Chapter 02 – Literature Review
The chapter aims on the literature obtained on the independent, dependent variables. It includes previously established literature and empirical research carried out by various authors and scholars to provide a variety of perspectives and a comprehensive literature review for this study. Moreover, theoretical underpinning has been carried out followed by a critical analysis of the constructs and their dimensions.
2.1 Advertising
Present business environment is highly competitive, dynamic and filled with operational complexities. Growth in customer expectations has led to increase in competition which eventually has forced corporate to change and upgrade continuously. Markets are cluttered worldwide and delivering finest to the consumers is at the top priority for each of the business unit irrespective of the size of the unit.
In such an aggressive business situation, advertising plays an important role in communicating with customers, both current and potential (Bendixen, 1993). According to Kotler, advertising is defined as ‘Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services through mass media such as newspapers, magazines, television or radio by an identified sponsor’ (Kotler,1984).
With the emergence of new technology and development of various modern media, advertisers have discovered several innovative promotional options to lure target audience. The rapid proliferation of internet, mobile phones, movies and video games has convinced marketing personnel to consider these as emerging media alternatives (Bendixen, 1993).
There are different kind of media types such as, television, newspapers, radio, magazines direct mail, mobile advertising, outdoor advertising, directories and the internet. Television, newspaper, radio and magazines are seemed to be conventional methods of advertising and while digital marketing / online advertising such as search engine advertising, social media advertising and other mediums which relates to internet can be considered as modern mediums of advertising which have been growing at a rapid pace. (Rix, 2007).
Traditional marketing focuses on consumer attitude information and mass-marketing tactics, while digital, or e-marketing, efforts use information obtained from data collection methods from actual consumer purchases to provide insights into consumer behavior (Mulhern, 2009).
Among all types of advertising the researcher discusses about modern advertising mediums in the section below.
2.2 Online advertising
Online advertising is a type of mass communication which is based on traditional form of advertising but develops its own communication strategies in correlation with the new technical and medium based requirements. Broadly, online advertising is about delivering advertisements to Internet/online users via Web sites, ad-supported software and Internet-enabled smart phones Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine result pages, social media advertising and online classified advertising. (Deshwal, 2016)
The adoption curve for the Internet is quite steep, especially in comparison to other media introduced in this century (radio, television, cable; Morgan Stanley Technology research cited in Internet Advertising Bureau, 1997). Thus, as many have predicted, investment in internet advertising is likely to escalate into the billions as we enter the next millennium (Cyberatlas, 1997).
Briggs and Hallis (1997) believe online advertising is the least effective media. However, Gaffney (2001) has a contrasting view on online advertising and indicates that online advertising is considered effective in generating sales. O’ Connors and Galvin (2001) support this view; they indicated that banner ads could build up brand awareness and perceptions even though the users do not click on it. Schlosser (1999) added that generally people trusted the commercial content of an online advertisement more than that of an ordinary advertisement and also Eveland and Dunwoody (2002) suggested that online advertisement can elicit more elaboration compared with those printed media because the content structure of the Web is similar to the thought process of the human mind.
According to Mehta and Sivadas (1995) newsgroup users held negative attitudes toward online advertising, but the business executives researched by other researcher did not find online advertising either irritating or annoying (Ducoffe, 1996). Gordon and Turner (1997) researched online advertising from the perspective of a social contract between advertisers and web users. Overall, respondents were passive, accepting online advertising as long as it was visibly recognized, and well targeted.
Online advertising can be carried out in different forms as mentioned below.
2.2.1 Social Media Advertising
Social media cannot be understood without first defining Web 2.0: a term that describes a new way in which end users use the World Wide Web, a place where content is continuously altered by all operators in a sharing and collaborative way (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010). ‘It is much more to do with what people are doing with the technology than the technology itself, for rather than merely retrieving information, users are now creating and consuming it, and hence adding value to the websites that permit them to do so’ (Campbell et al. 2011, 87). Web 2.0 has evolved from simple information retrieval to interactivity, interoperability, and collaboration (Campbell et al. 2011).
Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) define social media as ‘a group of Internet based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and allow the creation and exchange of user generated content.’ Sinclaire and Vogus (2011, 294) cite O’Reilly’s (2005) definition: ‘social media is a broad term that describes software tools that create user generated content that can be shared.’ However, there are some basic features necessary for a website to meet the requirements as a social network website: the site must contain user profiles, content, a method that permits users to connect with each other and post comments on each other’s pages, and join virtual groups based on common interests such as fashion or politics. (Gross & Acquisti, 2005; Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, 2007; Lenhart & Madden, 2007; Winder, 2007; Boyd & Ellison, 2007).
Social media has advanced from simply providing a platform for individuals to stay in touch with their family and friends. Now it is a place where consumers can learn more about their favorite companies and the products they sell. Marketers and retailers are utilizing these sites as another way to reach consumers and provide a new way to shop. ‘Technology related developments such as the rise of powerful search engines, advanced mobile devices and interfaces, peer-to-peer communication vehicles, and online social networks have extended marketers’ ability to reach shoppers through new touch points’ (Shankar et al. 2011).
Karthik (2013) studied about the impact of advertisements on social network and how far they convey information. These sites are used as advertising tools as they reach large audience; cost effective, target advertising and time spend by people online. Social networks help advertisers to know the demographic data from the profile and target advertisements directly on customers. It is one of the easiest modes to spread content and accessibility levels are high and connects user easily. Business on social network is believed to be trusted when further increases recommendation leading to sales. Social networks are seen as an opportunity for target marketing.
The essence to advertising on social media mediums such as Facebook, is what the business wants the prospects to do after viewing the advertisement. For instance go to a website, call a phone number, fill out a reader reply card, or call their sales representative (Hindshaw, 2005). These actions generate leads that bring about the desired result of advertising.
2.2.2 Search Engine Optimization Marketing
Search engines are the websites, which help users find the appropriate information they are looking for by narrowing the results from the list of numerous information present in the web. After that the user decides whether to follow the link presented in the first page or to continue the search in the upcoming pages. (Levene & Mark, 2010)
There are many search engines in the internet where Google ranks top while Bing ranks second in terms of market share.
Figure 02: Global market share of search engines (Statcounter.com, 2017)
Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to a technique that helps website rank higher in organic or ‘natural’ search results, thus making website more visible to people who are looking for product or service via search engines (HUBSPOT, 2012). Most of the people concentrate on the first page during their search for a result. There are a few people who literally jump to the next page of the search; therefore being visible in the first page and towards the top adds traffic and potential customers to the business. A properly Search Engine Optimized (SEO) website is a critical component of any Internet business. A website optimized for search engines will rank high, which brings it to the first page of a potential customer’s search results (Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ‘ Marketing Services, 2013)
According to Searchengineland.com, Search engine marketing is the process of gaining traffic and visibility from search engines through both paid and unpaid efforts. It encompasses Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which is earning traffic through unpaid or free listings and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) which involves buying traffic through paid search listings.
From its inception as a business in the late 1990s to 2004, paid search as an industry grew from a base in the low millions to $4 billion in revenue, and it is estimated to hit $23 billion by 2010. (Battelle, 2005, p. 34)
Mordkovich and Mordkovich (2007) determined that many businesses have not taken advantage of this new type of online advertising ‘because it is relatively new, the terminology is quite technical, and the process can be confusing’in short, because they simply don’t know where to start’.
2.2.3 Online Classified Advertising
For decades, classified ads were the domain of newspapers, which offered advertisers cheap, small-type notices sorted under specific categories. The ads gave shoppers an easy way to browse various local offers, usually from private sellers. The jump from print to digital was inevitable and has proven itself to be quite lucrative for digital players. (Meffert et al, 2015)
As per Tulea, Classified online advertising is defined as classified advertising that is undertaken in online media. (Tulea,2009)
Classified ad sites are a one-stop-‘shop’ for everything from jobs to apartments to furniture to movers to puppies. However, users don’t buy anything directly on classified websites but they use the sites to set up meetings, and transactions are conducted in person or by mail ‘ a characteristic which separates online classifieds from auction or shopping websites like eBay and Amazon. (Jones,2009)
Types of online advertisements which can be used in above mentioned forms of online advertising methods will be described in the below section.
2.3 Types of Online Advertisements
According to Saylor.org there are different types of online advertisements.
2.3.1 Display Advertising
There are several types of display advertisements that can be used when advertising online.
– Interstitial Banners
Interstitial banners are shown between pages on a Web site. As you click from one page to another, you are shown this advertisement before the next page is shown. Sometimes, you are able to close the advertisement.
– Pop-Ups and Pop-Unders
As the name suggests, these are advertisements that pop up, or under, once the web page being viewed. They open in a new, smaller window. You will see a pop-up right away but will probably only become aware of a pop-under after you close your browser window. These were very prominent in the early days of online advertising, but audience annoyance means that there are now ‘pop-up blockers’ built into most good web browsers. This can be problematic as sometimes a Web site will legitimately use a pop-up to display information to the user.
In one of the research by Scott Mcloy, Andrea Everard, Dennis Galleta, Peter Polak(2004) ‘A study of the effects of online advertising’: Focusing on Pop up ads, it was concluded that pop up ads reduces a person’s retention in the website.
– Map Advertisement
A map advertisement is advertising placed within the online mapping solutions available, such as Google Maps.
Figure 03: Map advertisement
– Floating Advertisement
A floating advertisement appears in a layer over the content, but is not in a separate window. Usually, the user can close this advertisement. These are sometimes referred to as ‘Shoshkeles,’ a proprietary technology. Floating advertisements are created with dynamic hypertext markup language (DHTML) or Flash and float in a layer above a site’s content for a few seconds. Often, the animation ends by disappearing into a banner ad on the page.
– Wallpaper Advertisement
A wallpaper advertisement changes the background of the Web page being viewed. Usually, it is not possible to click through this advertisement.
– Banner Advertisement
A banner advertisement is a graphic image or animation displayed on a Web site for advertising purposes. Static banners are graphics interchange format (GIF) or Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) images, but banners can also employ rich media such as Flash, video, JavaScript, and other interactive technologies. Interactive technology allows the viewer to interact and transact within the banner. Banners are not limited to the space that they occupy; some banners expand on mouse over or when clicked on.
Banner ads are mostly noticed due to their relevancy and location on the page and should include bright colors, interactivity, graphics, videos, logos, sizes and discounts (Kozen Kavin,2006).
Figure 04: Most common type of web banner sizes
2.3.2 Social Media Ads
Social media ads are identical to Display ads, Social Media ads can be anything from a simple banner or image to an auto-play video.
As per Justin Brooke from Adskills.com Social Media advertising is effective because you can target your audience perfectly. For example, Facebook’s targeting options include age, region, interests, educational background and more.
There are two types of ads.
Organic ads – creates loyalty and gives you feedback from your target audience; new form of Word-of-Mouth
Paid ads – leverage promoted posts and reach specific people
2.3.3 Search Engine Marketing
As discussed in the previous section Search Engine Marketing has two types of advertisements.
Organic/ Unpaid – Search engines list the unpaid results based on relevance so upon the improvement of the SEO of advertiser’s site and the advertiser will be able to get more hits for free.
Paid ‘These are paid ads and advertisers bid on keywords through search engines in an effort to get your website up higher on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). All SEM ads that appear in Google, Bing and other search engines are text ads. They’re listed at the top or sides of the SERP.
Paid advertisements that appear as a result of search engine marketing, is known as the ‘sponsored links’ Often they appear in the search pages more prominently and in different color than the natural or organic search results. Generally the cost of advertisement is per click on the advertisement .The best known search engine advertising is the Google ad words ‘advertising.
Pay per click (PPC) is a most common form of advertising on search engines, where a process a small advertisements are placed in the search engine results and the advertiser is charged only when someone actually clicks into the advertisement (Lurie & Ian, 2011)
Also Mordkovich and Mordkovich (2007) stated that PPC can be the easiest and often the cheapest way to advertise online. However due to their lack of knowhow, people may simply not understand the concept of pay per-click search engine advertising and will forgo the cost benefit that could be derived.
2.3.4 Video Ads
One of the most interesting segments of digital ad spending is video advertising. When compared to other online ad spending formats, such as banner ads and rich media advertisements, the fastest growing segment of advertising online is video advertising (eMarketer.com, 2010).
Online video advertising, even though it is relatively new, is an essential part of Google’s monetization model for YouTube. In 2012, advertisements were shown on more than 3 billion YouTube views each week. (Pashkevich, Dorai-Raj, Kellar, & Zigmond, 2012; Plummer, Rappaport & Hall, 2007) Since YouTube advertising has become so important not only for revenue but brand impressions, the scholars Pashkevich, Dorai-Raj, Kellar, and Zigmond (2012) analyzed advertisements in this platform. The authors compared the effectiveness of traditional in-stream ads to the TrueView in-stream advertising, which refers to the new YouTube feature that allows individuals to skip the advertisement being presented after a few seconds. The study found that skippable advertisements were effective on a per impression basis and that formats like TrueView in-stream ads could improve the viewing experience for users and at the same time be effective for the company launching the ad.
Although there are various factors of online advertising in literature, there are limited numbers of factors of online advertising which influence a consumer to recall a product / service.
2. 4 Dimensions of Online Advertising
2.4.1 Entertaining and Appealing advertising
Ability to entertain viewers of an advertisement can improve the advertising experience. The advertisements which are in form of entertainment are important interpreter of their value and are critical to the effectiveness of online advertising (Aaker, Batra & Mayer, 1992).
Ducoffe (1995) observed that value of advertising can be improved by incorporating humor into online ads. Similarly, Wang et al (2009) find that this factor brings pleasure and enjoyment.
Humor is an advertisement feature that would make people into a good mood and has a permanent role in advertising (Kuilenburg et al., 2011). In general, humor is powerful in attracting consumers’ attention and creates a positive effect. According to Dong-Hun (2009) the use of humor in advertising has been widely increased. In reality things not always go that way and are not strictly predictable. Humor does not guarantee success and too much overuse of humor could make lower effect (Teixeira and Stipp, 2013)
As humor represents a strong executional cue and is the perfect attention-grabbing tool with a low-involved audience, in general, humor advertising is likely to be more effective in an online environment than non-humor advertising. (Igor Makienko, 2014). As per Alwitt, presenting an online advertising in entertaining or humorous way may create the liking towards the advertisement among the consumers during the advertising exposure, which will in turn lead to interest in the advertised products and services (Alwitt, 1987). According to Brown and Stayam (1992) and Heath and Gaeth (1993), they offered strong support for the belief that better liking on online advertising leads to higher interest on the advertised brands and products. When consumers are interested in a particular product or service, consumers will eventually be involve in evaluating that product or service.
Usage of celebrities in online advertisements could enhance appealing of the advertisement because of their attractiveness. To leverage this, advertisers use celebrities in their advertisement to increase the effectiveness of the advertisement. (Zipporah, 2014)
Advertisers should be mindful in the selection of celebrities because if any aspect goes wrong in celebrity selection process, the celebrity endorsed advertisement campaign may collapse. These aspects cast a comprehensive impact upon the customers, as some like those who are attractive posses charming physical features, and some consider both of these dimensions. Advertisers also look for a proper match between the celebrity’s personality and product’s attributes proves to be successful because the congruence of features from the celebrity and the product targets the senses of the customer more positively and leads to the development of favorable perceptions about the brand (Michael,1989), (Ohanin, 1991). This could be done in form of testimonials, promotions, campaigns or advertisement to ensure that communication is done to specific target audience respectively (Black Jay et al, 1995)
2.4.2 Ad duration emphasizing usefulness
Studies in other media have quantified exposure effectiveness using the length of time that people spend viewing a media vehicle. In television, for example, ‘time-spent-viewing’ studies have shown that longer duration commercials would create better exposure to the ads than their shorter equivalents (Patzer, 1991; Pieters and Bijmolt, 1997; Singh and Cole, 1993; Singh, Rothschild, and Churchill, 1988; Wheatley, 1968). Therefore, use of the viewing duration principle is established in other media.
In the case of the internet, web page exposure duration (WPED), being the period of time spent viewing a web page, seems to be an intuitive starting point for assessing exposure quality. A longer visit duration could equate to a better quality advertising exposure in that the longer a consumer spends looking at a webpage. (Sherman & Deighton, 2001; Swallen, 2000).
Wang, et al. (2013) examined the impacts of exposure duration and banner ad complexity on advertising persuasion in a web advertising environment. Their findings show that, when a banner ad is difficult to process in the priming phase, increasing the duration of exposure to the ad in the priming phase causes a linear increase in respondent attitudes towards the target ad and brand in the testing phase.
2.4.3 Repeated informative advertising
Repeat exposure is one of the key phenomena in advertising as the most of consumers have a chance to be exposed more than once. Unlike TV and radio on which the maximum number of repeat exposures is limited by the number of insertions, on the Internet, one can be exposed as many times as possible and the exact number of his/her repeat exposures can be tracked unlike magazine in which tracking the number of exposures is unrealistic. (Lee and Briley, 2005)
Depending on advertising environment, various repetition strategies may be applied. Single ad strategy proposes that repeating the same ad format and message in the same location may facilitate ad familiarity, and thus an ad is sooner liked by viewers, and liking typically facilitates advertising effectiveness. As per the study conducted by Jarmo Kuisma, 2015 suggests that already a moderate increase in the frequency of repetition improves memory performance, when exploiting single ad repetition strategy. However, this strategy may also lead to ignorance, irritation or boredom, even though consumers seem to tolerate higher repetition frequencies in online environments (Campbell & Keller 2003). Fang & al. (2007) found no wear-out effects after 22 exposures of online ads. Variation strategy suggests changing ad contents, formats and placement on web pages regularly to attract and hold viewers’ attention in order to increase advertising effectiveness.
As per Berlyne, Cacioppo and Petty, message effectiveness is believed to increase at low levels of repetition and then to decrease as message repetition increases (Berlyne 1970; Cacioppo and Petty 1979). There is strong evidence in support of such a curvilinear relationship (Anand and Sternthal 1990; Batra and Rajiv,1986; Pechmann and Stewart 1989). There is also, however, substantial research that shows no relationship between ad repetition and message effectiveness (Belch 1982; Mitchell and Olson 1977; Rethans, Swasy, and Marks 1986) or mixed effects in terms of the curvilinear relationship (Calder and Sternthal 1980; Messmer 1979).
2.4.4 Interactive value providing interesting advertising
Interactive advertising presents new challenges for advertisers to motivate customer. The internet enables buyers and sellers to interact and manage business transactions 24 X 7. Karimova’s (2011) study discussed the claim that ‘interactive’ advertising is a ‘two-way communication’ while ‘traditional’ advertising is a ‘one way communication’. The author argued the incorrectness of this claim by addressing the etymology of the word ‘communication’. She asserted that the term ‘two-way communication’ is tautological and the term ‘one-way communication’ is contradictory, because the word ‘communication’ implies mutual exchange.
Banner ads are one of the most interactive online ads where it has been changed notably with improvements in technology. The first banner ads were nothing more than static graphic images. Eventually, with the development of Java ‘ a computing language that allows animated graphics and additional elements such as sound to be played on a Webpage ‘ extra features began to emerge, such as animation, with little addition to the size of the file (Kaye & Medoff, 2001). Several years later, improvements in bandwidth and technology have encouraged a newer type of banner ad, the ‘rich media’ banner ad. These ads have the capability of including video, audio, and interactivity.
Animation content will affect the effectiveness of the online advertisement. Since their introduction, standards and norms for online ads have been progressively changed in terms of tools such as animation and multimedia have been widely adopted (Stevenson, 2000).
Animation is a commercial made up completely of a series of illustration including no real life situation (Khanum et al., 2015). Advertisers are using it to execute message because it’s a comparatively low cost method while describing the product features and it creates a real scenario of the product. Animated ads are attractive and attention grasping and animated spokes character is a strategic tool used to convey the message (Sabrina & Schuman, 2013).
Information sharing through animation is a major step to influence the style of society for better future. Moreover organizations and government affiliates are also using the animated ads to make the public aware of social problems (Ariel, 2012).
In 1997, further improvements in technology led to ‘smart banner ads.’ These ads helped marketers to target online viewers by presenting them with relevant information. Smart banners often used ‘cookies’ ‘ files that save personalized visitor information ‘ to show banner ads relevant to the user. Before the banner ad loads, it reads the user’s search and other Web use information written within the cookie and presents the person with a banner ad that matches their interests and search habits (Kaye and Medoff, 2001).
In the modern business environment almost each and every advertisement in mass electronic media was accompanied by music, which is commonly known as the background music. Advertisements without music are dull and unattractive. As competition is getting more and more stronger, advertisers putting more efforts in each and every aspect of an online advertisement to make sure it stand out among the competitors and get the attention on their targeted target market. It is important to choose suitable background music or to create unique and easily recognizable jingles to catch the consumers’ attention. (Ng Pui Yue, 2011)
Advertiser needs to consider the target market and communication goal when choosing music for an advertisement where there should be a fit between them. The effectiveness of the usage of music in an advertisement depends on two purposes, namely cognitive or affective purpose. If the music was assigned to serve a dominant role where it will be noticed, be distinctive, and used in the foreground, it will more likely to be part of an affect-based advertisement. If the advertiser requires using the music in the background of the advertisement, such motive will be Cognitive-based purpose. In this the music will play a less dominant role, hence less attention of the consumer will be paid on the music of the advertisement. (Alpert et al.,1991).
However scholars Stout and Leckenby (1988) and Alpert et al. (1991) said that the role of music varied according to how the advertisers place it. Despite being foreground or background the music is used to influence the information retrieved by the consumers or to affect the emotions of them.
2. 5 Models of Online Advertising
2.5.1 Hierarchy of Effects Model
Hierarchy of Effects model created by Robert J Lavidge and Gary A Steiner in 1961 in order to facilitate advertisers to develop an advertisement in such a way that the customer goes through certain stages which leads to purchase of a product / service.
The hierarchy of effects model assume that consumers have to pay attention to an ad before other influences take place. Proponents of the traditional hierarchy framework claim that audiences of advertising and other marketing communications respond to those messages in a very ordered way, where initial phase would be Cognitive (thinking) – consumer becomes product aware and gathers product knowledge, second phase affective (feeling) – consumer likes the product brand and has conviction in it, and third as conative (doing) – consumer purchases the product. (Barry & Daniel J. Howard, 1990)
Authors believed that advertising was an investment in a long-term process that moved consumers over time through a variety of stair-step stages, beginning with product 'unawareness' and moving ultimately to actual purchase. Their view of the stages of the advertising hierarchy is implicitly a causal one. However, by recognizing that advertising is essentially a 'long-term' process, it suggests that a causal influence between stages must occur only in the long-run, although it may not be found in the short-run. The argument that a favourable response at one step is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for a favourable response at the next step is central to the idea of advertising hierarchy of response models to this day (Preston & Thorson, 1983).
Lavidge & Steiner (1961) stated that hierarchical steps of ad exposure, namely, awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction and purchase, which fall under the above discussed three phases of consumer behavior. These are based on the assumption that these steps occur in chronological sequences, but there is little empirical evidence that consumers’ ad processing follows a strict hierarchy (Pieters & Wedel, 2008). Thus, visual perception can be relevant not only at the beginning of exposure but also independently in subsequent phases of the information processing. The hierarchy of effect models have been criticized for lacking empirical evidence of temporal sequences (Vakratsas & Ambler 1999) and there is no solid evidence as to whether these models are applicable to websites with animated banners (Yoo, Kim & Stout, 2004). Contrary to Yoo & al. (2004), Poh & Adam (2002) claim that traditional advertising hierarchy of effects model is relevant in the online marketing environment, and that the budgets for online marketing communication can be evaluated by using these models as a framework.
The study conducted by Bruner and Kumar, 2000 found evidence that consumer’s experience with the web and attitude towards websites should be considered as important antecedents to typical flow of advertising effects. As per authors, when the consumer’s prior experience with the web is increased, there is a tendency to develop favorable attitude towards the online advertising. (Bruner and Kumar, 2000)
Figure 05: The hierarchy of effects model
Scrutinizing each step/ phase of Hierarchy of Effects model, an advertiser could gain an insight of consumer behavior towards purchasing a product / service and how the marketing communication is to be executed based on the consumer purchasing behavior which will aid in devising effective online advertisements.
2.5.2 Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)
Elaboration Likelihood Model is a theory developed by Petty, Cacioppo & Schumann in 1983 which is about the processes responsible for yielding to a persuasive communication and the strength of the attitudes that result from those processes. There are two different persuasion routes that consumers follow when they come across persuasive communication: (1) the central route and (2) the peripheral routes.
Authors discovered that the routes for processing advertising messages would differ based on the consumer involvement. When consumers having high involvement (personal or situational) or high MAO (Motivation, Ability, and Opportunity) to process communication, they are willing or able to exert a lot of cognitive processing effort which called high elaboration likelihood. In this situation, central cues such as existing beliefs, argument quality, and initial attitude are important in determining persuasion effects (i.e., enduring positive attitude change or boomerang effects). In contrast to high MAO situations (high involvement), when MAO is low, consumers are either not willing or unable to exert a lot of processing effort. In this low elaboration situation, peripheral persuasion cues such as attractive sources, music, humor and visuals are determining factors of persuasion effects (a temporary attitude shift or retaining the initial attitude)
However, the routes of the ELM-model do not completely explain how the consumer’s experience of ad exposure or the impacts of the quality of attention (conscious, pre-attentive, unconscious and focal or peripheral) effect on the following phases ad of processing. (Kuisma, 2015) In online environment, the sensitivity to allocate attention to ads is largely determined by the relevancy but also by the saliency of ads. Cho (1999) modified the ELM model for banner advertising suggesting that central processing can shift to peripheral processing due to salient banner features, such as, large size, bright color and animation. This shift may also happen due to distraction as well as better processing fluency provided by easier message comprehensibility for instance. Moreover, relevancy, repeated exposure, attitude toward the site and toward web advertising in general mediate the shift between central and peripheral routes both ways (Cho 1999).
Figure 6: Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)
The importance of this model for advertising is that it gives an insight for advertisers regarding how to communicate the message to the consumers considering consumer involvement with a particular product / service how to persuade them to purchase it. Thereby advertiser needs to devise marketing communication strategies accordingly.
2.5.3 Interactive Advertising Model (IAM)
Internet Advertising Model is introduced by Rodgers and Thorson in 2000, which is designed to explain the communication process consumers follow in relation to messages on the internet. The basic components of the IAM included, consumer-controlled aspects, such as Internet usage / functions and information processes; advertiser-controlled aspects, like ad structures; and, finally, the array of responses that result from the encounter of a functioning, information processing individual with the structures of Internet advertising.
Figure 7: Interactive Advertising Model (IAM)
2.5.3.1 Consumer-Controlled Aspects of the Internet
In traditional medium of communication, advertisers are the main controllers of advertisements where they decides which ads consumers should see, when to advertise and what mediums to be used in communicating the message to the consumers. However, consumers always have the option of not paying attention to, becoming involved with or ignoring the advertisement. When it comes to online ads, the control has switched (for the most part) from advertiser to consumer. (Rodgers & Thorson, 2000).
In fact, a number of researchers and practitioners argue that consumers have more 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). This makes sense if we consider the fact that most Internet users typically log onto the Internet with some sort of plan, or goal, in mind (Cannon, Richardson, & Yaprak, 1998). Thus, initiation of Internet use is completely under the consumer's control. Add to this the fact that users are in the driver's seat throughout the entire online experience–interacting with websites, ads, advertisers, other consumers and so on (Hoffman & Novak, 1996)–and it becomes even easier to imagine why an Internet processing model must delineate which aspects of the Internet are consumer- versus advertiser-controlled, and how this control ultimately influences consumer responses.
There are two sub categories in consumer controlled aspects of internet.
‘ Functions
In this category, authors explain about the primary motives of the consumer using internet. Cannon, Richardson, & Yaprak, and Rodgers & Cannon stated that prior to understand how people process web-based ads, the advertiser needs to understand why individuals visit cyberspace in the first place (Cannon, Richardson, & Yaprak, 1998; Rodgers & Cannon, 2000).
Internet motives are ranged from shopping (Wells & Chen, 1999), information-seeking (Raman, 1997) and surfing (Rodgers & Sheldon, 1999), to communicating (Katz & Aspden, 1997), social escapism (Korgaonkar & Wolin, 1999) and relaxation (Papacharissi & Rubin, 2000). Although more than 100 web motives have been identified across these studies, Rodgers and Sheldon (1999) argue that the bulk of these motives fall into four primary categories, including: researching, communicating, surfing (i.e., entertaining) and shopping.
A mode is defined as the extent to which Internet activities are goal-directed. Walters, Apter and Svebak (1982) have conceptualized goal-directedness along a continuum ranging from "telic" to "paratelic," where telic refers to high goal-directedness and paratelic refers to low goal-directedness (i.e., "playfulness"). The authors purport that individuals in a telic mode tend to be more serious-minded and focus more on the future than the present. In contrast, individuals in a paratelic mode tend to be more playful and lighthearted, orienting to the present rather than the future (see Walters, Apter, & Svebak, 1982, p. 197).
As per Rodgers & Sheldon, researchers who use internet are highly goal-directed (Rodgers & Sheldon, 2000) which makes the online experience more "serious" and less "playful" (Walters, Apter, & Svebak, 1982). Surfers, on the other hand, presumably are more "present-oriented" and, as a result, are more likely to demonstrate curiosity and exploration in cyberspace (see Katz & Aspden, 1997a). The model predicts that these individuals would be more likely than researchers to click on ads found along their cyber journey. However it doesn’t mean that researchers are not influenced by online ads; It may be, that researchers are more likely than surfers to click on ads that are directly relevant to the task at hand (see Cho, 1998).
The authors, Rodgers and Thorson conceptualized the user mode to be switching in every moment which is depicted by the up-and-down arrows in the model. This is consistent with the work of Walters, Apter and Svebak (1982), who define this type of switching as psychological reversal. Therefore the next step would be to find out the influence of Internet motives and modes on information processing of interactive ads. (Rodgers & Thorson, 2000)
‘ Information Processes
After determining what the motives are for internet use and user mode, Rodgers and Thorson stated a set of information processing tools also as known as cognitive tools. That is, the individual must attend to Internet ads, remember them and develop attitudes based on them before making a response. Prior to consider how the information processing operates in an interactive environment, the structure of such environment should be specified. (Rodgers & Thorson, 2000)
2.5.3.2 Advertiser-Controlled Aspects of the Internet
In this section the focus is to discuss of the internet aspects that are in advertiser’s control. Most of these variables include structural elements, such as types, formats and features of advertisements. This does not mean that consumers never control the structure of the interactive ads. In fact, a number of websites for instance, McDonalds.com allows consumers to alter the structural elements to personalize a webpage, as well as messages found within that page. In general, however, authors stated that any control the advertiser can exert in an interactive environment will take place on a structural level.
‘ Structures
There are three basic structural components have been conceptualized as part of the IAM, which include ad types, formats and features.
1) Ad type –
The primary controlling feature of any ad is its general structure also known as type of the ad. The ad type itself provides an indicator of the types of possible consumer responses. That is, the consumer response will be based on the type of the online ad. For instance, in the case of a political ad the consumer will respond to the ad by either by casting a vote or not voting. It is not reasonable to expect to respond to such ad by purchasing a product rather it has to be a response for an ad which sells a product. (Rodgers and Thorson, 2000)
2) Ad Formats –
The format of the ad simply refers to the manner in which it appears or views to the consumer. Internet has the capacity to support a number of additional ad formats, some of which we do not find in traditional media. According to the Internet Advertising Bureau (1999), 55% of all online ads are formatted as banners, 37% are sponsorships and 8% are formatted as hyperlinks, interstitials and pop-ups. With the exception of sponsorships, all of these formats are certainly unique to the Internet Even in the case of sponsorships, it has been argued that the manner in which they are formatted online is often unique compared to the format found in traditional media (Rodgers & Thorson,2000).
3) Ad Feature ‘
This expresses how attractive the ad is to the consumer or in other words, how does the advertiser make the ad attractive in the view of the consumer. For example, ad features may include, color, size, appeal type, animation, audio etc.
‘ Outcomes
This includes the consumer responses for online advertisements after a rigorous process. Rodgers and Thorson states the consumer responses would be such as attend to the ad, ignore the ad, form an attitude towards the ad, click on the ad, explore the website, e-mail the advertiser, purchase the product etc (Rodgers & Thorson,2000). There are more direct measures of attention, including eye movements (Brown, 1968), and eye gaze (e.g., Anderson, 1987), when using the measure for television, called "eyes on screen." There is also some use of psycho physiological measures, at least for attention to television (e.g., Thorson & Lang, 1992; Rothschild et al., 1988). And also for television is the measure of response time, usually response to a secondary task which the viewer must respond to while viewing the ad (Anderson, 1987; Rothschild et al., 1988; Thorson & Lang, 1992; Thorson, Reeves, & Schleuder, 1987; Thorson & Zhao, 1997).
All of the response measures used for traditional advertising can be applied to interactive advertising. But there are also some important new types of measures, including: hits, click-through’s, time spent at websites, exploration patterns on websites and the pattern of online purchasing.
This model is important to advertisers as it depicts the aspects which are in control of both consumer and advertisers. Results obtained measures the outcomes of consumers having been exposed to messages and the way consumers would respond to such advertisement. This model enables the marketers to know if their advertisements have affected their target audience favorably.
2.6 Recalling a Product or a Service
Memory is an active constructive process where information is acquired, stored, and then retrieved for use in decision making (Loftus, 1977). The concept of memorization is commonly used for measuring the advertising effectiveness. According to Carat (2002), the Internet proves to be the third medium in terms of memorization just after television.
Regarding the human mechanism of information storage, Dussuart (1983) recognizes that the individual has two types of memories; one short-term and long-term memory, where short term memory has limited capacity and long term memory has unlimited/ broad capacity. Studies conducted by IAB France and Sofres (1999) also focused on memorization measures where it was proved that memory increases after exposure. This can be measured through the tools; Aided and Unaided recall. Aided Recall is used to measure the effectiveness of the advertisement and its recall among the consumers when they are given cues where as Unaided recall is a marketing technique to determine how well a consumer remembers an advertisement without any external assistance such as clues, or visuals. (The Economic Times, 2018)
It will take time to make purchase decisions, maybe in couple of minutes, hours, days, weeks or months after the consumer was originally exposed to the product information and with limited memories of specific product attributes, advertising has only a limited impact upon the decisions made. For consumers to remember any product or service related information at a later date, they need to encode and store that information. The process of encoding, storage and retrieval (when information is remembered) suggests that our minds function similar to a computer. When encoding information, the consumer transforms the stimuli they encounter into a representation that can be stored in memory. At this stage it is important that they fully recognize and understand the stimuli they have encountered. If the stimuli are ambiguous, the consumer may find it difficult to make sense of the information and consequently fail to store it in their memory. After having encoded the information, the consumer then stores the information in their memory so that it can later be retrieved when they need to access it. Retrieval of product information (or any other type of information) starts with the activation of a node. A node is a particular piece of information that has been stored in long-term memory. When the node is activated, it is transferred from long-term memory to short-term memory so that a person becomes conscious of the product-related information.
2.7 The Relationship between Online Advertisements and Recalling a product / service
The relationship between online advertisements and recalling a product or a service has been discussed by several scholars.
The study carried out by Briggs and Hollis (1997) and Hussher (1999). Hop (2001) showed that the memory is very important in the context of online advertising. According to Bergkvitz et al. (2001) the exposure to advertising pop-up improves the visibility, branding and purchase intent. Similarly, Kompella (2001) showed that exposure and recognition enhance the brand image significantly. Finally, Lendrevie (2000) considers that users who surf internet daily tend to memorize the structures of the pages they visit regularly.
2.7.1 Entertainment and appealing advertising has following impact on recalling a product / service.
Some group of authors discussed on entertainment and appealing advertising focusing on observing audience response to humor. According to them, humor may operate to get viewers response with two mechanisms: mechanism of attention and mechanism of affect (Cline et al., 2003). Humor produces both attention (cognitive mechanism) and mood (mechanism of affect) routes to ability to recall. A similar comment was given by Strick M. et al. (2009) where humor produces positive effect in advertisement without changing or improving any brand information in advertisement. However humor present in advertisements attracts more consumers’ attention and creates recall.
Thus humor attention or humor strength is translated into positive effect as long as it is linked with the product. Unless unrelated humor to the product could inhibit product recall. Also it was concluded that despite people like the humor and enjoy watching it in advertisements, still humor can keep their attention watching it till the end. However it is not a guarantee that consumers would purchase the particular product/ service neither they would recall. In addition, too much humor could produce opposite effect and could not even capture the audience attention. Instead it could only make the audience laugh, but the only thing they will remember is the joke itself and not even the product or message advertised. (Djambaska, Petrovska and Bundaleska, 2016)
Celebrities would achieve a higher extent of attention and recall as they increase awareness of a company’s advertising which create positive feelings towards brands and such advertisements are perceived by consumers as more entertaining (Solomon, 2002)
The ways in which celebrity endorsements affect consumer purchase decision is studied extensively by marketing and social psychology researches. As a result, many hypothesis have been put forward including celebrity endorsement have recall of the product, (i) celebrities have credibility on expertise that makes the product more desirable or enhances perceptions of quality (ii) the celebrity endorsers image is transferred to the product so that those who use the product are associated with the image. Experiments suggest that in certain situations, celebrity endorsement can enhance recall and consume assessment of the products. (Clark & Horstman, 2003).
2.7.2 Ad duration has the following impact on recalling a product / service.
Peter J. Danaher and Guy W. Mullarkey (2003), investigated that duration of page viewing may affect web advertising recall and recognition. It was concluded that the more duration a person is exposed to a web page containing a banner advertisement, the more likely they are to remember that banner advertisement thereby the advertised product/ service.
2.7.3 Repeated informative advertising has the following impact on recalling a product / service.
As per the study conducted by Nizam, Jaafar, and Supaat, 2017 found out that ability to recall online ads has the second strongest effect on purchase decision. This can occur due to a online advertisement being repeatedly view by the consumer.
Dr”ze and Hussherr (2003) in their study the effectiveness of Internet advertising stated that an advert has a probability of 50% of being seen by a user looking at a web page. Repeated exposure increases advertising recall, thereby the respective product/ service.
2.7.4 Interactive value providing interesting advertising has the following impact on recalling a product / service.
Speaking of consumer interaction, rather than producing a text based online advertisement consumers tend to recall advertisements with video content which eventually leads to recall the product / service that is being offered (Bowman, 2017).
Natour, Gemino and Krider, (2013) in their study found out that animation had no effect on customers’ attitudes, albeit it had modest and inconsistent effects on their recall and recognition of ad content. However the study carried out by Michelle Bayles & Barbara Chaparron (2001) on animated and static online banner advertisements resulted that 86% of the sample used were able to recall the animated banner advertisement over the static banner which indicates animation may have an impact on recall.
As per Ng Pui Yue, (2011) the appropriate use of music in advertising can actually helps to deliver a message better, helps to persuade the consumers to purchase the product or service and even helps to build brand recall and brand recognition due to usage of suitable background music in the advertisement or to create unique and easily recognizable jingles to grab the consumers’ attention.
2.8 Conclusion
This chapter has discussed the results obtained from range of previous studies that have been conducted with the understanding on concepts, theories and previous findings relating to the study which is both supportive and arguing against the research problem. Accordingly, they have been the source for developing the theoretical framework. As well as, the empirical researches and published journal articles which are related to this particular research topic were also reviewed to understand the research problem.
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