Payments, promotion, and the purple pill

Vitamin panacea: Is advertising fueling demand for products with uncertain scientific benefit?

This study examines the effect of advertising on demand for vitamins-products with spiraling sales despite little evidence of efficacy. We merge seven years (2003-2009) of advertising data from Kantar Media with the Simmons National Consumer Survey to estimate individual-level vitamin print and television ad exposure effects. Identification relies on exploiting exogenous variation in year-to-year advertising exposure by controlling for each individual's unique media consumption. We find that increasing advertising exposure from zero to the mean number of ads increases the probability of consumption by 1.2 and 0.8% points (or 2 and 1.4%) in print and television respectively. Stratifications by the presence of health conditions suggests that in print demand is being driven by both healthy and sick individuals.

How to sell a condom? The impact of demand creation tools on male and female condom sales in resource limited settings

Despite condoms being cheap and effective in preventing HIV, there remains an 8billion shortfall in condom use in risky sex-acts. Social marketing organisations apply private sector marketing approaches to sell public health products. This paper investigates the impact of marketing tools, including promotion and pricing, on demand for male and female condoms in 52 countries between 1997 and 2009. A static model differentiates drivers of demand between products, while a dynamic panel data estimator estimates their short- and long-run impacts. Products are not equally affected: female condoms are not affected by advertising, but highly affected by interpersonal communication and HIV prevalence. Price and promotion have significant short- and long-run effects, with female condoms far more sensitive to price than male condoms. The design of optimal distribution strategies for new and existing HIV prevention technologies must consider both product and target population characteristics.