CONTENT ANALYSIS: A POWERFUL TOOL FOR ADVERTISING RESEARCH

Content analysis is a research method that has come into wide use in marketing in recent years.It is  the study of the content with reference to the meanings, contexts and intentions contained in messages.In 1952, Bernard Berelson published Content analysis in Communication Research, which heralded recognition for the technique as a versatile tool for social science and media researchers. Some scholars adopted it for historical and political research as well (Holsti, 1968). However, the method achieved greater popularity among social science scholars as well as a method of communication research (Wimmer and Dominick, 1994:163). The development of content analysis as a full-fledged scientific method took place during World War II when the U.S. government sponsored a project under the directorship of Harold Lasswell to evaluate enemy propaganda. The resources made available for research and the methodological advances made in the context of the problems studied under the project contributed significantly to the emergence of the methodology in content analysis. One of the out comes of the project, the book entitled Language of Politics published in 1940s (Lasswell et. al. 1965), still remains a classic in the field of content analysis. Later on, the method spread to other disciplines (Woodrum, 1984).