‘Advertising troubles both sociologists and financial directors: the former because they think it works, the latter because they think it does not,’ says Byron Sharp. The question of whether to advertise or not is especially a concern in today’s times when the results may not be seen immediately. Unfortunately, this can’t be directly measured since advertising has a long-term impact and the drop in sales is not immediately noticeable – over a period of time, it impacts a consumer’s ability to recall. Advertising works like the engines of a flight: while the engines are running, everything is fine, but when the engine stops, the descent eventually starts. The bigger the brand, the more it has to spend to appeal to a larger number of consumers across various occasions to keep a threshold recall for their market share to hold.
