Millenials & search marketing

Using an online experiment and focusing on millenials, Yves and I went through the data in order to understand how message content in keyword advertising impacts click behavior. The obtained model explains around 20% of variance. The role of message content is confirmed and interaction effects are observable. Neutral message content appears to be preferred over commercial content.
Limitations due to age restrictions (millenials only) and the number of message contents that could be tested call for further investigations. Additional research and modelling efforts are needed.
Details about this study are forthcoming in the Journal of Retailing & Consumer Services.

World marketing congress

My colleague Yves and I will be presenting our work about the behavioral impact of written content of sponsored results and the identification of potential moderators during the coming World Marketing Congress in Reims.
More information in the coming weeks…

Knowing what paid results are

This research focuses on consumers’ perception of paid results. Many surfers pretend they know what sponsored ads are (above 80%). In light of consumer’s resistance literature, raising ad skepticism etc, avoidance behavior could be expected. So the question of this paper is : does it make a difference when people know ? Do they behave differently when exposed to sponsored ads?
Based on 272 actual internet users, the study investigates the moderating role of prior knowledge and shows that knowledgeable users favorable to sponsored advertising hold stronger click intentions. This reinforcing role of prior knowledge has a two-sided effect, since unfavorable users will exhibit lessened click intentions. The study also sheds light on an interesting parallel between the profile of users favorable to paid results and online shoppers. Both are male, and higher educated.
Full study available on :
The intention to click on sponsored ads—A study of the role of prior knowledge and of consumer profile , Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier.

Does anybody read SMS-advertising? The role of ad-clutter & irony

“SMS ads? Nobody reads them!” This assertion seems taken for granted in public opinion. And yet, marketers still consider it a promising marketing and advertising avenue. SMS-advertising is part of the larger picture of mobile advertising, which is defined as “a form of advertising that is communicated to the consumer/target via a handset. This type of advertising is most commonly seen as a Mobile Web Banner, Mobile Web Poster…/…. Other forms of this type of advertising are SMS and MMS ads, mobile gaming ads, and mobile video ads” (MMA Global, glossary version 068). A definition of SMS advertising is provided by Barwise and Strong (2002), who describe it as a “text-based advertisement on cell phone”. Although unsophisticated, text messaging has “found itself centre stage in contemporary social life” (Taylor and Vincent, 2004), as well as in the advertising arena.

Global mobile advertising spending is expected to balloon to $17 billion by 2012 (see mediapost, feb. 2010). Similar research from eMarketer goes much further by accounting for the growing economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China (emarketer.com). In this context, SMS appears to be the most attractive medium for advertising (Mobile Marketing Association, MMA, 2009), along with Multimedia Message Service (MMS). Whatever the exact figures, they demonstrate high expectations. Average response rates are considered to be high (around 10%) (Nokia Network, 2008), which is far better than alternative media but also means that 90% of these messages get no response from mobile users. That is why it is crucial to understand users’ reactions to mobile phone advertising and, more specifically, to its main form: SMS advertising.

Taking into account the type of ad (simple versus rich text) and the pull- or push-orientation of the campaign (whereas push message are unidirectional messages, pull messages call the receiver to action), Barnes (2002) indicates that SMS is a simple ad tool that is preferentially used in push marketing. Despite its basic and push characteristics, SMS entails several advantages from both the consumer and marketing standpoints. From the marketer’s point of view, SMS is a fairly cheap means of contact. The automation of a campaign makes it easy to distribute messages to the target audience. Even if there is some delay in message delivery (up to 6 hours, according to Scharl et al., 2005), the technology is considered reliable and rapid. Two other characteristics of interest are time and space independence, in the sense that there is no restriction on the time when SMS are sent and geographical distance is not an issue- SMS can be sent to anywhere from anywhere in the world. This means that a campaign can be launched at any time (although certain experts consider the time of sending to be important [Scharl et al., op. cit.]) and will be received wherever the consumer may be. From the consumer’s standpoint, SMS has the potential to be well accepted, provided that advertisers have received permission to send the ads. So, once consent is granted to the sender, consumers will receive messages supposedly tailored to their needs. SMS messaging is nonintrusive, as people are not obliged to answer immediately; it leaves consumers free to discover the message where and when they want. As messages are short by nature, the consumer may not feel overwhelmed by SMS advertising. With SMS messages, a consumer is not forced to engage in social interaction, as is the case with telephone campaigns.

These advantages are clearly recognised by firms and other multinational actors as an opportunity to build their brands (Okazaki
and Taylor, 2008). However, their hopes can be realised only if consumers accept SMS advertising, read it, and perceive it positively. It is therefore of primary importance to understand consumer perceptions of SMS advertising. The number of research articles dealing with mobile marketing and advertising has increased tremendously since 2002. However, to the best of our knowledge, few qualitative studies of the perceptions of SMS advertising are available. At the same time, informal observations often yield conflicting conclusions about consumer acceptance of SMS advertising. In-depth studies of consumer subjectivity about SMS advertising are thus needed to guide further investigation. Such study is provided in Gauzente (2010, forthcoming).

Based on a qualitative sample and a quantitative representative sample, this study helps to explain the complex and sometimes ambivalent nature of users’ perception of SMS advertising. It also shows that irony is part of mobile users’ evaluation of such advertising and that this irony contributes to the perception of ad-clutter. Attitude is particularly predictive for consumer groups that practise systematic types of behaviour (either systematic reading or the systematic deletion of SMS ads), but not necessarily for occasional reading ones. The identification and characterisation of occasional readers deserves priority in research.

Further readings:
Forthcoming : Gauzente, (2010), Does Anybody Read SMS-Advertising? A Qualitative and Quantitative Study of Mobile Users’ Attitudes and Perceived Ad-Clutter, International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction, 6/2.
Ozaki, S. & Taylor, C.R. (2008). What is SMS advertising and why do multinationals adopt it? Answers from an empirical study in European markets. Journal of Business Research, 61, 4-12.
Barnes, S. J. (2002). Wireless digital advertising. International Journal of Advertising, 21, 399–420.
Barwise, P. & Strong, C. (2002). Permission-based mobile advertising. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 16(1), 14-24.
Scharl, A., Dickinger, A. & Murphy, J. (2005). Diffusion and success factors of mobile marketing. Electronic Commerce Research and Application, 4(2), 159-173.
Taylor, A. & Vincent, J. (2004). An SMS history. in Mobile World, Computer Supported Cooperative Work Eds, 1431-1496, Springer London.

CDO Update : first week in Paris

This week is a special one of “retrouvailles” in Paris.
After one month and a half, the CDO students are back to school, a moment felt as holidays !
We welcomed Professor Luc Boyer on Monday with a rich presentation of prospective and its application to the field of communication and advertising, the latest news were shared and debated.
This week’s program goes on with Julie Boulage, from Publicis, dealing with the market of communication agencies. The end of the week is dedicated to image history and functions with the team of André Gunthert from the National Institute of Arts History. We have to thank André for welcoming us in these wonderful settings and for organising the image-related sessions.
A one-day seminar with Odile Martin, Phd candidate and Consultant, deals with brand management and communication.
Cultural as well as practical aspects are at the heart of this first parisian week and I hope that (featuring in alphabetical order ) Emilie, Gwendal, Marie-Camille, Nathalie, Pauline and Perrine will appreciated it.

Statistical Textual Analysis: How nice!

Textual statistics methods were developped more than two decades ago combining differents disciplines : linguitics, discourse analysis, statistics, information technology, and survey processing.
They have been applied to a wide variety of topics (in history, marketing, sociology, etc.) and different objects: open questions, interview analysis, written transcripts, documents, novels…
Two main approaches can be identified:
* French approach : following the seminal work of Benzécri,
* CAQDAS : computer aided qualitative data analysis systems.
The book entitled “Analyse statistiques des données textuelles en Sciences de Gestion” I coordinated with D. Peyrat-Guillard welcomes explanotory as well as illustrative contributions by: M. Reinert, P. Marchand, S. Labbé & P. Marchand, D. Peyrat-Guillard, A. Helme-Guizon & M.L. Gavard-Perret, C. Gauzente & C. Gonzalez. It is prefaced by L. Lebart and postfaced by J. Rojot.
We hope this method to spread within the management research community.
Link to the book
See also:
http://pascal-marchand.fr/
S. Point
lexicometrica

Marketing & ethics

A quick and short note to refer to the chapter written with Professor Hervé Fenneteau about marketing’s ability to be “responsible”. We present Kotler’s seminal work and his proposal of a “social marketing” and the subsequent critics of this view. We also suggest a four cells matrix in order to clarify the debate of “whether marketing should be responsible or not”.
link to the book : Responsabilité sociale de l’entreprise (2006), coord. JJ Rosé, Ed. De Boeck.

Information search and paid results

Relatively little academic knowledge has been developed to understand users’ perceptions and behaviors toward sponsored links. In particular it is of foremost importance to delineate factors that influence click intention and behavior. This paper proposes a hierarchy-of-effects model in order to understand surfers’ click on sponsored links. An empirical study is conducted over 349 participants confronted to three different Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) representing three search situations. Results indicate a significant relationship between attitude toward sponsored links and behavioral intention. In addition, past satisfaction is found to significantly predict click behavior. The contribution of this study for both researchers and practitioners is discussed.
See article in Electronic Markets

Author’s version available here: author version

A consumer stance at search engine marketing

Special issue International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, vol. 5, 1/2, 2009
Guest editors : C. Gauzente & C. Gonzalez

In February 2008, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) announced that “Internet advertising revenues for 2007 are estimated to grow to $21.1 billion, a 25 percent increase over the previous revenue record of nearly $16.9 billion for full year 2006”. Part of this dramatically increasing internet advertising investments are sponsored links. Parallel to this, 61 billions of queries have been made on search engines (including Google, Yahoo, Baidu) by 754.5 millions of internet users –Comscore, August 2007.
Taken together those two facts explain the irresistible rise of search engine marketing.

While the practice of search engine marketing (i.e. advertising techniques used on search engines, such as sponsored links or paid placements, search engine optimisation) and, more generally, search marketing (i.e. advertising techniques used during the search process of internet users, which clearly goes beyond search engines) is developing and taking a growing importance in advertising strategies, academic research has, to this date, dedicated very few efforts to the understanding of search engine marketing. A certain number of IS studies have investigated rank allocation mechanisms; however the marketing field and consumer behaviour are virtually unexplored.

This special issue is aimed at delivering academic research about consumer’s perception, understanding and reactions in face of search engine marketing techniques. It is also aimed at disseminating conceptual and theoretical considerations about advertisements that are produced in response to consumer’s or user’s search action, which is a notable difference compared to traditional unidirectional advertising.
See the table of content.

Privacy

The privacy issue has been my entry door to online marketing and, more generally, wireless marketing topics.

Online environment is now part of everyday life. However, trust is still an important issue for online merchants. This explains why there is an increasing interest in “trust busters” by the general consumer. Trust busters entail, among other, a thorough online privacy policy (OPP) that encompasses detailed privacy and security statements.
The paper looks at both the views of the consumer and the views of the web merchants in attempting to unravel the problems of privacy on the Net. A sample of 89 French web merchants and a sample of 154 consumers were examined using bivariate analysis.
The results showed that, even in a government-regulated country such as France, there is still room for improvement in web merchants’ privacy policies. Concerning consumers, an important result is that the perception of reassuring privacy and security statements varies according to browsing intention.

For further reading :
Gauzente C. (2008), Politiques et pratiques des sites marchands en matière de respect de la vie privée : analyse du dosage entre chartes et labels et de leur évolution, Revue Management & Avenir, vol. 17, 44-65.
Gauzente C. (2004), Web Merchants’ Privacy and Security Statements: How Reassuring are They for Consumers? A Two-sided Approach, Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 5 (3), [online: http://www.jecr.org]
Gurau C., Ranchhod A. et Gauzente C. (2003), To legislate or not to legislate – A comparative exploratory study of privacy/personalisation factors affecting French, UK and US web sites, Journal of Consumer Marketing, 20 (7), 652-664.
Gauzente C. (2003), Vie privée et Internet : les pratiques des sites français, Décisions Marketing, 30, 7-17.