The Effects of Advertising on High and Low Loyalty Consumer Segments

Different advertising effects on purchase behavior of consumers of varying brand loyalty are investigated. In a frequently purchased product class, consumers of high loyalty increase brand and product purchase when advertising for that brand increases. Little switching occurs from competitive brands into the advertised brand. At low loyalties there is little impact. Effects of increased advertising carry over for a few months after advertising is lowered back to normal levels. T he effects of advertising on consumer purchase behav-ior are of great interest to marketing managers and researchers alike. However, much of the nature of these effects remains to be understood. In the past, investigations of advertising effects have tended to focus on aggregate effects on the entire market. Differences in the effects on consumers with different purchase characteristics, such as loyalty, have not been examined. Aggregate analyses are not sufficient to reveal the different processes that work to yield the aggregate effect; this is amply revealed by the