The Case for Print Media Advertising in the Internet Age

The Case for Print Media Advertising in the Internet Age

By Patricia Sorce, Ph.D. Administrative Chair, School of Print Media Rochester Institute of Technology Adam Dewitz Graduate Student, School of Print Media Rochester Institute of Technology

A Research Monograph of the Printing Industry Center at RIT Rochester, NY February 2007 PICRM-2006-02

© 2007 Printing Industry Center at RIT— All rights reserved.



Chapter 2: Assessing the Effectiveness of Advertising—Methods and Findings

Chapter 2: Assessing the Effectiveness of Advertising—Methods and Findings

Measuring the impact of advertising has been a top concern of advertisers for over 100 years. A now famous quote by John Wanamaker,* department store owner in the early 20th century, demonstrates this point: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” A large part of the challenge is that advertising is only one part of the marketing function that influences consumer buying. A firm vies for customers in an intensely competitive market place where price, distribution, and product differences all work in concert to differentiate the offerings to consumers. Advertising is only one of many promotional tools that marketing managers use to provide information and incentives to target markets. Other tools include personal selling with supported collateral material, promotional incentives to resellers, and public relations activities. Many large firms rely on advertising agencies to provide an overall promotional strategy, as well as to develop creative elements, recommend media, and implement an approved plan by producing advertising and then buying space or time in the media selected. Isolating the impact of advertising amidst this complexity is very challenging. Numerous studies have addressed this issue, but one of the best appeared in 1999 in the Journal of Marketing. Authors Vakratsas and Ambler reviewed over 250 articles that appeared in the academic...