Neuroscience and Advertising Effectiveness

Because there is not a set-in-stone way to test effective advertising techniques, problems with current research methods exist. Techniques based off of Neuroscience is used for companies use to measure advertising benefits. Although neuroscience is a specific science that focuses on the nervous system in all aspects, using this to base the effectiveness of advertising still has its pros and cons.

To combat this problem, steps are being taken in order to improve a way to measure how effective advertising is. Thus, the PACT (Positioning Advertising Copy Testing) criteria were established to test marketing effectiveness. The PACT is a set of nine principles that defines copy testing as research, and is based off of neuroscience. This criterion is supposed to aid in the judgment of specific advertising excruciations.  As learned in class and stated from our Advertisings and Promotion textbook, “Researchers can easily control the state of completion of the test communications through the PACT criteria,” (Belch, 628).  Although there are nine principles to test the effectiveness of marketing, there are still some problems that occur with our current research methods style. Using neroscience to aim at the consumers cognitive thought process is a great way to measure effectiveness, but there are always some pros and cons when evaluating how a consumer will perceive commercials. 

To begin, the message and budget are all placed in order to set the company’s marketing objectives. The objective is to attract audience members, and to get them involved in the promotion. This is where the IMC methods come into place.  Communicating a consistent brand message that is also in the ranges of the company’s budget is important. This seems like a straight-forward method but it is relatively complicated when trying to measure how influential an advertisement is when attracting the publics eye.

The 2^nd major problem when it comes to testing research methods is the cost. Providing multiple measurements requires more than just budgeting. This can be pricy, and still not give the advertisers the information that they would like to receive.  This is a major problem with the PACT Method. Principles 3,5, and 8 of the PACT methods is based on budgeting, if a company doesn’t have a spare income, this way might be troublesome for smaller companies with smaller budgets.

Next, the PACT requirements involving 4,7,9 also have some problems as well. To start off with Principle 4, it sates, “research should be guided by a model of human response to communication that encompasses reception, comprehension and behavioral reception” this is a great way to start developing information, but the problem with this is that this principle is barley intergraded into marketing strategies. Though these methods have existed for a long time, they are not effect because they also do not take into account the audiences feelings, and audience’s changes in perception of the brand overtime. So, it does not provide an effecting way to score or judge the audience’s thoughts and feelings toward the ad. Moving on, Principle 7, providing a nonbiased exposure, seem simple enough, but also another difficult procedure to follow. Using the principle to test provides the advertiser with artificial scores leaving the advertiser to developed faulty information about the public.  As stated in our text the Seagram and Time study can be used, but is not effective due to large tasks firms have to develop massive, and expensive advertising plans. If developed properly, this method could be effective, but in todays times, it is hard to develop more advanced strategies when information supporting these programs are faulty. Lastly, Principle 9 goes hand in hand with 7. Having concern for reliability and validity are a true concern. Developing way to tract effective marketing deals with having accurate information to base studies off of, without this information the study is useless.

All in all, although the PACT criteria have been around for years, there are still major problems that surround how to measure how effect advertising really is. Using neuroscience as a way to measure advertising effectiveness has its pros and cons, but for the most part, it is not a bad idea for advertisers to measure advertising effectiveness as a whole. Until technology improves, this is the only way to do the tasks.

If interested, check out the link below to read more about ineffective and effective advertising campaigns that are running right now! Feature Pillsbury, L’Oreal, Visa, and AT&T.

References:
Belch, GE. and Belch, MA.  Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective, 9th Edition.  McGraw-Hill Companies.  2012.

Top 10 Effective and Ineffective Advertising Slogans. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.qualitylogoproducts.com/blog/10-effective-ineffective-advertising-slogans