Management Research Project

(A PART OF THE MBA CURRICULUM OF ICFAI BUSINESS SCHOOL)

A PROJECT ON INTERNET ADVERTISING:ITS FUTURE AND POTENTIAL

SUBMITTED BY: VICTOR MAYENGBAM (ENROLLMENT NO: 07BS4798) UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF: Prof. RAHUL GUPTA FACULTY, MARKETING

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to extend my sincere thanks and heartfelt gratitude to Prof. Rahul Gupta, my project guide for providing me with the guidance and support I needed and for giving me invaluable advice on all aspects of the project. This project has been a great learning experience for me and I would once again like to express my gratitude to Prof. Rahul Gupta for the same, who guided me throughout and without whose guidance and support, this project would not have been completed successfully. I am also thankful to other concerned members of the Institution who extended their support for completion of my project. I am also thankful to the library and the computer lab department of the college for helping me with the concerned problems. I express my gratitude to Prof. Asim Ghosh, Director, ICFAI Business School, Kolkata, for the excellent facilities we have been offered in the library and computer lab of the institute, which helped me in collecting the required data for completing the project I would also like to thank my colleagues who are also doing their MRP, for their cooperation and excellent interaction during the course of the project.

Table Of Contents
1. Introduction...4 1.1 Objective.. ..5 1.2 Methodology.. 8 1.3 Limitations.. 9 2. Main Text. 10 2.1 Internet Marketing.10 2.2 World Scenario..10 2.3 Indian Scenario...13 2.4 Internet Advertising Tools..18 2.5 Observation Can Pay High Dividends....23 2.6 Primary Data Collection And Analysis...27 2.6.1 Primary Data Collection Methods..........27 2.6.2 Questionnaires.28 2.6.3 Analysis Of The Questionnaire...............38 2.6.3.1 Effectiveness Of Online Advertising As Perceived By The Respondents Based On The Lavidge And Steiner Model...39 2.6.3.2 Analysis For The Medium For Communication46

2.6.3.3 Analysis Of The Products Respondents Bought After Seeing Internet Ads ..48 2.6.3.4 Most Popular Internet Activity.. ....51 2.6.3.5 Preferred Websites Of The Indian Users For Certain Activities...53 3. Conclusion.. 57 APPENDIX .59 Bibliography 63

1 Introduction
Internet marketing, also referred to as online marketing, Internet advertising, or eMarketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. When applied to the subset of websitebased advertisement placements, Internet marketing is commonly referred to as online advertising and Web marketing. Internet marketing as of 2008 is growing faster than other type

of media. Internet marketers also have the advantage of measuring statistics easily and inexpensively. Nearly all aspects of an Internet marketing campaign can be traced, measured, and tested. The advertisers can use a variety of methods: pay per impression, pay per click, pay per play, or pay per action. Therefore, marketers can determine which messages or offerings are more appealing to the audience. The results of campaigns can be measured and tracked immediately because online marketing initiatives usually require users to click on an advertisement, visit a website, and perform a targeted action. Such measurement cannot be achieved through billboard advertising, where an individual will at best be interested, then decide to obtain more information at a later time. As per Lintas media report, Internet advertising in India is Rs 215 crores ( a 43% Y-o-Y growth). It has become an attractive vehicle for advertisers because of its several features and qualities. It integrates many positive aspects of major advertising media such as the visual impact of TV and the parallel delivery of an ad with content a user is searching for, like billboard with cost effectiveness. More and more companies are using web advertising as part of their overall communication plan with potential customers. In this scenario accurate measurement of return on investment in online advertising become very important for businesses. Effective Internet marketing requires a comprehensive strategy that synergizes a given company's business model and sales goals with its website function and appearance, focusing on its target market through proper choice of advertising type, media, and design. This report examines various ways of on-line advertising and discusses the future potential of the same.

1.1 Objective Choosing best Communication Mix Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, 5

advertising networks and e-mail marketing, including e-mail spam, and in-game advertising etc. So out of these various kind of tools for online advertising which tool should be used by an advertiser, it is a critical question. This report will suggest the best mix for online advertising. In todays marketing dynamic environment banners ads and email are becoming less effective in comparison to new online marketing tools like social networking, gaming and video ads. So whenever a company trying to market itself over internet it should think of different alternatives available to advertise on net.

Optimum Effectiveness There are lot of models like cost per click, click through rate, cost per action, cost per conversion for measuring Return on Investment in online advertising. You must be creative and focused, always looking for new ways to reduce your cost and maximize returns. This report will try to look for these best innovative ways. CPM (Cost Per Impression) is where advertisers pay for exposure of their message to a specific audience. CPM costs are priced per thousand impressions. CPV (Cost Per Visitor) or (Cost per View in the case of Pop Ups and Unders) is where advertisers pay for the delivery of a Targeted Visitor to the advertisers website. CPC (Cost Per Click) is also known as Pay per click (PPC). Advertisers pay each time a user clicks on their listing and is redirected to their website. They do not actually pay for the listing, but only when the listing is clicked on. This system allows advertising specialists to refine searches and gain information about their market. CPC differs from CPV in that each click is paid for regardless of whether the user makes it to the target site. CPA (Cost Per Action) or (Cost Per Acquisition) advertising is performance based and is common in the affiliate marketing sector of the business. In this payment scheme, the publisher takes all the risk of running the ad, and the advertiser pays only for the amount of users who complete a transaction, such as a purchase or sign-up. This is the best type of rate to pay for banner advertisements and the worst type of rate to charge. Similarly,

CPL (Cost Per Lead) advertising is identical to CPA advertising and is based on the user completing a form, registering for a newsletter or some other action that the merchant feels will lead to a sale. Cost per conversion Describes the cost of acquiring a customer, typically calculated by dividing the total cost of an ad campaign by the number of conversions. The definition of "Conversion" varies depending on the situation: it is sometimes considered to be a lead, a sale, or a purchase. CPE (Cost Per Engagement) is a form of Cost Per Action pricing first introduced in March 2008. Differing from cost-per-impression or cost-per-click models, a CPE model means advertising impressions are free and advertisers pay only when a user engages with their specific ad unit. Engagement is defined as a user interacting with an ad in any number of ways. Integration with Overall advertising Campaign- Online advertising is a part of your overall advertising campaign it should align with offline marketing efforts of the company, market positioning, marketing mix, and product characteristics. In today's accountable marketing environment, sophisticated marketers must focus on applying IMC to move consumers from "awareness" to "action". Therefore, in order to optimize IMC performance the testing system utilized must be able to factor the abilities of multiple brand contact points to generate recall and to persuade. Advertising and marketing online and offline has at least one thing in common - you have to know your target audience. Market segmentation is very important because you don't want to loose your money sending your ads to someone who has no interest in it. Email advertising and online advertising in general is more effective because there are many state-ofthe-art techniques which enable that you track every advertising. In online advertising you can get information where your visitors are coming from, what do they read on your web site, how much is your email newsletter open-ratio, how much is click/thru ratio for every link in your newsletter, also you can get demographic reports about your visitors/subscribers and many other things. Because of that, in online presence you have great options for 1-1 marketing. You can adjust your web site design and content according to your visitor needs. Stopping Fraudulent Activities- If an online ad campaign drives 10,000 clicks to your site and only 50 sales, then either your website needs a lot of work, you are bidding on the wrong keywords, or there is some type of click fraud going on. Click fraud is a type of Internet

crime that occurs in pay per click online advertising when a person, automated script, or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad for the purpose of generating a charge per click without having actual interest in the target of the ad's link. Click fraud is the subject of some controversy and increasing litigation due to the advertising networks being a key beneficiary of the fraud. The main perpetrators appear to be competitors of advertisers and also scam sites set up for the sole purpose of hosting ad links provided by Google, through its AdSense unit, or Yahoo!, through its Overture service. Humans or specially designed software then click on those ad links in order to "steal" revenue from advertisers. Estimates of how prevalent click fraud has become since it appeared four years ago are all over the map. Jessie Stricchiola, the president of Alchemist Media, estimated that as much as 20 percent of all clicks on paid search ads are shams. When it comes to click fraud, it is the advertisers job to track and search for click fraud and presents it to the search engines. Again emails which contain virus are possible threat to it. Google is testing a new advertising model to deal with click fraud: cost-per-action ads. Advertisers don't pay unless the customer performs a certain action: buys a product, fills out a survey, whatever. It's a hard model to make work -- Google would become more of a partner in the final sale instead of an indifferent displayer of advertising -- but it's the right security response to click fraud: Change the rules of the game so that click fraud doesn't matter. Branding - In the US, according to a survey conducted by the Internet Advertising Bureau, even when consumers see an online banner about a product they want, most of them do not click and go for a purchase or enquiry. Why? Thats exactly what happens with your print press or TV advertising. Nobody rushes out and buys your product the moment they see the ad in the newspaper or TV serial. With online advertising too, most people remember or note down the name of the company or brand with the aim of finding out more about it later. Now internet marketing is more about branding than direct selling and lead generation. This report will cover this aspect of online advertising too. The internet is becoming the largest touch point for most consumers and they will judge your company often times by the branding experience they have online. Company A and Company B may both offer the same service, but if the online brand experience of company A is better, the consumer will often times tell their friends about their

experience and come back to the same company. A brand can be strengthened online through PPC campaigns, online press releases, link baiting and social networking campaigns, YouTube can be used to strengthen a brand, and other internet branding techniques can be utilized to achieve great exposure and a consistent branding experience. In the Internet space, branding means creating a great user experience. Internet branding moves beyond logo, tagline, key messages and graphic identity into the customer's real-time interaction with the brand, for the entirety of the online experience. Here the online gaming ads and video advertising plays a great role.

Differences from traditional marketing

One-to-one approach The targeted user is typically browsing the Internet alone, so the marketing messages can reach them personally. This approach is used in search marketing, where the advertisements are based on search engine keywords entered by the user. Appeal to specific interests Internet and geo marketing places specific emphasis upon marketing those appeals to a specific behavior or interest, rather than reaching out to a broadly-defined demographic. "On- and Offline" marketers typically segment their markets according to age group, gender, geography, and other general factors. Marketers have the luxury of targeting by activity and geo location. For example, a kayak company can post advertisements on kayaking and canoeing websites with the full knowledge that the audience has a related interest. Internet marketing differs from magazine advertisements, where the goal is to appeal to the projected demographic of the periodical. Because the advertiser has knowledge of the target audiencepeople who engage in certain activities (e.g., uploading pictures, contributing to blogs) the company does not rely on the expectation that a certain group of people will be interested in its new product or service

Example of users visiting websites with specific interests.

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Geo targeting

Geo targeting (in internet marketing) and geo marketing are the methods of determining the geo location (the physical location) of a website visitor with geo location software, and delivering different content to that visitor based on his or her location, such as country, region/state, city, metro code/zip code, organization, Internet Protocol (IP) address, ISP or other criteria.

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An Example of Geo Targeting (www.in.yahoo.com) Different content by choice A typical example for different content by choice in geo targeting is the FedEx website at FedEx.com where users have the choice to select their country location first and are then presented with different site or article content depending on their selection. Automated different content With automated different content in internet marketing and geomarketing the delivery of different content based on the geographical geolocation and other personal information is automated.

1.2 MethodologyA lot of research has already been done in the field of online advertising covering aspects like Return on investment, branding, rich media Ads, Online gaming Ads, Etc. so there a vast Secondary data and information is available. But this information scattered so I would integrate all this information to make a report which gives a proper solution to effectively manage and measure internet marketing.

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Benchmarking- Companies like Intel, Novell, IBM, has successfully implemented online advertising for their benefit. I would benchmark their online practices to come at a viable solution for all businesses. Research work- All over the world lot of researchers and professors have made valuable efforts to make the best use of online advertising. I would take inputs from their work and analyze properly. The main steps in the project would be as follows: Collection of secondary data and analysis it. Framing a questionnaire to find out the effectiveness of online marketing and advertisements for respondents and then getting it filled up. Analyzing the questionnaire.

1.3 LimitationsInformation Not contextual - This project has derived information from lot of research work and reports which have been done in developed countries. So as I am looking at it from Indian context where proper research has not been done in this field, thats why contextual data is not available. Limited Reach - Online advertising still understood to be at a novice stage particularly in India because of the popularity of medium television and lower penetration of computers in country compared to developed nations. From my projects point of view due to lower penetration it will be very hard to exactly relate that online advertising influence customers, help in branding and Increase sales. PC penetration in India trebles to 18 per 1,000 in 2005-06, according to data provided by the Manufacturers Association for Information Technology, Where in US it was 779.3 and Worldwide 139.1in the same year. Time factor: For such a challenging and exciting project the time duration is certainly too short. Non-willingness: Many people were not willing to answer the questionnaire due to paucity of time or for any other reasons. Sample for the survey:

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The sample size is also pretty small, which brings biasness in the result obtained.

2.1 Global ScenarioInternet advertising has emerged as a dominant medium of marketing and was the fastest growing advertising medium in 2007. There are many forms of Internet advertising, such as social network advertising, email-marketing, search engine pages, online classifieds advertising, etc., The obvious analysis is to look at online ad spending per internet user by country to see where marketers are spending their money to reach internet users. At $19.5bn, the US is four times bigger than the next biggest market, and bigger than all the other markets combined. Internet advertising, like all advertising, is bought on a country by country basis. There is more than enough opportunity to build a business here without worrying about the complexities of other geographies.

There is still plenty of potential for growth in internet ad spends. Internet penetration is peaking at about 70% in the most mature markets, but is only 17% worldwide. Even in the developed markets, the internet receives a much lower share of ad budgets than the amount of time consumers devote to it would suggest it warrants. In 2005 consumers in the USA, Japan and the UK (the top three ad markets) spent 21.9% of their media time using the internet, yet advertisers

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in these three markets spent only 6.8% of their budgets online a consumption-to-spending ratio of more than 3:1. A look at the Global ad spending per year and share of different mediums estimated by Zenithoptimedia explains that Internet as an advertising medium is growing at a rapid rate year by year.

The user base of internet is also increasing rapidly. In developed countries the user base has become saturated. But in developing countries like India and China the market for broadband internet is still largely untapped. Currently US have largest internet user base, even UK has very good number of internet users proportionate to its population.

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There are now over 2 billion global searches conducted daily on the internet, and the number is growing. The global internet is the fastest growing marketing channel online today, and that can translate into significant revenue opportunities for any business. It can serve as a single point of contact to find cost effective, highly qualified sales leads from around the world. The figures reinforce the interactive advertising industrys status as a mainstream medium for marketers and agencies. By any measure, the growth is spectacular and further evidences the

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shift to online search, display and classifieds by marketers in all industries as they look to reach and engage consumers where they are most influenced whilst researching their purchase decisions. As we enter uncertain and volatile economic times ahead, online advertising offers marketers and buyers increasing value and unparalleled accountability and measurability for their limited marketing investments. Online addresses their key challenges of customer acquisition, customer retention, brand awareness and intent to purchase

2.2 Indian Scenario

Internet usage in India has shown a healthy growth in last few years. More importantly, it is showing clear signs of evolving and becoming the 'dominant medium' of interacting with the world for a good proportion of the regular online Indians. It is increasingly becoming more and more relevant and meaningful in their 'personal' lives (and not just their work lives). However, online buying has not really picked as much yet, making net more of a 'window shop' rather than an 'online market' in any true sense of the word (except for the travel products maybe).The fact that the bulk of Indian consumer mass comes from the vernacular Indian world, the increasing usage of local language websites is one of the most important elements of internet usage to watch for in the future. According to research done by Juxtconsult the current situation of internet users in the country is given below Currently there are 49 million internet users at 40 million urban, 9 million rural 33% growth in all urban users over last year 35 million regular users 30 million urban, 5 million rural 19% growth in regular urban users over last year 25 million daily users Growth has been both in class and mass of online users in India. 77% of all online users belong to the 19 to 35 age group category, 70% of the total users belong to the SEC A, B and C towns,

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51% users are salaried employees, 63% users own an automobile and English is the most preferred language of reading for only 28% of Internet users (indicates the potential for vernacular language)

80% of all regular online Indians shop online. They either search or buy online. 92% of all online buyers (23% of internet users) have bought a travel product online, 51% have bought a non-travel product online 80% of travel product buyers have bought train tickets, 52% has bought air tickets in last six months Books, Clothes and CD/DVDs are the most bought non-travel products online (Mobiles and Computer Products most searched) 81% interact using the social media platforms (all social media platform put together chatting, social/professional networking, interact on communities, read/comment/write blogs etc.).

The Graph Below shows the Top 10 Online Activities of internet users in the country. Clearly the survey shows that emailing and job searches are more popular activities among Indian internet users.

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Research also showed the preferred websites of the Indian users for certain activities. Google and yahoo enjoy better top of the mind recall so their websites have good market credibility among advertisers.

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India is a growing economy and Internet is playing a major role in its growth. The growth of any economy depends upon its service sector, i.e., what services it can provide to its community. You can see that various services are available on the Internet. Most of the core sectors like railways, banks, insurance, hospitality etc. are providing services through the Internet. Online advertising is also gaining popularity with the growth of online services. With such increase in Internet users in the country, it has become essential for Indian businesses to go online, make themselves easily available and capitalize on the Internet advertising boom.

BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance), online industry and ITES (Information Technology Enabled Services) with 25 percent, 25 percent and 13 percent share were the leading advertisers in the online banner space during the 2007-08 financial year. The internet ad categories with highest degree of recall amongst users are loans by Bank and Financial institutions followed by jobsites. Online advertisements play an important role as awareness generators 41% of the Internet users have searched for additional information after seeing the ad for a job site. Conversions are highest for ads for Holidays and tours and bank loans along with laptops as shown in table above.

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IMRB has used its internet survey data to come out with an online banner advertising report and claim internet banner ad market will grow from Rupees 235 crore this year to 350 crore next year. Just for a comparison Rediff the largest Indian internet site in India posted a revenue of $23.3 million from India last year which is approximately equal to 90 crores and most of its revenue is from display ads that is why I think Online advertising has a bigger scale than reported or maybe it is concentrated in the hand of a few top players.

2.3 Internet Advertising Tools

Banner Ads
A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World Wide Web. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attracttraffic to a website by linking to the website of the advertiser. The advertisement is constructed from an image (GIF, JPEG, PNG), JavaScript program or multimedia object employing technologies such as Silverlight, Java, Shockwave or Flash, often employing animation, sound, or video to maximize presence. Images are usually in a high-aspect ratio shape (i.e. either wide and short, or tall and narrow) hence the reference to banners. These images are usually placed on web pages that have interesting content, such as a newspaper article or an opinion piece. The web banner is displayed when a web page that references the banner is loaded into a web browser. This event is known as an "impression". When the viewer clicks on the banner, the viewer is directed to the website advertised in the banner. This event is known as a "click through". In many cases, banners are delivered by a central ad server. Web banners function the same way as traditional advertisements are intended to function: notifying consumers of the product or service and presenting reasons why the consumer should choose the product in question, although web banners differ in that the results for advertisement campaigns may be monitored real-time and may be targeted to the viewer's interests.
Pop-up ads Pop-up ads or popups are a form of online advertising on the World Wide Web intended to attract web traffic or capture email addresses. It works when certain web sites open a new web browser window to

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display advertisements. The pop-up window containing an advertisement is usually generated by JavaScript, but can be generated by other means as well. A variation on the pop-up window is the pop-under advertisement, which opens a new browser window hidden under the active window. Pop-unders do not interrupt the user immediately and are not seen until the covering window is closed, making it more difficult to determine which web site opened them.

Adware Adware or advertising-supported software is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer after the software is installed on it or while the application is being used. Some types of adware are also spyware and can be classified as privacy-invasive software. Generically, adware (spelled all lower case) is any software application in which advertising banners are displayed while the program is running. The authors of these applications include additional code that delivers the ads, which can be viewed through pop-up windows or through a bar that appears on a computer screen. The justification for adware is that it helps recover programming development cost and helps to hold down the cost for the user. Adware has been criticized because it usually includes code that tracks a user's personal information and passes it on to third parties, without the user's authorization or knowledge. This practice has been dubbed spywareand has prompted an outcry from computer security and privacy advocates, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Web search engine A Web search engine is a tool designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. Information may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files. Some search engines also mine data available in newsbooks, databases, or open directories. Unlike Web directories, which are maintained by human editors, search engines operate algorithmically or are a mixture of algorithmic and human input. Search marketing is epitomized by the text ads that appear next to results from online searches; marketers buy the rights for their ads to appear on-screen when computer users type in key words. There is also search engine optimization, which tries to determine how to elevate a client's Web site in the listings when computer users look for a subject or topic. The largest SEM vendors are Google

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AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter.[1] As of 2006, SEM was growing much faster than traditional advertising and even other channels of online marketing.[2]
Advergaming Advergaming is the practice of using video games to advertise a product, organization or viewpoint. The term "advergames" was coined in January 2000 by Anthony Giallourakis, and later mentioned by Wired's "Jargon Watch" column in 2001. It has been applied to various free online games commissioned by major companies. With the growth of the internet, advergames have proliferated, often becoming the most visited aspect of brand websites and becoming an integrated part of brand media planning in an increasingly fractured media environment. Advergames theoretically promote repeated traffic to websites and reinforce brands. Users choosing to register to be eligible for prizes can help marketers collect customer data. Gamers may also invite their friends to participate, which could assist promotion by word of mouth, or "viral marketing".

According to the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the size of the online gaming market in India (as in January 2007) is Rs 21 crore, of which advertising advergames, in-game placements and display ads contribute 11 per cent, or Rs 2.3 crore. Of course, these figures are over a year old and industry professionals estimate the industry to be valued much higher. Online video advertising Online video advertising is slowly eating into the television marketing budget as generic and TV content goes online andnew medium benefits from its inherent advantages of RoI measurability, customisation and interactivity. Experts are of the view that with about 15million broadband users, timespends are substantially moving in favour of the internet. A 15-second online video advertisement can be placed either before the content after it or by overlaying it along with the content. Similar to the television model, advertisements can also be embedded in the content by which the news clip or movie stream is paused for the advertisement to play. As proof that the Internet video revolution is truly underway, Google paid $1.65 billion for YouTube, a company not 20 months old. The aftershock of that mash-up will, all by itself, contribute to Internet video's growth. E-mail Marketing E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or advertising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every 22

e-mail sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing. However, the term is usually used to refer to: sending e-mails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or previous customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business, sending e-mails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately, adding advertisements to e-mails sent by other companies to their customers.

Social Network Marketing Online social networking has become a cultural phenomenon over the past year, sparking thousands of media stories, blog postings and television exposes. The basic concept is simple enough: Online social networks enable people to create profiles, describe their interests, share their thoughts in blogs or postings, and connect with other people. But the variations on the theme are endless. The good news is that social networking is an area where many marketers see great potential and are eager to test the waters. social networks make viral marketing and word-of-mouth marketing much easier than before. The best use out of social networks is not to make money directly off them, but to harness their marketing potential and to use them to market your own business. he success of social networks marks a dynamic shift in how people are using the Internet. Weve evolved from just searching for information to creating and participating in social spaces with other individuals through the Internet. This model is based upon the hive mentality where people identify themselves as part of a group with similar likes and interests that draw them together. This is easy to do online because the traditional communication barriers of physical locations no longer exist. Myspace, facebook and orkut are major players for this kind of marketing activities. Players In the Industry The major players in online advertising industry are Google, Yahoo, DoubleClick, MSN,AOL,.

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These companies helps ad buyers advertisers and ad agencies manage and measure the effectiveness of their rich media, search and other online ads. They provide display ads and ad space on different portals across internet. In 2007 Google acquired DoubleClick, the online advertising company, from two private equity firms for $3.1 billion in cash, therefore Google became a market leader in this industry. It has two products major products Google Adwords and Adsense in its portfolio. DoubleClick and Google dominate overall market share capturing 35% and 34% of unique users, respectively. DoubleClick owns the head and Google owns the tail. For sites with over 1MM monthly unique users, Doubleclick has a 48% share, a 3x advantage over 2nd place Yahoo. For sites with less than 100k monthly unique users, Google has an 8x share advantage over 2nd place MSN.

2.4 Observation Can Pay High Dividends

Observing peoples behaviour on the internet and in particular, on collaborative platforms like blogs, forums and social networking sites can help marketers target their internet strategies better.

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MINI USA, the American branch of BMWs Mini Cooper line, tracks everything being said about its brand everywhere online in blogs, discussion groups, forums, MySpace pages and much more then uses what it learns to guide advertising campaigns. At Hewlett-Packard, 50 executives log into their individual blogs each morning to join the ongoing online conversation about each of their product lines, immediately responding to customer problems and concerns. Ernst & Young recruits many of the 3,500 college graduates it hires every year using a career group on Facebook, where it not only posts job information but also answers individual questions from prospective employees. And Del Monte Pet Foods uses a private online community to regularly chat with 400 pet lovers whose opinions help shape new products. These are all examples of companies savvy enough to participate in the groundswell, according to Charlene Li, vice-president & principal analyst at Forrester Research: The groundswell is a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations. Li was a speaker at the recent Supernova conference, an annual technology event in San Francisco organised by Wharton legal studies and business ethics professor Kevin Werbach in collaboration with Wharton. Li and Forrester colleague Josh Bernoff have co-authored a book on the subject, Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. The more you know and understand the individuals who make up the groundswell around your brand and your company, the more you can use the new social networking phenomenon to your advantage, Li said. Such understanding comes from going well beyond traditional user surveys, however. According to Li and other speakers at the conference, too few companies study how people actually interact with the web and utilise online collaborative tools, yet much of todays internet revolves around individual users, the content they create, the communities they form and the transactions they choose. Peoples lives are rich and complex, so you need to get data both in the large and in the small, said Elizabeth Churchill, principal research scientist at Yahoo! Research, whose work focuses on user internet experiences. That means quantitative data from

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large groups to answer the who, what, where and how questions, and qualitative data to answer the why questions. For example, we know from research done by photo sharing website Flickr that while Americans are big sharers of photos, Scandinavians are not. Why? What is the cultural impact on photo sharing? FAILED SEARCHES & ALPHA MOMS Looking more carefully at peoples behavior on the internet can uncover surprises, sometimes calling into question basic assumptions for instance, that most young people are adept at using the internet. Conference presenter Eszter Hargittai, Northwestern University professor of sociology and communication studies, studied a diverse group of students attending the University of Illinois at Chicago, and found that 43% failed on a search task, based largely on their misunderstanding of internet terminology and on their inability to navigate links. Social Studies Hargittai reviewed research showing that people differ significantly in their understanding of various internet-related terms and activities. For example, when asked to assess their own internet know-how, women, African Americans, Hispanics and those with poorly educated parents report lower levels of knowledge than men or Asian Americans. Since such skills are not randomly distributed among the population, certain content providers and content users stand a better chance of benefiting from the medium than others, said Hargittai. Li agreed, citing Forrester research on the range of behavior on the web, which is sometimes based on skill and demographics, while at other times linked more to a users stage of life. So-called Alpha Moms are comfortable with technology, interested in parenting, and have above-average incomes, said Li, but they have no time. So if youre trying to reach them, you dont give them blogs. You give them communities of their peers with opportunities for feedback. To help companies target their internet strategies, Li and Bernoff have organised Forrester research into a social technology ladder, which classifies consumers based on their participation in various types of social networking. At the lowest rung of the ladder are the inactives, some 44% of all US American adults who were online in 2007. Higher up are the joiners, the 25% who visit social networking sites like MySpace; collectors, an elite 15%

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who collect and aggregate information; and critics, those who post ratings and reviews as well as contribute to blogs and forums. Only 18% of all online Americans actually create content, publishing an article or a blog at least once a month, maintaining a web page or uploading content to sites like YouTube. The power of such a classification lies in giving organisations a clear understanding of how consumers are behaving online, said Li. Any successful strategy to tap into the groundswell has to begin with assessing customers social activities. Then you can decide what you want to accomplish, plan for how your relationship with your customers will change, and finally decide what social technology to use. Li is currently investigating why people move up and down this ladder of social technologies, and what are the levers companies can use to encourage consumers to act. It is critical for organisations to hone their understanding of groundswell activities, said Li, because in five to 10 years, social networks will be everywhere. THE NEW BLACK Speaking at the Supernova conference, the director of product management for the search giant acknowledged that social networking is the latest fashion the new black, as he called it. But people have been endlessly fascinated by one another for a very long time. Social networking is not new; we just have new ways to do it. That is not to diminish the power of social computing. In fact, Kraus already sees it as the force behind three major trends in the way people use the internet. First, the process of information discovery is changing from a solitary activity to a communal activity, said Kraus, citing as an example his own recent behavior in choosing an anniversary gift for his wife. He searched and found that candy is traditional for a sixth anniversary, then set up a message on his G-mail account, saying he needed ideas for a candy-based gift. A friend emailed to tell him of an extraordinary baker who constructs specialty cakes and, thanks to her suggestion, his sixth anniversary gift became an elaborate cake in the shape of a colorful purse. So, said Kraus, he

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went from solitary information discovery to social information discovery and a much better result than he could have achieved on his own. Second, he said, how we exchange information is changing, from sharing information actively (emailing photos to friends) to sharing it passively (uploading those photos to Facebook and emailing notification to friends). Whats happening is that were separating access from notification, said Kraus. This leads to more sharing because people dont worry as much about interrupting others with emails, calling attention to themselves and appearing too self-important. Third, and most important, Kraus sees the web eventually becoming entirely social. Today, social computing is something you do at a specific site, said Kraus. But were realising that being social is not a site. Its a concept. We wont get to that entirely social web, he added, until we find ways to allow users to do three things: establish a single identity to log on to many sites; share private resources such as photos or contact lists without handing out private credentials (such as an email account password); and distribute information across multiple social applications. Google Friend Connect, a service that enables websites to easily provide social features for its visitors, incorporates three standards that respectively address each of those problems Open ID, OAuth and OpenSocial, says Kraus. A preview version of the service was released in May. He sees Google Friend Connect as a path to the open web he predicts will arrive sooner than we imagine. Already you can browse a site like the New York Times or Amazon, then write comments and reviews. Why shouldnt I be able to go to the Ticketmaster site and see where my friend is sitting at a concert I want to attend, providing he wants to expose the information? What all organizations need to prepare for, said Kraus, is a completely social web, where your users will simply expect to be part of the conversation.

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Primary Data Collection And Analysis

In primary data collection, you collect the data is collected using methods such as interviews and questionnaires. The key point here is that the data you collect is unique to you and your research and, until you publish, no one else has access to it. There are many methods of collecting primary data and the main methods include:

questionnaires interviews focus group interviews observation

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case-studies diaries critical incidents portfolios.

The primary data, which is generated by the above methods, may be qualitative in nature (usually in the form of words) or quantitative (usually in the form of numbers or where you can make counts of words used). We briefly outline these methods but you should also read around the various methods. A list of suggested research methodology texts is given in your Module Study Guide but many texts on social or educational research may also be useful and you can find them in your library. The primary data collection in this project has been done by the means of questionnaires. A brief description of questionnaires is as follows:

2.6.2 Questionnaires
Questionnaires are a popular means of collecting data, but are difficult to design and often require many rewrites before an acceptable questionnaire is produced. Advantages:

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Can be used as a method in its own right or as a basis for interviewing or a telephone survey.

Can be posted, e-mailed or faxed. Can cover a large number of people or organisations. Wide geographic coverage. Relatively cheap. No prior arrangements are needed. Avoids embarrassment on the part of the respondent. Respondent can consider responses. Possible anonymity of respondent. No interviewer bias.

Disadvantages:

Design problems.

Questions have to be relatively simple. Historically low response rate (although inducements may help). Time delay whilst waiting for responses to be returned. Require a return deadline. Several reminders may be required. 31

Assumes no literacy problems. No control over who completes it. Not possible to give assistance if required. Problems with incomplete questionnaires. Replies not spontaneous and independent of each other. Respondent can read all questions beforehand and then decide whether to complete or not. For example, perhaps because it is too long, too complex, uninteresting, or too personal.

Design of questionnaires
Theme and covering letter The general theme of the questionnaire should be made explicit in a covering letter. You should state who you are; why the data is required; give, if necessary, an assurance of confidentiality and/or anonymity; and contact number and address or telephone number. This ensures that the respondents know what they are committing themselves to, and also that they understand the context of their replies. If possible, you should offer an estimate of the completion time. Instructions for return should be included with the return date made obvious. For example: It would be appreciated if you could return the completed questionnaire by... if at all possible.

Instructions for completion You need to provide clear and unambiguous instructions for completion. Within most questionnaires these are general instructions and specific instructions for particular question

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structures. It is usually best to separate these, supplying the general instructions as a preamble to the questionnaire, but leaving the specific instructions until the questions to which they apply. The response method should be indicated (circle, tick, cross, etc.). Wherever possible, and certainly if a slightly unfamiliar response system is employed, you should give an example. Appearance Appearance is usually the first feature of the questionnaire to which the recipient reacts. A neat and professional look will encourage further consideration of your request, increasing your response rate. In addition, careful thought to layout should help your analysis. There are a number of simple rules to help improve questionnaire appearance:

Liberal spacing makes the reading easier. Photo-reduction can produce more space without reducing content. Consistent positioning of response boxes, usually to the right, speeds up completion and also avoids inadvertent omission of responses.

Choose the font style to maximise legibility. Differentiate between instructions and questions. Either lower case and capitals can be used, or responses can be boxed.

Length There may be a strong temptation to include any vaguely interesting questions, but you should resist this at all costs. Excessive size can only reduce response rates. If a long questionnaire is necessary, then you must give even more thought to appearance. It is best to leave pages unnumbered; for respondents to flick to the end and see page 27 can be very disconcerting!

Order

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Probably the most crucial stage in questionnaire response is the beginning. Once the respondents have started to complete the questions they will normally finish the task, unless it is very long or difficult. Consequently, you need to select the opening questions with care. Usually the best approach is to ask for biographical details first, as the respondents should know all the answers without much thought. Another benefit is that an easy start provides practice in answering questions. Once the introduction has been achieved the subsequent order will depend on many considerations. You should be aware of the varying importance of different questions. Essential information should appear early, just in case the questionnaire is not completed. For the same reasons, relatively unimportant questions can be placed towards the end. If questions are likely to provoke the respondent and remain unanswered, these too are best left until the end, in the hope of obtaining answers to everything else. Coding If analysis of the results is to be carried out using a statistical package or spreadsheet it is advisable to code non-numerical responses when designing the questionnaire, rather than trying to code the responses when they are returned. An example of coding is: Male [ ] 1 Female [ ] 2

The coded responses (1 or 2) are then used for the analysis. Thank you Respondents to questionnaires rarely benefit personally from their efforts and the least the researcher can do is to thank them. Even though the covering letter will express appreciation for the help given, it is also a nice gesture to finish the questionnaire with a further thank you. Questions

Keep the questions short, simple and to the point; avoid all unnecessary words.

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Use words and phrases that are unambiguous and familiar to the respondent. For example, dinner has a number of different interpretations; use an alternative expression such as evening meal.

Only ask questions that the respondent can answer. Hypothetical questions should be avoided. Avoid calculations and questions that require a lot of memory work, for example, How many people stayed in your hotel last year?

Avoid loaded or leading questions that imply a certain answer. For example, by mentioning one particular item in the question, Do you agree that Colgate toothpaste is the best toothpaste?

Vacuous words or phrases should be avoided. Generally, usually, or normally are imprecise terms with various meanings. They should be replaced with quantitative statements, for example, at least once a week.

Questions should only address a single issue. For example, questions like: Do you take annual holidays to Spain? should be broken down into two discreet stages, firstly find out if the respondent takes an annual holiday, and then secondly find out if they go to Spain.

Do not ask two questions in one by using and. For example, Did you watch television last night and read a newspaper?

Avoid double negatives. For example, Is it not true that you did not read a newspaper yesterday? Respondents may tackle a double negative by switching both negatives and then assuming that the same answer applies. This is not necessarily valid.

State units required but do not aim for too high a degree of accuracy. For instance, use an interval rather than an exact figure:

How much did you earn last year? Less than 10,000 [ ] 10,000 but less than 20,000 [ ]

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Avoid emotive or embarrassing words usually connected with race, religion, politics, sex, money. Types of questions Closed questions A question is asked and then a number of possible answers are provided for the respondent. The respondent selects the answer which is appropriate. Closed questions are particularly useful in obtaining factual information: Sex: Male [ ] Female [ ] Did you watch television last night? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Some Yes/No questions have a third category Do not know. Experience shows that as long as this alternative is not mentioned people will make a choice. Also the phrase Do not know is ambiguous: Do you agree with the introduction of the EMU? Yes [ ] No [ ] Do not know [ ] What was your main way of travelling to the hotel? Tick one box only. Car [ ] Coach [ ] Motor bike Train [ ] Other means, please specify [ ]

With such lists you should always include an other category, because not all possible responses might have been included in the list of answers.

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Sometimes the respondent can select more than one from the list. However, this makes analysis difficult: Why have you visited the historic house? Tick the relevant answer(s). You may tick as many as you like. I enjoy visiting historic houses [ ] [ ] The weather was bad and I could not enjoy outdoor activities I have visited the house before and wished to return [ ] Other reason, please specify

Attitude questions Frequently questions are asked to find out the respondents opinions or attitudes to a given situation. A Likert scale provides a battery of attitude statements. The respondent then says how much they agree or disagree with each one:

Read the following statements and then indicate by a tick whether you strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly disagree with the statement. Strongly agree My visit has been value money There are many variations on this type of question. One variation is to have a middle statement, for example, Neither agree nor disagree. However, many respondents take this as the easy option. Only having four statements, as above, forces the respondent into making a positive or negative choice. Another variation is to rank the various attitude statements, however, this can cause analysis problems: good for Agree Disagree Strongly disagree

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Which of these characteristics do you like about your job? Indicate the best three in order, with the best being number 1. Varied work Good salary Opportunities for promotion Good working conditions High amount of responsibility Friendly colleagues [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]

A semantic differential scale attempts to see how strongly an attitude is held by the respondent. With these scales double-ended terms are given to the respondents who are asked to indicate where their attitude lies on the scale between the terms. The response can be indicated by putting a cross in a particular position or circling a number: Work is: (circle the appropriate number) Difficult Useless Interesting 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Easy Useful Boring

For summary and analysis purposes, a score of 1 to 7 may be allocated to the seven points of the scale, thus quantifying the various degrees of opinion expressed. This procedure has some disadvantages. It is implicitly assumed that two people with the same strength of feeling will mark the same point on the scale. This almost certainly will not be the case. When faced with a semantic differential scale, some people will never, as a matter of principle, use the two end indicators of 1 and 7. Effectively, therefore, they are using a five-point scale. Also scoring the scale 1 to 7 assumes that they represent equidistant points on the continuous spectrum of opinion. This again is probably not true. Nevertheless, within its limitations, the semantic differential can provide a useful way of measuring and summarising subjective opinions. Other types of questions to determine peoples opinions or attitudes are: Which one/two words best describes...? Which of the following statements best describes...? 38

How much do you agree with the following statement...? Open questions An open question such as What are the essential skills a manager should possess? should be used as an adjunct to the main theme of the questionnaire and could allow the respondent to elaborate upon an earlier more specific question. Open questions inserted at the end of major sections, or at the end of the questionnaire, can act as safety valves, and possibly offer additional information. However, they should not be used to introduce a section since there is a high risk of influencing later responses. The main problem of open questions is that many different answers have to be summarised and possibly coded.

Testing pilot survey Questionnaire design is fraught with difficulties and problems. A number of rewrites will be necessary, together with refinement and rethinks on a regular basis. Do not assume that you will write the questionnaire accurately and perfectly at the first attempt. If poorly designed, you will collect inappropriate or inaccurate data and good analysis cannot then rectify the situation. To refine the questionnaire, you need to conduct a pilot survey. This is a small-scale trial prior to the main survey that tests all your question planning. Amendments to questions can be made. After making some amendments, the new version would be re-tested. If this re-test produces more changes, another pilot would be undertaken and so on. For example, perhaps responses to open-ended questions become closed; questions which are all answered the same way can be omitted; difficult words replaced, etc. It is usual to pilot the questionnaires personally so that the respondent can be observed and questioned if necessary. By timing each question, you can identify any questions that appear too difficult, and you can also obtain a reliable estimate of the anticipated completion time for inclusion in the covering letter. The result can also be use to test the coding and analytical procedures to be performed later. Distribution and return 39

The questionnaire should be checked for completeness to ensure that all pages are present and that none is blank or illegible. It is usual to supply a prepaid addressed envelope for the return of the questionnaire. You need to explain this in the covering letter and reinforce it at the end of the questionnaire, after the Thank you. Finally, many organisations are approached continually for information. Many, as a matter of course, will not respond in a positive way

Analysis Of The Questionnaire

The questionnaire framed for the survey is there in the annexure. The analysis of the questionnaire has been divided into five parts to derive important information from the survey. The Analysis consists of the following five parts: 1. Effectiveness of online advertising as perceived by the respondents based on the Lavidge And Steiner Model for effectiveness of marketing communications and the responses in the questionnaire. 2. Analysis of the best medium for communication based on the responses in the questionnaire. 3. Analysis of the products bought after seeing the online advertisement based on the the responses in the questionnaire. 4. The most popular online activity among Indians based on the responses in the questionnaire. 5. Most preferred website for various categories the responses in the questionnaire.

The analysis of these questions is as follows in detail.

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Effectiveness Of Online Advertising As Perceived By The Respondents Based On The Lavidge And Steiner Model

PURCHASE
CONATIVE

CONVICTION

PREFERENCE
AFFECTIVE

LIKING
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AWARENESS KNOWLEDGE
COGNITIVE

The Lavidge And Steiner Model

In 1961, Robert J. Lavidge and Gary A. Steiner proposed a new model for marketing communications, which used hierarchy of effects but used persuasion as an important factor in the model. This model consideredthe long term effects of advertising too. According to Lavidge and Steiner Model, a customer who is totally unware of a product goes through the following six steps before making a purchase: Awareness: In this step the customer becomes aware of the product. Knowledge: The customer comes to know about the features and uses of the product. Liking: The customer develops a favourable attitude towards the product. Preference: The customer develops preference for a said brand over other competitive products and substitutes. Conviction: This step involves the desire to buy the product. The customer is convinced to purchase a good. Purchase: The customer makes the actual purchase. The diagrammatic representation is shown in the figure. These six steps can also be mapped onto the classic psychological behavioural model, which consists of three components, viz. cognitive, affective, conative.

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Cognitive: This component refers to various learning effects like attention, awareness, knowledge, perception and comprehension. As the objective of the first two steps is to disseminate information or ideas, they are classified as affective. Affective: The affective component refers to the emotional state of a person like interest, attitude, conviction, desire and evaluation. These refer to developing an attitude or feelings towards the product, and so are classified as affective. Conative: The conative component refers to the motivation or action stageof a person like action, sale, intention, behavior and purchase. As the last two steps I the model require some action from the customer, they are classified as conative. Various questions from the questionnaire have been used for measuring the effectiveness in terms of the three paremeters: Cognitive, Affective and Conative, for online advertising. The questions used for respective parameters are as follows:

Cognitive Q.6 I do notice online advertisements on this site? Affective Q.3 Transactions carried out online are safe Q.7 I consider buying products/services through the internet? Q.9 It is important for a brand to have an online presence Q.10 Internet advertising and online shopping provide convenience of time and place Q.11 Internet advertising is an effective medium for the service sector(airlines, banks, etc) Conative Q.8 I buy products online Q.12 I book railway tickets online Q.13 I buy airline tickets online Q.14 I use online banking services

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Results:
I have used the 5 - Point Likert Scale for analysis. A brief introduction to the Likert Scale for analysis is as follows: Likert scale is a psychometric scale commonly used in questionnaires, and is the most widely used scale in survey research. When responding to a Likert questionnaire item, respondents specify their level of agreement to a statement. The scale is named after Rensis Likert, who published a report describing its use. Sample question presented using a five-point Likert item An important distinction must be made between a Likert Scale and a Likert item. The Likert Scale is the sum of responses on several Likert items. Because Likert items are often accompanied by a visual analog scale (e.g., a horizontal line, on which a subject indicates his or her response by circling or checking tick-marks), the items are sometimes called scales themselves. This is the source of much confusion; it is better, therefore, to reserve the word 'Likert scale' to apply to the summated scale, and 'Likert item' to refer to an individual item. A Likert item is simply a statement which the respondent is asked to evaluate according to any kind of subjective or objective criteria; generally the level of agreement or disagreement is measured. Often five ordered response levels are used, although many psychometricians advocate using seven or nine levels; a recent empirical study found that data from 5-level, 7level and 10-level items showed very similar characteristics in terms of mean, variance, skewness and kurtosis after a simple transformation was applied. The format of a typical five-level Likert item is:: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Strongly disagree Disagree Neither agree or disagree Agree Strongly Agree

Likert scaling is a bipolar scaling method, measuring either positive or negative response to a statement. Sometimes a four-point scale is used; this is a forced choice method since the middle option of "Neither agree nor disagree" is not available.

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Likert scales may be subject to distortion from several causes. Respondents may avoid using extreme response categories (central tendency bias); agree with statements as presented (acquiescence bias); or try to portray themselves or their organization in a more favorable light (social desirability bias). Designing a scale with balanced keying (an equal number of positive and negative statements) can obviate the problem of acquiescence bias, since acquiescence on positively keyed items will balance acquiescence on negatively keyed items, but central tendency and social desirability are somewhat more problematic. Scoring and analysis After the questionnaire is completed, each item may be analyzed separately or in some cases item responses may be summed to create a score for a group of items. Hence, Likert scales are often called summative scales. Whether individual Likert items can be considered as interval-level data, or whether they should be considered merely ordered-categorical data is the subject of disagreement. Many regard such items only as ordinal data, because, especially when using only five levels, one cannot assume that respondents perceive all pairs of adjacent levels as equidistant. On the other hand, often (as in the example above) the wording of response levels clearly implies a symmetry of response levels about a middle category; at the very least, such an item would fall between ordinal- and interval-level measurement; to treat it as merely ordinal would lose information. Further, if the item is accompanied by a visual analog scale, where equal spacing of response levels is clearly indicated, the argument for treating it as interval-level data is even stronger. When treated as ordinal data, Likert responses can be collated into bar charts, central tendency summarised by the median or the mode (but not the mean), dispersion summarised by the range across quartiles (but not the standard deviation), or analyzed using non-parametric tests, e.g. Chi-square test, Mann-Whitney test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, or Kruskal-Wallis test. Responses to several Likert questions may be summed, providing that all questions use the same Likert scale and that the scale is a defendable approximation to an interval scale, in which case they may be treated as interval data measuring a latent variable. If the summed responses fulfils these assumptions, parametric statistical tests such as the analysis of variance can be applied. These can be applied only when the components are more than 5.[Clarify: More than 5 Likert questions or Likert questions of more than 5 levels]

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Data from Likert scales are sometimes reduced to the nominal level by combining all agree and disagree responses into two categories of "accept" and "reject". The Chi-Square, Cochran Q, or McNemar-Test are common statistical procedures used after this transformation. Consensus based assessment (CBA) can be used to create an objective standard for Likert scales in domains where no generally accepted standard or objective standard exists. Consensus based assessment (CBA) can be used to refine or even validate generally accepted standards. Level of measurement The five response categories are often believed to represent an Interval level of measurement. But this can only be the case if the intervals between the scale points correspond to empirical observations in a metric sense. In fact, there may also appear phenomena which even question the ordinal scale level. For example, in a set of items A,B,C rated with a Likert scale circular relations like A>B, B>C and C>A can appear. This violates the axiom of transitivity for the ordinal scale. The 5 Point Likert Scale Analysis of the chosen questions gave the following results: Factor influenced advertising Conative Affective Cognitive by online Result on 5 point Likert Percentage Scale Effectiveness 3.724 74.48 3.78 75.6 3.675 73.5

Conclusion
The study thus shows that online advertising has a considerably high amount of influence on the consumer buying behavior whether it be the cognitive, affective or conative behavior. Effectiveness on the cognitive parameter is 73.5%. This shows online advertising is a highly

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effective medium for spreading awareness and also to spread the knowledge about the features, specifications, offers and other communications . The degree of affectiveness is as high as 75.6% which shows that online advertising is tremendously successful in influencing the consumers liking, preferences, attitudes, etc towards the advertised products and is thus able to help the marketer move the consumer from the awareness and knowledge stage to the liking and preference stage and finally towards a strong conviction, a strong inclination and preference towards a particular brand as compared to the competitors. Also, the influence of online advertising on the conative behavior, i.e. the building of a strong conviction and the final purchase of the product is pretty high at 74.48%. This shows online advertising is effective enough to influence purchases from the prospect customers.

Analysis For The Medium For Communication

The question in the questionnaire for this analysis is:

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1. Most effective medium for communication? a. TV/Cinema b. Radio c. Magazines/Newspapers d. Internet e. Billboards

Results:
The response analysed from the questionnaires is as follows: Medium for communication TV/Cinema Radio Magazines/Newspapers Internet Billboards No. of responses 19 1 8 11 1

The results have been framed in the form of a pie- chart showing the percentage respondents voting for the different communication media

Conclusion:
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TV is undoubtedly the undisputed favourite medium for communication as we can infer from the survey results. But internet is clearly seen as emerging at the second spot. The popularity of internet has been increasing rapidly the the recent few years. There are now over 2 billion global searches conducted daily on the internet, and the number is growing. The global internet is the fastest growing marketing channel online today, and that can translate into significant revenue opportunities for any business. It can serve as a single point of contact to find cost effective, highly qualified sales leads from around the world. The figures reinforce the interactive advertising industrys status as a mainstream medium for marketers and agencies. By any measure, the growth is spectacular and further evidences the shift to online search, display and classifieds by marketers in all industries as they look to reach and engage consumers where they are most influenced whilst researching their purchase decisions.

Analysis Of The Products Respondents Bought After Seeing Internet Ads

The Question asked to the respondents in the questionnaire in this respect is : Q.2 Which of the following products have you bought after looking at an internet ad a. Hotels And Holiday Tours/Packages b. Loans By Banks/ Financial Instruments c. Computer/ Laptop/ Printer/ Scanner d. Mobile Phone/ Instruments e. Entertainment Sites f. Matrimonial Advertisements g. Air Ticket Ads h. Ads For Job Sites i. Automobile Ads j. Personal Products 49

Result
The analysis of the responses from the respondents is the following results: Product Percentage Buyers Holiday Tours And Packages 20 Loans By Banks/Financial Instruments 27.5 Computer/Laptop/Printer/Scanner 12.5 Mobile Phone/Instruments 15 Entertainment Sites 12.5 Matrimonial Advertisements 15 Air Ticket Ads 52.5 Ads for job sites 25 Automobile Ads 5 Personal Products 30

These results can be represented in a bar graph as follows :

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Conclusion:
India is a growing economy and Internet is playing a major role in its growth. The growth of any economy depends upon its service sector, i.e., what services it can provide to its community. Some of the various services available on the internet are listed in the table above. Most of the core sectors like railways, banks, insurance, hospitality etc. are providing services through the Internet. Online advertising is also gaining popularity with the growth of online services. With such increase in Internet users in the country, it has become essential for Indian businesses to go online, make themselves easily available and capitalize on the Internet advertising boom. BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance), online industry and ITES (Information Technology Enabled Services) with 25 percent, 25 percent and 13 percent share were the leading advertisers in the online banner space during the 2007-08 financial year. The internet ad categories with highest degree of recall amongst users are Air ticket Ads, loans by Bank and Financial institutions followed by jobsites and personal products as well. Online advertisements play an important role as awareness generators as a considerable number of the Internet users have searched for additional information after seeing the ad for a job site. Conversions are highest for ads for Air Travel and Bank loans and Holidays and tours along with personal products as shown in table above.

2.6.3.4 Most Popular Internet Activity:

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The question asked to the respondents to find out the most popular internet activity among them were Q.15 Which is the internet activity that you carry out most frequently? a. E mailing b. Job Search c. Instant Messaging d. Check News e. Check Sports The respondents had to mark one particular activity that they carried out the most. g. Dating/Friendship h. Matrimonial Search i. Search Engines j. Download multimedia

Results
Internet Activity E- mailing Job Search Instant Messaging Check News Check Sports Dating/Friendship Matrimonial Search Search Engines Download Multimedia Respondents(%) 30.00 20.00 10.00 10.00 5.00 2.50 2.50 15.00 5.00

These results can be represented in the form of a pie chart as follows: 52

Conclusion:
Clearly the survey shows that emailing and job searches are more popular activities among Indian internet users. Sending emails is the most popular activity with a user base of close to 24 million, or 95 per cent of the total active Internet users. Considering that email is now easily available on most connected devices like Mobile Phones and Televisions, the addressability and accessibility of users has multiplied. Therefore, Email remains an extremely attractive channel for online marketing. The main reason for this is one of Email Marketings main advantages it is cheap. Results obtained from the survey coincide with the results obtained from a survey by JuxtConsult India which shows three out of four urban Indians (73 per cent) are logging on to the Internet in search of a job, making it the second most popular online activity after emails. With over 80 million white collar employees and prospective students being active in the job market, nearly one in four white-collar job searchers is currently using a job portal in conjunction with other models to find a suitable job, Besides, searching jobs online is no more limited to big cities and only four out of 10 online job seekers in urban India come from the top 10 metro cities, according to a survey by online research consultancy firm JuxtConsult India.

2.6.3.5 Preferred Websites Of The Indian Users For Certain Activities

1. To find out the preferred websites of the Indian users for certain activities the following question had been asked. Q.4 Which is the best website according to you for the following activities
Activity Website 1 Website 2 Any Other(Please

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Specify) E mailing Instant messaging Job Search Online News Info Search Online Travel Games Online Shopping Real Estate Financial News/Info Online Share Trading Net Telephony Matrimony Share Pictures Social Networking Sports Astrology Cinema Music Yahoo Yahoo Naukri Yahoo Google Yatra Zapak E Bay Makan.com Moneycontrol ICICI Direct Yahoo Bharat Matrimony Orkut Orkut Cricinfo Yahoo Yahoo Raga Gmail Gtalk Monster Times Of India Yahoo MakeMyTrip Miniclip Amazon 99acres.com Livemint.com Indiabulls Skype Shaadi Yahoo Facebook Yahoo Sports Indiatimes Indiaglitz Musicworldindia

Results:
Activity Websites Percentage(%)of Respondents Voting it as the best Site in the category

Email

Gmail Yahoo Others Yahoo Gtalk Others Naukri Monster Others

50 42.5 7.5 22.5 77.5 0 72.5 22.5 5

Instant Messaging

Job Search

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Online News

Yahoo Times Of India Others Google Yahoo Others Yatra MakeMyTrip Others Zapak Miniclip Others E - Bay Amazon Others Makan.com 99acres.com others Moneycontrol Livemint.com Others ICICI Direct Indiabulls Others Yahoo Skype Others Bharat Matrimony Shaadi Others

25 70 5 67.5 32.5 0 62.5 25 12.5 72.5 27.5 0 77.5 22.5 0 50 45 5 67.5 17.5 15 65 15 20 45 55 0 50 35 15

Information search

Online Travel

Games

Online Shopping

Real Estate

Financial News/Info

Online Share Trading

Net Telephony

Matrimony

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Share Pictures

Orkut Yahoo Others Orkut Facebook Others Cricinfo Yahoo Sports Others Yahoo Indiatimes Others Yahoo Indiaglitz Others Raga Musicworldindia

30 67.5 2.5 70 27.5 2.5 50 42.5 7.5 52.5 47.5 0 65 27.5 7.5 65 35

Social Networking

Sports

Astrology

Cinema

Music

Activity Email Instant Messaging Job Search Online News Information search Online Travel Games Online Shopping Real Estate Financial News/Info

Most Preferred Website Gmail Gtalk Naukri Times Of India Google Yatra Zapak E Bay Makan.com Moneycontrol 56

Online Share Trading Net Telephony Matrimony Share Pictures Social Networking Sports Astrology Cinema Music

ICICI Direct Skype Bharat Matrimony Yahoo Orkut Cricinfo Yahoo Yahoo Raga

Conclusion:
Research showed the preferred websites of the Indian users for certain activities. Google and yahoo enjoy better top of the mind recall so their websites have good market credibility among advertisers.

3. Conclusion
I have observed from the survey done as a part of the project that the potential of online advertising to help achieve the marketing objectives is huge. The survey strengthened the following statements: 1. The consumers find online advertising as an effective medium for communication 2. They consider transactions carried out online safe.

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3. They consider it important for a brand to have online presence. 4. Advertisements online are able to stimulate purchase in various product and service categories. 5. Consumers believe online advertisements and online shopping provide convenience of place and time. Life is going to be quite difficult for traditional media as the temptation in downturns is to cut marketing budgets. The media budget slashing is expected to fall heavily on traditional media such as newspapers, radio, broadcast televisionand even consumer magazines. Theres a focus on efficiency during these leaner times. Advertisers are putting more concentration on maximizing direct response. The Internet is the most efficient direct response machine ever invented. The most important attribute of online advertising is cost effectiveness and global reach which are the most desirable qualities intended in any communication media in such times. Also, Internet advertising is "measurable" and, so, advertisers are "much more amenable" (to allocate more resources to internet advertising). Advertisers need to continue to communicate about their products during a recession. The benefits of internet advertising effectiveness as found in the project hold the key to coming out of this recession or economic downturn ahead of the competition. Global economic slowdown has led to cut in media advertisement spending for sure, but most of internet companies are seeing a silver-lining. And in some sense, recession in advance markets may be a blessing in disguise for such companies as advertisers shift ad spend from television and radio to internet . Yahoo's Co-Founder and Chief David Filo confirmed the trend. "Advertising. while there may be slow-down....it's not going away". There are other factors, people are consuming increasingly more and more internet, as opposed to television and radio and also are moving that attention (from television and radio) to internet; that shift is going to increase (further).

Particularly in times of economic slowdown, advertisers should and are very rightly shifting their ad spend to internet. Broadband access in India is improving gradually, coupled with PC penetration which gives the marketers one more lucrative reason to concentrate on online advertising.

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APPENDIX

Questionnaire
Name:______________________________________ Age: <20 20-30 30-40 40-50 >50 Business Service

Occupation:

1. Most effective medium for communication? f. TV/Cinema g. Radio h. Magazines/Newspapers i. Internet j. Billboards 2. Which of the following products have you bought after looking at an internet ad a. Hotels And Holiday Tours/Packages b. Loans By Banks/ Financial Instruments c. Computer/ Laptop/ Printer/ Scanner d. Mobile Phone/ Instruments e. Entertainment Sites f. Matrimonial Advertisements g. Air Ticket Ads h. Ads For Job Sites

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i. Automobile Ads j. Personal Products 3. Transactions carried out online are safe a. Strongly agree b. Agree c. Indifferent d. Disagree e. Strongly Disagree

4. Which is the best website according to you for the following activities Activity E mailing Instant messaging Job Search Online News Info Search Online Travel Games Online Shopping Real Estate Financial News/Info Online Share Trading Net Telephony Matrimony Share Pictures Social Networking Sports Astrology Cinema Website 1 Yahoo Yahoo Naukri Yahoo Google Yatra Zapak E Bay Google Moneycontrol ICICI Direct Yahoo Bharat Matrimony Orkut Orkut Cricinfo Yahoo Yahoo Shaadi Yahoo Facebook Yahoo Sports Indiatimes Website 2 Gmail Gtalk Monster Google Yahoo MakeMyTrip Yahoo Any Other(Please Specify)

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Music Raga Online Google learning/Education

Musicworldindia

5. Which is the website that has a top of the mind recall for you a. Google b. Yahoo c. Rediff d. Orkut e. Gmail f. Indiatimes g. Hotmail h. Moneycontrol i. Naukri j. Sify k. Any Other (Please Specify ________________) 6. I do notice online advertisements on this site? a. Very Frequently b. Occasionally c. Dont Remember d. Sometimes e. Never 7. I consider buying products/services through the internet? a. Very frequently b. Occasionally c. No Idea

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d. Sometmies e. Never 8. I buy products online a. Frequently b. Sometimes c. No Idea d. Hardly Sometimes(Negligible number of times) e. Never 9. It is important for a brand to have an online presence a. Strongly Agree b. Agree c. Indifferent d. Disagree e. Strongly Disagree

10.

Internet advertising and online shopping provide convenience of time and place a. Strongly agree b. Agree c. Indifferent d. Disagree e. Strongly Disagree

11. etc)

Internet advertising is an effective medium for the service sector(airlines, banks, a. Strongly agree

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b. Agree c. Indifferent d. Disagree e. Strongly Disagree 12. I book railway tickets online a. Frequently b. Sometimes c. No Idea d. Hardly Sometimes(Negligible number of times) e. Never

13.

I buy airline tickets online a. Frequently b. Sometimes c. No Idea d. Hardly Sometimes(Negligible number of times) e. Never

14.

I use online banking services a. Frequently b. Sometimes c. No Idea d. Hardly Sometimes(Negligible number of times) e. Never

15.

Which is the internet activity that you carry out most frequently?

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a. E mailing b. Job Search c. Instant Messaging d. Check News e. Check Sports

f. Dating/Friendship g. Matrimonial Search h. Search Engines i. Download multimedia

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Bibliography
Internet Advertising: Theory and Research By David W. Schumann, Esther Thorson Edition: 2 The Economic Times The Brand Reporter en.wikipedia.org www.ticworks.com/resources/Measuring%20online%20advertising%20success.pdf www.advertising-in-india.com/ books.google.co.in/books?isbn=0805851097... www.internetworldstats.com www.marketingcharts.com www.reuters.com www.financialexpress.com

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