Indiantelevision.com Team

(28 November 2007 8:00 pm)

MUMBAI:TNS, a global market insight and information group, has announced the launch of Market Contact Audit (MCA) in India.

MCA is a research tool which measures the effectiveness of various contacts in a category, using a common method and a common unit. It provides a yardstick to understand which are the key contacts that drive the category, which contact points are working better for the brand, and which are the ones where money should be saved.

The Market Contact Audit measures how successfully brands use marketing communications to connect with consumers in two ways. First it recognizes that some contacts are more influential than others. So it measures the Contact Clout Factor - or contact influence for the important contacts in a given category and market. Then it recognizes that some brands execute better than others, so it measures Brand Experience for each brand in the category and market, by the degree to which consumers recall encountering brands in a contact.

The company 'Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)' is the owner and developer of the proprietary MCA methodology. They develop tools and processes to measure and improve the effectiveness and the cost efficiency of Marketing Communications and Customer Engagement.

Launching the tool in India, IMC chairman Eric Fredricks explains, "MCA is an innovative tool that addresses an urgent need of the industry. It analyses the whole communication portfolio in a category from a consumer point of view. It also looks at the ROI of the various activities and thus helps making marketing accountable."

MCA is an approach to measure consumer engagement with contacts. MCA provides marketers with a common currency to compare the clout and the cost-efficiency of the different communication channels (contacts).

TNS India SVP automotive Pradeep Saxena- Automotive mentions, "With the explosion of media, it is becoming increasingly difficult for a Marketer to know, which media is working for the brand and which is not? Which media is effective in image building, which one is effective in imparting information and which one has the highest impact on purchase decision. And this is not just about the conventional media such as Television, Press and Outdoor, there is a huge spending on road shows, events sponsorship and even test rides amongst many others."