A review of literature on the processes of advertising 'How advertising works'

The question of 'how advertising works' is a vast one, and is one in which it is difficult to draw any firm conclusions. In addition, the area could almost be described as hybrid - this is in the sense that it draws on many different sources of knowledge, particularly on different branches of psychology, as well as from the practitioner. on the one hand there is a body of commercially derived research findings relvant to understanding 'how advertising works'; on the other, there is a great wealth of material which has been developed in the behavioural sciences, but which is not directly related to advertising. This report attempts to integrate these two sources of knowledge. One of the problems encountered in doing this, is that many of the experiments carried out in the behavioural sciences make use of American college student populations, rather than samples of housewives, or other relevant groups. in addition, the pupose of the experiments is not always connected with the area of commerical advertising. This means that the results are not immediately transferable to commerical situations, but mustbe validated in an appropriate environment. Thisis not ot say, however, that such results should be ignored. Often they cover ground which can sid understanding of the advertising process, and to that extent they must be considered. Where experiments have been conducted using a population of consumers, housewives, or some relevent group, this has been stated.