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The article presents various abstracts in marketing focused on advertising, including "Advertising Agency Costs and Operations," by Ira Rubel and Norman Fields; "The Why and How of Business Paper Advertising," by Stephen Goerl; and "United States Department of Commerce: Office of Domestic Commerce."

Many ad agency executives have proclaimed the era of the global advertising agency. They observe that corporations are moving towards placement of their worldwide advertising through a single agency, and they predict that a few large "mega. agencies" will take over a majority of international advertising accounts. Yet, no published studies have examined how many brands are actually handled by the same ad agency worldwide. This paper presents the results of a survey examining the extent to which U.S. companies use the same agency to advertise abroad and in the home market. The study found that of the brands sold abroad, only about one-third are handled by the same agency both at home and abroad. This proportion does not vary significantly with advertising budgets, by product class, or between standardized and non-standardized brands. In addition, no single-agency group or "mega-agency" handles more than eight percent of the sample brands, and no agency handles a majority of its U.S. brands abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of the nation's most respected advertising agencies have become reluctant to accept political campaigns as clients. And political candidates increasingly are choosing independent political consultants to direct their media campaigns. This paper analyzes the history of these trends and reports the results of a nationwide survey of 99 advertising agencies. Among firms that had not handled political accounts in five years or that planned to reduce political campaign involvement, the major reasons cited for avoiding political accounts centered on concerns that they may interfere with business client relations while creating an intolerable workload without commensurate profitability. The potential implications of replacing advertising agencies with political consultants are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The three agencies selected for in-depth study were classified as "small," "medium," and "large:" (relative to the San Francisco area). This paper analyzes the relationships between the selected agencies performance and preceptions of their organizations' environment and integration. The size variable, per se, was not an accurate indicator of agency success. Increased size complicates management's task of coordination, but the results of this study empirically demonstrate that the key to successful performance is a management style which properly takes account of the environmental, task, and structural demands unique to the agency segment of the advertising industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people interested in careers in advertising often ask: Do advertising agencies offer good career opportunities? What functions do agencies perform, and why? How will agencies evolve in the future? This article traces the evolution of services that advertising agencies perform and identifies major factors that explain such evolution. The reader may wish to perform the same kind of analysis to predict or anticipate future evolution of advertising agencies. The intent is not only to explain or predict changes, but also to exhibit "systems thinking" which is appropriate for the historian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of several factors on the foreign investment of U.S. advertising agencies by using the theories on the determinants of foreign direct investment by manufacturing firms. For the two years examined, the hypotheses about the impact of host country market size, host country geographic proximity, firm size, firm's international operations experience, oligopolistic reaction, and presence of home country customers abroad are all confirmed. This paper also investigates the impact of oligopolistic reaction among the top ten and the second ten largest agencies and finds a stronger impact for the former. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on legal developments in marketing relative to the regulation of unfair competition. In regard to advertising, the article discusses Federal Trade Commission v. Donald P. Carter et al. and the court's enforcement of U.S. Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) subpoenas for information from cigarette manufacturers and their advertising agencies as they relate to cigarette advertising and promotion. The court did not enforce subpoenas against two research firms. Regarding nonadvertising promotional methods, the article discusses U.S. FTC action against Fedders Corp. for a recall against defective products that "caused economic injury to consumers." This is the first FTC case dealing with economic injury, and the first to provide restitution for this reason.

This paper examines historical changes in the duration of the interval between the commercial introduction of a new product and the time when entry by later competitors begins. A priori reasons are examined why the duration of this interval in the U.S. economy may either expand or contract. Data for 46 major product innovations, however, show a systematic tendency for the interval identified above to contract over the last century. The average time span was almost 33 years at the turn of the century and has declined to 3.4 years for innovations in 1967-86. Empirical evidence suggests this change resulted largely from a lowering of absolute cost advantages of first movers through easier transfer of knowledge and skills across firms and was also facilitated by the growth of markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the study that traces the earliest American graphic design magazines. The study identifies the development of graphic design by analyzing the editorial content of those early periodicals as well as the themes with which they were concerned. It indicates that the profound technological changes of the industrial revolution dramatically altered the practices of all the crafts and led to increase specialization. It suggests that the graphic design periodicals had their beginnings in three types of publication, including those serving the printing trades, the advertising business and the fine arts.

Economies of scale are evident when a firm's average costs decline while its output expands, as when an advertising agency raises its gross income by serving more accounts and/or larger accounts. Economies of scope appear when cost savings can be realized by a single agency producing several products jointly, as compared to many agencies each producing them separately. How important are economies of scale and scope in advertising agency operations? In this paper cost models are formulated which represent how the principal component of agency costs, employment level, varies according to the mix of media and services an agency provides and the total volume of advertising it produces. These models are estimated and tested cross-sectionally utilizing data pertaining to the domestic operations of 401 U.S. agencies for 1987. The empirical evidence reported here indicates that both scale and particularly scope economies are highly significant in the operations of U.S. advertising agencies. We find that of the 12,000 establishments comprising the industry in 1987, approximately 200-250 had domestic gross incomes of $3-4 million or more (or equivalently, billings of $20-27 million) and therefore had service mixes and operating levels sufficiently large to take full advantage of all available size-related efficiencies. Furthermore, the overall structure of the industry is one where these large, fully efficient firms created and produced more than half of all the national advertising utilized in the U.S. during 1987. At the same time, vast numbers of very small agencies appear to operate with substantial cost disadvantages compared to large firms as a consequence of these scale and scope economies. These findings carry important implications concerning possible... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of an exploratory survey of executives from a cross-section of U.S. advertising agencies, this article examines the relationship between agency creative philosophies and agent creative risk taking. The natures of both creative risk and agency philosophy are discussed. Multiple measures of risk taking are applied and the findings suggest that agency executives working in agencies with clear identities are more likely to take risks than are those in agencies without such identities (hybrid philosophies), but not for all measures of risk. The extent to which the size of client plays a role also is assessed. After an assessment of the findings, limitations and suggestions for further research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patterns of cross-cultural differences in ethical perceptions can be explained by Hofstede's typology of cultural dimensions. To test hypothesized differences, we conducted a survey of practitioners at Korean advertising agencies and compared their responses with results from previous surveys in the U.S. Evaluations of ethical issues in hypothetical scenarios that are consistent with the two cultures' relative levels of musculinity/femininity and individualism/collectivism. Agency practitioners in the two countries also vary in the ethical problems they face in their daily work. Differing perceptions that the problems are a concern of top management, or are a hindrance to performance and relations with coworkers, are consistent with relative levels of power distance, long-term orientation and individualism/collectivism. The findings illustrate the influence of cultural dimensions on ethical perceptions and practices in the advertising industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the typical account longevity is short, agencies should anticipate their likelihood of loss, seek to forestall and invest in their client relationships. A model is proposed for examining account lifetimes, which can offer guidance on the likely retention of future accounts. The impact of agency structural characteristics on longevity is also examined, and compared for both U.S. and U.K. markets. Results for both markets indicate that cumulative account dissolution increases at a decreasing rate over time. Greater account longevity is associated with larger agency size (both in terms of agency billings and employees), and agency age but not with stability of billings growth. Evidence suggests that several structural characteristics of agencies reflect the motivation and/or ability to maintain accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advertising agency compensation may change dramatically in coming years as advertisers put pressure on agencies to reduce commissions and tie compensation to performance resulting from advertising campaigns. Drawing on agency theory from the economics discipline, the authors develop and test several hypotheses to address the advertising agency compensation decision. Their study provides the first comprehensive look at the prevalence of outcome-based compensation tied to performance and other compensation systems currently used among U.S. advertisers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advertising substantiation has been a source of considerable agitation to advertisers and agencies for the past decade. This study investigated what changes occurred in print advertisements following the inception of the FTC program. The results indicate that the number of attribute claims may have decreased somewhat and the types of evidence supporting claims have changed, but that the level of informativeness in magazine ads has not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The information content of Australian television advertisements is assessed in an operational replication of an empirical study of U. S. television advertising. Comparison of the study results for U. S. and Australian television advertising indicates differences in overall informativeness, the association between informativeness and daily screening time, and the association between informativeness and type of product advertised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influential writings suggest that today's advertising is not as creative as it used to be. To explore this suggestion, the authors asked top-level agency creatives whether they believe creativity has improved, declined, or remained unchanged since they entered the advertising business. Respondents' opinions then were grouped and compared by agreement/disagreement ratings on a series of statements associated with factors previously identified as responsible for advertising's presumed creative decline. From the perspective of the top-level agency creatives, creativity in today's advertising has not declined--in fact, the overwhelming majority view is that advertising is now more creative than it was when they entered the business, or at least as good. In their eyes, certain aspects of advertising creativity have changed, though not always in the direction predicted in previous writings. With one exception, agency creatives' opinions about advertising creativity then and now were unvarying, regardless of respondent age, years of advertising experience, or agency position/title. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent developments in media planning theory suggest that an important element of the media decision-making process should be the evaluation of reach and frequency in terms of advertising exposures or communication effects rather than vehicle exposures. The extent to which these theoretical extensions are practiced by leading U.S.-headquartered advertising agencies is the topic of this article. Over 90 media directors provide information concerning a number of media planning practices. These include the extent to which communication effects data are used in evaluating media plans, the adequacy of various commercial sources of such data, and whether communication effects data are used to weight media vehicle audiences to estimate potential advertising audiences or impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advertising agencies play an increasingly important role in moving the product from manufacturer to consumer. Because of this role agencies must be concerned about their potential inclusion in strict product liability claims. This article investigates the pros and cons of including advertising agencies in such claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nine states and four major cities have gross receipts taxes on advertising services. They currently range from 5 percent to less than 1 percent. Additional state and local governments have been confronting advertisers with proposals to institute direct taxes on advertising. The cause appears to be largely the need for increased revenues, not an attempt to harass advertisers. Considerable insight about the effects of such taxes on advertisers and their suppliers was available from a convenient ad hoc "experiment." One state imposed such a tax for two years and then repealed it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overseas activities of U.S. multinational advertising agencies raise several important public policy issues. Host governments are likely to watch U.S. advertising agencies for unwanted signs of domination over local firms. They will also be sensitive to undesirable cultural influence along with several other real or imagined evils. The U.S. government is unlikely to have significant interest in the specific activities of multinational advertising agencies. But, advertising agencies should be very wary of the impact of indirect regulation. Agency operation is going to be caught up in the increasing web of legislation designed for general regulation of multinational businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on an address by Leo Burnett, head of one of the largest advertising agencies, when he was named 1966 Marketing Man of the Year by the Chicago Chapter of the American Marketing Association. Mr. Burnett feels that marketing men are handicapped by five major fallacies. But he points with pride as well as views with alarm--he has some constructive suggestions for the field of marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dr. Charles K. Ramond suggests that sooner or later most companies will measure the return on their advertising as readily as they do the return on their other capital investments. And he also predicts that knowledge of the profitability of advertising will gradually inhibit tasteless advertising, thereby muting the public criticism some advertising men feel so keenly. Here is a "history" of the next 35 years of U.S. advertising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports a portion of the findings of research conducted to determine the attitudes of select French and Dutch advertising agency leaders and German marketing executives regarding specific standardized advertising issues. These findings are compared with results obtained in earlier studies of U.S. advertising agency and corporate executives and the differences are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]