‘Kid tested, mother approved’: the relationship between advertising expenditures and ‘most-loved’ brands

Abstract

In this research, we examine the relationship between advertising expenditures and perceptions regarding popular brands as held by children and mothers in the United States. Our findings show that traditional media advertising expenditures positively relate with brand affinity for children and mothers, while product placement relates positively with children's brand affinity but not with mothers' brand affinity. A closer examination of advertising budgets reveals that marketers for the top children's brands devote most of their advertising to TV and magazine advertisements, indicating that they still believe that traditional media play a key role in reaching the youth market. Additionally, the advertisers spend disproportionately higher amounts to reach Hispanic and African American populations.

Keywords:

• advertising effectiveness
• brand perception
• social responsibility

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors wish to acknowledge partial funding for this research from the University of Minnesota, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Eating Research Program, Grant #3001-11176-00017177.