I Guess You Can Perfrom an Experiment on Just About Anything…

So this is our final blog post, and I must say it quite an experience. We have learned about a lot of different types of research and applied almost all of it to the real world. The final topic we discussed was experiments; and as silly as it may sound you can pretty much do an experiment on anything.

            I read two blogs from our classmates, and they talked about two completely different experiments that are very out of the ordinary. In Vanessa’s blog she discusses an experiment on how a group of people in France tried to destroy vines for a particularly winery. They did an experiment to try and find out that the vines were bad. I find this to be hysterical; I can’t believe a group in France actually tried to destroy vines from a perfectly good winery.

            The next blog I came across was Lisa’s blog she also managed to find a very meaningless and actually funny experiment done on the one and only Lindsay Lohan. They did an experiment on the types of foods she ate in prison. I did not hear about this on the news while she was in prison, for all of two weeks or so? But that’s besides the fact, these experiments are actually very funny and go to show that you don’t always need to have a very serious topic to research. 

A New Form of Advertising?

            Being interested in advertising, I began to think about the different ways research can contribute to how and advertising campaign will go, if it will be successful or not. I recently read an article about a new type of advertising, something I have never heard of, but seems to growing at a steady pace: SMS advertising. This is a fairly new idea, “mobile advertising”, and there is not much information about how effective it is, and what is contributing to its success.

            This research was done to investigate the significance of a number of factors associated with SMS advertising through an experimental study. They found that incentive, interactivity, appeal, product involvement, and attitude towards SMS advertising directly influences the attitude toward the advertisement, attitude toward the brand and purchase intention. In order to improve the effectiveness of SMS advertising, they need to have a stronger focus on these factors.

            The procedure that was performed was that they split up groups of people and showed them advertisements on their phones. One hundred percent of the people owned cell phones and sixty-nine percent used SMS 1+ daily. They showed both groups different ads with different attributes, such as interactivity, to see which ones stuck in their heads. The researches then collected their data based on all of these different characteristics to formulate their conclusion.

            I feel like this is where advertising is heading; we have already concurred the Internet, why not move to everyone’s cell phones? This study proved that just about everyone has a cell phone, they had 100% of the participants have one, so why not go one step further and start advertising over text messages? This study was done out of the University of Athens in 2007, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t be coming to the United States in a very short time.

            We see advertisements everywhere, whether we’re on the highway or on our favorite website, we can’t escape them, so why not begin send them to us in SMS text messages? This could be the next way to reach consumers, in a cheaper and less time-consuming way. However this also could be the next thing burdening the average American consumer, yet another advertisement clouding our minds on a daily basis. 

Who Likes Internet Advertisements Anyway?

Surveys are a big part in the research world, and can give you a lot of information in a quick, cheap way. Being someone who is interested in advertising, I decided to try and find how advertisers use surveys to help find what is working, and what is not. This article explains the usefulness of Internet advertising, and what types of advertising is catching the user’s eye. In the year 2010 it is said that we are more likely to act upon internet ads than we were in 2009, according to an Opinion Research Corporation consumer preference survey by Adfusion.

            According to consumers, we have more of an eye for ads within the articles, whether they are about brands or something else, rather than banners or pop-up ads. I find this to be very interesting, that our interest in ads on the Internet has grown within one year. The Internet has become a main source of how we find or research anything, and now it is one of the main sources of how we see our advertisements.

            For an advertiser I feel it is very important to know what types of ads will get the attention of their targeted public, or just the public in general. By using a survey they are getting an idea of what the people want, this is a fast and vey reliable way to get their information for the future so their ads will be noticed. With the Internet being a source used for just about anything, it is important that advertisers also know how to get noticed. This medium is one of the best ways to reach their targeted public, however this target audience has to notice these ads, not just ignore them. 

Technology has Taken Over…

Public relations research has evolved from the time of the simple survey, or observation to see how the public likes a product or type of entertainment. Social media has broken through as a method of qualitative research and is being used in many industries across the country.

While reading Francesca’s blog about how social networks is connected to how the public feels about movies. The movie industry is taking a different route when deciding to conduct qualitative research. Instead of conducting focus groups, giving out surveys, or making observations they are utilizing YouTube and other social networks to get feedback from the public. The study that was done was a movie company put the movie’s trailer on YouTube and waited to see how many people commented on it, and what the feedback was. This was a great way to use social networks in a company’s advantage it is free to post on YouTube, and all of the feedback was voluntary and will work in a positive way for this company.

Another way technology was used to get feedback from the public was displayed in Laura’s blog. She discussed how social media is using forums to discuss and post questions about celebrities, fashion, and the Entertainment Industry. This is once again a great way to utilize the fast growing world of social networking. It is on the Internet, so it most likely is free and everyone has access to it. Laura makes it clear that the old-fashioned way of conducting qualitative research is probably better, but I believe this is a great start for our always-changing society.

Let’s face it technology is changing at the speed of light, or it sure feels like it, and we have to do everything in our power to keep up with it.  This is happening everywhere from college campuses basically going paperless, to the PR industry using the Internet to conduct their qualitative research. Everything we are used to is changing rapidly, and we can choose to ignore it, or embrace it and just enjoy the ride.

Conducting Research for Small Businesses

Research is a huge part of the advertising and marketing industry, as well as PR. We have been learning for a while about the different types of secondary research, one of which was focus groups. A focus group is a form of qualitative research, which usually aids to your research. I recently read an article about how focus groups can help small businesses.

            This article made a lot of great points to small businesses; it started off saying that you don’t need to be a big corporation to conduct your own focus group. This is a great way to try and help small businesses get the feedback that they need, and will allow them to be confident in doing so. The article then goes on to explain in detail how to prepare for your focus group. This can be done by determining your objective carefully, and write down what you want to learn. Then the following has to be done to make your focus group successful: write your script, have a way of recording this focus group, and find a moderator who will lead the discussion and ask follow up questions. You also need to find a comfortable location, and have food and beverages there to keep the participants happy. For the timeframe of the focus group, they suggest about two and a half hours with a short break.

            When the focus group is completed you must be able to chart your responses, review the questions, and try to be objective. It is important that the person reviewing the tapes does not try to force the answers, but instead to find them.

            Focus groups are the best way to collect data. I believe that if you have the funds and the means to conduct a focus group, no matter how big or small your company may be, you should do it. Focus groups are there to help you company prosper, and thrive in this ever changing economy. 

What’s Everyone Listening To?

      It’s week six, and we are evaluating our peers for the second time to see what they are writing about in their own blogs. As I was looking through my classmates’ blogs to see similarities, I found two specific blogs that focused on music and the types of unobtrusive research that can be done to see what everyone is listening to.

       Something that I found very interesting in BDaunno’s blog was her connection to Pandora and unobtrusive research. I have been listening Pandora radio for many years now, and have surprisingly never made the connection. This radio is excellent to see what other people are listening to, and also gives suggestions of what you may like. I can put in an artist that I listen to on a daily basis and it will give me at least five other artists during the duration of my Pandora listening experience.

       The next blog I came across was a blog I have read before, by SLapin. She also discussed music and the unobtrusive research that can be done to see who’s listening to what. SLapin said you could see what radio stations people listen to and then compare that to what type of music that radio station plays. This goes right along with Pandora, except Pandora is using a much more technological approach by using social networking. This blog gives prime examples of how unobtrusive research can be conducted, and what benefits it has when trying to figure out what types of music people listen to.

       When I began comparing blogs, I thought that it was going to be a difficult process to find a commonality between two blogs, but I was definitely wrong. I was pleasantly surprised to see that two other people shared an interest in music, or at least enough to blog about. These opinions and ideas that SLapin and BDaunno share are definitely broadening my horizons, and even letting me think outside the box a little bit more. I would have never thought Pandora could be used as a type of unobtrusive research, but now I’m curious to see what everyone is listening to. It’s a new way of thinking, and I can’t help but wonder what’s next?

What Really Catches Your Eye?

Throughout the past two weeks we have been studying unobtrusive research, and the many categories of unobtrusive research there actually are. As you all know, I am very interested in entering the advertising field when I get older, so I decided to see what types of unobtrusive research most advertising researchers do to get viewers to remember their product.

            In an article that I found on Improving Brand Recognition in TV Ads, I found that researchers are using data to track the eye movements of almost 2000 participants over 31 commercials to see how various branding patterns of activity influence consumers ignoring the commercials. The person conducting the study found that eye tracking was as unobtrusive as sitting in front of a computer monitor. An optical sensor using an infrared light bouncing off of the cornea captures the eye movements.

            The researchers also found many other things out from this study, they saw that the eye sensor measures an attention span, and due to its scarcity, is something very important to understand. They found it to be troubling, because now a days more and more people seem to ignore ads, but it seems that more and more companies are paying millions of dollars to get their ads on television.

            As the researcher neared the end of his study he found that brand presence alone would automatically increase commercial avoidance; but if you were to change the brand exposure, you can lower the rates that viewers will ignore it. He also found that while using eye tracking you could see when the viewer’s attention begins to drift. This will allow you to figure out what will keep or lose a viewers attention on any type of ad.

            This study was a great example of seeing what types of ads keep people interested, or what makes them lose their attention. I feel that this is a great tool for any advertising agency or company to use if they want to sell more of, or to just get people aware of their product. It basically says what will work, and what won’t while you’re trying to get your brand recognized.

However, there have been many ethical issues with unobtrusive research, but this I feel is a very noninvasive way to get the data you need. If you have no idea someone is watching to see when your attention drifts, then it shouldn’t really be a bother to you. I mean if this helps you to want to watch more commercials, why complain?