---------------------------

Kelvin Lee and Kenneth E. Miller

Abstract This paper examines the influence of customizing the structural aspects of a corporate Web site in order to create positive attitudes towards the Web site and brand. The structural aspect of Internet ads is concerned with presentation format (verbal and/or visual presentation) and content, including the creative appeal, the types of information and interactive features. This paper introduces four individual-level preferences such as the need for cognition, types of goal­directed motives, level of personaL relevance and preferred information-processing strategy, as content and message appeal are design factors affecting consumers' response to the Web site. Data was gathered through an online survey with a sample size of 245 respondents. Three familiar brands were used. The Covariance Structural Modeling (CSM) results show that the customization of the Web site affects the extent to which users perceived that the Web content and message appeal was being customized to meet their individual-level preferences. Contrary to expectations, the relationship between the extent of perceived message customization and the attitude towards the Web site is positive but insignificant. The analysis suggests that the extent of perceived message customiza'l"ion has a positive impact on users' brand attitude and attitude towards the Web site. The findings provide evidence to support that cu~tomizanon of the Web site with information derived from individual-level preferences, allows one to design creative content and message appeals to effect posiHve attitudes towards the Web site and brand.

Kelvin Lee, School of Marketing. University of Technology, Sydney. Australia Kenneth E. Miller, Professor of Marketing, Schoof of Marketing, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

We are grateful to AMR Interactive, Australia for their assistance and permission to use their existing online panel.

Introduction Since 1998, the number of online adults who on the Internet is about building customer claim that online information has changed relationships, building cyber brands, providing their brand opinions and purchasing has risen. customer services, generating electronic According to the Dieringer Research Group sale of goods and services, efficiently (2002), 60 percent of online adults changed delivering marketing/advertising messages their opinions due to online information, to appropriate audiences and creating as compared to 28 percent of brand-new mass customization and interactive/direct Internet users. The findings recommend that marketing. One benefit of Internet advertising marketers should ensure their websites and is customization. Marketers and advertisers online interactions are consistent with the value customization because customized overall corporate brand image their company . products and communications attract cus­wishes to establish. tomer attention and foster customer loyalty

(Ansari and Mela, 2003). Many existing Internet advertising is recognized as an approaches to online customiza1'ion are effective medium that facilitates maximum largely based on demographic targeting or response from target audience segments, on information gained directly from the user. given that it provides unlimited reach in time and space, format delivery, interactivity As Raghu, Kannan, Rao and Whinston (2001, and linkage to databases (Yoon and Kim, p. 120) have stated, 'Customization is possible 2001). Meeker (1996) states that advertising on the basis of customer input'. It is definitely

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figure 1: Determinants of Customized C,orporate Web Site Design to Effect Positlve Attitudes Towar'd the Web site and BJrdnd

Determinants of Customized Web_ Site Design

1. Personality Traits - Need for Cognition

2. Goal-Directed Motives - Informational Need - Entertainment Need

3. Information Processing Strategy - Central Route to Persuasion - Peripheral - Route to

Persuasion 4. Personal Relevance

(Involvement) - High - Medium - Lo'w

1992). Personality has been identified as one of the variables which moderate the strength of the relationship between attitude and behavior (Cooper and Croyle). Lee, Miller and Hingorani (2002) conceptualized that individuals who have a high need for cognition are likely to view information in terms of a goal­directed motive. Such individuals would prefer informational/rational ads that emphasize more verbal material and less visual effect. These ads will therefore enhance their memory and recall for the product/brand information. On the other hand, individuals who have a low need for cognition are more likely to have an entertainment-oriented goal-directed motive and would prefer emotional/transformational ads that highlight visual effects that capture their attention.

Goal-directed Motive The customization of the advertising message embraces their preference (motives) for an informative - and/or entertainment-oriented corporate Web site. A motivational construct (goal-directed motives) is therefore included as one of the important determinants for explaining both the direction of behavior and brand information-processing. The goal­

1. Entertainment Content / Emotional Appeal - Contains More Visuals and Interactive Features

2. Iinformation Content / Rational Appeal - Contains More Verbal Content and Less Interactive Features

I" Positive A~itodes

Toward the Web Site

and Brand

directed motive is defined as Internet users' desire, willingness, interest or readiness to process persuasive communication about brand information, presented in the form of an Internet ad. A corporate Web site with content that can satisfy an Internet user's goal-directed motive will be relatively easy to process, therefore elaboration of the message may be enhanced. Besides the type of Internet ad that an Internet user will be attracted to, an individual's reaction to an ad (for example, ad/brand attitude) is also a function of his/her motivation. For example, Rodgers and Sheldon (2000) suggested that individuals who are driven to use the Internet for a particular reason, such as searching or browsing, are more likely to express a favorable attitude toward the ad that corresponds with that motive.

Level of Personal Relevance Previous studies have suggested that there is a link between product category and message strategies (CutlerandJavalgi, 1993;Liebermann and Flint-Goor, 1996). Petty, Cacioppo and Schumann (1983) and Petty and Cacioppo (1986) suggested that involvement (personal relevance) with an issue is directly or indirectly

necessary to obtain preference information from the customer before customization can work. Technically, the current technologies available on the Internet could profile in­dividual users in a number of ways. For example, the user provides information by filling out a registration form or survey, the technology then records the user's actions and builds a profile based on this history or uses statistical means to draw conclusions about the user. For example, one of the commercial ad-servers, DoubleClick, uses a targeting technique, known as DART, that collects user information corresponding to usage context (such as computer activity, domain name, viewing habits, time of day etc.), then 'cookies' are deployed to further refine the matching of marketers' need with the user profile. As such, derived from the use profil~ so developed, the server enquires into its inventory of advertisements to select an ad mix. Although the ad mix is designed on an ad hoc basis and in real time, its effectiveness is largely based on the types of information available. Raghu et al. (2001) argues that there is still a need for methodologies that can collect the customer's information most efficiently within a short timeframe, as well as dynamically updating customer preferences as more information becomes available, which helps to provide suggestions for product customization and advertisement targeting in real time. The authors, however. claim that there is still a lack of theoretical models that can be used to acquire and analyze the customer information in order to provide a better understanding of the characteristics of the information acquisition process.

In the Internet advertising literature, Roehm and Haugtvedt (1999) suggested the use of customized advertising messages based on the consumer's personality. Customization, in the advertising perspective, is referred to as the extent of responsiveness to and the potential to facilitate interpersonal comm­unication (Heeter, 1989). According to Heeter (1989), the benefit of customization involves simply customizing messages by inserting the customer's name in various app-ropriate points in the web page presentation. Many Internet advertising researchers have highly recommended customization. However, little

attention is given to how customization can be operationalized. To address these issues, we propose a model employing individual-level preferences such as the need for cognition, goal-directed motives. level of personal relevance and preferred information-processing strategy as variables for customizing Web site content to appeal to Internet users. This study examines the effect of company-initiated Web site customization on users' attitudes toward the Web site and brand.

The Research Modell

As shown in Figure 1 (next page), the model proposed for Web site customization begins with the structural approach. The structural approach examines the impact of Internet ad message features (for example, ad types and ad format) on consumers' attitudes, and the effects of modality (presentation) that may be used to understand the relative cognitive effects of different multimedia combinations. The model focuses on company-initiated customization to predict a user's change in attitude in response to Internet advertising. Tllat is, customization is concerned with the presentation format of the Web site content in terms of verbal and/or visual presentation and 'content' decisions which include the creative appeal, the types of information (or emotion) and interactive features (animation, animated graphics/icons, hyperlinks etc.). 'Content' embraces the variations in the ad in relation to the product category and product involvement by matching them with consumers' personality traits, goal-directed motives and their preferred information­processing strategy, and 'form' refers to the inclusion of interactive ad features. The model embraces these preferences to customize Web site content to appeal to the users.

Need for Cognition The eXisting consumer research literature has also shown that individual differences in the need for cognition were linked to a theory of persuasion (ELM), and empirical results have shown that attitude changes in a manner similar to situational manipulation of motivation (Haugtvedt, Petty and Cacioppo,

,

related to the extensiveness of the cognitive effort that consumers expend in forming or changing their attitudes. Personal relevance was conceptualized as 'motivation' and 'ability' to process advertising messages in the Elaboration Likelihood Model. Cacioppo and Petty (1985) suggested that in a high personal relevance situation (for example, a computer product), individuals have high motivation to process advertisement messages due to the high personal relevance, high product cate­gory involvement and high need for cognition. The reverse applied for low-involvement situations. Individuals in low personal rele­vance situations (for example, a soft-drink product) have low motivation to process adverl-ising messages due to the low personal relevance and low need for cognition.

Cho (1999) suggested that the level of involvement in terms of personal relevance and product category involvement is an importantdetermining factorofusers' response to the ad message. Given the high personal relevance and product involvement situation, users are likely to have higher motivation to process the advertising message since they would request more information by clicking on the ad. In these situations, Internet users are likely to demand greater information to satisfy their intrinsic need for information and cognition (Cho, 1999). In this case, they are motivated to employ a central information­processing strategy to procesS' the advertising message.

On the contrary, given a low personal rele­vance and product category involvement, Internet users are likely to have lower motivation to process an advertising message a nd therefore are less likely to request more informa1-ion. In these situations, they are either not motivated to process further or choose not to engage in message-related thinking. These users are likely to concentrate on peripheral cues that are attention-getting or curiosity­generating stimuli, such as a large-sized banner, bright colour or animation (ibid). They are likely to process advertising messages that are guided by their impulse and curiosity. They perform the activity for its own sake rather than as a means to a specific end (Hoffman and

Novak, 1995). These users therefore employ a peripheral information-processing strategy.

Information-processing Strategy The presence of various goals changes the nature of information processing behaviours. Prior research has also shown that 'types of motives' and 'features of message stimuli' work interdependently to guide and direct information-processing in various contexts (Synder and Cantor, 1998). Bettman, Payne and Luce (1998) have made a similar suggestion about ad message processing and elaboration in a non-Internet environment. A review of the Internet advertising literature has shown that most Internet ads are designed to focus on visual and verbal material that is interesting, informative and entertaining, in an attempt to attract users' attention and to enhance the value or attractiveness of the content. For example, the findings from Sundar (2000) suggested that audio and video downloads are powerful cues and are likely to be noticed and scrutinized more by the users than a few paragraphs of text. He stated that the addition of multimedia on a Web site appears to positively affect users' memory for the advertisements on the site. In another study, by Sundar, Narayan, Obregon and Uppal (1998), they suggested that the extent to which advertisers use the new features of the online medium that are non­existing in print (for example, audio and video downloads, animated images, hyperlinks, site­map etc.) are more likely to enhance users' attention to advertising. They suggested that the information-processing approach could be applied to determine the types of features that help or hinder the reception as well as the reaction of the users to lriternet advertising.

Therefore, in this paper, we emphasize the importance of customizing Web site content to appeal to users for the achievement of maximum persuasiveness. That is, the Web site content is customized based on the need for cognition, goal-directed motives, level of personal relevance and information-processing strategies of Internet users to influence the strength of message customization. As illustrated in Figure 2, the

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following hypothesis was proposed to test the expected relationship.

H1: The extent of Web site customization influences the extent to which Internet users perceive Web site message custom­ization.

Attitudes Toward the Web Site and Brand Positive attitudes are associated with the choice of the advertising message, through which the message recipients' attitude to the advertised brand may be made more favorable. In advertising literature, this concern is reflected in the burgeoning research on attitude and attitude change. Advertising communications can therefore be better designed and more effective if the basis and dynamics of attitude formation and change are understood, and this understanding is used as a basis for designing adverl-ising messages, together with their creative execution.

Previous studies (Bucy, Lang, Potter and Grabe, 1999; Ghose and Dou, 1998; Reeve and Nass, 1996; Rodgers and Thorson, 2000; Sundar, 2000) have suggested that effect of modality is important in predicting not only potential responses such as click responses, and users experiencing perceived control and involvement, but also enhances memory and impacts on the evaluation of media content. Previous studies have suggested that the moderating effects are related to the amount of cognitive effort an individual has been willing and/or able to expend in forming or changing attitudes (Cialdini, Petty and Cacioppo, 1981; Petty and Cacioppo, 1986). That is, attitudes that are formed or changed with greater cognitive effort are more predictive of future behavior, compared to attitudes which are formed with less cognitive effort. According to the Elaboration Likelihood Model developed by Petty and Cacioppo (1981,1986), there are two information-processing strategies for attitude change - central and peripheral route-processing. For example, in some circumstances, attitude forma1"ion and change results from a consumer's careful attempts to comprehend and evaluate the

new information with his/her prior knowledge into a coherent and reasoned opinion about the brand. In other situations, consumers use peripheral factors such as their feelings about the quality of the ad, the source of the ad or their current mGod state as cues to assist them to decide how they feel about the advertised brand. A motivated individual tends toengage in central processing. The persuasiveness of the message basically depends on careful and in-depth consideration of the merits of the advertised product. On the other hand, an individual who has little motivation tends to disregard the informational aspects of the message and is likely to be persuaded by peripheral cues.

Bucy et al. (1999) suggested that it is important to distinguish between the content (verbal and visual informational components of the message) and the form [packaging of that information such as format, structure, editing and digital effects). In this paper, the form and content of an ad are viewed as interacting with each other to bring about a positive attitude towards the Web site and the brand. This is because Reeves and Nass (1996) have suggested that an interaction between the content and form of an ad results in an increased liking of the ad; the interaction affects ad attitude. As prior research (Mitchell and Olson, 1981; Shimp and Yokum, 1982; Lutz, Mackenzie and Belch, 1983; Moore and Hutchinson, 1983; Mackenzie and Lutz, 1983, Park and Young, 1985) has established the connection between ad attitude and brand attitude, it is reasonable to postulate relationships between the interaction of content and form and attitude towards the site and brand.

The foregoing discussion leads to the following hypotheses.

H1: The perceived Web site customization is a positive predictor of attitude towards a Web site.

H2: The perceived Web site customiza1"ion is a positive predictor of attitude towards the brand.

H3: An Internet user's attitude towards the site is a positive predictor of attitude towards

relevant content of an ad and to integrate this the brand.

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Figure 2: Hypothesized Relationship of Attitude-Site-Brand Relationship

Customized Web Site Design

Research Design and Methodology

Data was gathered through an online survey with a sample size totalling 245 respondents. Two samples, including undergraduate busi­ness students, working adults and a com­mercial online panel were used. Three different corporate Web sites using familiar brands were developed. The design of the Web sites' content was based on their product type (soft drink, fashion apparel and computer), level of personal relevance (high, medium and low), goal-directed motives (information versus entertainment), and personality traits (high, medium and low need for cognition).

The measurement scales used in this study were adapted from various sources to suit the specific context of Internet advertising. These measurement scales were based on valid and reliable measures found in previous research. In order to measure attitudinal response, this research utilized the scales developed by Gardner (1985), Mitchell (1986). Maheswaran and Sternthal (1990), and Cho (1999). Since these scales were originally designed for traditional media to measure attitudes toward the ad and brand, they were modified to apply in the context of Internet advertising. Cho's (1999) scales were directly applied in this research to measure Web site design customization and perceived message cus­tomization. All scales were measured on a 7­point Likert scale.

Brand Attitude

Attitudes Toward the

Web Site

Stimuli Materials Table 1 summarize the stimuli materials employed for the study. The design of banner ads and corporate Web site content was created to closely match each individual's differences in their need for cognition, the current goal-directed motives (informational versus entertainment) for their browsing and searching on the Internet and their preferred information-processing strategies (central rou-: te information-processing versus peripheral route information-processing). Given that the message content is capable of affecting the ability to process, the messages designed for the banner and corporate Web site were a trade-off between argument processing (elaboration likelihood is high) and the opera­tion of peripheral cues (elaboration likelihood is low). That is, both high and medium levels of personal involvement (computer and fashion apparel) were presented with message argument processing, whereas the low-involvement soft drink was prepared with source-Iikeability peripheral cues to influence attitude in the absence of argument scrutiny.

In this study, familiar brands were used. In a previous empirical study by Ward and Lee (2000), Internet users were found to be reacting more favourably to familiar brands as they prefer well-known brands. Empirical results provided by Dahlen (2001) have shown that a familiar brand has a positive effect on brand attitude when a consumer is exposed to it once or twice, but this effect wears off with multiple exposures.

Perceived Message

Customization

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Table 1: Classification of Stimuli Employed

Web Site Design Variables : Ad Design Principles

Familiar LevelQf Perso.nalPr()ductI

-Brand Relevance

Low Low Entertainment Need for

Cognition

Central Route High Information

High Information Need for Processing Cognition (Verbal

Processing)

Combination of

Medium Informational and

Entertainment

Figure 3 shows the basic structural design of the banner ads and corporate Web sites used in this study. Three standard-sized banner ads of 460 x 55 pixels were created. Each banner ad was created with a different advertising theme and interactive features. All banner ads contained two identical design properties with the actual company logo on the left side of the banner space and an animated actual (current) company slogan or message flashed across the centre of the banner to trigger the respondent's brand familiarity. The background colour used for all banner ads (or the dominant colour of the banner) was white. An exception was allowed for the soft-drink banner ad because the background colour (red) used was the exact colour of the actual brand to project the psychological effect of

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"~io~~siing · Motives '-"Traits AppealStrategies

Medium Need for Cognition

warmth, sense of novelty and entertainment. In addition, interactive features such as animated images were included in the soft­drink banner ad to catalyze and initiate immediate reaction (clicking on the banner ad). Even though the computer banner ad was purposely designed as an informative banner, a blue animated butterfly was built­in as a means of directing the respondents' attention to the product benefits. Similarly, for the fashion apparel banner, blinking words relating to the product's attributes were flashed to ensure the users' attention. The three banner ads were rotated for two forced exposures: the first was for viewing and the second was for clicking on the preferred banner ad and being transported to the respective Web site.

Peripheral Route

Information­processing

(Visual Processing)

A Combination

of Central and Peripheral

Route Information Processing

(Both Verbal and Visual Processing)

Entertainment­oriented

Informational-oriented

More Informational-

and Less Entertainment-

oriented

Image site Contains More

Visuals and Interactive Features

Informational site

Contains More Verbal

Content and Less

Interactive Features

Combined Informational and Image

site Contains

More Verbal Content and Interactive Features

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Figure 3: Structural Design of Banner Ad and Web Site, Content

Company Tagline or Headlines of the Logo

Product and Actual Product ImaQes

(a) Design of Banner Ad

Animated Company Slogan Animated Company Slogan

Flash animation with music

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0) ..... .....

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Viewing Area

Logo

(b) Introduction Entry Page for Soft Drink (c) Main Home Page for Soft Drink

Logo Navigational Buttons

Q. <ll 0 .~ :2:U <ll 0-0c . ­- ::> o

Viewing Area

(c) Main Home Page for Computer

Flash animation with squared photo-images rotating in a

clockwise directory.

Entry

(e) Introductory Entry Page for Fashion Apparel

A dummy online newspaper Web page and three corporate Web sites were created. The dummy online newspaper (titled The Sydney Times) was constructed to host the experimental banner ads, presented in a rotating mode at the top lefthand side of the Web page. Past research has suggested that the perception of online newspapers is

Logo Images of Specific Product

**It contained static and

animated images as background.

Viewing Area

Navigational Buttons ~

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(f) Main Page for Fashion Apparel

more credible than all other media channels, regardless of the type of information, such as news, references, entertainment or com­mercial (Flanagin and Metzger, 2001). With the aim of increasing the practicality of the study, the news headlines and stories were taken from actual newspapers and edited in length to fit into the computer screen. The numbers

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of graphics that appeared as foreground in the main body was restricted, in order to not hinder the reception of the experimental banner ads. The page guides and links for the cover stories were inactive, to prevent the respondents from jumping between stories and to discourage them from reading the textual materials. A scrolling text was placed below the banner ads as a form of providing instrudion for the respondents and to draw the respondents' attention to the ads.

As shown in Figure 3 (a), the three Web sites were designed with differentcreative attributes so that each layout was distinctive according to its appeal. A rational-informational appeal with persuasive argument about the product's attributes was used for the computer brand, while the soft-drink brand incorporated an emotional-entertainment appeal in which source expert and likeability peripheral cues were built in. The third brand, fashion apparel, used a combination of both rational-infor­mational and emotional-entertainment ap­peals, with a more persuasive argument than the attractive source peripheral cues presented in the ad.

The soft drink's home page was deliberately constructed with entertainment content, as shown in Figures 3 (b) and (c). An introduction page started out wi'th well-known pop music being played to gain the respondents' att ­ention and to be perceived as fun, cool and entertaining. The background colour was red (the exact colour of the actual brand) and the page was divided into two frames with a large logo and animated navigation buttons when the mouse was placed over the button. A fast and animated company slogan was placed on the top frame to mechanize the effect of entertainment and to reinforce the original advertising theme of the soft-drink company.

The entertainment content and its relevance were further enhanced by providing three 'cool' links: (1) a video link to three animated cartoon television advertisements; (2) a link containing a celebrity endorsement, including a video of the recent television commercial launch, an interview about the filming of the commercial and an MTY clip of

the pop song used in the commercial; and (3) a link for downloading favouritescreen-savers and wallpapers. With the aim of building an entertainment site for the soft-drink product, various combinations of presentation modals, such as texh..Jal materials, flashing and animated graphics and images, music and video features were all targeted to initiate the respondents' reaction to get involved while surfing the site.

The computer brand's Web page was conservatively designed as a rich information site for those information-seekers who were searching for more information about the advertised product and its claimed attributes. The Web content was strictly verbal with only relevant graphics/images to illustrate the product, its attributes and benefits. The 'targeted product benefits' presented on the banner ad was strengthened with fully detailed descriptions of the specified product and its range. Strong arguments were used to prompt and stimulate cognitive thinking about the advertised brand, and extra product information was provided for evaluation, targeting those respondents who were searching for computer information or an alternative solution to their intended purchase.

As shown in Figure 3 (dJ, other than the main home page that offered on-screen information about the advertised product, five links (or prompts) were created on top of the Web page to furnish: (1) information about the product description and its range; (2) performance rating; (3) performance review; (4) upgrade and accessories; and (5) award list. These linkages were aimed at getting the respondents involved in searching for the additional information required, as well as ensuring an information fit (personal and product relevance) between the advertising message on the banner ad and the relevant content for the target ad.

A more sophisticated and animated Intra· ductory page as 'entry' to the entire fashion apparel Web site was constructed, as shown in Fgure 3 (e). The starting page was Intended to be perceived as original. innovative and

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integrity (original company tagline), which were the main advertising message claims in the banner ad. The focus of the Web design was on presenting a combination of visual and verbal content [informational and image site). A 'graphic ally' displayed the celebrites and fashion as the background, with a rich information display of the products as the foreground. Three links were created at the bottom of the home page: (1) a link to provide fully detailed information about a new innovative jeans style; (2) a link to the company's history; and (3) a link to the new range of Summer fashion. Each link contained not only textual materials, but also small animated celebrity graphics and some c1ickable thumbnail images (see Figure 3 (f)).

Manipulaf'ion Checks Previous studies have identified the main rea­sons for Web sites' failure as difficulty in navi­gation, irrelevant information which pays little or no attention to the Internet users I needs, and an inability to present rich visual information and a reasonable amount of dynamism when consumers first arrive at a Web page. Pre-tests were therefore performed to test all of these concerns on the experimental Web sites. The manipulation checks were adapted from previous studies (Celsi and Olson, 1988; Gardner, 1985; Petty and Cacioppo, 1984). Two separate online tests were conducted in the computer laboratory (n = 35 and n = 54). In order to direct the subjects' processing goal when exposed to the experimental materials, subjects were instructed to evaluate the design (creative aspects) of each Web site, but not the brand. All Web sites pre-tested met the desired properties as established in Table 1. Pre-test subjects were assigned to all experimental ads and asked to rate the extent to which the ad content met the desired creative design manipulations. Relia­bility tests were performed on all measures, while independent sample t-tests were used to determine the validity of the manipulations. The results showed that the soft-drink Web site was perceived as more entertainment­oriented (M = 2.38, t-value = -8.358 and p­value = 0.00) than information-oriented (M = 3.28, t-value = -3.321 and p-value = 0.00). As for the computer Web site, the subjects

perceived its content as an informative site (M = 2.58, t-value = -10.203 and p-value =0.00). The fashion apparel site was perceived as a combination of information (M = 2.35, t-value = -11 .284, p-~alue =0.00) and entertainment (M = 2.70, t-value = -6.126, p-value = 0.00) site.

Sample Size and Characteristics The population for this study is Internet users. As such, there were no boundaries placed on the potential respondents, since the Internet can be connected anywhere and at anytime. Two samples were drawn. The first sample was recruited by using advertising flyers and emails to undergraduate business students. A professional marketing research firm, AMR Interactive Australia, using its existing online panel, provided the second sample. The panel was invited via email to participate in the study. A Web URL address was then sent to those who showed interest and willingness to participate in this study in return for a cash draw incentive.

Survey Procedure The online survey is divided into eight 'pages' of study questionnaire. This has been specially designed to accommodate the possibility of respondents dropping out during the survey. Each Web page of the survey questionnaire has a separate 'submit' button to accommodate the dropouts during the participation and data transmission. Due to the length of the survey, the full survey questionnaire was divided into eight separate pages to reduce participants' boredom and frustration, as well as facilitating and maintaining their interest and involvement. A pop-up 'error message' was incorporated when the answers to questions were missed. A pop-up 'message dialogue' was also integrated to give the respondents brief instructions for the following questionnaire when they clicked the 'submit' button. Relevant instructions were also repeat­ed and placed on the bottom of the 'submit' button.

When the participants volunteered for the study, they were asked to sign an online consent form. The content form outlined the

•

objective of the study and a brief statement of the participants' rights before they pro­ceeded. The participants clicked on the 'Do Not Agree' button to reject the survey if they decided not to proceed further. A thank-you message popped up to instruct the participants to close the window. The system was designed not to capture any record for those par1"icipants who opted not to proceed.

The introductory screen outlined the sequence of the Web questionnaire, such as the number of sections, exposure to banner ads on the dummy online newspaper, selecting one of their preferred Web pages to click on the hyperlink[s) and browse the designated site. In the first four questionnaire pages, participants were asked to answer questions concerning their Web usage, personality traits and prefer­ence of verbal/visual processing. Each Web page has its separate 'submit' button for data transmission and storage into the server database.

Upon the submission of the fourth question­naire page, a 'pop-up' window appeared. It contained three inactive cycling [rotating) banner ads. A scrolling message was placed under the rotating banners. It served two main purposes: as 'attention getter' to divert the participants' attention toward viewing the banners and as 'instructions' for the parti­cipants to close the window in order to return to the questionnaire. After the pre-exposure to the banner ad, participants were asked to answer questions on their goal-directed motives and brand attitude.

An online IQ quiz totalling 12 questions popped up after the submission. This was used as a means of 'distraction task' so that the participants might not remember and recall the banner ads they had seen earlier. The online quiz took between one and three minutes to fill in and participants could check their correct answers or replay the quiz until they decided to stop. The participants were then asked to click on the button 'finish' and close the window.

After the 'distraction task', the same dummy online newspaper appeared as a 'pop-up'

window. A scrolling text was ~laced beneath the banner ads to instruct the participants to click on one of their preferred banner ads. This would transport them to the respective Web site. This was a form of forced and repeated exposure. Participants were then encouraged to browse, click on the hyperlinks on the homepage or read the content of each Web page at their own pace. They were strictly allowed to select and browse only one of the three Web sites. After they had finished browsing the site, the participants were asked to close the window and return to the Web questionnaire. The number of clicks was recorded in the database.

On the last stage, the participants were asked to answer questions on their attitude towards the Web site and brand. This was followed by questions on the participants' demographics in terms of age, gender and educational level. Finally, a 'thank you' message was displayed at the end of the questionnaire page. The total time spent on completing the whole survey was an average of 25 minutes.

Descriptive Statistics Fifty-five percent of the sample was male and about 89 percent of participants were 18 to 40 years old. Sixty-six percent of the subjects had at least an undergraduate or associated degree and about 81 percent reported using the Internet for more than 10 hours per week. When asked to state the purpose of using the Internet. almost half of the sample reported using the Internet for the purpose of searching for information. About 25 percent of the subjects reported using it for entertainment purposes and 11 percent used it for online shopping. Only a small portion of the sample claimed to use the Internet for communication and work-related activities. 46 percent of the sample had more than three years' Internet experience.

Results

The assessment of the measurement models was conducted through exploratory and confirmatory analyses to test the convergent validity and discriminant validity of the con~

structs. There were four constructs. Each

• &b

::onstruct was unidimensional. The findings indicate that the dimensions of these con­structs were conceptually and empirically acceptable with multiple goodness-of-fit indices (GFI, CFI, TLI and NFl) above the 0.90 recommended level. All variances extracted for the latent constructs are equal to or greater than the conventional standard of 50 percent. The average factor loadings on these constructs were all equal to or greater than 0.70. Factor loadings of less than 0.50 were

removed. The measurement was re-specified and similar CFA was conducted to test the goodness-of-flt, within cons·truct convergent validity and within construct discriminant validity, including the composite reliability and the average variance extracted. Lastly, the composite reliabilities (CR) were computed. The CR results show that all constructs have reasonably acceptable reliability. Not all CRs have similar Cronbach's alphas.

Table 2: Summary of Psychometric Properties of Measures

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E G):=-No. Construct 0

0 Z

Brand Attitude 3

Attitude Towards the2

Web site 3

3 Customized Web Site

7Design

Perceived Message 4 4

Customization

Reliability Tests ' Validity Tests

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0.944

0.822

0.908

0.849

S- Satisfactory, N.A

Previous research has recommended the use of multiple indices to assess the fit of the model to the data. In this study, larger CFI, TLI and NFl values (greater than 0.90) indicate good model fit. The normed Chi-square should not be greater than 5.0 (Wheaton, Muthen, Alvin and Summers, 1977) to indicate a good fit. Finally, the RMSEA value of less than or equal to 0.08 indicates a good fit. Low goodness-of­measures would therefore suggest that the model could be sUbstantially improved.

Overall, the model was considered to achieve adequate fit, as it satisfied at least three good­

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0.907 0.788 0.937

0.750 0.587 0.840

0.896 0.625 0.857

0.898 0.688 0.830

- Not Applicable

ness-of-fit indices. The

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standardised regres~ sign sion coefficients estimated by ML estimation, sagl

together with the significance tests and the va/u structural paths, are shown in Figure 4. For abo exp, solute fit measures, the model has below 0.90 extE levels of GFI (0.872) but is within an acceptable and level of normed Chi-square (4.067) of less than 0.12 5. RMSEA (0.112) was high, and this indicates buti a poor fit per degree of freedom. Three of On the incremental fit measures (NFl, TLI and CFll stror confirmed that the model has acceptable cust level of goodness-of-fit. For example, NFl ill!l SE = 0.914, TLI = 0.912 and CFI = 0.933, indicating expE the model is a good fit to the data. towe

•

Figure 4: CSM Results of Estimates of Relationships: . Customized Web Site Design, Perceived Message Customization

and Attitudes Toward the Web Site and Brand

/___-~ Brand

Attitude

Tl3 Web Site Design

~32i User's

Perceived Message

Customization

TIl =.23

.97 ;1 Attitude

\ X2/ df 4.067

GFI 0.872

Adjusted GFI 0.801

RMSEA 0.112

Normed fit index 0.914

Relative fit index 0.887

Incremental fit index 0.934

Tucker-Lewis index 0.912

Comparative fit index 0.933

The results of the CSM show that the standard­ized regression coefficients of all structural paths are significant, except forthe relationship between perceived message customization and attitude towards the Web site. The extent of Web site customization has a positive and significant impact on the perceived mes­sage customization (Y 11 = 0.57, SE = 0.048, p­value = 0.000). H1 is supported. Contrary to expectations, the relationship between the extent of perceived message customization and the attitude towards the Web site (~21 = 0.121, SE = 0.100, p-value = 0.090) is positive but insignificant. Therefore, H2 is not supported. On the other hand, the findings showed a strong positive impact of perceived message customization on brand attitude (~31 = 0.631, SE =0.089, p-value = 0.000). H3 is supported. As expected. the relationship between attitude towards the Web site and brand attitude is

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positive and significant (~32 =0.228, SE =0.050, p-value = 0.000). H4 is supported. The effect of Web site customization also exerted an indirect effect on attitude towards the Web site (0.069) and brand attitude (0.373) through perceived message customization.

Discussion and Conclusion

The empirical results strongly suggest that the extent of Web site customization has significant attitude-site-brand relationship. The findings confirm those from similarstudies conducted by Petty and Wegener (1998) and Roehm (1999). that either matching the tone and content of message to some aspect of Internet users, or matching a content to the functional base of an attitude that is relevant (or important) to Internet users, increases message scrutiny and enhance product/brand attitude.

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An important aspect of the research model is the Web site design. The structural aspects of site design vary in - respect of verbal or visual representations or both, according to the product category. This is similar to the suggestion provided by Liebermann and Flint-Goor (1996) and Hwang, McMillan and Lee (2003) that there is a matching link between message strategy and product category. For example, the site design in this study was developed in conformity with the Internet users' need for cognition (low, medium, high), goal-directed motives (information versus entertainment), level of personal relevance (low, medium, high) and preferred information-processing strategy (central route to persuasion versus peripheral route to persuasion) to enhance elaboration, persuasion and attitudinal/behavioral chan­ges. These findings also support the proposition made by Roehm and Haugtvedt (1999) and Nowak, Shamp, Hollander and Cameron (1999) who suggested the use of customized message presented to match consumers' personalities or characteristics.

This Internet study concludes that company­initiated Web site content customization in terms of presentation modality (verbal versus visual presentation), message appeal (information-rational versus en tertainment­emotional) and inclusion of interactive fea­tures (static versus dynamic animation) pro­duces positive attitudinal responses. The message strategy used for corporate Web site advertising should not be confined to two communication views based on an informational and transformational dichotomy (Laskey, Day and Crask, 1989; Wells, 1980). This empirical research recommends that informational and transformational strategies should vary based on the product category as well as consumers' characteristics. For example, each Web site was designed with different creative techniques so that each layout was distinctive in its appeal to users. A rational-informational appeal (information site) was used for the computer brand, containing persuasive arguments about the product attributes. While the soft drink's Web site incorporated an emotional-entertainment appeal (image site) in which celebrity video clips and news were peripheral cues, the

•

fashion apparel used a combination of both rational-informational and emotional­entertainment appeals (text and animated images), which were more persuasive than the celebrity source peripheral cues presented.

On the subject of Web site content and creation of a corporate Web site, the results support the importance of effective planning of the advertising message and the choice of presentation format to enhance the Internet users' comprehension of the brand-persuasive information presented. The results showa strong attitude-site-brand relationship. Presumably, the concept of human perceptual abilities applied in the design of stimulus materials used in this study was properly executed. The Internet users' attention was manipulated by implemenHng both 'selective attention' and 'customizing' concepts by the use of selected animated graphics/images, icons, and logos in relevant display techniques to direct the users' attention and information-processing efforts. The animation created for the soft drink and fashion apparel ads revealed that interactive capability increases Web site stickiness (similar to the flow concept). These results supported Zhang's (2000) proposition on the use of animation in terms of task load (resembles a user's current goal such as information seeking/entertainment and personal relevance such as high, medium and low level) and animation content.

One of the most important factors that contributed to a positive attitude-site-brand relationship comes from the use of well-known brands in this study. Ward and Lee (2000) have suggested that Internet users react more favorably to familiar brands since they prefer well-known bra nds. In view of the fact that Internet users are exposed to hundreds of advertisements daily, it would be expected that Internet users react more spontaneously to banner ads for familiar brands than for unfamiliar brands. The results from Lee's (2002) study further supported and confirmed these propositions. His results disclosed that Internet users who recall a banner ad have more positive attitudes toward the Web site than those who do not. These findings were also consistent with two previous empirical studies. Shapiro, Macinnis and Heckler (1997)

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have shown that an ad displayed adjacent to a 'to be read' text in a scrolling computer display affected the awareness of an existing brand, even though the task was intentionally put as 'limited attention' to the ad. Similarly, Dahlen (2001) provided empirical evidence to substantiate that familiar brands have a positive effect on brand attitude.

Marketing Implications and Future Directions

This Internet advertising study offers a compre­hensive model that advertisers and advertising agencies can apply when they develop an Internet advertising plan. The model offers new targeting parameters for company­initiated Web site customization. For example, when defining target audiences, this model offers alternative psychographics variables, such as individual differences in the need for cognition, users' goal-directed motives and preferences in information-processing style, as segmentation variables for target audiences. Advertising efforts are commonly centered on generating brand awareness, brand recall and brand interest. The model recommends that marketers and advertisers should set their advertising objectives in terms of brand attitude change. This objective can be linked to appropriate Web site customization by selecting site content (informational, transfor­mationaL or a variation of both according to product category), appeal (ra1-ional, emotional or variation of both) and form (packaging of information, such as format, structure and inclusion of interactive features) to effect a positive attitude change. At the last stage of the plan, methods of measuring effectiveness, this model encourages the evaluation of brand attitude change (before and after exposure) as a measure of the success or effectiveness of the Internet advertising. Current effectiveness measures offered are behavioural-based measures of Web site effectiveness including the amount of time users spend on a site, their navigational path through the site, and the frequency of their visits to the site. These measures do not capture reasons for their behaviour, such as their negative or positive brand attitude and attitude towards a Web site.

The model provides an insight into target audience selection that is crucial to a manager's planning stage. It is more sensible to identify potential the target audience using a combination of macro (demographic variables) arid micro (personal characteristics in terms of personal relevance and need for cognition - two main constructs of ELM) segmentation. Personal relevance and the need for cognition (ELM) moderate and predict whether an individual will rely on the central (verbal) or peripheral (visual) cues when presented with a persuasive communication.

The model suggests that information about users' personal differences in terms of per­sonality traits, types of goal-directed motives and preferred information-processing strate­gies are users' information for profiling and creating automated customized banner ad and corporate Web site content. The current approach for designing a customized corporate Web site is generally based on the demographic information, browsing and inter­action history of particular users. Therefore, rather than using large amounts of users' historical information, the model proposes using a psychographic segmentation (reveal­ed preference data) to customize the Web site to appeal to users. Users' information and preferences can be requested via filling out a registration form or survey through a menu choice. Alternatively, the ad-server (via neural network or proprietary learning methods) can analyze users' browsing and interaction history and use cluster techniques to classify users into the need for cognition, goal-directed motives, personal relevance or preferred information­processing strategy segments.

There are limited studies available that evaluate the relative contribution of each specific multimedia element (for example, text versus picture, audio versus video, etc.). This research provides a basis for future research to investigate the types of ad desIgn and styles that are crucial to create posItive attitudes toward the ad/brand for advertising an unfamiliar brand (or new product/brand) online. This research also provides a bosls for future investigations into the application of

•

llultimedia (ad features) and its effect on llessage factors. Future research should also focus on identifying the types of ad features that result in Internet users' positive attitudinal and behavioural responses. The model will need further replication, extension and critical evaluation using unfamiliar brands.

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