Internet advertising has seen tremendous revenue growth through its ability to effectively target consumer interest. However, it fails to reach consumers in as wide a range of activities as traditional advertising. This paper describes the opportunity for performing highly targeted activity-based advertising. By better representing human needs and activities, it will become possible to effectiv...

We examine the effect of direct mail (commonly referred to as junk mail) advertising on individual financial decisions by studying consumer choice of debt contracts. Consistent with the theoretical predictions, we find that financial variables underlying the relative pricing of debt contracts are the leading factors explaining consumers debt choice. Furthermore, we also find that the intended u...

hyosun kim’s report “trouble spots in online direct to consumer prescription drug promotion: a content analysis of fda warning letters”aims to teach marketers how to avoid breaching current food and drug administration (fda) guidelines in their online drug promotion. while kim hopes to minimise the potential for online promotion to misinform consumers and the study is carefully conducted, teach...

The rising costs of health care have forced changes in institutions that provide health care services to patients. Doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, and drug manufacturers have changed business practices to trim costs and maximize profits. One practice exploited by pharmaceutical companies is the freedom to advertise prescription drug products.' Direct-to-consumer advertising can effecti...

The rapid proliferation of mobile phones and other mobile devices has created a new channel for marketing. The use of Short Messaging Service to access customers through their handheld devices is gaining popularity, making the mobile phone the ultimate medium for one-to-one marketing. The present research investigates consumer attitudes toward mobile advertising and the relationship between att...

Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs in the United States is controversial. Underlying the debate are disagreements over the role of consumers in medical decision making, the appropriateness of consumers engaging in self-diagnosis, and the ethics of an industry promoting potentially dangerous drugs. Drug advertising and federal policy governing drug advertising have both ...

We investigate the spread of innovations on a social network. The network consists of agents that are exposed to the introduction of a new product. Consumers decide whether or not to buy the product based on their own preferences and the decisions of their neighbors in the social network. We use and extend concepts from the literature on epidemics and herd behavior to study this problem. The ce...

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing is an increasingly available option among individuals searching for information about their health risk factors and ancestry. This study is one of the first to examine predictors of interest in DTC genetic testing. Participants read one of the three types of information about DTC genetic testing (positive only, negative only or both) and reported percept...

Does advertising serve to (i) increase awareness of a product, (ii) increase the likelihood that the product is considered carefully, or (iii) does it shift consumer utility conditional on having considered it? We utilize a detailed data set on consumers’ shopping behavior and choices over retail bank accounts to investigate advertising’s effect on product awareness, consideration, and choice. ...