The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) is one of the most widely used psychological theories in academic literature to account for how advertising information is processed. The current work seeks to overturn one of the basic principles of the ELM and takes account of new variables in the model that help to explain the online persuasion process more clearly. Specifically, we posit that in a context of high-involvement exposure to advertising (e.g., Web pages), central and peripheral processing routes may act together. In a repeated-measures experimental design, 112 participants were exposed to two Web sites of a fictitious travel agency, differing only in their design--serious versus amusing. Findings evidence that a peripheral cue, such as how the Web pages are presented, does prove relevant when attempting to reflect the level of effectiveness. Moreover, if we take account of individuals' motivation when accessing the Internet, whether cognitive or affective, the motivation will impact their response to the Web site design. The work contributes to ELM literature and may help firms to pinpoint those areas and features of Internet advertising that prove most efficient.
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to present a proposal for the Hierarchy of Effects -a model that has been widely applied in the study of persuasion in traditional communications media -to evaluate Website effectiveness. In particular, this contribution seeks to consider a more complete model in order to evaluate the responses of the individuals to the Websites, incorporating new variables to the traditional sequence; and to study the moderating effect of the specific characteristics of the audience -the individual user's motivations in terms of Internet access in the basic structure of this model. Design/methodology/approach -The multi-equations methodology is used to test the sequence of responses that produce the visit to an experimental Website: the perceived informative value and the perceived entertainment value of a Website, the attitude toward the Website, the attitude toward the brand and the intention to buy the brand for two different individual groups: the "information seekers" and "entertainment seekers". Findings -The results reveal two well differentiated positive models of behavior in the online context. Practical implications -In their Website strategies, the organizations should not neglect those aspects which may arouse emotional reactions in the Internet users, but they should pay more attention to generated informative value to obtain more favorable users' responses. Originality/value -Previous studies had not tested empirically the moderating effects of the users' motivations in terms of Internet access (search for information versus entertainment) over this original and more complete structure of individuals' responses to the Website.
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