How To Advertise: An Analysis of Contemporary Advertising (part 13)

Learning and Persuasion: How Consumers Process Information

by

Charles Lamson

Each time we file a new perception in our minds it is a learning process. Many psychologists consider learning to be the most fundamental process in human behavior. From the advertiser's perspective, though, perception is the most important because it precedes learning. In truth, perception and learning are a continuum, overlapping each other.

By definition, learning is a relatively permanent change in thought process or behavior that occurs as a result of reinforced experience. Learning produces our habits and skills. It also contributes to the development of interests, attitudes, beliefs, preferences, prejudices, emotions, and standards of conduct.

Theories of Learning

There are numerous theories of learning, but advertisers classify most into two broad categories---cognitive theory and conditioning theory---depending on the level of consumer involvement (high or low) required to make a purchase. Cognitive theory views learning as a mental process of memory, thinking, and the rational application of knowledge to practical problems. This theory may be an accurate description of how we learn from the experience of others, such as our parents, and how we evaluate a complex purchase such as insurance, stocks and bonds or business products. Conditioning theory---also called stimulus-response theory---treats learning as a trial-and-error process. Some stimulus (perhaps an ad) triggers the consumer's need or want, and this in turn creates the drive to respond. If the consumer's response reduces the drive, then satisfaction occurs, and the response is rewarded or reinforced. And that produces repeat behavior for the next time the drive is aroused, demonstrating that learning has taken place.

Conditioning theory is more applicable to the simple, basic purchases consumers make every day---soap, cereal, toothpaste, paper towels and so forth. And it is here that reinforcement advertising plays its more important role---along with superior product performance and good service. If learning is reinforced enough and repeat behavior is produced, a purchasing habit may result.

Learning and persuasion are closely linked. Persuasion occurs when the change in belief, attitude, or behavioral intention is caused by promotion communication (such as advertising or personal selling). Naturally, advertisers are very interested in persuasion and how it takes place.

The Elaboration Likelihood Model

Researchers have identified two ways promotion communication can persuade consumers: the central and peripheral routes to persuasion.  Like learning theory, each depends on the consumer's level of involvement with the product and the message. When the consumer's level of involvement is higher, the central route to persuasion is more likely. On the other hand, the peripheral route to persuasion is more likely when consumer involvement is low.

Exhibit 1

The Elaboration Likelihood Model

We can see how this works by looking at the Elaboration Likelihood Model in Exhibit 1. In the central route to persuasion, consumers have a higher level of involvement with the product or the message, so they are motivated to pay attention to the central, product-related informstion, such as product attributes and benefits or demonstrations of positive functional or psychological consequences. Because of their high involvement, consumers tend to learn cognitively and comprehend the ad-delivered information at deeper, more elaborate levels. This can lead to product beliefs, positive brand attitudes, and purchase intention.

Suppose you are in the market for a significant purchase, say, a new camera or a computer. Because the purchase is relatively expensive, your level of involvement is higher. Perhaps you ask for advice from some friends or family members. You may shop different stores to compare models and prices. And you probably read ads for these products thoroughly to understand the variety of product features and benefits. That is central processing. And in that situation, a well-written, informative ad can be very persuasive.

The peripheral route to persuasion is very different. It is more like stimulus-response learning. People who are not in the market for a product typically have low involvement with the product message. They have little or no reason to pay attention to it or to comprehend the central information of the ad. However, these consumers might attend to some peripheral aspects---say, the pictures or the colors in an ad or the actors in a commercial---for their entertainment value. And whatever they think or feel about these peripheral, nonproduct aspects might integrate into a positive attitude toward the ad. At some later date, if a purchase occasion does arrive and the consumer needs to make some brand evaluation, these ad-related meetings could be activated to form some brand attitude or purchase intention.

Because very few people are actually in the market at any given time, most mass media advertising probably receives peripheral processing. We all know that most of the ads we see have little relevance to our immediate goals or needs, so we are not motivated to pay close attention to, much less think about, them. Our involvement is very low. That is why we also have very little recall of ads we saw yesterday. In cases where there is little product differentiation, advertisers may actually want us to engage in peripheral processing. Their ads focus more on image or entertainment than product features. This is typical of advertising for many everyday low-involvement purchases, such as soap, cereal, toothpaste, and chewing gum.

But when a product has a distinct advantage, the advertiser's goal should be to encourage central route processing by increasing consumer's involvement with the message. This is where we see a lot of comparative advertising.

One key to learning and persuasion is repetition. Just as a student prepares for an exam by repeating key information to memorize it, an advertiser must repeat key information to prospective and current customers so they remember the product's name and its benefits. Repeat messages penetrate customers perpetual screens (a window through which we interact with people that influences the quality, accuracy and clarity of the communication) by rekindling memories of information from prior ads. Quebec-based Cossette Communications-Marketing used pairs of billboards for the Provigo grocery store chain. They featured similarly strong visual elements and were positioned to be seen in succession. The repetition proved highly successful, producing $100 million in sales in just six months.

Learning Produces Attitudes and Interest

An attitude is our acquired mental position regarding some idea or object. It is the positive or negative evaluations, feelings, or action tendencies that we learn and cling to. To advertisers, gaining positive consumer attitudes is critical to success. Attitudes must be either capitalized on or changed.

In Japan, for instance, dishwashers are not a common household appliance. Not only is there very little space for them, Japanese homemakers feel guilty about using the labor-saving device. As a result, dishwasher manufacturers have designed smaller, space-saving machines and then promoted them using good hygiene themes rather than convenience appeals.

For mature brands in categories with familiar, frequently purchased products, brand interest is even more critical for motivating action. Brand interest is an individual's openness or curiosity about a brand. Enjoyable, entertaining advertising can enhance interest in the brand and reduce the variety-seeking tendencies of consumers who become bored with using the same old product.

Learning Leads to Habits and Brand Loyalty

Attitude is the mental side and habit the behavioral side of the same coin. Habit---the acquired behavior pattern that becomes nearly or completely involuntary---is the natural extension of learning. We really are creatures of habit.

Most consumer behavior is habitual for three reasons: It is safe, simple, and essential. First, regardless of how we learned to make our purchase decision (through either central or peripheral route processing), if we discover a quality product, brand, or service, we feel safe repurchasing it through habit.

Second, habit is simple. To consider alternatives we must evaluate, compare, and then decide. This is difficult, time-consuming, and risky.

Finally, because habit is both soft and easy, we rely on it for daily living. Imagine rethinking every purchase decision you make. It would be virtually impossible, not to mention impractical. So it is really essential to use habit in our lives.

The major objectives of all brand marketers is to produce brand loyalty, a direct result of the habit of repurchasing and reinforcement of continuous advertising. Brand loyalty is the customers conscious or unconscious decision, expressed through intention or behavior, to repurchase a brand continually. It occurs because the consumer perceives that the brand offers the right product features, image, quality, or relationship at the right price.

In the quest for brand loyalty, advertisers have three aims related to habits:

1. Breaking habits. Get consumers to unlearn an existing purchase habit and try something new. Advertisers frequently offer incentives to lure customers away from old brands or stores. Or they may use comparative advertising to demonstrate their product's superiority.
2. Acquiring habits. Teach consumers to repurchase their brand or repatronize their establishment. To get you started, Columbia House advertises free CDs when you sign up, tied to a contract to purchase more later on.
3. Reinforcing habits. Remind current customers of the value of their original purchase and encourage them to continue purchasing. Many magazines, for example, offer special renewal rates to their regular subscribers.

Developing brand loyalty is much more difficult today due to consumers' increased sophistication and to the legions of habit-breaking activities of competitive advertisers. Only recently have advertisers come to realize that their years of habit-breaking activities have undermined their own habit-building objectives. In the quest for instant results, they shifted much of their advertising budgets to sales promotions (deals, coupons, price cuts). But advertising, unlike sales promotion, is an integral part of what makes a brand salable. It is advertising that reinforces brand loyalty and maintains market share.

*SOURCE: CONTEMPORARY ADVERTISING 11TH ED., 2008, WILLIAM F. ARENS, MICHAEL F. WEIGOLD, CHRISTIAN ARENS, PGS. 149-153*

END

How To Advertise: An Analysis of Contemporary Advertising (part 12)

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The Consumer Perception Process

by

Charles Lamson

Perception is everything. It guides all our activities from the people we associate with to the products we buy. How a consumer perceives each of the different brands in a category determines which ones he or she uses. The perception challenge, therefore, is the first and greatest hurdle advertisers must cross. Some marketers spend millions of dollars on national advertising, sales promotion, point-of-purchase displays, and other marketing communications only to discover that many consumers do not remember the product or the promotion. The average adult may be exposed to thousands of ads each day but notices only a handful and remembers even fewer. How does this happen? The answer lies in the principal of perception.

We use the term perception to refer to the personalized way we sense, interpret, and comprehend various stimuli. This definition suggests there are several key elements to the consumer perception process.

Stimulus 

A stimulus  is physical information we receive through our senses. When we look at a new car, we receive a number of stimuli. We might note the color of the paint, the smell of the leather, the purr of the engine. When we look at a theater ad in the newspaper, we see a collection of type, art, and photography arranged in a way that we interpret as an ad. That is the stimulus. So, for our purposes, assume that a stimulus is any ad, commercial, or promotion that we see.

Advertising stimuli can appear in a variety of forms: a window display at a local department store; the brightly colored labels on cans of Campbell's tomato soup, or even the red price tag on a pair of skis at the Sport Chalet. These objects are all physical in nature; they stimulate our senses (with varying degrees of intensity) in ways that can be measured.

Perceptual Screens

The second key element in perception is the personalized way of seeing and interpreting the stimulus data. Before any data can be perceived, they must first penetrate a set of perceptual screens, the subconscious filters that shield us from unwanted messages. There are two types of screens, physiological and psychological.

The physiological screens comprise the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. They detect the incoming data and measure the dimension and intensity of the physical stimuli. A sight-impaired person cannot read an ad in Sports Illustrated. And if the type in a movie ad is too small for the average reader, it will not be read, and perception will suffer. Similarly, if the music in a TV commercial for a furniture store is not complementary to the message, the viewer may tune out, change channels or even turn off the TV. The advertiser's message is effectively screened out when the viewer cannot interpret it; perception does not occur, and the furniture goes unsold.

We are limited not only by the physical capacity of our senses but also by our feelings and interests. Each consumer uses psychological screens to evaluate, filter, and personalize information according to subjective emotional standards. These screens evaluate data based on innate factors, such as the consumer's personality and instinctive human needs, and learned factors, such as self-concept, interests, attitudes, beliefs, past experiences, and lifestyle. They help consumers summarize unwieldy or complex data.

After extensive consumer research, Bally's Health & Tennis determined that the perfectly chiseled body, glorified by earlier health club advertising and exemplified by such icons as Cher, Victoria Principal, and Don Johnson, was no longer penetrating the psychological screens of its 4.5 million members. As the new millenium approached, that premise no longer fit their self-concept (the image we have of who we are and who we want to be). In a major strategy shift, Bally's refocused its advertising on customers such as Beth from Costa Mesa, California, who is seen rock climbing in a TV commercial while telling viewers, "I think I climb because I'm afraid of heights. . . . There is nothing better than being able to conquer that fear. That's why I work out at Bally's, so I can do more on the rocks." The tagline: "If you can get here [Bally's], you can get there [a mountain]."

As this example shows, advertisers face a major problem dealing with consumers' perceptual screens. As overcommunicated consumers, we unconsciously screen out or modify many of the sensations that bombard us, rejecting those that conflict with our experiences, needs, desires, attitudes, and beliefs. We simply focus on some things and ignore others. This is called selective perception. Hence, Panasonic may run a series of outstanding ads for its new digital camcorder in the daily newspaper, but they will not penetrate the psychological screens of consumers who do not need or want a new camera. Later these people probably will not even remember seeing the ads.

Cognition

The third key element in perception is cognition: comprehending the stimulus. Once we detect the stimulus and allow it through our perpetual screens, we can comprehend and accept it. Now perception has occurred, and the stimulus reaches the consumer's reality zone.

But each of us has his or her own reality. For example, you may consider the tacos advertised by Taco Bell to be '"Mexican" food. That perception is your reality. But someone from Mexico might tell you that a fast-food taco bears little resemblance to an authentic Mexican taco. That person's reality, based on another perception, is considerably different. Advertisers thus seek commonly shared perceptions of reality as a basis for their advertising messages.

Mental Files

The mind is like a memory bank, and the stored memories in our minds are called the mental (or perceptual) files.

Just as stimuli bombard our senses, information crowds our mental files in today's overcommunicative society. To cope with the complexity of stimuli such as advertising, we rank products and other data in our files by importance, price, quality, features, or a host of other descriptors. Consumers can rarely hold more than seven brand names in any one file---more often only one or two. The remainder either get discarded to some other file category or rejected altogether. How many brands of running shoes can you quickly name, for example?

Because of our limited memory, we resist opening new mental files, and we avoid accepting new information inconsistent with what is already filed. The experience consumers receive from using a brand solidifies their perceptions of it. These fixed perceptions can rarely be changed through advertising alone. But once a new perception does enter our mental files, the information alters the database on which our psychological screens feed.

Because perceptual screens are such a major challenge to advertisers, it is important to understand what is in the consumer's mental files and, if possible, modify them in favor of the advertiser's product. That brings us to the second process in consumer behavior: learning and persuasion, which will be discussed in the next post.

To be continued. . . .

*SOURCE: CONTEMPORARY ADVERTISING 11TH ED., 2008, WILLIAM F. ARENS, MICHAEL F. WEIGOLD, CHRISTIAN ARENS, PGS. 147-149*

END

How To Advertise: An Analysis of Contemporary Advertising (part 11)

The Suppliers of Advertising

by

Charles Lamson

The people and organizations that provide specialized services to the advertising business are called suppliers. Without their services it would be impossible to produce the billions of dollars worth of advertising placed every year.

Although we cannot mention them all, important suppliers include art studios and Web design houses, printers, engravers, film, and video production houses, and research houses.

Art Studios and Web Designers

Art studios design and produce artwork and illustrations for advertisements. They may supplement the work of an agency's art department or even take its place for small agencies. Art studios are usually small organizations with as few as three or four employees. Some, though, are large enough to employ several art directors, graphic designers, layout artists, production artists, and sales reps.

Most studios are owned and managed by a graphic designer or illustrator, who calls on agencies and advertising managers to sell the studio's services, takes projects back to the office to be produced, and then delivers them for the client's approval. The work is very time-consuming and requires a talent for organization and management as well as a core competency in art direction and computer graphics.

Similar to art studios, Web design houses employ specialists who understand the intricacies of Web-based technologies and can design ads and Web pages that are both effective and cost efficient.

Printers and Related Specialists

The printers who produce brochures, stationary, business cards, sales promotion materials, and point-of-purchase displays are vital to the advertising business. Ranging from small instant-print shops to large offset operations, printers employ or contract with highly trained specialists who prepare artwork for reproduction, operate digital scanning machines to make color separations and plates, operate presses and collating machines, and run binderies.

Printers may specialize in offset lithography, rotogravure, letterpress, engraving, or other techniques. Their sales reps must be highly skilled, and they often earn very large commissions.

Film and Video Houses

Few agencies have in-house TV production capabilities. Small agencies often work with local TV stations to produce commercials. But the large agencies normally work with independent production houses that specialize in film or video production or both.

Research Companies

Advertisers are concerned about the attitudes of their customers, the size of potential markets, and the acceptability of their products. Agencies want to know what advertising approaches to use, which concepts communicate most efficiently, and how effective past campaigns have been.

The media are concerned with the reading and viewing habits of their audiences, the desired markets of their advertiser customers, and public perceptions toward their own particular medium.

Research, therefore, is closely allied to advertising and is an important tool for marketing professionals. But most firms do not maintain a fully staffed research department. Instead, they use independent research companies or consultants. Research firms come in all sizes and specialties, and they employ statisticians, field interviewers, and computer programmers, as well as analysts with degrees in psychology, sociology, and marketing.

*SOURCE: CONTEMPORARY ADVERTISING 11TH ED., 2008, WILLIAM F. ARENS, MICHAEL F. WEIGOLD, CHRISTIAN ARENS, PGS. 126-127*

END

How To Advertise: An analysis of Contemporary Advertising (part 10)

The Advertising Agency

by

Charles Lamson

Why does a company such as Honda hire an advertising agency in the first place? Couldn't it save money by hiring its own staff and creating its own ads? How does Muse Communications win such a large account? Must an agency's accounts be that big for it to make money? This post sheds light on these issues and gives a clearer understanding of what agencies do and why so many advertisers use agencies.

The Role of the Advertising Agency

The American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) defines an advertising agency as an independent organization of creative people and businesspeople who specialize in developing and preparing marketing and advertising plans, advertisements, and other professional tools. The agency also purchases advertising space and time in various media on behalf of different advertisers, or sellers (its clients), to find customers for their goods and services.

This definition offers clues to why so many advertisers hire ad agencies. First, an agency like Muse Communications is independent. The agency is not owned by the advertiser, the media, or the suppliers, so it can bring an outside, objective viewpoint to the advertiser's business---a state the advertiser can never attain.

Second, like all agencies, Muse Communications employs a combination of businesspeople and creative people, including administrators, accountants, marketing executives, researchers, market and media analysts, writers, and artists. They have day-to-day contact with outside professional suppliers who create illustrations, take photos, retouch art, shoot commercials, record sound, and print brochures.

The agency provides yet another service by researching, negotiating, arranging, and contacting for commercial space and time with the various print, electronic and digital media. Because of its media expertise, Muse Communications saves its clients time and money.

Agencies do not work for the media or the suppliers. Their moral, ethical, financial and legal obligation is to their clients. Just as a well-run business seeks professional help from attorneys, accountants, bankers, or management specialists, advertisers use agencies out of self-interest because the agencies can create more effective advertising and select more effective media than the advertisers can themselves. Today, almost all sizable advertisers rely on an ad agency for expert, objective counsel and unique, creative skills---to be the "guardian of their brands." 

Finally, a good agency serves its clients' needs because of its daily exposure to a broad spectrum of marketing situations and problems both here and abroad. As technology has enabled companies to work across borders with relative ease, the advertising business has boomed world wide. All the large agencies, for example, maintain offices in many foreign countries.

Types of Agencies

Advertising agencies are typically classified by their geographic scope, the range of services they offer, and the type of business they handle.

Local Agencies

Every community of any size has reputable small ad agencies that offer assistance to local advertisers. a competent local agency can help

• Analyze the local advertiser's business and the product or service being sold.
• Evaluate the markets for the business, including channels of distribution.
• Evaluate the advertiser's competitive position and offer strategic options.
• Evaluate media alternatives and offer rational recommendations. 
• Devise an integrated communications plan and implement it with consistency and creativity.
• Save the advertiser valuable time by taking over media interviewing, analysis, checking, billing, and bookkeeping.
• Assist in other aspects of advertising and promotion by implementing sales contests, publicity, grand openings, and other activities.

Unfortunately, local advertisers use ad agencies less extensively than national advertisers. Many advertisers simply do not spend enough money on advertising to warrant hiring an agency. And some large agencies do not accept local advertisers because their budgets are too low to support the agency's overhead.

Regional and National Agencies

Every major city has numerous agencies that can produce and place the quality of advertising suitable for national campaigns. Regional and national agencies typically participate in either the 4As (American Association of Advertising Agencies) or some similar trade group such as the Western States Adverting Agency Association (WSAAA). The Standard Directory of Advertising Agencies (the Red Book) lists these agencies geographically, so they are easy to find.

International Agencies

The largest agencies are also international agencies. That is, they have offices or affiliates in major communication centers around the world and can help their clients market internationally or globally as the case may be. Likewise, many foreign-based agencies have offices and affiliates in the United States. For example, the largest advertising organization in the world today, WPP Group, is based in London. But it owns several of the top agencies in the United States, such as Ogilvy & Mather and Grey Worldwide.

Full-Service Agencies

The modern full-service advertising agency supplies both advertising and nonadvertising services in all areas of communications and promotion. Advertising services include planning, creating and producing ads; performing research; and selecting media. Nonadvertising functions run the gamut from packaging to public relations to producing sales promotion materials, annual reports and trade show exhibits. With the trend toward IMC, many of the largest agencies today are in the forefront of the emerging interactive media.

Full-service agencies may specialize in certain kinds of clients. Most, though, can be classified as either general consumer agencies or business-to-business agencies.

General consumer agencies     A general consumer agency represents the widest variety of accounts, but it concentrates on consumer accounts---companies that make goods purchased chiefly by consumers (soaps, cereals, cars, pet foods, toiletries). Most of the ads are placed in consumer media (TV, radio, magazines, and so on) that pay a commission to the agency. General agencies often derive much of their income from these commissions.

General agencies include the international super agency groups headquartered in communications capitals such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Montreal and Toronto. A few of the better known names in North America are McCann-Erickson; Ogilvy & Mather, Foote, Cone & Belding; BBDO; DDB Worldwide; Y&R; and Cossette Communications Marketing (Canada). But general agencies also include the thousands of smaller entrepreneurial agencies located in every major city across the country (Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami; Rubin/Postaer, Los Angeles; Fallon Worldwide, Minneapolis; Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, OR).

Profit margins in entrepreneurial agencies are often slimmer, but these shops are typically more responsive to the smaller clients they serve. They offer the hands-on involvement of the firm's principals, and their work is frequently startling in its creativity. For these very reasons many large agencies are spinning off smaller subsidiaries. Gotham, Inc., for example, is a hot creative shop in New York that was spun off by the Interpublic Group of Companies to do work for a variety of clients its bigger sister agencies could not serve. Some entrepreneurial agencies, such as Muse Communications, carve a niche for themselves by serving particular market segments.

Business-to-business agencies     A business-to-business (or high-tech) agency represents clients that market products to other businesses. Examples are electronic components for computer manufacturers, equipment used in oil and gas refineries, and MRI equipment for radiology. High-tech advertising requires some technical knowledge and the ability to translate that knowledge into precise, as well as persuasive, communications.

Most business-to-business advertising is placed in trade magazines or other business publications. These media are commissionable, but their circulation is smaller, so their rates are far lower than those of consumer media. Because commissions usually do not cover the cost of the agency's services, business agencies typically charge their clients service fees. They can be expensive, especially for small advertisers, but failure to obtain a business agency's expertise may carry an even higher price in lost marketing opportunities.

Business and industrial agencies may be large international firms such as McLaren/Lintas in Toronto or HCM/New York, or smaller films experienced in areas of recruitment, biomedical, or electronic advertising.


Specialized Service Agencies

Many agencies assist their clients with a variety of limited services. In the early 1990s the trend toward specialization blossomed, giving impetus to many of the agency-type groups called creative boutiques and other specialty businesses such as media-buying services and interactive agencies.

Creative boutiques     Some talented artists---such as graphic designers and copywriters---set up their own creative services or creative boutiques. They work for advertisers and occasionally subcontract to ad agencies. Their mission is to develop exciting creative concepts and produce fresh, distinctive advertising messages. In the 1990s Creative Artists Agency (CAA). A Hollywood talent agency caused a stir on Madison Avenue (the collective term for New york agencies) by taking on the role of a creative boutique, using its pool of actors, directors, and cinematographers to create a series of commercials for Coca-Cola. McCann-Erickson Worldwide remained Coke's agency of record, but the majority of the creative work came from CAA. Since that time, Coke has allowed numerous other smaller shops to work on its account. At one point, Coke employed more than 20 different agencies, and the company continues to use the multiagency approach.

Advertising effectiveness depends on originality in concept, design, and writing. However, while boutiques may be economical, they usually do not provide the research, marketing, sales expertise, or deep customer service that full-service agencies offer. Thus, boutiques tend to be limited to the role of creative suppliers.

Media-buying services     Some years ago, a few experienced agency media people started setting up organizations to purchase and package radio and TV time. The largest media-buying service (or media agency) is Initiative Media. Based in New York, it is owned by the Interpublic Group, has offices around the world, and places more than $21 billion worth of advertising annually for a wide variety of clients from Samsonite and Home Depot to Victoria's Secret(2007).

Media time and space are perishable. A 60-second radio spot at 8 P.M. cannot be sold later. So radio and TV stations presell as much time as possible and discount their rates for large buys. The media-buying service negotiates a special discount with the media and then sells the time or space to agencies or advertisers.

Media-buying firms provide customers (both clients and agencies) with a detailed analysis of the media buy. Once the media package is sold, the buying service orders spots, and even pays the media bills. Compensation methods vary. Some services charge a set fee; others get a percentage of what they save the client.

Media agencies have experienced so much growth in the last decade that they have become major players on the advertising stage.

Interactive agencies     With the stunning growth of the Internet and the hightened interest in integrated marketing communications has come a new breed of specialist---the interactive agency. Agency.com and Tribal DDB are just two of the many firms that have sprung up within the last few years with specialized experience in designing Web pages and creating fun, involving, information-rich, online advertising.

Other specialists, such as direct-response and sales promotion agencies, are also growing in response to client demands for greater expertise and accountability.

*SOURCE: CONTEMPORARY ADVERTISING 11TH ED., 2008, WILLIAM F. ARENS, MICHAEL F. WEIGOLD, CHRISTIAN ARENS, PGS.109-113* 

END