Integrated Marketing Communications

DAGMAR Model, Its Criticism and Applications

Course Instructor
Prof. M.M Phadnavis

Submitted by
Avni Agarwal(2014068)
Ayush Khandelwal (2014069)
Chinmay (2014333)
Bushra Zaidi(2014075)
Nihal Dalal (2014080)

INTRODUCTION
DAGMAR- Defining advertising goals and measuring advertising
results.
DAGMAR is an advertising model given by Russell Colley in the year 1961. In
this model measurable objectives of a campaign are set so that we can
determine the results of the objectives. When this theory was developed it
was basically based on the real goal of advertising which was to
communicate and not to sell specifically. This theory goes from being
unaware mode to the fully aware mode. This approach was basically used to
measure the aftermath of the advertising campaigns of any company.
STEPS INVOLVED1. Awareness The customer should be aware of the brand or the product which
exists in the market.
Awareness is not a one-time thing if it is created then it should
be developed, maintained, sustained in the minds of the people.
Awareness should be created for the target audience and hence
it should not be neglected.
Sometimes awareness can be spread by endorsing a brand
ambassador.
2. Comprehension Should educate customers how a brand is different from the
other brands.
Even we can tell that what the usages of the product are.
Awareness is merely a step in which the existence of a product is
known but educating the target audience is very necessary.
Product characteristics, usages and benefits are a part of
comprehension.
3. Attitude or Conviction In this step interest and preferences are created for the
customers.
This includes convincing the customers that they can buy the
product at the next opportunity.
Companies have to do something different maybe telling the
target audience how they have an edge over the competitors.

Ex- Ads of Thumbs up which focuses on drinks for grown ups so

which indirectly means that the other drinks are for kids.

4. Action This is the most critical step which encourages buyers to buy or
use the product.
In India few brands mainly focuses on personal selling like Tupper
ware, aqua guard etc.
Few brands give discount coupons and many more things which
in return may increase the sale or may become a reason for the
sales.
The best way to engage the customer in buying a product is
direct selling.

Characteristics of Objectives
A major contribution of DAGMAR was Colleys specification of what
constitutes a good objective. Four requirements or characteristics of good
objectives are as follows:
Concrete and measurable the communications task or objective should
be a precise statement of what appeal or message the advertiser wants to
communicate to the target audience. Furthermore the specification should
include a description of the measurement procedure. The main reason to
have a clear objective is to guide the creative specialists who develop
advertising message.
For instance, Honda Amaze in one of their print advertisement showcased
the concrete task by depicting their key competencies such as
engine,interiors,sleek and sportive look. To make this objective measurable
they have also exhibited various awards won along the way in the same print
ad. `Thus , following the main feature of DAGMAR theory.
Target audience a key tenet to DAGMAR is that the target audience be
well defined. For example if the goal was to increase awareness, it is
essential to know the target audience precisely. The benchmark measure
cannot be developed without a specification of the target segment. There are
five key points which help us to understand our target audience:

Target audience may be based on descriptive variables like Demographics

which include age, gender, occupation, income etc., psychographics,
geographic etc.
Take good notes: This is important so that we can organise, evaluate and
analyse the synergy between the campaign and the target audience.
Exercising the artistic side by including pictures, characteristics of ideal
customer and posting it where the probability of reaching the target
audience is high.
Being sociable is a key to understand your target market. This can be
accomplished by engaging the customer in conversations by asking
questions to them and trying to answer their questions.
Watch &listen: this includes understanding your target market through
social media, focus groups, forums, blogs, and surveys.

Benchmark and degree of change soughtanother important part of

setting objectives is having benchmark measures to determine where the
target audience stands at the beginning of the campaign with respect to
various communication response variables such as awareness, knowledge,
attitudes, image, etc. The objectives should also specify how much change or
movement is being sought such as increase in awareness levels, creation of
favourable7 attitudes or number of consumers intending to purchase the
brand, etc. a benchmark is also a prerequisite to the ultimate measurement
of results, an essential part of any planning program and DAGMAR in
particular. Example: Few years back,a preliminary study for the brand
Cadbury revealed that awareness was high but consumers had developed a
negative attitude towards one of its product-Dairy Milk, after a worm was
found in one of its pack. Thus in this case the company had set a benchmark
of changing the negative attitude towards the brandto a positive one. They
pooled in celebrity Amitabh Bachan in their TVC who addressed the audience
assuring that the product was safe to consume. The results are right in front
of us as Cadbury Dairy Milk has positioned itself as a premium brand even
after facing such a big downfall.

Specified time perioda final characteristic of good objectives is the

specification of the time period during which the objective is to be

accomplished, e.g. 6months, 1 year etc. With a time period specified a

survey to generate a set if measures can be planned and anticipated. The
time period varies depending on the situation facing the advertiser and the
type of response being sought. For instance, Hotstar being a new product
involved itself in intensive media awareness by showcasing their
advertisement continuously for three months during the IPL season. Here,
the specified time period was three months whereas in case of repositioning
of a product requires a change in consumer perception and takes more time.
For example: It took Godrej two years to reposition the brand from dads
brand to colourful, vibrant and innovative one. During these two years they
used a continuous advertisements to highlight innovation in products ranging
from refrigerator, interio to innovative properties

Criticism with regard to DAGMAR model

Restrictions on creativity :DAGMAR is criticized on the grounds that

creative flair is lost as attention is continuously on the numbers game, such
as focusing on measures of recall, attitude change and awareness rather than
the looking for the big idea. Thus the creative personnel is held more
accountable under DAGMAR and this may inhibit some of their work.
A campaign with all music and warm human visuals is loved by everybody
but it would fail to meet the companys standard. Thus a wonderful
campaign would be
evaluated on wrong criteria.
Short-term accountability: Managers do not have adequate time to spend
on analyzing levels of comprehension and preference and convert them into
formats that are going to be of direct benefit to them and their organizations.
Difficulty in determining what constitutes adequate levels of awareness and
comprehension and how can it be determined which stage the majority of the
target audience has reached at any given point of time.
Problems with the response hierarchy: reliance on traditional
hierarchical type response models is a problem in the original version of
DAGMAR. However, the updated version of the model, DAGMAR MOD II,
recognizes the need for a modified response hierarchy that is appropriate to
the buying situation such as in high- versus low-involvement purchases

 Problems with attitude-behavior relationship: some criticize

DAGMAR since it implies that movement through the hierarchy will lead
to changes in attitudes and subsequent behavior. Problems with the
assumption that attitudes are related to behavior are well documented.
However, refinements in the measurement of attitudes and purchase
intentions can reduce the significance of this problem.
Sales objectivesproponents of sales objectives argue that
communication objectives advocated by DAGMAR are a cop-out and
a way of ignoring the basic goal of advertising which is to generate
sales. They argue that since a communication objective is of interest
only if it can be shown to be related to sales, why not simply use sales
as the objective?
Practicality and costsDAGMAR is criticized for being difficult to
implement and practical only for big companies with large marketing
and advertising research budgets who can afford to establish
quantitative benchmarks and measure communication results.
Costly: Money spent on conducting market surveys at various stages
of communication hierarchy.
Time: Time consuming process
Difficulty in measuring benchmark:
Difficulty measuring number of target audience
Difficulty in measuring different stages of hierarchy

Advantages
It defines advertising goals and measures their results.
Easy to understand and implement.
Makes it easier for a business to construct a successful advertisement.
Helps identify areas where a firm is more competent than competitors.

 Can identify areas which need to be improved, especially if competitors

are able to perform them better (such as promotional campaigns,
distribution channels or product features).
Can identify new ventures, which may gain a competitive advantage,
such as new markets.
May identify weaknesses of competitors, which firms could take
advantage of.
Businesses can create strategies in order the minimise the affect of
such threats
If a firm is losing customers in certain markets, it could carry out
market research or increase promotion.
Identifying a competitors advantage may help a firm to respond or
develop their own advantage or USP.

Disadvantages
It is rare for a single advert to have the power to move customers from
complete unawareness to action.
Assumes that all consumers react in the same way to advertising
Many factors are vulnerable to change, so information may not be
useful for long periods
Can be time consuming to conduct.

Applications of DAGMAR
The DAGMAR approach to setting objectives has had a considerable influence
on the advertising planning process. Many promotional planners use this
model as a basis for setting objectives and assessing the effectiveness of
their promotional campaigns.

We shall understand the same through two Brands and their campaigns.

A) Molson Canadian Beer : Changing the Brand Image to Make

Friends and Increase Sales
Although it is the number one selling domestic beer in Canada, Molson
Canadian saw its market share in the U.S drop during the 1990s. Import beer
as a category has had experienced rapid growth during this time , largely
due to lack of attention from Miller Brewing Company, which owned the
rights to the product.
Molson Inc., the beer brewer, is big in Canada but is small potatoes in the
U.S., where Molson USA has about 4% market share of imported beer brands.
But some creative marketing has helped the company stand out, if only a bit,
from the giants that dominate the industry. Faced with the reality that it cant
come even remotely close to the hundreds of millions that Anheuser-Busch
spends on marketing, Molson has taken a different approach. The strategy is
primarily to focus on innovative packaging and labeling, rather than
television, to snag its target audience of men age 21 to 29.
The Strategy
The new strategy began with in depth research study of the beer drinking
culture of the target market. The research team visited clubs, restaurants,
bars, and virtually everywhere else these guys could buy a bottle of imported
beer. They watched men drank, how they held their drinks, the difference
between a Wednesday night or a Friday night. Conclusion they could draw
was that guys go the bar to meet women and beer like clothing is used as a
signal to make them more attractive to the opposite sex.
Unfortunately, Molson had no badge. Essentially the label has no identity ,
evoked no meaning and provided no assistance to men in making them look
more attractive to women.
Twin label technology
The plan involves something called twin labeling where the back of the
beer bottle has a second label with a provocative statement. These include
Skinny-dippers are people too, Lets get out of these wet clothes and
100% available.

It serves as a conversation starter. Were trying to get to the heart

[of beer drinkers] in social situations, and entertain them as much
as sell to them., said Steven Breen Steven Breen , vice president of
marketing for Molson USA.

Some of the labels include such

conversation starters as "On The
Rebound," "I See London, I See
France," "I Just Want To Be Held," "Be
Different. Say Yes," or the more direct,
"Can I Get Your Number?"
Let Your Molson Do The Talking," a
statement developed recently by the
company as a theme for advertising
programs, is built around the premise
that import beer brands are lifestyle
products
that
supposedly
say
something about the user.
"Logically, the next extension of
that concept was literally, to have our brand become a participant in
the socializing that is so much a part of why men and women go to
bars and clubs to relax and enjoy themselves," said Kurt Kane,
brand manager for Molson USA.
Twin Labels is the first effort by a beer maker to recognize that their
packaging can become a tool in the mating dance that inevitably occurs in
nightclubs. "Each of the Twin Labels were designed to make it easier to have
fun and meet people in bars. After all, that's why people go to them in the
first place. Our job at Molson is to help them with this, and Twin Labels do so
perfectly. Consumer reaction has been terrific," the brand manager reports.
Results:
Later Beer drinkers were asked to finish the following sentence, Molson is
for_____________
After Six months there was:

23% increase among those who said Young people in their 20s

36% increase among those who said Guys who go out on the town a
lot
Number of men who want to try Molson once increased by 26%

And Sales increased by somewhere between 32.5% and 48%a result

of the campaign
So the Model definitely worked in their favour.

B) Leo Burnett
CAPP, an acronym for Continuous advertising planning program was
developed by Leo Burnett advertising agency. It is based on still another
hierarchy-of-effect
model
consisting
of
un-awareness,
awareness,
acceptance, preference, brand brought last and brand satisfaction. It is
termed as consumer demand profile. Here the acceptance level implies that
the brand is acceptable to an individual, it meets his or her minimum
requirements. Brand preference indicated the percentage of total product
class users who rate the brand on a four points scale, higher than any other
brand. A unique element of CAPP hierarchy is brand satisfaction, which is
meant to reflect the performance of the brand after purchase and repeat
buying.
A cross sectional sample of 1000 households, interviewed on monthly basis
provided the data base. The information was obtained from each household
on their media habits and their location of CAPP hierarchy with respect to the
brand interest. Monthly data provides a sensitive indicator of the response to
the advertising campaign. Clearly, such time-series information has much
greater and timelier interpretative power than measures restricted to
immediately before campaign and after campaign. If a substantial change
has to be generated in a hierarchy measure, progress should be observed
along the way and an appropriate campaign developed accordingly.
Which Hierarchy level?
How can knowledge of CAPP hierarchy profile and its trends be helpful in
determining what level to attack? An examination of the hierarchy pattern
was suggested. The adjacent level of the hierarchy were of particular
interest. For example, if there were a small number of people who were

aware of the brand (relative to the number of total users), then a worthwhile
target could be to increase awareness. If substantial number of people has
accepted the brand, but only few preferred it, perhaps it would be necessary
to sharpen up the brand image in some respect. On the other hand, if there
were high degree of acceptance but a very low level of brand brought last
then it might become necessary to stimulate a trail purchase. If the brand
satisfaction is low compare to brand brought last, then the basic problem is
with the brand itself, and some very specific question should be asked about
the capacity to satisfy customer wants and needs. Essentially, the proposal is
to consider the ratio of the size of adjacent levels, for example the number of
those who brought the brand last divided by the number who indicated
brand satisfaction. A good level to consider as an objective is one for which
the ratio involving the next lower level is high. This decision rules reflects the
facts that it is usually worthwhile to concentrate on large segments and
ignore smaller ones. It identifies the segment that contains large number of
potential movers.
Naturally it would be desirable to refine this decision rule by providing
numerical guidelines. To do so, the profile histories associated with the other
brand in the product class would have to be considered to provide the frame
of reference. The ultimate goal should be to expand the decision rule into a
decision model that would make the above suggestion explicit.