Synovate India and Domor Communications launch CRIEP Study

The Consumer Response to Investment in Entertainment Properties (CRIEP) study measures ROI for brands aligning with entertainment properties such as Bigg Boss Season 4 and Kaun Banega Crorepati Season 4.

Research firm, Synovate India and Domor Communication Consulting -- a specialist consulting firm set up to help advertisers and allied businesses improve their marketing effectiveness -- have initiated the Consumer Response to Investment in Entertainment Properties (CRIEP) study. The study is aimed at helping brands understand their return on investment (ROI) from using big entertainment properties as a marketing platform.

Discussing the need for this marketing effectiveness survey, Nitin Jain, founder and director, Domor Communication Consulting, points out, "With the success of CRIC - the Marketing Effectiveness Model on cricket -- measuring and improving marketers' effectiveness on entertainment properties is a logical step forward. Investments on entertainment properties are already huge and only getting bigger."

The first such measurement is being done for two popular shows on television, Bigg Boss Season 4 and Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) Season 4. The study is being done in three phases, pre-show launch, midway and once the show ends.

CRIEP utilizes a consumer research based approach and measures the impact of large events on the four brand metrics of awareness, disposition, imagery and equity. The survey will gauge whether any movement has occurred in terms of these four parameters, whether consumer stickiness has increased, is advertising here helping the brand, and so on.

"Exposure measurements are necessary but incomplete metrics, since they focus on the media value of these properties. The true measure of what is working is what it does to the brand -- awareness, preference, image, equity, and ultimately, purchases or use," states Rema Harish, founder and director, Domor Communication Consulting.

The approach will isolate the effect of each property on the brand equity for brands in the 11 categories of chocolates, mobile services, mobile handsets, banks, TVs, household appliances, digital cameras, automobiles, motorcycles, insurance and inner wear. These have been selected, as brands in these categories have advertised on these shows time and again, across the previous and current seasons.

Sonali Bhatia, senior project director, Synovate India says, "CRIEP will touch a random selection of SEC A and B, C&S households of 6,600 respondents across nine towns (including metros and tier I towns). It is not a 'pure research' product and will build on in-depth understanding of the way entertainment properties are used by marketers and consumed by audiences."

Some of the other key questions that CRIEP will attempt to answer for marketers are: How is my brand competing for consumer mind space against all other brands on the same property, across categories? What were the most recalled elements of the show and what brands were they associated with? Is there a difference in the impact of the two entertainment properties?

CRIEP's diagnostics would help brands understand the impact on brand impressions, which, in turn, lead to some level of brand desire in the consumer's mind.

Rahul Varma, director, Synovate India says, "In an ideal world, if consumers could freely buy whatever they desired, attitudinal share (the share of consumer desire a brand gets) would equal market share. Thus, creating desire for a brand in the consumer's mind is the first step towards increasing its market share."

On whether brands have bought into CRIEP, the research firm tells afaqs! that a couple of brands are already supporting it, without which they would not have invested monies into this survey. However, the research firm declined to divulge the names of these brands. The results of the survey will be out in January, after the two shows have wrapped up on-air.