Effective frequency
Encyclopedia
In advertising
, the effective frequency is the number of times a person must be exposed to an advertising message
before a response is made and before exposure is considered wasteful.
The subject on effective frequency is quite controversial. Many people have their own definition on what this word means. There are also numerous existing research
studies with their own theories or models
as to what the correct number
is for effective frequency.
conducted research
on higher mental processes; he replicated the entire procedure in 1883-4. Ebbinghaus' methods achieved a remarkable set of results.
He was the first to describe the shape of the learning curve
. He reported that the time required to memorize an average nonsense syllable
increases sharply as the number of syllables increases.
He discovered that distributing learning
trials over time is more effective in memorizing nonsense syllables than massing practice
into a single session; and he noted that continuing to practice material after the learning criterion has been reached enhances retention
.
Using one of his methods called savings as an index, he showed that the most commonly accepted law of association, viz., association by contiguity (the idea that items next to one another are associated) had to be modified to include remote associations (associations between items that are not next to one another in a list).
He was the first to describe primacy and recency effects (the fact that early and late items in a list are more likely to be recalled than middle items), and to report that even a small amount of initial practice, far below that required for retention, can lead to savings at relearning.
He even addressed the question of memorization
of meaningful material and estimated that learning such material takes only about one tenth of the effort required to learn comparable nonsense material.
This learning curve research has been used to help researches study advertising message retention.
wrote a guide called Successful Advertising in 1885. The saying he used is still being used today.
The first time people look at any given ad, they don't even see it.
The second time, they don't notice it.
The third time, they are aware that it is there.
The fourth time, they have a fleeting sense that they've seen it somewhere before.
The fifth time, they actually read the ad.
The sixth time they thumb their nose at it.
The seventh time, they start to get a little irritated with it.
The eighth time, they start to think, "Here's that confounded ad again."
The ninth time, they start to wonder if they're missing out on something.
The tenth time, they ask their friends and neighbors if they've tried it.
The eleventh time, they wonder how the company is paying for all these ads.
The twelfth time, they start to think that it must be a good product.
The thirteenth time, they start to feel the product has value.
The fourteenth time, they start to remember wanting a product exactly like this for a long time.
The fifteenth time, they start to yearn for it because they can't afford to buy it.
The sixteenth time, they accept the fact that they will buy it sometime in the future.
The seventeenth time, they make a note to buy the product.
The eighteenth time, they curse their poverty
for not allowing them to buy this terrific product.
The nineteenth time, they count their money very carefully.
The twentieth time prospects see the ad, they buy what is offering.
. His theory has been adopted and widely use in the advertising arena. The following statement encapsulates his theory: "Let me try to explain the special qualities of one, two and three exposures. I stop at three because as you shall see there is no such thing as a fourth exposure psychologically; rather fours, fives, etc., are repeats of the third exposure effect.
"Exposure No. 1 is...a "What is it?" type of... response. Anything new or novel
no matter how uninteresting on second exposure has to elicit some response the first time...if only to discard the object as of no further interest...The second exposure...response...is "What of it?"...whether or not [the message] has personal relevance...
"By the third exposure the viewer knows he's been through his "What is it's?" and "What of it's?," and the third, then, becomes the true reminder . . . The importance of this view . . . is that it positions advertising as powerful only when the viewer...is interested in the [product message]...Secondly, it positions the viewer as...reacting to the commercial—very quickly...when the proper time comes round.
"There is a myth in the advertising world that viewers will forget your message if you don't repeat your advertising often enough. It is this myth that supports many large advertising expenditures...I would rather say the public comes closer to forgetting nothing they have seen on TV. They just "put it out of their minds" until and unless it has some use . . . and [then] the response to the commercial continues."
According to Krugman there are only three levels of exposure in psychological, not media, terms: Curiosity, recognition and decision.
Books
Articles
Batra, Rajeev, Donald R. Lehmann, Joanne Burke, and Jae Pae. “When Advertising Have An Impact? A Study of Tracking Data.” Journal of Advertising Research 35, 5 (1995): 19-32
Chessa, Antonio, and Jaap Murre. “A new memory model for ad impact and scheduling. Think of media impacts as incidents of learning. Then apply the maths of learning theory, and, hey presto! Guidelines for scheduling appear.” Admap, 36(3; ISSU 145), 37-40.http://www.neuromod.org/publications/papers/MAI/MAI.pdf
Craig, C. Samuel, Brian Sternthal, and Clark Leavite. “Advertising Wearout: An Experimental Analysis.” Journal of Marketing Research 13, 4 (1976): 356-372
Lawrence D. Gibson. “What Can One TV Exposure Do?” Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 36, 1996
Stephen J. Hoch, and John Deighton. “Managing What Consumers Learn from Experience.” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Apr., 1989), pp. 1–20
John Philip Jones. “Ad Spending: Maintaining Market Share.” Harvard Business Review 68, 1 (1990): 38-41
John Philip Jones. “Single-Source Research Begins to Fulfill Its Promise.” Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 35, 1995
Herbert E. Krugman. “The Impact of Television Advertising: Learning Without Involvement” Public Opinion Quarterly, volume 29, page 349, 1965.
Herbert E. Krugman. “Why Three Exposures May Be Enough.” Journal of Advertising Research 12, 6 (1972): 11-14
Leonard M Lodish, Magid Abraham, Stuart Kalmenson, Jeanne Livelsberger, Beth Lubftkin, Bruce Richardson, and Mary Ellen Stevens. “How TV Advertising Works: A Meta-Analysis of 389 Real World Split Cable TV Advertising Experiments.” Journal of Marketing Research 32, 2 (1995): 125-139
Deborah MacInnis, Ambar Rao, Bernard Jaworski. “Advertising Context, Consumer Response and Brand Sales: Findings from Split-Cable Television Experiments.” Working Paper. University of Southern California, 1997
Cornelia Pechmann and David W. Stewart. “Loyalty and Brand Purchase: A Two Stage Model of Choice." Journal of Marketing Research 25, 2 (1988)
Cornelia Pechmann and David W. Stewart. “Advertising Repetition: A Critical Review of Wearin and Wearout.” Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising 11, 2 (1992): 285-330
Gerard J. Tellis. “Advertising Exposure, Loyalty and Brand Purchase: A Two Stage Model of Choice.” Journal of Marketing Research 25, 2 (1988) 138-144
Hubert A. Zielske. “The Remembering and Forgetting of Advertising.” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 23, No. 3 pp. 239–243 (Jan., 1959)
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
, the effective frequency is the number of times a person must be exposed to an advertising message
Message
A message in its most general meaning is an object of communication. It is a vessel which provides information. Yet, it can also be this information. Therefore, its meaning is dependent upon the context in which it is used; the term may apply to both the information and its form...
before a response is made and before exposure is considered wasteful.
The subject on effective frequency is quite controversial. Many people have their own definition on what this word means. There are also numerous existing research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
studies with their own theories or models
Scientific modelling
Scientific modelling is the process of generating abstract, conceptual, graphical and/or mathematical models. Science offers a growing collection of methods, techniques and theory about all kinds of specialized scientific modelling...
as to what the correct number
Number
A number is a mathematical object used to count and measure. In mathematics, the definition of number has been extended over the years to include such numbers as zero, negative numbers, rational numbers, irrational numbers, and complex numbers....
is for effective frequency.
Various meanings
There are several definitions of effective frequency. The following are some key examples:- Advertising Glossary defines effective frequency as “Exposures to an advertising message required to achieve effective communicationCommunicationCommunication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
. Generally expressed as a range below which the exposure is inadequate and above which the exposure is considered wastage.”
- Business Dictionary defines it as “Advertising theory that a consumerConsumerConsumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...
has to be exposed to an ad at least three times within a purchasing cycle (time between two consecutive purchases) to buy that productProduct (business)In general, the product is defined as a "thing produced by labor or effort" or the "result of an act or a process", and stems from the verb produce, from the Latin prōdūce ' lead or bring forth'. Since 1575, the word "product" has referred to anything produced...
.”
- Marketing Power defines it as “An advertiser's determination of the optimum number of exposure opportunitiesExposure effectThe mere exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon by which people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them. In social psychology, this effect is sometimes called the familiarity principle...
required to effectively convey the advertising message to the desired audienceAudienceAn audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...
or target marketTarget marketA target market is a group of customers that the business has decided to aim its marketing efforts and ultimately its merchandise. A well-defined target market is the first element to a marketing strategy...
."
- John Philip Jones says “Effective frequency can mean that a single advertising exposure is able to influence the purchase of a brandBrandThe American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
. However, as all experienced advertising people know, the phrase was really coined to communicate the idea that there must be enough concentration of media weight to cross a thresholdThreshold-Film and television:* Threshold * Threshold , an adaptation of the 1958 science fiction film It! The Terror from Beyond Space* Threshold , an American science fiction drama series...
. Repetition was considered necessary, and there had to be enough of it within the period before a consumer buys a product to influence his or her choice of brandBrandThe American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
.”
Ebbinghaus
In 1879-80, Hermann EbbinghausHermann Ebbinghaus
Hermann Ebbinghaus was a German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory, and is known for his discovery of the forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He was also the first person to describe the learning curve...
conducted research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
on higher mental processes; he replicated the entire procedure in 1883-4. Ebbinghaus' methods achieved a remarkable set of results.
He was the first to describe the shape of the learning curve
Learning curve
A learning curve is a graphical representation of the changing rate of learning for a given activity or tool. Typically, the increase in retention of information is sharpest after the initial attempts, and then gradually evens out, meaning that less and less new information is retained after each...
. He reported that the time required to memorize an average nonsense syllable
Nonsense syllable
In cognitive psychology, a nonsense syllable is a word-like string of letters that is not intended to have any established meaning; it is a special case of a non-lexical vocable...
increases sharply as the number of syllables increases.
He discovered that distributing learning
Distributed learning
Distributed learning is defined as opposed to massed learning. Reviews of material separated by a long period of time yield more learning than reviews separated by a shorter period of time ; this is called the spacing effect. Review of material increases long-term memory best when there is more...
trials over time is more effective in memorizing nonsense syllables than massing practice
Practice (learning method)
Practice is the act of rehearsing a behavior over and over, or engaging in an activity again and again, for the purpose of improving or mastering it, as in the phrase "practice makes perfect". Sports teams practice to prepare for actual games. Playing a musical instrument well takes a lot of...
into a single session; and he noted that continuing to practice material after the learning criterion has been reached enhances retention
Retention
Retention may refer to:* Retention, in learning, the ability to retain facts and figures in memory ** Selective retention* Cultural retention* Customer retention...
.
Using one of his methods called savings as an index, he showed that the most commonly accepted law of association, viz., association by contiguity (the idea that items next to one another are associated) had to be modified to include remote associations (associations between items that are not next to one another in a list).
He was the first to describe primacy and recency effects (the fact that early and late items in a list are more likely to be recalled than middle items), and to report that even a small amount of initial practice, far below that required for retention, can lead to savings at relearning.
He even addressed the question of memorization
Memorization
Memorization is the process of committing something to memory. The act of memorization is often a deliberate mental process undertaken in order to store in memory for later recall items such as experiences, names, appointments, addresses, telephone numbers, lists, stories, poems, pictures, maps,...
of meaningful material and estimated that learning such material takes only about one tenth of the effort required to learn comparable nonsense material.
This learning curve research has been used to help researches study advertising message retention.
Thomas Smith
Thomas SmithThomas Smith
-Politics:*Sir Thomas Smith , English scholar and diplomat*Thomas Smith , governor of Carolina*Thomas Smith , governor of Newfoundland and Labrador...
wrote a guide called Successful Advertising in 1885. The saying he used is still being used today.
The first time people look at any given ad, they don't even see it.
The second time, they don't notice it.
The third time, they are aware that it is there.
The fourth time, they have a fleeting sense that they've seen it somewhere before.
The fifth time, they actually read the ad.
The sixth time they thumb their nose at it.
The seventh time, they start to get a little irritated with it.
The eighth time, they start to think, "Here's that confounded ad again."
The ninth time, they start to wonder if they're missing out on something.
The tenth time, they ask their friends and neighbors if they've tried it.
The eleventh time, they wonder how the company is paying for all these ads.
The twelfth time, they start to think that it must be a good product.
The thirteenth time, they start to feel the product has value.
The fourteenth time, they start to remember wanting a product exactly like this for a long time.
The fifteenth time, they start to yearn for it because they can't afford to buy it.
The sixteenth time, they accept the fact that they will buy it sometime in the future.
The seventeenth time, they make a note to buy the product.
The eighteenth time, they curse their poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
for not allowing them to buy this terrific product.
The nineteenth time, they count their money very carefully.
The twentieth time prospects see the ad, they buy what is offering.
Herbert E. Krugman
Herbert E. Krugman wrote “The Impact of Television Advertising: Learning without Involvement” while he was employed at General ElectricGeneral Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
. His theory has been adopted and widely use in the advertising arena. The following statement encapsulates his theory: "Let me try to explain the special qualities of one, two and three exposures. I stop at three because as you shall see there is no such thing as a fourth exposure psychologically; rather fours, fives, etc., are repeats of the third exposure effect.
"Exposure No. 1 is...a "What is it?" type of... response. Anything new or novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
no matter how uninteresting on second exposure has to elicit some response the first time...if only to discard the object as of no further interest...The second exposure...response...is "What of it?"...whether or not [the message] has personal relevance...
"By the third exposure the viewer knows he's been through his "What is it's?" and "What of it's?," and the third, then, becomes the true reminder . . . The importance of this view . . . is that it positions advertising as powerful only when the viewer...is interested in the [product message]...Secondly, it positions the viewer as...reacting to the commercial—very quickly...when the proper time comes round.
"There is a myth in the advertising world that viewers will forget your message if you don't repeat your advertising often enough. It is this myth that supports many large advertising expenditures...I would rather say the public comes closer to forgetting nothing they have seen on TV. They just "put it out of their minds" until and unless it has some use . . . and [then] the response to the commercial continues."
According to Krugman there are only three levels of exposure in psychological, not media, terms: Curiosity, recognition and decision.
Resources
This section will help you make an informed decision about effective frequency. The following is a list of articles and books that deal with the different theories and models. There are numerous studies that have been conducted. This is a small list.Books
- Colin McDonald. What is the Short-term Effect of Advertising?. Marketing Science Institute – 1971 (Book)
- Michael J. Naples. Effective Frequency. (Paperback)
- A Sawyer and S Ward. Carry-over Effects in Advertising Communication: Evidence and Hypotheses from Behavioral Science. Marketing Science Institute. 1976 (Book)
Articles
Batra, Rajeev, Donald R. Lehmann, Joanne Burke, and Jae Pae. “When Advertising Have An Impact? A Study of Tracking Data.” Journal of Advertising Research 35, 5 (1995): 19-32
Chessa, Antonio, and Jaap Murre. “A new memory model for ad impact and scheduling. Think of media impacts as incidents of learning. Then apply the maths of learning theory, and, hey presto! Guidelines for scheduling appear.” Admap, 36(3; ISSU 145), 37-40.http://www.neuromod.org/publications/papers/MAI/MAI.pdf
Craig, C. Samuel, Brian Sternthal, and Clark Leavite. “Advertising Wearout: An Experimental Analysis.” Journal of Marketing Research 13, 4 (1976): 356-372
Lawrence D. Gibson. “What Can One TV Exposure Do?” Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 36, 1996
Stephen J. Hoch, and John Deighton. “Managing What Consumers Learn from Experience.” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Apr., 1989), pp. 1–20
John Philip Jones. “Ad Spending: Maintaining Market Share.” Harvard Business Review 68, 1 (1990): 38-41
John Philip Jones. “Single-Source Research Begins to Fulfill Its Promise.” Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 35, 1995
Herbert E. Krugman. “The Impact of Television Advertising: Learning Without Involvement” Public Opinion Quarterly, volume 29, page 349, 1965.
Herbert E. Krugman. “Why Three Exposures May Be Enough.” Journal of Advertising Research 12, 6 (1972): 11-14
Leonard M Lodish, Magid Abraham, Stuart Kalmenson, Jeanne Livelsberger, Beth Lubftkin, Bruce Richardson, and Mary Ellen Stevens. “How TV Advertising Works: A Meta-Analysis of 389 Real World Split Cable TV Advertising Experiments.” Journal of Marketing Research 32, 2 (1995): 125-139
Deborah MacInnis, Ambar Rao, Bernard Jaworski. “Advertising Context, Consumer Response and Brand Sales: Findings from Split-Cable Television Experiments.” Working Paper. University of Southern California, 1997
Cornelia Pechmann and David W. Stewart. “Loyalty and Brand Purchase: A Two Stage Model of Choice." Journal of Marketing Research 25, 2 (1988)
Cornelia Pechmann and David W. Stewart. “Advertising Repetition: A Critical Review of Wearin and Wearout.” Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising 11, 2 (1992): 285-330
Gerard J. Tellis. “Advertising Exposure, Loyalty and Brand Purchase: A Two Stage Model of Choice.” Journal of Marketing Research 25, 2 (1988) 138-144
Hubert A. Zielske. “The Remembering and Forgetting of Advertising.” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 23, No. 3 pp. 239–243 (Jan., 1959)