In the early 1950s, Horace Schewerin introduced a syndicated research system that had, at its core, a measure of persuasion along with measures of brand advertised recall and content recall. Consumers were recruited to a theater and invited to indicate which brands they would choose in a number of categories. After being exposed to the commercials, they were again asked to choose the brands. This pre-post-brand choice design, which was at the core of the Schwerin persuasion measure, has endured in some form or another to this date.
One of the major developments in this period was the introduction of the concept of brand image in advertising. In an influential article in the Harvard Business Review, Gardner and Levy (1955) discussed this concept and explained how intangible symbolisms of advertised products can be used to communicate and appeal to shoppers of different social classes.
In 1955, the ARF carried out the famous Printed Advertising Rating Methods (PARM), which investigated commercial recall and recognitions tests and found recall to be the better measure of retention of impressions made by advertisements.
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