Precipitation and reminder are more likely to increase total industry sales, while persuasion and reinforcement are usually associated with maintaining or increasing market share. Advertising through federal programs is either done with funds generated by marketing orders or research and promotion acts. The latter kind is proposed for honey. It is national in scope and is primarily directed toward promotion. Currently research and promotion acts exist for eggs, potatoes, wheat for food, cotton, lamb, wool, mohair and dairy.
Generic advertising is a secondary activity of marketing orders.
Since 1970, twenty-one orders support some kind of generic promotion. Effectiveness of generic advertising is variable. A number of economic studies have measured the success of citrus, milk, potatoes, cotton, eggs, and others. In contrast, studies of the total and generic advertising of potatoes show a positive response to potatoe advertising, but failed to show the separate effect of generic efforts. Although it is not possible to directly evaluate new programs with exactly the same types of analysis, commodity and market characterisitics can be identified which contribute to the success of new generic programs.