This is the course blog for PH 663 - the theory-based, practical, action-packed Health Communication course for ace Health Promotion students in the Graduate School of Public Health at San Diego State University. Are we having fun or what!
What an incredible eye-opener yesterday's video was. Yes, it's true. Some of the ads looked mighty dated. But, as Dr. Engelberg said, the messages were not. It's easy to become complacent when you begin to get to know a population and in turn, to stop asking important questions. I have found myself doing that a bit lately and yesterday's class snapped me right out of that! It is so critical to find out what makes people tick. Who knew that seeing things through the business/advertising perspective would be so fruitful? The tools for getting information from folks will be quite useful--not only with the upcoming focus groups I will be conducting but also with my clinical work, where I see clients for psychotherapy. I guess the moral of the story is to never stop asking questions. I like it!
I was surprised in how much work goes into making a simple commercial. How much research it takes with the focus groups and follow ups. No wonder why all the research needed to implement an effective program may not be used, because of simple time and funding. Now that we have to do the background work and implement our own health campaigns we will really see what its like and how it becomes "your baby" so to speak that you just want to be successful.
Watching that piece on formative research made me think about how often we are analyzed as consumers on daily basis. I think about all of my favorite products and how much effort went into ensuring that I buy a particular brand name over another again. I mean vehicles and soft drinks are big, but think about the other things we may take for granted. I lot of people drink coffee, watch the Discovery Channel, and prefer Crest over Colgate. Advertisers want us to think about the consequences of using their products, feel good about it, and then purchase it without fail. Last night, I saw this concept advertised on my guilty pleasure, "American Idol". This show draws a large youth population and Apple had a commercial advertising their iPhone with the new feature of Facebook on it. It seems like a smart move on Apple's part. I assuming they did their "homework" aka formative research. But, how much formative research goes into health ads that aren't backed my a billion dollar market of Apple lovers? I came across this one. You be the judge.
Copy and paste this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-zEDbl04NY
I agree with Amanada how we are anaylzed as consumers and don't even realize how we are targeted to choose so many little things. I also had no idea how extensive research gets for developig these ads. The video was amazing in showing us what really goes behind just a simple ad we see on TV. Now, I got an idea of how formative research is done to determine target behaviors such as what the target thinks, feels, and does. Now I'm more likely to analyze a commercial or an ad I see on TV and what it takes to come with such ads.
I really enjoyed learning about formative research and how much there is to pre-production stages but it was very helpful. I also enjoyed the video and how much pscyhology there is involved in learning about consumer behavior and how the art dept. has to base their concepts and research. THe situational matrix was very helpful for the project in organization.
I thought I knew about formative research before but I guess I really didn’t know how much actually went into it. It makes sense that you must be sure of your commercial or campaign before it gets to the public since so much is riding on it but since it is not the attractive part of campaign making, I think it often goes unnoticed. The video did do a really good job of showing what it takes to make a campaign that is attractive to the most number of people. Also a part in the video that I really hadn’t thought of before was when they were talking about cognitive dissonance. Typically you think of commercials as a cue to get a person to purchase something, not as a tool reinforce what a person has already purchased. Yet it is so true, when I buy something worth a lot of money, there is a little part of me that doubts it and hearing or seeing an attractive commercial would definitely reinforce my purchase. This ties over into what we were talking about the goal of a health campaign being to create, change, or reinforce a behavior. So I guess the most successful health message (or commercial) would be one that not only changes or creates healthier behaviors but one that reinforces those who already engaged in those behaviors.
I never really thought about what goes into making a commmercial. And most importantly I never really thought about the research that goes into it, or that a commercial reinforce what you continue to purchase. I can not help, but to think of the teen population and young children who are so impressionable. Take cereal commercials, they are pretty "cool" and clever. If you show a young child a commercial they want THAT cereal no matter what, only because the child saw Elmo on the commercial, or their friends will think that they are cool, or what ever the child finds "hip" at the time. McDonalds has accomplished that defeat.
I'm currently participating in formative research geared towards the creation of video materials promoting healthy parenting styles fore eating and exercise habits. What is really interesting about the focus groups that I am part of is that we are doing audio recordings of the groups and then tryingto identify possible slang or other key words that might be helpful to us. These tools, as we saw in the video on Tuesday, can help people really identify and pay attention to a campaign. Next weeks focus group: Concept testing!
"Breaking through the clutter" definitely helped put into a better perspective what advertisers want to accomplish when putting together their ad campaigns. Most of the time I watch commercials and either think they stink or they are funny. Rarely do I get the sense that I really understand what the ad is trying to convey. But after watching this video I feel compelled to ask myself what do advertisers want me to Think/feel/do after being exposed to their ads. I also now wonder how many advertisers spend the time to do quality formative research on their target audience; so many times I see ads that seem to play up a stereotype of a target audience. I found it interesting that one of the advertisers felt uneasy about people opening up to the researcher. He was uncomfortable by this because he wasn’t sure if it was right to have people share more than they were asked to in order for advertisers to understand their customers. I think it was more a question of how are we using this information and is it ethical. This is what I ultimately got from watching this video; how are we using formative research? And for whose benefit?
I agree that the video, "Breaking Through the Clutter," was interesting. It made me wonder what it is that I, as a consumer, am doing on a regular basis that is forming the advertisements of tomorrow? How much input do we have? Obviously a lot, as was seen from the video and lecture on formative research. Even though we are not participating in focus groups and in-depth interviews on a regular basis does not mean that what we purchase or watch on television does not go unnoticed. By being public health students it allows us to "be the change we wish to see in the world."
Did you know there is a group that forecasts color trends up to three years into the future for everything from paint and furniture to cars and carpets?!? The "Breaking through the Clutter" video reminded me of how I learned about this unique group. I was at a party talking with some friends, most of whom happened to be in interior design, about who really decides fashion trends in our society--the consumer or the designer. Who decides the popular color of car this year will be green or beige will be the new black this fall? How do designers like Michael Kors & Vera Wang already know exactly what colors I will want to wear this fall when I don't even know myself?!? Well, come to find out, there are marketers who forecast what will be "in" by surveying consumers and by studying the history of prefered color trends past(i.e. what people prefer to wear when their country's at war or in a time of economic distress). (Sometimes though, I feel like these color geniuses miss the mark by a long shot, and it leads me to believe their "customer-centered" focus was blurred by some designer's obsession with his toddlers "use of color" in his preschool doodles). Nevertheless, if the Color Marketing Group works even half as hard as they indicate they do to determine the best color for the new 2009 suped up Williams Sonoma toaster, then I can only imagine the amount of research that we can do to determine what health campaigns will meet the needs and wants of the public!
**Disclaimer: all examples in this post were totally made-up, if you really would like to know what colors are gonna be "hot" this summer or "in" this fall, check out http://www.colormarketing.org/**
It was interesting to see the inside scoop of formative research and what goes into making an add effective and keep it attractive. I was impressed they could get as much info at they did out of their participants. It was interesting to watch how they took the participants feedback and discussed their fantasies and perceptions of self. And It also makes me realize that formative research has probably improved and expanded by leaps and bounds. A little scary. I have never done formative research, however a month ago I participated in a beer study for Budweiser(I was a taster of course). We were asked to rate beers according to flavor and color and then asked to drink our preferred beer after ranking them. At this point after ranking, the music started up, food brought out and more beer dispersed. They recreated the whole festive scene. Toward the end, a marketing person came over with a BW bottle and asked us questions on how the bottle looked, what beers we liked the best etc. Its interesting that we were asked questions before the festive mood and then after. Probably looking at how we perceived things systematically pre-beer and then our peripheral thinking post-beer. In any case, the steps taken to conduct effective formative research and well thought out. I would be interested to see how this is done in other media such as the internet as well.
I am somewhat not surprised at how much work goes on into making a commercial. People get paid big bucks to make ones that really stand out. Everything now a days has come a profession, everyone is an expert on something. Specialization has been the "in" thing for quite a while now. It will be quite interesting however to try an implement our own campaign. I think it would be very challenging and would take A LOT of work... I think the think/feel/do concept is extremely useful, esp. the feel part. When people feel for something strongly, they are more inclined to act upon the situation. Thus, commercials should be very emotionally driven.
Ever since Tuesday's class on formative research, I am looking at advertisements with an entirely different perspective. The video was very interesting as it revealed the many steps involved in making a commercial. I have found myself analyzing advertisements and thinking about the research involved and who the message is aimed towards. I picture the focus groups, like the ones portrayed in the video, as the companies desperately try to understand their target audience. For example, who is telling Carl's Jr. that messy, ketchup dripping, gigantic hamburgers are appealing? I don't know if it's just me, but the sloppy hamburger campaign has gone on for way too long in my opinion. I know I am biased as I am a health advocate, but I think that campaign has the potential to backfire in the objective to reinforce views, as the ad has worn out it's welcome. But that's just me... On a more positive note, I remember an ad campaign promoting health by Kaiser Permanente that had nice music and catchy phrases aimed to encourage people to get out and exercise more. We learned in class that the three main objectives for a campaign are to either create a point of view, change an existing view, or reinforce one. I think ads have a great potential in succeeding in one of these objectives if they take the time and energy to do their formative research.
I also thought the video we watched in class was very interesting. I had heard through other classes how important formative research is to designing any campaign, whether is is a health campaign or a commercial campaign. There are always consumers involved and as we learned, your message won't be as effective if it is not targeted towards the consumer's interests, beliefs, attitudes, etc. However this process is apparently a lot of work. I remember participating in a lot of 'consumer research' when I was younger. My mom had signed my sister and I up with some group and we got a lot of calls to participate in focus groups, screenings, surveys, etc. At the time I was too young to realize that it was all part of formative research and that I was being analyzed, as Amanda mentioned.
Hello: Well this week we began discussing the importance of conducting formative research prior to designing a health campaign, or any campaign. The video Breaking through the Clutter gave us an in depth view on how much formative research goes into advertisement campaigns. Just consider all of the commercials we saw during the Super bowl, how much research had gone into devising those campaigns, the good ones and the bad ones. I guess with how much money was spent for just 30 seconds of our time it is extremely important to know and understand your target audience in order to motivate them to purchase the product after the hype of the game is gone. The same concept can be used for health campaigns we see now or the ones we remember from our younger years. I know for me I will always remember the commercial " this is your brain on drugs, see a pan with eggs frying on it." I am not sure how much research went into making that ad since it was not very effective in regards to keeping teens off drugs. I was reading an article on how the ABC (Abstinence, Be Faith full, Condoms) campaigns in Uganda contributed to the decline in HIV prevalence. Formative research on the target population benefited to the reach ability and success of the campaign.you can check my blogg to see an ABC ad in Uganda. Noni
Interesting to see how much time marketers take to get to what makes the consumer tick. Little do we know that advertisers are play a “cheese and mouse” game with consumers. Should we feel flattered by this attention or should we manipulated. I guess is reassuring that marketers are taking my likes and dislikes into consideration when the company is creating a product.
18 comments:
What an incredible eye-opener yesterday's video was. Yes, it's true. Some of the ads looked mighty dated. But, as Dr. Engelberg said, the messages were not. It's easy to become complacent when you begin to get to know a population and in turn, to stop asking important questions. I have found myself doing that a bit lately and yesterday's class snapped me right out of that! It is so critical to find out what makes people tick. Who knew that seeing things through the business/advertising perspective would be so fruitful? The tools for getting information from folks will be quite useful--not only with the upcoming focus groups I will be conducting but also with my clinical work, where I see clients for psychotherapy. I guess the moral of the story is to never stop asking questions. I like it!
I was surprised in how much work goes into making a simple commercial. How much research it takes with the focus groups and follow ups. No wonder why all the research needed to implement an effective program may not be used, because of simple time and funding. Now that we have to do the background work and implement our own health campaigns we will really see what its like and how it becomes "your baby" so to speak that you just want to be successful.
Watching that piece on formative research made me think about how often we are analyzed as consumers on daily basis. I think about all of my favorite products and how much effort went into ensuring that I buy a particular brand name over another again. I mean vehicles and soft drinks are big, but think about the other things we may take for granted. I lot of people drink coffee, watch the Discovery Channel, and prefer Crest over Colgate. Advertisers want us to think about the consequences of using their products, feel good about it, and then purchase it without fail. Last night, I saw this concept advertised on my guilty pleasure, "American Idol". This show draws a large youth population and Apple had a commercial advertising their iPhone with the new feature of Facebook on it. It seems like a smart move on Apple's part. I assuming they did their "homework" aka formative research. But, how much formative research goes into health ads that aren't backed my a billion dollar market of Apple lovers? I came across this one. You be the judge.
Copy and paste this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-zEDbl04NY
I agree with Amanada how we are anaylzed as consumers and don't even realize how we are targeted to choose so many little things. I also had no idea how extensive research gets for developig these ads. The video was amazing in showing us what really goes behind just a simple ad we see on TV. Now, I got an idea of how formative research is done to determine target behaviors such as what the target thinks, feels, and does. Now I'm more likely to analyze a commercial or an ad I see on TV and what it takes to come with such ads.
I really enjoyed learning about formative research and how much there is to pre-production stages but it was very helpful. I also enjoyed the video and how much pscyhology there is involved in learning about consumer behavior and how the art dept. has to base their concepts and research. THe situational matrix was very helpful for the project in organization.
I thought I knew about formative research before but I guess I really didn’t know how much actually went into it. It makes sense that you must be sure of your commercial or campaign before it gets to the public since so much is riding on it but since it is not the attractive part of campaign making, I think it often goes unnoticed. The video did do a really good job of showing what it takes to make a campaign that is attractive to the most number of people. Also a part in the video that I really hadn’t thought of before was when they were talking about cognitive dissonance. Typically you think of commercials as a cue to get a person to purchase something, not as a tool reinforce what a person has already purchased. Yet it is so true, when I buy something worth a lot of money, there is a little part of me that doubts it and hearing or seeing an attractive commercial would definitely reinforce my purchase. This ties over into what we were talking about the goal of a health campaign being to create, change, or reinforce a behavior. So I guess the most successful health message (or commercial) would be one that not only changes or creates healthier behaviors but one that reinforces those who already engaged in those behaviors.
I never really thought about what goes into making a commmercial. And most importantly I never really thought about the research that goes into it, or that a commercial reinforce what you continue to purchase. I can not help, but to think of the teen population and young children who are so impressionable. Take cereal commercials, they are pretty "cool" and clever. If you show a young child a commercial they want THAT cereal no matter what, only because the child saw Elmo on the commercial, or their friends will think that they are cool, or what ever the child finds "hip" at the time. McDonalds has accomplished that defeat.
I'm currently participating in formative research geared towards the creation of video materials promoting healthy parenting styles fore eating and exercise habits. What is really interesting about the focus groups that I am part of is that we are doing audio recordings of the groups and then tryingto identify possible slang or other key words that might be helpful to us. These tools, as we saw in the video on Tuesday, can help people really identify and pay attention to a campaign. Next weeks focus group: Concept testing!
Oh. I could use your help. Come by and check my new post...and the weather!!
"Breaking through the clutter" definitely helped put into a better perspective what advertisers want to accomplish when putting together their ad campaigns. Most of the time I watch commercials and either think they stink or they are funny. Rarely do I get the sense that I really understand what the ad is trying to convey. But after watching this video I feel compelled to ask myself what do advertisers want me to Think/feel/do after being exposed to their ads. I also now wonder how many advertisers spend the time to do quality formative research on their target audience; so many times I see ads that seem to play up a stereotype of a target audience. I found it interesting that one of the advertisers felt uneasy about people opening up to the researcher. He was uncomfortable by this because he wasn’t sure if it was right to have people share more than they were asked to in order for advertisers to understand their customers. I think it was more a question of how are we using this information and is it ethical. This is what I ultimately got from watching this video; how are we using formative research? And for whose benefit?
I agree that the video, "Breaking Through the Clutter," was interesting. It made me wonder what it is that I, as a consumer, am doing on a regular basis that is forming the advertisements of tomorrow? How much input do we have? Obviously a lot, as was seen from the video and lecture on formative research. Even though we are not participating in focus groups and in-depth interviews on a regular basis does not mean that what we purchase or watch on television does not go unnoticed. By being public health students it allows us to "be the change we wish to see in the world."
Did you know there is a group that forecasts color trends up to three years into the future for everything from paint and furniture to cars and carpets?!? The "Breaking through the Clutter" video reminded me of how I learned about this unique group. I was at a party talking with some friends, most of whom happened to be in interior design, about who really decides fashion trends in our society--the consumer or the designer. Who decides the popular color of car this year will be green or beige will be the new black this fall? How do designers like Michael Kors & Vera Wang already know exactly what colors I will want to wear this fall when I don't even know myself?!? Well, come to find out, there are marketers who forecast what will be "in" by surveying consumers and by studying the history of prefered color trends past(i.e. what people prefer to wear when their country's at war or in a time of economic distress). (Sometimes though, I feel like these color geniuses miss the mark by a long shot, and it leads me to believe their "customer-centered" focus was blurred by some designer's obsession with his toddlers "use of color" in his preschool doodles). Nevertheless, if the Color Marketing Group works even half as hard as they indicate they do to determine the best color for the new 2009 suped up Williams Sonoma toaster, then I can only imagine the amount of research that we can do to determine what health campaigns will meet the needs and wants of the public!
**Disclaimer: all examples in this post were totally made-up, if you really would like to know what colors are gonna be "hot" this summer or "in" this fall, check out http://www.colormarketing.org/**
It was interesting to see the inside scoop of formative research and what goes into making an add effective and keep it attractive. I was impressed they could get as much info at they did out of their participants. It was interesting to watch how they took the participants feedback and discussed their fantasies and perceptions of self. And It also makes me realize that formative research has probably improved and expanded by leaps and bounds. A little scary.
I have never done formative research, however a month ago I participated in a beer study for Budweiser(I was a taster of course). We were asked to rate beers according to flavor and color and then asked to drink our preferred beer after ranking them. At this point after ranking, the music started up, food brought out and more beer dispersed. They recreated the whole festive scene. Toward the end, a marketing person came over with a BW bottle and asked us questions on how the bottle looked, what beers we liked the best etc. Its interesting that we were asked questions before the festive mood and then after. Probably looking at how we perceived things systematically pre-beer and then our peripheral thinking post-beer.
In any case, the steps taken to conduct effective formative research and well thought out. I would be interested to see how this is done in other media such as the internet as well.
I am somewhat not surprised at how much work goes on into making a commercial. People get paid big bucks to make ones that really stand out. Everything now a days has come a profession, everyone is an expert on something. Specialization has been the "in" thing for quite a while now. It will be quite interesting however to try an implement our own campaign. I think it would be very challenging and would take A LOT of work... I think the think/feel/do concept is extremely useful, esp. the feel part. When people feel for something strongly, they are more inclined to act upon the situation. Thus, commercials should be very emotionally driven.
Ever since Tuesday's class on formative research, I am looking at advertisements with an entirely different perspective. The video was very interesting as it revealed the many steps involved in making a commercial. I have found myself analyzing advertisements and thinking about the research involved and who the message is aimed towards. I picture the focus groups, like the ones portrayed in the video, as the companies desperately try to understand their target audience. For example, who is telling Carl's Jr. that messy, ketchup dripping, gigantic hamburgers are appealing? I don't know if it's just me, but the sloppy hamburger campaign has gone on for way too long in my opinion. I know I am biased as I am a health advocate, but I think that campaign has the potential to backfire in the objective to reinforce views, as the ad has worn out it's welcome. But that's just me... On a more positive note, I remember an ad campaign promoting health by Kaiser Permanente that had nice music and catchy phrases aimed to encourage people to get out and exercise more. We learned in class that the three main objectives for a campaign are to either create a point of view, change an existing view, or reinforce one. I think ads have a great potential in succeeding in one of these objectives if they take the time and energy to do their formative research.
I also thought the video we watched in class was very interesting. I had heard through other classes how important formative research is to designing any campaign, whether is is a health campaign or a commercial campaign. There are always consumers involved and as we learned, your message won't be as effective if it is not targeted towards the consumer's interests, beliefs, attitudes, etc.
However this process is apparently a lot of work. I remember participating in a lot of 'consumer research' when I was younger. My mom had signed my sister and I up with some group and we got a lot of calls to participate in focus groups, screenings, surveys, etc. At the time I was too young to realize that it was all part of formative research and that I was being analyzed, as Amanda mentioned.
Hello:
Well this week we began discussing the importance of conducting formative research prior to designing a health campaign, or any campaign. The video Breaking through the Clutter gave us an in depth view on how much formative research goes into advertisement campaigns. Just consider all of the commercials we saw during the Super bowl, how much research had gone into devising those campaigns, the good ones and the bad ones. I guess with how much money was spent for just 30 seconds of our time it is extremely important to know and understand your target audience in order to motivate them to purchase the product after the hype of the game is gone. The same concept can be used for health campaigns we see now or the ones we remember from our younger years. I know for me I will always remember the commercial " this is your brain on drugs, see a pan with eggs frying on it." I am not sure how much research went into making that ad since it was not very effective in regards to keeping teens off drugs. I was reading an article on how the ABC (Abstinence, Be Faith full, Condoms) campaigns in Uganda contributed to the decline in HIV prevalence. Formative research on the target population benefited to the reach ability and success of the campaign.you can check my blogg to see an ABC ad in Uganda.
Noni
Interesting to see how much time marketers take to get to what makes the consumer tick. Little do we know that advertisers are play a “cheese and mouse” game with consumers. Should we feel flattered by this attention or should we manipulated. I guess is reassuring that marketers are taking my likes and dislikes into consideration when the company is creating a product.
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