Off the top of my head, I’d say there are two reasons. The new factor is the deregulation of the consumer electricity market. If you can’t pick your power company now, chances are you will be able to in the near future. Hence, the need for advertising.
What about before deregulation was a factor? Remember that utilities are extremely political beasts. Their profits are determined by the prices they can charge, which (since they’re monopolies, by and large) are generally very closely regulated. Advertising means positive PR means politicians less likely to roast utilities when it comes time to review pricing or approve rate hikes to fund new power plants.
Exactly,
They need to advertise to remind you how they’re spending your money. So when you get your bill, you can say “Yeah, now I know what it goes to.” Even though, you never really see what it goes to. I always used to love the joke about why our armed forces advertised. It’s not like the Turkish Army is a possibility for our boys and girls…
The advertising may cover legal areas, too.
For example: Once a year the gas company will run commercials reminding you to call them before you dig.
Every now and then when a contractor busts a gas line and a construction site has to be emptied in a hurry the gas spokesman always seems to dig up the same speech: that they inform everyone to notify them before digging.
In this case the advertising might be more along the area of “public notice.” Or CYA.
Well, God knows in Chicago, Com Ed can use all the positive PR they can get and 99% of the time, the only positive PR they can get is what they make up themselves. After the 30th power outage per season, it might be time to start tellinng people that you actually do have a clue since that’s not what they’re getting from the media.