Essay: Internet & its importance

CHAPTER I

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Chapter-2 Relationship between internet usage practices & awareness to internet advertising 02

Chapter-2 Relationship between internet usage practices & awareness to internet advertising 02

CHAPTER 2

Literature Review

2.1 Internet & Its Importance

In the beginning, we should look at the definition of internet, which can be defined as in words of (William Wells, 2007), "Internet is a linked system of international computer networks. The World Wide Web is the information interface that allows people to access the internet through an easy-to-use graphical format. Most people use these terms interchangeably." In this context, according to (Chaffee & Mutz, 1988), “Internet is a giant network which interconnects innumerable smaller groups of linked computer networks or which virtually covers the entire globe, can either be through the use of a computer or computer terminal that is directly (and usually permanently) connected to a computer network linked to the net or through the use of a personal computer. With modem to connect over a telephone line to a larger computer network that is itself directly or indirectly connected to the Internet.”

The importance of internet as an emerging medium can be understood by these lines, “Internet reached fifty million users in just five years, far faster than it took other media to reach an audience of that size. Radio attracted fifty million listeners in thirty eight years, television took thirteen years, and cable TV reached fifty million in ten years. The internet caught on fast, and its influence continues to expand. Even among those who have not yet logged on to the internet, the media coverage (and hype) has brought awareness of the internet into the mainstream.”(Deborah Kania, 2001).

2.2 Internet History & Origin of Internet in Pakistan

Internet history is not too old, according to (Leiner et al., 2000), “history of Internet began in 1969 as an experiment made by the department of defense in the USA. The experiment was originally conducted to see how reliable a network could be and how the traffic could find new ways if one link in the network would be destroyed by an enemy. The first net developed was called ARPANET and linked the department of defense, military research companies and a few universities together. In October 1972 Bob Kahn, the Director of DARPA’s Information Processing Techniques Office, organized a large, very successful demonstration of the ARPANET at the International Computer Communication Conference (ICCC). This was the first public demonstration of this new network technology. It was also in 1972 that the initial "hot" application, electronic mail, was introduced. In March, Ray Tomlinson at BBN wrote the basic email message send and read software, motivated by the need of the ARPANET developers for an easy coordination mechanism. In July, the MIT researcher Lawrence G. Roberts expanded its utility by writing the first email utility program to list, selectively read, file, forward, and respond to messages. From there email took off as the largest network application for over a decade. This was a forerunner of the kind of activity we see on the World Wide Web today, namely, the enormous growth of all kinds of "people-to-people" traffic.”

Acccording to (Wolcott & Goodman, 2000), “In Pakistan, the Internet came for the first time in 1995, when Digicom launched an Internet service in Karachi. This service was connected to the global Internet by a 64 Kbps line. In 1996, the PakNet data network, operated by Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), was upgraded to provide Internet services as well. PakNet was connected to the global Internet via a total of 512 Kbps. By mid-1997, nine ISPs were operational, offering services in five cities to approximately 25,000 subscribers. PTCL also offered Internet service in 10 cities to approximately 8,500 subscribers. A multitude of Internet service providers emerged quickly following the introduction of Internet service in 1995.”

2.3 World Wide & Pakistan Internet Usage Statistics

According to (Internet World Stats, 2009), internet penetration is very high in North America, Australia and in Europe, While Latin America & Middle East internet penetration comes second in World regions. Asia has low internet penetration as compare to other regions and Africa has a very low internet penetration as compare to other regions. All this information is given below in tabular form in Table: 2.3.1

	WORLD INTERNET USAGE AND POPULATION STATISTICS
World Regions	Population	Internet Users	Internet Users	Penetration	Growth	Users %
	( 2009 Est.)	Dec. 31, 2000	Latest Data	(% Population)	2000-2009	of Table
Africa	991,002,342	4,514,400	67,371,700	6.80%	1392.40%	3.90%
Asia	3,808,070,503	114,304,000	738,257,230	19.40%	545.90%	42.60%
Europe	803,850,858	105,096,093	418,029,796	52.00%	297.80%	24.10%
Middle East	202,687,005	3,284,800	57,425,046	28.30%	1648.20%	3.30%
North America	340,831,831	108,096,800	252,908,000	74.20%	134.00%	14.60%
Latin America	586,662,468	18,068,919	179,031,479	30.50%	890.80%	10.30%
Australia/ Oceania	34,700,201	7,620,480	20,970,490	60.40%	175.20%	1.20%
World Total	6,767,805,208	360,985,492	1,733,993,741	25.60%	380.30%	100.00%

Table: 2.3.1 (Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm)

According to (Internet World Stats, 2009), user growth of internet has increased in Asia as compare to other regions of the World, which has grown 545% from year 2000 to 2009.

INTERNET USERS AND POPULATION STATISTICS FOR ASIA
Asia Region	Population	% Pop.	Internet Users	Penetration	User Growth	Users %
	( 2009 Est. )	of World	Latest Data	(% Population	( 2000-2009 )	of World
Asia Only	3,808,070,503	56.30%	738,257,230	19.40%	545.90%	42.60%
Rest of the World	2,959,734,705	43.70%	995,736,511	33.60%	303,7 %	57.40%
World Total	6,767,805,208	100.00%	1,733,993,741	25.60%	380.30%	100.00%

Table: 2.3.2 (Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm)

According to (Internet World Stats, 2009), Pakistan comes on 8th position in top ten internet countries of Asia, where number of internet users is 15.1 million. In these top ten internet countries, China has the highest number of internet users followed by Japan and India, as it is shown given below in figure 2.3.1.

2.4 Literature on Internet Usage Practices

Various research studies have been conducted on internet usage practices by different researchers. Here, we will discuss about some of the key findings of different research studies on internet usage practices. According to (Hoffman, Novak & Schlosser, 2000), “Internationally, there are many surveys on the use of the Internet, and nearly all find that Internet use is most prevalent amongst younger, more educated people.” (Korgen, Odell, and Schumacher, 2001) reported that “internet use is affected by presence or absence of a computer in the home of origin.” According to (Hendel & Harrold, 2004), “Time spent using e-mail and surfing online by undergraduates had increased significantly between 1996 and 2001.” According to (Morgan & Cotton, 2003), “Dysphonic symptoms have been linked to some types of Internet use such as shopping, playing games, or doing research; conversely, increased time involving use of e-mail, chat room discussions, and instant messaging have been linked to a decrease in depressive symptoms.” According to (Valkenburg and Soeters, 2001), “Children and the youth are generally enthusiastic adopters of the internet for communication, entertainment and education. Children regard the internet as a flexible medium, and research has identified (in rank order) the following motives for using it: affinity with

computers, information, entertainment, boredom avoidance, online social interaction, and off-line social interaction.” (La Ferleet al., 2000) conducted a research on teenagers in USA, according to him, “Teenagers age 14 to 19 in the USA use the internet for research and homework. Male respondents use the internet more frequently for games, music, shopping while female respondents use the internet more frequently for fashion and information about colleges/universities. Respondents find out web sites mainly by using search engines and asking friends. Respondents consider the internet the most favorite sources of communication about sensitive issues when they need information fast. (Bao, 1998) conducted a survey on Internet usage at Seton Hall University, according to him, “40.2% of respondents used the Web on a daily basis, 38.3% weekly, and 10.7% on a monthly basis & about 10% respondents said they seldom or never used the Internet.” In a survey of Internet usage of students (Rhoades et al., 2007) found that, “Most students use Internet at their homes and use a search engine when online.” Very few studies have been conducted on this topic in Pakistan. We will discuss some of them here. There was a study conducted by (Sakina Bashir, 2007) in Punjab University, Lahore to know the internet usage behavior of students. In this study (Sakina Bashir, 2007) explained about internet usage of students, According to (Sakina Bashir, 2007), “(57%) were using Internet at their homes, (54%) answered that they were using it at their departments, (8%) were using it at their offices, (10%) responded that they were using it at their friends’ and relatives’ homes, (22%) were using it at Internet cafés, (8%) mentioned other places where they were using Internet, i.e. neighborhood, language institution, etc.” Similarly (Sakina Bashir, 2007) mentioned about students frequency of using internet. According to their study,” Internet daily users were (31%) while (47%) were using Internet 2-3 days in a week, (5.5%) were using it fortnightly, (7%) were using it once a month and (11.5%) were using it rarely.” Their was another study about the uses of internet conducted in Multan city of Pakistan by (Shahzad Ali, 2008). According to (Shahzad Ali, 2008), “10.4% users use Internet for entertainment, 24.2% for information, 13.8% for academic facilitation, 12.4% for emails and chatting, 8.6% to contact their relatives, 26.4% for multipurpose, & 4.2% for office work.”

Personality & Internet Usage Motives

According to (Weaver, 2000), “the desirability of new communication tools and media, such as those available through the Internet can present substantially different appeal to those of different personality types.” Similarly, (Papacharissi and Rubin, 2000) explained that “those more satisfied with their outward, social life preferred to use the Internet for more instrumental purposes (e.g. information seeking). On the other hand, those less satisfied with life and felt less valued in face-to-face interactions used the Internet as a substitute for social interactions and to pass time.” In this context, (Flahery, Pearce, & Rubin, 1998), found that “Externally oriented people (who believe their environment controls them, feel powerless) used the Internet for inclusion more than internally oriented people.” (Hamburger & Ben-Artzi’s, 2000) researched on relationship between personality types and Internet motives. According to them, “people scoring high on extroversion tended to prefer leisure services (sex websites, random surfing), and that those scoring high on neuroticism had a negative association with information services (work-related information, studies-related information). More specifically, for male subjects, extraversion was positively associated with leisure services, and neuroticism was negatively associated with information services. For female subjects, extraversion was positively associated and neuroticism negatively associated with social services (chat, discussion groups, people-address seeking).”

Internet Usage & Demographic Factors

According to (Brancheau and Wetherbe, 1990), “Past research has investigated a wide variety of factors influencing computer adoption and usage such as demographic characteristics.” So, in this section we will discuss influence of demographic factors on internet usage.

Gender

According to (Qureshi and Hoppel, 1995), “There are some gender differences in how students feel about computers.” Similarly, (Harrison and Rainer, 1992) found some relationship between gender and level of computer skills, according to them, “Males more likely to have better computer skills.” In this context (Elder et al., 1987) explained that “Females are more likely to experience techno stress (physical and emotional burnout caused by inability to adapt to new technology) in using PCs compared to males.” Similarly, (Igbaria and Chakrabarti, 1990) said “Females reported greater computer anxiety than males.” While, according to (Parasuraman and Igbaria, 1990), “There are no gender differences.” In the same way, other researchers also support the notion about gender difference in computer usage. Like, according to (Straits Times, 1996), “In the context of the Internet, studies have generally shown that users are predominantly males and that men took to the Internet faster than women.” According to (Qureshi and Hoppel, 1995) “Males are more interested in learning about computers than females.” In the light of previous research findings, we may expect that males are more likely to use the Internet for various activities compared to females.

Age

(Elder et al., 1987) found in his research that “Older workers are more likely to experience techno stress compared to younger workers.” Similarly, (Harrison and Rainer, 1992) examined individual differences on skill in end-user computing and found that “Age is negatively correlated with skill level.” (Zeffane and Cheek’s, 1993) study of computer usage in an Australian telecommunications organization found that “Age is negatively correlated with computer usage.” In the context of the Internet, According to (Straits Times, 1996) “users tend to be young adults.”

Educational level

From educational level perspective, (Igbaria et al., 1995) said “In most cases, educational level is not among the main constructs and is usually measured as part of demographic characteristics or as a control variable in data analysis.” Moreover, (Igbaria, 1993) found that “Educational level has a significant negative effect on computer anxiety and a significant positive effect on perceived usefulness. Computer anxiety was found to have a strong negative effect on perceived usefulness and behavioral intentions while perceived usefulness was found to have positive effects on attitudes, behavioral intentions and user acceptance.” In the light of these research findings, we can say that higher educational level is likely to have a positive relationship with computer usage. Furthermore, higher educational level may result in greater knowledge about computers, thereby facilitating Internet usage.

2.5 Advertising

According to (Lee and Johnson, 1999), “Advertising is considered to be a non personal and targeted audience communication with the intention of promoting and selling the product or service. Such communication is done through a variety of media channels, including television, radio, newspaper, magazines, direct mail, outdoor displays or the Internet.” According to (Lears, 1994), advertisements have multiple meanings. They mean everything from simply creating the need or the will in people to buy goods, to creating visions of life and supporting or disagreeing with the political and economical powers.” According to (Farris and Quelch, 1983), “Advertising is only one of many elements of marketing mix.” Similarly, (Wesley Frey and Halterman, 1970) said about factors influence advertising and consumers, according to them,” Everything from economic and social to legal factors can and do influence advertising and consumers.” According to (Lears, 1994), “Advertising has gone a long way from its beginnings to the form it is in today. Advertising has shaped its form as soon as humans started exchanging goods and services.” In this context, (Heimann, 2005) explains that “In the sixties advertising evolved from lengthy texts to witty headline and picture ensembles which main purpose was to out-smart, out-do and out-sell competition.” (Heimann, 2005) also stated that “sixties were the time where advertising became clever, funnier and more enjoyable and interesting than ever before, and from that point on, the advertisements continuously kept becoming more complex in their meanings and more entertaining for consumers.”

2.6Roles & Functions of Advertising

The primary roles and functions of advertising has been defined by (wells, p. 06-10) , according to him “Advertising role is to create demand for a product, which is done through two techniques: Hard sell approaches that use reasons to persuade consumers, and soft sell approaches that build an image for a brand and touch consumers emotions.”

In this context (wells, p. 06-10) describe seven basic functions of advertising, which are as follows:

• Builds awareness of products and brands.
• Creates a brand image.
• Provides product and brand information.
• Persuades people.
• Provides incentives to take action.
• Provides brand remainders.
• Reinforces past purchases and brand experiences.

2.7Advertising Goals and Importance

According to (Aaker, 1991), “The purpose of advertising for marketers is to make the consumers purchase their brands. Advertising is one of the most visible forms of communication, and the set of associations the consumers have about a brand is the result of all the marketing efforts build up behind the brand. If the advertising, promotion, and packaging support a constant positioning strategy over time, the brand is likely to be strong.”

Advertising from a brand perspective can be refer as “Brand advertising makes people aware of the brand and communicates the brand identity, image, positioning, value proposition, promotion, essence, personality, and associations. The goal of branding is to increase awareness and preference, strengthening the customer’s relationship with the brand. Brand Advertising educates the customer on how the brand differs from the competitive brands. It communicates the emotional and functional benefits of the brand, product, or service. Building the brand is a long term process, and brand advertising is a long term tool”. (Deborah Kania, p. 159-160)

Difference between Internet Advertising & Traditional Advertising

According to (Li and Leckenby, 2004), “Advertisement on the Internet and traditional media are not the same, since the Internet has the capacity to extend the function of advertising far beyond that which traditional media are able to accomplish.” In continuation (Li and Leckenby, 2004) said,” Consumers not only obtain information about the products or services by clicking within the Internet advertisement but they can place an order, and download some products (such as e-books) to their computer.” In this context (Hui and Wan, 2007) said, “Internet makes the consumers more comfortable doing things themselves with ease, speed and convenience.” Many researchers suggested that web advertising is believed to be at least as effective as traditional media advertising (Briggs and Hollis, 1997). In discussing web & traditional advertising (Bezian Avery et al., 1998) said, “Males are theorized to prefer web ads to traditional media ads because of the web’s interactivity and pictorial features.” In this context (Haller 1974) said, “it was expected that males should exhibit higher belief level for web versus more traditional media ads and males, compared to females, will follow a belief pattern for web advertising similar to their belief patterns for traditional media advertising.” Similarly, (Sharon Shavitt, 1999) differentiated web & traditional advertising in these words, “One fundamental difference between Internet and traditional advertising is the degree to which the consumer versus the company has control over advertising exposure. With traditional advertising, consumers play a relatively inactive role in exposure. Advertisements interrupt or intercept consumers’ attention to other information (e.g, a television program, a radio show, or traffic signs). In essence, advertisements are “pushed” at them. With many forms of internet advertising, however, the consumer has a great deal of control over advertising exposure. The company may request the consumers’ attention (e.g., through banner ads on others’ Web sites or through hyperlinks), but it is up to the consumer to seek additional commercial content. Consumers can select whether, when, and how much commercial content they wish to view. That is, consumers “pull” for electronic advertising content. Because internet advertising exposure is largely under the consumer’s volition, it is particularly important to understand the valence and structure of one important driver of advertising exposure: attitudes toward internet advertising.”

2.8.1 Television

“Television advertising is embedded in television programming, so most of the attention in media buying, as well as in the measurement of television advertising effectiveness, is focused on the performance of various shows and how they engage their audiences. Some programs are media stars and reach huge audiences”. (Wells, p. 249-250)

2.8.2 Radio

“Radio can be a more intimate experience, because we tend to listen to it alone, particularly for those people wearing headphones. It can also engage the imagination more because it relies on the listener’s mind to fill in the visual element. That means radio dramas and advertisements can involve the audience on a more personal level. And radio can deliver a high level of frequency because radio commercials, particularly jingles, which are commercials set to music, lend them selves to repetition”. (Wells, p. 244-246)

2.8.3 Internet

“Internet advertising, although still the new baby on the advertiser’s block, is a growing industry. Advertisers see it as a relatively low cost alternative to mainstream advertising media. It is also a form that reaches people, who are not watching much television or reading newspapers. It serves three purposes. First, it provides a brand reminder message to people who are visiting a website. Second, it works like an ad in traditional media and delivers an informational and persuasive message. The third purpose, however, is most critical in that it provides a way to entice people to visit the advertiser’s site by clicking on a banner or button on the website”. (Wells, p. 276-277)

2.8.4Newspaper

“Newspapers are used by advertisers trying to reach a local market because most newspapers are identified by the city or region they serve. Newspapers primary function is to carry news, which means that advertisers with news to announce, such as a special sale or sale price, may find them a comfortable environment. Studies have consistently found that people consider ads – commercial information – to be news, too, and they read newspapers as much for the ads as for new stories”. (Wells, p. 214)

2.8.5 Magazine

“Magazines fill a niche with unique editorial content to satisfy specific groups of readers. Readers also tend to spend more time reading a magazine then they do reading a newspaper, so there is a better opportunity to provide in depth information. Quality of reproduction is one of the biggest strengths of magazine advertising because it allows the advertiser’s products to be presented in a format superior to newspapers”. (Wells, p. 223)

2.8.6 Out of Home or Outdoor Advertising

Out of home or outdoor advertising includes everything from billboards to hot air balloons. That means ads on buses, posters on walls, telephone booths, and shopping kiosks, painted semi trucks, taxi signs, transit and rail plateforms, airport and bus terminal displays, shopping mall displays, in-store merchandising signs, grocery store carts, shopping bags, public restroom walls, skywriting, in-store clocks, and aisle displays. Today total spending on out of home media is estimated to be more than $5 billion. Out of home advertising is situational: it can target specific people with specific messages at a time when they are most interested.”

2.9Consumer Attitude towards the Advertising

According to (Mittal, 1994), “Public attitudes toward advertising in general have long been a focus of research.” According to (Vanden Bergh and Katz, 1999) “Attitudes are most of the time consistent and stable and integrate three parts: affect or positive and negative feelings, cognitions or knowledge, and behavioral intentions.” According to (Bruner and Kumar, 2000), “One of most influential theories in marketing communications and advertising research is attitude-toward-the-ad.” Attitude-toward-the-ad has been defined by (Lutz, 1985) as, “A predisposition to respond in a favorable or unfavorable manner to a particular advertising stimulus during a particular exposure occasion.” According to (Homer,1990), “The attitudes that are formed toward the ad can influence consumers’ attitudes toward the brand as well as their purchase intent.” In this context (Aaker and Stayman, 1990) has explained in these words,” If the ultimate goal of advertising is to form positive attitudes toward the ad and the brand thus increasing the likelihood of purchase, then a positive emotional response to an ad may be the best indicator of advertising effectiveness.” Similarly, according to (Brown and Stayman, 1992), “A variety of studies show that the positive emotional response of liking an ad is positively related to subsequent brand-related cognitions, brand attitudes, and purchase intentions.” In this debate of consumer attitude towards the ad (Dubow, 1994) said that, “Another component of advertising effectiveness is the consumers’ ability to recall the advertised brand.” “This top-of-mind awareness helps ensure that the recalled brand will have a competitive advantage over those brands that are not easily recalled” (Dubow, 1994). According to (Donthu et al., 1993), “those consumers who have a positive attitude toward an ad are more able to recall it than those with a negative attitude.” (Chen and Wells, 1999) and (Bruner and Kumar, 2000) has extended the paradigm of attitude-toward-the-ad to the field of e-commerce by positing the concept of attitude-toward-the-site. According to (Bruner and Kumar, 2000),”The more a Web site is liked, the more it helped to improve the other key attitude variables of interest to advertisers.” (Bruner and Kumar, 2000) have done a study to uncover different variables affecting attitude-toward-the-ad on the Internet and have presented them in the Antecedents of web advertising Hierarchy-of-Effects model. According to this model, “The more the website is liked by the consumer, the more positive attitude-toward-the-ad is. Furthermore, the more complex the website is, the more it is considered interesting by the consumer.” (Bruner and Kumar, 2000)

Source: (Bruner II and Kumar, 2000)

2.10Brand Awareness

Different brand advertisements or messages communicate through different advertising channels. To find out effectiveness of any advertising medium or to know the awareness of any advertising medium among consumers, we can understand it by consumers’ awareness of different brands on that particular advertising medium. So, in this portion, we will discuss in detail about brand awareness. According to (Ehrenberg, 1998), “people need to be aware of a brand before they can be interested in it, and that they can take action and buy it.” Similarly, according to (Hollis, 1994), “There is a relationship between advertisement awareness and short-term sales.” In this context, according to (Engel et al., 1995), “Making consumers familiar with a brand’s name has long been recognized as essential prerequisite for building a brand image.” According to (Dubow, 1994), “Beyond serving as the foundation for creating a brand image, brand name awareness serves as the gateway for entry into consumer’s consideration set (the set of brands brought to mind on a particular choice occasion) and can even ensure a competitive advantage over those that are not easily recalled.” By definition “Brand awareness establishes awareness of brand name and brand characteristics in the brand’s marketplace in order to enhance familiarity and liking. To consider a brand, customers must be aware of it.” (Deborah Kania, 2007). And it can be also define as “Brand Awareness is the capacity of consumers to recognize or remember a brand, and there is a linkage between the brand and the product class, but the link does not have to be strong. Brand Awareness is a process from where the brand is just known to a level when the consumers have put the brand on a higher rank; the brand has become the “Top of the mind”.(Aaker, 1991,)

2.11Levels of Brand Awareness

(Aaker, 1991) defines brand awareness and their three levels. According to him, “A name is like a special file folder in the mind which can be filled with name related facts and feelings. Without such a file readily accessible in memory, the facts and feelings become misfiled, and cannot be readily accessed when needed.”

Figure: 2.3 Levels of brand awareness

Source: (Aaker, 1991)

1. Brand recognition: This level is the first stage of brand awareness. It is when the consumers can recognize a specific brand among others; “aided recall”. Aided recall can also be explained as a situation where a set of given brand names from a given product class is shown. The task is then to identify the recognized names. Brand recognition is major when consumers face the buying procedure. (Aaker, 1991)

2. Brand recall: This is upon the consumers to name the trademark in a product class. Apart from level one, this is an “unaided recall” since there are not given any examples of specific brands. The role of brand recall can also be vital for regularly purchased products like coffee, detergent, and headache remedies, for which brand decisions usually are made prior going to the store. Further on, in some categories (such as cereal) there are so many recognized alternatives that the shopper is overwhelmed. (Aaker, 1991)

3. Top of mind: A brand that is “top of mind” is the first brand that consumers think of within a given product class. (Aaker, 1991)

“Brand awareness is important since a lot of the consumers feel that if the brand is well known it has good quality. Most important is not that the brand is well known, it is what it is known for. Further, awareness is a very important brand advantage, but it cannot sell the product, especially not if the product is new”. (Aaker, 1991)

2.12 Achieving Brand Awareness

“Recognition and recall in attaining awareness, engage two responsibilities: to increase the brand name identity as well as linking the characteristics to the item. This is in particular vital when the product is new.” (Aaker, 1991)

(Aaker, 1991)has defined the following factors to achieve brand awareness:

Be different, memorable: “Today, many products seem alike and the communication in the product clusters is related. Therefore, it is important to differentiate the product, although, the bond between the product class and the brand has to exist for easier recognition.” (Aaker, 1991)

Involve a slogan or jingle: “There can be a stronger linkage between a slogan and a brand because it involves a visual feature of the brand. By this, the jingle or slogan is powerful and can make a big change.” (Aaker, 1991)

Symbol exposure: “It is important to have a known symbol, because it is easy to memorize and recall a visual illustration. A logo, either an already existing one or a developed one, which is connected to the brand, can take a huge part in forming and keeping awareness.” (Aaker, 1991)

Publicity: “Advertising is a proficient way to get publicity and make awareness, since it can be customized to the communication and the addressees.” (Aaker, 1991)

Event sponsorship: “The primary role of most event sponsorship is to create or maintain awareness.”

(Aaker, 1991)

Consider brand extensions: “To show the name or the logo on the products, and make the name more prominent, is one way to increase brand recall.” (Aaker, 1991)

Using cues: “The package is one of the most important cues to a brand, since that is what the purchaser sees when buying the product. If not knowing the brand or the product, the only contact to the brand is the package.” (Aaker, 1991)

Recall requires repetition: “It is easier to build up recognition than to build up recall of a brand. It can be compared to the fact that one can recognize a face of a person but do not recall the name. Therefore the link between the brand and the product class needs to be stronger and the brand needs to be more prominent than in the recognition of the brand. To receive a top of mind recall is even harder.” (Aaker, 1991)

The recall bonus: “To keep a top position through regular publicity creates brand awareness as well as a strong brand which in turn leads to decreasing recall of competitive brands.” (Aaker, 1991)

2.11 Measuring Brand Awareness

According to (Keller, 2003) claims that “brand awareness consists of recognition and recall and that brand awareness in its turn is a part of brand knowledge. To measure brand awareness effectively it is important to know where most of the consumer decisions are made”.

“If many decisions are made at the point of the purchase, where the brand, logo, packaging etc. are visible, brand recognition measures will be important. If consumer decisions mostly are made away from the point of purchase the brand recall measures become more important. The most basic procedure of recognition is to ask the consumer which one of several listed items they have previously seen or heard of. There are different measures of brand recall depending on the types of signals given to the consumers: unaided recall and aided recall, which are described above. It is very important to be aware of spurious awareness in measuring brand awareness It means that consumers may erroneously claim that they recall something that they really do not and even claim that they recall something that do not exist” (Keller, 2003).

2.12Models related to Brand Awareness

According to (Kinnear, 1995, p. 478-480) there are four most famous models use as consumer response model. In all these models, awareness is the initial stage and it is most important part of all the models. In this section we will discuss in detail these models. These models are:

• AIDA Model.
• Hierarchy of Effects Model.
• Innovation Adoption Model.
• Information Processing Model.

2.12.1 AIDA Model

According to AIDA model “Before purchasing a product, a consumer is expected to go through four stages, the acronym for which is AIDA: Attention or Awareness, interest, desire, and action. Although this model was developed to describe the steps a sales person must take a consumer through to close a sale, it is applicable to any promotional effort. A promotion may have as its objective any part or parts of AIDA. A marketer may, for example, use a billboard to get people’s attention, a television advertisement to create interest, and a cents-off coupon to motivate action.” (Kinnear, 1995, p. 478-480)

2.12.2Hierarchy of Effects Model

“Hierarchy of Effects Model was proposed by Lavidge and Steiner as a means to set and measure advertising objectives. The steps in the hierarchy of effects, similar to AIDA, are proposed to occur in sequence. A consumer first becomes aware, then knowledgeable. Knowledge in turn leads to liking, liking to preference, preference to conviction, and ultimately, conviction leads to purchase.”

(Kinnear, 1995, p. 478-480)

2.12.3 Innovation Adoption Model

“Innovation Adoption Model comprises of five stages, which are awareness, interest, evaluation, trial & adoption. The five stages proposed in the innovation adoption model were first suggested as stages through which a consumer passes on the way to adopting an innovation, such as a new product. The trial stage in this model is of interest because it differentiates this response hierarchy from AIDA & Hierarchy of Effects Model.” (Kinnear, 1995, p. 478-480)

2.12.4 Information Processing Model

“Information Processing Model comprises of six stages like Hierarchy of Effects Model. These stages are presentation, attention, comprehension, yielding, retention & behavior. This information processing model, proposed by McGuire, however, proposes the retention stage, not found in any of the other response hierarchies. Retention refers to the consumer’s ability to remember information in a promotional message. This stage may be quite important because consumers usually are not in a position to take immediate action when receiving information through a promotional effort.”

(Kinnear, 1995, p. 478-480)

2.13 Internet or Web Advertising

According to Matin (2007), “the advertising industry online has grown significantly in comparison with its proportions in 1990.” (Matin, 2007) said, “Internet advertising is a $12.9 billion industry

and is expected to grow to $29 billion in 2010.” According to (Armstrong, 2001), “As opposed to other media channels, such as radio, television or print, advertising on the Internet is rarely capable of standing on its own, meaning, without being surround by other content which is usually the center of attention.” In (Armstrong’s, 2001) words, “the websites are built out of many different blocks, advertisements being the most important ones.” In this context (Armstrong, 2001) said “ The reason for advertisements to be the most important building blocks of the websites is the fact that, with the placement of advertising, many sites support themselves.” According to (Armstrong, 2001),” Interest in the Internet is characterized by interactivity.” “Interactivity is described on a personal level as means for individuals to effectively communicate with each other, regardless of distance or time.” (Ha and James, 1998). On a mechanical level (Steuer, 1992) said, “Interactivity is described as a characteristic of a medium which allows for its users to participate in creation and recreation of the content.” (Barnes, 2003) said, “Interactivity can be classified into three separate groups: interpersonal interactivity, informational interactivity, and human-computer interaction.” In this context (Barnes, 2003) said, “In regards to web and online social networks advertising, informational interactivity plays major role since it is designed in a way that allows for a user to search for and locate information.” According to (Stafford and Fabre, 2005), “Interactivity offers the users convenience, diversion, relationship development and intellectual appeal. Moreover, with the interactive characteristic of a medium, the consumers are able to control their communication experiences because they choose the information they consume. Specifically, this relates to initiating, sustaining and terminating communication with advertising.”

When we talk about most common users of the Internet, (Calisir, 2003) claims that “Students are most frequent users and they represent the biggest segment in the web usage. (Cappo, 2003) agrees by saying that “the Internet should be viewed by advertisers as the medium primarily used by people between ages of eighteen and thirty four who tend to be better educated and more affluent.” Significant discrepancies have been found in a variety of studies that compared advertising online and advertising offline focusing on the consumers’ perceptions and opinions. In (Goldsmith and Lafferty, 2002) study of 122 college students by using questionnaire revealed that consumers remember better the advertisements launched in magazines and on TV than they do the ones that are thrown at them online. Furthermore, the same study revealed that even though web advertising has its advantages, interactivity primarily, in the opinion of consumers, it has more disadvantages as well, as opposed to the traditional media channels, which would include magazines and TV. The disadvantages mentioned by the respondents in this study relate primarily to issue with seeking out the ads and dealing with clutter online. Another significant study, done by (Gordon and De Lima-Turner, 1997) came up with interesting results. According to that particular study, consumers prefer advertising to be strictly and visibly separated from the editorial content on the website. The reason for that, revealed in the study, is the fact that Internet users want to make an efficient use of their time while online. According to (Calisir’s, 2003) “college students believe that online advertising is not very effective in communicating brand image to consumers and is less effective in communicating corporate image.” However, (Calisir, 2003) believes that “The Internet is an excellent channel for communicating with consumers and developing a relationship.”

2.14 Factors Affect Attitudes to Internet Advertising

According to (Sukpanich & Chen, 1999), “Three constructs affect internet advertising attitudes: awareness, preference and intention or motive. For example, an advertisement for a preferred brand is likely to result in a more favorable attitude.” In this context (Rodgers and Thorson, 2000) said that “Different consumer motives affect attitudes to Internet advertising.” Similarly, (Li and Bukovac ,1999) found that “information seeking respondents paid more attention to advertisements than surfers, the difference was not significant, possibly because of motive switching.” (Hoffman and Novak, 1996, p.57) defined flow as a main characteristic of consumer behavior on the Internet, according to them “flow is the ‘glue’ holding the consumer in the hypermedia Computer Mediated Environment.” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975, p36) defined flow in these words; “Flow is the holistic experience that people feel when they act with total involvement.” (Rogers and Sheldon 1999; Emmanouilides and Hammond 2000) defined other factors that affect attitudes to advertising, according to them, “Other factors that affect attitudes to advertising, are length of use, frequency of use, and location of use.” Similarly (Mehta and Sivadas, 1995) found “newsgroup users held negative attitudes toward Internet advertising.” But (Ducoffe, 1996) did not find Internet advertising either irritating or annoying.

2.15 Types of Internet Advertising

According to (William Wells, 2007, p. 277-282), there are some major types of internet advertising. We will discuss these types in detail. These advertising types are as follows:

• Bannar Ads
• Skyscrapers
• Pop-Ups & Pop-Behinds
• Minisites
• Supertitials
• Spam

2.15.1 Banner Ads

“Banner ads are small ads on other web pages on which people can click to move to the advertised web site. They are easy to create and are usually placed on a web site featuring complementary products or related topics. Banner ads were very popular when they first appeared; the overall click through rate has dropped to 0.3 percent.” (William Wells, 2007, p. 277-282)

2.15.2 Skyscrapers

The extra-long, skinny ads running down the right or left side of a website are called Skyscrapers.

Response rates for skyscrapers, which began to be used aggressively by more companies in 2000, can be 10 times higher than for traditional banner ads.” (William Wells, 2007, p. 277-282)

2.15.3 Pop-ups & Pop-Behinds

“Pop-up ads burst open on the computer screen either in front of or behind the opening page of the website. “(William Wells, 2007, p. 277-282)

2.15.4 Minisites

“ Minisites allow advertisers to market their products without sending people away from the site they are visiting. This type of advertising gets a higher click rate: around 5% of the people who see the sites click on them.” (William Wells, 2007, p. 277-282)

2.15.5 Superstitials

“Superstitials are thought of as “the internet commercial”, designed to work like TV ads. When you go from one page on a website to another, a 20-second animation appears in a window. These ads now run on more than 350 websites.” (William Wells, 2007, p. 277-282)

2.15.6 Spam

“Blasting millions of unsolicited e-mail messages to e-mail in-boxes for everything from loans to computer cartridges to pornographic sites is called spamming. Consumers who are irritated by the avalanche of solicitations that clutter their in-boxes may think of spam as “junk e-mail”, but providers prefer to call it “bulk e-mail”. They see bulk e-mail as an exciting new business opportunity and bulk e-mailing as a legitimate commercial activity.” (William Wells, 2007, p. 277-282)