Download What Makes the Internet a Choice of Advertising Medium?

Keywords: Internet, advertising, media choice, media utilization, product
characteristics
Copyright © 2001 Electronic Markets
Volume 11 (3): 155–162. www.electronicmarkets.org
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SPECIAL SECTION: ICEC
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Using conceptual frameworks based on
Katz’s (1960) functional attitude theory
and FCB Grid, this study attempts to link
salient product characteristics to media
choice and utilization in four product
categories: automobiles, luxury watches,
shampoos and fast food. The results
suggest that the Internet is a medium
well suited to highly involved as well
as rationally oriented consumers and
that the Internet should be recognized
as an important alternative in view
of its preference and effectiveness in
advertising.
What Makes the Internet a Choice of
Advertising Medium?
SUNG-JOON YOON
INTRODUCTION
A
u
t
h
o
Sung-Joon Yoon
([email protected]) is Assistant
Professor of Marketing at Kyonggi
University, Seoul, Korea. His research
focuses on consumer behaviour-related
issues in e-commerce, consumer
satisfaction and loyalty, and analyses
of advertising effectiveness both online
and ofine.
r
Internet advertising differs from
traditional media advertising in many
ways. Among the most salient characteristics are: 1) unlimited delivery of
information beyond time and space;
2) unlimited amounts and sources
of information; and 3) the ability to
target speciŽc groups or individuals.
However, probably one of the most
signiŽcant differences may be the
interactivity of Internet ads. The term
‘interactivity’ was deŽned by BezjianAvery et al. (1998) as ‘a process which
iterates between the Žrm and the
customer, eliciting information from
both parties, and attempting to align
interests and possibilities.’ What this
interactivity implies for the media
audience is that it confers them with
the ability to ‘choose and respond’
to a particular ad of their liking.
This is especially important in light
of the current shift in advertising
strategy, which favours the effectiveness of deriving maximum response
from selected target groups over the
efŽciency of providing maximum
exposure to many unknown audience
groups with a minimum cost.
Until now, very few studies have
looked into the motives for using
Internet ads (Clawson 1993; Kim
1997; Park et al. 1997). Since the
Internet is widely accepted as a new
medium breaking the traditional
boundaries of media advertising, any
attempt to distinguish between
traditional media
and Internet
should include a broader base of
understanding of media audiences’
needs and preferences. Bezjian-Avery
et al. (1998) argued that a cognitive
‘matching’ is necessary between system
properties (i.e., being visual or verbal)
and the consumer’s preferential
needs (i.e., preferring visual or verbal
presentation) in order to ensure
maximum persuasion. It is therefore
easy to understand that the Internet
advertising format may differ from
traditional advertising in its effectiveness for certain kinds of consumers and
for certain kinds of ads.
There exists another research issue
which, despite its importance, has not
been adequately addressed in current
Internet advertising studies. It concerns whether we can deŽne certain
product characteristics or dimensions
that are responsible for favouring the
Internet over traditional media. Very
few studies have looked into this issue
of product-media matching with the
purpose of determining the best Žt
between them. Such an approach
was previously explored for developing
creative advertising strategies by incorporating the functional attitude theory
(Katz 1960) and, later on, by means
of a creative planning system based
on the FCB Grid (Ratchford and
Vaughn 1989). So far, however, no
media studies seem to have extensively
adopted this matching approach to
and length of information processed. According to Finn
(1988), when attention is once given to advertising,
consumers either try to interpret its meaning according to
their goals or they get interested in secondary elements
(e.g., headlines, logos and illustrations). Some other
previous studies have attempted to incorporate the
attitudinal element of consumers’ decision-making process into their media behaviour based on Katz’s (1960)
functional attitude theory, which postulated that attitude
serves the following four functions: 1) utilitarian; 2) egodefensive; 3) knowledge; and 4) value-expressive. Johar
and Sirgy (1991) argued that when the product is perceived
as value-expressive, audience persuasion is inuenced
through self-congruity, whereas when the product is perceived as utilitarian, audience persuasion is inuenced
through functional congruity.
Is Media Choice Related to the Product
Characteristics?
METHODS AND RESULTS
The Sample
Since this study purported to investigate the respondents’
attitude toward Internet advertising as compared to
traditional media-based advertising, it was believed that the
target respondents should be selected from among those
who currently use the Internet. Reecting this particular
need, the respondents were conŽned to Internet users
who reside in metropolitan Seoul, Korea. It was speculated
that by selecting a sample from one region, it would
eliminate variations stemming from regional socioeconomic
differences, a factor deemed responsible for variations in
Internet readiness. Also, since exposure to Internet ads is
a requirement for this study, only those who currently use
the Internet more than one hour a week were selected for
the sample group. Since this selection criterion was adopted
mainly to select a fairly representative group of ‘Internet
users’ in Korea, regardless of past experience or skill level,
it was believed that this method could accomplish the
current research objective by conŽning the sample to those
who are active and current Internet users. Nonetheless,
it should be noted that Internet experience and skill
are important variables, which should be taken into consideration in further studies.
The enforcement of a screening procedure for
selecting current Internet users was carried out by
survey administrators, who queried the amount of time
respondents used the Internet per week. Next, for sampling
purpose, a national survey result reported by the Korean
Advertisers’ Association in 1999 was incorporated into a
sampling scheme. According to the survey result, Korean
Internet users showed a gender composition of 80%
male to 20% female. Since this study seeks to capture
attitudes and behaviours from a matched sample, this
study adopted a quota sampling method based on an
8:2 gender makeup.
Factors Affecting the Choice of the Internet
The previous studies’ results provide important implications for Web advertising and how it should be designed to
consider the suitability of the medium, based on a broader
base of media or product characteristics. It is for this reason
that product characteristics were considered in this study
as potential determinants of media selectivity. Although
some previous studies have attempted to understand the
dynamics involving the operation of advertising effectiveness in association with product characteristics (Cannon
1993; Ratchford 1987; Ratchford and Vaughn 1989), very
little research has been done to understand the factors contributing to the choice of media by addressing both media
choice behaviour and consumers’ perception of product
characteristics. However, the growing media choices and
more specialized target markets have led to the increased
importance of linking media and target market characteristics (Cannon 1993). The sound knowledge of the relative concentration of target markets in each media audience
as well as the audience’s motives or preference for certain
product characteristics will undeniably drive media planners
to an effective media strategy.
The issue of how product characteristics might affect
ad effectiveness has been extensively addressed in extant
studies within the context of consumer behaviour. Perhaps
the most comprehensively studied concept regarding this
issue would be the concept of product involvement as it
inuences the way information is processed by consumers.
Krugman (1965) incorporated the theory of low involvement into a study of marketing. He reported that the process of receiving advertising information by consumers is
very different in high consumer involvement situations as
opposed to low involvement ones. Petty and Cacioppo’s
(1986) Elaboration Likelihood Model, which conceptualized attitudinal change, posited that information processing and attitudinal change depend on the amount
Sung-Joon Yoon
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relate media choice with product characteristics. Several
extant studies that attempted this approach were limited in
their focus to the concept of product involvement with a
view to understanding its impact on advertising effectiveness (Celci and Olson 1988; Krugman 1965; Mitchell
1984; Petty and Caccioppo 1986). This limited focus needs
to be broadened in order to include a more diverse
set of product characteristics that are deemed to inuence
consumers’ behaviour concerning media choice and
utilization.
In view of the above brief survey of the current research
standings on Internet advertising, this study has the main
objective of empirically determining product characteristics
that affect the choice of media for four product categories
and of discovering the product related factors responsible
for media utilization.
156
Questionnaire and Scale
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Although it would have been ideal to administer the survey
online, in view of the amount of time required and
the fairly large number of questions, a survey method
using a one-to-one personal interview was adopted. The
survey was administered by a Korean advertising agency
during 10 days in August 1999. A total of 125 questionnaires were distributed by Žve survey administrators and
119 questionnaires were retrieved. Out of the 119, 14 were
discarded due to their incompleteness and the remaining
105 questionnaires were used for the Žnal analysis. The
data was analysed using SPSSWIN 9.0.
The survey was primarily composed of four parts asking
questions on: 1) attitude toward Internet advertising;
2) comparison of major characteristics of different media;
3) evaluation of media-product relevance; and 4)
demographics. In order to select the subjects appropriate
for research purpose and to identify a pattern of Internet
usage, questions were included that asked respondents
how much time they spent using the Internet on average
per week and the media source they used to get the most
frequently accessed information.
Electronic Markets Vol. 11 No 3
Demographic Characteristics
157
Analyses of the demographic data showed that the gender
makeup to be 80% male and 20% female. By age group,
people in their 20s were predominant with 68%, followed
by those in their 30s (22%), and those in their teens (10%).
By marital status, 84% were single. By occupation, 59%
were students, 21% company workers, and 12% professionals/entrepreneurs. Based on education level, 35%
had higher than bachelor’s degree. This shows that Internet
users in Korea make up a highly educated group. As for the
monthly income level, 47% of the respondents earned
an average $2,000, 25% earned $1,000, and 22% earned
$3,000. The average time respondents use the Internet
during a week was 6 hours and 8 minutes. 27% used the
Internet 3 to 4 hours, while 26% used it for 1 to 2 hours.
53% reported using the Internet for less than 4 hours. And
25% of respondents reported using the Internet for more
than 10 hours a week. The average period of time the
respondents have had experience of using the Internet was
18.3 months.
ASSESSMENT OF MEDIA-PRODUCT RELEVANCE
This study sought to determine the product characteristics
affecting the choice of the Internet relative to traditional
media and to examine factors affecting media utilization
in association with product characteristics. For the purpose
of selecting product categories to be used for analyses of
media-product Žtting, this study adapted the study result
of Ratchford (1987), who found that the following four
product categories were appropriately positioned in
each of the four quadrants of FCB Grid: 1) automobiles
(high involvement/rational), 2) luxury watches (high
involvement/affective), 3) fast food (low involvement/
affective), and 4) shampoos (low involvement/rational).
Next, in order to identify the effects of product characteristics on media choice behaviour, Katz’s (1960) four
functions of attitude were employed as a measure of dimensions of product characteristics. The four questions used to
determine product characteristics were:
1. Ego-defensive: Does the purchase of this product reect
the desire to fulŽl my ego?
2. Knowledge-oriented : Does this product relieve me of
having to process detailed information about the
product?.
3. Value-expressive: Are my values embedded in the
purchase decision of this product?
4. Utilitarian: Does the purchase of this product rely
mostly on obtaining functional beneŽts?
The above questions were pre-tested by 20 undergraduate
students by asking them to answer them as applied to the
four product categories and there was no reported difŽculty
in relating the questions to the products investigated in this
study. The above questions have been previously incorporated in studying effectiveness of advertising creatives
(Cannon 1993) as well as understanding the relationship
between cognitive/affective dimensions of the FCB Grid
and product characteristics in terms of Katz’s four
questions stated above (Cannon et al. 1995). In those
studies, knowledge-oriented and utilitarian characteristics
were associated with rational dimension while egodefensive and value-expressive characteristics were associated with affective dimension (Cannon 1993; Cannon et al.
1995). The result of the ratings for product characteristics
associated with the four products is shown in Table 1. The
items were based on the 7-point Likert scale constructed
by an increasing level of agreement where 1 equals strongly
disagree and 7 equals strongly agree.
According to Table 1, automobiles scored the highest
ratings across four dimensions, followed by luxury watches,
shampoos, and fast food. It appeared that automobiles and
luxury watches, both high involvement products, formed
one pair of highly rated products while shampoos and fast
food, both of which are low involvement products, formed
a pair of low scored products. By product category, automobiles were associated mostly with knowledge-oriented
dimension whereas luxury watches were associated with
value-expressive dimension. Fast food was associated
with ego-defensive dimension while shampoos were with
utilitarian dimension. If we employ the cognitive/affective
dimension of the FCB Grid drawing on Cannon’s (1993)
classiŽcation scheme, knowledge-oriented and utilitarian
characteristics may be associated with rational dimension
while ego-defensive and value-expressive characteristics
are associated with affective dimension. When scores for
Ego-defensive
Value-expressive
Knowledge-oriented
Utilitarian
Automobiles
Luxury watches
Fast food
Shampoos
5.90
5.22
3.83
4.34
5.43
5.23
3.38
4.06
6.03
5.03
3.05
4.10
5.81
5.21
3.71
4.57
rational dimension (knowledge and utilitarian) and for
affective dimension (ego-defensive and value-expressive)
were calculated respectively, automobiles and shampoos
were associated more with rational dimension (11.84 and
8.67 respectively) while luxury watches and fast food were
associated more with affective dimension (10.45 and 7.21
respectively). This Žnding conŽrms the original positioning
of products on the FCB Grid by Ratchford (1987) from
which this study’s product categories were selected.
Next, with a view to analysing the relationship between
media attributes ideal for advertising a product and perceived product characteristics, multiple regression analyses
were performed. For the analyses, nine questions on information utilization and the effectiveness of Žve media were
asked. The nine questions asked respondents how each
of the Žve media (newspapers, TV, the Internet, radio and
magazines) was deemed suitable for carrying ads for a
speciŽed product. Since the same questions were repeated
for Žve different media, separate media ratings for Žve
media were used for independent variables in regression
analyses. The nine questions asked about each medium’s
relevance to a given product. For dependent variables, two
variables (product involvement and rational/affective
orientation) were employed. The rationale for the adoption
of these two dependent variables rests on the logic that
these two variables best represent the characteristics of
the four products investigated in this study as they were
originally adapted from the FCB Grid’s two dimensions.
The wording for the involvement variable was based on
the 7-point Likert scale asking the level of agreement as to
‘The purchase of this product is very important to me’.
Wording for the rational/affective orientation was ‘How
much of your decision was rational versus affective?’. This
required an answer on a two-poled scale with the extreme
left designated as ‘purchase decision is based mainly on
feeling’, while the extreme right was designated as ‘purchase
decision is based mainly on thinking’. This way of employing
a composite scale as opposed to using two separate scales as
a measure of the FCB Grid was found to have an acceptable
internal consistency (r = .76) by Ratchford (1987).
Automobiles
The result of multiple regressions on involvement as a
dependent variable for automobiles showed that only
three regression models were statistically signiŽcant at
.05 p-value. Of the three, two items had the Internet as
being signiŽcant in the product purchase decision. Therefore, we can conclude that the Internet affects automobiles
purchase decisions more than other media for highly
involved consumers. Also, it was found that along with the
Internet, magazines were viewed as a medium that provides
fast information concerning new product information
for automobiles. However, unlike TV, the Internet did
not signiŽcantly affect the involvement through automobile
brands’ recall. In summary, the Internet was found to affect
the purchase decision of those who are highly involved with
automobiles. Also the Internet provided fast access to new
product information regarding automobiles.
When affective/rational orientation was used as a
dependent variable, four regression models were signiŽcant at .05 level. The Internet was signiŽcant in all four of
these models. Therefore, an observation can be made that
the more consumers are affected by the Internet in their
product purchase decision, the more they are likely to be
rationally oriented toward automobiles. This Žnding provides an important marketing strategy for the Internet
marketers targeting consumers who seek more rationally
oriented product information on the Internet. Displaying
objective or functional facts about automobiles in the
Internet ad would be a desirable strategy.
Newspapers and the Internet were found to be the best
media to bring new product information to consumers.
That is, consumers who access new product information
through newspapers and the Internet are rationally oriented
toward automobiles. This Žnding suggests the need for
marketers to incorporate newspapers and the Internet as
vehicles to inseminate new product information for
automobiles.
Luxury Watches
The results of regression analyses for luxury watches with
involvement as a dependent variable found three out
of four models statistically signiŽcant for the Internet.
According to the outcome, those who obtain information
about luxury watches mainly from the Internet were likely
to be highly involved. Similar to automobiles, consumers
with high involvement for luxury watches tended to obtain
information through the Internet. The same result was
found for TV as a medium, but in the case of newspapers,
it showed a negative relationship. That is, lower involved
Factors Affecting the Choice of the Internet
Product
Sung-Joon Yoon
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Table 1. Ratings of product characteristics for four product categories
158
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consumers seemed to obtain information on luxury watches
from newspaper.
Consumers with high involvement for luxury watches
seemed to obtain information on the product’s functions
from the Internet. But those who obtain detailed functional
information from TV or magazines were likely to be less
involved. Therefore, this Žnding suggests that marketers of
luxury watches need to differentiate between the media mix
designed to provide functional product information in
consideration of different levels of customer involvement. It
was found that highly involved consumers are likely to trust
newspaper ads whereas low involved consumers are likely to
trust magazine ads. Also, consumers who recall luxury
watches brand name advertised on the Internet tended to
be highly involved, while brand recall through magazine
ads tended to induce low involvement.
When the regression analyses were performed on
affective/rational orientation, consumers who obtain
information on luxury watches from the Internet, and
those who obtain detailed information on the product’s
functionality from the Internet, together with those who
intend to purchase the product because of the exposure to
Internet ads were all found to have a tendency to be rationally oriented toward luxury watches. On the other hand,
in the case of magazines, the same three models all produced negatively signiŽcant coefŽcients, which suggests
that consumers with more affective orientation toward
luxury watches tend to use magazines.
Electronic Markets Vol. 11 No 3
Fast Food
159
When fast food was subjected to multiple regression
analyses, all 18 models were found statistically signiŽcant.
But the Internet was not statistically signiŽcant in any of
the 18 models, suggesting that the Internet is not yet
recognized as an important media choice in the case of
fast food. What is interesting from this Žnding is that TV
was found to be signiŽcant in only two models, which
implicates that the TV also is not an important medium for
fast food purchase decisions. It was also found that
consumers who are highly involved with fast food tended
to get information on the product from TV, newspapers
and magazines. In the case of fast food, both highly
involved and highly rationally oriented consumers were
found to utilize newspapers, magazines and radio.
Shampoos
As a result of running multiple regression analyses on
involvement as a dependent variable for shampoos, six
models were found statistically signiŽcant. Of the six, only
two were statistically signiŽcant for the Internet. TV was
the
most
signiŽcant
medium
for
obtaining
information on shampoos, followed by the Internet and
magazines. Therefore, the Internet was recognized as play-
ing a signiŽcant role in providing information for product
purchase decisions concerning shampoos. Although the
Internet did not play a signiŽcant role in these items,
the Internet and magazines did induce consumers to buy
shampoos after their exposure to the ads in both media.
Based on regression runs on affective/rational orientation, four models were statistically signiŽcant where the
Internet was not signiŽcant. Consumers obtained information they need to purchase shampoos from the radio
and magazines, which they utilized for actual purchase
decisions. But those who were inuenced by newspapers
were found to have more affective orientation toward
shampoos. Highly rationally oriented consumers were more
likely to be favourably disposed to the shampoo ads in
magazines and on TV, and they were likely to purchase the
product. On the other hand, the affect-oriented consumers
were found to have greater preference for the shampoo ads
in newspapers.
MEDIA UTILIZATION BY PRODUCT CATEGORY
In order to investigate the extent of each media utilized by
consumers for obtaining information and for purchasing a
product, a question was asked to rate each of the Žve media
in terms of its proportional usage by making the total equal
100(%). Table 2 shows the media utilization pattern for
four product categories.
According to the table, TV was the most utilized
medium across the four product categories. In the case of
automobiles, TV was followed by newspaper, Internet,
magazine and radio in order of utilization. For luxury
watches and shampoos, the rank was in the order of TV,
magazines, newspapers, the Internet and radio. For fast
food, newspapers slightly surpassed magazines in the level
of media utilization. When examining the ratings for the
Internet across product categories, automobiles and luxury
watches, both high involvement products, showed greater
level of Internet utilization than for fast food and
shampoos, which are low involvement products. On the
other hand, in the case of TV, low involvement products
were associated with greater media utilization than high
involvement products. This Žnding calls for more understanding as to what makes the Internet better suited for
highly involved products while TV is better suited for
low involved products. For this purpose, correlation
analyses were performed as shown in Table 3 to identify the
dimensions of product characteristics having statistically
signiŽcant correlation with the actual utilization of media
for each product category. These analyses were expected
to shed light on the consumers’ inner workings toward
media choice, which builds on their perceived product
characteristics.
The result of correlation analyses shows that product
characteristics were associated with the utilization of broadcast media more than that of print media. SpeciŽcally,
TV utilization had signiŽcantly negative correlation with
Table 2. The proportion of media utilization for each product category
Product
Media utilized for product purchase (%)
Automobiles
Luxury watches
Fast food
Shampoos
Internet
TV
Radio
Newspapers
Magazines
17.61
17.70
11.32
8.93
41.07
35.08
48.18
50.57
7.52
8.32
10.56
8.81
21.12
19.17
15.35
14.52
12.92
19.72
14.49
17.17
Table 3. The result of correlations between media utilization and product characteristics by product
categories
ED
KO
VE
UT
Luxury
watches
ED
KO
VE
UT
Fast food
ED
KO
VE
UT
Shampoos
ED
KO
VE
UT
Media category utilized
TV
Newspapers
Internet
Magazines
Radio
- .020
(.841)
- .068
(.502)
.137
(.175)
.211*
(.035)
.063
(.536)
.084
(.405)
.057
(.571)
.134
(.185)
- .234*
(.019)
- .143
(.155)
- .247*
(.013)
.013
(.902)
- .046
(.647)
- .194
(.053)
- .222*
(.027)
- .014
(.892)
- .058
(.570)
.078
(.442)
- .082
(.418)
- .038
(.708)
- .016
(.871)
- .026
(.798)
.005
(.961)
- .011
(.913)
.066
(.512)
- .039
(.699)
.111
(.271)
- .010
(.923)
- .047
(.640)
- .006
(.954)
.027
(.790)
- .036
(.722)
.040
(.695)
.065
(.519)
- 035
(.732)
- .093
(.356)
.114
(.260)
.136
(.177)
- .022
(.827)
.030
(.743)
.049
(.627)
.056
(.581)
.174
(.084)
.001
(.989)
.141
(.162)
.202*
(.044)
.219*
(.029)
.014
(.886)
.030
(.700)
- .055
(.589)
- .124
(.218)
- .152
(.132)
- .189
(.059)
- .204*
(.042)
- .090
(.373)
- .165
(.102)
.100
(.324)
.098
(.330)
.054
(.590)
.035
(.726)
- .063
(.531)
- .023
(.822)
- .029
(.775)
- .024
(.812)
.014
(.890)
.031
(.763)
.098
(.333)
- .054
(.594)
.093
(.358)
.049
(.626)
.079
(.433)
- .005
(.957)
.242*
(.015)
.159
(.115)
.138
(.172)
- .055
(.587)
.106
(.295)
.314**
(.001)
.330**
(.001)
.111
(.270)
* p < .05, ** p < .001
P/C = Product characteristics, ED = Ego-defensive, KO = Knowledge-oriented, VE = Value expressive,
UT = Utilitarian
ego-defensive and value-expressive dimensions for fast
food and it was also negatively correlated with shampoos
in value-expressive dimension. But TV utilization had a
positive correlation with utilitarian dimension for automobiles. This Žnding shows that TV is mostly utilized for
low involvement products such as shampoos and fast food
Factors Affecting the Choice of the Internet
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Automobiles
P/C
Sung-Joon Yoon
Product category
160
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when they are perceived to be low both in ego-defensive
and in value-expressive dimensions. Conversely, TV was
utilized for high involvement products such as automobiles
when the product was viewed requiring detailed functional
information for purchase consideration. A tentative conclusion can be made from this observation that TV affects
purchase considerations for both high involvement and
low involvement products but it is more effective for low
involvement products. The Internet was utilized for low
involvement products like shampoos when it was associated
with the knowledge-oriented dimension as well as valueexpressive dimension. This Žnding suggests that the Internet is still not as effective as TV in enticing consumers to
consider high involvement products like automobiles or
luxury watches. The Žnding further suggests the need for
Internet marketers to move progressively toward increasing
the value of the Internet as a venue for obtaining functional
information and purchasing highly involved products.
Magazines were utilized for luxury watches only when consumers did not conceive the need for information search for
the product (i.e., knowledge-oriented). Consumers utilized
the radio when, similar to the case of the Internet, they
perceived shampoos as both knowledge-oriented and
value-expressive in their purchase decision. But unlike TV,
radio was utilized when consumers were highly egodefensive with regard to fast food.
Electronic Markets Vol. 11 No 3
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
161
This study sought to understand important areas of
Internet advertising as it rides a high wave of media
revolution these days. In terms of media–product Žt, the
factors affecting the Internet ads as a choice of media were
closely associated with two dimensions of product characteristics; involvement and affective/rational orientation for
high involvement products more than low involvement
products. This result implies that the Internet is a medium
well suited for highly involved products appealing to highly
involved as well as rationally oriented consumers to fulŽl
their information needs.
TV was the most utilized for the four product categories
included in this study, Again, the Internet was shown to
induce greater utilization for high involvement products
than for the low ones. As opposed to the Internet, TV
showed a reverse pattern by being more utilized for low
involvement products than for the high involvement
products. The fact that the Internet did not show the
expected signiŽcance for the high involvement products in
correlation analysis should not be interpreted that it is not
suited for these products. Rather, the result merely depicts
the associative relationship between product characteristics
and media utilization. Therefore, the Žndings should be
understood to postulate that a product with certain characteristics tends to motivate usage of a particular medium
only when the product is viewed as having distinct
characteristics.
This study’s result provides profound marketing
implications for Internet marketers by demonstrating the
need to be acutely aware of the embedded dimensions of
product characteristics. For example, a shampoo marketer
needs to prepare a more sophisticated marketing strategy
with an understanding that the target audience’s media
choice behaviour is tangent on the product being perceived as knowledge oriented and value expressive. In
this regard, we see an apparent need to develop a more
comprehensive scheme, which combines both the FCB
Grid’s two axial elements and product characteristics. This
way, we can grasp whether the salient product characteristics have an impact on consumers’ involvement and
affective/rational orientation. With the help of such a comprehensive scheme, we may then be able to delineate the
exact role of perceived product characteristics with regard
to their relevance to appropriate media mix. This study
is a step in that direction. A more innovative and comprehensive approach should be undertaken to ascertain this
link by including a more diverse set of product categories
and by adopting a different scheme to identify distinct
product characteristics.
Another major marketing implication derived from this
study is that the Internet should be considered in conjunction with other traditional media alternatives in a
company’s media mix strategy targeting different product
categories. The Žndings from this study address the need
to develop an integrative media plan with which media
executives can delineate the effects of the Internet separate
from other media. Therefore, from a resource allocation
perspective, the marketer in charge of Internet advertising
should pay attention to the product potential. Product
potential can be measured by product involvement or
four dimensions of product characteristics as they represent overall value or beneŽts delivered by use of the
Internet. The greater product potential is associated with
a target product, the greater weight should be placed
on the Internet as an integral part of the media mix. However, even if it may sound paradoxical, due to the integrating nature of the Internet, media planners also need
to consider the synergistic effects of cross-promoting
a product using the same communication strategy for
more than one communication vehicle. A deeper understanding of the inter-media mechanism underlying the
cross-promotion concept needs to be pursued in future
studies.
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