CASE: ADVERTISING TESTING SERVICES, INC.

Advertising Testing Services, Inc. (ATSI) is a small marketing research supplier specializing in the copy testing of television commercials. ATSI is located in Princeton, New Jersey, and numbers among its clients some of the nations largest advertisers. ATSI tests both animated and finished versions of commercials.

Procedure

ATSIs typical testing procedure is as follows:

1. Approximately 150 respondents in total are recruited from five to seven different shopping centers around the country. Typical locations would be St. Louis, Missouri; Hartford, Connecticut; Tampa, Florida; Denver, Colorado; and Charlotte, North Carolina. Potential respondents are screened to make sure they are in the target audience of the commercial being tested and are users of the product category being tested. This is done by asking potential respondents whether or not they have bought or used products in many product categories, including the one of interest.

2. Respondents are taken to a viewing area where they are shown the test commercial along with six other commercials for noncompetitive products.

3. After viewing all the commercials once, each respondent is given a personal interview.

Measures Taken

The response measures recorded in the postexposure interview include the following:

1. The respondent is asked to name three brands from the advertising he or she has just seen. This serves as an unaided awareness measure. The order mentioned is also recorded.

2. If the test brand is not mentioned, the respondent is asked if he or she remembers the commercial for the test brand. This is a measure of aided awareness.

3. The main points from the test commercials are then asked for, to give a measure of unaided recall of the content of the ad.

4. The test commercial is then shown again to the respondent, and the main points are asked for to give a measure of aided recall. Additionally, the thoughts and feelings generated by the ad are probed, along with the confusion or lack of understanding that is generated and the believability, likes, and dislikes about the ad.

5. Finally, questions are asked about the brand itself, including an indication of liking for the brand compared to how it was viewed before the test commercial and a series of rating scales on brand descriptions were seen. Demographic data on respondents are also recorded.

Criticize the measures taken by ATSI (Criticize PER measure taken) (Guide for critique per measure - What is good about the measure they took, what would you do to improve the measure they took)