Added values or propensities to buy?

John Scriven and Prof Andrew S C Ehrenberg

Final article from the JOAB series (Justifying Our Advertising Budgets). The authors contrast two extreme views of advertising: 1) that it gives a brand special `added values' in the consumer's mind to produce a reason for choosing it; 2) that consumers already have `propensities to buy', and that advertising is needed merely as publicity to maintain this against competition.

Added values or propensities to buy?

Andrew Ehrenberg and John Scriven

We contrast two extreme views of advertising. First, that advertising an established brand has to give it special 'added values' in the consumer's mind: the consumer would therefore have a reason for choosing it. Second, that the experienced consumer already has a habitual 'propensity to buy' the brand, and its current advertising would need primarily to maintain this against the competition.

Arguments for the first notion are confusing and unconvincing. It does not seem to explain either how advertising works or how consumers choose brands. As regards...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands