Mass Media Research: An Introduction, 8th Edition Instructor’s Manual (стр. 10 )

Non-ratings research as well as ratings research for broadcasters, production companies, advertisers, and broadcast consultants is very important to understand audience likes and dislikes, analyses of different types of programming, demographic and lifestyle information about the audience, etc. Several non-rating methods are introduced: 1) Program test that gathers preliminary reactions to a planned project; 2) Music research that provides radio station’s listeners with music they like to hear—radio programmers use auditorium tests and call-out research; 3) Performer questionnaire that provides producers with performers and entertainers’ familiarity and appeal scores in order to determine what performer or group of performers give the show the greatest appeal; 4) Focus groups that help to develop questionnaires for further research and to provide preliminary information on a variety of topics such as format and programming changes, personalities, station images, and lifestyle characteristics of the audience.

Exercises

Visit local radio stations or cable TV companies and discuss their programming strategies when they compete their competitors in a given time period. Make a questionnaire concerning a specific television program such as ER, NYPD Blue, or the Jerry Springer Show and try to find what the audience likes/dislikes by using a focus group.

Practical Problems

1.  1,500 of the sample of 3,000 households were tuned to CNN at the time of surveying. Total population is 100,400 in a market. In reality, how many households in the total market are estimated to be watching CNN?

Answer: Rating = 1,500/3,000 = 0.5 or 50% (0.5 X 100,400 = 50,200}

2.  Assume that a single 30-second commercial on MTV costs $25,000. If the audience size is 120,000 in a market, what is the cost per thousand for such a commercial?

Answer:

CPM = $25,000/120 (thousand) = $2.08

3.  Suppose a random sample of 3,600 households produces a rating of 10. What is the standard error? And what is the.95 CI?

Answer:

SE(p) = square root of {10(100-10)/3,600} = 0.5%

.95 CI = 10% +/- 1.96 X 0.5%

The rating ranges from 9.02 to 10.98 at the 95% confidence level.

Multiple Choice

1.  Electronic media research studies fall into two main categories. They are:

a)  Circulation and readership

b)  Ratings and share study

c)  Ratings and non-ratings research

d)  Ratings and frequency research

2.  Two companies provide ratings data for broadcasting and cable throughout the year. What are they?

a)  FCC and CNN

b)  Nielsen and Arbitron

c)  NAB and FCC

d)  Nielsen and Gallup

3.  Nielsen’s dairy methodology is used in each of the 200+ television markets in the United States in four different months. Choose a correct answer.

a)  November-December-January-February

b)  May-June-July-August

c)  June-July-August-December

d)  November-February-May-July

4.  When collecting data from the audience to obtain radio ratings data, what kind of method does Arbitron use?

a)  Internet survey

b)  Diaries

c)  Mail survey

d)  Personal interview

5.  Which of the following statement about auditorium testing is incorrect?

a)  Usually, 15-30 people are invited to a large room and asked to listen music

b)  Usually, between 200 and 600 hooks are tested

c)  Respondents are generally paid $25-$150 for their cooperation

d)  Auditorium music testing is designed to test only recurrents and oldies

6.  Although ratings and shares are important in audience research, a number of other computations can be performed with the data. All of the following are estimates to provide audience information except:

a)  Metro survey area

b)  Total survey area

c)  Average quarter-hour

d)  Callout research

7.  What is a rating?

a)  A percentage of all TV households watching a particular show

b)  An evaluation of the quality of programming

c)  A cost-effective CPM

d)  A percentage of households watching TV

True/False

1.  The reality is that television ratings produced by people meters are higher than those produced by meters and diaries. (F)

2.  After Nielsen used people meters, debate about the accuracy of the various audience ratings method stopped. (F)

3.  The CPM provides no information about the effectiveness of a commercial message, only dollar estimate of its reach. (T)

4.  Music testing methods involve playing hooks of a several songs for a sample of listeners. A hook is a 5-15-second representative sample of the song. (T)

Fill in the Blank

1.  Nielsen’s diary methodology is used in each of the 200+ television markets in the United States in November, February, May, and July of each year. These measurement periods are known in the industry as the (sweeps).

2.  A useful figure for radio stations is the (audience turnover), or the number of times the audience changes during a given daypart.

3.  The (gross rating points) are a total of a station’s ratings during two or more dayparts and estimate the size of the gross audience.

4.  (Standard error) must always be considered before ratings are interpreted to determine whether a certain gender/age group has been under-sampled or over sampled.

5.  The (rough cut) is a simplistic production that usually uses amateur actors, little or no editing, and makeshift sets.

Short Answer

1.  Discuss why electronic media companies need to consider the quality of information based on empirical data.

2.  If Nielsen Media Research offers to install a people meter on your TV set, would you agree to participate? Why or why not?

Chapter 15 - Research in Advertising

Overview

This chapter introduces three main advertising research methods: copy testing, media research, and campaign assessment. These methods provide advertisers with valuable information on markets and consumers. Copy testing consists of three dimensions (cognitive, affective, and conative) of impact in the persuasion process.

The cognitive dimension involves studying attention, awareness, exposure, recognition, comprehension, and recall of advertisement. The affective dimension usually involves research into whether a consumer’s attitudes toward a particular product have changed because of exposure to an ad or a campaign. The techniques used to study the affective dimension include projective tests, theater testing, physiological measures, semantic differential scales, and rating scales. The conative dimension mainly focuses on actual consumer behavior. The two main categories of behavior usually measured are buying predisposition and actual purchasing behavior.

In media research related to advertising, two terms are very important: 1) reach—the total number of households or persons that will be exposed to a message in a particular medium at least once over a certain period (usually four weeks); and, 2) frequency—the number of exposures to the same message that each household receives.

Media research falls into three general categories: studies of the size and composition of an audience of particular medium, studies of the relative efficiency of advertising exposures provided by various combinations of media, and studies of the advertising activities of competitors.

The chapter also explains how to measure frequency of exposure in media schedules and how to measure the Internet audience. Specifically, the Internet poses special problems for audience measurement. Reliable data on who is looking at web pages and banner advertising are important because without hard information, advertisers are reluctant to spend money on net advertising. However, there are some problems in measuring web advertising. The number of hits on a certain page and the number of times someone logs onto the page were unreliable because of server malfunction and artificially inflated number of hits.

Advertisers are always looking for information about the media choices of their competitors to avoid making the mistakes of less successful competitors and to imitate the strategies of more successful competitors.

To assess campaigns, the two kinds of measures are used: 1) pretest/posttest—measurement both before and after the campaign; and, 2) tracking studies—following the impact of the campaign by measuring effects at several times during the progress of the campaign.

Advertising researchers increasingly use qualitative measures. Two of the more popular methods include projective techniques such as word association and role playing, respondent diaries and directed observation.

Although many people outside the advertising community mention that all business and their advertising agencies use the cutting edge forms of advertising, its effectiveness is questionable. In reality, people pay less attention to ads in their daily life than advertisers assume.

Exercises

Recruit 6-12 volunteers to measure their consumer behavior concerning a cereal brand. Using the focus group method, let students produce items to ask participants. Let your students participate in a few online surveys by an Internet advertising agency. Discuss students’ opinions about Internet banner advertising.

Practice Problems

Compute reach and average frequency for the following:

a. If 37 of 500 households are exposed to a commercial, what is the reach? (Reach = 37/500 = 7.4%)

b. If the total number of exposures for a sample of households is 200 and the reach is 30, what is the average frequency? (Average frequency = Total exposures for all households. Reach = 200/30 = 6.7%)

Suppose a program on MTV has a reach of 20% and an average frequency of 2.2, and a program on VH1 has a reach of 40% and a frequency of 1.0. Which program offers a better reach-frequency relationship?

MTV program = GRPs = 20 X 2.2 = 44