AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF ADVERTISING WEARIN AND WEAROU

In a review of nearly 100 case studies from the Advertising Research System of Research Systems Corp., the following tenets were established: 1. The selling power of advertising can be measured in a laboratory, at one point in time, with a single exposure. 2. While market responses of awareness and sales may build over time, there is little evidence of the advertising building or wearing in over time or exposures. 3. The selling power of advertising declines over time related to spending. The empirical investigation of advertising wearin and wearout theories in this study indicated that advertisements that are not persuasive do not increase sales, nor do they improve over time-related-to-spending. Ads that are persuasive, however, do increase sales over time-related-to-spending, although they wear out during the process. It also was found that advertising wearout occurs similarly to advertising wearin, only faster. In addition, the relationship of spending to wearout is strong enough to result in useful forecasts for advertising refreshment, development, and media planning.