Buying behavioural tests
There are various ways to try to test the effectiveness of advertising. We look at buying behaviour tests
Since the previous two methods have significant limiting factors, it would seem logical that the pattern of sales would be the obvious way to assess an advert’s effect. However, there are a number of problems with this approach too.
The key drawback is that there are so many other factors that come into play - if ice cream sales have risen just after an advert was run, was the advert effective or was the heat wave a more significant factor? Or perhaps more would have been sold but the advert put people off.
One way to gauge buying behaviour is to set up an artificial environment where respondents are able to watch advertisements and then shop for the products. Records are kept of their purchases. At a later stage, those who have chosen to buy the advertiser’s product are asked if they would buy it again.
These tests have proved highly accurate indicators of how the market will react and as such have an important role to play in assessing the impact of an advertising campaign.
Content last updated: 07/07/2006
