• Offer a cost-effective value added service that reveals
  • Product usage
  • Product positioning
  • Product image
  • Customer profiles
  • And more
• Gather input from subscribers on an ongoing basis
• Offers flexibility in frequency of information-gathering
• Offers flexibility in types of questions asked, including custom questions for advertisers
• Should be “dynamic” ... conducted periodically (members are rotated and continuously maintain
  the representation of the population)
• Help advertisers distribute product samples:
  • Panel members receive products as a “thank you” ...initiating trial usage and future sales
• Help advertisers build their databases:
  • Panel members who are target customers can be added to your clients’ databases
• Help your editors gather input for special issues or features:
  • Product trends
  • Purchasing trends
  • Social trends
  • Career trends
  • Opinions on hot issues
  • And more
• Gain marketing intelligence to expand your media franchise:
  • Data about market changes, product category usage or subscriber demographics .. supporting your ad sales efforts
• Data to confirm ideas for line extensions ... newsletters, online services, single sponsored media, etc.
• Methodologies: Mail, online

• Gauge ongoing editorial effectiveness
• Based on a sample of 1,000 subscribers
• Gauge results regionally, nationally, internationally
• Respondents receive copies of the publication’s cover and contents page
• Gain a competitive edge by shaping content around reader needs:
  • Does the publication fulfill a real need?
  • Is the publication accomplishing its mission?
  • Are the graphics in tune with the audience?
• Determine if specific departments and types of features are meeting readers’ needs.  For each, measure:
  • Did not see before
  • Looked at
  • Read partially
  • Read thoroughly
• Rate specific articles (excellent, good, etc.)
• Gather input for future issues
• Compile trends on an ongoing basis to continuously refine decision making:
  • Readership -- growing or sliding?
  • Ad exposure -- enough eyes or too few?
  • Reader satisfaction -- up or down?
  • Future editorial topics -- hot or cold?
• Gather data to support ad sales efforts
  • Combat syndicated readership scores
  • Demonstrate strengths in areas not measured elsewhere
• Offer a value added service to advertisers:
  • Use custom questions as an incentive for investing in your publication
• Compile detailed crosstab data
• Methodology: Mail

• Gather data to support ad sales efforts
• Discover how your market is changing:
  • Turn change into opportunities for your publication, Web site, etc.
  • Realign your marketing position to reflect where your customers are headed
• Compile demographic profiles
• Document the buying power of your audience:
  • Past, current and future expenditures
  • Growth within selected product categories
  • Why your readers are embracing certain types of products
  • And more
• Demonstrate exclusive positions:
  • Exclusive receipt versus competitors
  • Exclusive readership versus competitors
  • Exclusive impressions about your publication...authoritativeness, quality, practicality, etc.
• Promote subscribers’ psychographic characteristics:
  • Active participation in social or business events
  • Early adopters of technologies and products
  • Opinion leadership .. influencing the purchasing habits of others
• Take the offensive against competitors:
  • Generate independent data that counters competitive claims
  • Document new strategies you’ll be using against competitors in the future
  • Augment syndicated research data

• Executed as independent projects by Beta Research staff members
• Document high advertising page exposure
• Compare performance with competitors
• Use as a supplement to syndicated studies
• Compare scores to normative data
• Methodology: A check is affixed to an ad page in test copies of the magazine or newspaper mailed to that publication’s recipients.  A canceled check is proof that the recipient is exposed to the particular page in the issue.

a. What Is SAM?

• SAM is an accurate, flexible and timely method for measuring advertising recall and readership. A mail interview study, it can be adapted for magazines and newspapers. Subscribers are mailed copies of the issue and asked to recall the ads they read or looked at. Recall scores are developed from these responses. In addition, editorial features/articles, special sections or inserts can be measured.

b. How Does SAM Work?

• For each issue, a minimum random sample of 300 subscribers are selected. An “alert” postcard precedes the survey mailing. Each subscriber is then mailed a copy of the issue plus a letter explaining the interviewing procedure. A response incentive ($1.00) is usually included.
• Recall forms (ballots) are affixed to preselected ads and/or editorial material. On each ballot, the respondent is asked to check a level of recall. All ballots are returned to Beta Research Corp. in a postage-paid envelope.

c. Recall Scores & Reports

• Percentages are calculated for each degree of recall. The base is the total number of subscribers returning one or more ballots. A Total Recall Percentage (the sum of Looked At, Read Partially, and Read Thoroughly) is developed. To further facilitate comparisons, an Index is calculated. This index compares  each ad's readership performance against that issue's median.
• In addition to the scores and rankings of a particular ad or category, other variables may be tracked and reported. Reports and summaries can be shown in tabular or graphic formats.

d. Proprietary Questions

• Advertisers are offered the option of asking proprietary questions.  They accompany the SAM ballots and are affixed to the selected ads. Proprietary questions provide the opportunity to gain insight into reaction to copy points, headlines, company/brand awareness, product/service usage, purchasing plans, etc.

e. SAM-Test (TM)

• SAM-Test is a supplementary advertising recognition methodology to: encourage new advertisers; or, open new product/service categories. The technique involves "stripping in" ads to the regular SAM test issue. The unique aspect of these additional advertisements is that they would not normally be perceived as compatible with the publication's editorial environment or reader profile. Therefore, SAM-Test is an excellent way to introduce new or nontraditional advertisers to your publication.  It provides your ad sales staff with the opportunity to show that ads in their publication are read and/or acted upon, regardless of category or "compatibility" with editorial environment.
• For example, a young single-women's publication recently stripped in a specialized computer product ad. Results: Nearly one in four (22%) said that they "buy this product and this brand” ... proving outstanding audience usage and purchase.

f. SAM-Focus (TM)

• SAM -Focus is a qualitative measurement that learns the meanings people associate with specific ads and the importance they attach to them. The emphasis is in-depth qualitative analyses of the advertisement itself, not the publication or other ads, among a specific target market.
• You’ll learn:
  • The image being communicated about the company or its products/services
  • Are the creative elements working (headline, copy, illustration)?
  • Is the intended message being conveyed?
• The SAM-Focus technique consists of three main elements:
  • Screening
  • Interviewing by specially-trained Beta personnel
  • Reporting by a Beta staff psychologist.

g. Advantages of SAM

• The mail-ballot, aided-recall measurement of a publication's subscribers is one of the most effective ways to reach a large representative sample. As marketplaces, workplaces, and lifestyles evolve, finding "readers," either regular or casual, via personal interviewing becomes more difficult, time-consuming and expensive. Furthermore, measuring subscribers usually yields higher scores because as payers they have a vested interest in the editorial and advertising appearing in "their" publication.
• SAM insures that ads appearing in any geographic or demographic edition, creative unit, size, color or premium position is accurately measured and reported.
• Normative scores can be developed to give advertisers a reasonable expectation of recall levels.

h. Selling With SAM

• SAM studies can be the cornerstone for demonstrating advertising effectiveness. They are also an excellent vehicle to show your publication's commitment to sales-oriented customer services. The SAM program supports your client-service programs in the following ways:
  • Pre & Post Awareness Studies
  • Customer Satisfaction Studies
  • Campaign Tracking Studies
  • Rate Support: Premium Positions, Creative Units
  • Value-Added Support: Special Issues, Special Sections, Inserts
  • Merchandising Support: Regional, International, Demographic Editions
  • Sales Support: Corporate/ Multi-Publication Sales

i. The SAMMY Awards

• Beta Research issues the following awards based on SAM scores
  • Best In Category
  • Highest Recall Score
  • Ad Read Most
  • Best Creative Unit

j. Costs & Timing

• Actual costs (discounts apply) are determined by the number of SAM studies conducted per year, the number of ads tested, sample size, the number of proprietary questions, the use of SAM-Test, SAM-Focus, etc.
• Survey results are delivered approximately eight (8) weeks after mailing.

a. What Is ACE?

• ACE is a unique opportunity to analyze the message communicated by print advertising.  You receive reactions to key copy points in a remarkably short time.

b. How ACE Works

• Step 1: Select the right audience. You can measure your advertisement among specific targeted segments. The survey will be conducted by mail. Only one interview will be completed in a given household.
• Step 2: Design the questionnaire yourself or call on the expertise of Beta's market research professionals. Both open-end and closed-end questions may be used. However, they must fit on the front and back of a single page questionnaire.
• Step 3: Provide Beta with 500 copies of each advertisement to be measured. Copy and layouts can be tested in either rough or finished form.
• Step 4: Once Beta has your approval, we will print copies of your questionnaire. Each recipient will receive the questionnaire plus your advertisement.
• Note; All ACE surveys are conducted by Beta Research Corporation. The tabulations and the questionnaires are proprietary to your firm.  All results are confidential information and will not be used by Beta in any other way.

c. Timing And Cost

• Results are available approximately six weeks from the mailing date . All closed-end questions will be tabulated. All responses to open-end questions will be provided to you in verbatim form.