Advertising / The average American spends more than twenty hours online each week (EMarketer, 2013, pp. 8). Time online is spent working, browsing social networks, watching videos and consuming news. With so much of consumers’ attention focused on the Internet, advertisers have worked to leverage persuasive tactics within their online display advertising. For example, designers and agencies employed animated ads, gamification, and intrusion as methods to garner attention. Even still, a consumer’s ability to ignore ad space, also known as “banner blindness,” is widespread and well documented (Adotas, 2009, pp. 7-11). This research will consider not only what is on the screen but also what is going on in the head of the consumer to analyze the ways in which online browsing behavior, specifically leisurely information seeking, impacts recall and recognition of web advertisements. / text

Thesis advisor: Julie H. Mortimer / This dissertation investigates firms' strategic decisions in industries characterized by a retail sector and the subsequent welfare implications. The first chapter studies retailer assortment choices; the second investigates the effectiveness of retailer online advertising. In many industries producers reach consumers only through the retail sector. Retailer product assortment choices are crucial determinants of consumer welfare as well as retailers' and producers' profitability. Limited shelf space, an inherent characteristic of the brick-and-mortar retail sector, necessitates careful selection of product offerings. The assortment decision within a product category consists of two broad questions: "How many products to offer?" and "Which products to offer?". In sole-authored work, the first chapter focuses on the latter question and investigates the drivers and welfare consequences of retail product selections. While retailer assortment choices are primarily governed by consumers' preferences and retail sector competition, vertical contracts with producers may also influence product offerings, and, in turn, product availability in the market. From the producers' perspective, obtaining product distribution is imperative. Hence, producers frequently provide financial incentives to retailers to secure their patronage. These incentives often take the form of vendor allowances: lump-sum payments to retailers that do not directly depend on sales volume. They can take the form of slotting fees, warehousing allowances, cash discounts, allowances for damaged goods, or operating support (e.g. stocking personnel). Considering the spread of the retail sector, the impact of vertical contracts on product selections may substantially affect consumer welfare and firm profitability. Therefore, it is not surprising that vendor allowances have been the subject of policy discussion. Policy makers have raised concerns that these payments are harming disproportionately small producers and limiting consumer choice. Nevertheless, the Federal Trade Commission abstains from providing clear guidelines on the use of these payments due to unclear theoretical predictions and scarce empirical evidence. The main impediment to empirical analysis has been the proprietary nature of vertical contracts and firm costs. To overcome these data limitations, I develop a novel framework that allows me to quantify vendor allowances and analyze their effects on product selections and welfare. Using only data on retail prices, quantity sold, and retailer offerings, I estimate vendor allowances as retailers' opportunity cost of shelf space. Specifically, retailers face shelf-space limitations, hence, the opportunity cost of supplying a product is the sacrificed profits from not supplying a different product in its place. With limited assumptions on producer and retailer bargaining protocol, set estimates of vendor allowances are recovered. Additionally, by assuming that producers make take-it-or-leave-it offers, point estimates can be obtained. Lower bounds from set estimates imply that, on average, vendor allowances amount to at least 5% of retailer revenues. These results suggest that vendor allowances are likely important for retailer profitability, given that public grocery chains in the U.S. report profit margins on the order of 2-4% of revenues. To investigate the effects of these payments on product selections and welfare, I apply model estimates to simulate how market outcomes change in the absence of vendor allowances. The "what-if" experiment predicts that, absent vendor allowances, retailers fare worse, product variety is reduced as retailers replace "niche" products with "mainstream" options, but consumers are nevertheless better off. Small producers, which offer high-volume products, increase market distribution and profits, but, absent marginal cost data, consequences for large producers are uncertain. The work extends our understanding of how firms' strategic interactions in the marketplace may affect consumer welfare and firm profitability through product availability. The second chapter presents a coauthored work with Alexander Bleier and Maik Eisenbeiss that analyzes the use of online advertising personalization by an online retailer. Online advertising has become an important channel through which firms attempt to influence consumer behavior and increase sales. To improve effectiveness, firms today tailor their advertisements to individual consumers with a method called retargeting. In retargeting, firms track the shopping behaviors of individual consumers' visiting their online stores and, subsequently, deliver individualized display banner ads as consumers continue browsing the Web. While this method has gained traction in the online advertising industry, research in the field is still in its infancy. This work furthers our understanding of advertising personalization by analyzing two questions: How effective is ad personalization in attracting individual consumers back to the online store? And, do different personalization approaches have distinct impacts on consumers' engagement behaviors with the online store? To answer these research questions, we exploit unique data from a randomized field experiment conducted in cooperation with a major fashion and sporting goods retailer. This study compares the effects of online banners with very high, medium, and low degrees of content personalization. For example, very high personalization refers to ads showing consumers products that they had viewed at their previous visit to the retailer's online store. Medium personalization includes products from the most viewed category or brand of their previous visit. And low personalization delivers random products from the retailer's assortment without any connection to a consumer's previous shopping behavior. Results suggest that ads with very high personalization are more effective in bringing consumers back to the online store than the other campaigns. However, we also find that the gain in visits of very high- over medium-personalization banners stems mainly from visit with low consumer engagement. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

As part of the promotional mix, advertising plays a significant role in a company’s or organisation’s communication with its consumers and stakeholders. In order to inform consumers about their products or services, marketers apply a variety of advertising strategies. One particular strategy is “contextual advertising”, which refers to the strategic placement of advertisements in an editorial environment whose theme is relevant for the promoted product or service (Belch & Belch, 2009, p. 492). Also in advertising research, contextual advertising received a considerable amount of attention. Scholars have investigated the effectiveness of contextual advertising in online and offline media. Researchers as well as practitioners have particularly focused on content-based relationships between advertisements and the theme of the editorial environment in which the advertisement is placed. With a focus on online media, the present study aimed to investigate this content-based relationship but also to examine what other types of relationships between the different contents on a webpage the user constructs. Advertising has also been investigated in the area of semiotics. Several scholars analysed advertisements in order to reveal their meaning-affordances. A second interest in the present study derives from semiotic studies and theories, which emphasise the individual’s significance in the meaning-making process but also exclude the individual from their analysis. A potential contradiction could be seen here and by investigating how users interpret a particular webpage, this study aimed to examine what insights an analysis can provide that is solely focused on the webpage user. In order to capture users’ interpretations of a webpage’s contents and to investigate what types of relationships between these contents users construct semi-structured interviews with six participants were conducted. The participants were invited to look at a webpage from the website www.healthyfood.co.nz. Following the interviews, the participants’ responses were transcribed, categorised and analysed. Findings from the study revealed that several participants constructed relationships between advertisements and the editorial content based on content-similarity but also on design-similarity as well as their personal knowledge about sponsorship relationships and income-investment relationships. Personal knowledge also appeared to be important for the interpretation of the webpage. The participants’ interpretation of the webpage were also guided by their personal interest in the contents, their individual contexts like socio-cultural background, experiences and beliefs as well as environmental factors such as time and the layout of the interview location. The results of the study support the significant role of the individual in the process of meaning making and further contribute to an extended understanding of contextual advertising. Practical suggestions for the advertising area and future research were also identified.

As part of the promotional mix, advertising plays a significant role in a company’s or organisation’s communication with its consumers and stakeholders. In order to inform consumers about their products or services, marketers apply a variety of advertising strategies. One particular strategy is “contextual advertising”, which refers to the strategic placement of advertisements in an editorial environment whose theme is relevant for the promoted product or service (Belch & Belch, 2009, p. 492). Also in advertising research, contextual advertising received a considerable amount of attention. Scholars have investigated the effectiveness of contextual advertising in online and offline media. Researchers as well as practitioners have particularly focused on content-based relationships between advertisements and the theme of the editorial environment in which the advertisement is placed. With a focus on online media, the present study aimed to investigate this content-based relationship but also to examine what other types of relationships between the different contents on a webpage the user constructs. Advertising has also been investigated in the area of semiotics. Several scholars analysed advertisements in order to reveal their meaning-affordances. A second interest in the present study derives from semiotic studies and theories, which emphasise the individual’s significance in the meaning-making process but also exclude the individual from their analysis. A potential contradiction could be seen here and by investigating how users interpret a particular webpage, this study aimed to examine what insights an analysis can provide that is solely focused on the webpage user. In order to capture users’ interpretations of a webpage’s contents and to investigate what types of relationships between these contents users construct semi-structured interviews with six participants were conducted. The participants were invited to look at a webpage from the website www.healthyfood.co.nz. Following the interviews, the participants’ responses were transcribed, categorised and analysed. Findings from the study revealed that several participants constructed relationships between advertisements and the editorial content based on content-similarity but also on design-similarity as well as their personal knowledge about sponsorship relationships and income-investment relationships. Personal knowledge also appeared to be important for the interpretation of the webpage. The participants’ interpretation of the webpage were also guided by their personal interest in the contents, their individual contexts like socio-cultural background, experiences and beliefs as well as environmental factors such as time and the layout of the interview location. The results of the study support the significant role of the individual in the process of meaning making and further contribute to an extended understanding of contextual advertising. Practical suggestions for the advertising area and future research were also identified.

This thesis was focused on creating an advertising campaign for a company "Desired House", which produces wood. The company "Desired House" is one of the largest companies in the Altai woodworking industry engaged in harvesting and processing wood. Since 2009, one of the company's strategic directions has been the development of the wooden house building industry in the region. To this end, within the framework of the company, a project aimed at creating a complex of house-building production and production facilities with in-depth processing of wood was developed and implemented to produce a series of spacious, eco-friendly, affordable wooden houses and all the necessary components for them. However, their marketing activities did not allow it to prosper in its full scope. In theoretical part I observe the development of marketing concept as a whole and theoretical basis of online marketing in particular. The information was primarily derived from the books and online resources. The important part was the researching part of online advertising and its measurement. In the practical part, primary source of data is internal to the company observed. The tools of Yandex.Metric was used to measure and plan advertising activities. SWOT analysis was performed to assess company's abilities and areas in order to develop. In the last part, an advertising campaign was carried out based on recommendations. The website was renovated.

The current economic climate presents many challenges to advertisers. In 2009, advertising spending in the United States dropped 12.3 percent, forcing advertisers to focus on campaigns that prove a quick return on investment. As average time spent online continues to increases, so is the Internet’s contribution to society and the economy. Advertising budgets are being shifted online to reflect the growing importance of the Internet, and much of these budgets are being spent using advertising networks. These networks act as the intermediaries between advertisers and Web publishers and make online advertising accessible and affordable for small and large budgets alike. This paper explores the current state of Internet advertising with a close focus on advertising networks. The goal of this paper is to educate on the basics of online advertising and how to navigate the advertising network industry, so even an advertising novice can utilize their numerous benefits. / text

<p>Online advertising which is a new form of communication provides interactivity between advertisers and consumers.</p><p>This dissertation is focusing on how advertising management influence the effectiveness of online advertising.The theoretical framework of this study mainly contains the advertising management and effectiveness of effects model.These two models are combined together in an analytical model where a connection between the two theories is explained that will be used as a foundation in gathering and analyzing the empirical findings. The quatitative research strategy is appliedd in this dissertation. Based on the questionnaies of white-collar workers, the empirical data was collected.</p><p>The conclusion which can be drawn from this study is that there is clear evidence that good management will improve cognitive,affective and conative degree of consumer behavior.</p>

Online advertising which is a new form of communication provides interactivity between advertisers and consumers. This dissertation is focusing on how advertising management influence the effectiveness of online advertising.The theoretical framework of this study mainly contains the advertising management and effectiveness of effects model.These two models are combined together in an analytical model where a connection between the two theories is explained that will be used as a foundation in gathering and analyzing the empirical findings. The quatitative research strategy is appliedd in this dissertation. Based on the questionnaies of white-collar workers, the empirical data was collected. The conclusion which can be drawn from this study is that there is clear evidence that good management will improve cognitive,affective and conative degree of consumer behavior.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to advance an understanding of trust and perceived intrusiveness in online advertising. The theoretical framework in this thesis is based upon theories about trust and intrusiveness that derives from previous research. The theory of psychological reactance is a further constituent. These concepts and theories are defined and discussed. and possible models are introduced. Semi-structured interviews with eight individuals of the Net Generation have been conducted to gather empirical data. The recordings from these interviews have thereafter been transcribed. in order to analyse the collected data, we have adopted a thematic analysis consisting of six phases. We coded the data and created themes that were detected during the different phases. The empirical data has been gathered by conduction of eight semi-structured interviews with individuals of the Net Generation. These interview have thereafter been transcribed and its content coded as a first step of the analysis. Three global themes derived from the empirical data analysis; trust, intrusiveness and observed relations, and many basic themes defined and analysed and discussed. We conclude our study advancing our findings about an understanding of trust and perceived intrusiveness in online advertising, as well as some observed relations noticed during the analysis. We finish our thesis with some managerial implications about the importance for managers and advertisers to take into account trust and intrusiveness, as well as leads for further studies, including the testing of our developed research model through a quantitative strategy.

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate cultural differences in consumer perception of online advertising. As the Internet grows it has become important for companies to adjust website design to cultural differences in online advertising. Internet users are more comfortable with website design related to their own culture. There have been a limited number of previous investigation regarding website design and our study aims to fill this gap. Schwartz cultural values are used to investigate cultural differences on a micro level. Our study aims to compare Sweden and China based on cultural values. The two countries were chosen because of the cultural differences. Schwartz cultural values have been selected since Schwartz investigates cultural differences on an individual level. The result of the dissertation indicates that there are other factors than colour text and image that influence consumers’ perception of the website design. One of the challenges in the dissertation was to connect the conceptual model to the collected data from the focus group interviews. However, some of the Schwartz’s cultural values could be captured where the participants were motivated by the culture in the responses. The result of the study can be used for companies and their website design in connection to Swedish and Chinese culture. The investigation gave us more understanding regarding the area of online advertising in connection to website design.