New Marketing Research Research from University of Toronto Outlined.(Report)

According to recent research from Toronto, Canada, "The authors examine whether the growth of the Internet has reduced the effectiveness of government regulation of advertising. They combine nonexperimental variation in local regulation of offline alcohol advertising with data from field tests that randomized exposure to online advertising for 275 different online advertising campaigns to 61,580 people."

"The results show that people are 8% less likely to say that they will purchase an alcoholic beverage in states that have alcohol advertising bans compared with states that do not. For consumers exposed to online advertising, this gap narrows to 3%. There are similar effects for four changes in local offline alcohol advertising restrictions when advertising effectiveness is observed both before and after the change. The effect of online advertising is disproportionately high for new products and for products with low awareness in places that have bans," wrote A. Goldfarb and colleagues, University of Toronto.

The researchers concluded: "This suggests that online advertising could reduce the effectiveness of attempts to regulate offline advertising channels because online advertising substitutes for (rather than complements) offline advertising."

Goldfarb and colleagues published their study in the Journal of Marketing Research (Advertising Bans and the Substitutability of Online and Offline Advertising. Journal of Marketing Research, 2011;48(2):207-227).

For additional information, contact A. Goldfarb, University of Toronto, Rotman School Management, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, CANADA.

Publisher contact information for the Journal of Marketing Research is: American Marketing Association, 311S Wacker Dr., Ste. 5800, Chicago, IL 60606-6629, USA.

Keywords: City:Toronto, State:Ontario, Country:Canada, Region:North and Central America, Advertising, Beverage, Food, Marketing, Marketing Research

This article was prepared by Food Weekly News editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2011, Food Weekly News via VerticalNews.com.