DOI: 10.2501/JAR-2019-017 May 2019 JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH 1 INTRODUCTION Understanding the effects of different forms of marketing communications on company perfor- mance has been of interest to practitioners and a subject of academic inquiry for years (Hanssens and Pauwels, 2016). Although significant research has explored the relationship between sales and individual marketing-communications variables, the data driving the majority of that research usu- ally are drawn from the consumer-products sec- tor, typically fast-moving consumer goods. Most of the research focuses on individual or pairwise Advertising and Promotional Effects On Consumer Service Firm Sales Media Ad Spend and Quality Matter For Driving Restaurant Sales HARLAN E. SPOTTS Western New England University hspotts@wne.edu MARC G. WEINBERGER University of Massachusetts Amherst; University of Georgia marcw@isenberg.umass.edu MICHELLE F. WEINBERGER Northwestern University m-weinberger@ northwestern.edu This study focuses on the effects of different marketing-communications tools on company performance, namely how advertising-execution quality, media spending, and sales promotions differentially influence changes in sales revenue. The analysis employs five years of aggregated monthly data on nine leading brands in a consumer-services sector, quick-serve restaurants, an often-overlooked area with high marketing-communications expenditures. The findings illustrate that advertising spending and then execution quality mattered most for changes in sales revenue. Internet advertising had no effect for most companies, and sales promotions either were not significant or were related negatively to changes in sales. • For most brands, advertising-media spending, particularly television spending, had the greatest impact on changes in sales performance. The quality of advertising execution was still important, but it played a lesser role for the group of eight nonleading brands. • For the category leader, advertising spending at current levels did not drive additional sales. Instead, advertising quality mattered most, perhaps reflecting saturation in awareness. This suggests that this category leader may be able to reallocate resources devoted to exposure. Total promotions also were not related to changes in sales for this market leader. • Brands that experienced gains in average sales performance over the five-year period had higher share of voice across media, higher advertising-executional quality, and fewer sales driven by promotions than those that declined in sales performance. • Although classic promotion activity was not a significant driver of sales change, menu-based promotion actually had a negative effect on changes in sales. There is some evidence that restaurants increased the use of menu-based promotions when sales were flagging, a strategy that may be counterproductive. Submitted December 8, 2017; revised July 17, 2018; accepted August 1, 2018.