Title:
Information or Persuasion? An Empirical Investigation of the Effect of Advertising on Brand Awareness and Perceived Quality Using Panel Data

Authors:
C. Robert Clark, Ulrich Doraszelski, and Michaela Draganska

Publisher:
Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Research Paper No. 1971

Date Published:
July 2007

In this study, the authors sought to understand how advertising affects consumer opinion of products and whether it boosts brand awareness. They analyzed data on more than 300 brands across 19 categories, including five years of data from Brandweek’s Superbrand survey and Harris Interactive’s Equibrand survey.

Bottom Line:
Advertising can do much to increase brand awareness, but even persuasive ads do not change consumer opinions about the quality of the products being advertised.