Marco Ieva, Cristina Ziliani, Juan Carlos Vazquez-Abad,

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Article: Marco Ieva, Cristina Ziliani, Juan Carlos Vazquez-Abad & Ida D'Attoma. (2018). Online versus Offline Promotional Communication Evaluating the Effect of Medium On Customer Response.

doi: https://doi.org/10.2501/JAR-2017-04

Contents

[edit] CONTEXT

Many business debate over whether or not to change their marketing strategy to online. The rise of the internet and social media has effected advertising and marketing in great ways. The reach online media can provide is vast and information can be exchanged at a much faster pace. The topic of substituting online promotional media for print lacks pre-existing research. The benefits of online media is discussed but the comparisons between the two has yet to be examined. The effect of online versus print is investigated through the means of a store flyer. This study will validate any claims made for online and also contribute to the larger discussion of marketing.

[edit] OVERVIEW

The article by Marco Ieva, Cristina Ziliani, Juan Carlos Vazquez-Abad, and Ida D’Attoma studies the effects of print and online promotional media on customer response. There is more opportunity to expose your brand using online methods. Due to this opportunity and the advantages of cost effectiveness, online advertising is rapidly increasing. Online flyers are worth of note as they are a large part of global promotional communication (pg.339). Flyers communicate stores, brands, products and prices. Using a flyer Ieva et al. evaluate the effectiveness and consumer responses to online, print, both or neither version of the flyer. The flyer was of retail chain that included 37 stores. The flyer ran for 14 days and consisted of 32 pages that promoted 268 items. The flyer contained 154 different brands that varied from national to private labels. Their findings found that online promotional marketing can be cost effective, flexible and provide a better way to target specific consumers.


[edit] STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

The authors conducted a pilot study prior to the field experiment research to address any liabilities. This study involved 882 customers while the actual study had 9,902. The strengths of the authors studies lies in the numbers as the large group of participants, sampled randomly, providing more accurate measurements. The extensive analysis attributed to the overall research on online media effectiveness which has lacks volume.

The study found that print and online have the same effects on consumers. The application of his study can be used when retailers seek to cut print media to save costs. Flyers, and other promotional texts, can be customized which benefits companies (pg. 343) as online flyers can be more flexible and based on purchase history.


Even though the authors provided a study that contributes to the overall research on this topic, their means of evaluation is limited. A survey was the only item given out to collect data from consumers and was delivered at the 14 day mark when the flyer ended. This delay could affect the memory aspect of the study. The online flyer was viewed from a laptop/computer screen which provided the limitation of accessibility. Mobile advertising has proven to be a huge player among consumers. Limiting the study in this way proves to be a disadvantage on the research as a whole.


[edit] ASSESSMENT

The research found that memory and purchase behaviour was the same for print and online media flyers. Finding that both mediums came out the same from their research was dissatisfying as they did not create a stir in existing research on the topic. Due to the same results they included reasons to go for online marketing which included cost efficiency and the advantages of the internet. However, this is already a fact known to many marketers. This study contributes to the literature on print vs. online promotional media and includes practicality as the authors address the advantages a retail store will have when switching to online media.

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