Custom essays on How does online advertising affect consumer buying behaviour? (case study of Vodafone)

Purpose of the study
The purpose of the study is to reveal the effectiveness of online advertising and its impact on consumer behaviour. To put it more precisely, the current study focuses on the case of Vodafone to conduct the in-depth analysis of the effectiveness of online advertising (Bovee and Thill, 2005). In addition, the study focuses on the analysis of different types of advertising, which help to identify their strengths and weaknesses, their advantages and disadvantages. In such a way, the study will reveal whether online advertising is effective or not and, more specifically, what type of online advertising is particularly important. On the ground of such findings, it will be possible to elaborate effective promotional strategy, which includes the use of online advertising. At this point, one of the major goals of the study is to find out whether online advertising is effective and whether it is more effective than conventional advertising using other media, including visual and print media. In such a way, the study will help to reveal the impact of online advertising on consumer behaviour and the extent of this impact.
5. Rationale for the study
In fact, the current study is extremely important in the context of the development of modern information technologies, telecommunication systems and advertising. In actuality, information technologies keep progressing along with modern telecommunication systems (Campbell, et al., 2010). Moreover, they keep progressing at the unparalleled pace. The progress of information technologies and modern telecommunication systems make them more and more popular among consumers (Person, 2010).

Therefore, consumers grow technology-oriented. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that a considerable part of consumers use internet on the regular basis (McStay, 2010). In such a situation, more and more companies shift their business online or develop online business along with conventional business (Schenker, 2009). At the same time, the advertising power of internet is enormous (Stallworth, 2010). Specialists (Kim & Sundar, 2010) point out that the development of internet opens wider perspectives for advertisers because internet has a huge market in global terms. Internet users are not bound to certain location. Instead, they can access internet anywhere, where there is internet connection. Therefore, companies, especially companies operating internationally, use online advertising to reach a possibly wider target customer group (Ciaramita, 2008). Therefore, companies like Vodafone attempt to use the full potential of online advertising but, for the effective use of online advertising, they should know the impact of online advertising on consumer behaviour and the effectiveness of different types of online advertising on consumers.
6. Statement of the problem
In actuality, the problem is that the impact of online advertising on consumer behaviour is under-researched. Moreover, technologies keep progressing and new technologies emerge. For instance, the development of social networks may have potentially a considerable impact on advertising market. The advertising potential of social networks, like Twitter, is enormous (Alijani, et al., 2010). However, this potential has not been fully realized yet. Therefore, companies and advertisers should take into consideration the prospect of the further development of information technologies and telecommunication systems to develop effective advertising strategies (Yoo, 2007). However, to make such forecasts of the further development of the advertising market and the impact of online advertising on the consumer behaviour, it is necessary to conduct the in-depth research to find out the impact of online advertising on consumers and different types of online advertising that may have their own strengths and weaknesses. The analysis of these issues can help to understand the current development of advertising and its further prospects as well as its impact on the consumer behaviour.
7. Research questions
a. What are the differences and advantages of online advertising?
In actuality, online advertising grows more and more popular. In this regard, online advertising is different from conventional advertising, such as advertising using visual media, like television, print media and other types of conventional advertising (Laughlin & MacDonald, 2010). Unlike conventional advertising, online advertising can reach the larger target customer group (Gilstrap, 2010). Moreover, online advertising may be cheaper compared to conventional advertising, especially in the most popular media (Jansen & Schuster, 2011). In addition, online advertising may be more informative for consumers compared to conventional advertising (O’Malley, et al., 2007). However, all these differences need detailed study and analysis.
At the same time, there are different types of online advertising, such as banners, text-based advertising, advertorial, sponsorship, paid-search, e-mail, classified micro-advertising through mostly text-based classified platforms, and others (Bonewitz, 2007). In fact, different types of online advertising have their advantages and disadvantages as well as online advertising may have its advantages and disadvantages compared to conventional advertising. Therefore, online advertising needs the detailed study, which can help to identify its major strengths and weaknesses as well as to understand strengths and weaknesses of different types of online advertising.