2% per quarter
WarningBrand Strategy
Every dark quarter costs future revenue that takes years to rebuild
Nielsen's analysis finds brands risk losing 2% of future revenue for each quarter they forgo advertising, and that recovering from extended periods of marketing inactivity can take three to five years of consistent brand building.
Source
The Effectiveness Equation - Google Market Insights EMEA, with Kantar, Nielsen, Ekimetrics, Ipsos MMA, the Behavioural Architects and WARC (2025)
Michal Protasiuk, Ahmet Bas, Jonas Christensen, Vanessa Bruns, Emily Allen and Jonny Protheroe (Google Market Insights, EMEA)
p. 60, The Effectiveness Equation (2025), citing Nielsen, Beyond today: Why long-term marketing drives business longevity, September 2023
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PrincipleMarketing measures itself on only one side of the profit equationStatMost organisations have no agreed definition of what marketing effectiveness meansStatBrands with pricing power command roughly twice the price of brands without itStatPricing power comes from meaningful difference, not from salienceCaseA UK skincare brand turned a 2% revenue increase into 7% by lowering its price elasticity firstPrinciplePromotion-heavy communication raises price sensitivity; balanced brand building lowers itStatPricing power and resistance to price rises correlate strongly and measurablyStatHalf of advertising's sales effect arrives after the fourth monthStatMedia returns peak with roughly half to sixty per cent of the budget in brand buildingStatRaising brand awareness lifts short-term sales as well as long-term onesWarningWinning back share costs nearly twice what cutting the budget savedWarningShifting a shrinking budget into performance can destroy the returns performance depends on