Marketing investment and intangible brand capital
Open accessAbstract
US companies invested over $500 billion in 2021 in intangible brand capital, over 2% of GDP. During the past decade, US companies have also been growing their internal marketing capabilities, an often overlooked source of human capital. We discuss the private and social benefits of these intangible brand capital stocks. While the private returns to companies are fairly clear, the academic literature has been divided over the social benefits and costs of advertising and promotion, the two key investment vehicles. We also discuss the implications of brand capital for measured productivity.
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Barriers to market entry are common in the processed food sector, where the largest and most dominant firms fund expensive advertising campaigns to build brand loyalty and negotiate product placement with retailers, making it difficult for newcomer firms to compete.
“Barriers to market entry are also common in the processed food sector, where the largest and most dominant firms fund expensive advertising campaigns to build brand loyalty and negotiate product placement with retailers, which make it difficult for newcomer firms to compete (Wood et al. 2021a; Bronnenberg et al. 2022).”
From Corporate concentration and power matter for agency in food systems (2025) · cites this paper as Bronnenberg et al. 2022
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References 17 · Cited by 38
- Authors
- Bronnenberg, B. J., Dubé, J.-P., & Syverson, C.
- Affiliations
- Tilburg University (NL)
- National Bureau of Economic Research (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Economic Perspectives
- Publisher
- American Economic Association
- Published
- 2022-08-01
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 53-74
- ISSN
- 0895-3309 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4293327483
- Cited by
- 38
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 9
- FWCI
- 5.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Locations
- The Journal of Economic Perspectives (publishedVersion)
- Tilburg University Research Portal (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Marketing and Advertising Strategies
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Intellectual Capital and Performance Analysis
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Economic Growth and Productivity
- Keywords
- marketing investment, advertising, promotion, human capital, productivity, brand equity
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