How ads work: Weak theory, strong theory

 

For television programs, positive word of mouth (PWOM) is four times more common than negative word of mouth (NWOM). PWOM also had a positive impact on those it reached, while the effects of NWOM were ...

Various forms of traditional promotions (e.g., free-standing inserts) as well as newer versions of viral marketing campaigns ask consumers to write personal testimonials about their brand-related expe ...

The evidence is abundantly clear: word of mouth (WOM) is the most important and effective communications channel. Now, the search is on for strong, quantifiable research to help marketers navigate thi ...

For decades, marketers have trumpeted the importance of word of mouth in influencing purchase choice, but have still spent billions on brand advertising—without any proof of the link between the two. ...

Marketers are interested in the phenomenon of "consumer-generated media", or "buzz", given its potential to affect the commercial prospects for their products. Within the consumer packaged goods (CPG) ...

Super Bowl advertisers count on media coverage and word-of-mouth discussion to provide ROI beyond the game’s viewership and to justify the most expensive 30-second commercial time of the year. Many co ...

In today’s fragmented media landscape, generating positive word of mouth (WOM) among consumers has become an important tool for marketers. Marketers are challenged with identifying influential individ ...

James Mundell, John Hallward and Dave Walker, from Ipsos-ASI, use their company's pre-test and tracking study results to contest the popular belief in low-attention processing (LAP). They argue that t ...

Using a wealth of academic sources, Robert Heath, author of The Hidden Power of Advertising, defines two different types of persuasion: rational and emotional. He argues that it is emotional persuasio ...

Discusses a study of Australian advertising practitioners' beliefs in the power of advertising, comparing especially the `strong' (persuasive) theory, generally associated with North Americans, and th ...

Compares the persuasion (strong) and reinforcement (weak) theories of advertising and uses neuroscience as a basis for a third model of what advertising does for brands: MAC (Memory dominates Affect w ...

Many countries have imposed restrictions on tobacco advertising in the belief that these will curb tobacco consumption. These beliefs rely on the 'strong' theory of advertising, which holds that adver ...

Professor Ehrenberg responds to the preceding paper by Roderick White, 'What can advertising really do for brands?' Whether advertising induces emotional brand differentiation in terms of brand person ...

The past few years have seen the development, primarily by Professor Ehrenberg, of the related views that advertising is, in general, a 'weak force' and that brands are simply 'large' or 'small', neve ...

No. 7 in the JOAB (Justifying Our Advertising Budgets) series from the London Business School. This paper examines advertising's effect on brand attitudes. It challenges the idea that advertising work ...

No. 8 in the JOAB (Justifying Our Advertising Budgets) series from the London Business School. Part 1 summarises the authors' argument that advertising works as a weak force, not a strong force. Adver ...

The first of three JOAB ('Justifying Our Advertising Budgets') papers published by Admap. JOAB is a project run by the South Bank Business School, researching fundamental questions about how advertisi ...

Perceptions of advertising as a strong marketing force seem to be widespread, both within the business communities, and among the general public as well. These perceptions tend not to be founded on em ...

This article reviews the conventional view of advertising - the Strong Theory - which is all but universally believed in the United States and which sees advertising as a dynamic force operating as an ...