Date of Award

1992

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Bachelor of Business (Honours)

Faculty

Faculty of Business

First Supervisor

Ken Wright

Abstract

The accounting, law and medical professions in Australia have resisted using advertising as part of a marketing strategy until the late 1980's. Unlike their colleagues in the United States, the majority of professionals in Australia have yet to explore the benefits of utilising advertising to develop and maintain a high quality reputation, as well as informing potential clientele of available services and other necessary information that customers may use to select a professional practitioner. It is the aim of this research to investigate consumer attitudes toward accountants, lawyers, and physicians with respect to professional service advertising in Perth, Western Australia. It is anticipated that the results of the study will assist those professionals who may consider using advertising as part of an overall marketing strategy but may have been initially sensitive to the idea that advertising would detract from the profession's public image. Research of this nature is also necessary because little investigation of consumer attitudes toward advertising by professionals has been implemented in Australia to date (1992). Of all the professions in Australia only physicians are restricted by law with respect to advertising. The inclusion of physicians in this study is justified by the fact that medical practitioners are restricted under the Medical Rules 1987, and that if these rules are diluted in the future, practitioners of that profession may draw some insights from the research undertaken here. This research is a partial replication of a study completed in the United States by Hite and Bellizzi (1986).

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