DAGMAR approach
DAGMAR advertising model was proposed by Russell H. Colley in 1961. Term DAGMAR is an acronym of Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results. Colley distinguished 52 advertising goals that might be used with respect to a single advertisement, a year’s campaign for a product or a company’s entire advertising philosophy.
It is basically an approach to advertising planning and a precise method for selecting and quantifying goals and for using those goals to measure performance. DAGMAR also focused attention upon measurement, encouraging people to create objectives so specific and operational that they can be measured.
In simple terms, according to this model, the overall objective of advertising includes communication, create awareness, give information, develop an attitude about the product and influence action.
According to DAGMAR, each purchase prospect goes through 4 steps:
- Awareness = Awareness of the product or service is required before the purchase. The primary purpose of advertising is to improve consumer awareness about the product. In simple words, the consumer must first be aware of a brand or company. Once the consumer is made aware of the product it should not be forsaken.
- Comprehension = Awareness is not sufficient to influence the consumer for the purchase. Knowledge and the right understanding of the product and the company are important. This can be done by providing information about the company the product. In simple terms comprehension means, he or she must have a comprehension of what the product is and its benefits.
- Conviction = Conviction means where the customer judges’ different product to buy the product he like most. At this stage a sense of conviction or faith is established and by creating interests and preferences customers are convinced that a certain product should be tried at the next purchase. In simple terms conviction means, he or she must arrive at the mental disposition or conviction to buys the brand
- Action = This is the last step which includes the final purchase of the product or service by the customer. As soon as the desire to buy is generated, this must be transferred into action that is the purchase.
These steps are also known as ACCA advertising formula. ACCA/DAGMAR is a descendant of AIDA advertising formula and considered to be more popular and comprehensive than AIDA. Developed for the measurement of advertising effectiveness Maps the states of mind that a consumer passes through.
Characteristics or Objectives of DAGMAR approach
- 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
- 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
- Benchmark and degree of change sought = another 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.
- Specified time period = the specification of the time period during which the objective is to be accomplished, e.g., 6months, 1 year etc. The time period should be appropriate for the communication objective as simple tasks such as increasing awareness levels can be accomplished much faster than a complex goal such as repositioning a brand.
- Written Goal = finally goals should be committed to paper. When the goals are clearly written, basic shortcomings and misunderstandings become exposed and it becomes easy to determine whether the goal contains the crucial aspects of the DAGMAR approach.
Advantage and Disadvantage of DAGMAR Approach
Advantage of Dagmar Approach - According to Russell Colley, these are
- Be concreates and measurable
- Have a well-defined target audience or market
- Identify the benchmark and the degree of change
- Specify a timeframe to accomplish the objective
Disadvantage of Dagmar Approach
- Problems with the Response Hierarchy
- Sales objectives
- Practicality and costs
- Inhibition of creativity
