Brand Confusion in Advertising

The question of advertising effectiveness (i.e., to what extent is advertising effective or ineffective?) is possibly the most important question asked of or by advertisers. In this article, the authors provide evidence that advertising may also be counter-effective, that is, produce results that an advertiser specifically wants to avoid. Brand confusion is one such undesired result: the advertisement for brand A is taken by consumers as promoting brand B. In other words, the advertiser finances an advertisement for his competitor. In the second part of the article, several possible causes of brand confusion are presented, and practical advertising implications are discussed.