Big stable brands, and ad effects. Fresh thoughts about why, perhaps, consistent promotion keeps them big.

The author addresses the puzzle that short-term sales effects from advertising for established brands, if observed at all, are never nearly enough to justify the adspend - yet, over the long term, it is the brands which are consistently supported by advertising that survive.

Big stable brands, and ad effects

Fresh thoughts about why, perhaps, consistent promotion keeps them big

Gordon Brown

Why do brand leaders need steady adspend? They decline without it, but most quantifiable indicators (sales, attitude shifts) don't move enough to explain this. Maybe ad memories live till consumers choose to shop about.

The main reason why people tend to concentrate unduly on single statistics about advertising is the absence of a rounded view about the sorts of ways in which advertising chiefly works. This paper represents some thought toward a rounded view which hopes to fit the data, and...

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