1.
Introduction
Web advertising vs
other media: young
consumers' view
Fethi Calisir
The author
Fethi Calisir is Associate Professor, Istanbul Technology
University, Macka-Instanbul, Turkey.
Keywords
Worldwide web, Advertising, Cluster analysis
Abstract
This paper examines how young consumers perceive the
Web as an advertising medium in relation to eight traditional
media on 15 constructs elicited from subjects. Results
indicate that the Web is perceived to be very far from most
of the other media, except point of purchase and direct mail.
Conducting correspondence analysis and cluster analysis
revealed the reasons for why the Web advertising is located
close to point of purchase and direct mail. A noticeable
finding was that farthest away from the Web is outdoor.
Implications based on the findings are discussed.
Electronic access
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Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy
Volume 13 . Number 5 . 2003 . pp. 356-363
# MCB UP Limited . ISSN 1066-2243
DOI 10.1108/10662240310501630
356
Computer and communication technologies
have changed the classical ways of advertising as
well as many other areas of life. In the past few
years, the World Wide Web has surfaced as one
of the best advertising platforms because
marketers had great flexibility and control over
the advertising materials (Ducoffe, 1996). With
the rapid growth and increasing accessibility of
the Internet, a growing number of advertisers
have built the Internet into their media mix to
take advantage of the computerized advertising
environments. Only in the USA, online
advertising spending reached $7.1 billion in
2000 from $4 billion in 1999 (eMarketer, 2001)
but it is expected to soar over $20 billion by
2004 (Lake, 1999). As advertisers get on the
Web, so do consumers. A US Commerce
Department report estimates that traffic on the
Internet is doubling every 100 days and is
expected to reach one billion by 2005
(Ingersoll, 1998). Joseph et al. (2001) indicated
that the Internet is growing faster than all other
preceding technologies. In particular, radio
existed for 38 years before it had 50 million
listeners; television took 13 years to reach that
volume; the Internet, however, took just four
years to surpass it. Rosner (1996) indicated that
students are very frequent users of the Web and
represent an important market segment for
understanding Web advertising in the present
and into the future. This reality is expected to
become more evident since enrollment in
institutions of higher education is projected to
reach 17.69 million in 2011 from 14.79 million
in 1999 (US Department of Education,
National Center for Education Statistics,
1999).
A number of studies published focusing on
how advertisers and consumers perceive the
Web as a source of advertising. Leong et al.
(1998) explored the perceived position of the
effectiveness of the Web as an advertising
medium vis-aÁ-vis several traditional media from
the perspective of business managers and
operators. Their sample considered the Web
site to be similar to direct mail on the key
attribute of ability to convey information and
detail. In addition, the Web site was regarded as
being most distinctive from television,
telemarketing, and radio.
 Web advertising vs other media: young consumers' view
Fethi Calisir
Ducoffe (1996) studied the attitudes of
people familiar with the Web by executing an
intercept survey in predetermined public spaces
in the New York City area. Ducoffe's sample
ranked the television as the most valuable
source of advertising while the Web was placed
ahead of only outdoor of the seven media. Also,
they did not consider Web advertising
particularly irritating.
Goldsmith and Lafferty (2002) studied the
effects of viewing Web sites on Internet
advertising. They found that consumers who
felt that Web sites improved their perceptions of
brands saw more advantages in Web
advertising, but they perceived more
disadvantages as well. Furthermore, the
consumers appeared to like TV and magazine
ads more than the ads they recalled seeing on
the Internet
One relevant study was conducted by
Brackett and Carr (2001) to compare college
students' attitude toward Web advertising to
the attitudes of people familiar with the Web in
Ducoffe's (1996) study. Their student sample
found Web advertising to be irritating,
annoying, or insulting people intelligence while
Ducoffe's sample did not. In addition, students
predicted that Web would overtake television
advertising as the most valuable source of
information for the future.
It should be noted that no previous research
attempted to demonstrate how young
consumers perceive the Web as an advertising
medium relative to other media despite
explosive growth in the number of young
consumers getting on the Web. However, this
information has increasingly become valuable
for advertisers when making their media
decisions and determining their media mix. All
of these factors make this study not only vital
but also necessary to find out the perceived
position of the Web as an advertising medium
vis-aÁ-vis the other media from the perspective of
young consumers.
2. Methodology
This study was conducted in two main parts. In
the first part of the study, the triadic technique
was used for construct elicitation. In the second
part of the study, each subject indicated which
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Volume 13 . Number 5 . 2003 . 356-363
advertising media, if any, were described by the
constructs.
2.1 Part I ± construct elicitation
The triadic elicitation method was used for
construct elicitation. The constructs are the
terms describing how the advertising media are
similar to or different from each other. The list
of media was developed based on an extensive
review of the literature in the areas of
advertising and promotion (Krugman et al.,
1994; Rossiter and Percy, 1997; Belch and
Belch, 1998). Eight main media (radio,
television, the press, telemarketing, point-of-
purchase, magazines, direct mail, and outdoor)
were considered as being important to be
compared with the Web. The main purpose of
construct elicitation was to elicit the constructs
that were used by the subjects to differentiate
the advertising media from each other.
Subjects
A total of 20 subjects participated in construct
elicitation. Based on the review of previous
studies that have used the triadic elicitation
technique (Perusse, 1980), it was assumed that
all relevant constructs could be elicited from a
subset of 20 subjects. Subject ages ranged from
18 to 26, with a mean age being 21.2. Among
the 20 subjects, ten were male and ten were
female.
Procedure
Each subject was provided with a list of nine
advertising media. The order of advertising
media was randomized for each subject in order
to avoid response biases. Subjects were asked to
consider the first three advertising media on the
list and to then mention in which way two were
respectively similar and different from a third.
Subjects were allowed to name as many
constructs as they wished for each triad. The
experimenter recorded all constructs elicited
from this first triad before moving on to the next
triad. The second triad then included elements
2, 3 and 4. The same procedure was used for
determining the following triads' advertising
media. By following this procedure all nine
advertising media were evaluated during the
comparison of seven triads.
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Fethi Calisir Volume 13 . Number 5 . 2003 . 356-363

2.2 Part II ± rating tasks 3. Results and discussion

Subjects
3.1 The elicited constructs
A total of 200 subjects were recruited to
A total of 15 constructs were elicited from
participate in the second part of the study on
subjects. Figure 1 provides the number of new
campus at Istanbul Technical University. All
constructs elicited from each subject. It should
the subjects who participated in construct
be noted that after the sixteenth subject, no
elicitation also participated in the second part.
subject provided a new construct. The
Their ages ranged from 18 to 27, with the mean
comments made by subjects were first noted
age being 21.6. The mean weekly Internet
and then analyzed to label each construct.
usage was six hours 25 minutes. Among the 200
Table I presents how many subjects
subjects, 100 were male and 100 were female.
mentioned each construct ``two-way
Procedure communication'' was mentioned by 20 subjects
Each subject was given a list of advertising while ``providing reliable information'' was
media and constructs elicited in the first part mentioned by one subject. The majority of
of the study. Each subject then indicated subjects mentioned ``interesting,'' ``conveying
which advertising media, if any, were detailed information,'' ``precipitate action,'' and
described by each construct. Subjects were ``mass communication medium.''
free to select any number of advertising
media for each construct. Subjects took Figure 1 Number of new constructs elicited from each subject
short breaks as needed. The experimenter was
in the same room as the subjects during the
session.

2.3 Analytical procedures

Subject responses were aggregated in a
crosstabulation table and analyzed. Two
statistical techniques were used. These
techniques were correspondence analysis and
cluster analysis. Correspondence analysis was
performed to create a perceptual map based on
the association between the advertising media Table I Number of subjects mentioned in each elicited
and constructs (Hair et al., 1995). construct
Correspondence analysis has been extensively Number of
used in the marketing and promotion literature subjects
over the past two decades (Leong et al., 1998). Construct mentioned
Although ``model free'' itself, the results of Communicating brand image 8
correspondence analysis are often a useful Interesting 15
preliminary to a more structured and traditional Communicating corporate image 6
multivariate modeling of categorical data. Introducing wide variety of products 3
Therefore, cluster analysis was performed to Irritating 5
complement the results of correspondence Providing reliable information 2
analysis. Two-way communication 20
The results of cluster analysis provide Conveying detailed information 12
more detailed information about the distances Deceiving 7
between the variables and categories Precipitate action 14
because it takes the resulting scores of the Easy to escape from 3
variables (advertising media) and categories Same ad appears at regular intervals 3
(constructs) from the correspondence Mass communication medium 17
analysis and uses it as input for the analysis Requiring time to examine 3
Easy to recall 6
(Lebart, 1994).
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3.2 Correspondence analysis Table III The contribution of advertising media and their attributes to the
Determining the most appropriate inertia of each dimension
dimensionality requires a trade-off between the Marginal Dimension Dimension
explanatory power and interpretability. Advertising medium and attributes profile 1 2
Furthermore, the explanatory power can be
judged by the cumulative inertia and the quality TV 0.222 0.182 0.012
of variables and categories. The term inertia in Press 0.117 0.005 0.031
Magazine 0.102 0.001 0.057
correspondence analysis is used by analogy with
Radio 0.079 0.112 0.116
the definition in applied mathematics of
Web 0.124 0.042 0.012
``moment of inertia,'' which stands for the
Direct mail 0.056 0.080 0.124
integral mass times the squared distance to the
Telemarketing 0.091 0.020 0.410
centroid. Inertia is defined as a measure of spread
Point of purchase 0.115 0.447 0.142
over the centroid. Table II shows the
Billboard 0.094 0.111 0.096
dimensionality and its proportion of inertia
Mass communication medium 0.079 0.099 0.002
explained. As can be seen from Table II, 78.1
Introducing wide variety of
percent of inertia can be explained by a two-
products 0.072 0.013 0.001
dimension solution. Only 8.4 percent of inertia
Conveying detailed information 0.068 0.182 0.075
can be increased in moving from two to three
Communicating brand image 0.078 0.040 0.042
dimensions, after which the improvement
Communicating corporate image 0.069 0.000 0.042
diminishes somewhat and remains consistent as
Precipitate action 0.063 0.022 0.063
we increase the number of dimensions. The
Requiring time to examine 0.063 0.114 0.010
contribution of advertising media and their
Easy to recall 0.070 0.046 0.014
attributes to the inertia of each dimension is
Providing reliable information 0.047 0.040 0.061
presented in Table III. Balancing this
Interesting 0.075 0.041 0.053
improvement against difficulty of interpretation,
Same ad appears at regular
the two-dimensional solution is selected as the
intervals 0.065 0.082 0.001
most appropriate for further analyses. Two-way communication 0.042 0.311 0.019
The two-dimensional perceptual Deceiving 0.071 0.001 0.186
configuration of nine advertising media and Irritating 0.063 0.005 0.406
their attributes is presented in Figure 2. The Easy to escape from 0.076 0.004 0.024
horizontal dimension is influenced heavily by
attributes of ``two-way communication,'' Therefore, this dimension differentiates the
``conveying detailed information,'' ``requiring media attributes that are more individual-
time to examine,'' ``mass communication focused from those are more public-focused.
medium,'' and ``same ad appears at regular The vertical dimension is contributed
intervals.'' mainly by attributes of ``irritating,''
Table II The dimensionality and its proportion of inertia ``deceiving,'' ``precipitate action,'' and
explained ``providing reliable information.'' Hence, this
dimension primarily differentiates the media
Proportion Cumulative
attributes that are related to reliable
explained proportion
information from those that are related to
Dimension Inertia (%) (%)
deceiving information.
1 0.21118 53.3 53.3 With respect to the position of the Web, it is
2 0.09822 24.7 78.1 located in the intermediate position on both
3 0.03351 8.4 86.5 dimensions and is perceived to be very far from
4 0.03199 8.1 94.6 most of the other media, except point of
5 0.01123 2.8 97.4 purchase and direct mail. Findings by Leong et
6 0.06627 1.6 99.0 al. (1998), from a study of Web managers, are
7 0.00314 0.8 99.8 in line with the results of the present study as
8 0.00096 0.2 100 web managers perceived the Web site very
Total 0.39720 100 100
distinctive from the most of the other media,
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 Web advertising vs other media: young consumers' view
Fethi Calisir
Figure 2 The two-dimensional perceptual configuration of nine advertising media and their attributes
except direct mail. These findings also tend to
support Reardon and Rogers' (1988) argument
that the Web is not easily classified as either
impersonal or a mass media.
3.3 Cluster analysis
The reasons for why the Web advertising is
located close to point of purchase and direct
mail were revealed by conducting cluster
analysis based on the two-dimensional scores of
the nine media and their attributes. The
resulting Dendogram is shown in Figure 3.
As can be seen from Figure 3, the proximity
of the Web with ``precipitate action,''
``providing reliable information,'' and
``requiring time to examine'' implies that the
young consumers regard the Web as being very
effective in these three areas. The most likely
reason for this result is provided by Briggs and
Hollis (1997) who suggested that Web banner
advertising help increase brand awareness,
remind consumers of a brand's existence,
stimulate latent brand associations, and can
affect attitudes toward the brand and, finally,
increase probability of purchase. However, it is
interesting to note that findings by Leong et al.
(1998) indicated that web managers did not
regard the Web as an effective medium in
precipitating action.
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A noticeable finding was that point of
purchase was the closest medium to the Web
with its ability of ``two-way communication.''
This was not a surprising result because
Gallagher et al. (2001) stated that:
Advertising on the Web provides a variety of
opportunities for direct impersonal
communication between the advertiser and
audience members via e-mail, online chat rooms,
and the like.
Conversely, Web managers thought point of
purchase to be very different from the Web
(Leong et al., 1998).
Next proximate medium to the Web was
direct mail with its ability of conveying detailed
information. This finding indicates the fact that
the young consumers of the present study and
the Web managers of Leong et al. (1998) study
perceived the Web very similar to direct mail.
A surprising result was that farthest away
from the Web is outdoor. The proximity of
outdoor with ``communicating brand image''
and ``interesting ads'' suggest that the young
consumers do not regard the Web advertising as
being very effective in communicating brand
image. However, Ainscough and Luckett
(1996) found that Web sites have been
generally used as virtual front store sites. In
addition, Web managers perceived the Web site
 Web advertising vs other media: young consumers' view
Fethi Calisir
Figure 3 Dendrogram of advertising media and their characteristics
as being very effective in communicating brand
image (Leong et al., 1998).
4. Conclusions and implications
As previously stated, the primary objective of
this study was to show how young consumers
perceive the Web as an advertising medium
relative to eight other main media on the
elicited 15 media attributes. Clearly, this
objective has been achieved as reflected by the
findings. The following are the young
consumers' perceptions of the Web site:
. The Web site is excellent for precipitating
action. Young consumers perceive the Web
site to be the best medium in precipitating
action, surpassing even point of purchase
and telemarketing.
. The Web site is perceived to be as the most
reliable source by the young consumers. On
the other hand, traditional media like
television, magazine, or the press are
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perceived to be less reliable information
source.
. The Web site takes time to examine. The
young consumers' perception of this is
obvious in the resultant dendogram.
. The Web site is effective in providing
two-way communication. Young
consumers perceive the Web site to be
similar to point of purchase in terms of
providing two-way communication.
. The Web site is not effective for
communicating brand image. In its current
stage of development, the Web site is
perceived to be very far away from
outdoor's ability to communicate brand
image.
. The Web site is less effective for
communicating corporate image. Young
consumers perceive magazine and press to
be more effective than the Web site for
communicating corporate image.
. The Web site is perceived to be not
irritating. Young consumers found radio to
be irritating and deceiving.
 Web advertising vs other media: young consumers' view
Fethi Calisir
The implications of these findings are:
. The Web site is a potential threat to point
of purchase and direct mail. The
perceptions indicate that the advertisers
may use the Web site to replace some of the
functions presently done via direct mail and
point of purchase.
. The Web site is perceived as being most
distinctive from radio, television, outdoor,
and press. In other words, the Web site
complements the other main media. For
example, outdoor may communicate brand
image by using interesting ads with a Web
address (URL). Including a Web address in
an outdoor ad may prompt young
consumers who are interested in the
advertised product or service to visit the
Web site to get further product or service
details. Hence, the Web site should be the
part of the company's media mix.
. Advertisers should focus on using the
Internet's unique characteristics and
capabilities to make their Web sites more
interesting.
5. Limitations and further research
directions
Although the results provide insight into the
young consumers' perception of the Web as an
advertising medium, there are several
limitations to this study. First, the participant
population consisted of mostly undergraduate
students at Istanbul Technical University.
Therefore, the results might be different with
other participant populations. Future studies
should include various populations to increase
external validity. In addition, researchers could
build on this study by extending it to other
countries. Research related to other countries
would be both pertinent and useful.
Second, no attempt was made to distinguish
among the various types of Web advertising
(e.g. banner ads, home pages, branded
messages, sponsor identifications for Web sites,
etc.). To obtain a richer view research should
investigate Web advertising categories. If so,
they may find results that differ from those
found in this study.
Finally, the findings reported here are
snapshots in time. It appears that academic
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research on the applications and theoretical
implications of this relatively new technology
will lag behind evolving technology. However,
the Web's evolution and growth demand that
regular tracking with longitudinal studies be
implemented.
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