Impact of Online Consumer Characteristics on Web-Based Banner Advertising Effectiveness

Palanisamy, Ramaraj

Abstract

Web is considered to be different from most traditional mediums because it has multimedia characteristics. Businesses see the Web as an opportunity to channel their advertising. Advertising effectiveness is important to the marketers to know if their advertisements have reached their target audience effectively. This research focuses on the impact of online consumer characteristics on banner ad effectiveness. The characteristic variables included in this study are: online consumer's internal flexibility, consumer expectations, consumer involvement, and perceived personal usefulness. A survey of 158 online consumers was then conducted to gather study data. The study results validate the relationship between online consumer characteristics on banner ad effectiveness. However, the study data does not support the impact of focus and planning approach for online shopping on ad effectiveness.

Keywords : banner ad effectiveness, consumer expectations, consumer involvement, online consumer's internal flexibility, perceived personal usefulness

Introduction

World Wide Web, also known as "the Web" is considered to be different from most traditional mediums because it has multimedia characteristics. The Web can be defined as 'user-friendly graphics-capable component of the Internet' (Pugsley and Trites, 2003) and as a cross between an electronic trade show and a community flea market (Berthan et al. 1996). Web is flexible, open, informal, interactive, and converts visitors into customers. The Web has been used to disperse information to many consumers and more and more businesses are trying to incorporate the Web to their operations (Alba et al. 1997). Businesses have realized the potential benefits of the Web in direct sales, building brand awareness and providing market information for consumers. Businesses see the Web as an opportunity to channel their advertising, marketing and distribution of some of their products (Verity and Hof, 1994). In Web-based channels, the businesses can cut advertising cost by one quarter of any conventional channels, such as television, radio and magazines.

In order to reach the targeted consumers, organizations need a flexible medium. The Web would be a more viable channel for today's changing, expanding and global organizations. The marketplace is changing and it has been shifting towards on-line shopping, and virtual market businesses. Due to the change in trend of the environment, the on-line businesses have to focus more on web-based advertisements. The marketers like to draw the online-consumer's attention among thousands of other products or brands. By the end of 2003, Internet advertising spending in the United States alone could grow to more than 13 billion (Internet Advertising Bureau 1999; Krishnamurthy 2000).

The Web is flexible in that it can present information in numerous ways including text, images, video, and sound. The multimedia aspect could make the experience more fun and stimulating, thus holding the attention of the consumer longer (Ghose and Dou 1998). The Web has been able to reach more people. In the Web channel, any online consumer can view the ad any time (24-7), and at any location. The Web is widely recognized and accessible in most parts of the world. The Web can support information in different languages and currencies. Consumers have control of exposure to advertisements on when and where they would like to see them (Gallagher et al., 2001). The consumers can close out advertisements they do not want to see or go back to the advertisements they are interested in. This will give consumers numerous opportunities to view the advertisement. It has been said that after a number of exposures to advertisements, the consumer will retain the information more (Vakratas and Ambler 1999). So, Web-based advertisements let the consumers have control over what advertisements are to be viewed and for how long. Also, consumers can arrange advertisements to their liking and to their preferred scheduling.

Web-based Banner Ad Effectiveness

Advertising effectiveness is a large part of any marketing campaign the marketers need to know if their advertisements have affected their target audience. If the campaign can actually reach the targeted audience then the benefits would be immense. As advertising effectiveness is a primary concern for most business, trying to explain consumer characteristics in relation with ad effectiveness would be beneficial. Online advertising industry and its clients become increasingly concerned about the effectiveness of banner ads (Cross, 1999). Many businesses spend millions of dollars to target their market audience but the impact of their efforts is to be known to the management to assess their strategies.

This research focuses on the impact of online consumer characteristics on banner ad effectiveness. Banner ads are commonly placed on high-traffic websites (Dou et al., 2001) and transfer the viewer directly to the company's website for further information (English and Pearce, 1999). Banner ads appear when viewing web pages, usually placed at the top or along the sides of the Web page (Edwards et al. 2002) or a search engine's page (Sipe, 2003). Normally, the banner advertising flashes across the screen, presumably while the viewer is engaged in reading the page content (Nordhielm, 2002). Since they are generally displayed on the periphery, they do not interrupt the main activity of Web viewers. The viewer do not need to do anything to avoid the banner ads. If viewer is interested in the ad, he or she can click on the ad to obtain more information. If not, the viewer can simply ignore the ad without doing anything extra. Thereby, web surfers control their experience on the basis of their preferences (Liu and Shrum, 2002).

Why Banner Ads?

Banner ads are used as a major online advertising tool (Internet Advertising Bureau, 2000) and represent a significant portion of search engine revenues (Katz, 2000). Banner ads are the most suitable format to use because most Web users would have encountered some banner ads in their day-to-day usage. Banner ads are chosen because viewers cannot close out the ads like pop-up ads. The banner ads are embedded in the website and so it cannot be closed. Some of the banner ads are able to move with the page when it is scrolled. This might be more affective to the consumers if the ads are available at all times. Moreover, web advertisers must make decisions about the effectiveness of their banner ads (Bhat et al., 2002).

Online Consumer Characteristics

Online consumer interaction with product information is one of the critical components in B2C e-commerce environment (Bayan, 2001). In designing the banner ad, online consumer characteristics play an important role in such e-commerce environment. The research proposes online consumer characteristics influence banner ad effectiveness. The characteristics were considered in pre-experience, and experience phases of viewing a banner-ad. Though the consumer had no association with an advertisement, the consumer may have some predictions towards it. So, in pre-experience phase, the consumer's internal flexibility and expectations from the banner ad were considered. In the viewing (experiencing) phase of the advertisement, consumer involvement and perceived personal usefulness were considered.

Literature Review

Banner Advertisement !Effectiveness

Basically, advertisements communicate messages and serve two functions: to inform and to persuade (Singh and Dalai, 1999). To inform is to create awareness about the product/ service and to persuade is to generate a positive attitude and behavior toward the product/service. The advertising effectiveness would be associated with the post-experience of processing any advertisement and represents the increased value to the customers (Ducoffe, 1996). Advertising effectiveness is usually described as being a 'hierarchy of effects' (Vakratas and Ambler 1999). The 'effect' mentioned is to change the consumer's mind about a product by changing their attitudes and then by acting it out (Hall 2002). The information in the advertisements could change people's perceptions and will eventually change their behavior.

Companies are considering Internet advertising as a viable alternative to traditional media. Reach and frequency are used as the standard measures for online ad effectiveness (Dreze, 1998). 'Reach' is the net unduplicated number of visitors who had an opportunity to see a banner ad one or more times and 'frequency' is the number of times the visitor had an opportunity to see a banner ad. Other Web-specific measures are click-through rates (number of clicks on a banner ad), advertising transfers (number of downloads of advertising messages) (Briggs and Hollis, 1997), visit duration, conversion rate (visit to purchase), number of transactions (Dreze and Zufryden, 1998), number of visitor sessions, average length of sessions (Keiser, 2002), sales figures, recognition, recall and rating scales (Li and Bukovac, 1999). Sales figures can be categorized into two levels: aggregate and individual. The aggregate level encompasses the studies done at the market-level data that might include market share, gross ratings and advertising expense (Vakratas and Ambler 1999). Individual level would use individual data in their studies. Examples include number of exposures and their brand choice. Recognition is among one of the most popular methods of measurement. Recognition is when the subject is given an object or image that reflects the advertisement of the brand or product. The subject has to associate the object or image with the right brand or product from memory. The higher the right association of the brand to image, the more we can assume that the advertisement is effective. Recall is another popular method of measurement. Recall is when the subject is instructed to remember any features of the advertisement or the product. This is presumably more reliable because this is done without any stimulus (Wells 2000). Rating scales is the last method of measurement mentioned. The subject will rank the advertisements on categories which include attention value, persuasiveness and memory level.

Consumer's Internal Flexibility

Upton (1994) defines flexibility as "the ability to change or react with little penalty in time, effort, cost or performance"; flexibility is the ability of a system to take different forms (Easton and Rothschild 1988). Flexibility is a multidimensional concept demanding agility and versatility; associated with change, innovation and novelty; coupled with robustness and resilience, implying stability, sustainable advantage and capabilities that may evolve over time (Bahrami 1992). Sushil (1997) defines flexibility as the dynamic interplay of the ends of an ever-expanding spectrum of options. The three key words for systemic flexibility are: options, change, and freedom of choice (Sushil, 2000). To be flexible means to have a number of options available at a decision making point, freedom of choice and the ability to change. Flexibility cannot be generated when the user is always attaching to only one option. In this case there is no freedom of choice and to become more flexible is to offer more options to choose from. Therefore, the flexibility of an individual depends on the freedom of choices and number of options available at a given situation. Handy (1994) calls for finding a balance between many alternatives. The 'either/or' concepts need to be replaced by 'and' conjoint (Koshnik, 1996).

The internal flexibility of an actor can be decided by mapping the actor's internal characteristics such as value system, decision-making style, thinking pattern, adaptability nature, and the actor's learning mechanism (Sushil, 2000a). In judging a situation (like banner advt.), the value system has a role in creating a bounded flexibility of the actor (online consumer). For instance, a person's value system might lie anywhere from objective to subjective or explicit to implicit. An online consumer who always uses either subjective or objective thought would be internally rigid. Similarly, different consumers have different decision-making styles, which range from pure rational to pure intuitive, or a combination of rational and intuitive. Thinking patterns of the online consumer are crucial in viewing and experiencing the banner ad. The online consumer has to balance the convergent and divergent thinking. How quickly the online consumer is able to adapt with the banner advertisement is an indicator of his/her internal flexibility. Therefore, the creation/enhancement of flexibility would depend upon the exercise of freedom of choice of the online consumer to change across the range of options (Sushil, 2000). Online consumer, who is internally flexible, would be the one who carries a range of options at the same time (Sushil, 2001). For example, a flexible consumer is one who is simultaneously subjective and objective (Sushil 2000) in a situation like judging a banner ad. In other words, the real flexible consumer is one who evolves his/her value system and priorities and exercise the freedom of choice judiciously (Sushil, 2001) keeping in view the requirements of viewing and experiencing the banner ad. Based on this discussion, this study derives Hypothesis 1.

Hypothesis 1: Increased internal flexibility of the consumer will significantly increase the banner advertisement effectiveness.

Consumer Expectations

Consumer expectation is the pre-experience in viewing the banner ad, when the decision maker has not actually used or seen the brand or product. Consumer expectations are 'predictions made by consumers concerning what they believe will be the outcome of an exchange' (Oliver 1980). They tend not to have a strong opinion about the item but their opinion could be developed by word of mouth, advertisements and observations. Here the advertiser's job is to frame the perception of the advertisements. There are three main effects that framing can do for the decision maker (Hall 2002). The first one is that it creates an expectation for the brand or product. This causes the consumer to see the ad at certain situations. The second one is that it creates anticipation for the product; the consumer may crave for the product. One good example is food commercials. The commercials leave the consumer hungry and wanting the product. The third effect is that the consumer will try to rationalize the anticipation of the item.

Viewer may have expectations after seeing the banner ad quality and may encouraged to click for further viewing (Li and Bukovac, 1999). Visitors with a profit-motive will expect a high degree of polish in the design than with a non-profit motive (Keiser, 2002). Besides quality, visitors expect reliability, convenience, attractive appearance, and superior technology. Waite and Harrison (2002) give the following dimensions of consumer expectations of bank websites as a source of information: transaction technicalities, decision-making convenience, interactive interrogation, specialty information, search efficiency, physical back-up, and technology thrill. In other words, consumers expect some unique value and experience when they enter the digital environment (Cleary, 1999). Consumer expectations could actually help or hinder the advertisement effectiveness. This discussion provides the basis for Hypothesis 2.

Hypothesis 2: Consumer expectations have a significant influence on the banner advertisement effectiveness.

Consumer's Perceived Personal Usefulness

The motives that consumers gain from seeing advertisement to use the products is normally associated with three concepts: perceived usefulness, ease of use and perceived enjoyment (de Souza Dias 1998). These three concepts were modified in terms of product so it can be associated with a shopping or searching on-line. Perceived usefulness can be defined as the degree to which an individual believes a banner ad would fulfill his/her online shopping requirements. Thus, if a banner ad is relevant, it will automatically attract the consumer's attention (Li and Bukovac, 1999). The visitor may pay less attention to an irrelevant ad. ease of use is the level of which the individual will think the product can free up their physical and mental efforts. Perceived enjoyment is the activity associated with the product being enjoyable. These are the main factors that consumers will consider in making an opinion on an advertisement and product. Popularity of an ad, ability of an ad to hold visitor's attention, and relevance of the ad message may also influence the consumer's perceived personal usefulness (Bhat et al. 2002).

Consumer Involvement

Once an advertisement is relevant to the consumer then the consumer will pay more attention. Consumer involvement is defined as 'the extent to which a stimulus or task is relevant to the consumer's existing needs and values' (Maclnnis and Jaworski, 1989). Many are convinced that consumer involvement influences the outcome of advertisements effectiveness. The more involved a consumer is, the better will be the quality and the amount of responses (Edell and Keller, 1989). Higher the involvement, more the consumer will drill down into the advertising message. These 'drill downs' are aimed towards the explanation on persuasiveness and relevant content (Maclnnis and Jaworski, 1989). The highest level of involvement is 'personal connections', where the consumer can relate to the situation in their real life while it adds more emotional ties to the advertisement.

Low involvement is seen as having little motivation to process the messages that advertisements are sending out. Less involved people usually use superficial processing techniques or can be influenced by images (Greenwald and Leavitt 1984). The low involvement restricts the decision maker into the linking of their attitudes to the advertisements. Low involvement may not link the connection of attitude and advertisement in their long term memory. Therefore, the cues could be beneficial but can become disassociated with the advertisements (Boninger et al 1997). The above discussion is leading to hypotheses 3 and 3a.

Hypothesis 3: Increased involvement of the on-line consumer significantly increases the banner advertisement effectiveness.

Hypothesis 3a. Consumer's perceived personal usefulness will moderate the impact of that consumer involvement on banner advertisement effectiveness.

The study, represented by the model in Figure 1, examines the impact of consumer's internal flexibility, consumer expectations, and consumer involvement on the banner ad effectiveness. Also, it examines the moderating effect of perceived personal usefulness on the impact of that consumer involvement on banner ad effectiveness.

Measures

Banner-ad Efectiveness

The effectiveness of an ad can be measured in numerous forms, such as attitude formation, familiarity, recall and recognition. One of the primary objectives of an advertisement is to form an attitude, preferably a positive one, towards the product or brand name. Attitude can range from positive to negative and if the consumer has a positive attitude towards product or brand name then the ad effectiveness is considered high. Marketers try to evoke a sense of familiarity with the ads to the consumers by getting the consumers to associate themselves with the situation. Having an association with an ad could make the consumers more preferable towards that ad. Recall is one of the most popular methods to measure ad effectiveness. This is also more objective because consumers have to recollect the ad from memory without any stimulus. Recognition is another popular method of measurement but is seen as not as objective. This is because consumers have a stimulus like a jingle to recollect the ad. The measures included in the study are attitude formation, familiarity, recall and recognition. The subjects were asked to relate these items to a general banner ad viewing situation.

Consumer's Internal Flexibility

The definition of flexibility involves three key words: options, changes and freedom of choice (Sushil, 2000). To define and measure flexibility the following indicators were used: the range of "options" created in the process, "number of change mechanisms" created by continuous renewal and adaptation, and the number of "freedom of choice" domains for the actor. User's internal flexibility construct was measured by the value system practiced, decision making style used, thinking process and problem handling approach (Sushil 2000). The questionnaire items regarding this construct were related with options that are created by the subject. The questionnaire items deal with number of freedom choices for the actor.

Consumer Expectations

The expectations helps interactions to occur between consumers and businesses (Beisel and Clow 1995). They can be in forms of positive, negative or neutral expectations towards the advertisement, product or brand name. Consumers have numerous expectations but the focus will be mainly on price, quality of service, quality of interaction from the provider and the image of the business (Beisel and Clow 1995). These measurements were included in relation to the pre, duration or post phase of the decision making towards an ad. The questionnaire items for this construct were the subject's expectation on price of the product, quality of the service from the business being promoted, quality of interaction by the business being promoted and the overall image of the business being promoted through the advertisement.

Consumer Involvement

Involvement can have three antecedents including characteristics of a consumer, the stimulus and the situation (Zaichkowsky 1994). The concept of consumer involvement has some evidence that it effects the outcome of the ad effectiveness. Zaichkowsky proposed a 20-item scale called the Personal Involvement Inventory but had to revise it due to redundancy. She has now broken it down to a 10-item scale called the Revised Personal Involvement Inventory. Only 4 of the 10-item scale were used and they include: importance, interest, relevance and appeal. The subjects were asked to recall a searching or shopping experience with the Internet. Importance is the significance attached to the ad. Interest is the intellectual or emotional involvement with the advertisement, relevance is something related to what someone is seeking, and appeal is a pleasing or enjoyable emotion that is evoked by advertisement.

Consumer's Perceived Personal Usefulness

Perceived usefulness is the degree to which an individual believes that using a particular advertisement could fulfill their shopping needs. The idea that the advertisement should enable a consumer to further their decision is measured. The usefulness of the advertisement may help the consumer to reach a decision. Davis (1989) used a 4-item scale that included productivity and insight as factors to determine usefulness in decision making. The questionnaire items for this construct were productivity, insight and ability to make further decisions for the decision maker. The subjects were asked to recollect any situation when viewing a banner ad in their shopping or searching experience.

Research Methodology

A questionnaire survey was proposed to collect empirical data about the research variables, and the hypotheses were statistically tested. Respondents were randomly drawn from the population of university senior-students. The responses from inexperienced and novice users of Internet users were removed from the pool of usable responses. Of the 750 potential participants, 158 provided usable responses, giving response rate of 21%. This response rate ratio was accepted against non-response bias for a blind mailing (Belohlav and Fiedler, 1987). Approximately, 58% of the respondents were male and 35% of them were female. Table 1 shows respondent demographics by gender and by age. Table 2 shows the respondent demographics of Web browsing experience and Internet usage hours per day. The individual responses were kept confidential in order to encourage openness and disclosure; therefore the name of the university is not given. Table 2 shows that approximately 62% of the respondents were having 3-4 years of web browsing experience and 51% of the respondents were using the Internet an average of 2-4 hours per day.

Survey Instrument

This study used the survey research methodology. The instruments for internal flexibility, consumer expectations, consumer involvement, perceived personal usefulness, and banner ad effectiveness were compiled into a single survey instrument. The initial page explained the nature and purpose of the study, guaranteed the confidentiality of user responses, and contact information was provided, if the respondent had any questions. General instructions were given at the top of the instrument and specific instructions at the beginning of each section. The demographic information about the respondents and their organizations were collected by questions at the end of the instrument. A sample banner ad was given so that the respondent was visually clear before responding to the questions.

Administration of the Survey

The survey instrument was pilot tested to ensure its content validity with thirty online consumers and practitioners from field and academia. The suggestions were incorporated and subsequently some of the items were rephrased. More technical words were removed; duplicate and double-barreled questions were also removed. Initially, the pilot-tested survey instrument with the cover letter was sent to 750 potential online consumer respondents. For every three weeks from the initial mailing, a reminder was sent. Some respondents were contacted in-person for this purpose.

Data Analysis

The collected data was analyzed using techniques of univariate, bivariate and multivariate statistical analysis. For the univariate analysis, a frequency distribution analysis was performed to gather information on demographics such as sex, age, degree, study of year, Internet use per day and browsing experience. A reliability analysis was conducted with the use of Cronbach Alpha standards. This was to ensure that all constructs have reliable questionnaire items. Also, the measure to central tendencies was performed. Bivariate analysis was to address the relationship between the five constructs and the relationships were analyzed by correlations. The multivariate analysis was to examine the dependency of banner ad effectiveness upon others.

The inter-item reliabilities (standardized Cronbach's alpha) for banner ad effectiveness, consumer expectations, consumer involvement, and perceived personal usefulness produced acceptable reliability scores. The overall reliabilities (standardized Cronbach's alpha) for these measures are given in Table 3.

The study employed four item-measures of internal flexibility. They were search style, banner ad judgment, focus of online searching/shopping, and planning of online searching/shopping. Attempting to aggregate the four measures of internal flexibility into a single measure produced an unacceptably low reliability score of .4670, indicating that these measures were not measuring the same construct. However, the inter-item reliability score on focus and planning of online searching produced an acceptable score of 0.8173. Consequently, the proposed research model was revised to accommodate the three types of internal flexibility (Figure 2). Accordingly, hypothesis 1 was ripped into three hypotheses as follows:

H1a. Increased banner ad judgment of the consumer will significantly increase the ad effectiveness.

H1b. Increased flexibility in search style of the consumer will significantly increase the banner ad effectiveness.

H1c. Focus and planning approach for online shopping of the consumer will significantly increase the banner ad effectiveness.

Regression Analysis

To investigate the relationship between banner ad effectiveness and online consumer characteristics variables, moderated regression analysis was used. The analysis is helpful to validate the model of expected relationships (Parthasarathy & Sethi, 1993). The sample data met regression assumptions of normality and linearity. Descriptive statistics and correlations among the constructs are given in Table 4.

The regression model used banner ad effectiveness as the dependent variable and included banner ad judgment, search style, focus and planning, perceived personal usefulness, and consumer expectations as the independent variables. To assess the moderation effect of perceived personal usefulness on the relationship between involvement and banner ad effectiveness, interaction terms were calculated by multiplying the responses for both. These interaction terms were considered for moderated regression analysis. The results of the analysis are shown in Table 5.

Research Hypotheses

The results in Table 5 indicate that 32% of the variance observed in banner ad effectiveness is explained by the independent variables. Hypothesis 1a proposed a positive relationship between consumer's banner ad judgment and banner ad effectiveness. The results of regression analysis validates the existence of this relationship (p

Hypothesis 1b suggested a positive relationship between consumer's flexibility in search style and banner ad effectiveness. The regression analysis supports the existence of a relationship between them (p

Hypothesis 1c assumed that focus and planning approach would influence the banner ad effectiveness. The results of the regression analysis provided no support for this (p=0.249). Therefore, focus and planning approach does not appear to influence banner ad effectiveness.

Hypothesis 2 postulated a positive relationship between consumer expectations and banner ad effectiveness. The results of regression analysis in Table 5 supports this model (p

Hypothesis 3 suggested a positive relationship between consumer involvement and banner ad effectiveness. The regression analysis supports this model (p

Hypothesis 3a assumed that consumer's perceived personal usefulness would have a moderating effect on the relationship between consumer involvement and banner ad effectiveness. The regression analysis supports this model (p

Dicussion

Consumer Banner Ad Judgment and Ad Bfectiveness

Hypothesis 1a is supported by the data in which banner ad judgment will influence ad effectiveness. The relationship between the two is directly proportional meaning if the banner ad judgment level was to increase or decrease that ad effectiveness would change accordingly. Increase in number of options exercised in judging a banner ad could make the consumer more flexible. For example, the consumer might have started off with a subjective view but has decided to change to a combination of subjective and objective views. If the consumer was to use a combination of views first and then change to only a subjective view then the consumer would be showing decrease in internal flexibility. In order to increase the banner ad effectiveness, the ads should provide three essential items: option, change and freedom of choice.

The ads should provide more options to the consumer. These options should vary in views such as subjective views to objectives views. The consumer could choose from these two views and combinations of these two views. The ad should have an impact on the consumer to change such as in their online purchasing. The ad should help the consumer change their shopping process from being indecisive to confident in their choice of the product. The ad should also provide freedom of choices meaning the consumer is able to choose preferred judgment. For example, if a banner ad had options such as only giving price information then a consumer wanting dealer location would not find this ad useful. Therefore, this ad does not provide the consumer a freedom of choice. If a banner ad had options such as price information and dealer location then the consumer could choose what they would want from the advertisement. The consumer is not confined to one option and is free to choose their preferred option. For many advertisements, they will usually have to target specific consumers by including specific features that would appeal to their characteristics. For example, if the ad wanted to attract more males then the ad would incorporate more features that appeal to males.

Information Search Style and Ad Effectiveness

Hypothesis 1b is supported by the data in which search style will influence ad effectiveness. Consumer may search for comprehensive information or limited information or combination of the both. Exercising more options in consumers search style could actually make the consumer more flexible. For example, a consumer starting off with only a comprehensive search may want to change to a combination of comprehensive and limited search. In this example the consumer is exercising more options in their search style.

The advertisements should capitalize on the relationship between these two items to increase their effectiveness. The ad should be able to provide a range of options or search styles to the consumer. The consumer should have freedom of choice and not have to use a particular search style by force. If the advertisement only allows limited information search then a consumer wanting more comprehensive information is either forced to use the limited information search or leave the ad. If the consumer leaves the advertisement then it would be doing the opposite of what the advertisements is trying to achieve. The ad should also allow the consumer to change their search style when needed. If a consumer realizes a certain search style is not allowing them to proceed with their online purchasing then a switch in search style is required.

Consumer Expectations and Ad Effectiveness

Hypothesis 2 is supported by the data in which consumer expectation will influence ad effectiveness. This is a proportional relationship in which if the consumer expectations were to increase or decrease that ad effectiveness would change accordingly. Consumer expectation is when the consumers has a sense in what they believe is a quality price, quality of service, quality of interaction of service and the image of the business being promoted. Methods to increase consumer expectation could be to provide affordable prices, quality services, quality interactions of services and good image of the business being promoted.

The idea for most people is that the more expensive the products will mean a better quality business. The high end products could then persuade the consumers that this is a superior business and thus be more willing to buy the product or from the business. Another method could be to show only good quality service within the ad. The ad could make use of quotes from happy consumers and depict a situation where customer service is occurring. The idea is to create to the consumer that the business is supportive in their ways to make the customers come first. By implementing this idea in the consumer's head; the consumer may be more apt to dealing with a business that has a customer focus. Promoting a good quality interaction is also useful for the consumer. It shows that the staff is friendly and ready to serve to your needs. The next method is to provide a trustworthy image of the business being promoted. This may depend on the target consumers for the business. For example, if the target consumers are pet lovers then the image of the business could be that its products are tested without harm to animals. Another example is if the target consumers are young people then the image has to provide that the business is trendy and chic. By enhancing or adding some of these feature into the ads, it may increase the advertisements effectiveness.

Consumer Involvement and Ad Effectiveness

Hypothesis 3 is supported by the data in which consumer involvement will influence ad effectiveness. This is a proportional relationship in which if the consumer involvement was to increase or decrease that ad effectiveness would change accordingly. These results are consistent with other researches done on consumer involvement and ad effectiveness (Batra and Stayman 1991, Gillis 1988, Venkataramani Johar 1995). Consumer involvement could include such items as being intellectually or emotionally attached, allured by the appeal of the object, being important and relevant. When the consumers' involvement increases it could mean they are more intrigued by the objects' intellectually, emotionally, by appeal and importance or relevance. Decreasing consumer involvement could mean they are less intrigued by the objects' intellectually, emotionally, by appeal and importance or relevance. Advertisements could increase their effectiveness by harnessing this relationship to increase consumer involvement and thus increase ad effectiveness. Methods to increase consumer involvement could be increasing intellectual or emotional attachments, increase appeal, make ads more important and relevant.

The ads could try to make a theme of the ad on the consumer's level of thinking or education. For example, if the ads' targets are scholars then the ad would try to make the situation alluring to them by using sophisticated words or controversial situations. The target consumer with the higher intellect could be more intrigued about the situational setting. This idea would apply the same with emotions. The ad could apply situations were the target consumer could emotionally related to and therefore be more intrigued by the ad. The ads should also try to appeal more to the sense of the consumers. Appeal could be in forms of color, textures or even taste. For example, ads dealing with foods can present the food so enticing that sometimes the viewers start to taste and smell the food. The ads should be perceived as having a quality that is important or relevant to what the consumer is looking for. The banner ad should be placed in a web site that would be more relevant and important. For example, if the banner ad was selling golf shoes then the ad in a golf site would prove to be more relevant and important then placing the ad in a computer hardware web site.

Moderating Bfeet of Consumers Perceived Personal Usefulness

Hypothesis 3a is supported by the data in which consumers perceived personal usefulness will moderate consumer involvement that influence ad effectiveness. There are two proportional relationships; consumer involvement with ad effectiveness and consumer perceived personal usefulness with ad effectiveness. If consumer involvement increase or decrease then ad effectiveness will also increase or decrease. If consumers perceived personal usefulness changes this will impact the relationship between consumer involvement and ad effectiveness. Thus the changes in consumer perceived usefulness will indirectly have an impact on ad effectiveness. Advertisements should take this relationship into account to boost their ad effectiveness. Methods to increase ad effectiveness could be to provide intellectually or emotional attachment, more appeal to the senses, more importance or relevance to the consumer, more information to further consumer's decision, more productive and insightful information.

The next method is to improve consumer involvement. The ad could apply situations were the target consumer could emotionally or intellectually be involved and therefore be more intrigued by the ad. The ads should also try to appeal more to the sense of the consumers. Appeal could be in forms of color, textures or even taste. The ads should be perceived as having a quality that is important or relevant to what the consumer is looking for. Placement of ads could be essential in attracting the target consumers. Placing an ad about cheap hotel rates would be more beneficial if it was on airline websites.

The next method is to improve the consumers' perceived personal usefulness. To help consumers further their decision may be done by providing more detailed information. The information should have an impact on the consumer's decision making by eliminating any insecurities about the product or the business. By clarifying these insecurities, this could help the consumer come to a decision much earlier. Productive information could mean providing better access to detailed information such as better navigation or less navigation. The ad should also give the consumer better insight in the product or business that is being promoted. Insight could include how the product was manufactured, who makes the products or if it's applicable to the consumers motives to buy the product. This insight could reveal crucial information in the consumer's choice to purchase this product or from this business. By enhancing these items in the advertisement it could increase the ad effectiveness.

Conclusions and Limitations

This study dealt with web based advertisements but more specifically with banner ads. Banner ads were chosen because of their presence in the Internet and it was thought that the respondents would be more likely subjected to banner ads then any other kinds of web based ads. Other research could be conducted on consumer characteristics with other types of web-based ad such as pop-ups or supersitials. This study has included the respondents who would be more comfortable with the Internet environment. These subjects would have an average of 5- 9 years of browsing experience. The subjects might have a bias towards web advertisements because they were subjected to them at a higher amount then the subjects that have less browsing experience. A study could investigate if the respondent's browsing experience or Internet usage would be different than results obtained in this study.

A majority, 51 %, of the respondents taken by the sample were from information systems. This could skew the results because people in this degree would have a better working environment with the Internet. They could be more subjected to banner ads than the rest of the sample. A sample with equal percentages of degrees would be beneficial. Another problem that was raised from this research was that some of the respondents were confused with banner ads and pop-up ads. Nonetheless, the confusion was minimal because of the majority the respondents were from technology based disciplines.

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Ramaraj Palanisamy

Department of Information Systems

St. Francis Xavier University

Antigonish, Nova Scotia, CANADA

Suzanna A. Wong

Former Honors Student at St. Francis Xavier University

Nova Scotia, CANADA

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