Title: Optimal duration of advertising campaigns for successive technology generations using innovation diffusion theory

Authors: Remica Aggarwal; Udayan Chanda

Addresses: Department of Management, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus, Pilani-333031, Rajasthan, India ' Department of Management, BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus, Pilani-333031, Rajasthan, India

Abstract: Global market and tough competition compels a firm to continuously conceive new ideas and introduce new technologies in the market. As a result, often more than one generation products compete in the same market; creating an incredible pressure on managers for balanced advertising campaigns for the existing product generations. Advertising of multi-generation product involves selection of appropriate advertising medium, analysing the target market and appropriate utilisation of the available advertising budget. Effective advertising campaign is critical for success of a product in the market. Hence, finding the optimal advertising campaign duration is important as huge chunk of a firm's budget is allocated for this purpose. For, successive technology generations, advertising at right time become even more important. This study developed a mathematical model to determine the optimal duration of advertising campaigns for successive generations product based on diffusion of information in a social group. The optimal timing depends on diffusion coefficient, population size, advertising cost per time unit, unit price, etc.

Keywords: mathematical modelling; multi-product advertising; successive technology generations; optimisation; optimal duration; advertising campaigns; campaign duration; innovation diffusion theory; multi-generation products.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOR.2017.081913

International Journal of Operational Research, 2017 Vol.28 No.3, pp.415 - 428

Received: 17 Jun 2014
Accepted: 02 Aug 2014

Published online: 31 Jan 2017 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article