Consumer Perceptions of Online Advertising in the Stage of Information Searching Prior to Product Purchases

• Main Authors: Jia-Shiang Joseph Pann, 潘家祥
• Other Authors: Jane Lu Hsu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/41887320627521246757

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 電子商務研究所 === 93 === Abstract The objectives of this study are to classify the types of information in online advertising that Internet users prefer and to examine whether different forms of online advertisements cause disturbance in information searching prior to product purchases. The data were gathered by conducting surveys to college students in three universities in Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung in Taiwan. The total valid samples were 283, out of 300 surveyed respondents. The mobile phone is used in this study as objects due to the familiarities of the products to college students and abundance of information provided online. The informativeness of online advertisements including dimensions of price/promotion, service, design, and function are what respondents intend to view. Due to the characteristics of the Internet, advertisers are able to utilize animated, colored, and interactive advertisements on Websites to draw attention of users. The concern is that certain advertisements disturb what users are currently doing online. This study intends to examine the reactions to different forms of online advertisements and to reveal whether respondents express feelings of annoyance for certain forms of online advertisements during information searching activities. Subsequent behavior of the respondents after verifying whether they are annoyed upon viewing certain types of online advertisements is examined. Respondents are categorized into two clusters, ad-neutral and ad-annoyed, using variables measuring annoyance of online advertisements while searching information of mobile phones. For respondents in the ad-neutral cluster, price/promotion and service are factors valued more importantly while viewing information in online advertisements. On the contrary, for respondents in the ad-annoyed cluster, design and function are more important factors than price/promotion and service in terms of information upon seeing online advertisements. Nearly all kinds of online advertisements cause annoyance to a certain level. For those young adults who do not have reactions of being disturbed by online advertisements, they tend to have subsequent behavior of ignoring the online advertisements. These results indicate Internet users are aware of online advertisements and understand the disturbance caused by online advertisements is unavoidable. In sum, if marketers or advertisers intend to design online advertisements that do not cause too much annoyance to the majority of Internet users, the banners or interstitials should be ideal. Certain types of online advertisements like pop-ups and mouse-tailing need to be used with caution. When Internet users are disturbed and the annoyance can be tolerated, the information searching behavior goes on. When Internet users are disturbed and the annoyance cannot be tolerated, the information searching behavior is terminated. The effort of designing online advertisements ended up with users’ ignorance or termination can be wasted and useless. Marketers and advertisers not only try to attract attentions of online users with advertisements, but also need to restrict the annoyance or disturbance of online advertisements to an acceptable level to reduce the opportunities of being ignored or terminated.