The Emperor's old clothes: a rejoinder
Andrew Ehrenberg
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 personalities and the like seems at best an open question. Ehrenberg suggests that the issue raised could be readily tested.
INTRODUCTION
The key issue in Roderick White's preceding comparison of the strong and weak-force views of advertising (White, 1999) is probably whether consumers have (or need) emotional beliefs about otherwise similar brands to influence their choice of brand. What is the evidence?