Content-Type: text/html

Running Head : Banner Ad



A Content Analysis of Internet Banner Advertising:
Focusing on Korean and U.S. Cultural Differences





by


Hwi-Man Chung
Ph.D. Student
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

and

Eugene Ahn
Ph.D Student
Mass Media Ph.D. Program
College of Communication Arts and Science
Michigan State University

* The order of authors was randomly determined






Contact Person : Hwi-Man Chung
700 Bolinwood Dr. APT # 12-B
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
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phone : 919-969-1507





Submitted to the Advertising Division
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
in New Orleans, LA : August 4-7, 1999
Running Head : Banner Ad


A Content Analysis of Internet Banner Advertising:
Focusing on Korean and U.S. Cultural Differences


Abstract

         The Web is emerging as a new advertising medium vying strongly with the
more traditional
media. Despite the Web's capability of becoming a potentially powerful medium,
there is little
empirical studies about the banner advertising in the Web.  Previous studies
about traditional
media have suggested that there are differences among different countries and
cultures in terms of
advertising types and degree of informativeness.  This study focused on the
banner advertising and
findings suggest that there are differences between the two countries even in
the banner
advertisements in terms of advertising content, type, and informativeness.






























Introduction
          The Internet has become a viable means of communication for people all over
the world in
only 7 years.  The number of Internet users worldwide is estimated to be 100.5
million as of the
end of 1998, and by the end of the 2000, it is expected that the number will
jump to 200 million
(NUA 1998 at http://www.nua.ie/survey/ how_many_online/index.html).
And also, the Internet has doubled in size of hosts every year from 1995 to 1997
from 6.6
million hosts to 18 million hosts in the world.  As this tremendous growth in
both numbers of
users and hosts continues, marketers and advertisers have tried to figure out
how to use the
Internet as a marketing and advertising tool.  For this reason, much attention
has been focused on
 the effects of Web advertising, particularly the persuasive techniques of
banner advertising.
For companies who use the Internet as a secondary marketing tool and as a
substitute for direct
mail (Leong et al., 1998), marketers and advertisers have tried to find the most
effective ways of
inducing surfers to their home pages.  As part of this effort, advertising
practitioners are trying
to find out how to increase the click-through rate of banner ads.  Recommended
content techniques
by the practitioners is to put a call-to-action messages such as "Click-Here",
arrows, or other
blatant messages in the banner ads (Harris 1997; Internet Advertising Bureau
1997).
              Although many studies have suggested various techniques to
increase the effectiveness
of banner advertising, no study has investigated the usefulness of the
techniques in terms of
cultural differences.  As a result, the applicability of banner ad techniques,
which have been
developed mainly by U.S. researchers, in different countries is unknown.  Even
though those
techniques recommended by many American advertising practitioners may be popular
in U.S. banner
ads because of their effectiveness of increasing "click-through" rates, their
usage may be limited
in Korean banner ads.  For example, there are difficulties in translating one of
most recommended
techniques, "Click-Here," into Korean words.  Even after Korean banner
advertisers translate the
"Click-Here" into Korean, the meaning of the message may be ambiguous because
"Click" is a newly
conceptualized computer terminology for most Korean people.  As a result, the
effectiveness of the
"Click-Here" message is questionable for Korean Internet users.  In addition to
the issue of banner
techniques, the objectives of banner ads may be different across countries.  For
instance, Korean
marketers may focus on trial-focused advertising objectives rather than
repeat-purchase advertising
objectives because Korean Internet users are generally young and innovative (See
Table 1).
              As these examples illustrate, it is important for global marketers
to understand
cultural differences if they use the Internet as one of their marketing tools.
To address this
aspect of Internet advertising research, the present study specifically examines
banner advertising
 in terms of the cultural differences between Korea and the U.S.  Before
studying the effects of banner
advertising, one needs to know how banner ads are executed differently  in the
two countries.
Without empirical documentation of actual use of banner ads in these countries,
the value of
further studies on the effects of banner ads will be questionable.
Consequently, the purpose of
this study is to collect specific information about the use of banner ads by
using a content
analysis procedure of web sites in the two countries.


Literature Review for Theoretical Framework

              Advertising on the Internet and Banner Ads

              According to Ducoffe (1996), advertising on the Web can best serve
the needs of
consumers and yield the sort of responses that advertisers desire.  Therefore,
the Web can
offer consumers a variety of benefits that may increase the value of its
advertising (Ducoffe,
1996).  The most distinguishable benefits of Web advertising are as follows.
First, Web
advertising can potentially offer consumers an advantage over traditional media
because it
makes information immediately accessible at the right point when consumers need
advertising information.  Second, the information in Web ads is more relevant to
consumers because consumers usually connect the Web sites that are expected to
contain
information they want.  Third, Web ads are flexible.  They can be changed
quickly and
easily in response to consumer needs and market changes.  Finally, transactions
can be
executed directly by consumers in response to ads, increasing both speed and
convenience of
purchases or inquiries.
              Berthon, Pitt, and Watson (1996) reviewed the role of the World
Wide Web as an
advertising and marketing communications medium.  They concluded that the World
Wide
Web is "characterized by ease of entry, relatively low set-up costs, globalness,
time
independence, and interactivity" (p. 53) and can be effectively used for
integrating strategy
for new or existing markets.
              One of the major forms of Web advertising is banner ads (Hoffman,
Novak,
& Chatterjee, 1995).  Banner advertising is usually defined as "small graphic
buttons or
images containing tempting information, inviting users to click for more
information"
(Ellsworth & Ellsworth, 1997; p. 87).  Therefore, unlike other forms of Internet
advertising such as target ads, Web sites, and Web sponsorships, banner ads are
used
primarily as Web traffic builders (Li, 1998).  Because the main purpose of
banner ads is
to catch consumers' attention, click-through rate has become the gauge of banner
ad
effectiveness, and it is assumed to be affected by banner ad content.
              For this reason, many advertising practitioners have recommended
several effective
tools to increase click-through rates (See Table 2), and one of most recommended
content
techniques by practitioners is to put a call-to-action messages such as
"Click-Here",
arrows, or other blatant messages in the banner ads (Harris 1997; Internet
Advertising
Bureau 1997).  According to InfoSeek's (1997) study, a 44 percent increase in
click-through
rates can be realized simply by giving text cues that the banner is connected to
more
information. That is, by literally stating the words "Click Here," or putting
buttons, arrows or
other blatant call-to-action messages in the banner ad, the banner ad
effectiveness is
dramatically improved (Harris, 1997).

              Language Differences

              Although these techniques have been found to be effective, they
may be effective
only for Western market. Even though a recent study found a 44 percent
improvement in
click-through rates just from providing visual or textual cues that a banner
leads to more
information, this technique, especially a use of textual cues such as
"Click-Here," raises a
question about its standardized use in different countries.  One
counter-argument comes
from the differences in languages.  Each Asian country such as Korea, Japan, and
China uses
its own language, which is fundamentally different from English in terms of
characters and
syntax.  As a result, the content technique of banner ads  may be limited in its
application in
these Asian markets.
              For example, there is no Korean terminology exactly matching the
English word
"click" in terms of computer vocabulary.  Because the meaning of "click" has
been created
with the development of computers in Western countries, it has to be either
translated into
Korean wording or directly used as a foreign phrase for Korean people.  The
translated
Korean wording of "click-here" takes too much space in a relatively small banner
ad size,
which may limit other important banner ad messages.  Furthermore, the meaning of
the
translated Korean "click-here" message may be awkward for Koreans.  Because the
English
word "click" is still being assimilated in Korean, it is difficult for Korean
banner advertisers
to use the "click-here" technique because of the language problems.


              Behavioral Dimensions: Cultural Differences

              The cultural difference of behavioral patterns also can influence
the effectiveness of
banner ad techniques recommended by Western researchers.  It has been found that
culture is
the most important factor capable of differentiating the behavioral patterns of
the people of
one society from another (Hofstede, 1991).  Hofstede (1980) defined culture as
"the
interactive aggregate of common characteristics that influences a group's
response to its
environment."  Therefore, Hofstede called the culture "the software of the
mind."  Culture is
also social norms and values, which are learned and shared by the members of a
society.
Culture influences members' behavior, their ways of thinking, their attitudes,
and belief
systems among people.  Furthermore, culture regulates human behavior and
determines
whether specific behaviors are acceptable or not.  As a form of social
communication,
advertising is considered to be particularly reflective of culture (Hong et al.,
1987); thus,
advertising should differ from country to country, culture to culture.  A
consumer who is
exposed to a specific culture becomes committed to that culture's style of
thinking and
feeling, value system, attitudes and perceptions (Hall, 1976).
              Researchers have long tried to show that advertising is influenced
by culture and
reflects culture.  Differences found in the level of informativeness are
explained and
supported by the cultural differences between eastern and western countries.
Hall (1976)
dentified context as one of the key features that distinguishes the
communication style of
one culture from another.  He suggested two different levels of communication -
high-
context communication and low-context communication.  Hall (1976) defined a
high-
context communication as "one in which most of the information is either in the
physical
context or internalized in the person, while very little is in the coded,
explicit, transmitted
part of the message.  A low-context communication is defined as just the
opposite; i.e.,
the mass of the information is vested in the explicit code" (Hall 1976, p. 79;
Recited from
Taylor et al., 1997, p. 3).
              In a relatively high-context culture, such as Korea, messages
often are indirect,
and it is polite to be indirect and somewhat vague.  Also, the meaning of a
message depends
more on the context, that is, who is speaking, what was said earlier.
Therefore, in a high-
context culture, people have little communication, its expression is indirect
and ambiguous,
and the receiver should understand the message using his/her prior knowledge.
On the
contrary, low-context culture has direct and easily understood communications.
The
message is clear, explicit, and direct.  Therefore, the receiver may totally
depend on the
sender's message to get information.  Hall describes the United States and some
western
countries as low-context cultures, and South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan as
high-context
cultures.  Therefore, it can be assumed that there will be differences of
directness between
western and eastern countries.  That is, western countries will use more direct
advertising
messages than eastern countries do.  For example, U.S. advertisers may use more
direct
call-to-action messages in their banner ads, whereas Korean advertisers may
avoid the use
of direct messages that request immediate consumer actions.  This is usually
referred to as a
"Call-to-Action."  Consequently, Korean banner advertisers may be reluctant to
employ direct
action-to-call messages in their banner ads.  Considering both language and
cultural
differences, this paper suggests the following hypothesis.

H1: The frequency of usage of call-to-action messages in U.S. banner ads is
greater than that of Korean banner ads.

             In addition, it is expected that global companies of the U.S. who
are marketing in
Korea may have difficulty in employing call-to-action messages.  They may be
confronted by
these cultural differences without any systematic research findings to rely on.
As a result,
there is a possibility of mixed usage of the "click-here" in their banner ads.
The following
hypothesis is suggested.

H2: The frequency of usage of call-to-action messages in banner ads differs
significantly among Korean advertisers, U.S. advertisers, and U.S. global
advertisers in Korea.

              After Resnik and Stern (1977) first started systematic
investigation of information
content by setting up the evaluative criteria for informativeness in
advertising, analysis of
the content of advertising information has been used in many cross-cultural
studies to
determine differences in information content.  These studies have shown that the
information
content in advertising is different among cultures and countries (Cutler &
Javlagi 1992;
Dowling 1980; Hong et al., 1987; Kanso 1992; Kewon et al., 1992; Madden et al.,
1987;
Martenson 1987; Mueller 1987; Ramaprasad & Hasegawa 1992; Weinberger & Spotts
1989;
Zandpour et al., 1992; Zandpour et al., 1994).
              This difference of information level depending on cultures may be
found in banner
advertising.  Because banner advertising is one form of advertising, it can also
be used as a
strategy for creating communication effects such as awareness and attitudes.
According to
Briggs and Hollis (1997), banner ads are found to increase effectively brand
awareness even
without clicking activity.  Also, Mbinteractive found that simple exposure to a
banner ads
generated increases in advertisement awareness, brand awareness, and purchase
intention
(MBinteractive, 1997 at http://www.mbinteractive.com/site/iab/exec.html).  If
banner
advertising is used as such a tool, there may be a variation in information
levels between U.S.
and Korean banner ads.  As mentioned earlier, the cultural difference may
influence the
information level between the two countries' banner content.  Specifically, U.S.
banner ads
may contain more information than Korean banner ads.  Many studies have
supported this
idea that low-context cultures such as the U.S. send more information in their
advertising
than high-context countries such as Korea do.  The following hypothesis is
presented;

H3 : The U.S banner ads contain more information than Korean banner ads do.



Method

              Sampling
              One of the major problems of studying Web advertising is
establishing a 'sampling
procedure'.  Especially when banner ads are used as the unit of analysis, it is
more difficult to
set the sampling frame to select banner ads randomly, because getting a sampling
frame that
carries all commercial web sites and banner ads is practically impossible.
Another major
problem related to the sampling process is that the purpose of this study is to
compare the
differences between two countries.  Because of this purpose, there could be
confounding
variables if the sampling frame had different characteristics.
              Therefore, the "top 10 advertising recipients" (See Table 3) in
both Korea and the
U.S. were used as the sampling frame.  The reason for using "top 10 advertising
recipients" is
that first, it was easy to select the banner ads because many companies put
their banner ads in
those sites, and second, it was thought that those sites had more similar
characteristics than
other sites.  After sampling frames were set for the two countries, a total of
123 samples from
Korea and 120 samples from the U.S. were gathered from February to March 1999
from both
sampling frames.

              Data Collection

             For a comparison of the "Call-to-Action Message" between the two
countries, the
coding sheet was developed based on Harris's definition of "Call-to-Action
Message" (See
Appendix 1).  Also, for the comparison of advertising informativeness between
the two
countries, Resnik and Stern's (1977) information evaluation criteria (Table 4),
which has been
frequently employed as an advertising informativeness measure, were used.  After
the coding
sheet was developed, each banner ad was coded by the authors.  Both are doctoral
students
and have several years experience in advertising agencies.  Before the data
collection,
training began with the conceptual sharing of various definitions between the
coders related
to the research variables (e.g., definition of banner ad and call-to-action
message, etc.) and
ended with a practice that entailed coding 20 banner ads from Web sites not
included in the
sample for the study.  After the training and practice, the two coders worked
independently
and analyzed half of the banner ads (either Korean banner ads or the U.S. banner
ads) in the
sample.  After completing each coding work, they exchanged their work, and coded
the
banner ads that were done by the other judge.
        When discrepancies occurred, each coder reconsidered the decisions made about
the
ad.  If the procedure did not resolve the discrepancies, they discussed and
reached a final
decision.


Results

              For intercoder reliability, Holsti's reliability (Wimmer &
Dominick, 1997)
calculation for nominal data was used.  Because this study focused on the
differences
between two countries, and because this study used all nominal variables,
Holsti's reliability
of nominal data was appropriate to this study.  The coder reliability of each
coding category
ranged from .87  to .97 (i.e., .97 for action to call, .91 for purpose of ad,
.87 for information
cues).


              Call-to-Action Message: Differences between the two countries
              Table 5 shows the frequencies of "call-to-action" messages between
the two
countries.  As expected, American banner ads use more call-to-action messages
than Korean
banner ads do; that is 18.9 % of Korean banner ads utilize the "call-to-action"
messages in
their banner ads, whereas 38.7 % of American banner ads utilized the
"call-to-action"
messages in their banner ads.  According to chi-square analysis, this difference
is statistically
significant ((2 = 41.679, d.f. = 1, p< .01).  Therefore, hypothesis 1 is
supported.


              Call-to-Action Message: Differences among advertisers
              Table 6 shows the frequencies of "call-to-action" messages among
Korean, U.S., and
international advertisers.  Over half (54.5%) of international advertisers
utilize the call-to-
action messages in their banner ads which are placed in Korean web sites.  The
results
of chi-square statistics show that there are significant differences among
Korean, U.S., and
international advertisers ((2 = 44.905, d.f. = 2, p< .01).  Hypothesis 2, which
says that there
will be differences in using the action-to-call messages among Korean, U.S., and
international advertisers, is also supported.

              Types of Call-to-Action Messages in Korean Banner Ads
              Table 7 shows the frequencies of types of call-to-action messages
in Korean banner
ads.  As shown in the table, Korean (67.6 %) and international advertisers in
the Korean
market (54.5 %) use the direct English copy for call-to-action messages in their
banner ads.
This result also implies that so far there is no appropriate Korean copy for
call-to-action
messages; therefore, advertisers use the English words directly in their banner
ads.

              Information Cues: Differences Between The Two Countries
              Table 8 shows the average number of information cues per banner
ad.  As expected,
American banner ads (mean = .6471) have more information cues than Korean banner
ads do
(mean = .4472).  Using a t-test analysis, the mean difference between the two
countries is
statistically significant ( t = -2.538, d.f. = 241, p<  .05).  Table 9 shows the
frequencies of
information cues contained in each country.  The number of information cues in
banner ads
ranged from 'zero' to 'three.'  Out of 243 banner ads, 110 banner ads (45.3%)
have at least one
information cue, 11 banner ads (4.5%) have two information cues, and 2 banner
ads have
over three information cues.  As the criterion of informativeness increased to
two cues in
Korean banner ads, only 1 out of 123 banner ads have two cues or more.  In
American
banner ads, 7.5% have two or more cues.  Chi-square statistics show that the
difference of
informativeness between the two countries is statistically significant ((2 =
8.439, d.f. = 3, p
<.05).   Therefore, hypothesis 3 is also supported - "Korean banner ads are less
informative
than U.S. banners ads are."
              Table 10 shows the frequencies of the 14 information cues
appearing in the banner
ads by rank order.  Seven different information cues appeared in banner ads.
Special offers
(22.0% for Korean banner ads, 23.3% for American banner ads) were the single
most
frequently used information cue in both countries.  In Korean banner ads,
performance
and components had the same frequencies (both have 6.5%), followed by price
(4.9%) and
availability (2.4%).  On the contrary, in American banner ads, performance
(11.7%) was the
second most frequently used information cue, followed by availability (5.8%),
quality
(5.0%), price (3.3%), and components (2.5%).  Although the percentage of each
information
cue and the rank order of information cues are different, there are similar
patterns of using
information cues in banner ads.  That is, both countries used the special offer,
performance,
components, price, and availability as the five most often used information
cues, and other
cues, such as research, nutrition, package, etc., did not appear in both
countries' banner ads.


              Other Findings
              In this study, the size of banner ads (full-size banner, half-size
banner, button) and
type of creative (static, dynamic, animation) were also coded to see the
differences between
the two countries and to see whether the size can affect the usage of
call-to-action message
and the degree of informativeness in banner ads.  Table 11 shows the frequencies
of banner
size according to country.  Surprisingly, Korean banner ads used half-size (234
x 64 pixel)
most often (54.5%), followed by full-size (from 468 x 60 pixel to 392 x 72
pixel, 36.6%) and
button size (from 125 x 125 pixel to 120 x 60 pixel, 8.9%).  In contrast to
Korean banner ads,
the U.S. used only full-size banner ads (89.2 %).  Chi-square analysis showed
that the
difference of banner size between the two countries was statistically
significant ((2 = 73.927,
d.f. = 2, p< .01).  Furthermore, there are statistically significant differences
in using creative
(static, dynamic, animation) between the two countries.  Table 12 displays the
frequencies of
creative use between the two countries.  Both countries are using dynamic banner
ads most
often; however, Korean banner ads utilize more dynamic ads than the U.S. ads do,
and this
difference is statistically supported by chi-square analysis ((2 = 13.912, d.f.
= 3, p< .01).
              Because the use of size and creative were different between the
two countries, there
is a possibility of size and creative effects over the use of call-to-action
messages and the
degree of informativeness.  Therefore, chi-square analysis for each country
itself with
variables of size and creative was run again to find out whether the size and
creative work
were confounding variables for the difference of use of "call-to-action"
messages and the
degree of informativeness between the two countries.  Findings show that both
variables, size
and creative, do not work as confounding variables for the two countries at all.
First of all, in
Korea, the use of "call-to-action" messages in banner ads does not differ by the
size and
creative of banner ads ((2 = 4.173 d.f.=2, p> .05 for the size, (2 = 3.693,
d.f.=2, p> .05 for
creative).  Also, the degree of informativeness in banner ads does not differ by
the size of
banner ads ((2 = .895, d.f.=4, p> .05).  However, the degree of informativeness
does differ by
creative of banner ads ((2 = 15.865, d.f. = 4, p< .01).  This result implies
that even though the
degree of informativeness does differ by difference of creative and that more
dynamic banner
ads have more information cues than do static banner ads, there are still
significant
differences between Korea and the U.S.  So, the type of creative does not work
as
confounding variable at all.  In the U.S., the use of "call-to-action" messages
and the degree
of informativeness did not differ by the size and creative of banner ads ((2 =
1.120 d.f.=2,
p> .05 for size and the use of call-to-action message,  (2 = .442, d.f.=2, p>
.05 for creative
and the use of call-to-action message, (2 = 1.895 d.f.=6, p> .05 for size and
the degree of
informativeness, (2 = 5.602 d.f.=6, p> .05 for creative and the degree of
informativeness).


Conclusions

               An attempt was made in this study to find the differences between
Internet banner
advertising content of two different cultures, Korea and the U.S., in terms of
message types
and informativeness.  It was expected that banner advertising contents in terms
of message
type and informativeness would be different across cultures, as was observed in
many other
studies on traditional media.  As shown in this study's findings, there were
statistically
significant differences in using "call-to-action" messages and in
informativeness between
Korean and American banner ads.
              Although advertising practice does not always reflect a theory of
cultural
differences, one can see that there may be a potential relationship between
culture and the
practice of banner advertising.  One of the interesting findings is that the
usage pattern of
banner ads by international advertisers in Korea have somewhat mixed patterns of
call-to-
action messages in their banner ads.  This implies that they may have trouble
deciding
whether they have to follow traditional tactics recommended by the U.S.
practitioners or they
have to use localized tactics for different cultures.  Even though there has
been long standing
debate about which way advertising should go - standardization and localization
(for
example, Cutler et al., 1992; Mueller, 1987), those studies are only for
marketers and
advertisers who use traditional media.  This exploratory study provides some
insight for
marketers and advertisers who use Internet advertising, especially banner
advertising.  Even
though this study cannot show which way is better for global advertising and
marketing, this
study confirms that global advertisers use localization strategy in Internet
advertising.
              As many studies on the information content of advertising from
different cultures
have found that the degree of informativeness is different across cultures in
traditional media,
this study found that differences in the degree of informativeness in Internet
banner
advertising as well.  This study also found that the use of call-to-action
messages in banner
ads is different across different cultures.  The main reason for the difference
could be the
cultural differences between the two countries as mentioned earlier in the
literature.  Another
possible reason for the difference in degree of informativeness between the two
countries,
however, could be explained by the fact that the history of the Internet in
Korea is much
shorter than that of the U.S.  Since the Internet was introduced to Korea much
later than to
the U.S., and the use of the Internet as a marketing and online communication
tool is not
widely spread yet in Korea, Korean advertisers are more likely to use the
Internet as a tool for
increasing their company image rather than as a tool for marketing.
Additionally, since the
concept of online marketing is not as well established in Korea as it is in the
U.S., Korean
advertisers are more likely to focus on only presenting their web sites in the
Internet to show
their image of being technologically advanced compared to their competitors.  In
this case, it
is possible that banner advertising practices such as the degree of
informativeness and the
strategic use of call-to-action messages are influenced by such a factor.
              Interesting findings are the differences in banner ad size and
creative strategy.  Many
studies on the information content and creative strategy of advertising from
different cultures
have not found a significant difference in ad size between the different
cultures.  A possible
explanation for these findings is that even though we tried to set the sampling
frame with
similar characteristics, there were still some differences between the sampling
frames of the
two countries.  Actually, in Korea, many national newspapers' web sites were
included in top
10 banner ads recipients.  On the contrary, in the U.S., almost all search
engines were
included in the top 10 banner ads recipients.  This difference could cause the
difference in ad
size between two countries.  Because almost all web sites of Korean national
newspapers
offer limited space for banner advertisements, they might limit the size for
getting many
banner ads in their web sites.  Also, this study coded the banner ads into four
different
categories - static, dynamic, animation, and dynamic & animation.  Surprisingly,
U.S.
advertisers used more static banner ads than Korean advertisers.  Table 9 shows
the
differences in type of banner ads between the two countries.  Korean advertisers
used more
dynamic banner ads than U.S. advertisers did; on the contrary, U.S. advertisers
used more
animation in their banner ads than Korean advertisers did.
              This study found that the contents of banner ads in terms of the
degree of
informativeness and use of call-to-action messages are different across
different cultures.
Therefore, marketers and advertisers should recognize the differences among
different
countries and cultures and should use their marketing communication messages
differently
according to cultures and countries because those factors may significantly
change the effects
of the Internet advertising plan.

             Suggestions for future studies
              Several suggestions will help extend future research on Internet
advertising.
First of all, appropriate criteria that can measure the degree of
informativeness of the Internet
advertising (i.e., banner ads, target ads etc.) are needed.  We used the same
criteria that was
used to measure the differences among countries and cultures on traditional
media; however,
Internet advertising is different in its type, format, characteristics, and even
users compared to
traditional media.  So far, few studies have been done on Internet advertising.
Therefore, to
explore the Internet advertising more fully and accurately, there should be new
measures for
Internet advertisements.  Secondly,  we used the top 10 advertising recipients
of both
countries as the sampling frame for this study.  However, further study needs to
use a more
refined sampling process when studying Internet advertising because of the
problems of
random sampling from the Internet.  Future studies should explore the sampling
process on
the Internet.  Finally, future study needs to investigate a causal effect of
cultural differences
on usefulness of   banner ads in the Internet.  Because this study is
descriptive, the value of
this study will be added by future study about a causal effect.








Table 1.

Demographics of Internet Users in Korea and the U.S.

Korea (%)
U.S. (%)
Gender
         Male
         Female

Age
         Under 20
         21-25
         26-30
         31-35
         36-40
         Over 40

Education
         Less than High School
         High School
         Some College
         More Than College (Graduate)

Occupation
         Computer Related
         Education Related
         Management
         Professional
         Other

84.8
15.2


28
26
26
11
4
5


4
44
42
10


10.2
57.5
17.6
4.5
10.2

59.5
40.5


11
13
14
11
10
38


3.1
12.3
69.3
15.3


19.4
21.4
11.5
22.0
25.7

* Source : GVU Internet User Survey (1998) for U.S.
                  KRNIC Internet User Survey (1998) for Korea.


Table 2.
Techniques Suggested by Banner Advertisers
Location
Top of the Web pages
Put banners on the home page
Form
Use animation
Make banner bigger
Change creative frequently
Message
Offer promotional stuffs
Use "action-to-call" messages
Context
Keep the ad message close to the content of the page
Source : Harris (1997), Internet Advertising Bureau (1997), Li (1998)


Table 3.

                  Top 10 Advertising Recipients in Korean and U.S.
Rank
Korea
U.S.
1
Chosun.com
Netscape
2
Joonangilbo.co.kr
Lycos
3
Dongailbo.co.kr
Infoseek
4
Infocop Search Engine
Yahoo
5
Naver Search Engine
Pathfinder
6
Hankooilbo.co.kr
Hotwired
7
Yahoo Korea
WebCrawler
8
Simmany Search Engine
ESPNET SportZone
9
Mochanni Search Engine
GNN
10
Altavista Korea
C/Net
                  * Source :  Korea - LG Ad Inc. 1999 (Korean top advertising
recipients
                                                  consist of almost all web site
of national newspapers)
                                    U.S. - University of Texas at Austin (1999)

[http://www.uts.cc.utexas.edu/~wats/spending.html]





Table 4.

Resnik and Stern's Information Classification System
Information Cue                   Operational Definition
1. Price-Value                       ( What does the product cost?  What is its
value-retention
                                                  capability?
                                          ( What is the need-satisfaction
capability/dollars?
2. Quality      ( What are the product's characteristics that distinguish it
                                          from competing products based on an objective
evaluation
           of workmanship, engineering, durability, excellence of
           materials, structural superiority of personnel, attention to
           detail of special services?
3. Performance  ( What does the product do, and how well does it do what it
           is designed to do in comparison to alternative purchases?
4. Components or Contents       ( What is the product composed of? What ingredients
does
           it contain?
        ( What ancillary items are included with the product?
5. Availability ( Where can the product be purchase?
        ( When will the product be available for purchase?
6. Special Offer        ( What limited-time non-price deals are available with a
           particular purchase?
7. Taste        ( Is evidence presented that the taste of a particular product
           is perceived as superior in taste by a sample of potential
           customers? (The opinion of the advertiser is inadequate)
8. Nutrition    ( Are specific data given concerning the nutritional content
           of a particular product, or is a direct specific comparison
           made with other products?
9. Packaging of Shape   ( What package is the product available in which makes it
           more desirable than alternatives? What special shape is the
           product available in?
10. Guarantees or       ( What postpurchase assurances accompany the product?
      Warrantees
11. Safety      ( What safety features are available on a particular product
           compared to alternative choices?
12. Independent Research        ( Are results of research gathered by an "independent"
           research firm presented?
13. Company-Sponsored   ( Are date gathered by a company to compare its product
      Research             with a competitor's presented?
14. New Ideas   ( Is a totally new concept introduced during the
           commercial?
        ( Are its advantage presented?

Resnik and Stern (1971), "An Analysis of Information Content in Television
Advertising," Journal of Marketing, (January), 50-53.


Table 5.

Differences in Action-to-Call Message Between Korea and the U.S.

     Call-to-Action
                Yes
Message
          No
Total
Korea
46
37.4 %
77
62.6 %
123
100.0 %
U.S.
94
78.3 %
26
21.7 %
120
100.0 %
Total
140
57.6 %
103
42.4 %
243
100.0 %
chi-square = 41.679     d.f. = 1     p< .01


Table 6.

Difference in Action-to-Call Messages among Advertisers

   Call-to-Action
           Yes
Message
     No
Total
Korean Advertiser
34
33.7 %
67
66.3 %
101
100.0 %
International Advertisers in
Korea
12
54.5 %
10
45.5 %
22
100.0 %
U.S. Advertisers
94
78.3 %
26
21.7 %
120
100.0 %
Total
140
57.6 %
103
42.4 %
243
100.0 %
chi-square = 44.905     d.f. = 2     p< .01


Table 7.

Types of "Call-to-Action" Messages in Korean banner ads

Korean Word
English Word
Korean Sound
Others
Korean Advertisers
1
2.9 %
23
67.6 %
4
11.7 %
6
17.6 %
International Advertisers
1
9.1 %
6
54.5 %
2
18.2 %
3
27.3 %








Table 8.

 Average Number of Information Cues per Banner Ad (N=243)

Mean
S.D
t
Korean
.4472
.5154
- 2.538* (d.f.=241)
U.S.
.6471
.6711

* p < .05.

Table 9.

Number of Information Cues

None
One
Two
Three
Total
Korea
69
56.1 %
53
43.1 %
1
.8 %
0
0 %
123
100.0 %
U.S.
54
45.0 %
57
47.5 %
7
5.8 %
2
1.7 %
120
100.0 %
Total
123
50.6 %
110
45.3 %
8
3.3 %
2
.8 %
243
100.0 %
chi-square = 8.439     d.f. = 3     p< .05

Table 10.

Type of Information Cues Appeared in Banner Ads
Rank
Korea
n
%
Rank
U.S.
n
%
1
Special Offer
27
50
1
Special Offer
28
43.1
2
Performance
8
14.8
2
Performance
14
21.5
2
Components
8
14.8
3
Availability
7
10.8
4
Price
6
11.1
4
Quality
6
9.2
5
Availability
3
5.6
5
Price
4
6.1
6
Quality
1
1.9
6
Components
3
4.6
6
Independent Research
1
1.9
7
Independent
Research
2
3.1

Guarantee
0
0
8
Guarantee
1
1.5

Safety
0
0

Safety
0
0

Taste
0
0

Taste
0
0

Nutrition
0
0

Nutrition
0
0

New Ideas
0
0

New Ideas
0
0

Package
0
0

Package
0
0

Company Research
0
0

Company Research
0
0

Total
54
100


65
100
Table 11.

Difference in Banner Ad Size Between Korea and U.S.

Full
Half
Button
Total
Korea
45
36.6 %
67
54.5 %
11
8.9 %
123
100.0 %
U.S.
107
89.2 %
8
6.7 %
5
4.2 %
120
100.0 %
Total
152
62.6 %
75
30.9 %
16
6.6 %
243
100.0 %
chi-square = 73.927     d.f. = 2     p< .01



Table 12.

Difference in Types of Banner Ads

Static
Dynamic
Animation
Dynamic & Animation
Total
Korea
21
17.1 %
90
73.2 %
0
0 %
12
9.1 %
123
100.0 %
U.S
36
30.0 %
72
60.0 %
6
5.0 %
6
5.0 %
120
100.0 %
Total
57
23.5 %
162
66.7 %
6
2.5 %
18
7.4 %
243
100.0 %
chi-square = 13.912     d.f. = 3     p< .01


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Appendix 1.     (1) Evaluation Form of Korean Banner Ads Content

Ad No :

URL :____________________________________________________

Company Name:___________________________________________

Brand Name: ______________________________________________

1.  Type of Banner ads

1) Only to induce into Home page (specify what was
offered_____________________)
2) To increase communication effects (i.e., category need, brand awareness, and
brand PI)
3) To facilitate promotion (specify what the promotion
was_______________________)

2.  Use of Action-to-Call Messages (e.g., "Click-Here")

       1) Yes                        2) No

3.  If yes, what copy was used in the ad?

1) Korean meaning of 'Click-Here' category    2) Use of English 'Click-Here'
category
3) Korean sound of 'Click-Here' category        4) Others
(specify)__________________

4.    Size of Ad

1) Full Banner (468x60 Pixel)    2) Half Banner (234x60 Pixel)    3) Button
(120x60)

5.    Creative

1) Static     2) Dynamic     3) Animation       4) Dynamic + Animation

6.   Information Cue

                                                              (# of cues)
Price or Value
Quality
Performance
Components or Contents
Availability
Special Offer
Taste
Nutrition
Packaging or Shape
Guarantees or Warranties
Safety
Independent Research
Company Sponsored Research
New Idea

Total