Intermediate advertising effects: the MAC model

Ambler, TFJ (1996) Intermediate advertising effects: the MAC model. Working Paper. London Business School Centre for Marketing Working Paper.

Abstract

Advertising was once believed to operate wholly as information transference. For the last 100 years, advertising has also been seen as persuasive with cognition continuing to dominate advertising research. The role of affect in advertising has a stream of research not fully integrated with the Cartesian (cognitive) stream. Neuroscience may provide the linkage. This paper suggests that consumer behavior is driven primarily by memory (M), which includes habits and conditioning, and secondarily by feelings (affect A). The utility maximising role of reason (cognition C) typically plays a minor, albeit important, role. The M É A É C, or MAC, model of the intermediate effects of advertising ("É", includes, is used in the sense of "setting the context for") may be part of a paradigm shift in marketing research toward more emphasis on affect. Brand equity is presented as SM, i.e. the combined brand memory of the relevant population. The paper concludes with managerial implications and proposals for testing the MAC model.