CONTENTS

Does Advertising Effectiveness Vary over Time?

Editor’s Notes

Manager’s Viewpoint

Asymmetric Response to Advertising

Director’s Corner

Next Meeting

Director's Corner

by Harry M. Kaiser

I am pleased to report that NICPRE received renewed Federal funding for 1998-99 at the same level as last year, $198,000. With this money, we will continue to do (and sponsor) research to better understand the economic impacts of generic advertising and promotion. NICPRE has sent out request for proposals for such research, has received 11 excellent proposals from various universities, and a total of $75,000 will be committed to funding these proposals. In addition, we will approach several commodity promotion organizations in an attempt to obtain matching money for selected proposals of mutual interest. As always, the staff of NICPRE will continue to conduct its own research in commodity promotion economics.

You will notice that the first issue of the 1998 NICPRE Quarterly has a new editor. It is my pleasure to introduce Ms. Una Moneypenny as NICPRE's new editor. Una has extensive editorial experience and has hit the ground running since she started in mid-January. Una will be working half-time until May 1, and then she will be a full-time editor. We are very happy to have found an excellent editor to replace Jenny Ferrero.

The theme of this issue of the NICPRE Quarterly is generic milk advertising in New York City. New York City is a very unique, but important market for commodities and we suspect that some of the research finding for milk may be true for other commodities as well. Therefore, even if your main interest is not milk you will likely find the results of these studies, as well as the manager's viewpoint interesting. As always, I encourage feedback from you on the issues covered in this newsletter.