Advertising Research and its Influence on Managerial Practice

Abstract

ABSTRACT Responding to recent calls for a conceptualization of the relationship between academic advertising theory and research on the one hand and advertising practice on the other, this article identifies the various ways-instrumental, conceptual, and symbolic-in which advertising theory impacts upon managerial thought and practice. The article argues that due to the dearth of formal advertising theories that lend themselves to an instrumental application, advertising practitioners have resorted to conceptual use (with theories providing them with ideas, metaphors, problem I definitions, and interpretative schemes as a set of intellectual tools for understanding and anticipating real-world problems), as well as to symbolic use, (where terms and concepts from theories are used for their symbolic or rhetorical value to legitimize courses of action).