Created for our Advertising Problems class. Was a case study creating a new campaign and then presenting two testing strategies based on research

1. Barq’s Root Beer
GSD
TESTING STRATEGY
CASE STUDY

2. Table Of Contents
-PROBLEM STATEMENT
-CRITICAL FACTORS
-TARGET AUDIENCE
-ADVERTISING OBJECTIVES
-NEW TAGLINE
-ADVERTISEMENTS
-PROMOTIONAL EVENTS
-MEDIA OBJECTIVES
-MEDIA MIX
-TESTING OPTION A
-TESTING OPTION B
-DECISION
-CONCLUSION
2

3. The Problem
3
Since Barq’s was acquired by Coca-Cola in
1995, sales have been at a halt and not much
of the brand’s personality has changed Most
Barq’s consumers are not very loyal to the
brand. Barq’s primary competitor, A&W,
has steadily been increasing its market
share while brand awareness of Barq’s
has decreased.

4. Critical Factors
4
Digital Presence
Barq’s lacks a digital presence on all three social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram. This not only excludes Barq’s from some of the primary media that its target
audience uses, but it sets it behind its main competitor, A&W, which does have an active
digital presence. Not having an account for any of these platforms also gives off the
image that Barq’s is outdated and not an active brand.
Target Audience
Barq’s has a very broad, universal target audience. On one hand, this is
A good thing because a very general message can be shaped to appeal
To a larger target. On the other hand, it makes it more difficult to truly
know if we’re shaping a message that’s resonating with our audience.
Barq’s must be able to identify the small, subtle factors that the
target audience does share in order to craft a better message.
Brand Awareness
Since the late 1990’s when Barq’s adopted the new
slogan:“Barq’s has bite!” A&W increased its marketing
efforts, Barq’s has made very few progress in restoring
its market share or improving its brand awareness.
Along with its complete lack of digital presence,
Barq’s is not making much of an effort to put itself in
the minds of consumers.

5. 5
Critical Factors
Positive Perception
The Barq’s old tag line of “It’s Good” has a very positive perception
amongst consumers and opinion leaders. People appreciate its
simplistic, straight-forward message. They don’t get the perception
that marketers are forcing something on to them by just telling
them “It’s Good.” This is contrast to Barq’s current slogan:
“Barq’s has bite!” Consumers do not have a very positive
response to this message, and some consumers flat out do
not understand it.

6. Competitors
Barq’s primary competitor is A&W, while Mug and IBC are secondary
competitors. A&W and Mug’s also have their highest index rating in the
Midwest, but have lower numbers for the South. The exception is with
IBC, which is very heavily concentrated in the South. A&W’s consumers
are much older than Barq’s, and its primary age group is 55-64.
6

7. Target Audience
The target market for Barq’s is broad and universal. However, we
are narrowing our primary target to males and females aged 18-
34. Within this target demographic, they are pyschographically
diverse in terms of education, income and marital status.
However, the slight majority of drinkers are in the working
class.
Barq’s drinkers are primarily in the Midwest region,
with the South in second. Cleveland, Atlanta, Detroit
Philadelphia, Boston and Houston are the cities
with the highest BDI for Barq’s. Mississippi, DC,
North Dakota, Wisconsin, Utah, Georgia, Iowa
and South Carolina are the states with the
highest BDI representing a diverse consumer
demographic.
Furthermore, Barq’s has a high index
rating with either current or previous
members of the Armed Forces.
7

8. Geographic Profile
8
Midwest South
Maintain Strategy Aggressive Strategy

9. Advertising Objectives
9
With our campaign, we have five advertising objectives.
1) Increase brand awareness of Barq’s brand by 10%
2) Increase positive perception.
3) Increase product consideration.
4) Increase digital presence by 80%
5) Increase traffic to social media by 75%
We will measure all five factors beforehand and then
again three months after we launch our campaign in
2016. We expect significant increases in the five
objectives in the post-testing.
Additionally we have a secondary objective:
Establish Barq’s as the #1 root beer brand in
Louisiana.

10. 10
Drink Barq’s.
It’s Still Good.

11. Print Advertisement
11

12. TV Spot
12
This quirky and visually impressive TV commercial will follow Samuel
Jackson and Tim McGraw adventuring together through time as they drink
and discuss Barq’s. Sam and Tim sit together, wearing old-style attire in
a late 1900’s French Quarter setting, as Tim sips Barq’s and pronounces
“Nothing like a nice cold Barq’s on a hot southern summer night.”
Samuel Jackson, in emphasized Samuel Jackson voice, pronounces
“Yo Tim, it’s good, but there’s no way a taste like this can last
forever.” The scene, along with their attire, gradually
shifts to modern day as they joke with each other
and talk about Barq’s.
Along the way, they allude to different historical
events, and images of past Barq’s ads and
slogans are shown. As the time finally comes
to a modern day Mardi Gras festival in New
Orleans, Sam laughs at Tim and says,
“Hey Tim, It’s Still Good.” They laugh and
the new slogan is shown on a black screen
below the Barq’s logo.

13. Radio Spot
13
From the TV spot, a radio spot will be created. It will have the
same idea that the television ad has with our two spokesmen
taking the lead. You will easily recognize their voices, and the
product and tag line should create imagery in the listeners
heads.
Wewouldruntheseduringrushhourtraffictimes,inhopes
to catch as many listeners as possible. Additionally
we would place the ad’s on popular music sites like
Pandora and Spotify.

14. Social Media Ad
14
MILITARY
APPRECIATION
MONTH
MARDI GRAS
PROMOTION
SPECIAL
EDITION
FACEBOOK BANNERS

15. Promotional Events
15
Mardi Gras In order to achieve our secondary objective and increase positive brand
awareness in the South, we will have billboard ads promoting Barq’s around Mardi Gras
season in Louisiana, Mississippi, southern Alabama and east Texas.
Military Appreciation We will be doing special Barq’s promotions during the
month of May which is military appreciation month. Barq’s will pledge to donate
a percentage of proceeds to Operation Homefront – a charity that provides
assistance for U.S. military personnel and their families when they return home.
This is appropriate for Barq’s because it has a high index rating among U.S.
military members and it’s also one of the top charities supported by Tim
McGraw.
League of Legends World Tournament League of Legends
is an on line computer game that hosts an annual tournament for
teams to compete in. The 2013 World Championship was held in
sold out Staples Center in Los Angeles and was watched by 32
million, setting it above the amount of viewers for the 2013
NBA Finals and the 2013 World Series. We found that most
males in Barq’s target audience have a high interest in video
games, making this a very suitable event to sponsor.
Southern Football Teams Our target audience
also responds very well to football. At the beginning
of the NFL season, we will launch limited edition
Barq’s cans themed around regional football
teams. I.e. black and gold for Louisiana and
blue, silver and white for the greater Dallas
area.

16. The primary type of content Barq’s needs to create on a regular basis.
Website has good content, but design is outdated and need visual repairs.
Barq’s lacks both a Twitter and Instagram presence, setting it behind
its primary competitor, A&W. They need to become competitive and
take use of these social media platforms
Most alarmingly, Barq’s lacks its own Facebook account. This
not only excludes them from one of the primary mediums of its
target audience, but gives the impression that it’s an outdated
brand.
Additionally, Barq’s needs to run promotions
on it’s social media platforms and even a blog
to help advertise their special events like
Miliary Appreciation Month.
16
Owned Media

17. We hope to generate earned media primarily through social media and our
promotional events. For each promotional or sponsored event, we will
highlight those on all social media and website platforms. In addition,
by supporting socially positive promotions, such as Operation
Homefront, we hope to gain positive media attention and even
get published on news outlets or get fan’s to share content.
By bringing the drink to the public’s eye at key events such
as football games and Gaming competitions, we hope for
individuals to become exposed and share their experiences
they had with Barq’s Root Beer.
Additionally, we hope to generate earned media
through the premise of our campaign itself. By
combining two contrasting, yet individually
popular personalities, Tim McGraw and Samuel
Jackson, we hope for people to fall in love
with our campaign and spokesmen, and
for opinion leaders (such as Reddit) to
develop positive attitudes toward it.
17
Earned Media

18. Media Mix
18

19. Testing Option
A
19

20. Test Market Selections
Test cities:
• Nashville, TN - South
• New Orleans, LA – South
• Columbus, OH – Midwest
• Phoenix, AZ – West
We will conduct focus groups with people from our target (male and
female ages 18-34) in these four cities. Based on studies we found through
secondary research, these cities best represent American consumers’
priorities as a whole. We chose the top cities that represent each of
our target regions (South, Midwest and West) and we included
New Orleans to see if perceptions differ in Barq’s founding
city.
We’ll conduct five focus groups of 12 people each in each
four cities. Each participant will be paid $40. We’ll run a
newspaper ad in each of the cities’ primary paper in order
to recruit participants ($11,200 in total). The ad will run
on prime days: Sunday, Monday and Wednesday, and
the focus group will be done that Saturday. A three-
line, three-day newspaper ad in the classifieds is
approximately $200 ($800 in total).
20

21. Test Market Selection
In each focus group, we will ask participants for their thoughts on Barq’s
current creative strategy and logo, and then conduct brand awareness and at-
titude tests. In addition to this, we will conduct quantitative research through
an online survey posted on our owned media (Facebook, official website,
etc.) and survey websites (Qualtrics, Surveymonkey, etc.) with a partic-
ipant cap at 2,500 people. As non biased incentive, we will offer 150
gift cards at random worth $50 to a place of the participants’ choos-
ing.
In the surveys, we will be evaluating similar factors as the fo-
cus groups, such as brand awareness, likability, and perception.
We will launch the surveys and begin conducting the fo-
cus groups at the end of November, 2015. This will a)
provide more incentive for participants to receive ex-
tra money for the holidays and b) run close to three
months before Mardi Gras season begins, which is
when we will launch our first regional promotions.
We will read the tests a month after we launch
them, as this will give us two months to tweak
the campaigns based on our results.
21

22. Copy testing Techniques
We will test all three dimensions of the process:
cognitive, affective and behavioral.
This is because our advertising objectives covers all three elements.
We are testing for the following:
• Brand message and image
• Breakthrough ability
• How memorable the ad is
• How enjoyable the ad is
• What is communicated
• How well it’s communicated
• Viewer engagement
22

23. Types Of Tests
Coincidental Survey
Random calls are made in target market to see if target audience is getting
the right message. e.g. “It’s Still Good”
• Does this make sense?
• Is this easy to remember?
• What does this make you think of?
Attitude Tests
• Determining the attitude toward an individual ad or the entire
campaign.
• Measuring the tone of ad, wording, etc.
Advertising Tracking Research Measures
• Awareness, attention, recall
• Likability
• Purchase intention
Advertising Tracking Research
• Begin two weeks after launching campaign.
• Measure attitudes compared to Barq’s
previous campaigns
23

24. Why ?
24
We selected a number of procedures in order to
make sure we’re not missing any factors that could
affect our campaign. Each measure is relevant to
accomplishing our advertising objectives, and test
both the objectives while keeping in line with the
critical factors. These tests come from each
of the three categories that our objectives
covered, Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral.
Therefore, we believe that by doing these
tests, we will receive the best information
from prospective and current consumers.

25. Post-Testing Evaluation
We will put a focus on understanding and comprehension tests to make
sure consumers understand the message behind “It’s Still Good.” We
want to verify that consumers comprehend that it’s a play on both
the history of Barq’s and its old slogan.
Brand Linkage Tests
Measure to see if people associate Barq’s with Samuel Jackson and
Tim McGraw. We will also conduct brand linkage tests around our
seasonal promotions (such as Mardi Gras) to gauge if people
associate it with seasonal events.
Likability Tests
Numerous studies have shown that likability is one of the
most key elements in driving an ad’s effectiveness. We
will measure if people find it: to be personally relevant,
personally important, stimulate interest or curiosity,
create warm feelings, enjoyable, entertaining and/or
fun.
Persuasion Tests
Key element in measuring the success of our
advertising objective. We will continually
conduct attitude change tests and
purchase intention change tests.
25

26. Why ?
26
We are running a thorough number of post-test
measures to ensure the success of our campaign.
We are putting an emphasis on understanding and
comprehension tests because we want to make
sure that consumers understand the basic history
and context behind the “It’s Still Good” tag line.
Through research conducted, we learned that
people liked the simplicity of “It’s Good.” And
we want to make sure that has not changed.
We are putting a secondary emphasis
on likability, because research shows that
it’s one of the most significant factors in
driving a campaigns success.

27. Pros and Cons
27
Pros:
• Large sample, but it still accurately reflects our
target market.
• Techniques and methods are thoroughly
applied.
• Covers various geographic areas.
•Covers all three of the Copy Testing
dimensions.
Cons:
• Might be too broad of a sample.
• Could be time inefficient due to
large sample sizes.
• More expensive than
alternative.

28. Budget Allocation
28
We’ll run a newspaper ad in each of the cities’ primary paper in order to
recruit participants ($11,200 in total).
A three-line, three-day newspaper ad in the classifieds is approximately
$200 ($800 in total).
As non biased incentive, we will offer 150 gift cards at random
worth $50 to a place of the participants’ choosing.
Additionally we will spend 13,500 on copy testing and post
testing throughout the campaign. That will be spend during the
months in which testing is done, and we have a small amount
left over for any excessive budget we run into.
Overall about $25,000 will be spent per month testing is
conducted, about 7-8 months a year,

29. Expected Outcome
29
Because of the numerous measures and techniques
we will conduct, we expect a very thorough
insight into how consumers are responding to
our campaign throughout its entire life cycle.
Furthermore, because of the amount of
time we’ve allocated to testing before we
launch the campaign, we have plenty of
room to make necessary adjustments.
Finally, we expect our campaign to be
successful thanks to the thorough
testing done, and thus expect
Barq’s to achieve its marketing
and advertising objectives.

30. Testing Option
B
30

31. Test Market Selections
31
Test cities:
• Cleveland, OH
• Atlanta, GA
• Detroit, MI
We choose these three cities because they represent
the top three DMA’s for our target audience. We will
conduct in-street interviews with around 150 people
per city. We will conduct one-on-one interviews and
ask participants their thoughts on Barq’s current
creative strategy and logo. Additionally, we will
conduct brand awareness and attitude tests.
We will give $5 and a bottle of Barq’s to each
person who participates ($3,000 in total).

32. Test Market Selections
32
To draw peoples attention we will create a Barq’s Mobile to draw
people to where interviews will be conducted. The”Barq’s Car”
will drive around giving out free cans of Barq’s. After engaging
people, the drivers will offer $10 to anyone who does an in-
depth interview about the Barq’s brand, aiming for about 30
people from each city. ($1,200 in total).
We will begin interviews late November, 2015, in order
to give us ample time to tweak our campaign before
it launches in February, 2016. We will read our test
results when we have reached the target number we
chose to sample. This will give us a variety of data
to look through and interpret before the campaign
launches.

33. Copy testing Techniques
33
We will test for two of three dimensions of the persuasion process:
affective and behavioral
Based on our advertising objectives, we believe that these are
the two most important elements to understand about how
our target views all aspects of our campaign.
We are testing for the following:
• Message breakthrough/attention.
• How memorable the ad is.
• What is communicated.
• Persuasive power.

34. Types Of Tests
34
Attitude Tests
We will determine the attitude toward individual ads and the entire
campaign. Because studies show that likability and attitude are the
most significant factors in the persuasion process, measuring this
will be sufficient enough in evaluating our campaign’s success.
Ad Tracking Research Measures
By doing Ad Tracking, we will be able to measure consumer
buying habits and behavior. It will help us learn about
consumer awareness, attention, recall/recognition of
ad message, brand, and campaign. Additionally, it will
also detect when wear-out is beginning to set in.

35. Why ?
35
We believe that we will get a thorough and sufficient
insight into the campaign’s success by simply
focusingontheattituderesponsebyourconsumers.
Byonlyfocusingonthismeasureandcontinuously
conducting ad tracking measures, we will get
a complete measurement in an efficient
manner. Furthermore, by only focusing
on these two techniques, it’ll allow us to
make simpler fixes to our campaign.
Additionally, it saves both time and
money for the company that can
be spent for more promotion and
media buying.

36. Post-Testing Evaluation
36
Breakthrough: Attention
We will put a focus on evaluating how well the advertising
draws and keeps attention.
Emotion Tests
We’ll measure the feelings or mood generated by
our ads and campaign.
Persuasion Tests
Measure how consumer behaviors has changed
and it purchase intent has changed.

37. Why ?
37
By conducting breakthrough tests, we will find out if
the ad’s stood out among the crowd and presence
increased on different platforms. Additionally,
emotion tests will help us understand how
consumers related to our ads. If they are
more brand loyal than before and if they
have any new emotional connections to
our product. Finally, will help us see
if consumers behavior has changed
towards the product. It will allow us
to see if attitudes have changed,
and if purchase intention has
increased.

38. Pros and Cons
38
Pros:
• Less methods so it’s simpler and more time-
efficient.
• Relatively affordable.
• Gathers only the key pieces of information.
Cons:
• Less thorough.
• Doesn’t fully measure all functions of
persuasive process.
• Test participants may only be
motivated by money.

39. Budget Allocation
39
We will give $5 and a bottle of Barq’s to each person
who participates ($3,000 in total).
The drivers will offer $10 to anyone who does an in-
depth interview about the Barq’s brand, aiming for
about 30 people from each city. ($1,200 in total).
Additionally, we will set aside 10,000 for Copy
Testing, and Post testing procedures.
In total we would expect to spend about
15,000 per month testing in conducted,
(about 6-7 months of the fiscal year.)
op

40. Expected Outcome
40
With Testing Option B, we will save both time and
money on testing methods but still get in-depth
measurements by only focusing on the most
important factors based on our objectives.
With the time saved in testing, we can put
more attention into making adjustments
and tweaks to ensure that our campaign is
successful. Additionally, we will be able
to get a on the street opinion about a
product from a variety of different
people. It would help us conduct
testing fast and get the job done
correctly.

41. Decision
41
Testing Option
A

42. Rationale
42
Based on our rationale, we believe conducting Testing Option A
will lead to a more thorough wealth of information and data, and
therefore increase the success of our campaign. While Testing Option
B is more inexpensive and time efficient, our budget can allow the
more complete testing methods of Option A. Furthermore, there
is an ample amount of time between pre-testing methods and
the campaign launch to make necessary changes. Option A’s
method of conducting focus groups and online surveys has a
higher likelihood that we will receive more in-depth, honest
answers as opposed to on-street interviews.
While it could be risky and uncover insight that does
not agree with our campaign, we would be able to truly get
inside the current users and non-users and see why the
do or do not drink Barq’s Root Bee. We believe that
through our previous research and testing to occur
that this method will help us correctly achieve both
our advertising and marketing objectives while
keeping our critical factors in mind.

43. Drink Barq’s.
It’s Still Good.
43