Web Systems Design and Online Consumer Behavior [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Interactivity of Web Advertising

As noted earlier, the importance of interactivity in Web advertising has been widely
accepted. In fact, interactivity is central to WA and is a key difference between WA and
traditional advertising (Cho & Leckenby, 1999; McMillan & Hwang, 2002; Roehm &
Haugtvedt, 1999). The Web is significantly more interactive than traditional media (Bezjian-Avery
et al., 1998; Steuer, 1992). Although most traditional advertising media also contain some features
of interactivity, the Web brings together various interactive features available in other media and
adds new interactive capabilities of its own. Following is a brief review of some of the key
literature on the interactive nature of WA.

Although there are a variety of conceptualizations of interactivity, this somewhat
complicated construct can be summarized with a few critical characteristics. In general,
interactivity enables consumers to control what information they see, for how long, how many times,
in what order, and when. McMillan and Hwang (2002), in their scale development of perceived
interactivity, proposed that critical characteristics of interactivity are direction of
communication (two-way or one-way), users’ control, and time. The direction of communication
denotes the concepts of responsiveness and exchange; users’ control refers to how much users can
control the content or navigation on the Web; and the time embraces issues such as timely feedback
and time required for information retrieval.

Specifically, researchers who examine ways that new media can facilitate interactions between
humans often focus on the importance of enabling two-way communication among individuals and the
capability of new media for providing feedback (Day, 1998; Pavlik, 1998; Rafaeli & Sudweeks,
1997). Some studies focus on how humans control computers (Murray, 1997; Xie, 2000), while other
studies focus on how control systems (such as navigation tools) are designed into new media
environments (Laurel, 1990; Nielson, 2000; Schneiderman, 1998). A third type of interactivity
identified in the literature is interaction with the messages received both from other individuals
and from the computer. A key element of this interaction is time. The interaction with either
human- or computer-based messages is influenced by the speed with which messages can be delivered
and the speed with which individuals process messages (Nielson, 2000; Vora, 1998).

A primary feature of interactivity is that it enhances the consumer’s role in media
consumption. Consumers can select (or click) any individual WA content whenever they want and
search for commercial information to help them make purchasing decisions. Moreover, consumers can
give feedback or personal information about themselves (e.g., to get catalog, to ask for customer
service, etc.). They also determine how long to stay at a Web site. In other words, the duration of
advertising is up to consumers, not to advertisers. In the case of a Web site as a WA format,
consumers can revisit whenever they want.

Consumer-controlled commercial content is an important characteristic of WA, and is enhanced
by other benefits of interactivity such as two-way, timely communication. This co-participation by
both marketers and consumers enables WA to be customized to fit the consumer’s needs and is one of
the critical benefits of WA (Roehm & Haugtvedt, 1999). While consumers can hardly control the
marketing communication flow and messages in traditional media, the customization of commercial
information for consumer’s needs is increasingly allowed on the Internet. Marketing researchers
(e.g., Sterne, 1995) also argue that the Web is a pull medium, not a push medium (pulling consumers
to the messages instead of pushing messages to the consumers). It totally depends on consumer’s
volition to continue surfing. In short, how WA is perceived and dealt with varies by consumers
along with a variety of navigation flows across different consumers.