The Buy-ology of Mind (Chapter 28)

“The suffix ‘-ology’ is used to meant either ‘the study of’ or ‘the science of.’ (Chapter 28) is about the science of consumption (or buying). In particular… the role of the mind, how it influences buying and brand choice, and how to go about measuring it.” (Sutherland 301)

Measuring Ad effects

Advertisers, in the past, measured effectiveness of an ad by people being able to recall an advertisement. (Sutherland 304) However, the questions that are asked about the effectiveness of an ad will call for more information not only from the brand-focused measures, but also from the ad-focused measures.

Brand focused: brand-purchasing power, brand attitudes, brand awareness, brand image.

Ad-focused: recognition, ad recall, message take-out, ad liking and believability of the ad.

In the end, it is behavior that (advertisers) want to influence and therefore measures of behavior such as sales and market share are what they want to see moving.

Changes in sales and market share, however, are rarely sensitive enough and rarely sufficient in themselves to measure ad effectiveness.

Buy-ology

To captures its immediate effects, it is necessary to have indicators of cognitive and affective impact as well as its impact on behavior.

Therefore, it is necessary to utilize mental measures to fully understand the real effects of advertising.