Consumer attitudes and interactive digital advertising

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Consumer attitudes and interactive digital advertising Julian Ming-Sung Cheng

National Central University, Taiwan

Charles Blankson

University of North Texas

Edward Shih-Tse Wang

National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan

Lily Shui-Lien Chen

Hsing-Wu College, Taiwan

This research examines consumer attitudes towards four sub-types of interactive digital advertising: internet-based e- and email advertising, and mobile-phone-based SMS- and MMS-type advertising. The differences in attitudes among these four sub-types of interactive digital advertising are also compared. Data are collected from three universities in Taiwan. Data analysis extracts three attitudinal forms (common factors) towards interactive digital advertising, namely, ‘informative’, ‘entertaining’ and ‘irritating’. Consumer attitudinal forms towards e-advertising and MMS-type m-advertising are both similar and positive (i.e. informative and less irritating and entertaining). Their attitudinal forms towards email advertising and SMS-type m-advertising are less positive (more irritating and less informative and entertaining). Furthermore, the three attitudinal forms towards the four sub-types of interactive digital advertising are compared. Consumer ‘informative’ and ‘entertaining’ attitudinal forms towards e-advertising and MMS-type m-advertising­ are similar, while their attitudinal forms towards email advertising and SMS-type m-advertising are equal and lower than towards the previous two sub-types of interactive digital advertising. As for the ‘irritating’ attitudinal form, consumers feel more ‘irritated’ towards email advertising and SMS-type m-advertising, while their attitudinal forms towards e-advertising and MMS-type m-advertising are equal and less irritated.

Introduction Advertising through the internet is now an important source of consumer information as the number of internet users continues to increase (Cheung 2006). Mobile phones facilitate even more accurate targeting International Journal of Advertising, 28(3), pp. 501–525 © 2009 Advertising Association Published by the World Advertising Research Center, www.warc.com DOI: 10.2501/S0265048709200710

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than the internet for advertisers by providing the opportunity to reach their prospective customers when and where it is most appropriate for the marketing campaign, while simultaneously offering high interactivity (Nicopolitidis et al. 2003). The internet advertising industry has therefore experienced a shift towards the use of mobile phones since the coming of the mobile age (Thomas & Gillenson 2003). There are four types of advertising within these two marketing communication media that have great potential. These are internet-based advertising through the website (‘e-advertising’ hereafter) and emailing (‘email advertising’ hereafter), and mobile-phone-based advertising (‘m-advertising’ hereafter) of SMS-type (short message service) and MMS-type (multimedia messaging service). Collectively, advertising through these two communication media forms the emerging field of ‘interactive digital advertising’. Tracing consumer attitudes towards interactive digital advertising is essential as they are likely to influence consumer exposure, attention and reaction to individual advertisements (Schlosser et al. 1999). Academic attention paid to consumer attitudes towards e-advertising can be found occasionally (e.g. Cho & Cheon 2004; Ravi 2005). Nevertheless, most of the extant literature excludes email advertising from its scope or fails to distinguish email advertising from other forms. Only limited research focuses on email advertising (e.g. Martin et al. 2003). Within the domain of m-advertising, there are a small number of articles that address consumer attitudes towards SMS-type m-advertising, such as Tsang et al. (2004), Rettie et al. (2005) and Carroll et al. (2007). Academic attention to the new generation of MMS-type m-advertising has been even more scant. In view of the fact that consumer markets and communication media have become increasingly fragmented (Karson et al. 2006), it is critical to address the dissimilarities of these advertising media and to distinguish between consumer attitude differences towards these four sub-types of interactive digital advertising. Research that addresses these dissimilarities may provide marketers with insights into the application and suitability of individual sub-types of interactive digital advertising and assist in subsequent selection among the four sub-types of interactive digital advertising channels to deliver messages to customers properly. Nevertheless, there is a lack of empirical studies related to this subject. The foregoing provides the impetus for the current research examining consumer attitudes towards interactive digital advertising. More specifically­, the current research seeks

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to distinguish consumer attitude differences among these four sub-types of interactive digital advertising. In other words, the research question that this study is designed to address is whether consumer attitudes towards internet-based e- and email advertising, and mobile-phone-based SMS- and MMS-type advertising are different. Given the significance of interactive digital advertising and consumer attitudes towards its four subtypes, and the paucity of related studies in the current subject, this line of inquiry is important and warranted. In the following sections, a detailed discussion, which includes the scope of interactive digital advertising and its individual sub-types (i.e. internet-based e- and email advertising, and mobile-phone-based SMSand MMS-type advertising), is presented. This is followed by an examination of consumer attitudes towards the four sub-types of interactive digital advertising and the differences between them. The research methodology and the results of this research are then discussed. Finally, research conclusions, implications and future research directions are presented.

Background to the study Interactive digital advertising In this research, the notion of interactive digital advertising involves the presentation of information through digital technology-based mediated means; mutual and relatively immediate interaction between marketers and consumers can be made through the use of digital technologies (Stewart 2004). Interactive digital advertising can give consumers control over advertising by enabling them to manipulate ‘what they see on the screen in real time’ (Aho 1993; Stern 1994). Because of its measurability, precision, customisation, personalisation and easy targeting (Iii & Woodside 2005), interactive digital marketing is arguably one of the most potent tools available to advertisers (Radzeviciute & Sliburyte 2005). Interactive digital advertising tools such as online community, short messages, and the transfer of photographic images through computers with internet access and mobile phones are commonly used nowadays (Stewart 2004; Radzeviciute & Sliburyte 2005). It is evident that interactive digital advertising is currently a product of the alliance mainly between computers with internet access and mobile phones. As noted, advertising



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through these two media can be further categorised into internet-based e- and email advertising, and mobile-phone-based SMS- and MMS-type advertising. Internet-based e- and email advertising The rise of the internet has led to the evolution of commerce into an electronic age (Maamar 2003). As surfing the World Wide Web (WWW) has become ever more popular, the internet has clearly become an important information source and an integral part of daily life (Ko et al. 2005). As such, the internet represents a huge opportunity for advertisers in terms of the potential for efficient and effective communication with customers (Faber et al. 2004). Due to the popularity of internet advertising, marketers have debated whether e-advertising is a general term for advertising through the internet or similar to traditional advertising (Schlosser et al. 1999; Huang & Lin 2006). Academics have also devoted efforts to the issues related to e-advertising (see, for example, Schlosser et al. 1999; Wolin & Korgaonkar 2003; Ravi 2005; Moustakas et al. 2006; Robinson et al. 2007; Kim & McMillan 2008). Email advertising, a promising internet tool for communication, has often been viewed as the property of e-advertising in prior studies (e.g. Gordon & Turner 1997; Becker-Olsen 2003). Nevertheless, there are differences between them. E-advertising disseminates commercial content through websites. Therefore, e-advertising ‘pulls’ internet users towards information. In contrast, in the use of email advertising, internet users encounter advertising messages simply by checking their emails. Accordingly, email advertising is, in common with direct marketing, to ‘push’ information to internet users (Schlosser et al. 1999; Wolin & Korgaonkar 2003). As such, the uses of e-advertising and email advertising may generate different consumer attitudes. Although previous research indicates that consumer perceptions of e-advertising and email advertising are different (see, among others, Martin et al. 2003; Faber et al. 2004), academic research focusing on email advertising is relatively sparse and more studies should be conducted in order to provide more evidence on it.

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Mobile-phone-based SMS- and MMS-type advertising Shortly after the advent of mobile phone services, a new and innovative way of conducting business on an ‘anywhere, anytime’ basis (Balasubramanian et al. 2002), known as mobile commerce (‘mCommerce’ hereafter), emerged (Frolick & Chen 2004). In its early developmental stages, mCommerce has provided good support and promotion for electronic commerce (eCommerce hereafter) transactions to roaming users, even though it is not always fully functional for every shopping need (Thomas & Gillenson 2003). In view of the growing number of mobile phone subscribers, it is possible for m-advertising to communicate with target and potential customers at a specific time and a specific place. For instance, an advertiser might send messages through mobile phones to potential customers while they are making purchases in a defined physical environment. Firms are therefore eager to integrate this emerging medium into their business operations as a marketing tool to foster and maintain strong relationships with consumers (Nicopolitidis et al. 2003). Full-text messages delivered through mobile phones (referred to as SMS service (Tsang et al. 2004)) for commercial purposes have developed rapidly (Thomas & Gillenson 2003; Rettie et al. 2005). SMS-type m-advertising boasts high-speed text message delivery, interactivity, greater customer reach, and a response rate five times higher than direct mail (Nicopolitidis et al. 2003). Permission, content, wireless service provider control and prompt delivery of the message all have a significant impact on the acceptance of SMS-type m-advertising (Carroll et al. 2007). In addition to SMS-type m-advertising, a new type of m-advertising, namely MMS-type advertising, has also drawn consumer attention in recent years. MMS is a format for messages comprising a combination of text, sounds, images and videos that can be sent to MMS-capable mobile phone handsets. The distinct capabilities of the two message formats mean that SMS- and MMS-type m-advertisements are dissimilar. As the importance of m-advertising is increasing, academics are starting to cast light on the use of SMS-type m-advertising (see, for example, Barwise & Strong 2002; Tsang et al. 2004; Rettie et al. 2005; Muk 2007; Zhang & Mao 2008), but research attention paid to MMS-type m‑advertising­ has been limited thus far (Frolick & Chen 2004; Nysveen et al. 2005).



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Differences between internet-based and mobile-phone-based advertising Internet-based advertising and mobile-phone-based advertising, being categorised as sub-types of interactive digital advertising, share a number of features in common. Both are emerging media used to deliver digital texts, images or voices with interactive, immediate, personalised and responsive capabilities (Tsang et al. 2004). Nevertheless, various dissimilarities exist. In general, internet-based advertising needs fixed line access, while mobile-phone-based advertising allows the sending of advertisements to customers as long as their mobile phones are reachable. More specifically and uniquely, mobile-phone-based advertisements can be broadcasted to customers when they are actually shopping (Anckar & D’Incau 2002). From this viewpoint, mobile-phone-based advertising seems to improve on internet-based advertising by reaching target customers at the right time and the right place. On the other hand, the two-inch mobile phone screen still limits the effectiveness of m-advertising and relatively little purchasing history can be collected, making it difficult for m-advertisers to identify and reach potential customers. Consumer attitudes towards internet-based and mobile-phonebased advertising Attitude is defined as ‘a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favourable or unfavourable manner with respect to a given subject’ (Robideaux 2002). Understanding consumer attitudes has been at the forefront of debate (Schlosser et al. 1999; Robideaux 2002; Tsang et al. 2004; Rettie et al. 2005). Consumer attitudes are found to influence the adoption of technology-related products (Mort & Drennan 2005), such as the internet and mobile phones. There is a body of literature dealing with consumer attitudes towards advertising related to the internet and mobile phones. A comparison between them can offer some implications for advertising or marketing strategies. Prior research related to internet-based advertising attitudes mostly limits its scope to a single type of advertising (Faber et al. 2004). In general, prior literature proves that overall consumer attitudes towards internetbased advertising are positive (Korgaonkar & Wolin 2002). Some research

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investigates moderating effects on the current subject. For example, according to Korgaonkar and Wolin’s (2002) study, the more frequently internet users surf online, the more positive are their attitudes towards e-advertising. Gender attributes have also been found to play a critical role in moderating consumer attitudes. Based on Wolin and Korgaonkar’s (2003) research findings, males display more positive attitudes towards e-advertising than females. Nevertheless, a number of factors are also found to result in negative attitudes, such as annoyance towards internet advertising. In general, consumers may be frustrated by annoying advertisements and thus quit the website altogether (Gao et al. 2004). Research specifically related to email advertising suggests that it results in negative attitudes unless it is permission-based (i.e. permission is obtained from recipients) (Martin et al. 2003; Merisavo & Raulas 2004). Another study, conducted by Heinonen and Strandvik (2005), suggests that women consider promotional emails a source of product information and evaluate the presence of links to additional sources of information more favourably than do men. Women view coupons contained in emails more positively. Compared to the amount of research on internet-based advertising attitudes, scholars have paid relatively scant attention to consumer attitudes towards mobile-phone-based advertising. Within these limited studies, consumer attitudes towards SMS-type m-advertising appear to be the main focus of the extant literature. The findings of Tsang et al.’s (2004) research reveal that respondents hold positive attitudes towards permission-based SMS-type m-advertising, and that entertainment and source credibility contribute to consumer attitudes. Other studies (see Rettie et al. 2005) indicate that consumer attitudes towards SMS-type m-advertising seem positive because it can stimulate consumer response. With respect to MMS-type m-advertising, there is little empirical research evidence and so specific consumer attitudes towards MMS-type m-advertising are still unclear.

Research methodology Study setting, sampling and data collection The field study was conducted in Taiwan and the research population chosen was that of university students. Taiwan has enthusiastically taken



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to online activities and moved into the mobile age aggressively. Internet users in Taiwan spend an average of 43.2 hours per month on the internet, standing fifth in the world behind Israel, Finland, South Korea and the Netherlands (ACI-Idea-Find 2006). According to a survey by Taipei EC/EDI Committee (2007), Taiwan’s penetration rate of mobile phone subscribers exceeds 100% and is among the highest in the world. In comparison with most countries, Taiwan has established a firmer foundation for the development of the internet and mobile communication market. University students were selected as the research population. In Taiwan, university students get free access to the internet, including free emailing and web surfing. They are also frequently required to search online for information related to their coursework, and to submit assignments online. Furthermore, free internet MSN and Skype services are popular university student communication platforms. Therefore, use of the internet for university students is relatively high in comparison to other segments. As for the usage and related services of mobile phones, the mobile phone penetration rate in the university student cohort is high (C114 News 2006). This segment is viewed as a major market in the mobile telecommunications industry. Moreover, other segments do not use MMS services as much as university students (ACI-Idea-Find 2005). These students are viewed as the cohort most willing to accept the new m-advertising of the MMS-type. All the above factors led to the data collection being carried out in the university student segment in Taiwan. The research was carried out at three of Taiwan’s universities. These universities were chosen intentionally, to represent the three university systems in Taiwan (i.e. public, private and professional polytechnics). A systematic sampling technique (one out of ten) targeting all students was employed in distributing four sub-types of interactive digital advertising questionnaires at the main entrances of each of the universities in April 2006. Each type of questionnaire corresponded to a specific sub-type of interactive digital advertising (i.e. internet-based e-advertising and email advertising, and mobile-phone-based SMS- and MMS-type advertising). Four researchers were responsible for undertaking data collection. Each was responsible for one type of advertising questionnaire. Students were requested to fill in one of the four sub-types of questionnaire. An initial verbal filtering question of selected participants was used to ensure no duplication of responses. A total of 220 completed questionnaires in each

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of the four sub-types of interactive digital advertising were collected, and the number of questionnaires collected from each university was weighted based on the proportion of the student population at each university. Measurements, questionnaire design and pretesting The purpose of the current research was to understand consumer attitudes towards the four sub-types of interactive digital advertising. According to Bruner and Kumar (2000), the advertising measurements employed in the traditional media can be transferred to the internet environment. This research applied this concept in both the internet and mobile phone settings (i.e. in the interactive digital advertising environment). Prior attitude scales items from traditional advertising (i.e. Pollay & Mittal 1993) and e-advertising (i.e. Ducoffe 1996; Schlosser et al. 1999) were collected and subsequently formed the basis of the original advertising attitude scale items. The abovementioned advertising attitude scales were viewed usable and applicable since they have frequently been applied in a number of recent academic works (see, among others, Wolin & Korgaonkar 2003; Burns & Lutz 2006; Petrovici & Marinov 2007). An initial pool of attitude items was formed, with the items collected from the above three studies. After all the items had been translated into Chinese Mandarin (the official language in Taiwan), a filtering and modifying process was conducted by three experts (one from academia and the others from advertising industry), to remove duplications and unsuitable items. A total of 24 items remained and identically made up the four original questionnaires aimed at measuring consumer attitudes towards the four sub-types of interactive digital advertising. Next, the questionnaire was pretested among 25 undergraduate students (from all disciplines) from each of the target universities. The students were requested to complete the questionnaire and to provide any comments or feedback about the questionnaire statements. Clarification and modification based on their suggestions followed. Finally, in order to ensure readability and logical flow of the questionnaire, the three experts mentioned above were given copies of the questionnaire for their perusal. Their comments and suggestions were incorporated into the final questionnaire. The questionnaire also collected details of participants’ personal profiles, such as their age, gender, disposable allowance, and so on.



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Data analysis and results The profiles of the participants were analysed and reported. Then, the dimensions (attitudinal forms) of the advertising attitude scale were derived using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), followed by utilising confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to validate the derived attitudinal dimensions and to examine the accuracy of the attitude scale. Eventually, the derived advertising attitudinal forms and consumer attitudes towards the four sub-types of digital interactive advertising were compared. Participants’ profiles The sample consisted of slightly more males (53.41%) than females. The majority were aged over 19 years of age (89.55%), lived on campus (54.09%) and had a monthly disposable allowance of between TW$2001 and TW$8000 (66.71%) (exchange rate: TW$1 = US$0.03). As seen in Table 1, freshmen (40.68%) were the biggest group of participants. The distribution of participants’ hometowns (52.05%) matches the distribution of the population that is mainly located in northern Taiwan. Other descriptive statistics relating to participants’ profiles are shown in Table 1. Exploratory factor analysis of consumer attitudes towards advertising In order to identify the dimensional­ity (attitudinal form) of consumer attitudes towards interactive digital advertising, the 24 advertising attitudes

Table 1: Participants’ profiles

Frequency

%

Gender Male 470 Female 410

53.41 46.59

Age ≤18 92 19 263 20 223 ≥21 302

10.45 29.89 25.34 34.32

Disposable allowance ≤TW$2000 101 TW$2001–4000 156 TW$4001–6000 245 TW$6001–8000 186 TW$8001–TW$10,000 127 ≥TW$10,001 65

11.48 17.73 27.84 21.14 14.43 7.38

Dormitory On campus 476 Off campus 404

54.09 45.91

Grade Freshman 358 Sophomore 197 Junior 167 Senior 158

40.68 22.39 18.98 17.95

Resident Northern Taiwan 458 Central Taiwan 195 Southern Taiwan 179 Eastern Taiwan 27 Off-shore island 6 Other area 15

52.05 22.16 20.34 3.07 0.68 1.70

Note: TW$1 = US$0.03

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were pooled together and factor-analysed. Principal factor analysis with varimax rotation was used. An eigenvalue of 1.0 was used as the cutoff value to determine the number of attitudinal forms, while a factor loading of 0.4 and high loadings on more than one common factor were used as the two criteria to determine the specific attitudinal form an attitude item should load on and whether the item should be eliminated. All 880 questionnaires were processed, and resulted in 17 attitude items with a threedimension (common factor) solution. The cumulative explained variance of the three-dimension structure approximated 59.9%. These three attitudinal dimensions (forms) were termed on the basis of the description of those items with highest factor correlation coefficients within their respective attitudinal forms. Dimension 1, ‘informative’, appeared to be a main attitudinal form, which explained the highest variance of 38.8% with six items loading on it. Another six items loaded on the second attitudinal dimension, ‘entertaining’, with an explained variance of 13.4%, and the third attitudinal dimension, ‘irritating’, with five loaded items and explained with a variance of 7.7%. For the purpose of testing the stability of the derived three-dimension advertising structure, the aforementioned processes were also duplicated and applied to each of the four sub-types of interactive digital advertising. Their corresponding 220 questionnaires were used for the subsequent analyses. The individual attitudinal structures across the four sub-types of interactive digital advertising were all congruent with the above three-factor solution. Relevant statistics are summarised and shown in Table 2. The three attitudinal dimensions/forms are described and further discussed below. 1. Informative: the first attitudinal form consisted of items related to the provision among the four sub-types of interactive digital advertising. The majority of participants agreed either somewhat or strongly that the four sub-types of interactive digital advertising were ‘informative’. These advertising attitude items were viewed as product information provision: the four sub-types of interactive digital advertising ‘make product information immediately accessible’, ‘are a convenient source of product information’, ‘are a good source of up-to-date product information’, ‘supply relevant product information’, ‘inform me of the latest­ products and information’ and ‘help me get special product price news’.



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2. Entertaining: ‘entertaining’ signifies how much interest consumers place in the four sub-types of interactive digital advertising. Items loaded on to this attitudinal form were deemed related to the issue of the pleasure or interest that consumers sought. This is evident in the following statements that the four sub-types of advertising ‘usually make people laugh and have great amusement value’, ‘tell me what people who share my lifestyle will buy and use’, ‘help me to know which products reflect my unique personality’ and ‘are more interesting than the content of other media’. Participants also ‘learn about fashions and what to buy to impress others’ and ‘take pleasure in thinking about what they see, hear or read’ in these four sub-types of interactive digital advertising. 3. Irritating: ‘irritating’ represents how easily consumers are irritated by the four sub-types of interactive digital advertising. This form explained the least variance among the three attitudinal forms. Irritation was inevitably aroused by the four sub-types of interactive digital advertising. From the participants’ viewpoint, the four sub-types of advertising were ‘irritating’, ‘annoying’, ‘deceptive’ and ‘confusing’. Therefore, participants ‘consider them an unwelcome interruption’. Confirmatory factor analysis of consumer attitudes towards advertising At this stage of the analysis, a CFA on the 17 items was used to validate the derived three-dimension advertising structure at the EFA stage. The CFA model was computed with the LISREL statistics software package. All the goodness-of-fit values were acceptable (CFI = 0.97, GFI = 0.92, AGFI = 0.90, NFI = 0.96, IFI = 0.97, RMSEA = 0.07) (Hair et al. 2003). Consequently, the results were viewed as suggesting good model fit to the derived three-dimension structure. Once the structure was confirmed, related reliability and validity were assessed. Coefficient alpha values and composite reliability (CR) indexes of the three dimensions were computed for reliability tests. All the alpha and CR values, ranging from 0.82 to 0.88 (see Table 3), exceeded generally­ recommended levels of 0.6. Thus, the results provided evidence of reliability. The evidence of convergent validity was assessed by the significant loading of each scale item to its latent dimension, while discriminant validity­

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0.60 0.61

0.63 0.60

Ad informs me of the latest products and information available on the market

F1: Informative; F2: Entertaining; F3: Irritating

Rotation sums of squared loadings

Extraction sums of squared loadings

38.8 38.8 21.8 21.8

% of variance Cumulative % % of variance Cumulative %

41.5

19.7

52.2

13.4

60.0

18.5

59.9

7.7

20.9

20.9

30.6

30.6

37.7

16.8

44.5

13.9

54.3

16.6

54.3

9.8

1.7

0.66

0.67

I consider advertising an unwelcome interruption

2.4

0.67

0.71

Advertising is annoying

1.3

0.69

0.74

Advertising is deceptive

2.3

0.78

Eigenvalue

0.81

0.83

0.42 0.85

0.60

Advertising is more interesting than the content of other media

0.60

F3

23.6

23.6

44.8

44.8

7.6

0.53

0.68

0.74

0.83

0.77

44.1

20.5

56.3

11.5

2.0

0.60

0.68

0.65

0.61

0.70

0.66

F2

6.9

1.2

0.63

0.74

0.72

0.82

0.81

F3

63.2

19.1

63.2

email ad 0.82

F1

21.6

21.6

39.9

39.9

6.8

0.61

0.59

0.71

0.74

0.79

0.85

F1

41.5

19.9

52.0

12.1

2.1

0.67

0.59

0.63

0.71

0.76

0.72

F2

SMS ad

60.1

18.6

60.1

8.1

1.4

0.60

0.61

0.79

0.83

0.85

F3

22.6

22.6

35.6

35.6

6.1

0.66

0.64

0.77

0.74

0.77

0.82

F1

Individual sub-type of interactive digital advertising

Advertising is confusing

0.65

Advertising helps me to know which products reflect my unique personality

0.69

0.63

0.68

0.73

F2

e-ad

Advertising is irritating

0.70 0.68

I take pleasure in thinking about what I see, hear or read in advertisements

0.70

Advertising usually makes people laugh and has great amusement value

Advertising tells me what people who share my lifestyle will buy and use

0.72

From advertising I learn about fashions and what to buy to impress others

5.2

0.72

0.72

Advertising supplies relevant product information

6.6

0.76

Advertising helps me get special product price news

0.80

0.79 0.77

Advertising is a convenient source of product information

Advertising is a good source of up-to-date product information

0.82

F1

0.83

F3

Advertising makes product information immediately accessible

F2

F1

Interactive advertising

Derived attitude common factor (attitudinal form)

Advertising attitude scale item

Table 2: Exploratory factor analysis results

41.9

19.3

43.2

7.6

1.3

0.61

0.66

0.68

0.78

0.65

0.73

F2

MMS ad

61.8

19.9

61.8

18.6

3.2

0.76

0.76

0.71

0.86

0.90

F3

Consumer attitudes and interactive digital advertising

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Table 3: Confirmatory factor analysis results Factor loading

a

CR

AVE

Advertising makes product information immediately accessible

0.81***

0.88

0.88

0.55

Advertising is a convenient source of product information

0.80***

Advertising is a good source of up-to-date product information

0.79***

Advertising supplies relevant product information

0.69***

Ad informs me of the latest products and information available on the market

0.74***

Advertising helps me get special product price news

0.62***

0.82

0.85

0.44

0.84

0.85

0.53

The scale item of consumer attitudes towards advertising Attitudinal form: informative

Attitudinal form: entertaining From advertising I learn about fashions and what to buy to impress others

0.79***

Advertising usually makes people laugh and has great amusement value

0.67***

I take pleasure in thinking about what I see, hear or read in advertisements

0.58***

Advertising tells me what people who share my lifestyle will buy and use

0.73***

Ad helps me to know which products will reflect my unique personality

0.58***

Advertising is more interesting than the content of other media

0.63***

Attitudinal form: irritating Advertising is irritating

0.85***

Advertising is confusing

0.75***

Advertising is deceptive

0.64***

Advertising is annoying

0.71***

I consider advertising an unwelcome interruption

0.67***

***Significance level < 0.001; α: coefficient α value; CR: composite reliability rc = (∑l)2/[(∑l)2 + ∑(q)], where l: indicator loadings; q: indicator error variance.

was evidenced by: (a) the correlation estimate of each pair of any two dimensions less than 1.0; (b) acceptable CFA model fit; and (c) AVE values higher than squared correlations between each of the latent dimensions. As observed from the above and in Tables 3 and 4, all convergent and discriminant validity indicators fell within acceptable ranges. Table 4: Correlation matrix of attitudinal forms Thus, it was confidently Attitudinal form Informative Entertaining Irritating concluded that the analyInformative 1.00 sis results provided supEntertaining 0.64 1.00 port for convergent and Irritating –0.39 –0.36 1.00 discriminant validity.

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A comparison of the three advertising attitudinal forms Descriptive statistics of individual advertising attitude items were used for computing the mean values of individual attitudinal forms (see Table 5). Multiple comparisons based on observed means among the three advertising attitudinal forms were evaluated using the General Linear Model (GLM) (see Table 6). In the type of attitudes towards e-advertising, the Table 5: Descriptive statistics of the attitude scale items and attitudinal forms Internetbased The scale item of consumer attitudes towards advertising

Mobile phone

e-ads email

SMS

MMS

Advertising makes product information immediately accessible

3.30

3.11

3.09

3.25

Advertising is a convenient source of product information Advertising is a good source of up-to-date product information Advertising supplies relevant product information Ad informs me of the latest products and information available on the market Advertising helps me get special product price news

3.40 3.29 3.34 3.30 3.34

3.15 3.14 3.04 2.98 3.10

3.06 3.02 3.07 2.88 3.20

3.31 3.20 3.30 3.25 3.27

3.33

3.08

3.05

3.26

Attitudinal form: Informative

Mean value Overall mean value

3.18

Attitudinal form: Entertaining From ad I learn about fashions and what to buy to impress others

3.08

2.83

2.77

2.97

Ad usually makes people laugh and has great amusement value I take pleasure in thinking about what I see, hear or read in ads Ad tells me what people who share my lifestyle will buy and use Ad helps me to know which products will reflect my unique personality Advertising is more interesting than the content of other media

3.10 2.51 3.13 2.65 3.10

2.65 2.12 2.82 2.41 2.62

2.78 2.32 2.75 2.39 2.41

3.09 2.45 2.86 2.50 3.04

2.93

2.57

2.57

2.82

Mean value Overall mean value

2.72

Attitudinal form: Irritating Advertising is irritating

3.17

3.61

3.34

3.09

Advertising is confusing Advertising is deceptive Advertising is annoying I consider advertising an unwelcome interruption

3.11 3.04 3.15 3.03

3.45 3.29 3.62 3.40

3.38 3.18 3.37 3.20

3.04 2.91 3.12 3.09

3.10

3.47

3.29

3.05

Mean value Overall mean value

3.23

Scores: 1 = Strongly disagree; 3 = Neutral; 5 = Strongly agree.



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Table 6: Multiple attitudinal forms comparisons (I) Attitudinal form Advertising sub-type

Attitudes

Mean value

e-advertising

Informative

3.33

Entertaining

2.93

Irritating

3.10

email advertising

Informative Entertaining Irritating

SMS-type advertising

Informative Entertaining Irritating

MMS-type advertising

Informative Entertaining Irritating

(J) Attitudinal form Attitudes Entertaining Irritating Informative Irritating Informative Entertaining

Mean value 2.93 3.10 3.33 3.10 3.33 2.93

Informative > Irritating > Entertaining 3.08 Entertaining 2.57 Irritating 3.47 2.57 Informative 3.08 Irritating 3.47 3.47 Informative 3.08 Entertaining 2.57 Irritating > Informative > Entertaining 3.05 Entertaining 3.29 Irritating 2.57 2.57 Informative 3.05 Irritating 2.57 3.29 Informative 3.05 Entertaining 3.29 Irritating > Informative > Entertaining 3.26 Entertaining 2.82 Irritating 3.05 2.82 Informative 3.26 Irritating 3.05 3.05 Informative 3.26 Entertaining 2.82 Informative > Irritating >Entertaining

Mean difference (I – J) 0.40* 0.23* –0.40* –0.17* –0.23* 0.17* 0.51* –0.39* –0.51* –0.90* 0.39* 0.90* 0.48* –0.24* –0.48* –0.72* 0.24* 0.72* 0.45* 0.21* –0.45* –0.23* –0.21* 0.23*

Scores: 1 = Strongly disagree; 3 = Neutral; 5 = Strongly agree. * The mean difference is significant above the 0.05 level.

mean value of participants’ ‘informative’ attitudinal form was the highest, followed by ‘irritating’. The ‘entertaining’ attitudinal form held the lowest mean value. As for attitudes towards email advertising, the ‘irritating’ attitudinal form’s mean value ranked the highest, while the ‘entertaining’ mean value was lower than the ‘informative’ mean value. The results of attitudes towards SMS- and MMS-type m-advertising were similar to the attitudes towards email- and e-advertising respectively.

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A comparison of consumer attitudes of the four sub-types of advertising The observed means of the four sub-types of interactive digital advertising were then compared using ANOVA and Scheffé post hoc tests (see Table 7). The mean value of the consumer ‘informative’ attitudinal form was essentially equal in e-advertising and MMS-type m-advertising, while the mean values of email advertising and SMS-type m-advertising were equal and lower than for the previous two sub-types of interactive digital advertising. For the ‘entertaining’ attitudinal form, the results were the same as that of the consumer ‘informative’ attitudinal form. Surprisingly, the result of the consumer ‘irritating’ attitudinal form was the reverse – that is, the mean value of the consumer ‘irritating’ attitudinal form was equal in e-advertising and MMS-type m-advertising, while the mean values of email advertising and SMS-type m-advertising were equal and higher than the previous two sub-types of interactive digital advertising.

Conclusions The overwhelming interest in the digital environment around the globe prompts the current research to investigate what attitudes consumers hold towards interactive digital advertising, especially internet-based and mobile-phone-based advertising. This could help affirm the current feasibility and importance of advertising in eCommerce environments and further reveal the potential of mCommerce to realise whether or not customers tire of staring at a two-inch screen for minutes at a time. This exploratory research consisting of samples of university students in Taiwan identifies three attitudinal forms towards four sub-types of interactive digital advertising. These three advertising attitudinal forms are ‘informative’, ‘entertaining’ and ‘irritating’. The four sub-types of interactive digital advertising are internet-based e- and email advertising, and mobile-phone-based SMS- and MMS-type advertising. The research findings reveal that consumers hold different attitudes towards the four sub-types of interactive digital advertising. These findings result in several managerial implications, which are discussed below.



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Table 7: Multiple advertising type comparisons

Attitudinal form Informative

Entertaining

Irritating

(I) Advertising type Advertising Mean value e-advertising 3.33

(J) Advertising type Mean difference Advertising Mean value (I – J) email 3.08 0.24* SMS 3.05 0.28* MMS 3.26 0.06 email 3.08 e-advertising 3.33 –0.24* SMS 3.05 0.03 MMS 3.26 –0.18 SMS-type 3.05 e-advertising 3.33 –0.28* email 3.08 –0.03 MMS-type 3.26 –0.21* MMS-type 3.26 e-advertising 3.33 –0.06 email 3.08 0.18 SMS-type 3.05 0.21* e-advertising = MMS-type > email = SMS-type (Scheffé post hoc test) e-advertising 2.93 email 2.57 0.36* SMS-type 2.57 0.36* MMS-type 2.82 0.11 email 2.57 e-advertising 2.93 –0.36* SMS-type 2.57 0.00 MMS-type 2.82 –0.25* SMS-type 2.57 e-advertising 2.93 –0.36* email 2.57 –0.00 MMS-type 2.82 –0.25* MMS-type 2.82 e-advertising 2.93 –0.11 email 2.57 0.25* SMS-type 2.57 0.25* e-advertising = MMS-type > email = SMS-type (Scheffé post hoc test) e-advertising 3.10 email 3.47 –0.37* SMS-type 3.29 –0.19* MMS-type 3.05 0.05 email 3.47 e-advertising 3.10 0.37* SMS-type 3.29 0.18 MMS-type 3.05 0.42* SMS-type 3.29 e-advertising 3.10 0.19* email 3.47 –0.18 MMS-type 3.05 0.24* MMS-type 3.05 e-advertising 3.10 –0.05 email 3.47 –0.42* SMS-type 3.29 –0.24* email = SMS-type > e-advertising = MMS-type (Scheffé post hoc test)

Scores: 1 = Strongly disagree; 3 = Neutral; 5 = Strongly agree. * The mean difference is significant above the 0.05 level.

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Managerial implications Interactive digital advertising, including internet-based and mobilephone-based advertising, is continually growing at a prodigious rate in Taiwan. Therefore, their business applications must be systematically evaluated and properly integrated into a firm’s business strategies and marketing initiatives in Taiwan. Understanding Taiwanese consumer attitudes towards different sub-types of digital advertising is critical for Taiwan advertisers in designing effective promotional campaigns. In this research, Taiwanese customer attitudes towards interactive digital advertising can be categorised into three forms: ‘informative’, ‘entertaining’ and ‘irritating’. Interactive digital advertising has a significant and positive impact on Taiwanese consumer attitudes towards its informative capabilities. Clearly, the media employed in interactive digital advertising effectively deliver messages to consumers and therefore the informative factor should be incorporated into a firm’s marketing programmes thoughtfully in Taiwan. In spite of their informative effect, to some extent the irritating aspect of interactive digital advertising reflects an overloading of information. Overexposure to information is recognised as equivalent to unfitted advertising messages and is regarded as ‘irritating’. Thus, efforts should be devoted to tailor advertising to consumers’ individual requirements and preferences, and to help marketers design and deliver advertising messages that are viewed as potentially helpful and can match or satisfy consumers’ needs in Taiwan. Unfocused advertising policies should be avoided. Instead customised rather than standardised advertising messages that fulfil consumers’ specific informative needs should be provided and thus help moderate the ‘irritating’ image of interactive digital advertising in Taiwan. It is also worth noting that, surprisingly, internet-based and mobile-phone-based advertising are not generally viewed as highly entertaining. Therefore, Taiwan advertisers need to develop new ideas to increase consumer perceptions of entertainment value in advertising campaigns. Perhaps more amusing advertising programmes based on the two digital media should be developed, such as delivering ‘advergames’ through the internet and mobile phones. These improvements not only help increase the entertaining effect of advertising but also reduce the irritation perceived by customers in Taiwan.



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As to the implications for the four individual sub-types of interactive advertising, on the whole Taiwanese consumer attitudes towards email advertising and SMS-type m-advertising differ from those of e-advertising­ and MMS-type m-advertising. Taiwanese consumer attitudes towards email advertising and SMS-type m-advertising are less positive (such as less informative and entertaining, and more irritating), while e-advertising and MMS-type m-advertising are generally thought of more positively. This result suggests that Taiwanese advertisers should pay attention to certain areas of consumer interest or concern and adjust accordingly, and the diverse use of these four sub-types of interactive digital advertising should be prioritised. Advertising campaigns launched in Taiwan for Taiwanese audiences perhaps ought to make increasing use of e‑advertising­ and MMS-type m-advertising, and avoid the adoption of email advertising­ and SMS-type m-advertising. Taiwanese consumers seem to prefer multiple rich media to text-only advertising and thus the use of multiple media to develop advertising is advisable. Such advertising then ought to be passively rather than actively delivered to customers to best match Taiwanese consumer needs. Limitations and future research directions In spite of the current research’s contributions, a number of questions remain unanswered and deserve future investigation. First of all, it is acknowledged that this research is biased towards the university student demographic in Taiwan and therefore cannot be generalised across the entire public without further replications. Further studies covering other segments and other environments should be undertaken. Such comparative research would go a long way in supporting the results put forward in this research. If attitude differences across segments or environments are identified, moderating effects should be considered and studied further. Second, the interactive digital advertising scale might be operationalised in a more robust manner. At the moment, interactive digital advertising is an emerging field and this concept can be reviewed and developed more appropriately. A more augmented selection of scale items reflecting a more proper concept of consumer attitudes towards interactive digital advertising could be conducted. Third, despite the fact that consumers perceive the four sub-types of interactive digital advertising as ‘informative’ and

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‘entertaining’, it is important to address the issue of how to make advertising less ‘irritating’. Therefore, exploring methods to match advertising with consumer expectation, and thus limit the irritation experienced by customers, is worthy of future research. Fourth, there exist specific categories of advertising within each sub-type of interactive digital advertising (such as location-based SMS-type m-advertising) or various advertising contexts (such as job hunting and real estate advertisements). Apart from the perception of these four sub-types of interactive digital advertising in general, consumers may have different reactions to specific kinds of advertising or various advertising contexts. Efforts can be made in the future to explore these issues. Fifth, it would be desirable to compare the four sub-types of interactive digital advertising investigated in the current research with traditional advertising. This would reveal the differences in consumer attitudes towards traditional advertising media and new media through the internet and mobile phones. Last but not least, it would be interesting to explore the roles of consumer attributes in their attitudes towards the four sub-types of interactive digital advertising.

Acknowledgements The support of the National Science Council of Taiwan is gratefully acknowledged. The current research is part of the research project number NSC 96-2918-I-008-002.

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About the authors Julian Ming-Sung Cheng is an Associate Professor of Marketing in the Department of Business Administration, National Central University, Taiwan. His papers have appeared in Industrial Marketing Management, the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Marketing Channels, and so on. Dr Cheng’s current research interests are in the areas of channels of distribution, international branding, e-marketing and glocal marketing. Charles Blankson is an Associate Professor of Marketing in the Department of Marketing & Logistics, University of North Texas, US. His papers have appeared in publications including the Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, International Journal of Market Research and the Services Industries Journal. Dr Blankson’s current interests are in the areas of positioning strategy, banking marketing and advertising. Edward Shih-Tse Wang is an Assistant Professor of Marketing in the Department of Bio-Industry Extension and Management, National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan. His papers have appeared in The Services Industries Journal, Journal of Product & Brand Management, Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics and so on. Dr Wang’s current research interests are in the areas of consumption value, channels of distribution and e-marketing. Lily Shui-Lien Chen is an Associate Professor of Marketing in the Department of Business Administration, Hsing-Wu College, Taiwan. Her papers have appeared in Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Journal

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of Product & Brand Management, International Journal of Technology Marketing and so on. Dr Chen’s current research interests are in the areas of global branding, channels of distribution, e-marketing and leisure marketing. Address correspondence to: Julian Ming-Sung Cheng, Associate Professor of Marketing, Business Administration Department, National Central University, no. 300, Chung-Ta Rd., Chung-Li City, Tao-Yuan County, Taiwan 32001. Email: [email protected]



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