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Psychological research is frequently cited in discussions about children and advertising. This paper reviews some of the issues and some of the research that has a bearing on them. The research is not nearly as substantial, clear, reliable or relevant as is often supposed. There is little evidence that children are especially vulnerable to advertising, or that advertising has a direct effect on their behaviour. Youth fads often precede, rather than follow, advertising. Debates about the age at which children recognise and understand commercials are fruitless. Most discussions omit advertising's appeal and use as entertainment, a way to manage mood, and a source of information on how to satisfy personal needs.

This paper aims to clarify whether J. Walter Thompson (JWT)’s planning and research tradition gave rise to the concept of Account Planning. In addition, it seeks to analyse the different planning methodologies that preceded Account Planning to highlight how it emerged at JWT London. A further goal is to understand the impact of Account Planning, which sought to achieve effective advertising through detailed consumer insight and has transformed the multinational JWT as a whole and the advertising sector in general.

The methodology is based mainly on the analysis of primary research conducted on original files donated to Duke University Library (North Carolina, USA) by the multinational J. Walter Thompson.

Account Planning emerged in 1968 in London as a consequence of the research and planning tradition that already existed at JWT. JWT’s corporate culture established the importance of the Account Planning approach that was valued by advertisers and spread to all offices. The planning tools used by the multinational today are updated versions of those that were designed from 1960 onwards.

The historical approach taken here precludes an analysis of the current reality of Account Planning. In future research, it would be useful to carry out in-depth interviews with professionals to explore how they apply planning tools that represent updated versions of those that were developed 50 years ago.

This paper’s main interest lies in the fact that it is based on original, unpublished sources, an approach that makes it possible to reassess previous findings.

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to trace the origins and early history of the development of the market research practice in India. It covers the period 1955-1975.

A search of key terms in databases such as Google Scholar and ABI-INFORM indicated there was limited data in the public domain on the subject and that the information gleaned was not adequate to trace the birth of the market research practice in India. As there was very little recorded history, the researchers decided to initiate a recording of the history using the available literature, on the reminiscences of the authors and, to a limited extent, contemporaries of the pioneers in the field.

The origins of market research in India can be traced to its supporting role in gauging the efficacy of advertising. Examination of the history of advertising leads to the conclusion that marketing research arrived in India in the decade of the 1950s, initiated by Burmah-Shell’s needs for market research. S. H. Benson (London) Ltd was selected to undertake the pioneering market research that led to the birth of Indian Market Research Service, headed by Krishnaier Parameswaran. Marketing research in India presented numerous challenges (that were overcome) because the operating environment was very different than in advanced countries.

Because of the paucity of information in the literature, this investigation as per the authors’ knowledge represents the first attempt to record the birth and early history of marketing research in India. The recording of history is limited by the fact that many of the early pioneers and collaborators are no longer alive and because of the difficulty in retrieving archival mostly proprietary information.

In determining the future of a practice, it is important to know the history of the practice. It helps determine whether history proceeds in a random manner or whether it proceeds following some discernable patterns. In an area that has been ahistorical, this research identifies the origins of the practice. It is hoped that other researchers build upon this construction of the early history of marketing research in India based on their experiences and knowledge of the pioneering companies and practitioners and using sound historiographical tenets.

This paper's objectives are firstly to systematically analyse patterns of research in international advertising standardisation (IAS) conducted among managers and secondly to suggest fruitful paths for future research in this area.

Content analysis of academic papers published in major marketing, advertising and international business journals.

Results show that overall future research would benefit from a unified definition of and measurement procedures for advertising standardisation as only these can ensure the advancement of knowledge in the field. Additionally, more research is needed in order to further explore process issues in advertising standardisation, especially a newly proposed perspective related to the implementation process of the standardisation decision. Finally, an interesting avenue for future research relates to the study of the subjectivity involved in the standardisation decision.

As with all literature reviews, this paper is limited to analysing works in a selection of the top academic journals in the field. However, a careful choice of the most important journals has been made, providing a good reflection of knowledge in the area.

This paper appears to be the first literature review focusing on manager studies in the field of IAS.

This essay refers to working practices in advertising agency research as a source of reflection on representational practices in the wider worlds of consumer research. The representational conventions of “the essay” allow the paper’s exploratory theme to be developed through the use of several speculative but connected analogies. “Divergence” refers to the differing conventions of representation that obtain within advertising agencies. The counterpoint between artistic representation and empirical fact that was a foundation of Oscar Wilde’s writing is used to indicate an important aspect of this divergence. Finally, the hermeneutic circle of consumer research is offered as an integrating perspective. The essay thus explores divergence in the representational practices of advertising and consumer research in order to explore the preconditions for convergence.

Boxing Not so Clever In this first issue of what will be a regular review of the world's marketing literature, it is a challenge to an editor to extricate a theme from such an abundance of riches.

Takes a somewhat reflexive look at the politics of qualitative research in advertising and draws some analogies with academic research in marketing. The main basis for the discussion is a qualitative study of advertising which utilised a discourse analytic approach to dyadic depth interviews within a social, constructionist, ontological framework. The findings from the study drew attention to the political as opposed to epistemological problems of legitimisation for qualitative forms of understanding. Where qualitative forms of knowledge and understanding are considered legitimate, the social order of power relations within the organisation changes.

The purpose of this paper is to review empirical research on direct‐to‐consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs published in journals over the period from 1997 to 2012.

A structured review of 130 published studies on direct‐to‐consumer advertising of prescription drugs was conducted.

Based on the structured review, the authors identified seven key research themes in DTCA. These are: consumers' attitudes toward direct‐to‐consumer advertising, physician‐patient interaction, content of DTC advertisements, awareness, literacy and memory, consumer information source and search, effect of DTCA expenditures on financial performance, and physicians' attitudes toward DTCA.

Avenues for future research are proposed. Future research needs to focus on more empirical studies, television DTCA, online and emerging media DTCA, new and improved measures, ethical issues and regulations, diverse countries, and nurse and pharmacist attitudes towards DTCA.

The primary contribution of this paper is a thorough understanding of the state‐of‐the‐art in research on DTCA and future research directions.

It seems intuitive that as firms continue to try and keep in touch with the customers they serve, research should play an increasingly important role in determining the needs and wants of the consumer. Accordingly, as goods and services are tailored to meet these needs, so too does the accompanying advertising. Additionally, there is constant pressure on advertising agencies to produce advertising that consistently meets the objectives of their clients. Marketing departments, in turn, have to justify and be accountable to top management for advertising budgets. Consequently, agencies increasingly have to provide measures of effectiveness (Flandin et al 1992). In order to optimize the process(es) that will meet client objectives, agencies have to ensure that they understand how the consumer thinks and feels. One such approach to understanding the consumer's view is account planning. The main objective of this paper will be to provide a thorough review of the account planning phenomenon in advertising and in so doing, highlight the use of advertising research from a developmental perspective. This paper will describe the account planning process and how it differs from traditional agency practices. The justification for such a paper is the fact that billions of dollars are spent annually on advertising, in the hopes that the advertiser's objectives will consistently be met. If it could be demonstrated that increased attention to the consumer, in the development stages of advertising leads to more effective advertising than when consumer input is limited to the evaluation of advertising, after the fact, this would be of significant interest to advertisers as well as advertising agencies.

Properly conceived, conducted and interpreted, motivation research can be an extremely powerful management tool, designed to help the manufacturer or advertiser to sell more goods. Its aim is to expose the market situation, explain it and suggest courses of action which will lead to desired changes. It is a way of looking at a problem rather than a collection of specialist techniques and is strictly practical. Hence it can be used alongside other market research tools for the solution of marketing problems and can be applied to a wide range of business activities. Much of its development has been in the advertising field but it can also help in the formulation of production policy, solving packaging problems and marketing operations. It is examined here in all these contexts. The idea of motivation research, the reasons for its use and the techniques by which to apply it are discussed, as well as the pitfalls that are likely to occur. New and imaginary case studies are used throughout to illustrate points. A review of the subject literature is included.