The impact of advertising on sales of
established brands is primarily long lasting. Advertising effects gets
carried over time as they imbue brands with symbols, values, feelings and
meaning in a memorable way so as to infuse the brand with interest and
status.
According to Millward Brown,
the long-term effects of advertising outweigh short-term effects in 80% of
cases. And the scale of the impact is generally believed to be several times
greater in the long-term, than in the short-term impact.
Though there are some approaches for doing so, capturing
long-term effects of advertising is not one of the strengths of marketing mix modelling. The
dynamic effects discussed earlier capture mainly the short-term lead and lag
effects. Long-term effects are more difficult to tie back specifically to
advertising.
Assessing the short-term impact of advertising is
useful of course, for the short-term. Moreover, you do not
get long-term impact from advertising without achieving short-term success. So
short-term can be somewhat indicative of the long-term. Yet short-term gains do
not guarantee the long-term effectiveness of the ad.
Because market models for advertising are not as effective in
capturing long term effects, it is not advisable to use marketing mix models
to measure the ROI of advertising.
The research methods covered in
Chapter Advertising Analytics are best suited for
assessing the long-term potential of advertising. They dwell on the ability of
advertising to build empathy with consumers, increase their disposition to
purchase the brand, emphatically communicate the value proposition and
positioning, and generate impact through salience and differentiation. Though
these methods provide detailed understanding of the impact of advertising, they
do not forecast the impact of advertising on sales, nor do they provide any estimate
of the ROI of advertising.
