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Getting into Your Head(Ache): The Information Content of Advertising in the Over-the-Counter Analgesics Industry

Author

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  • Anderson, Simon
  • Ciliberto, Federico
  • Liaukonyte, Jura

Abstract

We study how much information firms include in their advertisements and what determines their choices. We use data from advertisement videos from the US OTC analgesics industry between 2001 and 2005 to measure information content in ads. For each video we code the number of cues it contains. The correlation between any two cues is rarely large, suggesting that each cue provides different information. We find: i) brands with inherently better characteristics (e.g. faster relief) transmit more information; ii) comparative advertisements contain significantly more information than self-promotion ads; iii) market share is negatively associated with the amount of information content; iv) a higher market share of the generic version of a brand is also associated with less information by the brand. Not controlling for endogeneity of market share and the decision to use comparative advertising would lead to significant estimation bias. Result (iii) is consistent with recent theoretical work that larger firms disclose less information, while result (iv) indicates the likely presence of information spillovers from brands to their generic counterparts.

Suggested Citation

  • Anderson, Simon & Ciliberto, Federico & Liaukonyte, Jura, 2010. "Getting into Your Head(Ache): The Information Content of Advertising in the Over-the-Counter Analgesics Industry," MPRA Paper 24916, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:24916
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Simon P. Anderson & Federico Ciliberto & Jura Liaukonyte & Régis Renault, 2016. "Push-me pull-you: comparative advertising in the OTC analgesics industry," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 47(4), pages 1029-1056, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Emons, Winand & Fluet, Claude, 2012. "Non-comparative versus comparative advertising of quality," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 352-360.
    2. Liang Guo, 2021. "Partial Unraveling and Strategic Contract Timing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(12), pages 7719-7736, December.
    3. Liang Guo, 2020. "Upstream Exploitation and Strategic Disclosure," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(5), pages 923-938, September.
    4. Winand Emons & Claude Fluet, 2008. "Non-comparative versus Comparative Advertising as a Quality Signal," Diskussionsschriften dp0805, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    5. Maria Alipranti & Emmanuel Petrakis, 2013. "Comparative Advertising in Markets with Network Externalities," Working Papers 1306, University of Crete, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Information Content; Advertising; Comparative Advertising; Content Analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M37 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Advertising
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • L15 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Information and Product Quality

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