ACCI Conference 2021

Brands track the effectiveness of their marketing spend by researching the impact of their advertising on consumers. We propose a research process called “The Consumer Audit” that utilizes the content analysis techniques to infer consumer perceptions. The Audit measures consumers’ motivations and judgments when they get exposed to a marketing stimulus. The Audit applies well known psychological models of how consumers process a stimulus, how they infer their motivation, ability, and opportunity when they get exposed to a stimulus, and captures the process of how consumers may apply judgment ratings and make a decision. The Audit captures consumer influence of not only mass media advertising and brand websites, but also of media such as brochures, posters, billboards, and direct mail. As a result, brands can subscribe to an integrated marketing communication plan that is rated for its impact on consumers. The technique has been tested with students trained over a semester-long course. Consumer researchers can be trained in the process of the Audit. Thus, the Audit presents a simple, timely, and cost-effective process to evaluate marketing stimuli whose impact can be assessed locally.

Author(s): Arvind Agrawal