Pre-testing international press advertising: the need for informed consensus on methodology

Focuses on the pre-testing of a global press advertising campaign for Seagram’s Chivas Regal whisky and contrasts the contributions of qualitative and quantitative applications. Examines how an informed decision could be made on the most appropriate research approach - in particular the value of the concept of validity; and the strengths and weaknesses of qualitative and quantitative pre-testing given the emotional nature of the product category, importance of branding and nature of advertising. These questions are addressed in this paper through focusing on the research needs for the “global campaign” as well as the need in Japan to evaluate the global campaign and an independently developed local campaign. In the case of Japan, Seagram’s management elected to examine two different research approaches - qualitative and quantitative - to address the question “how to effectively pre-test international press advertising”. This exercise demonstrated that the two approaches produced seemingly contradictory findings. Reasons for this are discussed.