brilette is a shampoo targeted at males, ages 2445, and is the newest brand in Bee & Gee's portfolio. The brand manager for Brilette decided to advertise heavily on a weekly television crime drama, CSI: Chicago, which was popular in the 2549 male demographic.

The following two metrics were used by the brand managers in their calculations 1) Nielsen estimates that 114.9 million U.S. households owned at least one T.V. set as of the 20092010 television season, and this was taken as the default number for total number of T.V. households; 2) The average number of people in a typical U.S. household was 2.5 million.

Question 1: Fansheen launched a new variant, Fansheen Green, with natural ingredients, during its national sponsorship of the season finale of Frantic Housewives. An estimated 19 million households tuned in to watch that season finale. What was the program rating for that episode of the show?

a. 14.45

b. 16.54

c. 12.75

d. 6.05

e. 15.53

Question 2: Fansheen launched a new variant, Fansheen Green, with natural ingredients, during its national sponsorship of the season finale of a popular Sunday night T.V. drama, Frantic Housewives. An estimated 19 million households tuned in to watch that season finale. What was the share of audience for that episode of the show, if 76% of the total T.V. households were watching T.V. at that time?

a. 6.40

b. 20.45

c. 18.40

d. 21.76

e. 4.60

Question 3: Hair & Neck advertises nationally on the popular talent show, U.S. Idol. This show averages a rating of 8.4 each week. Approximately how many households watch the show each week?

a. 9.65 million

b. 10.30 million

c. 13.68 million

d. 15.24 million

e. 9.40 million