An Essay on Strong VS Weak Theory of Advertising

Prepared By

Md. Raihan Akhtar

A Debate on Strong VS Weak Theory of Advertising - Which One Is Better?

‘Advertising’ the word originated from the Latin word ‘adverto’, which means to turn around. The root of advertising can be found in ancient times such as ancient Egyptian used papyrus to make sales messages and wall posters, commercial messages and political campaign found in the ruins of Pompeii and ancient Arabia, lost and found advertising on papyrus in ancient Greece and Rome, wall painting for commercial advertising in ancient India (Mogel, 1993). Advertising defined by Belch & Belch (2004) as a paid form of communication through
Weak theory of advertising generally follows the philosophy of habit theory which states that advertising reinforces current attitudes, advertising is used as a defence mechanism, advertising keep hold of current customers through nudge and it views consumers as an active problem solver (Koekemoer, 2004). Weak theory of advertising has two models, developed by Andrew Ehrenberg in 1974, 1997. One of the models is ATR model; the stages of this model are as follows: Awareness→ Trial→ Reinforcement. Ehrenberg (1974) says that advertising is seen as weak force according to the model as it shows that advertising may create awareness, induce trial and then reinforce the product purchase. Indeed, ATR model points out advertising as a mechanism which the firms use to stay in the market. Another weak theory model ‘ATRN’ is an improved version of ATR model. This model was refined by Barnard and Ehrenberg in 1997 where they have added nudge after awareness, trial and reinforce, believing that advertising can move a brand higher in purchase hierarchy through nudging consumers (Hoek et al, 2000). After the discussions done in this section it can be stated that, weak school of advertising generally believes that advertising can enrich the awareness and overall knowledge of the products or services to consumers’ existing knowledge which