?Press Releases

?Publications

?The Logo

?The Website

?Media Relations

?Development Activities

?Galas and Celebrations

?Recruitment

?Advertising

Marketing research techniques come in many forms, including:

?Ad Tracking – periodic or continuous in-market research to monitor a brand’s performance using measures such as brand awareness, brand preference, and product usage. (Young, 2005)

?Advertising Research – used to predict copy testing or track the efficacy of advertisements for any medium, measured by the ad’s ability to get attention, communicate the message, build the brand’s image, and motivate the consumer to purchase the product or service.

?Brand equity research - how favorably do consumers view the brand?

?Brand name testing - what do consumers feel about the names of the products?

?Commercial eye tracking research - examine advertisements, package designs, websites, etc by analyzing visual behavior of the consumer

?Concept testing - to test the acceptance of a concept by target consumers

?Coolhunting - to make observations and predictions in changes of new or existing cultural trends in areas such as fashion, music, films, television, youth culture and lifestyle

?Buyer decision processes research - to determine what motivates people to buy and what decision-making process they use

?Copy testing – predicts in-market performance of an ad before it airs by analyzing audience levels of attention, brand linkage, motivation, entertainment, and communication, as well as breaking down the ad’s flow of attention and flow of emotion.

?Customer satisfaction studies - exit interviews or surveys that determine a customer's level of satisfaction with the quality of the transaction

?Demand estimation - to determine the approximate level of demand for the product

?Distribution channel audits - to assess distributors’ and retailers’ attitudes toward a product, brand, or company

?Internet strategic intelligence - searching for customer opinions in the Internet: chats, forums, web pages, blogs… where people express freely about their experiences with products, becoming strong "opinion formers"

?Marketing effectiveness and analytics - Building models and measuring results to determine the effectiveness of individual marketing activities.

?Mystery shopping - An employee or representative of the market research firm anonymously contacts a salesperson and indicates he or she is shopping for a product. The shopper then records the entire experience. This method is often used for quality control or for researching competitors' products.

?Positioning research - how does the target market see the brand relative to competitors? - what does the brand stand for?

?Price elasticity testing - to determine how sensitive customers are to price changes

?Sales forecasting - to determine the expected level of sales given the level of demand. With respect to other factors like Advertising expenditure, sales promotion etc.

?Segmentation research - to determine the demographic, psychographic, and behavioural characteristics of potential buyers

?Online panel - a group of individual who accepted to respond to marketing research online

?Store audit - to measure the sales of a product or product line at a statistically selected store sample in order to determine market share, or to determine whether a retail store provides adequate service

?Test marketing - a small-scale product launch used to determine the likely acceptance of the product when it is introduced into a wider market

1.Full Service—these agencies offer their clients a full range of services including account services, marketing planning and research, media planning and buying, sales promotion, creative services, and interactive media. The various departments of a full service agency include:

?Account services—the link between the advertising agency and its clients. Account executives serve as the liaison between the agency and client and are responsible for coordinating the agency's efforts in planning, creating and producing ads.

?Marketing services—many full-service agencies provide a variety of marketing services to their clients and maintain departments such as research, strategy and planning and media. In a full-service agency the media department is very important since many clients are consolidating their media buying to save money and improve media efficiency.

?Creative services—agency personnel in this department include artists and copywriters who are responsible for the creation and execution of the clients advertising messages. Creative services may also include print and broadcast production departments which are responsible for actually producing the advertising messages and putting them into final form. The traffic department coordinates all phases of production and sees that all ads are completed on time and deadlines for submitting the ads to the media are met.

?Management and finance—like any other business, an advertising agency must be managed and must perform basic operating and administrative functions such as accounting, finance and human resources

Attention should also be given to the two basic types or agency organization structures used by agencies. Under the departmental system each of the agency functions is set up as a separate department and is called upon to perform its specialty for all of the agency’s clients. Many agencies use the group system in which individuals from each department work together as teams to service a particular account. Many clients prefer the group system because agency employees become very familiar with their business and it ensures continuity in servicing the account.

Other Types of Agencies and Services

1.Creative boutiques—these types of agencies specialize in and provide only advertising creative services. IMC Perspective 3-2 provides some insights into these small agencies.

2.Media buying services—these are independent companies that specialize in media planning and buying. Many companies use independent media buying to plan and purchase media and an advertising agency to handle their creative work.