Advertising Research - Media Research
Advertising Research - Media Research
In evaluating a particular media alternative such as Time magazine or "Dynasty, " it is necessary to know how many advertising exposures it will deliv-
23Ibid.
er and what will be the characteristics of the audience. A first cut of the vehicle's value is the cost per thousand, the size of the audience divided by the advertisement insertion cost.
Measuring Print Vehicle Audiences
Print vehicle circulation data is easily obtained, but neglects pass-along readers both inside and outside the home. Thus, to measure a vehicle's audience, it is necessary to apply approaches such as recent-reading, reading-habit, and through-the-book to a randomly selected population sample.
In the recent-reading method, a respondent is asked whether he or she looked at a copy within the past week for a wTeekly publication, or during the last month for a monthly publication. One problem is that the survey is unlikely to represent an average week, so there is a seasoned factor to consider. Also, a reader could read several issues in one week and be incorrectly reported as not being a reader in another week. Another concern is the tendency to exaggerate readership of prestige magazines and minimize readership of those not matching people's self-image. Still another concern is the forgetting factor. One study found that 50 of 166 people who were observed reading magazines in a doctor's office said they had never read the magazine they had been observed reading.24
The reading-habit method, which asks respondents how many issues out of the last four did you personally read or look at, is also sensitive to memory difficulties. In particular, it is difficult to discriminate between reading the same issue several times from reading several issues. The through-the-book readership attempts to reduce the memory factor. Respondents readership is ascertained only after he or she is shown a specific issue of a magazine, and asked whether several articles were read and if they were interesting. The approach, which requires an expensive personal interview, is sensitive to the issue age. A too recent issue will miss later readers. A too old issue will risk forgetting.
The two major audience measuring services are Mediamark, which relies on the recent-reading method and surveys 140 magazines, and Simmons.25 Simmons, which interviews over 15,000 people each year, uses the through-the-book approach for 44 major magazines, and estimates another 81 using the reading-habit approach (downward adjusting the resulting
24William S. Blair, "Observed vs. Reported Behavior in Magazine Reading: An Investigation of the Editorial Interest Method," Proceedings of the 12th Annual Conference of the Advertising Research Foundation, 1967, New York City.
25"New Simmons Report May Stir Research War," Advertising Age (September 8, 1980), 20, 75.
reading-habit estimates).26 Differences between the two have sparked sharp controversy through the years.
One comparison showed that Mediamark estimated the number of Newsweek's audit readers to be 92 percent of Time's 25.7 million, while Simmons estimated Newsweek to have 82 percent of Time's 20.035 million.27 One explanation was that Newsweek does relatively better at out-of-home readership, which is detected easier by the recent-reading methodology. Time, in contrast, might get more serious, thorough readership, which is best measured by the through-the-book approach of Simmons.
Measuring Broadcast Vehicles Audiences
Television audience size is estimated by an audimeter and a diary. The audimeter is attached to a television set and monitors the set's activity 24 hours a day, recording any change or activity that lasts over 30 seconds. The familiar Nielsen national television ratings, the average number of households tuned to a given program as a percentage of all television homes, are based on 1750 Nielsen audimeter homes. Nielsen also provides estimates of nine cites.
The audimeter provides an objective measure of television viewer activity with no burdensome recordkeeping. To avoid self-consciousness, the meter is placed out of view, and a metered family is not used until several weeks of acclimatization have passed. The major problems with the audimeter is its cost and the fact that it cannot provide information as to who is doing the viewing. One solution—to have a camera or other device to detect who is in the room—would probably be an excessive intrusion on privacy. Another approach might use a wall switch measure whereby each family member records entering and leaving the TV room. A variant would be to have an interactive device that could periodically ask "Who is there?". Still another is the diary.
Nielsen, in its national ratings estimates, supplements the audimeter with a matched sample, diary panel. A diary household notes the viewing activity, including who is doing the watching. A clocklike meter keeps track of how long the set is on so that Nielsen can make sure that the diary is complete. Using the diary information, Nielsen can break down the audience estimates by age, sex, and geographic area.
26The total audience figures for the Simmons reading-habit approach is the total of the following percentages of those saying they have read the magazine in the last six months: 9 percent of those who claim to have read less than one out of four issues; 15 percent of those reading one out of four issues; 36 percent of the two of four group; 63 percent of the three of four issues group; and 73 percent of the all four issue group.
27Lea Rozen, "Reader Data Still Don't Jibe," Advertising Age (October 6, 1980), 118.
The diary is the basic data-gathering instrument for local television and radio ratings. Nielsen and Arbitron both monitor over 200 local markets. The sample size of the Nielsen effort ranges from 2200 households in New York to several hundred in the smallest markets. Monthly reports are provided three to eight times a year, depending on the size of the market. Over the course of a year's time, over 800,000 households will be involved in a television diary panel for one of the two services.
The quality of diary data can vary. Some respondents do not fill out during the day, but try to recall the viewing activity. As a result, fringe programming generally does not fare as well from the diary as it does from the audimeter. Another problem is that the homemaker is often the one who fills it out, and is usually not conversant with kid shows and lesser known programs. The major problem is probably nonresponse bias. It has been suggested that the diary panel tends to understate the younger audience. The cooperation rate among the 18 to 24 year old group is especially low.28
It is often useful to define a target audience in terms of purchasing patterns. Thus, the audience of heavy catsup buyers, or catsup buyers loyal to a competing brand, might be the target. Brand usage questionnaires in parallel with media usage information can provide such information. However, a preferred approach is the combination of continuous monitoring of both purchases and media habits. BehaviorScan in fact does provide both sets of data for 6000 of their scanner panel members.
In evaluating a particular media alternative such as Time magazine or "Dynasty, " it is necessary to know how many advertising exposures it will deliv-
23Ibid.
er and what will be the characteristics of the audience. A first cut of the vehicle's value is the cost per thousand, the size of the audience divided by the advertisement insertion cost.
Measuring Print Vehicle Audiences
Print vehicle circulation data is easily obtained, but neglects pass-along readers both inside and outside the home. Thus, to measure a vehicle's audience, it is necessary to apply approaches such as recent-reading, reading-habit, and through-the-book to a randomly selected population sample.
In the recent-reading method, a respondent is asked whether he or she looked at a copy within the past week for a wTeekly publication, or during the last month for a monthly publication. One problem is that the survey is unlikely to represent an average week, so there is a seasoned factor to consider. Also, a reader could read several issues in one week and be incorrectly reported as not being a reader in another week. Another concern is the tendency to exaggerate readership of prestige magazines and minimize readership of those not matching people's self-image. Still another concern is the forgetting factor. One study found that 50 of 166 people who were observed reading magazines in a doctor's office said they had never read the magazine they had been observed reading.24
The reading-habit method, which asks respondents how many issues out of the last four did you personally read or look at, is also sensitive to memory difficulties. In particular, it is difficult to discriminate between reading the same issue several times from reading several issues. The through-the-book readership attempts to reduce the memory factor. Respondents readership is ascertained only after he or she is shown a specific issue of a magazine, and asked whether several articles were read and if they were interesting. The approach, which requires an expensive personal interview, is sensitive to the issue age. A too recent issue will miss later readers. A too old issue will risk forgetting.
The two major audience measuring services are Mediamark, which relies on the recent-reading method and surveys 140 magazines, and Simmons.25 Simmons, which interviews over 15,000 people each year, uses the through-the-book approach for 44 major magazines, and estimates another 81 using the reading-habit approach (downward adjusting the resulting
24William S. Blair, "Observed vs. Reported Behavior in Magazine Reading: An Investigation of the Editorial Interest Method," Proceedings of the 12th Annual Conference of the Advertising Research Foundation, 1967, New York City.
25"New Simmons Report May Stir Research War," Advertising Age (September 8, 1980), 20, 75.
reading-habit estimates).26 Differences between the two have sparked sharp controversy through the years.
One comparison showed that Mediamark estimated the number of Newsweek's audit readers to be 92 percent of Time's 25.7 million, while Simmons estimated Newsweek to have 82 percent of Time's 20.035 million.27 One explanation was that Newsweek does relatively better at out-of-home readership, which is detected easier by the recent-reading methodology. Time, in contrast, might get more serious, thorough readership, which is best measured by the through-the-book approach of Simmons.
Measuring Broadcast Vehicles Audiences
Television audience size is estimated by an audimeter and a diary. The audimeter is attached to a television set and monitors the set's activity 24 hours a day, recording any change or activity that lasts over 30 seconds. The familiar Nielsen national television ratings, the average number of households tuned to a given program as a percentage of all television homes, are based on 1750 Nielsen audimeter homes. Nielsen also provides estimates of nine cites.
The audimeter provides an objective measure of television viewer activity with no burdensome recordkeeping. To avoid self-consciousness, the meter is placed out of view, and a metered family is not used until several weeks of acclimatization have passed. The major problems with the audimeter is its cost and the fact that it cannot provide information as to who is doing the viewing. One solution—to have a camera or other device to detect who is in the room—would probably be an excessive intrusion on privacy. Another approach might use a wall switch measure whereby each family member records entering and leaving the TV room. A variant would be to have an interactive device that could periodically ask "Who is there?". Still another is the diary.
Nielsen, in its national ratings estimates, supplements the audimeter with a matched sample, diary panel. A diary household notes the viewing activity, including who is doing the watching. A clocklike meter keeps track of how long the set is on so that Nielsen can make sure that the diary is complete. Using the diary information, Nielsen can break down the audience estimates by age, sex, and geographic area.
26The total audience figures for the Simmons reading-habit approach is the total of the following percentages of those saying they have read the magazine in the last six months: 9 percent of those who claim to have read less than one out of four issues; 15 percent of those reading one out of four issues; 36 percent of the two of four group; 63 percent of the three of four issues group; and 73 percent of the all four issue group.
27Lea Rozen, "Reader Data Still Don't Jibe," Advertising Age (October 6, 1980), 118.
The diary is the basic data-gathering instrument for local television and radio ratings. Nielsen and Arbitron both monitor over 200 local markets. The sample size of the Nielsen effort ranges from 2200 households in New York to several hundred in the smallest markets. Monthly reports are provided three to eight times a year, depending on the size of the market. Over the course of a year's time, over 800,000 households will be involved in a television diary panel for one of the two services.
The quality of diary data can vary. Some respondents do not fill out during the day, but try to recall the viewing activity. As a result, fringe programming generally does not fare as well from the diary as it does from the audimeter. Another problem is that the homemaker is often the one who fills it out, and is usually not conversant with kid shows and lesser known programs. The major problem is probably nonresponse bias. It has been suggested that the diary panel tends to understate the younger audience. The cooperation rate among the 18 to 24 year old group is especially low.28
It is often useful to define a target audience in terms of purchasing patterns. Thus, the audience of heavy catsup buyers, or catsup buyers loyal to a competing brand, might be the target. Brand usage questionnaires in parallel with media usage information can provide such information. However, a preferred approach is the combination of continuous monitoring of both purchases and media habits. BehaviorScan in fact does provide both sets of data for 6000 of their scanner panel members.
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