| Course | GB531 Advertising |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 2 |
| Paper type | Advertising objectives memo |
| Length | About 830 words, 6 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | MBA |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for GB531 Unit 2
From 17 to 35 Percent by Mid-July: A Unit 2 Advertising Objectives Memo Built on DAGMAR
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
GB531: Advertising
Unit 2 Advertising Objectives Memo
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The battery brand, the survey and every figure are composite and illustrative; the frameworks and sources cited are real.
To: Chief Marketing Officer, Quietwall Energy
From: Brand Manager, Gulf Coast
Subject: Objectives for the hurricane-season campaign
Recommendation
Judge this season's advertising on what it changes in target homeowners' minds, measured by survey, and on quote requests, rather than on installations. Installations depend on electricians' schedules, permits and financing approvals that the advertising cannot control, and many will fall after the season ends.
Why Communication Objectives
Colley (1961) proposed DAGMAR, Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results, which holds that advertising should be judged by specific communication tasks it can accomplish with a defined audience in a set period. He described a spectrum from awareness through comprehension and conviction to action. Lavidge and Steiner (1961) proposed a similar sequence of steps from awareness to purchase. Later research has questioned whether buyers always move through such steps in order, but Vakratsas and Ambler (1999) found that advertising's effects can still be usefully measured at the levels of thinking, feeling and behavior. The objectives below follow that logic.
The Audience
Homeowners in their mid-thirties to mid-sixties living in detached houses across the three markets, all with recent experience keeping a portable generator going during a blackout. This is the group defined in more detail in the audience profile.
The Objectives
1. Awareness. Benchmark: in April, 38 percent of the audience recognized the brand name when shown it. Target: 55 percent. Date: mid-July survey wave.
2. Comprehension. Benchmark: in April, 17 percent linked the brand with needing no fuel during an outage. Target: 35 percent. Date: mid-July.
3. Conviction. Benchmark: in April, 22 percent rated themselves at least somewhat likely to ask for a quote within a year. Target: 28 percent. Date: mid-July.
4. Action. Benchmark: about 3.1 quote requests a month for every 10,000 households in the audience, counted in the partner electricians' booking system. Target: 6.0 a month in June and July. Date: end of July.
The comprehension objective is the one that matters most, because the campaign's whole argument is that a battery needs nothing to be fetched when the power fails.
Why 35 Percent
The comprehension target is ambitious: it roughly doubles the benchmark in about ten weeks of advertising. It is set high because the campaign has one message and will repeat it across television, connected TV, streaming audio and mail. If the message is clear, a doubling is plausible. If the July survey shows a smaller rise, the brand will know whether the problem was the message, which comprehension measures, or the reach, which awareness measures.
How Objectives Will Be Measured
Two survey waves, in April and mid-July, will ask identical questions of about 400 homeowners in each market. An unadvertised comparison market, Baton Rouge, will be surveyed at the same times so that changes caused by the hurricane season itself, such as news coverage, can be separated from the campaign's effect. Quote requests will be counted from the electricians' booking system by ZIP code.
What Each Objective Tells the Brand
The four objectives work as a diagnostic set. If awareness rises but comprehension does not, the advertising is being seen but its message is not getting through, which points to the creative. If comprehension rises but conviction does not, homeowners understand the claim but are not persuaded it matters to them, which points to price, financing or doubts about how long a battery lasts. If conviction rises but quote requests do not, something between intention and action is blocking buyers, perhaps the booking process or electricians' availability. Measuring all four lets the brand locate the problem rather than only learning that sales were disappointing.
Setting Targets for Each Market
The targets above are averages across the three markets. New Orleans, where outages tend to last longest, may move faster on comprehension because the fuel problem is more familiar there; Tampa, with fewer recent long outages, may move more slowly. The July survey should report each market separately, and the brand should not treat a shortfall in one market as a failure of the whole campaign if the others meet their targets.
What the Objectives Do Not Cover
Installations, revenue and market share are business results, and they matter. But a homeowner who requests a quote in July may install in October, after a permit and a financing approval. Belch and Belch (2021) note that sales objectives are often inappropriate for advertising because so many other factors affect sales. The brand should track installations, but not as the test of this season's advertising.
Next Steps
If you approve these objectives, the creative brief will carry the comprehension objective as its single proposition, and the measurement plan will fix the survey questions before any advertising runs.
References
Belch, G. E., & Belch, M. A. (2021). Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing communications perspective (12th ed.). McGraw Hill.
Colley, R. H. (1961). Defining advertising goals for measured advertising results. Association of National Advertisers.
Lavidge, R. J., & Steiner, G. A. (1961). A model for predictive measurements of advertising effectiveness. Journal of Marketing, 25(6), 59-62. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224296102500611
Vakratsas, D., & Ambler, T. (1999). How advertising works: What do we really know? Journal of Marketing, 63(1), 26-43. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299906300103
GB531 Unit 2 instructions, in plain terms
GB531 Unit 2 asks you to set advertising objectives for a campaign. Address the memo to a senior marketer and open with your recommendation about how the campaign should be judged. Explain the framework you use, such as DAGMAR or a hierarchy of effects, and acknowledge its limits. Define the audience. Give every objective a starting benchmark, a goal figure and a deadline, then justify where the most important goal sits. Describe how each objective will be measured, explain what the set of objectives tells the brand when some are met and others are not, and state what the objectives deliberately leave out. Keep the memo to about three pages, citing advertising research in APA 7.
How this GB531 Unit 2 example is built
The memo recommends judging the season on communication and quote requests rather than installations. It explains Colley's DAGMAR and Lavidge and Steiner's steps, with Vakratsas and Ambler on how advertising works in practice. The audience is defined. Four objectives each carry a benchmark, a target and a date, and the highlighted sentence names comprehension as the one carrying the strategy. A section explains the ambitious 35 percent target. Measurement describes two survey waves, an unadvertised comparison market and electricians' booking data. A section shows how the four objectives diagnose where a campaign is failing, another sets expectations by market, and Belch and Belch support leaving installations out.
Reading the GB531 Unit 2 grading rubric
For this GB531 memo, credit goes to objectives written so that a later survey can say whether they were met. A recommendation stated first earns early credit. Explaining the framework and its limits shows understanding. Each objective with a benchmark, a target, an audience and a date carries significant weight. Identifying which objective carries the strategy shows judgment. A measurement approach that includes a comparison market shows rigor. Explaining how the objectives work as a diagnostic set, and why sales are excluded, shows maturity. Next steps that link to the brief complete it. Colley's DAGMAR, Lavidge and Steiner, Vakratsas and Ambler and the Belch and Belch text supply the memo's APA 7 references.
GB531 Unit 2 help from the desk
Many GB531 Unit 2 memos set objectives such as increase awareness without a benchmark, a target or a date. Others set sales goals for a product whose purchase takes months and depends on factors advertising cannot control. A frequent gap is diagnosis: a set of communication objectives should tell the brand where a campaign failed, not only whether it did. Some writers set the same target in every market. Recommend how the campaign should be judged, explain the framework, define the audience, set dated objectives with benchmarks, describe measurement, show how the set diagnoses problems and say what is excluded. Explaining why the most important target is ambitious prepares readers for a possible miss.
Get a GB531 Unit 2 example written to your instructions
Forward the brand or campaign your GB531 section assigns, any baseline figures you can find, and the Unit 2 prompt and rubric. A custom objectives memo, each objective carrying a benchmark, audience, target and date, is written to them and back in 24-48h, the first one free. Missing baselines are flagged for a survey rather than invented. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More GB531 papers and MBA samples
- GB531 Unit 1: Discussion Board Post
- GB531 Unit 3: Creative Brief
- GB531 Unit 4: Audience Profile
- GB531 Unit 5: Message Strategy Analysis
- GB531 Unit 6: Media Plan
- GB531 Unit 7: Budget Allocation Model
- GB531 Unit 8: Seminar Reflection
- GB531 Unit 9: Campaign Measurement Plan
- GB531 Unit 10: Integrated Campaign Report
- GB530 Unit 2: Situation Analysis
- GB528 Unit 2: Industry Analysis
- GB527 Unit 2: Process Analysis
- GB526 Unit 2: Cultural Analysis
GB531 Unit 2 questions, answered
Is DAGMAR still used, or is it outdated?
The acronym is old, but its central demand, stating an advertising goal as a measurable change in a defined audience by a date, still underpins most campaign measurement. Many GB531 sections teach it alongside hierarchy-of-effects models. Cite it, apply it to your objectives, and note any limitation your course reading raises, such as the difficulty of measuring conviction.
Can an advertising objective be about sales at all?
Sometimes, where advertising drives the sale directly, as with a limited-time offer bought online. For considered purchases with long delays between exposure and buying, most rubrics prefer communication objectives, with sales tracked as a business result. Explain which case your brand falls into, since that reasoning is often what the unit grades.
Where do benchmark figures come from?
A brand tracking survey is the usual source, run before the campaign. For a course paper, published category research, a small survey of your own, or a stated assumption can stand in, clearly labeled. What costs marks is a target with no starting point, because the objective then cannot be judged.
Where can I find a free GB531 Unit 2 sample paper?
This page carries a full GB531 Unit 2 advertising objectives memo for a home battery brand, with four DAGMAR objectives, a measurement approach, a diagnostic reading and APA 7 references.
Why not judge the campaign on installations?
Installations depend on electricians' schedules, permits and financing approvals the advertising cannot control, and many will fall after the season ends. Communication measures and quote requests show what the advertising itself achieved.