Tobacco Products Control Act Trial
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Qm
exposed that person to advertising, and found that the
person had read the ads and had understood the ads,
would that result necessarily in the person using that
product?
That's a very hypothetical situation, and it sounds like
it would be one that would have to be addressed in a
controlled experiment. That's not the context of mass
communications, not the context of advertising, because
there are other social influences, things that are
trying to influence individuals. Very few people go
into a mass communication context, including
advertising, without some form of predispositions and
some inferences to make from past experience or
whatever. We're not a Tabla Rosa to be written on.
Now referring, Dr. Reid, to page two (2) of the report
that you have filed, would you just sum up for His
Lordship, please, the -- in very brief terms, the
conclusions you reached in the discussion so far?
Well, the conclusions that I reached from my reading of
the mass communication literature and also advertising,
marketing literature, is that desired effects are only
achieved by addressing an audience who is receptive to
and predisposed to responding in a particular way to a
message. In advertising terminology, that's why markets
are targeted and ads are based and designed based on
AUDIOTRANSCRIPT, Division de Pierre Vilaire & Associ~s Ltge

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audiences' characteristics. And secondly, that these
desired effects are mediated by a host of psychological
and situational factors. Essentially, advertising, or
any other form of mass communication, is insufficient to
bring about behavioral effects alone.
I would add to this that I think, it's my belief,
that the powerful view or powerful effects, unlimited
effects of mass communications, including advertising,
is a myth.
THE COURT:
Is that a view which is shared by most of the scientific
community?
A- I wouldn't say the scientific community. I would say
it's a view that's shared by most of people who work and
study mass communications and advertising. Most
research, it's based on the fact of beginning with the
audience and finding out what factors will affect their
interpretation and their possible responses to mass
communications.
If I might, I would add that today, over the last
decade or so, there's been a move in both communications
research and marketing research, consumer research, from
traditional positive views or perspectives to studying
consumers to qualitative views because of the
dissatisfaction with the ability to predict upon
AUDIOTRANSCRIPT, O~v~o~ a~ Pierre Vilalre ~ Asso¢i@s [,~e

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exposure, particular behaviour.
Me IRVING:
Q- Now, it has been said in this Court, Dr. Reid, that some
eight (8) out of ten (i0) new brands, although
advertised, fail. Does that surprise you from your
perspective of a researcher and professor in this area?
A- No, it doesn't particularly surprise me that products
fail because the final determinant or the arbiter of
that success is the marketplace itself, the buyers. And
the market is no more than people.
Q- Now, I'd like to turn to the subject of advertising more
specifically and its functions just in general terms,
Dr. Reid, and I'm referring now to page three (3) of
your report. Would you describe for His Lordship the
general functions of advertising?
A- Okay. Well, as I said earlier, advertising is a special
form of mass communication and that's an important
distinction, because it has specific characteristics.
That is, it's delivered through a mass medium, it means
messages are mass mediated, advertising is identified by
a sponsor and it's advocating a certain position that
the advertiser desires. It is used by marketers as part
of their overall marketing communication program. Its
purpose in the marketplace is to perform three (3) basic
communication functions.
AUDIOTRANSCRIPT, Division de Pierre Viloire & Associ~s Lt~e

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Qm
Let's deal with those one at a time. So the first, Dr.
Reid, would be?
To inform. To inform a defined target market about the
existence of a product, availability, price, the
introduction of a product category, brand, brand
extension, whatever.
M'hm.
The second would be to persuade. And that is to
persuade targeted consumers to behave, to think, to
feel, in the way advocated by the advertiser. The third
would be to reinforce, to reinforce people's existing
behaviour in the marketplace, brand behaviour, whatever.
All right. Now, in your opinion, Dr. Reid, can people
be persuaded to buy products they don't want by
advertising?
No, I do not believe people can be persuaded to buy
products they do not want by advertising.
Now, in referring to page four (4) of your report.
M'hm.
Would you just explain to His Lordship the basis on
which you hold that opinion?
If I understand -- if I understand the question there,
one of the reasons that -- the main reason -- and going
back to my earlier remarks about the limited effects
model, is that when you look at the advertising process
AUDIOTRANSCRIPT, D~,~oo tie ~erre Vilalr~ & Asso¢i~s tl~

1899 1366
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and it's one form of market communication again,
experience in research is taught, marketers and
academics, that advertisers control advertising
decisions, but consumers control how they respond to
those decisions based on their predispositional states.
Advertising's power is restricted by three things. It
is restricted at least by three things. The
predisposition of the target audience, the nature of...
THE COURT:
Not so fast.
Me IRVING:
Q- All right. Try to follow His Lordship's pen a little,
Dr. Reid, so that he can take notes.
A- I apologize, My Lord.
THE COURT:
You know what you're talking about, I'm learning.
A- By the nature of the audience's predispositions.
Q- Just a second. Okay, predisposition of audience.
A- By the nature of the product and by the nature of the
market.
Me IRVING:
Q- The nature of the product is the second, then.
third was the?
Nature of the market.
And the
That was the second. The nature of the product I think
AUDIOTRANSCRIPT, Division de Pierre Vilaire 8, Associ4s Lt4e

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you said.
A- Nature of the product, nature of the market.
Q- Okay.
THE COURT:
Could you expand a little bit on this?
A- Yes. I can. When you look -- one of the -- perhaps the
best way of looking at advertising, understanding
advertising effects is to look at it in terms of the
nature of the market. And let me explain that. There
are basically two (2) types of markets: new markets and
mature markets.
Me IRVING:
Q- New and mature?
A- New and mature.
Q- Now, let's start with a new market, Dr. Reid.
A- Okay. In new markets where products, product classes,
product categories are unknown by a sufficient number of
potential buyers who are willing and able to buy the
product, advertising can succeed in building a primary
demand for that product. In new markets products
compete against other product categories or product
classes.
Q- Let's stop for a sec, Dr. Reid, while His Lordship makes
a note. And I'm going to ask you to illustrate the
concept of a new market by reference to some particular
AUDIOTRANSCRIPT, Division cle Pierre

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product. For instance, you've referred in your report
to the VCRs which we all look at now, and let's go back
two (2) or three (3) years when they first came into the
market. Is that what you're talking about when you say
a new market?
Yes, introduction of a new technology.
Yes.
Where the product itself, the product category diffuses
through the market. There are people who invest their
time, spend their money and their leisure activities and
other forms of entertainment who may adopt this new
product category, product form, a VCR, for instance.
It
does so, those people who adopt that product, a VCR,
they do it at the expense of other leisure activities.
That is to say, that that product, that money that is
invested in that product and that time, is taken from
other product categories, which it's competing against.
M'hm.
And, of course, in new markets manufacturers market
brands of products which also are competing within that
product category.
All right. Now, staying with the idea of a new market,
and we'll stay with VCRs a few years ago as our example,
what is the role of advertising in that kind of a
market. What sort of roles can advertising play?
AUDIOTRANSCRIPT, Division de P~erre Vilolre & As,od~s Lt4e

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Well, first of all the product exists because the
marketer has deemed a demand for that product. Again, I
use the term willingness and ability to buy a product.
It's marketed under that assumption.
Okay. You mean there is a demand there somehow and the
marketers would know that?
Sophisticated marketers would know that and even so, as
you brought up, eight (8) of ten (i0) products fail.
Yes.
With that knowledge, advertising's role, and I emphasize
advertising's role, because it's not the only form of
competition in a situation like that, is to inform those
potential buyers of the existence of that product. And,
of course, to persuade them to buy that product versus
another product category, substitute, and if it's a
manufacturer who's interested in brand specific
advertising, of course, he's interested in having them
buy their Panasonic brand versus a JVC brand.
Now, let's stay with that example just for a moment, Dr.
Reid. Supposing we are looking at the market for VCRs
at the time when it was new, and supposing we were
looking at advertising, say by Sony, because that was
the one who persuaded me, so Sony is now advertising a
VCR. What effect...
AUDIOTRANSCRIPT, Division de Pierre V;laire & Associ~s Lt~e

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THE COURT:
Well, you have to specify at what date, because at one
point it was a Betamax and VHS.
Me IRVING:
Yes, My Lord.
A- That's right.
Q- I've actually picked a very bad example...
Me BAKER:
He's pretty old-fashioned. You can assume it's Betamax,
My Lord.
Me IRVING:
Q- There's a technological problem. We will use -- which
was the other one? Which was the other brand that you
were talking about?
A- Panasonic?
Q- Panasonic. Let's stay with Panasonic.
THE COURT:
Panasonic and JVC.
Me IRVING:
Q- So Panasonic is now advertising a brand of VCR in this
new market you've described. And what effect can that
kind of brand advertising in that kind of market, have
on overall consumption?
A- Well, if the aggregate demand curve, the primary brand
curve, is growing, is increasing, that is there's demand
AUDIOTRANSCRIPT, Divk;on de Pierre Vilaire & Asso¢i#s U~e

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market.
THE COURT:
Can I interrupt just a minute?
Me IRVING:
Yes, absolutely, My Lord.
THE COURT:
Q-
for the product, brand advertising by Panasonic will not
only contribute to -- does not only have potential to
contribute to its overall brand sales, but to category
sales as well, because the conditions are right there.
Does that relate to the newness of the product?
It relates to the newness of the product, the
innovation. It also relates to the number of people who
have wants and needs for that product. It relates to
the number of people who are not knowledgeable about
that product, are uninformed. A number of things drive
demand.
So then in the new market, in your view, brand
advertising can have a stimulative effect on overall
demand. I'd like you to turn now to another kind of
market, Dr. Reid, which you've described as a mature
What in your opinion is a...
At any moment.
On the VCR thing, it's interesting. Initially, when the
VCRs came out, there were two (2) basic technologies.
One was Betamax and the other was VHS. Is there a
marketing or advertising explanation to why one
AUDIOTRANSCRIPT, Division de Pierre Vilalre & Associ6s b4e
