Complete List of Nicholas Sparks Books by Year

Financial Analysis of Nestle - 6942 Words

FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS Sr. No. | TOPIC | PAGE NO. | 1 | Introduction to NESTLE | 3 | 2 | Balance sheet | 7 | 3 | Schedules forming part of balance sheet | 9 | 4 | Profit and Loss Account | 21 | 5 | Schedules forming part of profit and loss account | 23 | DONE BY :†¦show more content†¦Despite these factors, Nestlà © India showed a strong growth potential and delivered good turnover and profits. It also has a distinctive advantage of having access to Nestlà © S.A’s extensive Research and Development and latest food technology. This has helped the company to establish itself as one of the leaders in food and package industry in India. COMPETITORS Fast Moving Consumer Goods segment is characterized by quick turnover and relatively low cost inventory. Nestlà © is third largest FMCG Company in India after HUL and ITC. The main Competitors of Nestlà © in India are Cadbury, Amul and Britannia. FMCG sector has huge growth potential in India. Nestlà © India is a responsible organization and facilitates initiatives that help to improve the quality of life in the communities where it operates. Balance sheet of Nestle India Ltd as on 31st December 2008 2008 (Rs. inShow MoreRelatedFinancial Analysis for Nestle1857 Words   |  8 PagesIncome Statement Nestlà © S.A. | Consolidated income statement | for the year ended 31 December 2008-2010 | In million of CHF |    | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 |    |    |    |    |    |    | Sales |    |    | 109,722 | 107,618 | 109,908 | Cost of goods sold |    | 45,849 | 45,208 | 47,339 | Gross profit |    | 63,873 | 62,410 | 62,569 | Selling, general, and admin.expense | 45,798 | 45,140 | 44,916 | Research and development costs | 1,881 | 2,021 | 1,977 | EBIT Earnings Before Interest, Taxes,Read Morenestle in ghana1018 Words   |  5 PagesGSM5200 MARKETING MANAGEMENT - GROUP STUDY Nestlà © (Ghana) Ltd. â€Å"An Analysis on Situation and Marketing Strategy Proposal to Maintain Brand Equity and Expand Brand Penetration of Nestle Products in Ghana, West Africa† â€Å"How to effectively expand market in least developing countries† is the major issue found in the case. This consists of derived issues faced by the company which can be correlated with marketing studies. By The American Marketing Association, marketing is defined as the activityRead MoreMarketing and Nestle Essay1604 Words   |  7 PagesThe paracrisis: The challenges created by publicly managing crisis prevention A Case Analysis Communication is faster than ever due to the advent of the Internet and social media which are venues for forum, interaction and information/issue dissemination, Today, nearly half a billion people around the world utilize the Internet. In the United States alone, about 155 million Americans access the Internet at home, with some citizens accessing the Internet only at work. Internet use by consumersRead MoreUnethical Marketing Strategies Of Nestle Infant Formula1225 Words   |  5 Pages4. Methodology 4.1 Analysis The purpose of this study is to show the unethical marketing strategies of Nestlà © infant formula and find out a solution to the problems. The main method we used to obtain data about our research subjects is documentary analysis. It involves obtaining information from existing documents without interviewing people, using questionnaires or observing customers’ behaviors. Documentary analysis is regarded as a good way for problem-solution study, with the convenient methodsRead MoreMGT 599 Case 3 Internal Analysis Kraft Foods Essay examples1358 Words   |  6 Pagessecond largest consumer packaged food and beverage company in the world with revenues of approximately $19B. After 110 years Kraft Foods has excelled as an organization and become a well recognized household name. Through the utilization of a SWOT analysis Kraft Foods has been able to determine internal and external threats and opportunities to help them remain on top of their industry. Competition in the food industry is extremely high and through adaptability and change Kraft Foods is able to provideRead MoreCompetitor Analysis: Hersheys1180 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿Competitor Analysis The Hershey Company (HSY) competes in the Global Candy and Chocolate Manufacturing industry. This highly competitive and consolidated industry which continues to concentrate as a result of merger and acquisition activity is dominated by a few major players. Included amongst these major players are HSY and three notable competitors, Nestle SA, Mondelez International Inc., and Tootsie Roll Industries. Each of these competitors offers unique competitive advantages versus thatRead MoreIce Film1667 Words   |  7 PagesIce-Fili Analysis Table of Contents I- Introduction 2 II- Analysis 3 1- External Analysis 3 i) Porter’s 5 Force 3 ii) Key Success Factors 4 2- Internal Analysis 5 i) Value Chain Analysis 5 ii) Financial Analysis 6 III- Decision Opinions with Evaluation 6 IV- Recommendation and Implementation 8 1- Short Term Activities 8 2- Long Term Activities 9 V- Exhibits 10 i) Exhibit A: Financial Ratio Analysis and Calculations 10 ii) Exhibit B: Decision Matrix 11 Introduction First timeRead MoreIpo - Eskimo Pie Corporation Essay1351 Words   |  6 PagesPie Corporation and has decided to sell this company. Nestle Foods provided the highest offer of $61 Million. Due to delays of the Nestlà ©s purchase, Reynolds Metals has take into consideration the IPO proposal of David Clark, president of Eskimo Pie Corporation, rather than selling the company to Nestle Foods (Case Study, 2001). This analysis will identify the current value of the company at a stand-alone value and explain why Nestle Food would want to buy this company and the synergies involvedRead MoreEssay on Nestle Crunch Marketing Plan1086 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿Nestle Crunch Marketing Plan Sweethelda MK 715- Marketing Management Brenau University Instructor: Dr. North June 10, 2014 Executive Summary This marketing plan was created for Nestle Crunch to position itself in the next year to deliver at least $13 million in profit without increasing the budget by over $2 million. An analysis of the chocolate confectionery market will be analyzed to develop marketing strategies to implement to satisfy these objectives. situation analyses Market SizeRead MoreEvaluating The Strategic Factors And Approaches Of Nestle Company1429 Words   |  6 PagesNestle Introduction The purpose of this assignment is to evaluate Nestle Company industry based on the case study and comprehend how the company develops strategic intent for their business organizations following the strategic factors and approaches. I will analyze the strategic management process as firm used to achieve strategic competitiveness. In order to strengthen this assignment about Nestle, there are several methods of gathering data has been conducted, such as Core Competencies analysis

Thailand vs. Indonesia Free Essays

I enjoy spending my summer vacation traveling. I have visited a lot of countries but here i am going to talk about two beautiful countries,Thailand and Indonesia. They both beautiful. We will write a custom essay sample on Thailand vs. Indonesia or any similar topic only for you Order Now They’re very similar but different in some points. For me, the atmosphere in the streets of Thailand and Indonesia is very similar. Both streets are full of life. In Thailand, stalls fill it streets. You can find a lot of things accessories, books, movies and even clothes. Trees shade the roads, the smell of fresh air filling the place. I’d go out strolling by myself and lose sense of time. In Indonesia bazaars and food trucks are everywhere. The tropical rain forests there are just breathtaking . The sight of nature and stalls reminded me of Thailand. In spite of their similarities, Thailand and Indonesia are different in some points. Indonesia is an Islamic country. The number of big mosques there is 100,000 while the small ones are over half a million. There is no transportation other than cars; the traffic is 24/7 which can waste a lot of time. There is a huge amount of Homeless people begging for food or money which is very sad and heartbreaking fact. On the other hand, there are 3,494 mosques in Thailand even though it’s a Buddhist country. There are subways and metros that are very well arranged which saves a lot of time. The citizens there are financially stable, you seldom see people panhandling there. In my point of view I find the similarity and differences in both countries beautiful. Thailand and Indonesia are different in how developed they are, but they’re also similar in nature and how energetic they are. I enjoyed both countries and I sure intend to spend my next vacation in one of these two beautiful countries again. How to cite Thailand vs. Indonesia, Papers

Major and Minor Effects of Vehicle Accidents and Development of PTSD

Question: Discuss about the Major and Minor Effects of Vehicle Accidents and Development of PTSD. Answer: Introduction The military was the first to recognize and use the term PTSD;it describes a disorder that is psychiatric in nature and has the following characteristics; recurring and extreme flashbacks and memories of the traumatic event, overactive vigilance, and decreased responsiveness. Studies of PTSD have significantly expanded recently to include various populations including Vietnam veterans, sexual assault victims, adult abuse survivors and survivors of disasters. (McHugh and Treisman, 2007). Through research, we see that psychological conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder has a significant impact on recuperation from grave injuries sustained from accidents and significantly influence the long-term quality of life of those surviving such injuries (Liempt,Zuiden,Westenberg, Super Vermetten, 2013). Motor vehicle accidents also have more effects other than causing PTSD. The aim of this report is to examine the consequences of car crashes both major and minor ones. It will also study how an individual can develop post-traumatic stress disorder. Some of these effects include both physical and emotional effects on people affected by the vehicle accident. The first effect is it can lead to one developing PTSD due to the trauma associated with the crash. (Guest, Tran, Gopinath, Cameron Craig, 2016). It can also lead to one developing depression after the collision, that is after being in the accident they feel low and depressed whether due to their injuries or when they do not have the ability to do activities they would do before the accident.(Gabriel E. Ryb, 2009) The individual involved in the accidents may develop anxiety this is because of the accident they become scared of even entering a vehicle because of fear of a recurrence of the crash hence avoid driving and carsaltogeth er(Turkal, n.d.). Another effect of these car accidents is it leads to the development of phobias; one can be irrationally afraid of any form of transportation due to fear of another accident. They can become afraid of driving, and more severely they develop a fear of going outside because they are scared of being in an accident (Blanchard Hickling,2003). In mild cases of emotional stress caused by the crash, one can go through crying, anger, appetite loss, fluctuations in weight, reduced amount of energy, sexual dysfunction or lack of sexual interest and changes of moods(Berg, 2014). It also affects people financially; where one spends money to treat sustained injuries from the accident which can be major and thus it will take a large sum of money to address. It will also cost the individuals involved in the accident money to repair the damage to the vehicles whether primary or minor, but it will make a dent in the persons finances (Smith, 2017).Most of the time the more serious accidents require treatments and medications that are over the insurance coverage hence one has to spend money out their pockets (Kenardy, Heron-Delaney, Bellamy, Sterling, Connelly, 2013). It can cause injury to the people involved in the motor vehicle accident. The injury can be either serious or just minor injury. Some of these injuries include; brain injury, loss of limbs, spinal cord injury, whiplash which is an injury sustained due to trauma in the soft tissue or bones in the neck, paralysis and the other primary injuries due directly to the accident (Lee Li, 2014). These injuries have so many effects on the quality of an accidents life like due to loss of limbs the individual has a disability and one cannot perform tasks that they could do before the crash and can lead to loss of employment due to this (Baldyga, n.d.). Finally, it leads to death. Motor vehicle accidents cause death due to injuries from the accidents. Most studies and research have come to the conclusion that the percentage of deaths due to car crashes and is rising as more accidents occur. PTSD develops in victims of motor vehicle accidentsbecause of some influences. They are preexisting conditions like depression, the nature of the accident whether or not it was a major accident can lead to one developing acute or mild PTSD or at times, not at all, the reaction of a person during the accidents and experiences afterward(Blanchard, 2003). One can be predisposed to suffer from PTSD if they have ever been involved in a traumatic event before the crash and also if they have a history of psychiatric disorders. Motor vehicle crashes are the single leading cause of PTSD in people. Reports show that the occurrence of PTSD in individuals involved in motor vehicle crashes ranges from 8% to 46%(Buckley, 2016). In conclusion,car accidents have a lot of effects on the people whether directly or indirectly. A significant percentage of the victims of these accidents will suffer from PTSD which is a psychological condition which can be managed over time but will always affect the victim. It is of my opinion that more should be done to prevent motor vehicle accidents since people should not have to suffer from these effects whether they are major or minor effects. References Baldyga, D. Minor Impacts, and Major Injuries. Expertpages.com. Retrieved 4 April 2017, from https://expertpages.com/news/auto_impacts.htm Berg, D. (2014). Mental and Emotional Injuries After a Car Accident | by Nolo. All-About-Car-Accidents.com. Retrieved 4 April 2017, from https://www.all-about-car-accidents.com/resources/auto-accident/car-accident-injuries/mental-emotional-injuries-from-car-wreck Blanchard, E. (2003).Theprimary cause of PTSD id Motor Vehicle Crashes.Apa.org. Retrieved 4 April 2017, from https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2003/12/accidents-ptsd.aspx Blanchard, E.B., Hickling, E.J. (2003). After the Crash: Psychological Assessment and Treatment of Survivors of Motor Vehicle Accidents (2nd ed) Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Buckley, T. (2016). Traumatic Stress and Motor Vehicle Accidents - PTSD: National Center for PTSD.Ptsd.va.gov. Retrieved 4 April 2017, from https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/trauma/other/traumatic-stress-vehicle-accidents.asp Gabriel E. Ryb, J. (2009). PTSD After Severe Vehicular Crashes. PubMed Central (PMC). Retrieved 4 April 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3256803/ Guest, R., Tran, Y., Gopinath, B., Cameron, I. D., Craig, A. (2016). Prevention of the development of psychological distress following a motor vehicle crash: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials, 17(1), 317. Kenardy, J., Heron-Delaney, M., Bellamy, N., Sterling, M., Connelly, L. (2013). The study by University of Queensland onthe physical and psychological outcomes for individuals with claims with minimaland moderate injuries following a road traffic crash (UQ SuPPORT): design and methods. Retrieved 4 April 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4009486/ Lee, C., Li, X. (2014). Analysis of injury severity of drivers involved in single-and two-vehicle crashes on highways in Ontario. Accident Analysis Prevention, 71, 286-295. McHugh PR, Treisman G.(2007).PTSD: A problematic diagnostic category. J Anxiety Disorders; 21(2):211222. Smith, A. (2017). Perceptions of risk factors for road traffic accidents. Advances In Social Sciences Research Journal, 4(1). https://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.41.2616 Turkal, D. Post-traumatic Stress Reactions Following Motor Vehicle Accidents - American Family Physician. Aafp.org. Retrieved 4 April 2017, from https://www.aafp.org/afp/1999/0801/p524.html Van Liempt, S., van Zuiden, M., Westenberg, H., Super, A., Vermetten, E. (2013). Impact of impaired sleep on the development of PTSD symptoms in combat veterans: a prospective longitudinal cohort study. Depression and anxiety, 30(5), 469-474.

HIST 1301 CRN 15107 American History to 1877 Essays - Education

HIST 1301 CRN 15107 American History to 1877 Spring 2017 TR 9:30 to 11:00 Houston Community College Southwest-West Loop Campus, Room C252 Instructor: Dr. Rogan Ellen Brunet Email: [emailprotected] Website: http://learning.hccs.edu/faculty/rogan.brunet Office: C256, Phone: 7137182084 Course Description: History 1301 is a survey of United States history from Native American cultures to 1877. It will focus on the evolution of the economic, social/cultural and political institutions which define the development of the modern United States and its people. Although this course is built around historical events and processes, it is much more than a simple recitation of facts. Students will learn and apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills and will work with historical documents, maps and economic and demographic models. History 1301 is a 16 week, 48 contact hour course which fulfills three hours of the state-mandated six-hour history requirement. Completion of this class will also improve performance in reading, writing, critical thinking, communication, and computer skills. Prerequisites: Must be currently enrolled or have completed ENGL 1301. Learning Outcomes: a. To create an argument through the use of historical evidence b. The ability to analyze and interpret primary and secondary source documents c. The capability to analyze the effect of historical, social, political, economic, cultural and global forces on different eras of history d. To explain the importance of chronology and how earlier concepts and actions shaped later events STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES Discuss the Age of Exploration Explain Colonization Identify the causes and effects of the American Revolution Explain the origins and impact of slavery Analyze the formation of the Republic Summarize the effects of expansion and innovation Explain Nationalism and Sectionalism Discuss the Civil War Evaluate the effects of Reconstruction Texts: Recommended: America, A Narrative History, v. 1, brief 10th edition, George Tindall, David Shi Recommended: www.digitalhistory.uh.edu, Stephen Mintz (recommended) Required-Love and Hate in Jamestown, David A. Price Required-His Excellency: George Washington, Joseph Ellis Purchasing a textbook for this class is not required. If you want a textbook for this class, my recommendation is America, A Narrative History, v1. There is also an online textbook available at www.digitalhistory.uh.edu. This course is lecture intensive however and reading a textbook will not replace lecture notes. Any textbook should be used as a supplement to the information presented each day in class. This is a working syllabus and remains flexible. Please feel free to ask questions and remember that participation is crucial to your grade in this class. The instructor reserves the right to modify the syllabus at any time, with notification to the students. Discussion/Lecture Format Class: This class is both a standard lecture format and a discussion based class. Each class period, we (actually you) will discuss the written lecture assigned for that day or we will have a lecture. On the Course Calendar you will see that I have divided up our subjects by topics, not by chapters. This is because I do not follow any textbook; my lectures are my own. Every topic has a lecture that is available on my LW site. I will either lecture on the topic or you will discuss the lecture that you have read in advance. Your participation in the class discussion is noted. Students who participate in the day's discussion receive one participation point. Exams: There will be two exams in this course, a midterm and a final. Each exam will consist of twenty-five identifications and one essay and will be typed in the computer lab. A study guide to the exam will be given prior to the exam date. Each exam is worth 100 pts. No student will be admitted to the classroom twenty minutes after the exam has begun. It is assumed that all students will take all exams at the assigned times, unless you make arrangements to the contrary ahead of the scheduled exam time. Students will be required to put away all electronic devices, including cell phones, during exams. No blue book is required for your exams. Please be warned. I do NOT want to see my own lecture notes in ANY of the exams that you hand back to me. One, it counts as plagiarism. Two, this class is designed to develop YOUR critical thinking skills. If you need help, if you feel overwhelmed, if you feel that you cannot do this, come and talk to me. Do not, however, regurgitate the facts that I give you. They are to be used as a springboard for your own thoughts and opinions. Reading Assignments: There will be two monographs (books) that will be given in addition to your regular exams.

History of Police Essay Example

History of Police Essay Example History of Police Paper History of Police Paper History of Police History of Police The role of police officers is very significant to American history. Police work toward protecting citizens’ rights and helping America become the land of the free. The United States of America is built from the U. S. Constitution Bill of Rights and police play a major role in making sure American rights are met. Evolution has changed many of American history for the better; policing is part of those changes. As new issues in society arise, police must change and adapt to protect and serve the public. Early American policing strategies were based on the British model. Law enforcement was not organized until 1200 A. D. offenders were pursued by an organized posse. If offenders were caught they were usually tortured and faced public execution. Rarely did they have trials and instead of innocent until proven guilty it was the other way around, citizens were usually guilty before any evidence or testimony. â€Å"An early form of police patrol in English cities and towns† (Schmalleger, 2009, p. 153), is called a night watch. The primary purpose of a night watch was to watch out for fires and thieves. Next became the day watch their job was the same as night watch, but in the day. Followed by the Statute of Winchester which is a â€Å"law, written in 1285, that created a watch and ward system in English cities and towns and that codified early police practices† (Schmalleger, 2009, p. 153). This law had four main components, which were specified the watch in towns, mandated eligible men to serve, institutionalized the use of the hue and cry, and for answering the call of duty citizens kept weapons in their homes. A former prime minister of England Sir Robert Peel formed the world first modern police force. His model, the new police became a model for police across the world to follow. He formed the police with more of a military attitude; given them uniforms and a better organized structure. Early American leaders followed the day and night watch approach, later American leaders followed Sir Robert Peel method, which is what American police are based on today. New technology and social reform for policing happened in the twentieth century. This brought about the first woman police officer. The invention of automobiles, telephones, and radios was also developed, which helped police officers in a major way. Automobiles allowed police a quick responds and allowed them to serve bigger areas. Radios allowed better communication between police officers. Telephones allowed better communication between officers and civilians. Teddy Roosevelt help promote the first call box system, which is compared to the 911 system used today; also he helped organize the FBI, one of the most famous government agencies. The history of policing is divided into four periods. The political era (1840s-1930) was the first, police agencies were more concerned with the interest of powerful politicians. The second era (1930s-1970s) police were more concerned with solving traditional crimes. Today the third period is used in contemporary policing, which deal with community policing. Last is the homeland security era, which grew after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack. All levels of law enforcement agencies have devoted more time and effort for homeland security after the attack. A variety of police agencies to enforce the law is created by local, state, and federal law enforcement. Federal law enforcement agency is â€Å"A U. S government agency or office whose primary functional responsibility is to enforce federal criminal laws† (Schmalleger, 2009, p. 161). The FBI is one of the most famous in federal law enforcement, but federal law has many agencies in several departments that deal with issues with America. The FBI has changed over time, dealing with current issues in American history. Once they protected Americans from organized crime, the FBI protected against international espionage, and defended American civil rights when those issues were the most important at the time. Today the FBI focuses on homeland security after the September 11, 2001 attack. â€Å"The Mission of the FBI is to protect and defend the United States against terrorist and foreign intelligence threats; to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of the United States; and to provide leadership and criminal justice services to federal, state, municipal, and international agencies and partners† (Schmalleger, 2009, p. 162). State law enforcement agencies were created for specific needs. State law enforcement was built from one of two models. The first model combines major criminal investigations with patrol state highways. The second model creates two separate agencies and makes a clear distinction between traffic enforcement and other state level functions. The duties of the modern state police agencies are to assist local law enforcement in criminal investigations, operate identification bureaus, maintain criminal records repository, patrol states highways, and provide training for municipals and county officers. Today they have also stepped up their role in homeland security since September 11, 2011. They are more involved in training, looking for suspicions vehicles on highways, communicating with the federal and local police to fight terrorist attacks The third level of law enforcement agencies are at the local level. City and county agencies are part of the local level, which includes police chiefs and sheriffs. Mayors or city council appoints the city police chief. Their jurisdictions are limited to the boundary of their communities. Sheriffs are responsible for law enforcement in unincorporated areas and for the operation of the county jail. Local police play a big role in the new era of homeland security. â€Å"They must help prevent attacks and respond when attacks occur, offering critical evacuation, emergency medical, and security functions to help stabilize communities following an incident† (Schmalleger, 2009, p. 203). Local police are important when dealing with homeland security because they are always talking and interacting with the public. Police are constantly patrolling neighborhoods, so they can notice certain changes that could harm the community. With each generation Americans have advanced in technology, experience, and knowledge. Police benefit from historical development, police continue to change and grow as the world does the same. Police have changed over the years but police will not change their main goal, which is to protect and serve the public. Police are very important to American society in all levels local, state, and federal each with an individual purpose, but the goal is justice for all citizens. Law enforcement main focus will always change because when one crime is deterred and under control another crime may be America biggest threat. Some of American issues were organized crimes, civil rights, but since September 11, 2001 homeland security has been the focus of our law enforcements to make sure citizens are protected. This will be accomplished by new laws, technology, and a team effort including civilians, which will add on to the history of our brave men and women. Reference Schmalleger, F. (2009). Criminal Justice Today: an Introductory Text for the 21st Century (10th ed. ). New York, NY: Prentice-Hall. 2007. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Progress Report on Implementation of Mission and Management Functions. GAO Reports i. MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed June 12, 2011). Dodsworth, F. M. (2008). The Idea of Police in Eighteenth-Century England: Discipline, Reformation, Superintendence, c. 1780-1800. Journal of the History of Ideas, 69(4), 583-604. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Scott, J. E. (2010). Evolving Strategies: A Historical Examination of Changes in Principle, Authority and Function to Inform Polic ing in the Twenty-First Century. Police Journal, 83(2), 126-163. doi:10. 1350/pojo. 2010. 83. 2. 490

Naked Lunch (William S.Burroughs)+Naked Lunch(David Conenberg) Term Paper

Naked Lunch (William S.Burroughs)+Naked Lunch(David Conenberg) - Term Paper Example ypewriter company, and thus enjoyed a manner of wealth and support from his family over time that allowed him to pursue literature as a career as well as to travel. However, it was Burroughs’ â€Å"street-wise† sense and knowledge of the subculture of junkies, addicts, pimps, prostitutes, petty thieves, and drug dealers that impressed the other Beats in addition to his mind. Burroughs’ first works before ‘Naked Lunch,’ entitled ‘Junky’ (1953) and ‘Queer’ (written at the same time but published in 1985) , told the story of this sordid underworld with a dry, realistic style from the perspective of a heroin addict, also including seeds of science fiction themes he would return to in later works. Burroughs life is in many ways determined by his homosexuality, and the relationship with his family that entailed in his youth. Homosexuality was repressed and an object of hate crime in America frequently during his time in Missouri, and homosexuals were discriminated upon in ways by society that fueled Burroughs’ identity as an outsider. Nevertheless, his earlier work is written in a style that is traditional and not revolutionary as in ‘Naked Lunch’ and later cut-up novels. When Ginsberg refused Burroughs’ advances sexually in the mid-fifties, Burroughs went into a type of depression that also fueled his drug addiction to new levels. Burroughs and Ginsberg had experimented with the Amazonian entheogen Yage, or Ayahuasca, as well as other psychedelics like mushrooms, acid, & peyote, as well as street drugs like pot, heroin, amphetamines, speed, and cocaine. (Burroughs & Ginsberg, 2001) The drugged state of massive hallucinations is a theme that drives t he majority of Burroughs’ work, as he seeks to express in â€Å"Naked Lunch† and other books a theory of mind and an expanded sense of self that he experienced himself in altered states of consciousness as well as the desperate and self-loathing states of despair. â€Å"There is no line between the real

FUTURE OF NEVADA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

FUTURE OF NEVADA - Essay Example Las Vegas became a link to California and the Pacific. The blaze of the new trail started peeking off when railroads, dams and buildings were erected. One of Nevada's highlight is its early adherence on the concept of divorce being legislated during the 1900's. By the year 1931, the strict law was reduced only to six weeks to obtain a divorce paper. In the same year, Nevada started legalizing gambling. Subsequently, several casinos were instituted, owned by many famous and elite classes as well as some wealthy criminals. More profoundly, in the year 1967, Nevada had allowed held corporations to own casinos through legislative enactment. The industry of gambling had attracted many visitors each year, hence there is a need for luxurious accommodation. Hotels and motels were constructed to keep pace with every year's visitors and sojourners. Also residential buildings were erected for those who wanted to stay around in Las Vegas. Now Las Vegas turns into a fancy place, where everybody y ears for good fortune being sought by the gamblers. As years pass by, several casinos and gambling place was set forth in Las Vegas, as a result thereof, many visitors lush each year, many of them awe in the beautiful buildings and huge gambling sites promising for large penny. However, this event does not guarantee a bright future of Las Vegas.

Assignment question Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Assignment question - Research Paper Example A hungry man can tell which one of the two is important: ecosystem or food. To meet this hunger, forest conversion becomes more important than forest conservation. Poor do not have the resources and materials to make the preservation possible. They have to cut down forests to make the land grow something that should be beneficial for them and their nation. For countries where hunger is prevailing, forests have no market value or economic function. Thus, to richer developed countries, it may be important to preserve ecosystems for carbon sinks and biodiversity because they can afford it; but, poorer countries have to do something to feed the nation first. United States went through deforestation many years back due to which it is a developed country now. It would not be fair to deny the poorer countries this opportunity. Agriculture development is the basic requirement of a country if it has to come at par with the modern world. However, to balance out the agricultural security ecosys tem preservation, there is need to devise strategic policies at national level.

Child Abandonment: Causes and Responses

Child Abandonment: Causes and Responses While many people consider babies as their blessing from the God, but there are others still consider them as burden and a shame. The abandoned babys cases are become more serious in our country. Besides that, the situation has reached a worrying state where babies are abandoned in the most unbelievable manner by their mothers in rivers, rubbish dumps, doorstep, bas stop and even mosques. Some newborns make it and some die while others are killed before being dumped. Whether we admit it or not, nowadays many women lose their virginity a very young age. This is because human relationship are began to deteriorate. Teenagers lack of family care or attention from their families may cause them out look for spiritual comfort. It will cause them far away from their families and started affect by their soul mate. The rise in teenage pregnancies is becoming a disturbing trend. From January to April this year, 111 such cases were reported to the Welfare Department, compared with 131 cases last year and 107 cases in 2008.According to MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong, the statistics provided by the Welfare Department may only be the tip of the iceberg. Such incidents are a sign of deterioration in moral values and, if not addressed urgently, will lead to the destruction of societys moral fabric. Everyone must be held responsible for this the parents, youth and teenagers, the authorities and society. The National Registration Department registered some 257,000 births between 2000 and July 2008 without the names of parents, which translated into 2,500 babies born out of wedlock monthly or 84 cases daily. We cannot allow teenagers and others to kill innocent babies born out of wedlock. But we also cannot allow babies to be born out of wedlock without people taking responsibility for their actions. Young people get pregnant because of having the unprotected sex. Besides that, they did not fully realize what the true meaning of sex and pregnancy is. A girl may get pregnant not just because of you touch her hand or you kiss her face but it is because a in depth kind of relationship. Due to lack of knowledge about this relevant topic may cause many young people did not aware about the seriousness of this problem. If they are knowledgeable and educated, they can at least avoid the most unpleasant consequences. Besides that, apart from that many career women living in cities oblige their boyfriends request when they are asked to watch pornographic VCD and then engage in sexual activities out of wedlock. When the girl gets pregnant, the boyfriend will do a vanishing act to absolve himself of all responsibilities. The unfortunate girl is left alone with the baby. The fear of their secrets being discovered by their families makes them resort to the unthinkable and so that may cause them just abandoned the newborn. When the mother abandon the newborn is consider as murder. Government should seriously look upon this issue rather than just concentrate on other issues such as corruption, cronyism, nepotism or wasteful expenditure. We need to nip this problem in the bud in order to prevent the problem getting worse and until it out of control. Plenty of effort we can done in many aspect to stop this problem spread. Besides of parent, government and society also should be responsible upon this issue. On the other hands, religious and belief also play an important role on this problem. If the young people are a devout believer, at least they may think twice before they want to engage in sexual activities. Government should enforce the law to stop the mother from abandoning the baby. Example government can fine the mother who had abandoned their baby. For more serious, the government can also put the mother into prison or ask them to do public service as a punishment. To make this more effective, the head of police should allocate more police to patrol at night. Other than this, government can fixed some camera at the place or lane that is no people pass by and also the place where people normally abandon their baby. By doing this, it will help the government in taking action on the mother who abandoned their baby because when the mother abandon their baby, the camera may capture the whole process or one of the police may saw it during patrol, then the mother will be get arrested. Other than this, the government should also set a higher age limit for a person to have sex with someone. For example, as we know in Malaysia the age limit for a person to have sex is 16 years old and now the government should increase the age limit to 21 years old. On the other hand government should also increase the penalty for the people who have sex with a person when they are still under age and also increase the penalty for the people who have sex with a person who is under age, so that they will think twice when they want to do so. By doing this, it can help in solving the issues of abandon baby because as we know normally the mother who abandon her baby is the mother which is not mature enough and under age. So, if our government increases the age limit of having sex and also the penalty, it will cause people not dare to have a sexual relationship with someone who is under age and what will happen is the number of people having baby when they are not mature enough will decre ase and it will definitely reduce the problem of abandon baby. Besides that, government should have a baby hatch system. This baby hatch system had implemented in several country such as Pakistan, Germany, and Japan. Baby Hatch is actually a place where the parent can left their child there anonymously. In order to implement this system, government should provide several small spaces for a person to put the baby in the provided locations. The small space must have a door, a soft bed, and a sensor on the bed so that it will alert the staffs to let them know there is a baby inside the small space. Basically the whole idea of baby hatch is trying to rescue the abandoned baby. If the government does not have this kind of system the parent will just abandon their baby at the road side or anywhere else and the baby will be very pity. So, if our government has this kind of system, the parents can donate their baby to the government, so that the government can help to take care of the babies and help the baby to find a suitable family. This is better th an abandon the baby beside the road. Having a baby hatch system may help to reduce the number of abandoned babies dramatically and the rate of infant mortality will decrease because the government is taking good care of the baby and the baby will not die because of hungry, sick or any other reason. Nowadays, the curiosity of teenagers or even though young adult about the sex is gradually increased due to the drama or the movie they watched. The number of teenage pregnancies also on the rise. So, the sex education is necessary to implement in school, colleges, universities to enhancing their knowledge, attitude and behaviour about sex and the consequences of having sex before marriage. A student who doing well in school is very promising, however, it does not mean that he or she will be a responsible adult in future. Therefore, sex education is important now to get children and teenagers to learn the proper social skill especially sex in order to let them know the responsibility when they choose to have sexual relationship but not to teach them how to do. Sex education is the process of acquiring information about sex, sexual identity and sexual relationship. Beside that, sex education also can help teenagers to protect themselves against abuse or unintended pregnancies, prevent unsafe abortion or abandoned babies and the transmission of the infection. The purpose of sex education is to reduce the risk of negative outcomes from sexual behaviour such as unwanted or unplanned pregnancies. Besides that, sex education is also to provide accurate information about the risk of having sexual relationship before marriage, information about birth control and the contraception. Sex education also finds out what the teenagers already know and correcting any incorrect information that they may have. Through the sex education, it can increase the knowledge of teenagers about sexuality. Teenagers who had received the sex education will have lower risk of intended pregnancy and less likely to having sex relationship at early age. In addition, sex education programme can also promote the safer sex practise. Safer sex practise is the practise that the people take precaution when having sex relationship to protect themselves against the transmission of HIV and AIDS. Safer sex can reduce the risk of getting the HIV or AIDS when having the sex relationship. Safer sex practise can get through by using condom when having sex relationship with partner. By using condom can reduce the risk to get the HIV and AIDS, unintended pregnancy. This can reduce the number of abortion and abandoned babies issues. Beginning the sex education at an early age is very important. By giving some basic information about sex to children such as how was a people grow and change over time, how a baby came from. For those teenagers, teacher can give more complex information on sex such as the transmission of HIV and AIDS, the consequences of having sexual relationship before marriage. However, sex education at early age does not mean that encourages teenagers to have sex but is to let teenagers to store up information provided for a time when they need it in the future. Sex education not only can get through school but also can take place through various people. Different people have the different responsibility to provide sex education to teenagers and children. As a parents, they can face-to-face discuss with their children on specific issues or question on sex. Besides that, parents should educate their children about self-respect, moral values and self-protection. Some parents (In Asia) are reluctant to talk about sex issues to their children due to shy or do not know how to begin the topic about sex. Parents should not avoid this subject if not their children may relying on incorrect information they get and it will put them on risk of unwanted sex, unintended pregnancies. Therefore, the discussion between parents and their children is important because the discussion, the parents may know more what their childrens thinking is. The good communication between parents and their children about sexual matter can lead to their children have more awa reness to the seriousness of having sex before marriage. Besides that, teachers also have the responsibility to provide sex education to teenagers. The teachers who are going to provide sex education must be well trained so the teachers will not feel shy to provide the sex education. Beside that, a well trained teacher can provide more accurate information about sex matter to teenagers. Teacher should also educate students the danger of premarital sex and the consequences of premarital sex. Cases of child abandonment usually results from unwanted pregnancies. In most cases, it involves teenage girls who became pregnant outside wedlock and are compelled to commit the act in desperation and fear of the consequences. So what are the main reasons for abortion? Many women and teens worry about their future plans. Some women and teens do not feel they can afford a child. Deciding what to do about an unplanned pregnancy can be difficult. Furthermore, even having a family member at hand does not provide an environment that encourages a pregnant teen to openly seek help. Shame, fear of blame from parents or health staff and the presence of traditional religious and conservative norms make it difficult. There for, a family member must accompany teens seeking counselling. This is because they need someone who can support them, because their condition is very unstable. As the parent of a pregnant teen, you may be feeling many of the same emotions as your daughter such as shock, anger, fear or uncertainty. Maybe your teen was scared to tell you about her pregnancy, or maybe she came to you right away. In either case, your child will need to learn on you for support as she makes decisions that will affect the rest of her life. Parents may play a very important role in a pregnant teens decision. Pregnant teens often need the support and help of their closest family and friends as well. Besides, the pregnant teens can go for an option counselor. An option counselor can help both women and girls with this decision. They will not make the decision or try to convince you to choose a particular course of action. Rather, they help all women decide for themselves. They will find a best way to help you to solve the problems and helps you to learn better social skills. As a role of schools, it is possible to implement programs to assist pregnant teenagers during and after their pregnancies ant this is specifically for only pregnant teens and young mothers. It can provide child care, parenting courses and a high school curriculum to make it as easy as possible for the students to attend school. On the other hand, with support from state and private sources, the government can implement some prevention campaign like adolescent Pregnancy Program and health care program to those pregnant teens. The program is to give teenage parents and their children access to health care. The program links with community-based services for teenaged parents and provides much-needed immunizations, parenting education and physical checkups for parents and their children. Furthermore, Media can be the way to pregnant teens to seek for the information. There are many websites, forums and online communities are available on the Internet. These sites are places where pregnant teens can go to learn more about their condition and to talk to others in a similar situation. Some are designed to offer support and to provide information to pregnant teens.

Internet Advertising (Web Advertising) :: BTEC Business Marketing GCSE Coursework

Web Advertising It is questionable whether advertising on the Web is effective, researchers say. According to Natia Enligh and Michael Pierce, authors of â€Å"Advertising on the Web,† the Web has the ability to deliver a flow of information. â€Å"For advertisers especially, the Web has enormous potential, mainly because of its vast size and global reach. Today marketers and advertisers are wondering just how they can use the Web to have the greatest impact on consumers.† Advertising on the Web is effective because it offers an extensive amount of information and is interactive. â€Å"Consumers can control the type of volume of information they get, in real time and with minimal effort. The Web has excellent potential to target common-interest groups nationally or across the world,† write Enligh and Pierce. Forrester Research Inc. of Cambridge, Mass. says because of the high cost of computers and Internet access, households that are on-line are more educated and have higher income levels than average ones. â€Å"Home Web users spend about four hours a week on-line. This means that they spend less time on other activities, particularly watching television. As a result, marketing strategies must integrate more mediums if they are to deliver a consistent message.† According to â€Å"Effective Internet Advertising Techniques,† (http://afgen.com/techniques.htm), these are some techniques to use when advertising on the Internet: †¢ Attract your reader with a catchy word or phrase right up front. †¢ Study other classifieds. If you see them repeatedly its because they work. †¢ Keep your classifieds brief and to the point, using phrases, not complete sketches. †¢ Use simple words, not long ones. Don’t confuse the reader. †¢ Tell the reader exactly what they are getting. †¢ Don’t try to sell the product in a classified. Simply try to get interested people to respond. †¢ Use energetic punctuation, such as exclamation points instead of periods. The Internet is Different Some experts believe reaching a younger target audience is effective for advertising on the Internet. â€Å"There are some sections of the population, such as young people and hobbyists, that you cannot reach with conventional media or whom it would be too expensive to reach with TV. The Internet is good mean to seek out niches,† says Andrew Rolf, creative director of Internet consultancy Hyperlink Interactive. (The Financial Times Limited-London) On-line advertising works differently than other mediums. Customers are in charge; they have control of the â€Å"Back† button.

Advertising Impact

Quant Mark Econ (2009) 7:207–236 DOI 10. 1007/s11129-009-9066-z The effect of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality: An empirical investigation using panel data C. Robert Clark  · Ulrich Doraszelski  · Michaela Draganska Received: 11 December 2007 / Accepted: 2 April 2009 / Published online: 8 May 2009  © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009 Abstract We use a panel data set that combines annual brand-level advertising expenditures for over three hundred brands with measures of brand awareness and perceived quality from a large-scale consumer survey to study the effect of advertising.Advertising is modeled as a dynamic investment in a brand’s stocks of awareness and perceived quality and we ask how such an investment changes brand awareness and quality perceptions. Our panel data allow us to control for unobserved heterogeneity across brands and to identify the effect of advertising from the time-series variation within brands. They also allow us to account for the endogeneity of advertising through recently developed dynamic panel data estimation techniques. We ? nd that advertising has consistently a signi? cant positive effect on brand awareness but no signi? ant effect on perceived quality. Keywords Advertising  · Brand awareness  · Perceived quality  · Dynamic panel data methods JEL Classi? cation L15  · C23  · H37 C. R. Clark Institute of Applied Economics, HEC Montreal and CIRPEE, 3000 Chemin de la Cote-Sainte-Catherine, Montreal, Quebec H3T 2A7, Canada e-mail: robert. [email  protected] ca U. Doraszelski Department of Economics, Harvard University, 1805 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA e-mail: [email  protected] edu ) M. Draganska (B Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5015, USA e-mail: [email  protected] tanford. edu 208 C. R. Clark et al. 1 Introduction In 2006 more than $280 billion were spent on advertising in the U. S. , well above 2% of GDP. By inve sting in advertising, marketers aim to encourage consumers to choose their brand. For a consumer to choose a brand, two conditions must be satis? ed: First, the brand must be in her choice set. Second, the brand must be preferred over all the other brands in her choice set. Advertising may facilitate one or both of these conditions. In this research we empirically investigate how advertising affects these two conditions.To disentangle the impact on choice set from that on preferences, we use actual measures of the level of information possessed by consumers about a large number of brands and of their quality perceptions. We compile a panel data set that combines annual brand-level advertising expenditures with data from a large-scale consumer survey, in which respondents were asked to indicate whether they were aware of different brands and, if so, to rate them in terms of quality. These data offer the unique opportunity to study the role of advertising for a wide range of brands ac ross a number of different product categories.The awareness score measures how well consumers are informed about the existence and the availability of a brand and hence captures directly the extent to which the brand is part of consumers’ choice sets. The quality rating measures the degree of subjective vertical product differentiation in the sense that consumers are led to perceive the advertised brand as being better. Hence, our data allow us to investigate the relationship between advertising and two important dimensions of consumer knowledge.The behavioral literature in marketing has highlighted the same two dimensions in the form of the size of the consideration set and the relative strength of preferences (Nedungadi 1990; Mitra and Lynch 1995). It is, of course, possible that advertising also affects other aspects of consumer knowledge. For example, advertising may generate some form of subjective horizontal product differentiation that is unlikely to be re? ected in ei ther brand awareness or perceived quality. In a recent paper Erdem et al. (2008), however, report that advertising focuses on horizontal attributes only for one out of the 19 brands examined.Understanding the channel through which advertising affects consumer choice is important for researchers and practitioners alike for several reasons. For example, Sutton’s (1991) bounds on industry concentration in large markets implicitly assume that advertising increases consumers’ willingness to pay by altering quality perceptions. While pro? ts increase in perceived quality, they may decrease in brand awareness (Fershtman and Muller 1993; Boyer and Moreaux 1999), thereby stalling the competitive escalation in advertising at the heart of the endogenous sunk cost theory.Moreover, Doraszelski and Markovich (2007) show that even in small markets industry dynamics can be very different depending on the nature of advertising. From an empirical perspective, when estimating a demand mo del, advertising could be modeled Effect of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality 209 as affecting the choice set or as affecting the utility that the consumer derives from a brand. If the role of advertising is mistakenly speci? ed as affecting quality perceptions (i. e. , preferences) rather than brand awareness as it often is, then the estimated parameters may be biased.In her study of the U. S. personal computer industry, Sovinsky Goeree (2008) ? nds that traditional demand models overstate price elasticities because they assume that consumers are aware of—and hence choose among—all brands in the market when in actuality most consumers are aware of only a small fraction of brands. For our empirical analysis we develop a dynamic estimation framework. Brand awareness and perceived quality are naturally viewed as stocks that are built up over time in response to advertising (Nerlove and Arrow 1962).At the same time, these stocks depreciate as consumers forget past advertising campaigns or as an old campaign is superseded by a new campaign. Advertising can thus be thought of as an investment in brand awareness and perceived quality. The dynamic nature of advertising leads us to a dynamic panel data model. In estimating this model we confront two important problems, namely unobserved heterogeneity across brands and the potential endogeneity of advertising. We discuss these below. When estimating the effect of advertising across brands we need to keep in mind that they are different in many respects.Unobserved factors that affect both advertising expenditures and the stocks of perceived quality and awareness may lead to spurious positive estimates of the effect of advertising. Put differently, if we detect an effect of advertising, then we cannot be sure if this effect is causal in the sense that higher advertising expenditures lead to higher brand awareness and perceived quality or if it is spurious in the sense that different brand s have different stocks of perceived quality and awareness as well as advertising expenditures.For example, although in our data the brands in the fast food category on average have high advertising and high awareness and the brands in the cosmetics and fragrances category have low advertising and low awareness, we cannot infer that advertising boosts awareness. We can only conclude that the relationship between advertising expenditures, perceived quality, and brand awareness differs from category to category or even from brand to brand. Much of the existing literature uses cross-sectional data to discern a relationship between advertising expenditures and perceived quality (e. g. Kirmani and Wright 1989; Kirmani 1990; Moorthy and Zhao 2000; Moorthy and Hawkins 2005) in an attempt to test the idea that consumers draw inferences about the brand’s quality from the amount that is spent on advertising it (Nelson 1974; Milgrom and Roberts 1986; Tellis and Fornell 1988). With cross -sectional data it is dif? cult to account for unobserved heterogeneity across brands. Indeed, if we neglect permanent differences between brands, then we ? nd that both brand awareness and perceived quality are positively correlated with advertising expenditures, thereby replicating the earlier studies.Once we make full use of our panel data and account for unobserved 210 C. R. Clark et al. heterogeneity, however, the effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality disappears. 1 Our estimation equations are dynamic relationships between a brand’s current stocks of perceived quality and awareness on the left-hand side and the brand’s previous stocks of perceived quality and awareness as well as its own and its rivals’ advertising expenditures on the right-hand side. In this context, endogeneity arises for two reasons.First, the lagged dependent variables are by construction correlated with all past error terms and therefore endogenous. As a consequence, traditional ? xed-effect methods are necessarily inconsistent. 2 Second, advertising expenditures may also be endogenous for economic reasons. For instance, media coverage such as news reports may affect brand awareness and perceived quality beyond the amount spent on advertising. To the extent that these shocks to the stocks of perceived quality and awareness of a brand feed back into decisions about advertising, say because the brand manager opts to advertise less if a news report has generated suf? ient awareness, they give rise to an endogeneity problem. To resolve the endogeneity problem we use the dynamic panel data methods developed by Arellano and Bond (1991), Arellano and Bover (1995), and Blundell and Bond (1998). The key advantage is that these methods do not rely on the availability of strictly exogenous explanatory variables or instruments. This is an appealing methodology that has been widely applied (e. g. , Acemoglu and Robinson 2001; Durlauf et al. 2005; Zhang and L i 2007) because valid instruments are often hard to come by. Further, since these methods involve ? st differencing, they allow us to control for unobserved factors that affect both advertising expenditures and the stocks of perceived quality and awareness and may lead to spurious positive estimates of the effect of advertising. In addition, our approach allows for factors other than advertising to affect a brand’s stock of perceived quality and awareness to the extent that these factors are constant over time. Our main ? nding is that advertising expenditures have a signi? cant positive effect on brand awareness but no signi? cant effect on perceived quality.These results appear to be robust across a wide range of speci? cations. Since awareness is the most basic kind of information a consumer can have for a brand, we conclude that an important role of advertising is information provision. On the other hand, our results indicate that advertising is not likely to alter consum ers’ quality perceptions. This conclusion calls for a reexamination of the implicit assumption underlying Sutton’s (1991) endogenous sunk cost theory. It also suggests that advertising should be modeled as affecting the choice set and not just utility when estimating demand.Finally, our ? ndings lend empirical 1 Another way to get around this issue is to take an experimental approach, as in Mitra and Lynch (1995). 2 This source of endogeneity is not tied to advertising in particular; rather it always arises in estimating dynamic relationships in the presence of unobserved heterogeneity. An exception is the (rather unusual) panel-data setting where one has T > ? instead of N > ?. In this case the within estimator is consistent (Bond 2002, p. 5). Effect of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality 211 upport to the view that advertising is generally procompetitive because it disseminates information about the existence, the price, and the attributes of product s more widely among consumers (Stigler 1961; Telser 1964; Nelson 1970, 1974). The remainder of the paper proceeds as follows. In Sections 2 and 3 we explain the dynamic investment model and the corresponding empirical strategy. In Section 4 we describe the data and in Section 5 we present the results of the empirical analysis. Section 6 concludes. 2 Model speci? cation We develop an empirical model based on the classic advertising-as-investment model of Nerlove and Arrow (1962).Related empirical models are the basis of current research on advertising (e. g. , Naik et al. 1998; Dube et al. 2005; Doganoglu and Klapper 2006; Bass et al. 2007). Naik et al. (1998), in particular, ? nd that the Nerlove and Arrow (1962) model provides a better ? t than other models that have been proposed in the literature such as Vidale and Wolfe (1957), Brandaid (Little 1975), Tracker (Blattberg and Golanty 1978), and Litmus (Blackburn and Clancy 1982). We extend the Nerlove and Arrow (1962) framework in two respects. First, we allow a brand’s stocks of awareness and perceived quality to be affected by the advertising of its competitors.This approach captures the idea that advertising takes place in a competitive environment where brands vie for the attention of consumers. The advertising of competitors may also be bene? cial to a brand if it draws attention to the entire category and thus expands the relevant market for the brand (e. g. , Nedungadi 1990; Kadiyali 1996). Second, we allow for a stochastic component in the effect of advertising on the stocks of awareness and perceived quality to re? ect the success or failure of an advertising campaign and other unobserved in? uences such as the creative quality of the advertising copy, media selection, or scheduling.More formally, we let Qit be the stock of perceived quality of brand i at the start of period t and Ait the stock of its awareness. We further let Eit? 1 denote the advertising expenditures of brand i over the cou rse of period t ? 1 and E? it? 1 = (E1t? 1 , . . . , Ei? 1t? 1 , Ei+1t? 1 , . . . , Ent? 1 ) the advertising expenditures of its competitors. Then, at the most general level, the stocks of perceived quality and awareness of brand i evolve over time according to the laws of motion Qit = git (Qit? 1 , Eit? 1 , E? it? 1 , ? it ), Ait = hit (Ait? 1 , Eit? 1 , E? it? 1 , ? t ), where git ( ·) and hit ( ·) are brand- and time-speci? c functions. The idiosyncratic error ? it captures the success or failure of an advertising campaign along with all other omitted factors. For example, the quality of the advertising campaign may matter just as much as the amount spent on it. By recursively substituting 212 C. R. Clark et al. for the lagged stocks of perceived quality and awareness we can write the current stocks as functions of all past advertising expenditures and the current and all past error terms. This shows that these shocks to brand awareness and perceived quality are persistent ov er time.For example, the effect of a particularly good (or bad) advertising campaign may linger and be felt for some time to come. We model the effect of competitors’ advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality in two ways. First, we consider a brand’s â€Å"share of voice. † We use its advertising expenditures, Eit? 1 , relative to the average amount spent on advertising by rival brands in the brand’s subcategory or category, E? it? 1 . 3 To the extent that brands compete with each other for the attention of consumers, a brand may have to outspend its rivals to cut through the clutter.If so, then what is important may not be the absolute amount spent on advertising but the amount relative to rival brands. Second, we consider the amount of advertising in the entire market by including the average amount spent on advertising by rival brands in the brand’s subcategory or category. Advertising is market expanding if it attracts consumers to t he entire category but not necessarily to a particular brand. In this way, competitors’ advertising may have a positive in? uence on, say, brand awareness. Taken together, our estimation equations are Qit = ? i + ? t + ? Qit? 1 + f (Eit? 1 , E? it? 1 ) + ? t , Ait = ? i + ? t + ? Ait? 1 + f (Eit? 1 , E? it? 1 ) + ? it . (1) (2) Here ? i is a brand effect that captures unobserved heterogeneity across brands and ? t is a time effect to control for possible systematic changes over time. The time effect may capture, for example, that consumers are systematically informed about a larger number of brands due to the advent of the internet and other alternative media channels. Through the brand effect we allow for factors other than advertising to affect a brand’s stocks of perceived quality and awareness to the extent that these factors are constant over time.For example, consumers may hear about a brand and their quality perceptions may be affected by word of mouth. Similarl y, it may well be the case that consumers in the process of purchasing a brand become more informed about it and that their quality perceptions change, especially for high-involvement brands. Prior to purchasing a car, say, many consumers engage in research about the set of available cars and their respective characteristics, including quality ratings from sources such as car magazines and Consumer Reports.If these effects do not vary over time, then we fully account for them in our estimation because the dynamic panel data methods we employ involve ? rst differencing. The parameter ? measures how much of last period’s stocks of perceived quality and awareness are carried forward into this period’s stocks; 1 ? ? can 3 The Brandweek Superbrands survey reports on only the top brands (in terms of sales) in each subcategory or category. The number of brands varies from 3 for some subcategories to 10 for others. We therefore use the average, rather than the sum, of competit ors’ advertising.Effect of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality 213 therefore be interpreted as the rate of depreciation of these stocks. Note that in the estimation we allow all parameters to be different across our estimation equations. For example, we do not presume that the carryover rates for perceived quality and brand awareness are the same. The function f ( ·) represents the response of brand awareness and perceived quality to the advertising expenditures of the brand and potentially also those of its rivals. In the simplest case absent competition we specify this function as 2 f (Eit? ) = ? 1 Eit? 1 + ? 2 Eit? 1 . This functional form is ? exible in that it allows for a nonlinear effect of advertising expenditures but does not impose one. Later on in Section 5. 6 we demonstrate the robustness of our results by considering a number of additional functional forms. To account for competition in the share-of-voice speci? cation, we set f Eit? 1 , E? it? 1 = ? 1 Eit? 1 E? it? 1 + ? 2 Eit? 1 E? it? 1 2 and in the total-advertising speci? cation, we set 2 f Eit? 1 , E? it? 1 = ? 1 Eit? 1 + ? 2 Eit? 1 + ? 3 E? it? 1 . Estimation strategy Equations 1 and 2 are dynamic relationships that feature lagged dependent variables on the right-hand side. When estimating, we confront the problems of unobserved heterogeneity across brands and the endogeneity of advertising. In our panel-data setting, ignoring unobserved heterogeneity is akin to dropping the brand effect ? i from Eqs. 1 and 2 and then estimating them by ordinary least squares. Since this approach relies on both cross-sectional and time-series variation to identify the effect of advertising, we refer to it as â€Å"pooled OLS† (POLS) in what follows.To account for unobserved heterogeneity we include a brand effect ? i and use the within estimator that treats ? i as a ? xed effect. We follow the usual convention in microeconomic applications that the term â€Å"? xed effectâ €  does not necessarily mean that the effect is being treated as nonrandom; rather it means that we are allowing for arbitrary correlation between the unobserved brand effect and the observed explanatory variables (Wooldridge 2002, p. 251). The within estimator eliminates the brand effect by subtracting the within-brand mean from Eqs. 1 and 2. Hence, the identi? ation of the slope parameters that determine the effect of advertising relies solely on variation over time within brands; the information in the between-brand cross-sectional relationship is not used. We refer to this approach as â€Å"? xed effects† (FE). While FE accounts for unobserved heterogeneity, it suffers from an endogeneity problem. In our panel-data setting, endogeneity arises for two reasons. First, since Eqs. 1 and 2 are inherently dynamic, the lagged stocks of perceived 214 C. R. Clark et al. quality and awareness may be endogenous. More formally, Qit? 1 and Ait? 1 are by construction correlated with ? s for s < t. The within estimator subtracts the within-brand mean from Eqs. 1 and 2. The resulting regressor, say Qit? 1 ? Qi in the case of perceived quality, is correlated with the error term ? it ? ?i since ? i contains ? it? 1 along with all higher-order lags. Hence, FE is necessarily inconsistent. Second, advertising expenditures may also be endogenous for economic reasons. For instance, media coverage such as news reports may directly affect brand awareness and perceived quality. Our model treats media coverage other than advertising as shocks to the stocks of perceived quality and awareness.To the extent that these shocks feed back into decisions about advertising, say because the brand manager opts to advertise less if a news report has generated suf? cient awareness, they give rise to an endogeneity problem. More formally, it is reasonable to assume that Eit? 1 , the advertising expenditures of brand i over the course of period t ? 1, are chosen at the beginning of perio d t ? 1 with knowledge of ? it? 1 and higher-order lags and that therefore Eit? 1 is correlated with ? is for s < t. We apply the dynamic panel-data method proposed by Arellano and Bond (1991) to deal with both unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity.This methodology has the advantage that it does not rely on the availability of strictly exogenous explanatory variables or instruments. This is welcome because instruments are often hard to come by, especially in panel-data settings: The problem is ? nding a variable that is a good predictor of advertising expenditures and is uncorrelated with shocks to brand awareness and perceived quality; ? nding a variable that is a good predictor of lagged brand awareness and perceived quality and uncorrelated with current shocks to brand awareness and perceived quality is even less obvious.The key idea of Arellano and Bond (1991) is that if the error terms are serially uncorrelated, then lagged values of the dependent variable and lagged values of the endogenous right-hand-side variables represent valid instruments. To see this, take ? rst differences of Eq. 1 to obtain Qit ? Qit? 1 = (? t ? ?t? 1 ) + ? (Qit? 1 ? Qit? 2 ) + f (Eit? 1 ) ? f (Eit? 2 ) + (? it ? ?it? 1 ), (3) where we abstract from competition to simplify the notation. Eliminating the brand effect ? i accounts for unobserved heterogeneity between brands. The remaining problem with estimating Eq. 3 by least-squares is that Qit? 1 ? Qit? is by construction correlated with ? it ? ?it? 1 since Qit? 1 is correlated with ? it? 1 by virtue of Eq. 1. Moreover, as we have discussed above, Eit? 1 may also be correlated with ? it? 1 for economic reasons. We take advantage of the fact that we have observations on a number of periods in order to come up with instruments for the endogenous variables. In particular, this is possible starting in the third period where Eq. 3 becomes Qi3 ? Qi2 = (? 3 ? ?2 ) + ? (Qi2 ? Qi1 ) + f (Ei2 ) ? f (Ei1 ) + (? i3 ? ?i2 ). Effect of adve rtising on brand awareness and perceived quality 215 In this case Qi1 is a valid instrument for (Qi2 ?Qi1 ) since it is correlated with (Qi2 ? Qi1 ) but uncorrelated with (? i3 ? ?i2 ) and, similarly, Ei1 is a valid instrument for ( f (Ei2 ) ? f (Ei1 )). In the fourth period Qi1 and Qi2 are both valid instruments since neither is correlated with (? i4 ? ?i3 ) and, similarly, Ei1 and Ei2 are both valid instruments. In general, for lagged dependent variables and for endogenous right-hand-side variables, levels of these variables that are lagged two or more periods are valid instruments. This allows us to generate more instruments for later periods. The resulting estimator is referred to as â€Å"difference GMM† (DGMM).A potential dif? culty with the DGMM estimator is that lagged levels may be poor instruments for ? rst differences when the underlying variables are highly persistent over time. Arellano and Bover (1995) and Blundell and Bond (1998) propose an augmented estimator in which the original equations in levels are added to the system. The idea is to create a stacked data set containing differences and levels and then to instrument differences with levels and levels with differences. The required assumption is that brand effects are uncorrelated with changes in advertising expenditures.This estimator is commonly referred to as â€Å"system GMM† (SGMM). In Section 5 we report and compare results for DGMM and SGMM. It is important to test the validity of the instruments proposed above. Following Arellano and Bond (1991) we report a Hansen J test for overidentifying restrictions. This test examines whether the instruments are jointly exogenous. We also report the so-called difference-in-Hansen J test to examine speci? cally whether the additional instruments for the level equations used in SGMM (but not in DGMM) are valid. Arellano and Bond (1991) further develop a test for second-order serial correlation in the ? st differences of the error te rms. As described above, both GMM estimators require that the levels of the error terms be serially uncorrelated, implying that the ? rst differences are serially correlated of at most ? rst order. We caution the reader that the test for second-order serial correlation is formally only de? ned if the number of periods in the sample is greater than or equal to 5 whereas we observe a brand on average for just 4. 2 periods in our application. Our preliminary estimates suggest that the error terms are unlikely to be serially uncorrelated as required by Arellano and Bond (1991).The AR(2) test described above indicates ? rst-order serial correlation in the error terms. An AR(3) test for third-order serial correlation in the ? rst differences of the error terms, however, indicates the absence of second-order serial correlation in the error terms. 4 In this case, Qit? 2 and Eit? 2 are no longer valid instruments for Eq. 3. Intuitively, because Qit? 2 is correlated with ? it? 2 by virtue of Eq. 1 and ? it? 2 is correlated with ? it? 1 by ? rst-order serial correlation, Qit? 2 is correlated 4 Of course, the AR(3) test uses less observations than the AR(2) test and is therefore also less powerful. 16 C. R. Clark et al. with ? it? 1 in Eq. 3, and similarly for Eit? 2 . Fortunately, however, Qit? 3 and Eit? 3 remain valid instruments because ? it? 3 is uncorrelated with ? it? 1 . We carry out the DGMM and SGMM estimation using STATA’s xtabond2 routine (Roodman 2007). We enter third and higher lags of either brand awareness or perceived quality, together with third and higher lags of advertising expenditures as instruments. In addition to these â€Å"GMM-style† instruments, for the difference equations we enter the time dummies as â€Å"IV-style† instruments. We also apply the ? ite-sample correction proposed by Windmeijer (2005) which corrects for the two-step covariance matrix and substantially increases the ef? ciency of both GMM estimators. Finally, we compute standard errors that are robust to heteroskedasticity and arbitrary patterns of serial correlation within brands. 4 Data Our data are derived from the Brandweek Superbrands surveys from 2000 to 2005. Each year’s survey lists the top brands in terms of sales during the past year from 25 broad categories. Inside these categories are often a number of more narrowly de? ned subcategories. Table 1 lists the categories along with their subcategories.The surveys report perceived quality and awareness scores for the current year and the advertising expenditures for the previous year by brand. Perceived quality and awareness scores are calculated by Harris Interactive in their Equitrend brand-equity study. Each year Harris Interactive surveys online between 20, 000 and 45, 000 consumers aged 15 years and older in order to determine their perceptions of a brand’s quality and its level of awareness for approximately 1, 000 brands. 5 To ensure that the respondents accu rately re? ect the general population their responses are propensity weighted. Each respondent rates around 80 of these brands.Perceived quality is measured on a 0–10 scale, with 0 meaning unacceptable/poor and 10 meaning outstanding/ extraordinary. Awareness scores vary between 0 and 100 and equal the percentage of respondents that can rate the brand’s quality. The quality rating is therefore conditional on the respondent being aware of the brand. 6 5 The exact wording of the question is: â€Å"We will display for you a list of brands and we are asking you to rate the overall quality of each brand using a 0 to 10 scale, where ‘0’ means ‘Unacceptable/Poor Quality’, ‘5’ means ‘Quite Acceptable Quality’ and ‘10’ means ‘Outstanding/ Extraordinary Quality’.You may use any number from 0 to 10 to rate the brands, or use 99 for ‘No Opinion’ option if you have absolutely no opinion abou t the brand. † Panelists are being incentivized through sweepstakes on a periodic basis but are not paid for a particular survey. 6 The 2000 Superbrands survey does not separately report perceived quality and salience scores. We received these scores directly from Harris Interactive. 2000 is the ? rst year for which we have been able to obtain perceived quality and salience scores for a large number of brands.Starting with the 2004 and 2005 Superbrands surveys, salience is replaced by a new measure called â€Å"familiarity. † For these two years we received salience scores directly from Harris Interactive. The contemporaneous correlation between salience and familiarity is 0. 98 and signi? cant with a p-value of 0. 000. Effect of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality Table 1 Categories and subcategories 1. Apparel 2. Appliances 3. Automobiles a. general automobiles b. luxury c. subcompact d. sedan/wagon e. trucks/suvs/vans 4. Beer, wine, liquor a. beer b. wine c. malternatives d. iquor 5. Beverages a. general b. new age/sports/water 6. Computers a. software b. hardware 7. Consumer electronics 8. Cosmetics and fragrances a. color cosmetics b. eye color c. lip color d. women’s fragrances e. men’s fragrances 9. Credit cards 10. Entertainment 11. Fast food 12. Financial services 13. Food a. ready to eat cereal b. cereal bars c. cookies d. cheese e. crackers f. salted snacks g. frozen dinners and entrees Items in italics have been removed 217 h. frozen pizza i. spaghetti sauce j. coffee k. ice cream l. refrigerated orange juice m. refrigerated yogurt n. oy drinks o. luncheon meats p. meat alternatives q. baby formula/electrolyte solutions r. pourable salad dressing 14. Footwear 15. Health and beauty a. bar soap b. toothpaste c. shampoo d. hair color 16. Household a. cleaner b. laundry detergents c. diapers d. facial tissue e. toilet tissue f. automatic dishwater detergent 17. Petrol a. oil companies b. automotive aftercare/ lube 18. Pharmaceutical OTC a. allergy/cold medicine b. stomach/antacids c. analgesics 19. Pharmaceutical prescription 20. Retail 21. Telecommunications 22. Tobacco 23. Toys 24. Travel 25. World Wide WebWe supplement the awareness and quality measures with advertising expenditures that are taken from TNS Media Intelligence and Competitive Media Reporting. These advertising expenditures encompass spending in a wide range of media: Magazines (consumer magazines, Sunday magazines, local magazines, and business-to-business magazines), newspaper (local and national newspapers), television (network TV, spot TV, syndicated TV, and network cable TV), radio (network, national spot, and local), Spanish-language media (magazines, newspapers, and TV networks), internet, and outdoor.After eliminating categories and subcategories where observations are not at the brand level (apparel, entertainment, ? nancial services, retail, world wide web) or where the data are suspect (tobacco), we are left w ith 19 categories (see again Table 1). We then drop all private labels and all brands for which 218 C. R. Clark et al. we do not have perceived quality and awareness scores as well as advertising expenditures for at least two years running. This leaves us with 348 brands. Table 2 contains descriptive statistics for the overall sample and also by category. In the overall sample the average awareness score is 69. 5 and the average perceived quality score is 6. 36. The average amount spent on advertising is around $66 million per year. There is substantial variation in these measures across categories. The variation in perceived quality (coef? cient of variation is 0. 11 overall, ranging from 0. 04 for appliances to 0. 13 for computers) tends to be lower than the variation in brand awareness (coef? cient of variation is 0. 28 overall, ranging from 0. 05 for appliances to 0. 46 for telecommunications), in line with the fact the quality rating is conditional on the respondent being aware of the brand.The contemporaneous correlation between brand awareness and perceived quality is 0. 60 and signi? cant with a p-value of 0. 000. The contemporaneous correlation between advertising expenditures and the change in brand awareness is 0. 0488 and signi? cant with a p-value of 0. 0985 and the contemporaneous correlation between advertising expenditures and the change in perceived quality is 0. 0718 and signi? cant with a p-value of 0. 0150. These correlations anticipate the spurious correlation between both brand awareness and perceived quality and advertising expenditures if permanent differences between brands are neglected (POLS estimator).We will see though that the effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality Table 2 Descriptive statistics # obs # brands Brand awareness Perceived Advertising (0–100) quality (0–10) ($1,000,000) Mean Std. dev. Mean Std. dev. Mean Std. dev. Overall Appliances Automobiles Beer, wine, liquor Beverages Computers Cons umer electronics Cosmetics and fragrances Credit cards Fast food Food Footwear Health and beauty Household Petrol Pharmaceutical OTC Pharmaceutical prescription Telecommunications Toys Travel 1,478 348 21 137 98 95 79 29 70 29 60 247 38 54 128 48 56 31 52 25 181 4 30 24 22 17 7 19 6 12 65 8 11 31 13 15 10 11 5 38 69. 5 85. 09 67. 81 62. 23 84. 57 59. 80 67. 83 49. 37 70. 97 93. 83 80. 18 64. 95 82. 50 73. 83 60. 52 76. 96 29. 97 49. 33 72. 12 59. 48 19. 43 4. 54 6. 72 10. 13 13. 84 23. 05 18. 68 15. 75 18. 08 5. 32 14. 94 18. 98 9. 80 16. 03 17. 19 13. 89 9. 69 22. 86 9. 74 15. 43 6. 36 7. 35 6. 51 5. 68 6. 51 6. 41 6. 60 5. 83 6. 24 6. 28 6. 66 6. 39 6. 67 6. 66 5. 95 6. 79 5. 54 5. 28 6. 95 6. 26 0. 70 0. 32 0. 59 0. 72 0. 58 0. 81 0. 73 0. 52 0. 73 0. 42 0. 65 0. 42 0. 41 0. 56 0. 30 0. 37 0. 67 0. 52 0. 32 0. 52 66. 21 118. 52 41. 87 33. 19 99. 85 64. 62 36. 78 45. 11 41. 33 42. 19 130. 43 130. 7 104. 83 160. 66 38. 02 47. 48 174. 54 109. 77 214. 80 156. 23 13. 93 13. 81 40. 27 46. 89 27. 28 33. 44 21. 80 25. 43 33. 54 34. 65 38. 71 18. 13 76. 23 36. 40 367. 93 360. 54 108. 55 54. 36 25. 41 25. 88 Effect of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality 219 disappears once unobserved heterogeneity is accounted for (FE and GMM estimators). The intertemporal correlation is 0. 98 for brand awareness, 0. 95 for perceived quality, and 0. 93 for advertising expenditures. This limited amount of intertemporal variation warrants preferring the SGMM over the DGMM estimator.At the same time, however, it constrains how ? nely we can â€Å"slice† the data, e. g. , by isolating a brand-speci? c effect of advertising expenditures on brand awareness and perceived quality. Since the FE, DGMM, and SGMM estimators rely on within-brand acrosstime variation, it is important to ensure that there is a suf? cient amount of within-brand variation in brand awareness, perceived quality, and advertising expenditures. Table 3 presents a decomposition of the standard devia tion in these variables into an across-brands and a within-brand component for the overall sample and also by category.The across-brands standard deviation is a measure of the cross-sectional variation and the within-brand standard deviation is a measure of the time-series variation. The across-brands standard deviation of brand awareness is about six times larger than the within-brand standard deviation. This ratio varies across categories and ranges from 2 for automobiles, beer, wine, liquor, and pharmaceutical prescription to 6 for health and beauty and pharmaceutical OTC. In case of perceived quality the ratio is about 4 (ranging from 1 for telecommunications to 5 for consumer electronics, credit cards, and household).Hence, while there is more crosssectional than time-series variation in our sample, the time-series variation is substantial for both brand awareness and perceived quality. Figure 1 illustrates Table 3 Variance decomposition Brand awareness (0–100) Across Ov erall Appliances Automobiles Beer, wine, liquor Beverages Computers Consumer electronics Cosmetics and fragrances Credit cards Fast food Food Footwear Health and beauty Household Petrol Pharmaceutical OTC Pharmaceutical prescription Telecommunications Toys Travel 20. 117 5. 282 6. 209 10. 181 13. 435 23. 094 19. 952 18. 054 19. 568 6. 132 16. 241 20. 417 10. 36 16. 719 20. 179 13. 339 9. 393 21. 659 11. 217 16. 063 Within 3. 415 1. 334 3. 281 4. 105 2. 915 3. 843 5. 611 3. 684 3. 903 1. 660 2. 255 4. 267 1. 772 3. 896 3. 669 2. 363 5. 772 5. 604 3. 589 3. 216 Perceived quality (0–10) Across 0. 726 0. 323 0. 561 0. 705 0. 582 0. 850 0. 800 0. 563 0. 788 0. 361 0. 702 0. 388 0. 397 0. 561 0. 415 0. 336 0. 753 0. 452 0. 360 0. 516 Within 0. 176 0. 148 0. 141 0. 186 0. 190 0. 313 0. 167 0. 208 0. 159 0. 202 0. 134 0. 167 0. 136 0. 113 0. 116 0. 129 0. 230 0. 334 0. 127 0. 153 Advertising ($1,000,000) Across 100. 823 28. 965 54. 680 41. 713 37. 505 110. 362 105. 49 38. 446 118. 05 9 159. 306 15. 655 45. 791 27. 054 18. 789 27. 227 16. 325 38. 648 317. 434 61. 419 22. 136 Within 43. 625 21. 316 32. 552 12. 406 13. 372 65. 909 114. 381 20. 053 43. 415 33. 527 7. 998 7. 640 19. 075 16. 672 20. 496 9. 080 27. 919 178. 406 18. 584 10. 909 220 .025 . 2 C. R. Clark et al. .02 Density . 01 . 015 0 .005 0 20 40 60 80 Mean brand awareness 100  ® 0 –30 .05 Density . 1 .15 –20 –10 0 10 20 Demeaned brand awareness 30  ® .8 .6 Density . 4 0 .2 0 2 4 6 Mean perceived quality 8 10  ® 0 –1. 5 1 Density 2 3 –1 –. 5 0 . 5 1 Demeaned perceived quality 1. 5  ® .015 Density . 005 . 01 0 0 00 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 Mean advertising expenditures (millions of $)  ® 0 –600 –400 –200 0 200 400 600 Demeaned advertising expenditures (millions of $)  ® Fig. 1 Variance decomposition. Histogram of brand-mean of brand awareness, perceived quality, and advertising expenditures (left panels) and histogram of de-mean ed brand awareness, perceived quality, and advertising expenditures (right panels) the decomposition for the overall sample. The left panels show histograms of the brand-mean of brand awareness, perceived quality, and advertising expenditures and the right panels show histograms of the de-meaned variables.Again it is evident that the time-series variation is substantial for both brand awareness and perceived quality. 5 Empirical results In Tables 4 and 5 we present a number of different estimates for the effect of advertising expenditures on brand awareness and perceived quality, .005 Density . 01 . 015 .02 .025 Effect of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality Table 4 Brand awareness POLS Lagged brand awareness Advertising Advertising2 Marginal effect of advertising at: Mean 25th pctl. 50th pctl. 75th pctl. Advertising test: ? 1 = ? 2 = 0 Speci? ation tests: Hansen J Difference-in-Hansen J Arellano & Bond AR(2) Arellano & Bond AR(3) Goodness of ? t measures: R2 -within R2 -between R2 # obs # brands FE DGMM SGMM 221 0. 942*** 0. 223*** 0. 679*** 0. 837*** (0. 00602) (0. 0479) (0. 109) (0. 0266) 0. 00535*** 0. 00687 0. 0152 0. 00627** (0. 00117) (0. 00443) (0. 0139) (0. 00300) ? 0. 00000409*** ? 0. 00000139 ? 0. 0000105 ? 0. 00000524** (0. 000000979) (0. 00000332) (0. 00000745) (0. 00000239) 0. 00481*** (0. 00107) 0. 00527*** (0. 00116) 0. 00514*** (0. 00113) 0. 00470*** (0. 00105) Reject*** 0. 00668 (0. 00412) 0. 00684 (0. 00438) 0. 00679 (0. 00430) 0. 00664 (0. 0405) 0. 0138 (0. 0129) 0. 0150 (0. 0138) 0. 0147 (0. 0135) 0. 0136 (0. 00127) 0. 00558** (0. 00269) 0. 00617** (0. 00296) 0. 00600** (0. 00288) 0. 00544** (0. 00263) Do not reject Do not reject Reject* Do not reject Do not reject Reject** Reject** Do not reject Do not reject 0. 494 0. 940 0. 851 1,148 317 Reject*** 0. 969 1,148 317 819 274 1,148 317 Standard errors in parenthesis * p = 0. 10; ** p = 0. 05; *** p = 0. 01 respectively. Starting with the simplest case absent competition, we present estimates of ? , ? 1 , and ? 2 (the coef? cients on Qit? 1 or Ait? 1 and Eit? 1 and 2 Eit? 1 ) along with the marginal effect ? 1 + 2? Eit? 1 calculated at the mean and the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of advertising expenditures. The POLS estimates in the ? rst column of Tables 4 and 5 suggest a signi? cant positive effect of advertising expenditures on both brand awareness and perceived quality. In both cases we also reject the null hypothesis that advertising plays no role in determining brand awareness and perceived quality (? 1 = ? 2 = 0). Of course, as mentioned above, POLS accounts for neither unobserved heterogeneity nor endogeneity. In the next columns of Tables 4 and 5 we present FE, DGMM, and SGMM estimates that attend to these issues. 7 7 The stimates use at most 317 out of 348 brands because we restrict the sample to brands with data for two years running but use third and higher lags of brand awareness respectively perceived quality and advertising expendit ures as instruments. Different sample sizes are reported for the DGMM and SGMM estimators. Sample size is not a well-de? ned concept in SGMM since this estimator essentially runs on two different samples simultaneously. The xtabond2 routine in STATA reports the size of the transformed sample for DGMM and of the untransformed sample for SGMM. 222 Table 5 Perceived quality FE 0. 391*** (0. 0611) 0. 659*** (0. 204) 1. 47*** (0. 0459) 0. 981*** (0. 0431) DGMM SGMM Objective quality Brand awareness POLS Lagged perceived quality 0. 970*** (0. 0110) Brand awareness Advertising Advertising2 0. 000218** (0. 0000952) ? 0. 000000133 (0. 000000107) 0. 0000822 (0. 000198) 0. 0000000408 (0. 000000162) ?0. 0000195 (0. 000969) 0. 000000108 (0. 000000945) 0. 0000219 (0. 000205) 0. 0000000571 (0. 000000231) 0. 0000649 (0. 000944) 0. 0000000807 (0. 00000308) 0. 937*** (0. 0413) 0. 00596*** (0. 00165) ? 0. 000298 (0. 000256) 0. 000000319 (0. 000000267) Marginal effect of advertising at: Mean 25th pctl. 50th pctl. 75th pctl. 0. 0002** (0. 0000819) 0. 000215** (0. 000933) 0. 000211** (0. 00009) 0. 0001965** (0. 0000793) Do not reject Do not reject Reject*** Do not reject Do not reject Do not reject Reject** Reject** Reject*** Do not reject 0. 0000877 (0. 000180) 0. 000083 (0. 000195) 0. 0000844 (0. 000191) 0. 0000887 (0. 000177) ?5. 13e? 06 (0. 000848) ? 0. 0000174 (0. 000952) ? 0. 0000139 (0. 000922) ? 2. 32e? 06 (0. 000825) 0. 0000295 (0. 000176) 0. 0000230 (0. 000201) 0. 0000249 (0. 000194) 0. 0000310 (0. 000170) 0. 0000594 (0. 000740) 0. 0000642 (0. 000917) 0. 0000623 (0. 000847) 0. 0000588 (0. 000714) Do not reject Do not reject Do not reject Reject*** Do not reject ?0. 000256 (0. 000222) ? 0. 00292 (0. 000251) ? 0. 000282 (0. 000242) ? 0. 000248 (0. 000215) Do not reject Reject** Do not reject Reject*** Do not reject Advertising test: ? 1 = ? 2 = 0 Speci? cation tests: Hansen J Difference-in-Hansen J Arellano & Bond AR(2) Arellano & Bond AR(3) Goodness of ? t measures: R2 -wi thin R2 -between R2 # obs # brands 0. 180 0. 952 0. 909 1,148 317 819 274 1,148 317 Reject** 0. 914 1,148 317 604 178 1,148 317 C. R. Clark et al. Standard errors in parenthesis. SGMM estimates in columns labeled â€Å"Objective quality† and â€Å"Brand awareness† * p = 0. 10; ** p = 0. 05; *** p = 0. 01 Effect of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality 23 Regardless of the class of estimator we ? nd a signi? cant positive effect of advertising expenditures on brand awareness. With the FE estimator we ? nd that the marginal effect of advertising on awareness at the mean is 0. 00668. It is borderline signi? cant with a p-value of 0. 105 and implies an elasticity of 0. 00638 (with a standard error of 0. 00392). A one-standard-deviation increase of advertising expenditures increase brand awareness by 0. 0408 standard deviations (with a standard error of 0. 0251). The rate of depreciation of a brand’s stock of awareness is estimated to be 1–0. 22 3 or 78% per year.The FE estimator identi? es the effect of advertising expenditures on brand awareness solely from the within-brand across-time variation. The problem with this estimator is that it does not deal with the endogeneity of the lagged dependent variable on the right-hand side of Eq. 2 and the potential endogeneity of advertising expenditures. We thus turn to the GMM estimators described in Section 3. We focus on the more ef? cient SGMM estimator. The coef? cient on the linear term in advertising expenditures is estimated to be 0. 00627 ( p-value 0. 037) and the coef? cient on the quadratic term is estimated to be ? . 00000524 ( p-value 0. 028). These estimates support the hypothesis that the relationship between advertising and awareness is nonlinear. The marginal effect of advertising on awareness is estimated to be 0. 00558 ( p-value 0. 038) at the mean and implies an elasticity of 0. 00533 (with a standard error of 0. 00257). A one-standard-deviation increase of adve rtising expenditures increases brand awareness by 0. 0340 standard deviations (with a standard error of 0. 0164). The rate of depreciation decreases substantially after correcting for endogeneity and is estimated to be 1? . 828 or 17% per year, thus indicating that an increase in a brand’s stock of awareness due to an increase in advertising expenditures persists for years to come. The Hansen J test for overidentifying restrictions indicates that the instruments taken together as a group are valid. Recall from Section 3 that we must assume that an extra condition holds in order for the SGMM estimator to be appropriate. The difference-in-Hansen J test con? rms that it does, as we cannot reject the null hypothesis that the additional instruments for the level equations are valid.While we reject the hypothesis of no second-order serial correlation in the error terms, we cannot reject the hypothesis of no thirdorder serial correlation. This result further validates our instrument ing strategy. However, one may still be worried about the SGMM estimates because DGMM uses a strict subset of the orthogonality conditions of SGMM and we reject the Hansen J test for the DGMM estimates (see Table 4). From a formal statistical point of view, rejecting the smaller set of orthogonality conditions in DGMM is not conclusive evidence that the larger set of orthogonality conditions in SGMM are invalid (Hayashi 2000, pp. 18–221). In Fig. 2 we plot the marginal effect of advertising expenditures on brand awareness over the entire range of advertising expenditures for our SGMM estimates along with a histogram of advertising expenditures. For advertising expenditures between $400 million and $800 million per year the marginal effect of advertising on awareness is no longer signi? cantly different from zero 224 C. R. Clark et al. Marginal effect –. 004 0 . 004 0 200 400 600 800 1000 Advertising expenditures (millions of $) 1200 1400 arginal effect of advertising l ower 90% confidence limit . 015 upper 90% confidence limit 0 0 .005 Density . 01 200 400 600 800 1000 Advertising expenditures (millions of $) 1200 1400  ® Fig. 2 Pointwise con? dence interval for the marginal effect of advertising expenditures on brand awareness (upper panel) and histogram of advertising expenditures (lower panel). SGMM estimates and, statistically, it is actually negative for very high advertising expenditures over $800 million per year. The former case covers around 1. 9% of observations and the latter less than 0. 5%.One possible interpretation is that brands with very high current advertising expenditures are those that are already wellknown (perhaps because they have been heavily advertised over the years), so that advertising cannot further boost their awareness. Indeed, average awareness for observations with over $400 million in advertising expenditures is 74. 94 as compared to 69. 35 for the entire sample. Turning from brand awareness in Table 4 to perce ived quality in Table 5, we see that the positive effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality found by the POLS estimator disappears once unobserved eterogeneity is accounted by the FE, DGMM, and SGMM estimators. In fact, we cannot reject the null hypothesis that advertising plays no role in determining perceived quality. Figure 3 graphically illustrates the absence of an effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality at the margin for our DGMM estimates. While the effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality is very imprecisely estimated, it appears to be economically insigni? cant: The implied elasticity is ? 0. 0000534 (with a standard error of 0. 00883) and a one-standarddeviation increase of advertising expenditures decrease perceived quality byEffect of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality 225 Marginal effect –. 001 0 . 001 0 200 400 600 800 1000 Advertising expenditures (millions of $) 1200 1400 marginal effect of adverti sing lower 90% confidence limit . 015 upper 90% confidence limit 0 0 Density . 005 . 01 200 400 600 800 1000 Advertising expenditures (millions of $) 1200 1400  ® Fig. 3 Pointwise con? dence interval for the marginal effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality (upper panel) and histogram of advertising expenditures (lower panel). DGMM estimates 0. 000869 standard deviations (with a standard error of 0. 44). Note that the comparable effects for brand awareness are two orders of magnitude larger. Much of the remainder of this paper is concerned with demonstrating the robustness of this negative result. Before proceeding we note that whenever possible we focus on the more ef? cient SGMM estimator. Unfortunately, for perceived quality in many cases, including that in the fourth column of Table 5, the difference-in-Hansen J test rejects the null hypothesis that the extra moments in the SGMM estimator are valid. In these cases we focus on the DGMM estimator. 5. Objective and perceived quality An important component of a brand’s perceived quality is its objective quality. To the extent that objective quality remains constant, it is absorbed into the brand effects. But, even though the time frame of our sample is not very long, it is certainly possible that the objective quality of some brands has changed over the course of our sample. If so, then the lack of an effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality may be explained if brand managers increase advertising expenditures to compensate for decreases in objective 26 C. R. Clark et al. quality. To the extent that increased advertising expenditures and decreased objective quality cancel each other out, their net effect on perceived quality may be zero. The dif? culty with testing this alternative explanation is that we do not have data on objective quality. We therefore exclude from the analysis those categories with brands that are likely to undergo changes in objective quality (applian ces, automobiles, computers, consumer electronics, fast food, footwear, pharmaceutical OTC, telecommunications, toys, and travel).The resulting estimates are reported in Table 5 under the heading â€Å"Objective quality. † We still ? nd no effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality. 8 5. 2 Variation in perceived quality Another possible reason for the lack of an effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality is that perceived quality may not vary much over time. This is not the case in our data. Indeed, the standard deviation of the year-to-year changes in perceived quality is 0. 2154. Even for those products whose objective quality does not change over time there are important changes in perceived quality (standard deviation 0. 130). For example, consider bottled water where we expect little change in objective quality over time, both within and across brands. Nonetheless, there is considerable variation in perceived quality. The perceived quality of Aq ua? na Water ranges across years from 6. 33 to 6. 90 and that of Poland Spring Water from 5. 91 to 6. 43, so the equivalent of over two standard deviations. Across the brands of bottled water the range is from 5. 88 to 6. 90, or the equivalent of over four standard deviations. Further evidence of variation in perceived quality is provided by the automobiles category.Here we have obtained measures of objective quality from Consumer Reports that rate vehicles based on their performance, comfort, convenience, safety, and fuel economy. We can ? nd examples of brands whose objective quality does not change at least for a number of years while their perceived quality ? uctuates considerably. For example, Chevy Silverado’s objective quality does not change between 2000 and 2002, but its perceived quality increases from 6. 08 to 6. 71 over these three years. Similarly, GMC Sierra’s objective quality does not change between 2001 and 2003, but its perceived quality decreases fro m 6. 72 to 6. 26. The ? al piece of evidence that we have to offer is the variance decomposition from Section 4 (see again Table 3 and Fig. 1). Recall that the acrossbrands standard deviation of brand awareness is about six times larger than the within-brand standard deviation. In case of perceived quality the ratio is about 4. Hence, while there is more cross-sectional than time-series variation in our sample, the time-series variation is substantial for both brand aware- 8 The marginal effects are calculated at the mean, 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile for advertising for the brands in the categories judged to be stable in terms of objective quality over time.Effect of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality 227 ness and perceived quality. Also recall from Section 4 that perceived quality with an intertemporal correlation of 0. 95 is somewhat less persistent than brand awareness with an intertemporal correlation of 0. 98. Given that we are able to detect an effect of advertising expenditures on brand awareness, it seems unlikely that insuf? cient variation within brands can explain the lack of an effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality; instead, our results suggest that the variation in perceived quality is unrelated to advertising expenditures.The question then becomes what besides advertising may drive these changes in perceived quality. There are numerous possibilities, including consumer learning and word-of-mouth effects. Unfortunately, given the data available to us, we cannot further explore these possibilities. 5. 3 Brand awareness and perceived quality Another concern is that consumers may confound awareness and preference. That is, consumers may simply prefer more familiar brands over less familiar ones (see Zajonc 1968). To address this issue we proxy for consumers’ familiarity by adding brand awareness to the regression for perceived quality.The resulting estimates are reported in Table 5 under the heading â₠¬Å"Brand awareness. † While there is a signi? cant positive relationship between brand awareness and perceived quality, there is still no evidence of a signi? cant positive effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality. 5. 4 Competitive effects Advertising takes place in a competitive environment. Most of the industries being studied here are indeed oligopolies, which suggests that strategic considerations may in? uence advertising decisions.We next allow a brand’s stocks of awareness and perceived quality to be affected by the advertising of its competitors as discussed in Section 2. 9 Competitors’ advertising, in turn, can enter our estimation Eqs. 1 and 2 either relative in the share-of-voice speci? cation or absolute in the total-advertising speci? cation. We report the resulting estimates in Table 6. Somewhat surprisingly, the share-of-voice speci? cation yields an insignificant effect of own advertising. We conclude that the share-of-voice speci? cation is simply not an appropriate functional form in our application. The total-advertising speci? ation readily con? rms our main ? ndings presented above that own advertising affects brand awareness but not perceived quality. This is true even if we allow competitors’ advertising to enter quadratically in 9 For this analysis we take the subcategory rather than the category as the relevant competitive environment. Consider for instance the beer, wine, liquor category. There is no reason to expect the advertising expenditures of beer brands to affect the perceived quality or awareness of liquor brands. We drop any subcategory in any year where there is just one brand due to the lack of competitors.Table 6 Competitive effects Perceived quality 0. 845*** (0. 0217) 0. 356** (0. 145) Total advertising Brand awareness Perceived quality 228 Share of voice Brand awareness Lagged awareness/quality Relative advertising (Relative advertising)2 0. 872*** (0. 0348) 0. 236 (0. 170) ? 0. 00912 (0. 0104) 1. 068*** (0. 0406) 0. 0168 (0. 0164) ? 0. 00102 (0. 00132) Advertising Advertising2 Competitors’ advertising 0. 00892** (0. 00387) ? 0. 00000602** (0. 00000248) ? 0. 00609* (0. 00363) ?0. 0000180 (0. 000592) ? 0. 0000000303 (0. 000000535) 0. 00128** (0. 000515) Marginal effect of advertising at: Mean 5th pctl. 50th pctl. 75th pctl. 0. 00333 (0. 00239) 0. 0164 (0. 01218) 0. 00624 (0. 00448) 0. 00264 (0. 00190) Do not reject Reject* Do not reject Reject*** Do not reject 1,147 317 0. 000225 (0. 000218) 0. 00113 (0. 00110) 0. 00429 (0. 000416) 0. 000179 (0. 000173) 0. 00812** (0. 00355) 0. 00881** (0. 00382) 0. 00861** (0. 00375) 0. 00797** (0. 00349) Reject** Do not reject Do not reject Reject** Do not reject 1,147 317 ?0. 000140 (0. 000524) ? 0. 0000174 (0. 000582) ? 0. 0000164 (0. 000565) ? 0. 0000132 (0. 000510) Do not reject Do not reject Reject*** Do not reject 1,147 317 C. R. Clark et al.Advertising test: ? 1 = ? 2 = 0 Speci? cation tests: Hansen J Differ ence-in-Hansen J Arellano & Bond AR(2) Arellano & Bond AR(3) # obs # brands Do not reject Do not reject Do not reject Reject** Do not reject 1,147 317 Standard errors in parenthesis. DGMM estimates in column labeled â€Å"Total advertising/perceived quality† and SGMM estimates otherwise * p = 0. 10; ** p = 0. 05; *** p = 0. 01 Effect of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality 229 addition to linearly. Competitors’ advertising has a signi? cant negative effect on brand awareness and a signi? cant positive effect on perceived quality.Repeating the analysis using the sum instead of the average of competitors’ advertising yields largely similar results except that the share-of-voice speci? cation yields a signi? cant negative effect of advertising on brand awareness, thereby reinforcing our conclusion that this is not an appropriate functional form. 10 Overall, the inclusion of competitors’ advertising does not seem to in? uence our results about the role of own advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality. This justi? es our focus on the simple model without competition. Moreover, it suggests that the following alternative explanation for our main ? dings presented above is unlikely. Suppose awareness depended positively on the total amount of advertising in the brand’s subcategory or category while perceived quality depended positively on the brand’s own advertising but negatively on competitors’ advertising. Then the results from the simple model without competition could be driven by an omitted variables problem: If the brand’s own advertising is highly correlated with competitors’ advertising, then we would overstate the impact of advertising on awareness and understate the impact on perceived quality.In fact, we might ? nd no impact of advertising on perceived quality at all if the brand’s own advertising and competitors’ advertising cancel each other out. 5. 5 Category-speci? c effects Perhaps the ideal data for analyzing the effect of advertising are time series of advertising expenditures, brand awareness, and perceived quality for the brands being studied. With long enough time series we could then try to identify for each brand in isolation the effect of advertising expenditures on brand awareness and perceived quality.Since such time series are unfortunately not available, we have focused so far on the aggregate effect of advertising expenditures on brand awareness and perceived quality, i. e. , we have constrained the slope parameters in Eqs. 1 and 2 that determine the effect of advertising to be the same across brands. Similarly, we have constrained the carryover parameters in Eqs. 1 and 2 that determine the effect of lagged perceived quality and brand awareness respectively to be the same across brands. As a compromise between the two extremes of brands in isolation versus all brands aggregated, we ? st examine the effect of adver tising in different categories. This adds some cross-sectional variation across the brands within a 10 We caution the reader against reading too much into these results: The number and identity of the brands within a subcategory or category varies sometimes widely from year to year in the Brandweek Superbrands surveys. Thus, the sum of competitors’ advertising is an extremely volatile measure of the competitive environment. Moreover, the number of brands varies from 3 for some subcategories to 10 for others, thus making the sum of competitors’ advertising dif? ult to compare across subcategories. 230 Table 7 Category-speci? c effects Brand awareness Marginal effect Carryover rate Appliances Automobiles Beer, wine, liquor Beverages Computers Consumer electronics Cosmetics and fragrances Credit cards Fast food Food Footwear Health and beauty Household Petrol Pharmaceutical OTC Pharmaceutical prescription Telecommunications Toys Travel 0. 0233 (0. 0167) 0. 00526 (0. 0154) ? 0. 0264 (0. 0423) ? 0. 0245 (0. 0554) 0. 0193** (0. 00777) 0. 0210** (0. 0