Corporate Web sites in traditional print advertisements

Carol J. Pardun and Larry Lamb

The authors Carol J. Pardun is Assistant Professor, Advertising and Public Relations, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina, USA. Cpardun@email.unc.edu Larry Lamb is Assistant Director, AQ Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS. Keywords Advertising, Hybrid systems, Mailing lists, Model, World Wide Web Abstract This study attempts to better understand how marketers are creating bridges between traditional advertising and the Internet. As such, it describes the Web presence in print advertisement. A content analysis of 1,249 ads in 20 magazines found: 42 percent included Web addresses; Business Week ads were most likely to include Web addresses; 98 percent of print advertisements for autos included Web addresses, while ofce equipment advertisements (including computer ads) included Web addresses only 10 percent of the time; and that 68 percent of Web sites were used to develop a database of potential customers.

Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy Volume 9 Number 2 1999 pp. 9399 MCB University Press ISSN 1066-2243

Some have equated the Internet as the most important media development since Johann Gutenberg ushered in the age of mass production. Currently the Web is in constant ux as businesses, academics, and users scramble to understand its full potential. Clearly, computers and the Internet will continue to become more important to individuals lives. Nielsen reports that as of June 1998, 70.5 million people access the Internet at least once a month (The Industry Standard). These gures show no sign of slowing down. The corporate community has taken an aggressive view toward the Internet, putting millions of dollars into the development of sites and research into creating a standardized approach toward media buying. Although advertising revenues from the Internet were only $267 million in 1996 (The Economist, p. 13), a pittance compared to the billions in traditional advertising, companies are banking on the hope that the Internet will become a protable place for commerce. Indeed, some estimate that online commerce may exceed $6 billion a year by the turn of the century (White and Manning, 1998). Even though Internet issues such as security and censorship have yet to be eradicated, money is indeed being exchanged in cyberspace. For example, a recent special report in Business Week reports that 10 million people have purchased something online (Business Week, 1997, p. 70). For all the excitement and attention to the Internet, however, little is known about the media strategies that advertisers use as they incorporate the Web into their media mix. Articles are just beginning to surface that mention the importance and difculty arising from including Web addresses in more traditional forms of advertising. Peterson (1997) says that companies are using Web sites in traditional ads as a way to demonstrate to their customers that their companies have the latest technology available. In addition, Peterson reports that advertisers are beginning to attempt to think through strategies of when to include a Web address in an ad and where to put it. For example, she reports that the National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board includes Web addresses in ads targeted at young people, but not to ads directed at older people. This example suggests that 93

Corporate Web sites in traditional print advertisements

Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy Volume 9 Number 2 1999 9399

Carol J. Pardun and Larry Lamb

some companies are beginning to develop strategies that link print advertisements and Web sites, yet no research has documented the extent that this phenomenon exists. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to create a base-line measurement of how companies are developing links between print advertising and advertising on the Internet. Specically, this study identies the categories of advertisers most likely to include a Web address in their print ads, the consistency of the Web site in relation to the original print advertisement, and the frequency and methods that advertisers use to develop relationships with potential customers via the Web. This study is important because communication managers are looking to the Web to extend the companys public relations value, the advertising media impressions, and the marketing opportunities. As the Internet becomes more accessible, online households will continue to increase. Companies have to start to examine what role the Web will play in their media strategies. Given that the Web has a virtual bottomless well in which to house information, the traditional lines between public relations, marketing, and advertising are no longer clearly drawn. A corporate Web site can be a virtual store for the companys products and other marketing ventures, a place to retrieve important press releases, nancial statements, and other documents more usually associated with public relations, and a way to view advertisements for the companys related products. This study stops the clock, allowing a perspective of the current situation in one segment (print advertising) before heading aimlessly into the plethora of choices that Web presence offers for corporations.

Relevant literature
Part of the difculty in understanding advertising on the Web is to understand what kind of advertising is being addressed. The divisions of banner ads and the sites themselves have created confusion for much of the professional community. A consumer electronics company commented on the ux of advertising on the Web by saying, Ideally the Web would be coordinated 94

with other media, but were in a learning mode (Doyle et al., 1997b, p. 4). Faigin (1997) offers advice to marketers interested in developing a presence on the Web. She recommends that the site be consistent with other ads and that the Web address be present on all media messages to drive consumers to the Web (p. 47). Moon (1998) offers seven suggestions for developing a dynamic Website including using the Web to sell more products and services after the initial purchase. Jerram (1997) argues that advertising on the Web gives the corporation an avenue for allowing the customer to experience the brand more deeply than more traditional forms of advertising (p. 38). He also recommends that companies committed to advertising on the Web also create a strong presence in traditional media. He believes that the strength in the Web is that advertisers can use the Web as a communications channel to forge lasting relationships with better-informed consumers who seek real information and tangible value (p. 42). Doyle et al. (1997b) suggest using traditional media to promote the Website rather than the Website to promote the conventional advertisements. They suggest that savvy companies sneak URLs into print and TV ads (p. 40). Some writers have indicated that cyberspace is not without frustrations for consumer and advertiser alike. Sullivan (1997) has commented on the frustration of visiting Web sites listed in advertisements. In a humorous essay, he gives an example of trying to click through to the advertised product. As an example, he says Unfortunately, the Internet Solutions icon led me from the Internet Solutions icon to Internet Solutions icon, so that my head was, well, like a spinning logo (p. 44). Given the amount of attention that academics have focussed toward advertising on the Web, it is somewhat remarkable that the vast majority of academic writing on the Web is anecdotal rather than empirical. Robinson and Kaye (1997) offer an in-depth history of advertising on the Web. They discuss the complexity of the marketing mix, the benets of online advertising, and how advertisers have attempted to measure the advertising effectiveness. They do not, however, give us any data collected from specic sites.

Corporate Web sites in traditional print advertisements

Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy Volume 9 Number 2 1999 9399

Carol J. Pardun and Larry Lamb

Recently, a few academicians have made some inroads in systematically investigating the Web, however. Raman (1997) conducted indepth interviews with subjects who browse the Web. Among his ndings are that information is easy to access on the Web, that respondents enjoyed feeling in control of seeing material, and that corporate homepages are viewed as more than advertising in that they could get useful information without being inuenced (p. 225). Li and Colye (1997) conducted a survey of Internet service subscribers. They found that the use of ad banners, use of the Web for product information, and prior experience of direct orders have a signicant impact on actual purchases on the Web (p. 229). Advertising experts have long agreed on the importance of a mixed-media approach. Indeed, advertising managers strive for a synergistic approach in order to achieve the best ratio of reach and frequency. This study attempts to further dene this synergy by attempting to better understand how marketers are creating bridges between traditional advertising and the Internet. The literature has led to the following research questions: RQ1. What kind of presence does a Web address have in a traditional print advertisement? RQ2. What categories of advertisers are more likely to make a connection between print advertisements and a Web site? RQ3. How likely is the Web address published in the print ad to correlate closely to the product being advertised in the print advertisement? RQ4. Does the Web site mentioned in the advertisement attempt to develop a database of potential customers?

Method
Lists of leading magazines ranked by various criteria (paid circulation, total circulation, revenues, etc.) are available from several sources. Researchers use different criteria to choose their sample for analysis. For example, Kolbe and Albanese (1996) chose mens magazines having a high percentage of male readership because they were investigating male images in male magazines. Huhmann and 95

Brotherton (1997) chose magazines according to circulation because of their broad appeal and high ad volume (p. 38). For this study, we chose the top 20 magazines in the US market ranked by revenues (as reported in The Universal Almanac, Wright, 1994) because the list reects advertisers collective condence in the ability of these magazines to reach large numbers of readers and hold their attention on a regular basis. To learn if advertisers coordinate magazine ad content and Web site content, we needed to use a publications list that grows from the advertisers decision patterns and does not represent primarily the publishers or subscribers desires. All full-page advertisements from the June 1997 issue were chosen for coding. It was decided to choose several magazines during one month rather than a few magazines over a particular time period for two reasons. First, there is no baseline measurement of Web presence and print advertising strategy. Second, the Web is still in transition, making any kind of study over time difcult. Indeed, the Web is evolving so quickly that to investigate Web presence in print advertisements even over a one-year period is questionable. That is, what Web advertising looks like in December of one year may be radically different from what it looked like in January. Therefore, we decided to stop the clock at a specic point in time to gain a reading of the state of advertising at that moment. This can provide a point to compare against for future studies. After all full-page ads from the 20 magazines were selected for examination, a sample of 1,249 ads was achieved. All full-page ads were included in the coding (even if they were in more than one magazine) process because we were concerned with the aggregate presence of the Web address during June 1997 as well as the Web presence in each of the magazines. It should be noted, however, that the vast majority of ads were present in only one magazine. The coding sheet for the print ads focussed on the location (in the body copy, headline, or as a small footnote) and prominence (size and boldness of type) of the Web address in the ad as well as the relationship between the presence of an 800 number and Web address. The coding sheet also provided opportunity to investigate the Web site itself. The number of links to get to

Corporate Web sites in traditional print advertisements

Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy Volume 9 Number 2 1999 9399

Carol J. Pardun and Larry Lamb

the specic product advertised in the print ad was recorded, as well as the orientation of the home page (product, brand, or parent oriented). In addition we investigated whether the Web site attempted to build a mailing list by searching through the links for any indication where the browser was asked to leave an address or email address.

Table I The percentage and numbers of advertisements that include Web addresses in the print advertisement according to magazine

Magazine

Percentage of ads that have Web addresses 36 62 30 56 76 80 29 75 25 61 21 67 11 31 45 26 25 24 36 78

Number of ads that have Web addresses 22 23 7 19 19 44 21 15 24 54 11 51 7 29 26 19 27 13 30 59

Number of ads in each magazine 61 37 23 34 25 55 73 20 95 88 52 76 61 95 58 74 107 55 84 76

Results
RQ1. What kind of presence does a Web address have in a traditional print advertisement? Of the 1,249 advertisements coded, 42 percent (519 ads) included a Web address a remarkable representation considering that the Web has only been available to the average computer user since 1992 (Aikat, 1998). Of the 519 Webincluded ads, 218 of them (42 percent) had Web addresses that were not incorporated into the concept of the ad. For example, the address may have been placed in small type at the bottom of the page without any copy around it. Of the 301 ads that were incorporated into the copy of the ad, 243 of them were attached to personalized copy indicating a personal invitation to a virtual Web location. For example, it was common for the copy to read If youre interested, please stop by and visit our Web site. Not surprisingly, all magazines in the sample included advertisements with Web addresses. Womans Day had the least number of advertisements with Web addresses (11 percent), while Business Week had the largest representation of ads that included Web addresses (80 percent). Moneys, Newsweeks, and US News & World Reports advertisements included Web sites over three-quarters of the time (78 percent, 76 percent, and 75 percent respectively). Table I offers the complete list of magazines with the numbers and percentages of ads that include Web addresses. Historically, advertisers have used toll-free numbers in print ads as a way to extend their presence to the consumer. Has the Web begun to take over the role previously given to toll-free numbers? Our research indicates that this might be the case. Over half of the ads (53 percent) did not include toll-free numbers. In other words, toll-free numbers, which have been around for 96

People Time TV Guide Sports Illustrated Newsweek Business Week Good Housekeeping US News & World Report Better Homes & Gardens Forbes Family Circle Fortune Womans Day Cosmopolitan Readers Digest Ladies Home Journal Vogue McCalls Glamour Money

three decades, appeared in ads at relatively the same rate as web sites. Web sites have narrowed the toll-free lines head start almost overnight. In addition, of the 587 ads that did include toll-free numbers, 60 percent (351) also included a Web address. Only 40 percent (236) of the ads included a toll-free number without a Web address. Additionally, 25 percent (167) of the ads that did not include a toll-free number had a Web address alone instead. RQ2. What categories of advertisers are more likely to make a connection between print advertisements and a Web site address? Our research indicates that the category of advertisement also affects whether the ad will carry a Web address. Overwhelmingly, autos led in Web presence, with 98 percent of all car ads including a Web address. Food was the next highest category for including a Web address, but it only carried addresses 51 percent of the time. Only one out of 29 ads for smoking included a Web address. (The ad that did have a Web address was an anti-smoking ad.)

Corporate Web sites in traditional print advertisements

Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy Volume 9 Number 2 1999 9399

Carol J. Pardun and Larry Lamb

Perhaps most surprisingly, of the 51 ads for ofce equipment, only 5 (10 percent) included a Web address. This is particularly interesting because many of these advertisements were for computers and other Web-oriented products. For a complete listing of Web addresses according to the category of the advertised product, see Table II. RQ3. How closely is the Web address published in the ad related to the specic product being advertised? To answer this research question, we looked at two issues. First, we counted the number of links it took to get from the Web address listed in the advertisement to the product being advertised. If the specic product advertised was reached directly from the Web address, that was counted as one link. If it took more than ve links to try to reach the product, we coded that as 6 (meaning it was impossible to get to the product within ve links; in other words, it would take at least six links to reach the product). For all the 509 ads that included Web sites, it took an average of 2.37 links to reach the product. When dividing the ads by categories, the shortest road to the product was with retail
Table II Presence of Web addresses according to the type of advertisement

ads at an average of 1.4 links. The longest trail at 4.62 links was with liquor ads. Table III gives the mean number of links according to category for all ads that included a Web address. Second, we investigated how product-oriented the Web page was and noted whether the page was used to introduce other products. We made this calculation by noting whether the home page was parent oriented, brand oriented, or product oriented. Parent-oriented home pages focussed on the parent company itself (for example, a Butterball turkey print ads Web address would take the viewer to ConAgra), often giving nancial information about stocks and recent press releases about the company. Brand-oriented home pages presented the viewer with the brand rather than the specic product highlighted in the print ad (for example, the Ford home page would present the viewers with a page full of trucks rather than the specic one advertised in the print ad). Product-oriented home pages were most similar to the print ads that advertised a specic product. For example, after seeing the magazine ad for Clairol Daily Defense Shampoo, the viewer

Table III The average number of links it took to reach the product advertised in the print ad (to a maximum of six attempts)

Category of advertisement Apparel Automotive Liquor Ofce equipment Services Drugs Food House supplies Furnishings Jewelry and cameras Direct response Media related Retail Smoking Toiletries Travel Other

Percentage of ads that have Web addresses 27 98 47 10 7 29 51 12 22 23 22 23 22 3 22 44 44

Number of ads that have Web addresses 7 160 8 5 9 25 68 6 2 9 11 9 5 1 56 14 53

Number of ads in each magazine 26 163 17 51 127 86 135 50 9 40 50 39 23 29 25 32 121

Product category Apparel Automotive Liquor Ofce equipment Services Drugs Food House supplies Furnishings Jewelry and cameras Direct response Media related Retail Smoking Toiletries Travel Other Total across all categories 97

Average number of links to reach the advertised product 2.86 2.29 4.62 1.72 1.99 2.00 2.35 3.17 3.50 2.67 2.55 3.56 1.40 3.00 3.74 1.57 2.19 2.37

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Carol J. Pardun and Larry Lamb

would enter the Web site listed in the print ad and nd a home page dedicated to Clairol Daily Defense, rather than Clairol shampoos, or the company as a whole. In the Web sites we investigated, Web pages tended to be brand oriented (42 percent) rather than parent oriented (34 percent) or product oriented (23 percent). In addition, in the majority of cases the Web pages were also used to introduce other products (69 percent). RQ4. Does the Web site mentioned in the advertisement attempt to develop a database of potential customers? Finally, the Web pages were coded according to their ability to build a mailing list for the advertiser. This study indicates that nearly one-third of the Web sites did not offer their guests an invitation to make contact. Imagine a catalog without an order form or a retail store without sales representatives. Two-thirds of the time (68 percent), however, the Web site was used to build a mailing list. The most common ways to achieve this was through having viewers sign up for a hard copy of free literature and to provide feedback through email. A few sites asked viewers to ll out a consumer prole, but most sites were subtler. Table IV lists the frequencies and percentages of ways that advertisers use the Web to build a mailing list.

Table IV Frequency that advertisers use Web pages as a way to build a mailing list

Ways to build a list Does not build a list Literature request Purchase product Contest E-mail information Feedback Free stuff Other

Percentage of advertisers 32 21 4 6 4 24 2 8

Number of advertisers 162 106 21 30 20 120 8 40

Note: Percentage equals 101 percent due to rounding to the nearest percentage the scope of this study, but it is a question that demands further investigation. Although it is impossible to know if the Web is indeed replacing toll-free numbers, the fact that this study shows the Web address is as important as the long-held method for communicating with customers via phone points to a possible reduction in attention to toll-free numbers as a way to develop relationships with potential consumers. Follow-up studies could give further credence to this argument, if indeed Web addresses increase in print ads and toll-free numbers decrease. More research is also needed to investigate customer fatigue levels when trying to access information about the advertised product via the Web when it takes several links to even reach the product. In addition, more research needs to be done on why advertisers are not maximizing their opportunities to provide extra value to the consumer via the Web. For example, it was surprising how few sites allowed viewers to receive additional information via email. Also, even though it was common to allow site viewers to offer feedback via email, the process was not interactive. In other words, the potential consumer was not told what would happen to the e-mail, who would read the message, if anyone would respond to the e-mail, or if any action at all could be expected. This study indicates that the biggest winner in media marketing synergy is the auto industry. The automakers appear ahead of other advertisers in using the Internet to enhance other advertising experiences. For the majority of these 98

Discussion
This study has sought to quantify the relationship between traditional print advertising and the Internet. This issue is important because of the attention that researchers have given to the importance of technology and marketing. Peppers (1995) argues that technology has paved the way for marketing customization, which implies getting customers to teach you what they want (p. 3). For quickly as the Web is evolving into a sophisticated communications tool, it was surprising to nd so many Web sites that did not allow potential customers to sign in. It is likewise remarkable that the technology advanced products advertised (such as computer and media-related products) ranked so low on cross-advertising strategy. Why these ads tended to not include Web addresses is beyond

Corporate Web sites in traditional print advertisements

Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy Volume 9 Number 2 1999 9399

Carol J. Pardun and Larry Lamb

auto home pages, the Web addresses listed in the print ad took the potential consumer directly to the advertised product on the Web with the link to the corporate home page for those who wanted more general information. In addition, the Web sites were easy to maneuver, yet full of information. Potential customers were invited to leave messages, enter contests, nd out about last-minute savings, as well as receive traditional collateral and sometimes even CD-ROMs. Indeed, the automakers provided ideal models for other advertisers wanting to use their Web sites as a public relations tool to build awareness not only for the product, but also for the parent company. This study provides the beginning for documenting how the Web can work with other forms of advertising. Future studies should investigate how these strategies develop. For example, do the Web sites reect what the advertisers recommend for a strong mixedmedia strategy? Why do some corporations take the viewer to the corporate home page while others go to the specic product? Is one approach more effective than another? Who nds Web sites most valuable: public relations managers, advertising media directors, or marketing managers? In order to answer these questions, it will be important for researchers and advertisers to begin a dialog on what exactly a corporate Web page constitutes. In this age of Integrated Marketing Communications, advertisers and marketers alike need to better dene the Web site. Is it advertising? Is it marketing? Is it public relations? Is it all three? If we can begin to answer these questions, perhaps we can begin to better understand what to expect when a potential consumer types www.yourcompany.com

Doyle, B., Modahl, M.A. and Abbott, B. (1997a), What advertising works, Media Week, May 5, Vol. 7 No. 18. Doyle, B., Modahl, M.A. and Abbott, B. (1997b), Media and technology strategies, The Forrester Report, Vol. 1 No. 7, March, pp. 1-16.

The Economist (1997), Tremble, everyone: whatever industry you are in, electronic commerce will shake you up, May 10, pp. 10-14.
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