Modeling the differential effect of brand strength on the sales effect of advertising

ABSTRACT

Although marketing managers consider consumer mind-set regarding brand strength a key performance measure of advertising on the premise that it mediates the effect on sales, they rarely consider its moderating influence on advertising effectiveness. This study assumes recall-based brand consideration as a measure of consumers’ mind-sets regarding brand strength and explores the moderating role of brand consideration in the short term and the carryover advertising effect on sales. The results reveal that while brand strength has a limited mediating effect, it has a positive moderating influence on the carryover advertising effect and, to a lesser extent, the short-term advertising effect.

Acknowledgments

The author thanks the editor and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions. The author also appreciates the feedback offered by Professor Toshie Takeuchi from Hosei University, Japan.

Notes

¹ The question “Which brand would you consider buying … ?” actually measures brand consideration, which is not identical to the concept of brand attitude in existing research. However, the question is intended to reflect more attitudinal aspects of consumers than the simple purchase intention question “Which brand do you want to buy?,” which reflects behavioral aspects of consumers and is likely to be highly correlated with brand attitude.

² According to the marketing research company conducting the survey, the ratio of women to men who choose a brand in the haircare category without anyone else’s input is about 7:3 in Japan, meaning that in households where men and women live together, it is mainly women who choose a brand. Therefore, the survey sample comprised only women.

³ The log transformation of AD reduces the variance of AD, and the variance-reducing effect is greater for brands with larger levels of AD. Since reducing the variance of AD is synonymous with increasing the value of the AD parameters, log transformation works in favor of brands with larger levels of AD.