Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1963)

MONDAY MEMO from DR. SEYMOUR BANKS, Leo Burnett Co., Chicago Computers and media research: 'sales opportunity' ratings? There are essentially two major sets of forces which are leading to wider use of computers by those of us working in marketing and advertising. The first of these is the pressure to somehow get control of the flood of paperwork involved in ordering and paying for advertising. Despite great obstacles this is being accomplished. Burnett, for example, has largely automated its spot TV buying activities. The second set of forces stems from the marketing revolution. The basic notion of this revolution is quite simple: some people and some places are better prospects for business for a particular client than others. Again, the computer can be helpful. 'Sales Opportunity' ■ For instance, the computer might yield real benefits in media planning were it employed to convert audience figures into what we might describe as measures of sales apportunity. A medium's audience is merely a market place tied together by a channel of communication. We're interested in knowing how many and who are watching only to locate the biggest markets for our clients' merchandise. To us, then, the ideal rating report wouldn't have a single rating or share figure. It wouldn't say a thing about the total number of homes reached or the division of the audience in terms of the percent of 18 to 34-year-old men. Instead it would read: 8:30 p.m. — Station kkkk: 35,000 gallons of gasoline, 2,500 cartons of filter cigarettes, 4,000 cases of regular ready-to-eat cereal and 2,000 cases of pre-sweets. Station wyyy: 25,000 gallons of gasoline, 4,000 cartons of cigarettes, 5,000 cases of regular ready-to-eat cereal and 1,000 cases of pre-sweets. Detail Demands ■ As we work more and more with our computer we find it necessary to go into finer and finer detail on marketing strategy. We are forced to spell out precisely those areas, those households and those individuals which represent important marketing targets for us, taking into consideration the state of the total market and our brand's own problems and opportunities. Next, we must examine media audiences in terms of their ability to pile impressions against the prime marketing targets, the heavy users. Time after time analyses indicate the fact that national media just don't lay down their advertising weight in the way they should for the best match against our marketing problems and opportunities. Therefore we go to mixtures of na tional and local media with more and more effort being shifted from national to local media. I'm not calling for an overnight revolution in research technology. All I am asking for is the adoption by the industry of the principle of measuring its audiences both in terms of households and individuals as well as in terms of demographic breakdowns. The history of specifying the audiences to media in clear-cut demographic terms in the print media goes back at least 25 years, starting with a Life study in 1938. This tradition has continued in an unbroken line until the present time. There now are several syndicated services measuring magazine audiences on a wide variety of demographic details, adding to this product consumption. TV's Data Void ■ When media people ask for information like this on spot TV, however, the silence is deafening. But I am not asking stations to go bankrupt via the research route. I've found myself feeling for a long time that stations have bought too many surveys rather than buying too few. What I am calling for is a shift in emphasis and of dollars rather than asking for a greatly enlarged budget. Television ratings have three different patterns through the year. Between the middle of September and the middle of November a great deal of sampling of shows goes on with ratings fluctuating quite a bit but eventually settling down by the end of this period. Then from the middle of November until the beginning of local daylight saving time rating patterns remain quite consistent except for situations where programs are dropped. Such occurrences are in the minority rather than setting the pattern. Finally, there is summertime with its own pattern involving daylight saving time, reruns and sports. Spot Check Trends ■ We really don't need to spend our time and money taking frequent studies of a stable situation. Let us use our efforts to give us the kind of marketing data we want and spot check changing situations. For example, suppose you operate in a market where a survey is taken four times a year, each survey reaching approximately 500 households per time period. These 2,000 interviews provide the basis of your rating reports. We can carve up these interviews any way we want. I suggest something like this: In November, do a whopping big survey which might use 1,200-1,500 interviews in order to do a good job of evaluating the marketing characteristics of the homes and people reached by the programs of you and your competition. Then do three other relatively small surveys during the balance of the year — taking 100 interviews in February, 200 in May and 300 in July. Here the emphasis should be on trends and can be confined to the metro areas with the emphasis on speed in reporting. We could use different techniques for the different types of surveys. I regard the current procedure of taking four equally-sized surveys as a compromise which fails to satisfy either the agencies or the stations. The samples are too small for marketing purposes and too big for trend checks. Research Guide ■ For guidance in setting up these big surveys I suggest we turn to a recent report by the Media Research Committee of the American Association of Advertising Agencies which has come up with a standard list of demographic characteristics. It would make all of our jobs a lot easier if the broadcast industry utilized these classifications in developing standardized marketing data for use by advertisers and agencies. Dr. Seymour Banks, Leo Burnett Co. vice president, wears two hats: he is manager of media planning and research, media department, and manager, creative and copy strategy, research department. He joined the agency in 1951 and before that was associate professor in marketing for five years at De Paul University. He earned his PhD in marketing in 1949 at the University of Chicago. Dr. Banks also is vice president-elect 1964, Marketing Research Division, American Marketing Association. 24 BROADCASTING, December 9, 1983