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

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.