ONLINE ADVERTISING - Its's Scope & Impact On Consumer Buying Behaviour
ONLINE ADVERTISING - Its's Scope & Impact On Consumer Buying Behaviour
ONLINE ADVERTISING - Its's Scope & Impact On Consumer Buying Behaviour
The Online is the fastest growing medium in the 90s with Indian Online market
growing steadily in terms of subscribers and the number of active subscribers has
touch 4.5 million as of March 2009. This represents a growth of 30 per cent compared
to the 3.1 million active subscriber bases in March 2008. It has great potential as an
advertising medium. Its feedback and interaction possibilities enable advertisers and
online users to customize and differentiate the advertisement to meet the users own
requirements.
Online advertising is becoming part of some companies marketing strategy. However
it requires new strategies and thinking. The benefits of online advertising are its
ability to cover all promotional objectives from awareness to action by leveraging all
5 elements in the promotion mix. The Online is also a highly selective, cost effective
media with greater measurability than any other media. Despite higher global reach
Online is not yet a local mainstream media.
The Online offers companies targeting well educated, innovative, affluent males or
students great potential for success as their segments are highly represented. Products
with high information intensity and high buyer involvement are also appropriate for
online promotion due to its large information capacity at low costs. Its distribution
opportunity is especially suitable for the increasing channel of mail order products.
Low product fit or low audience fit companies can benefit by building a brand image
to establish a user link or simply to learn about interactive media.
Traditional advertising is consumed passively & online implementation requires
understanding, commitment and resource allocation from corporate management to
operate successfully. The marketing department should be responsible in conjunction
with advice from a competent advertising agency for online strategy development and
implementation.
INTRODUCTION
Throughout history, technological breakthroughs have created fundamental changes in
the way we communicate and relate to each other. The new forms of communication
that have surfaced with the passage of time have, each in their own way, influenced
society dramatically. Gutenbergs invention of the printing press in the 15th century
made it possible to mass produce text and triggered a wave of knowledge
dissemination which eventually provided the foundations for the Lutheran
reformation and other radical changes in the society of that time.
In the 20th century, radio and television have brought sound and pictures directly to
the individual household. This first generation of electronic mass media expanded the
individuals access to information and exercised a homogenizing influence on large
parts of the population.
Interactive networks
In these years, a new communication technology is beginning to break through:
interactive networks, which make it possible for the individual to retrieve and deliver
large amounts of information to one or more recipients. As the information processed
in these networks is digital, it can be replicated, manipulated and distributed with an
unprecedented ease. And unlike the unidirectional communications of traditional mass
media, the interactive networks are based on a two-way communication flow which
gives a more active role to the user. Many observers argue that interactive networks
hold the potential to revolutionize the way we communicate, work, shop and entertain
ourselves. Revolution or not, there is little doubt that their long-term impact on our
lives will be significant.
Commercial use of the Web
With a growing number of users spending an increasing amount of time on the
Online, advertisers, who annually spend billions of dollars courting potential
customers, are beginning to show great interest in this new medium. The fastest
growing part of the Online, the World Wide Web, is increasingly being used for
commercial purposes by companies who are attracted by the low costs of making
information available, the possibilities of reaching a global audience, and the
opportunity to use the mediums interactivity to create a dialogue with the audience.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this report is to analyze the World Wide Web as an advertising carrier. The
World Wide Web is a new medium which has not yet been adequately researched and
described in the literature, and it embodies a number of communication characteristics
which differ fundamentally from those of traditional mass media.
Moreover, there are large uncertainties about who the Web users are, how they use the
medium, and what the general strengths and weaknesses of the Web as an advertising
carrier are.
In short, this report aims to answer the following questions:
a. What are the differences between online advertising compared to traditional mass
advertising strategies?
b. How is online advertising linked with the promotion mix?
c. What are the pros and cons of online advertising compared to general media?
d. What are the critical success factors for advertising on the Online?
e. How should online advertising be implemented?
In order to answer these main questions, the report will address the following sub
questions, which include analyses about the medium and its users, as well as
prospective advertisers:
From a theoretical perspective, what are the differences between the communication
processes on the World Wide Web and traditional mass media?
What are the characteristics of the Web users?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Web compared to other advertising
media?
Which companies should use the World Wide Web for advertising?
What guidelines can be established for designing Web advertisements?
Review of literature
Lack of research
Because of the explosive development in this area, research has lagged behind
practice. Despite the great attention given to the development of the Online, very little
research has been undertaken about how the World Wide Web is actually used for
advertising purposes today, and even less about how it should be used. While most
observers agree that the Web has an enormous potential as a commercial medium,
there is widespread disagreement about how the medium is developing and what
advertisers should do to exploit this development. In this report, we will attempt to
shed light on these questions.
IMRB has used its internet survey data to come out with an online banner advertising
report and claim internet banner ad market will grow from Rupees 235 crores this
year to 350 crores next year. Just for a comparison Rediff the largest Indian internet
site in India posted a revenue of $23.3 million from India last year which is
approximately equal to 90 crores and most of its revenue is from display ads that is
why I think Online advertising has a bigger scale than reported or maybe it is
concentrated in the hand of a few top players. Some key highlights of the report are:
Conversions are highest for ads for Holidays and tours and bank loans
along with laptops as shown in table above.
In a study it is known that 28% of Indian mobile users accessed the Internet:
As per a study conducted by Nokia India and TNS India, Indian mobile users
accessed Internet for 2.4 day a week as compared to 2.7 days a week via a PC
1) Business today has a good story covering the full spectrum of digital advertising
companies in India - from full fledge interactive agencies to online Indian ad
networks.
2) Content Sutra has another story on figures released by FICCI, which puts the
Indian online advertising market at Rs 270 crores, a 69% Y-o-Y growth. Online
advertising was just 1.3 % of total Entertainment & Media advertising in 2007.
Komli is a leading online ad network in India offering tools to Publishers to help them
manage, optimize, and make the most of their online advertising. On the other hand,
advertisers have access to millions of clients worldwide in order to increase their
consumer commitment, brand recognition, leads, and sales. They offer different
options such as CPM and performance based CPC and CPA marketing.
Solutions to both publishers and advertisers include Komli premium network and
Komli performance network. Komli premium network offers publishers tons of
advertising formats using the newest web technologies, as well as many top brands,
and provides advertisers with rich, targeted ways to connect with consumers.
Komli last year got $7 million funding from 3 VCs namely Nexus India Capital along
with Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Helion Ventures.
Tyroo is an India based online advertising network that uses proprietary targeting
technology to ensure advertisers reach out to the right websites from its inventory of
publishers.
Internet company Yahoo picked up at least 35% stake in Tyroo for an undisclosed
amount in July 2007. Incubated by Delhi-based digital media company Smile
Interactive Technologies Group, Tyroo was voted as one of the 10 most interesting
startups by Business daily Mint, a part of the HT Media group.
Recently Tyroo claimed to reach 2.5 billion Ad impressions a month. According to
Tyroo, its 2500 strong publisher network includes Perfspot, Facebook, About.com,
SantaBanta, Smashits, Yatra, and OneIndia. The company counts Microsoft, General
Motors, Pepsi, ICICI and Yahoo amongst its advertisers.
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dgm India claims to be the largest performance based affiliate ad network in the
country. dgm India is a wholly owned subsidiary of Deal Group Media.
dgm India offers to its advertisers affiliate program to develop a virtual sales force
using one of their turnkey affiliate marketing products, whereby advertisers promote
their products via relevant and top performing affiliates /publishers.
For publishers, DGM India will optimize their online inventory, monitor and evaluate
performance and provide with attractive deals from all the advertisers.
IndiAds is the leading Internet advertising network for the Indian and South Asian
online community. They claim to deliver 800 million ads per month to Indians and
South-Asians living in North America, Europe and Asia.
IndiAds offers ad serving services for websites with traffic over 20,000,000
pageviews per month. With ability to precisely target ads to any geographic location,
with greater flexibility in campaign settings, publishers are able to acquire new
advertisers and provide better results for their existing clients.
Although not Indian, it is the most popular Ad network not only in India but
worldwide. More than 5 publishers mentioned above claim to be the largest Ad
network in India. I wonder how that can be with more than 75% market share is with
Google alone!
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Rediff leads the Indian portals in terms of pageviews followed by Yahoo India
and Indiatimes.
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This section, we will explain the methodological approach that has been adopted in
order to answer the questions posed in the problem formulation.
In the field of advertising research, no generally accepted scientific framework exists.
Advertising
theories
are
rather
collections
of
operationally
oriented
SECONDARY RESEARCH
External desk research is used in a subsidiary way; however primary research is the
main thrust of the work. Secondary data provided a context within which to set the
work. The secondary research is mainly based on articles from journals, newspapers
and magazines because only few on-line marketing books has been published. None
contain any academic/ theoretical research.
Through the interactions with the experts in the advertising industry it was possible to
get access to confidential online material, surveys and briefings. New technology
driven research methods like CD-ROM databases and library computer networking
were time saving, cost effective and efficient. During Online research several good
unpublished theoretical articles on advertising strategies was found. Press clippings
leading websites were also useful.
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Primary Research
Certain research objectives especially concerning how online advertising works could
not be covered through secondary research. They required a more analytical approach.
Furthermore online development is so tremendous, that relying only on historic data
will leave the dissertation with bias. The primary data was gathered through a
combination of observation, experimentation and questionnaires.
Many hours have been spent surfing the net to get a understanding of how and what
the people use the Online for advertisements and company homepages were
investigated and analyzed. Several companies were interviewed through E-mail about
their communication strategies. Marketing mailing lists and discussions groups were
joined. Quick and free feedback from experts and users was thereby gathered.
They were asked to predict the future for the Online as advertising medium and what
effect it would have on media habits and communication strategies. The differences
between this medium and traditional media were discussed along with what the
critical success factors are. Companies present on the Online were interviewed about
their reasons for being there, what their strategies were and how successful they have
been.
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descriptive approach in part I is that the Web has not yet been adequately described in
the literature, and an in-depth understanding of this new medium is an essential
prerequisite for developing recommendations for its use.
A theoretical analysis of the communication processes on the World Wide Web, using
theories of interpersonal communication and mass communication as a point of
departure. The analysis in chapter 3 is primarily based on empirical data about the
users and usage patterns of the Web. The chapter discusses how many users the Web
has, what factors drive and impedes the growth of the medium, which the mediums
users are and how they use the medium. Chapter 4 identifies the main strengths and
weaknesses of the Web as an advertising carrier compared to other media. The
conclusions reached in chapter 4 are used in the discussion of how the Web should be
incorporated in the companys media mix.
The aim of part II is prescriptive. Based on the conclusions from part I, part II
develops a series of recommendations for prospective advertisers about if and how
they should use the medium. Chapter 5 discusses the products and services best suited
for being advertised on the Web, and formulates recommendations for companies
considering advertising there. It also discusses how the Web should be incorporated in
the media mix of the company. Chapter 6 establishes guidelines for advertisers that
have chosen to integrate the Web in their advertising. In the chapter, a new approach
to advertising on the Web is presented and a number of models are developed than can
assist prospective advertisers in creating a successful advertising presence on the Web.
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wishes to. Using the Web as a research tool has proven to be extremely effective and
efficient. Many of the sources available on the Web are not accessible in print, which
means that using the Web for data collection has allowed us to access a much wider
selection of relevant sources and use them as input for the analysis.
In addition to using the Web as a library, we have also used the medium actively to
create a dialogue with other students, researchers and practitioners. As a part of the
work on this project we established a Web site1 that describes our research program.
The index page of the Web site is depicted on the following page. Within a two-month
period the site generated more than 2400 hits2. Via this site, we have received a large
number of e-mails from students, researchers and business practitioners in different
parts of the world working on related issues. The dialogue generated through this Web
site has provided us with valuable input and inspiration throughout the process. The
reduction of geographical distance as a barrier to research dialogue and exchange of
ideas and results is likely to keep accelerating and improving the quality of
knowledge generation, as more and more researchers use the Web for dialogue and
data exchange.
However, data collection on the Web raises two problems: Firstly, validating the
quality and authenticity of the information is an even more critical issue than in print
media, since the gatekeeper function performed by editors and publishers is absent
on the Web. This issue has been addressed through a critical examination of the data
and conclusions of each source and by cross checking with other sources when
possible. Moreover, the positions and institutional affiliations of the authors have been
considered when assessing the quality and reliability of the sources. Secondly, there is
a risk that sources are changed, updated, or moved to a different URL. Nevertheless,
we have found that the benefits of using information from the Web fully outweigh
these disadvantages.
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advertising on the World Wide Web. We will argue that a new advertising paradigm is
needed as the traditional paradigm, based on a one-way information push, is not
suited for interactive media.
PROMOTION MIX
Communicating with present and potential customers is an essential part of any
business. Any company is inevitably cast as communicator and promoter as well as
producer and has to manage a complex marketing communications system (often
referred to as the promotion mix), which consists of four major tools. (Kotler 1991):
Advertising: Advertising is defined below. It differs from the other components of
the promotion mix by being persuasive communication, from the company to an
audience through the mass media.
Personal selling: Oral presentation in a conversation with one or more prospective
purchasers for the purpose of making sales.
Sales promotion: Short term incentives to encourage purchase of a pro duct or
service, i.e. through special incentives discounts.
Public relations: A variety of programs designed to improve, maintain, or protect a
company or product image.
WHAT IS ADVERTISING?
Arens and Bovee (1994) put forward a common definition of advertising:
Advertising is nonpersonal communication of information usually paid for and
usually persuasive in nature, about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors
through various media. The word advertising originates from the latin ad veterre,
which means to turn the mind toward (Russel & Lane 1993). Advertising represents
one of the most important ways that companies convey messages about their products
and ideas to potential customers and stakeholders, and advertising revenues constitute
the financial basis for thousands of TV stations, newspapers, and magazines.
In general, current advertising is a one-way communication process whereby
standardized messages are dispersed to large audiences. Advertisements have become
bundled with the general information push of the mass media (Negroponte 1995),
which pushes the advertisements into the consumers minds. The bundling of
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advertisements with TV programs has made it possible for the advertisers to develop
efficient forms of intrusive advertisements, which have an effect on the audience even
though they do not take any significant interest in (at least some of) the
advertisements as such. As the classical purposes of traditional advertising is to
inform, persuade, and remind, the actual sale normally does not take place in direct
connection with the exposure to the advertisement. Since exposure and transaction are
usually separated in time and space, advertising is functionally separated from sales
(Wells, Burnett, and Moriarty 1992).
THE MEDIUM OF THE MESSAGE
The current attitude towards what advertising is, the function it includes, and how
advertisements are designed, has been shaped by the technological possibilities and
constraints of traditional mass media. Because of the many forms and uses of
advertising, it is difficult to make all-embracing generalizations about what
advertising is, but still a number of defining characteristics of advertising can be
observed:
CHARACTERISTICS OF TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING
One-way communication flow: Because of the one-way communication flow of
mass media, advertising is basically a monologue, not a dialogue. Therefore, mass
media advertising usually precludes feedback from the audience, such as transactions
or requests for further information.
Standardized messages: Due to the inherent standardization of mass media
communication, all of the audience normally receives the same messages in the same
form, regardless of their specific desires and information needs.
Simple messages. Advertising (especially in broadcast media) tends to concentrate
on very simple messages with rather low information content. This is in part because
of the brief exposure, which restricts the complexity of the message that can be
communicated, and in part because of limited audience involvement in the
advertisements. In the words of Krugman (1994), ...people do not watch TV in order
to make decisions about which brand of dog food to buy next.
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Captive audience. It can be argued that the audience in traditional mass media is to a
certain extent captive, in the sense that it must do something actively to avoid being
exposed to the advertisements in their full length (for instance, change to a different
channel on TV).
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Online HTML language enables advertisers to offer customers to purchase the quicker
CD with up to 630 MB of information ,and up-date the version over the Online.
SECURITY
Microsoft, Visa and MasterCard work on securing credit card transactions, which
might include digital signatures. Firewalls and encryption have already been
developed to protect confidential material. Digital cash or virtual money like E-cash
are also being tested as means of payment on the Online.
So far only 2.5 million people have purchased products and services over the WWW,
but according to a Hermes pre-test programme in 1994 it is expected to grow by
85%.Direct selling will not be fully utilized, until the public is convinced that the
Online is safe for transactions. This means that the advertiser meanwhile should
provide the surfer with other alternatives to exchange money e.g. through phone
transfer. Advertising will not be able to finish the sale, until the security problem is
solved.
CONTROL
There is no central authority, no governing body and no official policies on the
Online. Every one is free to publish what ever they like. To trust sources can be
difficult. A lot of irrelevant content is being published. Since the US government
stopped sponsoring the Online in 1995, there is a need for someone to fund the future
development of the Online.
The commercial industry now sponsors development and quality content, with the
trade- off of allowing promotion. Also legal issues across borders are difficult to
control. What might be legal in one country may be illegal in another.
Property rights
Digital transmission makes it easy to copy and alter all sorts of information and art,
from music to databases to computer software. The Online is one gigantic copying
machine. All copyrighted works can now be digitized and once on the Net,
copyrighting is effortless, costless, widespread and immediate says David Nimmer, a
Los Angeles lawyer in intellectual property rights. This is dire news to the commercial
industry, which become very vulnerable to piracy to a vast number of people.
Advertisers must be aware of this problem.
Current copyright law is based around national boundaries, which leaves the question
what national law should be used. The European Union has created a green paper on
copyright and related rights in a digital society, which may become a directive. Also
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Online Demographics
The user is an extremely attractive target due to his/her characteristics. They are well
educated (64% have at least college degree), professional (50%) with a high disposal
income - 25% have income over 80.000 dollars aged between 30 and upwards.
Research results confirm that education and not income is the key to online
participation.
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The users status and profile makes them often opinions formers. Reaching these
segments have a great impact on word-of-mouth communication. They are
information seekers, curious, active and innovative. They like interacting and being in
control. They are more demanding, than advertisers expect.
STUDENTS
Most colleges and universities give free accounts to the students. They have a
significant demographic component on the Online. They are innovative and looking
mainly for entertainment. To reach this segment at an early age could create the
possibility of establishing a relationship with a life time value for the advertiser.
GENDER DIFFERENCES
The Online is primary male dominated with 60% of the total usage. However, women
on the Online are increasing significantly in numbers now accounting for
approximately 40% up from 15% in 1995. Researchers say there is evidence that men
and women use media in different ways. This will have implications of the future
development of the Online, which has previously been male focused. A recent study
showed that females are more loyal and spend more time on specific Online sites
where as males surf around for whats cool? and entertainment. Men are more
impressed by fancy graphics and download games, where as women look for chat
rooms or ways to make their lives more efficient.
More women in cyberspace could be a gold mine for advertisers. They are believed to
make 75 percent of the general consumer decisions. However, a survey sponsored by
Apple computer still shows, that 90% of on-line shoppers are men. Many believe this
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will change, once the woman become familiar with the net. Some companies such as
Clinique or Toyota have realised this potential and target women directly with special
female sites. However, only few have so far taken this initiative, either because they
do not believe there is any difference or because they do not understand there is a
difference.
ONLINE USAGE
17% (34 million) of the total US population have access to the Online. 11% had
accessed the net the past three months - 8% the WWW. They spend an average of 5
hours and 28 minutes per week on the Online. In total the Online is receiving 46%
more usage time than on-line services.
US experience suggests that as media fragment, so do audience. If they are on the Net,
they are not watching Television. In fact viewing drops by 25% when people surf the
Online. So as Mark Dickinson, new media development director at Lowe HowardSpink says, If we are not there (Online) too, were going to lose them.
Advertising has until recently not been tolerated due to Onlines past history as a
highly reliable academic information-exchange pool. Advertising is becoming more
accepted now, if it adds value to the users, where relevant.
Dramatic levels of growth and rapid shift in the Onlines population might create new
on-line rules or weaken existing ones. However, it will not remove rules. There will
be a shift toward secure privately-ruled communities within the net. The move to
electronic commerce will demand new communities and support new rules. In
cyberspace the real power will lie with those who make the rules.
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Networks
As explained earlier in the report, the Online consists of interconnected networks. As
with the number of hosts, there is no way to determine how many users are connected
to each network, and numbers are best suited for describing the growth pattern. Figure
3.2 shows how the number of networks has grown from 2,338 in 1991 to 93,671 in
early 1996.
Domains
Domain names are addresses of large Web sites; thus, Apples Web address is
http://www.apple.com. Each domain name can contain anything between one and one
thousand Web sites, so it is difficult to establish any precise estimates about the
number of Web sites on the basis of domain names alone. Still, the growth from
16.000 registered domain names in 1991 to 240.000 in 1996 depicted in figure 3.3
reflects an explosive growth in the content available on the Web.
The Hard Core users are the segment of users that have used the Web within the last
24 hours and claim to use the Web frequently. According to the results of the survey,
this segment has 1.8 million users, which constitutes 16% of all Web users in the
United States. Regular users are users who have used the Web in the past week, but
not within the last 24 hours and
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generally use the medium frequently. There are 2.4 million regular users, which
equals 21% of total Web users. Occasional users use the Web less frequently than
Regular and Hard Core users and have not used the Web in the past week. With 4.2
million users, this is the biggest of the segment, comprising 37% of all users of the
Web.
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Mediated communication
Interpersonal communication between two persons who are not located very close to
each other has to take place through a medium such as a telephone or by mail. Thus, a
distinction can be made between two basic kinds of interpersonal communication:
mediated and unmediated communication. In the case of mediated interpersonal
communication, the medium limits the bandwidth so that some information (in the
form of sensory impressions) are lost in the communication process. In addition to
limiting the bandwidth, some media also introduce a time lag between transmission
and reception of the signal, for instance in the case of a letter that does not arrive until
the day after it has been sent. Figure 2.1 illustrates the communication process in
mediated face-to-face communication.
Mass Communication
Mass communication is communication from one sender to many receivers, and has
become a predominant form of communication during our century. Laswell (1948)
introduced one of the most common models of mass communication, which is
illustrated in figure 2.2.
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Standardized messages
The figure illustrates the communication process in traditional mass
communication, where a sender transmits a message through a mass medium
to a large number of receivers. All receivers receive the same message in the
same form. The effect may differ, as different receivers interpret the message
in different ways depending on personal factors and situational factors.
Personal factors refer to the culture and background of the receiver; situational
factors refer to the specific situation the communication process takes place in,
e.g. whether the receiver is exposed to the message on the street, in a train,
from a radio running in the background, etc.
As depicted in Laswells model, there is no interaction between the sender and the
receiver. The communication flow is one way, and it is not possible for receivers to
give direct feedback to the sender or influence the form and content of
communication in other ways. Depending on the bandwidth of the particular medium
in question, the content transmitted can be either static (text, pictures and graphics, as
in print media) or dynamic (video, audio and animation, as in broadcast media).
No feedback symmetry
The model does not include feedback as Laswell did not consider this concept (Fiske
1990). The principal reason for this is that it is impossible for the receiver to give
feedback through the same medium in traditional mass media. If there is a feedback, it
has to be channeled through other media which delays and limits the process.
Sum-up
However, mass communication has a number of shortcomings compared to
interpersonal communication. All users receive the same standardized content in the
same form, and the users cannot interact with the sender or the medium - there is no
feedback symmetry. Because of the standardization of messages, mass media have a
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low degree of flexibility because the user cannot control when to have the content
delivered.
Many-to-many communication
Therefore, where interpersonal communication is basically a one-to-one process and
mass communication is a one-to-many process, communication process on the Web is
essentially a many-to-many process. This is so because there are many senders and
many receivers interacting with each other and the medium. Person interactivity also
exists on the Web, through exchanges of e-mail, which makes it possible for
companies to communicate directly with the audience (and vice versa) and to process
transactions and various forms of customer service in connection with advertising
Web sites.
Hoffman & Novak (1995a) have put forward a model to illustrate the communication
processes in many-to-many media, such as the Web. The model, which is depicted in
figure 2.3, illustrates how the Web combines characteristics from interpersonal
communication and mass communication to create many-to-many communication,
creating a hybrid of opportunities.
A hybrid medium
For example, the Web can be used as a one-to-many medium if a company
communicates a standardized message to a wide audience, for instance using a banner
ad. The prospective customer receives the message and gains an interest in the
companys products, and proceeds to interact with the medium to obtain further
information. If still interested, the prospective customer can send an e-mail to the
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company with any special questions he may have. In this way the Web functions first
as a mass medium, then as an interactive medium (machine interactivity), and finally
as an interpersonal medium (person interactivity).
Absence of gatekeepers
The model also illustrates that it is much easier for Web users to be content providers
(as opposed to only being content consumers) than in traditional mass media, which is
why World Wide Web communication is referred to as many-to-many communication.
As mentioned, mass media have relatively few points of access which are controlled
by gatekeepers, i.e. editors, publishers, etc. On the Web, the millions of servers each
constitute a point of access, and the individual user can deliver content at a very low
cost, without having to get past any gatekeepers. Thus the ratio of content producers
to content consumers is much higher on the Web than in mass media (Quarterman
1994).
Trust
In traditional mass media advertising, the effectiveness increases because consumers
know that the advertiser has to invest large sums in the advertisements (Kotler 1991),
and therefore take the ad more seriously. Because of the high noise on the Web, and
the fact that advertising Web sites can be created at very little cost to the advertiser,
generating trust and validating the quality of the information becomes a critical factor
for many Web sites. This has important implications for advertisers, especially those
who attempt to integrate transactions in their Web advertising. These implications will
be addressed in part II of the report.
HYPERTEXT
As mentioned, the World Wide Web is a global network of interconnected documents.
The Web users navigate by jumping from document to document. One of the
fundamental differences between Web and traditional mass media is the interactivity
and the fact that the content of the medium is structured with hyperlinks.
NAVIGATION
The individual user chooses to follow. Consequently, it is said that the user navigates
in the hypertext document rather than reads it. Some authors (i.e. Whalley 1993) goes
so far as to describe hypertext as a medium which is essentially formless, while
others maintain that hypertext challenges the traditional distinction between form and
content.
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On the Web, it is not only within the individual documents the information can be
structured using hyperlinks - documents can also be hyperlinked to other documents
anywhere else on the Web, forming a complex web of cross references. Therefore, the
medium contains a body of interconnected information of enormous proportions.
Electronic word-of-mouth
Because of the immense amounts of information that can be accessed, meta
information (information about how to locate other information) plays an important
role. Many Web sites contain hyperlinks to other Web sites, which the site
administrator found interesting. If Web users find an advertising Web site useful or
interesting, there is a fair chance that one or more of them will create a hyperlink from
their own site to the advertising Web site, which will generate more traffic to the
advertising site. This can be labeled an electronic word-of-mouth effect, which can
be very powerful since it tends to create a positive feedback cycle, where more traffic
generates more hyperlinks, which in turn generates more traffic, etc.
User control
As mentioned, the Web is characterized by an information pull as opposed to the
information push in traditional mass media. This has important consequences for how
the information is consumed, because this is controlled by the users rather than by the
information suppliers. The somewhat captive audience of traditional mass media does
currently not exist on the Web, at least not to the extent that is the case in traditional
mass media. As the control with the communication process shifts in favor of the user,
there will be a tendency towards fragmentation, diversity and heterogenization of the
media.
Searching or surfing?
Hoffman & Novak (1995a) make a distinction between two basic forms of navigation
on the Web: Experiential and goal-directed.
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Motivation, meaning that he is performing the activity for its own sake rather than as
means to a specific end. The user surfs the Web, often guided by impulses and
curiosity. In the case of goal-directed navigation, the user is searching for
Specific content. Basically goal-directed navigation can be described as searching,
whereas experiential navigation is best described as surfing.
Searchers usually have a high degree of involvement if he expects to find valuable
information in a Web site, while surfers are likely to abandon a Web site faster if they
do not find it immediately entertaining or interesting. This has implications for the
design of advertising Web sites, which will be further explored.
SUM-UP
Since the medium is interactive, users of the World Wide Web play a much more
active role in the communication process than users of traditional mass media. Where
traditional mass media are characterized by an information push, the communication
processes on the Web are driven by a basic information pull, meaning that the control
balance of the communication process has shifted in favor of the user. Thus, the user
controls sovereignly what information he wants to access, which parts of it to be
exposed to, when to be exposed to it, and how to navigate in the information. The
immense body of information available to the individual user further pushes the
control of the communication process towards the user, and has lead to a highly
fragmented content structure that allows the individual user to pursue his specific
interests.
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The simplest objective definition of rich media is web advertising units based on
technologies more complex than GIF or JPG images and simple animation. The most
common technologies for rich media ads are Flash, Java and DHTML.
Rich media ads also come in many shapes, sizes and feature implementations. To
simplify these, DoubleClick describes most rich media executions by the following
standard formats:
In-page : standard IAB ad unit shapes that may include advanced rich media
functionality, such as embedded games, animation, video, registration forms
or interactive marketing brochures, and which may allow for larger file sizes
through polite download technology
Expandable : similar to in-page units, but they expand in size when a user
moves his mouse over the ad or clicks to interact with it. Some publishers
are experimenting with ads that automatically expand when the page loads,
then retract after a small delay. These ads are sometimes called push
downs or server-initiated expandables
Floating : ads that appear as a layer on top of the users current page; these
are typically free-form ads that can move across the page in a variety of
shapes and sizes and which may resolve into an in-page ad on the same
page or a smaller floating reminder ad unit which continues to float above
the page
Pop-ups : ads that launch a new smaller browser window that appears above
the open page (possibly not long for this world due to the advancement of
pop-up blockers)
product goods (CPG) firms are not far behind with 39%. Perhaps because of their
direct response focus, business-to-business (B2B) and retail businesses appear least
enthralled with rich media, dedicating only 17% and 12% of their total online
impressions to such ads respectively.
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Challenges Remain:
With all the excitement around rich media, along with the demonstrated results, the
question arises, why arent advertisers using rich media even more than they are now?
The fact is that many challenges remain for agencies and advertisers looking to
deploy rich media campaigns, along with publishers looking to offer rich media
inventory. Some of the key challenges include:
Standards lacking: Although the IAB has published rich media guidelines,
there remains a great deal of variety in publisher standards for rich media.
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out the critical phase of a second campaign wave that optimizes the creative
unit and media placements based on learnings from a first wave.
Aim for brand-response. For years advertisers have clung largely to two
disparate camps of brand versus direct-response orientation. This is a false
dichotomy. Rich media is the ideal platform for a merging of these two
marketing philosophies, where advertisers can precisely measure consumer
interactions while at the same time create powerful brand media.
Online video is the next big thing . For the next few years, video
advertising online is likely to surge. Presently, online video takes the form
primarily of in-banner video units, typically user-initiated clips inside
standard ad sizes, and in-stream pre-roll spots in downloadable or streaming
video content clips. As publishers increase inventory for these spots, expect
dollars to flow rapidly from traditional rich media, to video-enhanced rich
media.
Be original, inventive, and bold. Rich media is a suite of tools that lets the
best minds in creative departments explore their wildest dreams. Consumers
are jaded with advertising. They are sick to death of the run of the mill. Grab
their attention and hold onto it with something terrific, hilarious, fascinating,
useful or otherwise out of the ordinary.
Make life easier. Deploying rich media isnt as easy as anyone would like,
due to a lack of standards, disparate technologies, and the inherent
complexity in doing cutting-edge work. But good planning and
communication can overcome many of these obstacles. Rich media vendors
like DART Motif can help facilitate the back-and-forth between agency,
publisher and creative to make sure everyones on the same page. Timelines
are always tight, but you can ease the pain by treating the routine campaigns
routinely and giving yourself extra lead time for anything outside the box.
E-MAIL MARKETING
E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a
means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its
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sending e-mails over the Internet, as e-mail did and does exist outside the
Internet (e.g., network e-mail and FIDO).
Researchers estimate that United States firms alone spent US$400 million on e-mail
marketing in 2006.
Advantages
E-mail marketing (on the Internet) is popular with companies for several reasons:
The delivery time for an e-mail message is short (i.e., seconds or minutes) as
compared to a mailed advertisement (i.e., one or more days).
E-mail messages are easy to track. An advertiser can track users via
autoresponders, web bugs, bounce messages, unsubscribe requests, read
receipts, click-throughs, etc. These mechanisms can be used to measure open
rates, positive or negative responses, and to correlate sales with marketing.
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Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger (1) other messages to
be delivered automatically, or (2) other events, such as updating the profile of
the recipient to indicate a specific interest category.
Disadvantages
A report issued by the e-mail services company Return Path, as of mid2008 e-mail deliverability is still an issue for legitimate marketers.
According to the report, legitimate e-mail servers averaged a delivery rate
of 56%; twenty percent of the messages were rejected, and eight percent
were filtered.
INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING
Interactive advertising uses online or offline interactive media to communicate with
consumers and to promote products, brands, services, and public service
announcements, corporate or political groups.
In the inaugural issue of the Journal of Interactive Advertising, editors Li and
Leckenby (2000) defined Interactive Advertising as the "paid and unpaid
presentation and promotion of products, services and ideas by an identified sponsor
through mediated means involving mutual action between consumers and producers."
This is most commonly performed through the Internet as a medium.
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control on the Internet than do advertisers (Roehm & Haugtvedt, 1999). Some have
gone so far as to argue that interactive marketing and advertising techniques will not
work unless practitioners "step into the shoes" of and approach the Internet from the
consumer's vantage point (Cross & Smith, 1997).
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on-line sale counted for 200 million in 1995 and is expected to grow to 30 billion in
year 2000.
Advertising Forecast
Exact figures are difficult to estimate, but Investment banker Alex Brown expects
online based advertising will reach 1.4 billion dollars in 1998. Forrester Research
predicts that advertising on the web will generate 74 million dollars in revenue this
year and reach 2.6 billion dollars by 2000.
To take advantage of this profit centre advertisers must start developing competencies
in this field, but it requires a fundamental change in their communication strategies.
Key findings
The Online is the fastest growing medium in the 90s with 25 million users
with an average estimated growth of 10-20% per month.
Bandwidth, control, security, property rights and trademark protection are still
problems advertisers face on the Online.
The users are highly attractive target for advertisers due to their sociodemographic profile and their status as innovators and opinion leaders.
Advertisers must respect and follow the Netiquettes rules and restrictions to
operate successfully.
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will reach 200 million by that year. However, the quantitative forecasts are associated
with immense uncertainties, and it is therefore relevant to discuss which drivers and
barriers influence the further growth of the medium.
DRIVERS
The Web has now reached the critical mass to set a powerful positive feedback cycle
in motion: The audience is now sufficiently large to interest new and established
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content providers, who increasingly deliver quality content through the medium. And
the more interesting content available, the more attractive the medium is to new users.
A distinctive characteristics of networks, such as the Web, telephones, and railroads,
is that their value tends to increase the more widespread they become (in contrast to
most other goods, the value of which tends to decrease with declining scarcity).The
virtuous circle described above has given the Web status as todays de facto
information superhighway (Economist 1995), and the widespread attention towards
the Web which has been created through these developments attract more users.
BARRIERS
There are also barriers that may limit the further growth of the medium. The most
important are the relatively low ease-of-access and ease-of-use, and the scalability of
the Web.
Falling barriers
Overall, it can be argued that ease-of-access as well as ease-of-use constitute falling
barriers, which will further stimulate the growth of the Web. Moreover, it is likely that
the scalability of the Web will remain satisfactory. The evidence thus indicates that the
Web will continue the transition towards a mainstream medium. However, the barriers
to access and use still constitute significant problems for the large part of the
population that has no prior knowledge about information technology.
The progression of the World Wide Web towards a mainstream medium is likely to be
spurred by the net computers which are about to be introduced by leading computer
and consumer electronics companies such as Oracle, Sony and Apple. The net
computers are small terminals without a hard disk which will be built especially for
providing online access.
OCCUPATION, EDUCATION AND INCOME
Until a few years ago, the users of the Web were primarily scientists and techthusiasts.
However, the last years have witnessed a strong growth of students and professionals
among Web users, especially business professionals. And as mentioned, the Web is
gradually developing towards becoming a mainstream medium as more and more
users access the medium from home. This changing composition of the users has also
led to a change in the way the medium is used. Where the Web was principally used
for seeking information and communication, entertainment is increasingly important
for the users.
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The trend is developing towards a much more heterogeneous use of the medium,
where different groups of users use the medium for different purposes. And the user
composition on the Online is gradually developing towards a mainstream
composition, but still has a strong overrepresentation of white, male, well-educated,
high-income, technologically savvy users.
Online users are generally upscale. Thus, Nielsen (1995) found that 25% have an
annual household income of more than $80.000. This result is confirmed by Hermes
(1996) which reached the conclusion that 27% have a $75.000+ income on the basis
of an extensive online survey. The findings about differences in income and, job
position and education are reflected in figure 3.7. It is evident from the demographic
data presented here, that while the reach of the medium may still be very limited, the
audience has an attractive demographic profile from an advertising viewpoint.
Psychographics
In this section, we will briefly discuss the psychographic profile of the users of the
Web. The section is based on the results SRIs VALS survey3 . The survey, which was
concluded in May 1995, is based on 5,500 online questionnaires. According to the
VALS survey, which explores motivational behavior, the majority of the total Online
population is made up of
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actualizers (50%) and Experiencers (18%). These groups tend to lead social change
and gravitate towards parts of society associated with innovation - universities, trendy
city neighborhoods and fashionable occupations, etc.(CyberAtlas 1996). Figure 3.8
illustrates the findings of SRI (1995). However, it should be kept in mind that there
are general uncertainties associated with psychographic segmentation in general and
these data in particular, as they are based on an online survey.
To Sum - Up
The reach of the World Wide Web is still very limited. As of late 1995, approximately
11.5 million people used the Web in the United States, corresponding to 5.8% of the
American population aged 16 and over. The Web users can be divided into four
segments, depending on the intensity with which they use the medium. The groups of
Hard Core users and Regular users, who use the medium frequently, comprises 4.2
million users (which equals 2.1% of the population), while the groups of Occasional
users and Infrequent users constitute the majority of all Web users. This means that
the part of the population that can be reached frequently through the World Wide Web
is still very limited.
In general, the Web is slowly becoming a mainstream medium, and the profile of the
users is gradually becoming more similar to that of the general population. With the
changing composition of users, the way the medium is being used also changes where the Web was principally a tool for information search a couple of years ago, the
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users today mention browsing and entertainment as the principal reasons for
using the medium. In spite of the immense amount of content that can be accessed
through the Web, many users exhibit usage patterns dominated visits to a limited
number of sites. Thus almost one third of all users have visited a total of less than 10
sites. However, another survey found that the average user visited 22 sites per month.
What remains certain is that Web usage patterns are extremely heterogeneous.
this chapter we will mainly focus on comparing the World Wide Web with
newspapers, TV, magazines, radio and direct mail since these media attract the highest
advertising revenues.
Forecasts
Forrester Research estimates that $ 74 million will be spent on Online advertising in
1996 (Araneum 1996). This figure, which only constitutes 0.25% of current
advertising spending on newspapers is insignificant compared to the revenues
attracted by major mass media. However, Forresters projections indicate that this
figure will rise to $ 2.6 billion by year 2000. Jupiter Communications estimates that
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1995 advertising spending on the World Wide Web was $42 million, and that Web
advertising spending will skyrocket to $ 4.6 billion by year 2000. While that figure
will be close to projected radio advertising revenues, it is still far from touching the
money made in TV or print media (Jupiter Communication 1995). It is impossible to
estimate accurately how the figures will develop, but there is little doubt that the Web
will attract significant advertising revenues in the future.
Banner ads
As illustrated on page 16 in section 1.4, each advertiser buys a banner containing a
hyperlink to the advertisers Web site. If the user clicks on the banner ad, he jumps to
the advertisers Web site. While banner ads can be effective for generating traffic to the
advertisers Web site, the banner ad in itself may not be as effective as TV spots or
full-page print media advertisements. Because of its size and all the other impressions
competing for attention on the site, the banner has a limited visual impact. Further, the
restrictions dictated by the size of the banner ad means that only the simplest of
messages can be conveyed. Because of this, it is difficult to position products or build
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brand image through banner ads. This must be achieved on the advertisers Web site
or through other media.
Pricing
Due to the infancy of the medium and the lack of generally accepted standards for
measuring exposures on the World Wide Web, the pricing of banner ads still varies
dramatically between different sites. While some sites offer placements at very low
CPM4 prices, other sites charge CPM prices that are extremely high compared to
traditional media. Thus Gotfredson (1995) found that three major computer
magazines by average charged 40 times the CPM prices for ad placements on their
Web editions than for the equivalent print vehicle. The high CPM prices of Web
banner ads are confirmed by Forrester Research (in Araneum 1996), which maintains
that the average CPM prices on the Web are around $75, compared to typically $5 on
TV or $40 in magazines. It should be noted, however, that advertisers rarely pay the
official list price - real prices are usually significantly lower as is often the case in
traditional media (Araneum 1995). Further, anecdotal evidence indicates that banner
ads can be placed at very low CPM prices at some advertising Web sites. Therefore,
no sharp conclusions can currently be made with respect to the CPM prices of banner
ads on the Web.
TRAFFIC MEASUREMENT
In contrast to traditional advertising media, the technology of the Web makes it
possible to register how many people visit a Web site. This is done by installing
software on the Web sites server which logs how many machines visit the site. On
many commercial sites, these records are used to establish the CPM price for
advertising placements. However, no commonly accepted standard for measurement
has been established. Each visit by a user is referred to as a hit, but hits are counted
in different ways. On some sites a hit is defined as the number of elements loaded on
to the screen, which means that a layout with extensive use of graphics may result in
more than 15 hits counted each time a user accesses the page. On other sites, the time
the user spends on the site is registered. These uncertainties make hit measurement a
problematic way of calculating a fair CPM price, and contribute to the great variations
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in CPM prices found on the Web today. It further complicates the pricing that hits are
measured by the content provider, and not by an independent third party.
EXPOSURE ON DEMAND
The possibility for customers to expose themselves to an advertisement on demand is
a highly relevant dimension to include when discussing the media characteristics. In
traditional mass media, exposure on demand through active search for specific
advertisements has always been very limited, due to the information push of these
media. The situation is further exacerbated by the low information capacity and
selectivity of most traditional mass media. Thus, mass media advertising is generally
based on a high degree of intrusiveness of the exposures, which means that many
media users receive a great deal of information they basically do not care about.
It should be noted, however, that there are significant differences between the
possibilities of exposure on demand between the different mass media. In TV,
exposure on demand is almost impossible, but in business magazines, it is easier to
facilitate due to the higher selectivity and information capacity of this medium. In
traditional media, exposure on demand usually entails searching in catalogues,
visiting a store, or calling sales personal to get in-depth information about a product
or service. However, catalogues and brochures have several shortcomings as
advertising vehicles. They are expensive to produce and distribute, and tend to have a
high time lag between production and distribution, which makes them difficult to
update. Apart from exposure to banner ads, all exposure to advertising Web sites is
essentially exposure on demand. It is quick and easy for a customer to access updated
information about products and services when he needs it.
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NEWSPAPERS
Newspapers are the medium that attracts the most advertising revenue. However, the
newspapers have faced increasingly hard competition from TV, magazines and direct
mail. Advertising in newspapers is flexible with respect to use of (static) graphic
elements, size of the advertisement, and timing.
Newspapers have a wide reach, especially to well-educated segments aged 35 and
above (Russel & Lane 1993). On the other hand, the reach is very low within the
young and poorly educated parts of the population. The selectivity in newspapers is
rather low, although it is possible to achieve a reasonable selectivity through choice of
which newspaper to place the advertisement in and which sections of the newspaper
to place it in. With respect to textual information, the information capacity is rather
high, but limited somewhat by the costs of large advertisements and the majority of
the readers unwillingness to spend the time to read them. For newspaper
advertisements with a high hard information content, there is a depth/breadth tradeoff.
Either the advertiser can supply broad information appealing to a wide audience, or he
can supply specialized information to a limited part of the audience. However, it is
very difficult to do both at the same time in newspaper advertisements.
TELEVISION
As almost all demographic groups can be reached through TV, it has a wider reach
than any other mass medium. On the other hand, the selectivity is rather low, although
advertisers try to improve it through their choice of channel, program and time.
Because of the large bandwidth, TV can have a very high sensory and emotional
impact since it can include static (text and graphics) as well as dynamic (audio and
video) elements. On the other hand, TV is rather inflexible with respect to the size and
format of the individual advertisement, which gives the individual advertisement high
costs in terms of production as well as placement. However, the large reach means
that CPM prices are still reasonably low for TV advertisements.
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Russel & Lane (1993) argue that all kinds of concepts can be adapted to TV
advertisements because of the high bandwidth. As mentioned in chapter two, TV is
also rather efficient to monopolize the users attention since he has to do something
active to avoid being exposed to the advertisement, but has quite a high noise ratio
because of the number of ads normally included in the advertising breaks. On the
other hand, the textual information capacity of TV is very limited because of the 1520 second duration of most TV advertisements, which limits most advertisements on
TV to simple messages and concepts. The feedback possibilities are also highly
limited.
DIRECT MAIL
Direct mail is a highly flexible form of advertising, since mail campaigns can be
adapted to most purposes, segments, and can contain all kinds of static graphical
elements. However, direct mail has a serious image problem as a consequence of the
junk mail invasion witnessed by households and companies within the last ten years.
Both reach and selectivity can be optimized in direct mail campaigns; however, their
precision depends on the accuracy of the comprehensive databases over potential
customers which need to be maintained. The feedback possibilities are moderate, as
coupons and stamped and addressed return envelopes can be included in the mail.
However, the high selectivity of direct mail campaigns has a cost: CPM prices tend to
be very high compared to other forms of advertising.
RADIO
Radio has also become a popular advertising medium, in part because of the low costs
of production and placement. It covers most hours of the day, and many radio stations
enjoy high loyalty from their listeners. On the negative side, radio is normally a
background medium which receives only little attention from the listener, feedback is
difficult, and the radio lacks the visual element which gives it much less impact than
other mass media.
The medium is therefore generally conceived to be less suited for serious
advertising purposes. In sum, the radio is a low-cost medium with a very low
information capacity.
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MAGAZINES
Magazines have a high selectivity, and are well suited for targeting narrowly defined
segments, as there are a large number of magazines that allow advertisers to segment
the audience by demographics, psychographics, or interests. Especially the market for
business magazines is very specialized, and allows advertisers to reach
microsegments.
Because of the specialization of the magazine market, their reach is often too limited
for companies addressing broad segments of the population. Therefore, magazine
campaigns often need to be placed in several different magazines or supplemented by
campaigns in other media. Further, the advertising deadlines of magazines tend to be
quite far in advance of the actual distribution of the magazines, which reduces the
flexibility and possibilities of reacting to changes in the market. As in other print
media, the information capacity and feedback opportunities are reasonably high in
magazines.
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REACH
As discussed in chapter two, the limited reach of the World Wide Web currently
constitutes a major weakness of the medium. Not only does the medium have much
fewer users than other media, but as a group, the Web users tend to use the medium
less frequently than users of the other main mass media. Thus, the percentage
reached yesterday through the Web constitutes only 2,3% of the population aged 16
and above of the United States5 . Figure 4.3 compares the percentage reached
yesterday through the Web with that of traditional mass media. As reflected in the
figure, the World Wide Web is still unsuited to be a primary advertising medium for
advertisers whose campaigns aim at reaching the general audience frequently.
However, with the explosive growth of the Web the figures will change dramatically
in favor of the Web within the coming years, and the reach is likely to become
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comparable to that of newspapers in certain geographical areas within the next 4-5
years. As concluded in chapter 3, the Web currently only has a high reach within some
narrow segments, most notably intensive computer users and researchers. As
illustrated in figure 4.4, the Web has a lower reach than the other media, except for
direct mail which is usually used for campaigns targeting audiences of a very limited
size.
SELECTIVITY
As argued in chapter two, the selectivity of the World Wide Web is much higher than
in any traditional mass medium, with the exception of direct mail. This is so because
Web users expose themselves to the advertisements rather than being passively
exposed to them. This means that the selectivity is high, since only interested
customers expose themselves to the advertisements for extended periods of time. The
selectivity is further increased as the individual user sovereignly decides how long
time to spend on the advertisement, which parts of it to see, and how to structure his
navigation in the advertising Web site through the machine interactivity discussed in
chapter two. As concluded earlier, the customer actively
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INFORMATION CAPACITY
As concluded in chapter two, the Webs information capacity is extremely high, as far
as textual information is concerned. In TV advertisements, the information capacity is
highly limited by the short duration of the advertising spots. More textual information
can be conveyed in print media, but it is still limited how much information can be
conveyed in a magazine ad. On the Web, the marginal cost of making extra
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information available to the customer is close to zero. Users, who see a Ford
advertisement on a commercial Web site can click on the ad and have the entire
updated catalogue of Ford at their disposal. Figure 4.7 compares the information
capacity of the Web to other media. The abundant information capacity in Web
advertisements also means that the classical depth/breadth tradeoff becomes
irrelevant. It is possible to design Web advertisements that are broad in nature, yet
allow the individual user to retrieve in-depth information about the particular aspects
he finds interesting.
COSTS
At this point in time, it is difficult to generalize about the costs of advertising on the
Web. It is very cheap to make content available to users on the Web. However,
making the content available does not per se guarantee that any customer will actually
visit the advertisement. To increase exposure to the advertising Web sites, most major
advertisers buy banner ads. And as mentioned earlier in this chapter, the prices of
banner ads fluctuate wildly. Due to the infancy of the market it is impossible to
generalize about CPM prices with a reasonable degree of accuracy - currently, CPM
prices at some commercial sites are much cheaper than in traditional mass media,
while CPM prices at other sites are substantially more expensive (Araneum 1995).
Depending on the extent to which banner ads are used to generate traffic to the Web
site, CPM prices may be anything from close to zero to $80. The uncertainties about
the cost of Web advertising are reflected in
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figure 4.8, which shows that the Web can be an extremely cheap advertising medium,
but that this is not always the case.
At present, Web advertising has a different cost structure compared to advertising in
traditional mass media. As concluded in chapter two, the scarce factor on the Web is
not access to distribution, but solely access to attention. Ceteris paribus, the costs of
content production can be expected to constitute a larger part of the cost structure,
because quality content is the best way to ensure lasting exposures in the usercontrolled environment on the World Wide Web.
SUM-UP
Table 4.1 summarizes the characteristics of the World Wide Web compared to the
main advertising media. As shown in the table, the World Wide Web compares
favorably to the other mediua on the dimensions of selectivity, feedback, cost and
information capacity. However, the reach of the Web is still very low in comparison to
the other media.
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Comparisons between advertising spending on the World Wide Web and traditional
media reflect that the World Wide Web is still in its infancy as an advertising medium.
Thus, total advertising placement revenue on the World Wide Web is expected to
constitute only 0.2% of newspaper advertising revenue in 1996. Although there are
large uncertainties associated with the figures for Web advertising spending, the
figures do indicate that the extent of World Wide Web advertising is still so limited
that it will take several years for it to become a major threat to the advertising
revenues of traditional mass media.
In sum, the Web is a medium which may become a tough competitor for traditional
mass media because of the possibility of providing large amounts of individualized
information on demand to a self-segmenting audience, and its ability to process
feedback and transactions with an ease hitherto unknown in mass media.. However,
the medium is likely to remain a secondary advertising medium for the majority of
advertisers in the short and medium term, because of its low reach, limited
intrusiveness, and low bandwidth.
Set Clear Objectives: Identify what business goals the campaign is designed
to achieve, and, just as importantly, the metrics by which those objectives will
be assessed.
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Above figure illustrates the challenge. It graphs a campaign where 37% of the
audience sees only one exposure of the ad, 17% sees it twice, 10% sees it thrice, and
the distribution gradually diminishes so that only 1% sees the ad 10 times. But then
something remarkable happens: 13% of the exposed audience sees the ad 11 or more
times. Although we do not propose this actual campaign represents the industry
average frequency distribution, it does look similar to many distributions we have
seen. Assuming that the last high frequency set 13% of the total exposed audience
has seen the ad an average of 12 times per person, that works out to 40% of the total
impressions of the campaign being consumed by this small segment. By the time
someone has seen an online ad 11 times, the odds that further exposure will improve
his opinion of the brand, or likelihood to click on the ad, are low. In other words, 40%
of the impressions in this campaign represent money largely wasted.
3. Avoid Spill by Targeting Geographically
Geo-targeting is a widely practiced form of online targeting. It obviously makes sense
to geo-target for companies whose products or services are available only in regional
or local markets. But advertisers should also consider what portion of their untargeted
advertising is being consumed by international audiences. It is not unusual for many
popular U.S. media sites to have 25% or more of their traffic made up of international
surfers.
The term among media buyers for this kind of exposure to unwanted audiences is
spill .There are a few ways to accomplish geo-targeting.
The most reliable, but not necessarily the most practical, means of geo-targeting is
through zip codes on sites that require registration. These self-reported data are
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generally reliable, but because most sites offer unrestricted access to most of their
content, finding enough registered zip codes for a sizable media buy can present a
challenge. A useful compromise is IP-based geo-targeting. This technique is not
watertight, as certain large networks, such as ISPs and corporate networks, often
cluster IP addresses so that all users of the network appear to live in the same town.
4. Use Large Ad Formats
Bigger is better. Whether an advertisers objectives are direct response or brand
oriented, larger ad units simply perform better in most circumstances. Larger ad units
would be more successful at attracting web users attention, better impacting their
brand attitudes.
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Campaigns served in the platforms of specialty rich media ad providers were at least
50% more effective at improving purchase intent than were GIF/JPG image ads.
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7. Track View-Throughs
The click-through is truly a new paradigm in ad measurement: a mechanism by
which consumers can react immediately to ad messages put in front of them. This
feature has given rise, however, to the idea that all online ads should aspire to drive
users to click on them, and that clicking on them is the basic means of measuring their
effectiveness. The principal aim of many branding campaigns, however, needs not
necessarily to be driving clicks. It can instead influence attitudes about brand
attributes and stimulate purchase intent. Furthermore, even when an objective of the
ad is to drive people back to the advertisers website, an immediate click is not always
how they get there. In many cases, people exposed to ads do not click, but they end up
visiting those websites later of their own accord, taking the desired action promoted in
the ad. This is known as the view-through effect.
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the minds of the marketers and they doubt whether this should be the medium of
choice when it comes to ROI.
There is no problem with seeing the internet as a ROI medium but is approach to the
measure of ROI correct. What needs to be corrected is that marketers need to consider
Internet advertising as a tool beyond the lead generator. It is high time that we used
the more advanced AD Matrix to measure ROIs on Internet. The Internet might be at
the early stage of e-commerce but it is for sure the most preferred & high engagement
medium when it comes to influencing ones perception about a brand or a purchase
decision. But, how many (I am sure not many..) marketers are really using the right
Matrix to calculate the ROI.
Check out the success of the I-Coke platform in China a community of 20 million
users and still growing- and the Adidas worldwide platform. When you consider these
examples, you will put aside all inhibitions about the possibility of successfully
building Brands and Communities on Internet. I am sure these were campaigns
launched with goals that beyond CPC, CPL & CPA!
Marketers just need to be more innovative & evolved with the quarterly sales targets
not being the be all and end all of it.
2. Critical Mass
It is very disheartening for me when a client says, well I like everything that Internet
can do for me. But you know I am a mass brand and the reach of Internet in India
today is not exciting enough for me to put serious time and money behind it.
Whether the Internet in India has already achieved the critical mass or not is ofcourse,
a very subjective and debatable topic. There is still huge growth potential for both the
increase of user base and quality inventory. Many more local ideas are available to
create compelling content to fuel the growth of Internet in India. It is true that not
every business created on the Internet will have the potential to come out with an IPO.
But as long as it is an idea with some value for an Internet user, trust me you will be
able to run a decently profitable business. We need more entrepreneurs who can fill
the huge gap of quality inventory vs demand.
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3. Infrastructure
Whether it is the Internet or the Mobile, bandwidth continues to remain the big
roadblock to unleashing the true potential of the medium. Most innovative advertising
solutions are bandwidth hungry and to a large extent the growth of broadband and
internet advertising are directly proportional. We are all waiting for 3G to make our
mobile phones the true convergence device and suddenly we would add up 130
million users. Advertising on the Mobile is going to be big and would give an
immediate upside to Online Advertising. Internet advertising agencies will have to
gear up to service the needs to Mobile advertising as a lot of Internet Advertising is
going to converge with the hand held device.
4. People
The average age of executives in Indias Internet AD agencies is between 26-27 years.
Why are the traditional advertising guys who know so much about Advertising shy of
choosing the Internet? Why is it that not many creative gurus of the leading
advertising agencies are willing to do Online Advertising? They all believe that
Digital is the future yet they are not adopting it. Is it that they are unwilling to learn
Online or the clients are willing to invest almost nothing on the Online Creatives. The
same guy who spends almost Rs. 25 lakhs on a TV commercial finds if difficult to
invest even a lakh on Online Creatives.
5.
Localization of Medium
Finally, there is serious dearth of local Internet inventory today. A lot more needs to
be done whether in terms of local/regional content, vernacular advertising, more
targeted IP & behavioral advertising. This will not only make Online advertising more
targeted & relevant for the national players but shall make way for the yet to be
tapped huge SME advertiser market. In a country where organized retail is less than
2%, the potential of the unorganized SME advertiser is too large to be ignored.
Companies such as Google Ad Sense and TYROO are doing a great job in helping
consolidate the local publishers and advertisers.
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While these are all very real challenges being faced by the industry, I am sure they are
not insurmountable. The Internet AD world will slowly but surely grab a much larger
share of the advertisers pie in times to come.
6. Cookie Window
The cookie window needs to be set based on each business objective. Some
businesses might have a longer purchase or research cycle which would mean
consumers take more time to convert after they see the ad, example laptops
computers. Whereas, there would be some business where the consumers would
convert quicker. Thus, we cannot have a common cookie window for all the
businesses.
8. Last Click
Typically, the ad servers reporting systems attribute the conversion to the last click
and miss out on the multi-touch aspect. For example if a consumer clicks on a banner
and then clicks on a Paid Search and then converts, the Paid Search gets 100% credit
but the display ad also had some contribution in driving the consumer to the website
and increase the consumers interest in the product.
9. Cookie Deletion
It is knows that consumers tend to delete cookies from their computers. So, if the
cookie is deleted, the ad server will not be able to connect the conversion to the ad
unit that the consumer was exposed to or had clicked on. There is also an issue of 3rd
party cookie deletion vs. 1st party cookie deletion. The 3rd party cookie deletion is
more prevalent than the 1st party cookie deletion.
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RECOMMENDATIONS
COMPANIES SHOULD USE THE WEB FOR ADVERTISING
The preceding chapters have aimed at analyzing the communication processes, users
and usage patterns, and strengths and weaknesses of the World Wide Web. Based on
the results of the analysis it is to determine which companies should incorporate
advertising on the Web in their media mix, and how this should be done.
The three dimensions to consider:
Companies contemplating to establish an advertising presence on the Web should
consider three basic elements: the medium (product fit), the audience (audience fit)
and the situation of the company (general benefits to the company). The three basic
dimensions that are important to take into consideration are depicted.
First of all, the company should consider to which extent its target group uses the
Web, and whether they can realistically be reached through this medium. In the
following, the congruence between the target group and the Web users will be referred
to as the audience fit. Another basic dimension to consider is how the product or
service is suited for the medium, in terms of buyer involvement, information intensity,
and possibilities of providing increased purchase facilitation in comparison with
traditional media. This dimension will be referred to as the product fit. A reasonable
product and audience fit is required in order for a company to advertise profitably on
the Web. In addition to product fit and audience fit, companies should also consider
the general benefits to the company, such as image effects and learning effects.
.
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1. AUDIENCE FIT
The first main dimension to consider is the audience fit, which refers to the
congruence between the companys target group and the Web users. Obviously, a
reasonable audience fit is necessary to achieve a successful campaign. As concluded
in chapter 3, the demographic profile of the Web users differs significantly from that
of the general population, with an overrepresentation of well-educated, affluent, white
males and a high representation of innovators and opinion formers.
Due to the large group of students among Web users, all products and services
appealing to students such as books, sports equipment are also likely to find a
reasonable audience fit. Many upscale products are also likely to achieve a rather high
audience fit, because of the above-average affluence of Web users.
2. PRODUCT FIT
As concluded in part I, the World Wide Web gives increased control to the customer
and makes it possible to provide large amounts of product-related information in the
advertisements, letting him seek out the exact information he needs. On the other
hand the medium is not yet well suited for advertisements which require audio and
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The Webs extended receiver control of the communication process mean that the
customers judgment of what is relevant and what is not becomes more decisive. As
customers, by definition, are more interested in high involvement products than in low
involvement products, high involvement products are more likely to gain significant
exposure on the Web. To a large extent, involvement stems from the economic or
psychosocial1 risk the buyer associates with the purchase of a product. Infrequently
purchased products are often high-involvement buys, since the customer is not used to
buying the product in question.
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The World Wide Web not only offers the possibility of providing extensive
information about the individual products, but also of using sophisticated database
search techniques to search and choose between different products or product
variants. Moreover, it is cheaper and easier to update information on the Web than in
traditional media.
As will be elaborated in the following chapter, Web advertising can offer more value
added compared to advertising in traditional media by integrating functions not
traditionally associated with advertising, such as customer service, transaction
processing and, in some cases, distribution. When incorporating these functions into
the advertisements, Web advertisers can provide a purchase facilitation which is
unattainable in other media, thus compressing the decision-making chain from
exposure to action.
Offering the possibility of a direct sell in the advertisement is especially relevant for
products usually sold via mail order such as books, compact disks, appliances, and, to
a lesser extent, clothing. Certain goods with a strong brand franchise and standardized
products are also suited for online shopping, since trusting the vendor is a critical
factor because of the low entry barriers to the medium. For this reason, branded goods
and companies with a strong image have an advantage since they are already
perceived by the customer to be of high quality. Therefore, customers are likely to
trust to be treated fairly by companies commanding a strong brand franchise. As
mentioned, standardized goods such as compact discs and books are also well-suited
for online sales, since the customer knows which quality level to expect.
LOW AUDIENCE FIT, HIGH PRODUCT FIT
Products with a relatively low audience fit may still be marketed profitably if the
product fit is high enough to offset the disadvantages of the low audience fit.
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largest advertising spenders, such as Procter & Gamble and Unilever, can be classified
as low potential products with respect to Web advertising.
3. GENERAL BENEFITS TO THE COMPANY
As mentioned earlier, the decision about whether to use the Web as an advertising
carrier should not be based exclusively on analyses of the audience fit and the product
fit. Considerations about other benefits to the company, such as image effects and
learning effects should be included. The following sections contain brief discussions
of these general benefits of establishing an advertising presence on the Web.
IMAGE EFFECTS
The public image of any company is greatly influenced by the messages conveyed by
the company and the media used as vehicles for these messages. Because of the
general perception in the public of the Web as a medium of the future, there are
positive image spillovers for companies using the Web for communication purposes.
A recent Danish survey based on 1.000 telephone interviews (Lintas 1996) found that
companies using the Web in their communication mix were generally perceived as
future oriented, progressive, innovative, and service minded. 75% of the respondents
thought positively of firms using the Web as a communication channel. The survey
also showed that the respondents expected more serious and relevant
.
Public relations
Positive image effects from using the Web is in itself an argument for establishing a
Web presence. Further, the Web can be an efficient tool for creating a new kind of
dialogue with the companys surroundings. It offers the opportunity to open up the
company, not only to potential customers, but also to other publics/stakeholders who
can access updated information about the company and its products on the Web site.
The integration of public relations and advertising in the Web site gives the company
a whole new range of possibilities not formerly availably due to the fact that modern
public relations is based on dialogue while advertising is usually based on one-way
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LEARNING EFFECTS
There is widespread agreement that interactive media will become pervasive in the
future. As argued in this report, communicating with target audiences through
interactive media such as the Web differs radically from communicating through
traditional mass media. Interactive media require a changed attitude with respect to
what should be communicated and how it should be communicated. Companies
incorporating interactive media in their media mix engage in a learning process which
allows them to continuously develop their competencies in this area based on the
feedback they receive through the medium and the results they achieve.
SUM-UP
The World Wide Web holds significant potential as an advertising carrier, but this
potential varies depending on the product type and company in question. The three
basic dimensions which should be considered by companies contemplating to
advertise on the Web are audience fit, product fit and general benefits to the company.
For most companies, the Web will be a secondary, supplementary component of their
media mix. Because of the Webs media characteristics, it is best suited for operating
in the lower stages of the AIDA-model, i.e. the stages of desire and action, and mainly
as a supplementary medium. Local companies will find it difficult to advertise
profitably on the Web due to the limited reach in local areas. However, the Web has
the potential to become a main component in the media mix for companies producing
goods with a high product and audience fit to global niche markets.
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Suggestions
GUIDELINES FOR DESIGNING WEB ADVERTISEMENTS
This will be referred to as value-based advertising. Further, a number of specific
models and strategies for implementing value-based advertising are developed and
discussed.
1)
One of the main conclusions in part I was that the characteristics of the Web require
that the traditional approach to advertising is adapted to this new medium. The
traditional
approach to advertising
usually entails
communicating
simple,
The differences between communicating with active media users on the Web instead
of with traditional media viewers on television should not be underestimated. In the
information pull context, where customers have vast choice and control over media
options, the rules of the game change. Even though advertisers can expose customers
to small banners through sponsorships, the decision whether to click on the banner to
visit the advertising web site, how long to stay at that site, and which parts of it to see,
belongs sovereignly to the customer. Not only do advertisers need to arouse the
interest and curiosity of customers to make them visit their Web site, they also need to
provide significant incentives for them to stay at the site and revisit it. This renders
traditional advertising approaches which assume a passive, captive audience difficult,
if not impossible to apply successfully. Where the users of traditional mass media
have to do something active to avoid advertisements, Web users have to do something
active to see them.
3)
VALUE-BASED ADVERTISING
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made worthwhile for potential customers to visit, stay at, and revisit this site?. As
indicated in the question, the three important issues are generating visits, retaining
visitors in the Web site and making them revisit the site at a later occasion. In the rest
of the chapter, we discuss how the three objectives are best achieved. Table 6.1
illustrates the basic success factors for each of the objectives.
As argued above, the most basic and important success factor in World Wide Web
advertising is to make advertisements value-based. Advertisements which offer
something of value to their customers will more easily attract an audience because
they can exploit the powerful electronic word of- mouth effects on the Web. Above
all, value-based advertisements can retain customers in the site by offering them
interesting information or entertainment, thus leaving a positive impression of the
company and its products. It is also easier for value-based advertisements to generate
repeat visits because customers are left with a positive impression after the first visit.
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resource constraints, etc. In many ways the Web is still virgin territory from an
advertising perspective, and it holds countless possibilities for innovative advertisers.
We have identified three basic incentives that advertisers can use as a basis for their
Web sites to attract and retain customers: product-related information, entertainment
or information of a more general character, and purchase facilitation. The
appropriateness of each incentive is influenced by the product characteristics
discussed in chapter five. For each of these basic incentives, we shall outline an
advertising model that can be successfully implemented on the Web:
INFOMERCIALS
ADVERTISEMENTS
PURCHASE FACILITATION
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low involvement products if the trouble of acquiring the product through traditional
channels can be reduced.
4)
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
BRANDING
PURCHASE FACILITATION
The last basic model for creating customer value in Web advertisements is through
purchase facilitation, which entails that goods can be purchased via electronic home
shopping in connection with the ad. As concluded in part I, the Web offers the
opportunity to integrate functions traditionally not associated with advertising because
of the mediums interactivity. Figure 6.1 illustrates how transactions and even
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HOME SHOPPING
The striking increase in sales via mail order, TV-shopping, and telephone sales
throughout the entire Western World testify to the growing importance of home
shopping in todays purchasing landscape. The Web has the potential to cannibalize
parts of this revenue stream and expand the home shopping market as a whole
(McKinsey & Co. 1994).
It should be emphasized that integrating home shopping in an advertisement does not
create value for the customer per se. The advertisement has to offer true purchase
facilitation in the sense that it should be made easier, faster, or cheaper for the
customer compared to traditional channels.
8)
Integrated advertising
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To a large extent, the continued low level of online shopping can be attributed to
buyers concerns about the security of online payments. Many buyers are afraid to
volunteer information about their credit card because they fear that the information
may be abused by a third party. In their Hermes study, researchers at the University
of Michigan found that 56% of respondents claimed that a security concern was a
primary reason for not shopping online (Hermes 1996).
Online shopping also holds significant potential for business markets. In the case of
office articles, customers can order them from an online catalogue, which can
integrate special rebates for certain customers and the possibility of quick access to
products which are ordered frequently by the individual customer. This integration of
catalogue and ordering can lower transaction costs for the seller and the buyer and
raise the switching costs of the customer through closer cooperation.
10)
ONLINE DISTRIBUTION
Aware of the sites existence, a number of means can be used. As illustrated in figure
6.4, there are four basic way to attract visitors to a companys Web site: banner ads,
campaigns in traditional media, search engine registration and electronic word-ofmouth effects. While the three first are within the companys direct control, the
strength of word-of-mouth effects cannot be controlled directly by the company but
depends largely on the extent to which the Web site is value-based.
Banner ads are one of the principal ways of generating traffic to a Web site. As
explained in chapter four, banner ads are small rectangular pictures which are placed
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on other sites for a fee and contain a hyperlink to the advertisers Web site. The main
advantage of using a banner ad is that the user is already on the Web when exposed to
the ad, and it is very easy for him to visit the advertising Web site. With the possible
exception of electronic word-of-mouth effects, which cannot be directly controlled by
the company, banner ads are probably the most efficient way to generate large-scale
traffic to an advertisers Web site. However, the banner ad also has a significant
disadvantage. Because of its small size the visual impact of a banner ad is limited
compared to a full-page advertisement in a magazine or a TV advertisement.
12)
While current use of banner ads is rather primitive, interesting efforts are being
undertaken to develop smart banners capable of changing the ad depending on the
visitors browser type or domain. In the future, it may be possible to tie the ad directly
to the demographic or psychographic profile of the user (if such data are obtained,
either by registration or memberships with the content provider, or carried as a file
associated with the browser). If realized, these could make banner ads an extremely
precise and selective advertising tool, further augmenting the value of exposures
dramatically.
Advertisers should consider carefully where to place their banner ads. Companies that
have created advertisement-based Web sites should use locations frequented by
surfers such as hotlists. Companies with infomercial- based Web sites should
generally attempt to place their banner ads at sites with related contents because
relevance is a key success factor for infomercials.
13)
SEARCH ENGINES
As explained in part I, many Web users search for companies, products and services
using search engines such as Yahoo, Lycos, or Alta Vista. Obviously, a company
should register its advertising Web site with these search engines in order to make the
site visible for Web users actively seeking information about the company or its
products. The audience which can be expected to be attracted through the search
engines are predominantly searchers who already have category need and brand
awareness. Registration of the site at search engines is free and all companies
advertising on the Web should do so.
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14)
WORD-OF-MOUTH EFFECTS
In addition to generating traffic to a Web site and retaining the audience in the site,
companies should consider how to generate repeat visits to their Web site. The most
important precondition for making Web users come back is to ensure that the Web site
is value-based so that the customer is left with a positive impression after the first
visit to the site. Apart from this basic consideration, the most important tool to
generate repeat visits is to update the content available on the site on a continuous
basis. As put by the editor of a Danish online magazine: Online means that youre
never finished. Frequent updates of the site contents are the most effective way to
generate repeat visits by customers. In Apples Web site, there is a continuous stream
of new press releases, descriptions of new products, tips for users, reports of software
bugs and distribution of patches to fix these bugs, news from computer-related
expositions, etc. Continuous updates of a Web site give visitors an incentive to visit
the site frequently.
16)
MAILING LISTS
The e-mail includes direct hyperlinks to all the areas of the site mentioned so the user
can jump directly from the e-mail (if read in his Web browser) to the relevant part of
the site. The mailing list is a low-cost and efficient way of keeping users informed
about changes in the site.
17)
SPECIAL EFFECTS
Similarly, special effects such as sound and video clips can be very effective for
making the site appealing to users, but at present these are limited to only a smaller
(albeit rapidly growing) part of Web users. If, for instance, a Web site includes
Shockwave animations, advertisers can currently only expect about 10 percent of Web
users to be able to view these. But for users who possess the required hardware and
software to take advantage of the advanced standards, exploiting these standards can
add significant value to the advertisement. The cutting-edge standards today, such as
Java, Shockwave, and QuickTime Virtual Reality can be expected to become
mainstream within the next year or so.
The general trade-off between the technical sophistication of a Web site and
the size of the audience that can address the site is illustrated as a continuum in figure
6.5. The choice about where to position the site on the continuum should be made
depending on the target audience and the hardware and software used by this
audience. For example, campaigns targeting the segment of Hard Core users
(identified in chapter three) can usually implement experimental Web site design with
greater success than campaigns targeting Infrequent and Occasional users.
\
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CONCLUSION
While the traditional approach to advertising in mass media usually entails
communicating simple, standardized messages to a passive, captive audience, the
implications of communicating with active media users on the Web instead of the
traditional media receivers should not be underestimated. In the information pull
context of the Web, where customers have vast choice and control over media options,
the decision whether to visit an advertising web site, how long to stay there, and
which parts of it to see, belongs sovereignty to the customer. If a site is to leave a
positive impression with the customer, it needs to provide some kind of value in
return for the time and money the customer spends to visit the site.
Purchase facilitation integrates ordering, payment, and in some cases even distribution
in the advertisement. It is especially suited for goods where pre-purchase trial is not
important, and is also applicable for low involvement products if the trouble of
acquiring the product through traditional channels can be reduced. The purchase
facilitation approach to Web advertising creates value for the customer through
increased choice and variety, lower prices, speedy delivery, or some combination of
the above. Moreover, it reduces the companys transaction and distribution costs.
Visitors can be attracted to the Web site through banner ads, campaigns in traditional
media, search engine registration and electronic word-of-mouth effects. While the
three first are within the companys direct control, the strength of word-of-mouth
effects cannot be controlled directly by the company but depends largely on the extent
to which the Web site is value-based. In order to generate repeat visits, the company
needs to update the content of the Web site frequently and keep the target audience
informed of these updates. When designing advertising Web sites, the designer faces a
trade off between the technical sophistication of the Web site and the size of the
audience that can access the site. Furthermore, accessibility of the site is a key issue in
connection with the design of Web sites. A site has to be placed on a server with
sufficient capacity to handle the traffic, and the use of graphic elements has to be
balanced correctly to avoid excessive access times.
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LIMITATIONS
Research limit was eight weak, which was not sufficient to complete the study.
It cant be assured that data has high degree of precision and accuracy, as most
of the data was collected online.
Customer could have been biased while answering the questions.
Most of the data was secondary in nature.
Market trends that were considered at the time of the study may not be
applicable later.
Most of the respondents were not ready to give all the information asked in the
questionnaire.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Burstein & Kline (1995): Road Warriors - Dreams and Nightmares along the
Information Highway
MAGZINES
Business World
Business Today
WEBSITES
www.doubleclick.com
www.cyberatlas.com
www.economist.com
www.pathfinder.com
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