Abstract:

This paper examines two distinct but related hypotheses: advertising does have short term effects; and incremental exposures do have incremental effect. This paper aims at tracking the effects of TV and press on the purchase of brands by an upmarket audience. The objective would be to examine the effect of exposure of TV and press advertising on consumer purchase behaviour. In order to achieve this objective, a short term panel (fourteen weeks) was conducted among upmarket housewives, i.e. housewives from TV owning households with monthly income of Rs. 4000/- or more so that exposure and purchase could be tracked at the individual level. Weekly interviews were conducted to elicit titles exposed to and brands purchased (in some prespecified product categories) over the last seven days. Recall of TV advertisements over seven days was an unreasonable expectation, and therefore, respondents were visited thrice over a seven day period to elicit programmes watched over the last two or three days in each visit.