Why do firms invest in consumer advertising with limited sales response? A shareholder perspective

Marketing managers increasingly recognize the need to measure and communicate the impact of their actions on shareholder returns. This study focuses on the shareholder value effects of pharmaceutical direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) and direct-to-physician (DTP) marketing efforts. Although DTCA has moderate effects on brand sales and market share, companies invest vast amounts of money in it. Relying on Kalman filtering, the authors develop a methodology to assess the effects from DTCA and DTP on three components of shareholder value: stock return, systematic risk, and idiosyncratic risk. Investors value DTCA positively because it leads to higher stock returns and lower systematic risk. Furthermore, DTCA increases idiosyncratic risk, which does not affect investors who maintain well-diversified portfolios. In contrast, DTP marketing has modest positive effects on stock returns and idiosyncratic risk. The outcomes indicate that evaluations of marketing expenditures should include a consideration of the effects of marketing on multiple stakeholders, not just the sales effects on consumers.

The role of national culture in advertising's sensitivity to business cycles:an investigation across continents

The authors conduct a systematic investigation into the cyclical sensitivity of advertising expenditures in 37 countries, covering four key media: magazines, newspapers, radio, and television. They show that advertising is considerably more sensitive to business-cycle fluctuations than the economy as a whole. Advertising behaves less cyclically in countries high in long-term orientation and power distance, but it is more cyclical in countries high in uncertainty avoidance. Furthermore, advertising is more sensitive to the business cycle in countries characterized by significant stock market pressure and few foreign-owned multinational corporations. The authors provide initial evidence on the long-term social and managerial losses incurred when companies tie ad spending too tightly to business cycles. Countries in which advertising behaves more cyclically exhibit slower growth of the advertising industry. Moreover, private-label growth is higher in countries characterized by more cyclical advertising spending, implying significant losses for brand manufacturers. Finally, an examination of 26 global companies shows that stock price performance is lower for companies that exhibit stronger procyclical advertising spending patterns.

Introduction : special issues on key debates in advertising material

Research on advertising has been conducted mainly from within disciplines such as marketing and reception studies. Within translation studies, research has focused more on comparative analysis of language pairs for intersystemic differences, and more recently on intercultural differences in product appeal and cultural values. Advertising as text type was most comprehensively used and developed within Western cultures, then 'exported' to other cultures. Initially the assumption was that the message could be translated and the product would sell on the basis of Western value-based market research, although this is now clearly shown not to be the case, as contributors to this volume all demonstrate through empirical studies. The introduction to this volume offers a comprehensive survey of work done in the field, both within and outside translation studies, outlines the use of semiotics as a suitable framework for research, and summarizes the key issues relating to the global vs. local debate.

Optimization of Advertising Resources over Time: A Strategic Analysis

AMS subject classification: 90B60, 90B50, 90A80.

The economic approach of advertising and the problem of allocating advertising budgets during a recession

The importance of advertising has changed in many aspects in the last decade, and mainly during the last years of the economic crisis. Economics traditionally did not find advertising a valuable factor until empirical studies demonstrated that advertisement affects consumer perception by means of indicating the quality of the underlying product. Consequently, products that are advertised more frequently, are more likely to be associated with a higher quality. Nevertheless, advertising is a strong tool in competition, which statement is confirmed by the recognition that increasing consumer knowledge contributes to the diffusion of innovation and to the reduction of research and development (R&D) costs. This contribution can be achieved nowadays by consumer interactivity, where companies deliberately rely on the involvement of their consumers. Recently, when companies were confronted to the global economic crisis, brand managers realized that allocating advertising budgets in a recession (considering the actual state of the economic conditions) is a highly important decision factor beside competition, consumer behaviour, trends or industrial conditions. Companies have to realize that their communication budgets are planned substantially in a different way in times of crisis than during an upsurge. Moreover, should a company make the best of maintaining their advertising budgets in recession times, it will indicate more trust towards their consumers and show a more favorable image towards their investors. This study assembles different approaches from the economics of advertising to draw conclusions for the subsequent analyses of advertising in times of a crisis. The main objective with the literature review is to show, that pro-cyclical actions (reducing advertising budgets in times of crisis and overspending during upsurge) of companies can lead to problems of profitability, consumer trust and competitiveness in the long run.

COMUNICAÇÃO E MARKETING NA EDUCAÇÃO SUPERIOR: uma análise dos conteúdos comunicacionais online de instituições de ensino privadas

O presente contexto mercadológico da educação superior, onde a concorrência é cada vez mais acirrada, tem levado as instituições de ensino a estabelecer um processo de gestão de comunicação e marketing mais estratégico e competitivo, buscando alcançar uma posição diferenciada em relação à concorrência, a fim de conquistar seus públicos de interesse. Este trabalho contemplou a aplicação dos objetivos de comunicação no mercado de ensino superior, analisando as formas pelas quais as instituições vêm estabelecendo os processos comunicacionais com seus públicos-alvo, estando direcionado para as Universidades privadas brasileiras. A pesquisa se apóia em: revisão bibliográfica, entrevistas em profundidade com gestores de comunicação e marketing do setor pesquisado e análise de conteúdo de peças de comunicação em mídia online. Inicialmente foi elaborado um relato acerca do contexto atual do mercado de ensino superior no Brasil: sua evolução e caracterização. Em seguida, definiu-se marketing aplicado ao segmento de educação superior: conceitos e o papel designado a ele. Posteriormente relacionou-se comunicação mercadológica com o serviço de educação superior e sua aplicabilidade neste setor. Depois, foram realizadas entrevistas em profundidade - semiestruturadas, com gestores de comunicação e marketing de duas instituições, localizadas na cidade de São Paulo (Insper e Universidade São Judas Tadeu) com posicionamentos antagônicos e classificações distintas quanto à sua imagem para o mercado -, com a finalidade de conhecer suas visões e opiniões sobre o mercado e as ações de comunicação de marketing que vêm adotando. Finalmente, foi elaborada análise de contéudo, comparando anúncios (peças publicitárias) em mídia online das duas IES estudadas. Todos os procedimentos da análise de contéudo foram estabelecidos e categorizados com base nos objetivos de comunicação definidos por Yanaze (2011).

Health insurance competition in Germany – the role of advertising

In the 1990s, competition among public health insurance funds (‘sickness funds’) was introduced in Germany. As one means of competition, free choice of initial health funds and subsequent switching between them was made available to all insured. Since then, the number of funds has decreased substantially, and funds have had to engage in competitive strategies to remain in the market. In this paper, we want to analyse the funds' advertising activities in the face of the changed competitive environment. This has not been possible to date due to a lack of data. We use two new datasets to get a first insight into the potential effects of competition on funds' advertising strategies; one of the volume and cost of advertisements and one of their contents. Our results suggest that competition has been associated with an increase in the amount of advertising. As to the adverts themselves, we find that there was a decrease in the share of advertisements of a ‘general’ content in favour of advertisements of a more ‘fund-specific’ content. The data therefore indicate that once the market was open to switching of funds by the insured, funds' advertising efforts changed to differentiating their own perceived strengths from those of competitor funds. These observations allow us to draw some tentative conclusions about the relevance of (attempts of) risk selection by health funds via advertisements and about the general success of the pro-competitive legislation.

Non-conventional advertising formats in television versus spots: An analysis based on the generated recall

Advertising investment and audience figures indicate that television continues to lead as a mass advertising medium. However, its effectiveness is questioned due to problems such as zapping, saturation and audience fragmentation. This has favoured the development of non-conventional advertising formats. This study provides empirical evidence for the theoretical development. This investigation analyzes the recall generated by four non-conventional advertising formats in a real environment: short programme (branded content), television sponsorship, internal and external telepromotion versus the more conventional spot. The methodology employed has integrated secondary data with primary data from computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) were performed ad-hoc on a sample of 2000 individuals, aged 16 to 65, representative of the total television audience. Our findings show that non-conventional advertising formats are more effective at a cognitive level, as they generate higher levels of both unaided and aided recall, in all analyzed formats when compared to the spot.

On a first-name basis: Englishization and naming in Flanders

Following and contributing to the ongoing shift from more structuralist, system-oriented to more pragmatic, socio-cultural oriented anglicism research, this paper verifies to what extent the global spread of English affects naming patterns in Flanders. To this end, a diachronic database of first names is constructed, containing the top 75 most popular boy and girl names from 2005 until 2014. In a first step, the etymological background of these names is documented and the evolution in popularity of the English names in the database is tracked. Results reveal no notable surge in the preference for English names. This paper complements these database-driven results with an experimental study, aiming to show how associations through referents are in this case more telling than associations through phonological form (here based on etymology). Focusing on the socio-cultural background of first names in general and of Anglo-American pop culture in particular, the second part of the study specifically reports on results from a survey where participants are asked to name the first three celebrities that leap to mind when hearing a certain first name (e.g. Lana, triggering the response Del Rey). Very clear associations are found between certain first names and specific celebrities from Anglo-American pop culture. Linking back to marketing research and the social turn in onomastics, we will discuss how these celebrities might function as referees, and how social stereotypes surrounding these referees are metonymically attached to their first names. Similar to the country-of-origin-effect in marketing, these metonymical links could very well be the reason why parents select specific “celebrity names”. Although further attitudinal research is needed, this paper supports the importance of including socio-cultural parameters when conducting onomastic research.

Advertising Colonial Romance and Imperial Masculinity: The Promotion of Philip Meadows Taylor's Novels in Britain

The comments of Charles Kegan Paul, the Victorian publisher who was involved in publishing the novels of the nineteenth-century British-Indian author Philip Meadows Taylor as single volume reprints in the 1880s, are illuminating. They are indicative of the publisher's position with regard to publishing - that there was often no correlation between commercial success and the artistic merit of a work. According to Kegan Paul, a substandard or mediocre text would be commercially successful as long it met a perceived want on the part of the public. In effect, the ruminations of the publisher suggests that a firm desirous of acquiring commercial success for a work should be an astute judge of the pre-existing wants of consumers within the market. Yet Theodor Adorno, writing in the mid-twentieth century, offers an entirely distinctive perspective to Kegan Paul's observations, arguing that there is nothing foreordained about consumer demand for certain cultural tropes or productions. They in fact are driven by an industry that preempts and conditions the possible reactions of the consumer. Both Kegan Paul's and Adorno's insights are illuminating when it comes to addressing the key issues explored in this essay. Kegan Paul's comments allude to the ways in which the publisher's promotion of Philip Meadows Taylor's fictional depictions of India and its peoples were to a large extent driven in the mid- to late-nineteenth century by their expectations of what metropolitan readers desired at any given time, whereas Adorno's insights reveal the ways in which British-Indian narratives and the public identity of their authors were not assured in advance, but were, to a large extent, engineered by the publishing industry and the literary marketplace.

Conceção e pré-teste de comunicação de uma campanha publicitária para a revista "Courrier Internacional"

Trabalho de projeto apresentado à Escola Superior de Comunicação Social como parte dos requisitos para obtenção de grau de mestre em Publicidade e Marketing.

Personalised TV ads are the future – but is it time to panic?

TV Advertising is evolving quickly. This article examines how the popularity of viewing content on mobile platforms is changing the way we advertise. VOD and OTT media services have meant that advertisers can now automate and personalise their TV advertising. It's having a significant impact on the UK TV business model.

Derecho comunitario europeo sobre la publicidad y su transposición al derecho español

La publicidad comercial es la principal herramienta de marketing debienes y servicios con que cuentan los empresarios en el mercado,por el fácil acceso al destinatario y su capacidad para influenciarsu decisión de compra. Las normas sobre publicidad colindandirectamente con las disposiciones sobre competencia desleal.Por tal razón, la Unión Europea, consciente de su importanciapara el desarrollo del mercado interior, ha estructurado unconjunto de normas que regulan la publicidad comercial, y quebuscan erradicar los anuncios que conlleven actos desleales quealteren irregularmente el mercado, afectando indistintamente acompetidores y consumidores. España debía transponer al derechonacional las disposiciones normativas comunitarias, exigencia que,para ser cumplida, implicó modificaciones sustanciales y complejasal régimen publicitario preexistente.

Memoria en publicidad y mercadeo

La psicología y la publicidad son dos disciplinas que desde hace algunos años se han venido complementando, la publicidad es la disciplina que se ha visto beneficiada con esta alianza, ya que el principal aporte que le hace la psicología a la publicidad es poder determinar aquellos factores o estrategias que generan en el consumidor; atención, asociación entre marca y producto, para luego almacenarse en la memoria y así generar una posible conducta de compra en el individuo. Los medios de comunicación cumplen un papel muy importante, ya que son los instrumentos utilizados para la transmisión de la información publicitaria, dependiendo del medio utilizado ya sea prensa, televisión o radio, las estrategias implementadas para dar a conocer la información deben ir dirigidas al campo perceptivo, que se utiliza para recibir la información y lograr una adecuada asociación y posterior almacenamiento en la memoria. La publicidad y el mercadeo hacen uso de una prueba de evaluación; top of mind, que muestra la jerarquía de recuerdo en la memoria de los individuos ante la mención de una categoría de servicio de un producto.

Memoria de los consumidores expuestos a la publicidad

La psicología y la publicidad son dos disciplinas que se han complementado, la publicidad se ha visto beneficiada con esta alianza, ya que el principal aporte que le hace la psicología a la publicidad es poder determinar aquellos factores o estrategias que generan en el consumidor: atención, asociación entre marca y producto, para luego almacenarse en la memoria y así generar una posible conducta de compra en el individuo. Los medios de comunicación cumplen un papel importante en la transmisión de la información publicitaria, dependiendo del medio utilizado se enfoca la información teniendo en cuenta el campo perceptivo que recibirá la información, para lograr asociación y posterior almacenamiento en la memoria. Para poder medir la jerarquía del recuerdo en la memoria de los individuos ante la mención de una categoría de servicio de un producto, la publicidad y el mercadeo hacen uso de la prueba Top of Mind.