Abstract:

I am delighted to have this opportunity to share opinions with you in a discussion of how advertising works. It is a subject of much discussion and little agreement. A useful starting point in considering how advertising works is to reflect briefly on why so little progress has been made where so much desire exists. The answer lies, I think, with two obstacles. First, many of us in research simply are not approaching this subject in a way which is likely to produce anything very useful in the way of theory - that is, theory grounded in empirical findings. The major problem is that we have difficulty in proving that advertising has worked in producing the only consumer response usually worth knowing - which is sales. To talk about how advertising works without establishing that it has worked in selling the product can at best lead us to knowledge of how advertising works by luck, and at worst lead us to prolonged argument and judicious speculation.