Do ads actually influence car sales? Hell yeah
A new study shows that maybe Ford & Audi (& everyone) might be on to something.
A group of researchers set out to learn how much the depth or breadth of a car maker’s portfolio impacted its sales.
They inadvertently found out that advertising had an even bigger correlation with sales.
They tracked 40 US brands for 6 years and included over a dozen other variables. Advertising had a bigger correlation with sales than customer satisfaction, perceived quality, and even portfolio depth and breadth. (And other stuff.)
Now, I’m the first to say that correlation does not equal causation. Maybe there’s some other factor driving both sales and advertising. And it’s even possible that the arrow points the other way: as a company's sales go up, they increase their advertising budget too.
But it’s more evidence that however much people say, “Ads don’t affect me,” they probably do.
Besides, if ads didn’t lift sales, you think Ford would still be buying TV ads 364 days of the year? (They must take a day off at some point.)