An Aggregate Advertising Pulsing Model with Wearout Effects

This paper, guided by empirical findings in the literature, develops an advertising pulsing model for established frequently purchased products under the presence of advertising wearout effects. Using such a model, the superiority of Advertising Pulsing Policy over an equivalent Uniform Advertising Policy is explored analytically for both S-shaped and concave advertising response functions in relation to initial sales and the employed discount rate.

The basic results of the research, summarized in four propositions, indicate that under the presence of advertising wearout and for both S-shaped and concave advertising response functions that:

—Pulsing is superior to the even policy for a zero discount rate.

—For all positive values of the discount rate, pulsing is superior to the even policy provided that initial sales are close enough to the equilibrium sales of the even policy.

—If initial sales are much different from the equilibrium sales of the even policy, pulsing would be superior for small values of the discount rate whereas the even policy would be superior for large values of the discount rate.