Marketing Communications

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Marketing Communications
Advertising Research

4. Body of report should have
   • Introduction
   • Methodology
   • Results
   • Limitations


5. Conclusion and recommendations


6. Appendix – which contains sampling plan, data collection forms, supporting tables not
   included in report body. (Stanton, 1981; McTavish and Maitland, 1980)

DATA SOURCES FOR ADVERTISING RESEARCH

There are four basic sources of research data as follows:

•    Respondents

•    Analogous situations, such as case study and simulation

•    Experimentation

•    Secondary data

RESPONDENTS: these are the major sources of research data. There are four principal methods of
obtaining data from respondents.

•    Communication: it requires the respondent to actively provide data through verbal

response.

•    Observation: this requires the recording of the respondent’s passive behaviour

•    Analogous situation: this involves the study of analogous or similar situation to the One

under examination of case histories or case study and simulations

•    Experimentation: this involves arranging data for an experiment in such a way that relatively

clear statement can be made regarding cause-and-effect relationship.

An experiment is conducted when one or more independent variables are consciously manipulated or
controlled and their effects on the dependent variables are measured. The objective of an experiment is to
measure the effect of the independent variables on a dependent variable, while controlling for extraneous
variables that might confuse the researcher’s ability to make valid causal inferences.

TYPES OF DATA FOR ADVERTISING RESEARCH

There are two categories of data:

PRIMARY DATA: they are collected specifically for the research needs under consideration. Its sources
include respondents, analogous situations, and experimentation.