Marlboro Brand Tracking Study Research Proposal

Transcription

1 Marlboro Brand Tracking Study Research Proposal E.7276 June 1997 Undertaken for: Ian Robertson Rothmans (UK) Ltd. Prepared by: Terry Prue Nadine Edge The HPI Research Group

2 1. BACKGROUND The Marlboro product line is targeted at affluent smokers. Marlboro has capitalised on its strong American heritage, positioning the brand around a set of unique and strong, emotional core values not only of genuine Americanness but also, of freedom, independence and confidence. Furthermore, within this value context, the two main sub-brands, Marlboro Lights and Red have assumed strong and distinct identities. Reds are imbued with a sense of rebellious masculinity and adventure whilst Lights project a more stylish, relaxed, cosmopolitan and, perhaps, more feminine personality. By contrast, although Medium seems more akin to Reds than to Lights, as a relatively new entrant in this market it does not seem to have yet developed a well defined separate identity. Since 1995 Marlboro has been sharing an advertising tracker with Rothmans Royals. This is less than satisfactory due to the low sample size of the main Marlboro target group of ABC year old smokers. The HPI Research Group has been asked to prepare proposals for a specifically designed Marlboro tracker and in this document, we outline our recommended methodology and give details of the costs and time scales that would be involved.

3 2. RELEVANT EXPERIENCE We feel particularly able to provide a sensitive and action oriented study given our expertise in researching not only advertising and more particularly press campaigns but also, brands that appeal to audiences similar to that of Marlboro. This dual experience means that we have a particularly thorough understanding of the dynamics affecting these markets. As such, we are well placed to interpret research findings contextually and provide meaningful insights and incisive presentations, rather than simply providing data. Recent clients in relevant youth and young adults markets have included Miller Pilsner, Mars, Twix, Canadian Club and Lucozade. We also have a very strong heritage in advertising research and our 3-D system of advertising and brand research is designed to provide a thorough understanding of how advertising and other brand communications are working and what effects they are having upon the brand. 3-D is based upon two key principles : advertising works in different ways and if this is so, then advertising research needs to reflect these ways, not just use the same old mechanistic measures - how people respond to the brand as a result of seeing the advertising is more important than how they respond to the advertising itself Our particular skills and expertise in this area of research rest on the followinga thorough knowledge and understanding of advertising and the ways in which it can work - there are essentially three models of how advertising works Persuasion by communicating or inferring credible product or brand benefits Involvement by getting people involved in the advertising which then transfers to greater involvement with the brand

4 Salience which works by getting the brand noticed and conveys new significance, via advertising which stands out within the sector and/or media being fully familiar with the creative brief i.e. who the target audience is, the core proposition, consumer responses being sought (model of advertising), ultimate response to the brand etc. careful and thorough analysis and interpretation of consumer response against both the key dimensions of the advertising brief and our substantial body of experience in advertising research Our overall aim is to provide meaningful evaluation of how a campaign is working and what it is doing for the brand. Furthermore, we aim to work with the client to ultimately determine how best to develop or progress the campaign, and achieve the optimum for the brand. Our experience in advertising tracking and campaign evaluation covers both broadcast and print media and current clients for whom we have specifically conducted tracking or evaluation studies include : Abbey National Co-op Bank BMW Goldfish Sopexa (Wines from France) Cussons Scottish Tourism (France & Germany) 3i (UK, France, Germany) Mercedes Benz Great Western United Distillers Somerfield Stores

5 3. OBJECTIVES The overall aim of this study at this stage of the briefing, is to provide an ongoing, sensitive brand and advertising monitor for Marlboro which can provide detailed diagnostic information on the dynamics affecting the brand, within a competitive context In addition, it must be able to relate this to awareness and responses to the advertising and other communications activity such as sponsorship. In more detail, the study would be designed to meet the following objectives : to assess how brand awareness and understanding are changing over time, and how the competitive overall position is developing; to evaluate awareness and understanding of the three variants (Red, Medium and Lights) over time ; to gauge the strength and nature of the target audience relationships with key brands in the market and how this is changing over time, eg. brand consideration, emotional involvement, stature and saliency, brand personality and imagery ; to assess the extent to which the advertising, promotion and other communications are reaching the target audience; to gauge how the target audience is actually responding to the advertising/brand communications, in terms of the key response measures: key communications, saliency and involvement; within this context, to evaluate the relative impact of individual executions ; to provide an understanding of the advertising dynamics, i.e how it is working to affect peoples relationship with the brands ; to evaluate the impact of sponsorship activity on the brand. Ultimately, the research findings will be used to inform brand development, specifically looking at how press advertising can best be used to further develop the brand.

6 4. OVERALL APPROACH Overall, we would recommend conducting an on-going programme of interviews in people's home. We feel that in-home interviewing is particularly suitable to this study as it provides a setting in which respondents feel more relaxed and as such, are able to reflect and answer questions in a more considered and therefore, accurate manner. This is particularly beneficial in the context of the cigarette market where brand relationship can be driven by fairly complex emotional dynamics. Moreover, the in-home setting is particularly suitable when looking at advertising as, again, it enables respondents to examine pre-prepared stimuli and to respond more accurately to the advertising. We have considered your concerns about reaching outgoing young people at home and we are confident that we can prevent such recruitment problems by setting up a number of mechanisms as follows : - because they work, respondents would be predominantly interviewed on weekends and in the evenings ; we would also set up quotas on going out to pubs and clubs in order to ensure that the sample is representative of the target market behaviour. These would be determined using TGI data.

7 S. DETAILED METHODOLOGY The study design then comes down to who should be affected by the campaign, in other words, sample structure, sample size, frequency of waves and questionnaire coverage. Our suggestions and thoughts on these issues are described below. S. l Who should be most affected by this advertising? Sample Structure and size The sample for this study should clearly reflect the target market for the advertising. This, we understand to be defined as a broad range of ABC 1, socially active smokers within the age brackets, including low vs. stronger tar and moderate vs. heavy cigarette smokers. Moreover, age, gender and the proportion of full time students are also likely to be discriminating in terms of the dynamics and behaviour affecting brand relationship. The overall sample size should, therefore, be sufficient to provide statistically robust data and to allow for a significant analysis of these different sub-groups of smokers. Given these requirements, we concur with your recommendation of a 400 sample size per reporting period. We would recommend to structure the sample into two equal cells of strong vs. low tar purchasing since the type of cigarette smoked is most likely to be the primary differentiator in the market In order to ensure that each group is demographically representative, we would also set quotas on age, gender and going out to pubs and clubs. These quotas would be determined using TGI data.

8 With a sample of 400, we would expect to naturally achieve 185 light smokers (3-12 cigarettes per day), 175 medium smokers (13-22 a day) and 22 heavy smokers (more than 23 a day). We feel that heavy and medium smokers are likely to be fairly similar attitudinally and would therefore group them together on a bi-monthly basis. However, heavy smokers could be examined as a separate entity, by combining waves of data on a 6 monthly or yearly basis. Sample Structure Summary Within each 400 sample: low tar buyers; regular tar buyers. Minimum quota : students. Market quotas by age and gender. Number of Waves Ideally, we recommend conducting a monthly burst of 200 interviews in the last two weeks of each month. The data will then be analysed on a rolling bimonthly basis. Main Sample Data Tables Data Graphs Presentations Jul 200 I Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan / I Feb / 9 Mar / 9 Apr / 8 May / Jun

9 This approach presents a number of advantages. Firstly, it fits with the continuous advertising schedule and is in tune with the slower 'life cycle' of print advertising. Secondly, it makes it possible to change the executions under study in a precise and timely fashion. Last but not least, it makes it possible to react to competitive activity quickly. 5.2 Questionnaire Content The final questionnaire would be agreed in consultation with yourselves, however, the questionnaire is designed to answer two main questions namely : - what should the end result be in terms of understanding, feeling and overall relationship with the brand? - how the advertising is expected to work in order to meet these objectives? Our thoughts and ideas on these areas are outlined below What should the end result be in terms of understanding, feeling and overall relationship with the brand? This area of the questionnaire is concerned with how effectiveness can be measured in terms of improving brand relationship. Each question would therefore be specifically designed to reflect the specific purchase dynamics of the cigarette market We recommend that brand relationships be examined within the confine of the relevant competitive context In view of the way the market segments into 'Light' and 'Strong' tar smokers, we would suggest that people respond to brands within one of these two categories according to their personal smoking orientation. Thus, for example, a Marlboro Red smoker would respond to brands of similar strength such as Camel and Benson & Hedges. Mediums would be included in both categories. The nature and strength of brand relationships would then be gauged through a series of prompted brand response measures across 4 to 5 brands :

10 Brand awareness It is important to gain insight into the quality, as well as the level of brand awareness. We therefore ask : " Spontaneous - what brands can you think of that you would consider getting? 0 Prompted with the pack design - which of these brands have you heard of? - and which would you consider getting? " Scale of how well people know each brand - very familiar to just know name, nothing else Consideration/Repertoire Here, the place of each brand in the consideration set would be evaluated using a scale, reflecting the relatively high degree of brand loyalty that characterises the cigarette purchasing process : The only brand I ever buy It is always my first choice but sometimes 1 buy other brands It is one ofa small group of brands 1 buy equally I sometimes buy it but 1 usually choose another brand 1 would only consider buying it ifthere was no other choice I would never consider buying this brand Involvement/relationship with the brand Involvement is an expression of how people feel towards the brand, the extent to which they identify with the brand values, and as such, it is likely to be a driving factor in this market where brands hold a relatively high badge value.

11 It is my kind ofbrand and 1 always smoke it Although it is my kind of brand, 1 only smoke it occasionally Although it is my kind of brand, 1 never seem to smoke it It is not my kind ofbrand and 1 only smoke it when nothing else is available It is not my kind ofbrand at all and I never smoke it Brand dynamism This is a measure of not only how popular the brand is perceived to be, but also of the inherent dynamism projected by the brand i.e the feeling that it has something going for it and is an 'up and coming' brand. Again, this dimension is likely to be an important factor in shaping brand relationships. Its the most popular brand ofcigarettes and it still has something going for it It is one of the most popular brands of cigarettes and still has something going for it It used to be popular but is now a bit of a has been It is not popular yet, but will be in the future It is not a popular brand of cigarettes and 1 don't think it will ever be It is not a brand 1 know enough about Brand Imagery This will be assessed using a number of prompted statements about brands. In order to discriminate better between brands, people will be asked for each statement which brand they feel it most applies to and which other brand they feel it also applies to.

12 User Imagery Again, this area of questioning seeks to understand the emotional relationship and the degree of identification and empathy of the target audience with the core values, imagery and personality emanating from the brand. We would suggest accessing this by setting the question in the context of a 'missing person', setting the gender of this missing person to match that of the respondent This, we feel, would enable us to get a diagnostic reading of the depth and nature of the brand relationship and how this evolves over time: I'd like you to imagine that you are in a pub and someone has left a pack of..... (brand) cigarettes on the bar. You are told it is a...(gender), which of the words on this card best describes the sort of person it would be?" And which of these statements do you feel would best describes how you would get on with that person? Someone I would have a lot in common and would really like Someone I would have quite a lot in common with Someone I'd get along with but would not have that much in common with Someone I'd have very little in common with and would not really get on with Someone 1'd have nothing in common with and would not like at all Perception of the product Past qualitative research suggested that brand loyalty was a combination of an emotional identification with the brand values and a reaction to the product itself. We would therefore recommend the inclusion of a product based question to capture this dimension.

13 S.2.2 How the advertising is expected to work in order to meet these objectives? Detailed response to advertising can be obtained for a maximum of two recognised campaigns per segment i.e. two in the lights market and two in the strong tar market However, we would propose to get a response to the whole Marlboro campaign amongst all respondents regardless of their smoking orientation. This would enable assessment of whether some executions are perceived to be attributable to Marlboro Lights and others to Marlboro Red or Medium. Thus, overall, we would have: Light Market Strong Market Response to Marlboro campaign Response to Marlboro campaign Response to I competitor Response to I competitor campaign in light market campaign in strong market The precise measures used obviously need to tailor to the advertising in question and how it is intended to work. Thus, in the case of the Marlboro campaign we would intend to concentrate on involvement (the extent to which it is appealing and captures people's imagination) and on salience (the degree to which the campaign stands out as different) rather than on persuasion. However, should a tactical message be included in the campaign in the future, such as a price or low tar message, or a special promotion, a persuasion question could be incorporated in the questionnaire. Advertising awareness Awareness - Spontaneous - which brands have you seen advertising for? Prompted Media attribution

14 Advertising recognition can be measured across 12 executions : Recognition - Unbranded recognition - Branding and initial communication - who is it for, what are they advertising? - Branded recognition Advertising responses These will be grouped into the three categories of response of persuasion, involvement and salience. More detail will be found on these general models of advertising effectiveness in the 3-D brochure that is submitted with this proposal. The primary response for Marlboro will concern 'involvement' and 'salience'. Involvement Le. The transference of emotional values from the advertising to the brand. Measures here will include : the amount of attention paid to the ad ; feelings evoked ; empathy with the ad ; appeal of the lifestyle presented ; advertisement liking. As with all advertising responses, results will be compared with other campaigns working to a similar strategy. Each research wave will also include comparative responses to one competitive campaign in the low tar sector and one on the regular tar sector.

15 Salience Le. The degree to which an advertisement or campaign is regarded as radically different and impressive compared to others in the market Again, this will be compared with other campaigns, both within and outside the market Sponsorship Our approach to measure the effectiveness of sponsorship is to identify those aware of the activity and to compare their brand responses with a matched sample of those not aware. We do not believe that direct questions on brand relevance or brand fit can produce useful results. This is particularly true of your market where cigarette sponsorship is a highly political issue. The question we suggest would cover spontaneous and prompted awareness of the Marlboro involvement in motor sport " Which cigarette brands do you know that sponsor Formula I motor racing? " Which of these brands are you aware of as sponsors of Formula I motor racing? " FOR THOSE AWARE OF MARLBORO SPONSORSHIP. Which team does Marlboro sponsor? When the data is produced we will investigate the requirement to weight the two cells of aware/non aware of sponsorship by such measures as Marlboro smoking and awareness of Marlboro advertising. These measures need to be similar for us to be sure that sponsorship is the cause of differences in brand attitudes. The nature of this analysis will probably require the grouping of data periods - probably into 6 month blocks to accord with the schedule for major charted debriefs.

16 5.2.4 Classification questions Demographics Attitude towards smoking Brand usage : - brands smoked most often ; - brands tried. Media usage

17 6 RESEARCH TEAM This project would be under the overall direction of Terry Prue who moved into full time research after 10 years as a Board Account Planner at J Walter Thompson. Assisting Terry will be Nadine Edge. Nadine is a Senior Researcher who began her research career in 1987 and who has recently joined HPI from Hall & Partners and Audits and Surveys Europe.

18 7. TIMING To make the deadline by end July, we require approval by 20 June (as your brief). We would then request a further briefing session to include response to suggestions within this proposal. We will then produce a full questionnaire for discussion and a small pilot In a normal working situation, results will be available in the fourth week after end of fieldwork.

19 8. COSTS This study on a full annual basis would cost 69,800 and would comprise: 12 months of interviewing 200 target group respondents Tables and key graphs each month (on 8 weekly moving average) Two full presentations per year The only 'extras' on this cost would be VAT and the origination and duplication of colour stimulus. For the first year we are mindful of the budget situation and recommend : 10 months of interviewing (to exclude December 1997 and June 1998) Tables from month 2 Graphs from month 5 Two full presentations per year (in London) The cost for this should be 58,500 (+VAT and stimulus production) but we are willing to discount to 50,000 on the understanding of a return to the appropriate real cost in year 2.