Management Perceptions of the Importance of Brand Awareness as an Indication of Advertising Effectiveness

In 1987 Rossiter and Percy wrote “Brand awareness is widely misunderstood and often wrongly measured, even by experienced managers” (p41). Yet brand awareness is covered in most texts on advertising measurement, it is a central part of the popular hierarchy of-effects advertising model, and marketing managers claim it as an important goal of their communications activities (Kelly 1991). This paper discusses recent theoretical developments which attempt to explain the role which brand awareness plays and then presents empirical findings concerning how Australian managers utilise brand awareness as a measure of marketing and advertising effectiveness.