Optimal Advertising Policy Under Dynamic Conditions

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Optimal advertising and price policies are derived for the individual firm under conditions of imperfect competition. The model is simplified in the sense that it allows jump policies, which imply an infinite rate of current advertising expenditure, in the initial period. It has the advantage of considering contraction as well as expansion policies. When no factors operate to shift the demand function independently of the firm's actions, the optimal price and advertising policies are shown to be stationary after a certain point. The concept of good will, a stock related to th flow of current advertising expenditures, is introduced. Analysis of the special case in which demand is linear in logarithms and total cost is linear leads to more specific conclusions. We show that the optimal stationary solution implies a constant ratio of advertising to sales. Even in the nonstationary case, in which other factors operate to shift the demand function, the same result is obtained when these factors are assumed to change at a constant proportional rate. This result is supported by some evidence on the actual behavior of firms. (Author).

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