The Practice of Evaluating Advertising Effectiveness in Kenya

Abstract

The objective of this study was first to determine the extent to which advertising agencies and advertisers evaluated the advertising effectiveness of their advertising programs in Kenya .The second objective was to find out the methods that they used to evaluate advertising effectiveness, problems encountered while using the methods and their rationale for using them. In order to attain these two objectives. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire.whose respondents were Marketing Managers and Accounts Executives of advertisers and advertising agencies respectively. The data was then analysed using tables which indicated totals and percentages. Chi-S quare test of uniformity was also used to investigate whether the methods used by different categories of respondents were significantly different or not. The findings from the above analysis brought the following conclusions. 1) Most of the Kenyan advertising agencies &advertisers evaluated advertising effectiveness, and the importance of evaluating advertising effectiveness is highly appreciated in Kenya. 2) The problems faced while using the methods included, lack of accuracy, lack of competent personnel, Lack of finance and time, People biases, many factors affects sales and business fluctuations. 3)The methods used to evaluate advertising effectiveness in Kenyaincluded sales measures.recall and association tests.attitude rating, market tests, audience rating, recognition tests and common sense (judgement).Mechanical aids are not used in Kenya. 4) The methods used by the service, consumer and industrial advertisers are not significantly different. 5) The methods used by the advertisers who used the services of advertising agencies and those who did not are also not significantly different. 6)The methods used by the advertisers and advertising agencies were also found not to be significantly different from one another. 7) The rationale for using the methods they stated. was found to be the fact that they were cheap, easy to use and understand for the majority of the advertisers. Most advertising agencies used their methods because they were the most efficient. From the research findings the researcher recommended that the advertising agencies and advertisers should take the evalution of advertising effectiveness more seriously. The marketing society of Kenya and management consultants have a part to play in creating more awareness such as through more seminars.The utilization of the services of the local media monitoring firm and computers should be intensified, for the purposes of evaluating advertising effectiveness.