The most common online advertising methods are banners, pop-ups, and e-mails.
The essentials of these and some other methods are presented next.
BANNERS. Banners are simply electronic billboards. Typically, a banner contains
a short text or graphical message to promote a product or a vendor. It may even
contain video clips and sound. When customers click on a banner, they are transferred
to the advertiser’s home page. Banner advertising is the most commonly
used form of advertising on the Internet. Advertisers go to great lengths to design
banners that catch consumers’ attention. (See Amiri and Menton, 2003.)
There are two types of banners: Key word banners appear when a
predetermined word is queried from a search engine. This is effective for companies
who want to narrow their target to consumers interested in particular
topics. Random banners appear randomly; they might be used to introduce
new products to the widest possible audience or to promote brand recognition.
A major advantage of banners is that they can be customized to the target
audience (a market segment or even an individual user). If the computer system
knows who you are or what your profile is, you may be sent a banner that
is supposed to match your interests. However, one of the major drawbacks of
banners is that limited information is allowed due to their small size. Hence
advertisers need to think of creative but short messages to attract viewers.
Another drawback is that banners are ignored by many viewers today. A new
generation of banner-like ads are the pop-ups.
POP-UP, POP-UNDER, AND SIMILAR ADS. Pop-up, pop-under, and similar ads
are contained in a new browser window that is automatically launched when
one enters or exits a Web site or by other triggers such as a delay during Internet
surfing. A pop-up ad appears in front of the current browser window. A
pop-under ad appears underneath the active window; when users close the
active window, they see the ad. Pop-ups and pop-unders are sometime difficult
to close. These methods are controversial: Many users strongly object to these
ads, which they consider intrusive.
For many years, pop-up ads generated a steady source of income for online
publishers, but this is no longer the case. Pop-up ad blockers such as Pop-up
Stopper, STOPzilla, and Pop-up Eraser have become increasingly popular. Also,
toolbars with built-in functions that stop pop-up ads are provided by Google,
Yahoo, MSN, and AOL. The new version of the Internet Explorer browser (June
2004) includes a built-in blocker.
E-MAIL ADVERTISING. E-mail is emerging as an Internet advertising and marketing
channel. It is generally cost-effective to implement and provides a better
and quicker response rate than other advertising channels (such as print ads).
Marketers develop or purchase a list of e-mail addresses, place them in a customer
database, and then send advertisements via e-mail. A list of e-mail
addresses can be a very powerful tool because the marketer can target a group
of people or even individuals. For example, Restaurants.com (see Online Minicase
W4.1) uses e-mail to send restaurant coupons to millions of customers.
However, as with pop-ups, there is a potential for misuse of e-mail advertising,
and some consumers are receiving a flood of unsolicited mail. (We address the
topic of unsolicited advertising below.)
ELECTRONIC CATALOGS AND BROCHURES. As described earlier, the merchant’s
objective in using online catalogs is to advertise and promote products
and services. Sometimes merchants find it useful to provide a customized electronic catalog to some individual customers. Each catalog is assembled specifically for
the particular buyer, usually a company but sometimes even an individual consumer
who buys frequently or in large quantities.
SPYWARE BANNERS. Spyware is Internet jargon for advertising-supported
software (adware). It is a way for shareware authors to make money from a
product, other than by selling it to users. Several large media companies offer
to place banner ads in their products in exchange for a portion of the revenue
from banner sales. If end users find the banners annoying, there is usually an
option to remove them. These days, spyware can even be found accompanying
hardware you buy and install in your system. The software that end users install
with hardware purchased from certain manufacturers may include spyware
agents.
Spyware threats come in different flavors. A spyware agent can be any of
the following: A hijacker redirects your browser to Web sites. A dialer dials a
service, most likely porn sites, for which you are billed. A Trojan horse is
attached to a program and performs undesirable tasks on your computer. Collectware
collects information about you and your surfing habits, and those who
gathered that information may try to sell it to advertisers. (See Online File W4.8
for additional discussion of the categories of spyware.)
The essentials of these and some other methods are presented next.
BANNERS. Banners are simply electronic billboards. Typically, a banner contains
a short text or graphical message to promote a product or a vendor. It may even
contain video clips and sound. When customers click on a banner, they are transferred
to the advertiser’s home page. Banner advertising is the most commonly
used form of advertising on the Internet. Advertisers go to great lengths to design
banners that catch consumers’ attention. (See Amiri and Menton, 2003.)
There are two types of banners: Key word banners appear when a
predetermined word is queried from a search engine. This is effective for companies
who want to narrow their target to consumers interested in particular
topics. Random banners appear randomly; they might be used to introduce
new products to the widest possible audience or to promote brand recognition.
A major advantage of banners is that they can be customized to the target
audience (a market segment or even an individual user). If the computer system
knows who you are or what your profile is, you may be sent a banner that
is supposed to match your interests. However, one of the major drawbacks of
banners is that limited information is allowed due to their small size. Hence
advertisers need to think of creative but short messages to attract viewers.
Another drawback is that banners are ignored by many viewers today. A new
generation of banner-like ads are the pop-ups.
POP-UP, POP-UNDER, AND SIMILAR ADS. Pop-up, pop-under, and similar ads
are contained in a new browser window that is automatically launched when
one enters or exits a Web site or by other triggers such as a delay during Internet
surfing. A pop-up ad appears in front of the current browser window. A
pop-under ad appears underneath the active window; when users close the
active window, they see the ad. Pop-ups and pop-unders are sometime difficult
to close. These methods are controversial: Many users strongly object to these
ads, which they consider intrusive.
For many years, pop-up ads generated a steady source of income for online
publishers, but this is no longer the case. Pop-up ad blockers such as Pop-up
Stopper, STOPzilla, and Pop-up Eraser have become increasingly popular. Also,
toolbars with built-in functions that stop pop-up ads are provided by Google,
Yahoo, MSN, and AOL. The new version of the Internet Explorer browser (June
2004) includes a built-in blocker.
E-MAIL ADVERTISING. E-mail is emerging as an Internet advertising and marketing
channel. It is generally cost-effective to implement and provides a better
and quicker response rate than other advertising channels (such as print ads).
Marketers develop or purchase a list of e-mail addresses, place them in a customer
database, and then send advertisements via e-mail. A list of e-mail
addresses can be a very powerful tool because the marketer can target a group
of people or even individuals. For example, Restaurants.com (see Online Minicase
W4.1) uses e-mail to send restaurant coupons to millions of customers.
However, as with pop-ups, there is a potential for misuse of e-mail advertising,
and some consumers are receiving a flood of unsolicited mail. (We address the
topic of unsolicited advertising below.)
ELECTRONIC CATALOGS AND BROCHURES. As described earlier, the merchant’s
objective in using online catalogs is to advertise and promote products
and services. Sometimes merchants find it useful to provide a customized electronic catalog to some individual customers. Each catalog is assembled specifically for
the particular buyer, usually a company but sometimes even an individual consumer
who buys frequently or in large quantities.
SPYWARE BANNERS. Spyware is Internet jargon for advertising-supported
software (adware). It is a way for shareware authors to make money from a
product, other than by selling it to users. Several large media companies offer
to place banner ads in their products in exchange for a portion of the revenue
from banner sales. If end users find the banners annoying, there is usually an
option to remove them. These days, spyware can even be found accompanying
hardware you buy and install in your system. The software that end users install
with hardware purchased from certain manufacturers may include spyware
agents.
Spyware threats come in different flavors. A spyware agent can be any of
the following: A hijacker redirects your browser to Web sites. A dialer dials a
service, most likely porn sites, for which you are billed. A Trojan horse is
attached to a program and performs undesirable tasks on your computer. Collectware
collects information about you and your surfing habits, and those who
gathered that information may try to sell it to advertisers. (See Online File W4.8
for additional discussion of the categories of spyware.)
No comments:
Post a Comment