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Findings of the Harvard Study on the Economic Effects of Advertising

1942; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 6; Issue: 4_part_2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/002224294200600424.1

1547-7185

Neil H. Borden,

Marketing and Advertising Strategies

T HAVE BEEN allotted thirty minutes to I give a summary of the findings of the Harvard study relating to the economic effects of advertising. In this time I can do little more than touch upon a few of the more important conclusions, for to give you the full summary chapter of my report, in which I have brought together the conclusions drawn from the large volume of factual material amassed, would require five times the period assigned me. Just a word regarding the study itself. This factual investigation of advertising, first proposed to the Harvard Business School by the Advertising Research Foundation in 1937, was financed by a gift from Mrs. Alfred W. Erickson, of New York, as a memorial to her husband. Additional funds to complete the study were supplied from School research funds. In the conduct of the study and in the publication of findings the Harvard Business School was an entirely free agent. I was given the responsibility for the conduct of the study and a corresponding freedom in the direction of the factual investigation and the determination of findings. I was fortunate, however, in having the active advice and counsel of an advisory committee, consisting of five of my Faculty associates, Professors T. H. Brown, E. P. Learned, H. T. Lewis, M; P. McNair, and H. R. Tosdal. Whatever merit the study may have, I gladly attribute to these men who gave unstintedly and unselfishly from their store of knowledge and experience. I cannot ask them to share criticism for the weaknesses of the study, however, because the responsibility for the collection and analysis of data and the presentation of findings rested with me. In the collection of material, all approved scientific methods were utilized. The literature in appropriate fields was carefully examined, analyzed, and evaluated. Extensive correspondence was carried on and important use was made of mail questionnaires in securing information from business firms. Much more reliance was placed upon personal investigations and more or less extensive interviews with business executives, consumers, and others who are concerned with advertising and its effects. Trained research personnel was engaged to do the principal interviewing work under my personal and continuing supervision. For certain portions of the study the thousands of case studies which have been made through the Harvard Business School since I920 and during the course of the investigation proved most useful. The report itself, a volume of about I,ooo pages, contains only a selection among a vast quantity of material collected during the study and is divided into seven parts. Part I, which recounts the development and use of advertising by businessmen, provides an economic background. Besides a discussion of the growth of advertising in the economy and a report on the volume of advertising expenditures, there are two chapters written for laymen and for economists in which I have attempted to give a realistic picture of the way in which ad-