ba(hons)dissertation:do telecommunication companies in prague advertise effectively?
TRANSCRIPT
University Of Teesside
Do telecommunication companies in Prague Advertise Effectively?
Aigerim Aitmambetova
Teesside Business School
1
Abstract
Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential
customers to purchase or purchase, consume more of a particular brand of product/service.
For advertising to be effective it is important for advertisers to be aware of how the message may be
met by customers on the market. By understanding the different behavioral levels that customers
pass through, the advertiser can create a message that will meet all requirements and thereby be
effective.
The purpose with this study is to find out to which extent four of the existing
advertising theories and models are relevant to the telecommunication Prague market today. This
will be done by investigating the literature published on these in present literature.
This study has been examined an international organisation to get a deeper
understanding over how they feel about using advertising theories and models. By interviewing a
high positioned,advertising manager, the researcher has tried to find out what attitudes they have
towards the theories and models used in this study. The study has also interviewed customers from
the organisations that has been choose. This has been done to see to how the use of these models
has been apprehended by the customers. The study has focused on finding out the theories and
models in the organisations advertisements. The models aim to point out the different steps that an
advertisement has to take a customer trough before purchase, and this study has examined if the
organisations advertisements has succeeded with this.
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Acknowledgement
I would like to thank my dissertation supervisor David Ganon for providing me with
the help and support and giving me the guidance that helped me keep going in a right direction
during the whole project.
I would also like to thank all participants that participated in my dissertation research.
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Table of Contents
Page
Chapter 1
1.0) Introduction 7
1.1) Aim 9
1.2) Research Objectives 9
Chapter 2
2.0) Literature Review 10
2.1) Advertising History 10
2.2) The Concept of Advertising 11
2.2.1) Definition of Advertising 12
2.2.2) Functions of Advertising 12
2.3) Online Advertising 13
2.3.1) Effectiveness of online advertising 14
2.4) Types of Conventional and Direct Mass Advertising 15
2.4.1) Print Media and Advertisements: 15
2.4.2) Newspapers and magazines 15
2.4.3) Print advertisements 16
2.4.4) Television medium and TV-commercials 16
2.4.5) TV commercials 17
2.4.6) Direct mailing and coupon ads 17
2.4.7) Direct mailings 17
4
2.5) Web Advertising 18
2.5.1) Definition and functions 19
2.5.2) Classification of web ads Web ad sizes 20
2.5.3) Static web ads 20
2.5.4) Animated web ads 21
2.5.5) Interactive web ads 22
2.5.6) Pop-up advertisements 22
2.6) Effectiveness of on-line advertising 23
2.7) Psychological aspects 24
2.8) Motivations and explanation of behavior 25
Chapter 3
3.0) AIDA 27
3.1) DAGMAR 28
3.2) Lavidge & Steiners Hierarchy-of-effects model 29
Chapter 4
4.0) Methodology 32
4.1) Data Collection techniques 32
4.2) Research Design 33
4.3) Primary Research 35
4.3.1) Online Surveys 35
4.3.2) Face-to-face Interviews 36
4.3.3) Structures Interviews with O2 and Vodafone 39
4.4) Secondary Research 42
4.4.1) Books 43
4.4.2) Trade Newspaper 43
4.4.3) Document from online service 43
4.5) Reliability/Validity 44
4.6) Sampling Frame 44
4.7) Contingencies 45
4.8) Ethical Considerations 45
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4.9) Methods of Analysis 46
Chapter 5
5.0) Findings 48
5.1) Primary Findings 48
5.1.1) Online Survey 48
5.1.2) Informal Face-to-face Interview with Random Customers 57
5.1.3) Structured Interviews with O 2 Telefonica 64
5.2) Secondary Findings 69
5.2.1) Online Service - Telefónica O2 Czech Republic 70
5.2.2) Online Services - Vodafone 71
Chapter 6
6.0) Conclusion 79
6.1) Limitations 81
6.3) Recommendations 82
Chapter 7
7.0) Self Reflection 85
7.1) Learning Experience 87
7.2) Personal Development/Achievements 88
7.3) Positive and Negative Aspects of The Work 89
7.4) Improvements 89
7.5) Opportunity for Future Work 89
7.6) Summary 90
List of References 91
Bibliography 91
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1.0) Introduction
Nowadays, advertising is a very important and one of the effective marketing tools in
business. Advertising plays a big role in our lives today. People seek something through
advertisements, and almost everything we do in our daily lives are related with advertisements.
Organizations in business, they need advertisements to promote the products and services of the
company. Because effective advertising will bring big profits to the company. But I cannot say that
advertising business today is always profitable.
Every company wants to be successful in a business world. In order to be successful
promote they products and services, they use different types of advertising. Companies choose
methods according to cost, targeting and response. Advertising cost per thousand includes cost of
origination (design), production (printing if relevant) and media (such as local radio, display advert,
list procurement and postal fulfillment). Companies will pay a lot of money for better targeted
methods but in return they can expect a higher response rate. There are exist different methods and
theories so you will need just to choose advertising and publicity methods that will suit you.
I decided to research how companies in Prague are advertising their products and
services. Do they advertise effectively or what kind of problems they have with advertisements.
I would like to research different methods,models and theories of advertising, what is the most best
way to advertise and how it is affects products or services, as they all different. Sometimes it is
effective and sometimes are ineffective.
The first time when I arrived to Prague, I did not had a chance to choose the mobile
communication. As I arrived with a group of students, our directors provide us with the Vodafone
cards. We had a very good and not expensive tariff. So, I am using Vodafone already for 5 years
and satisfied with the services. Vodafone provide many various great offers that attracts the a lot of
customers. In my opinion, Vodafone is doing very well, and it is very interesting to know what kind
of theories they use. Also there are some competitors on a telecommunication market. And they try
to attract customers with a different interesting offers and sales. Nowadays many Vodafone clients
has changed their mobile communication to the O2 Telefonica. Why does it happen? I will explore
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this problems in my dissertation. What methods O2 are using that entice Vodafone client? So, my
research will show you the most effective theories that telecommunication use for their profit.
For my research, I will choose two companies in the telecommunications sphere. I will
research them and see the difference and what kind of methods and model each company use, also
is Internet advertising well- developed. I will contact this companies about the interview. I want to
know how advertising is developed in Prague. Is it makes a lot of profits for the companies or it is
very expensive and is advertising compensates?
Also after the research I will provide some recommendations for international companies how to
improve advertising and what method, model theory the most effective and profitable.
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1.1) Aims
To analyze two companies in the telecommunications sphere in Prague about how they
advertise their products and services.
To find out what are the main governing rules of advertising in their business sphere.
Do they provide effective methods of advertising? Compare the methods of advertising the
services of the two companies in the Czech market.
1.2) Research Objectives
To explore the current market of advertising sphere in Prague
To research the main types and methods of advertising
My main objective is to know is advertising in Prague helps international companies to grow
with the profit and find out the most effective methods of advertising that companies in
Czech republic are using.
This study will reference to the well-known telecommunication companies (Vodafone and O2
telefonica)
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2.0) Literature Review
The scope of the literature review is to provide the reader with an insight into previous
research carried out in the subject areas; advertising and advertising types and methods .
Advertising plays a big role in our lives today. People seek something through advertisements, and
almost everything we do in our daily lives are related with advertisements. In our daily lives, we are
confronted with advertising almost everywhere. More or less every single item can be advertised
and it seems practically impossible to escape or ignore it. The main locations where traditional
advertising can be found are in print media, on television, and on the radio.( Anja Janoschka )
Firstly, the literature review will explore the ‘advertising history', brief historical outline
and current situation of advertising . The review then moves towards a more specific area, to the
concept of advertising and definition of advertising by different authors and include descriptions of
functions of advertising. Following on the focus then moves separate section on advertising types ,
including online advertising.
The concluding section gives detail advertising theories and models such as marketing
communication process, AIDA, DAGMAR and Lavidge & Steiners Hierarchy-of-effects model .
2.1) Advertising History
In medieval times, advertising was accomplished by so called “town criers” (Wissen
Erleben n.d.) who loudly announced their goods to potential customers. With the invention of the
printing press in 1445, Johannes Gutenberg (Mainz) established the basis for mass media
communication. In the 18th century, trade cards and flyers proclaimed their products. The invention
of the printing press resulted not only in the creation of flyers and other printed mass media, but
also in the expansion of readership and the development of a system for distribution. Since that
time, the production of newspapers has constantly increased. The first English newspaper, the
“Oxford Gazette”, renamed in the same year “The London Gazette”, was founded in 1665 (Fries
2003: 18).
With this expansion, the first print advertisements were placed in the press, accompanied by a
wider distribution and larger access to target groups. Meanwhile, advertising became an applied
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discipline of marketing. The AMA (American Marketing Association 1985, in Meffert 2000: 9)
defines marketing as the
“process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution
of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational
objectives.” (Janoschka, Anja p.10)
Historically Modern advertising began in the second half of the 19th century (e.g. Pope
1983). In 1870, the first mail order catalogues were used and the first steps towards broadcasting
became apparent. Industrial progress was characterized by mass production which was typical of
the first stage. In this production orientated period, the sales market was dominant.
“Since demand was higher than supply, sales were easily achieved. ” (Meffert 1989:
29– 30). (Janoschka, Anja p.11)
Today, advertising must employ a variety of strategies in reaction to new conditions of
communication, diversified markets and customers.
According to Kroeber-Riel and Esch (2000: 9ff.), the
“..current media situation is characterized by information overload. Information
overload means an excess of information for interpreting or processing.”
The quantity of information offered by the media to their audience is so comprehensive and wide-
ranging that it is impossible to retrieve it all. Consequently, only a small quantity of what is
mediated is processed. The part of the information which has not been noticed is called information
overload.
Kroeber-Riel and Esch (2000: 12f.) claim that
“..electronic media is intensifying the already existing overload.”
Additionally, the emergence of the Internet, presumably the world’s most comprehensive
information source, has further increased this overload. (Janoschka, Anja p.12-13)
2.2) The Concept of Advertising
The concept of advertising is divided into two parts. The first part defines advertising as
a certain kind of communication and provides a categorization of it. The second part describes how
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advertising works with a principal focus on the AIDA concept.
2.2.1) Definition of Advertising
Advertising is a company’s external communication. Given the existence of diverse
kinds of advertising and instruments that are characterized by different usage, functions, and
perspectives, there are various definitions of the term “advertising”. (Janoschka, Anja p. 15)
Dyer 1990: 2 has identified, that
“ … advertising means to inform a large number of people about something.”
Dyer’s definition incorporates a range of essential aspects by which one can deduce that
advertising is a type of communication.
“Advertising is a paid, nonpersonal communication about an organization and its
products or services that is transmitted to a target audience through mass media such as
Television,radio, newspaper, magazines,direct mail,outdoor displays or mass-transit vehicles.”
(Principles of Advertising By Monle Lee, Carla Johnson p.3)
2.2.2) Functions of Advertising
The economic aim of advertising is to achieve higher profits and to benefit from
increased sales of advertised products. Its basic function is to persuade the audience to make this
purchase.
Russell and Lane (1990: 22) give an explanation of the way in which advertising fulfills its
function, defining advertising as follows:
“Advertising is persuasive communication; it is not unbiased (...).”
This means advertising is purposeful. Some advertising campaigns are intended to create a
favorable image of the company or its products, which should also have a positive effect on profit
figures. To achieve this goal, advertising messages try to influence or change the audience’s
attitudes. It tries to induce customers to make a purchase or alter their purchasing decisions.
(Janoschka, Anja p 18.)
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Advertising performs an “inform” function; it communicates information about the
product, its features, and its location of sale; it informs the consumers about new products.
Advertising performs a 'persuasive' function; it tries to persuade consumers to purchase specific
brands or to change their attitudes toward the product or company. Advertising performs a
'reminder' function; it constantly reminds consumers about a product so that they will keep buying
the advertised product instead of the competitor's brand.(Principles of Advertising by Monle Lee,
Carla Johnson p.11)
For advertising to exist, a number of factors have to be in place:
The goods and services to be advertised
Competition between different providers of the same kinds of goods and services, for which
there needs to be a significant potential market.
The means of advertising cheaply to large numbers of people
A population with sufficient education to be able to understand advertising messages.
(Advertising by Julian Petley p.5)
2.3) Online Advertising
Online advertising is an asynchronous form of communication. This way of
disseminating information corresponds to characteristics of monologue-orientated mass
communication. The online advertising message provided by the sender can be activated by various
receivers at different moments. It consists of written language and/or graphics which are carried by
web ads. These web ads are very common new forms of interactive communication or interactive
hyper advertising. They are small, digital, graphic images which are either located on a web
page .This activation of online advertising is the user’s generated feedback to the message sent. As
in chat and to some extent in e-mail communication, the language used in web ads reflects the
interactive functions of the new medium. This means written communication is often carried out to
achieve conceptual morality (Koch & Oesterreicher 1985, 1990). (Janoschka, Anja 2004 p.3)
The Internet is the latest developed electronic mass medium of the 20th century. It is a
decentralized, internationally operating network of computers that share a communication protocol
which facilitates the exchange of information. One major service it provides, apart from e-mail, is
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the “world wide web”. Crystal (2003: 426) describes the world wide web as
“a full collection of all computers linked to the Internet which hold documents that are
mutually accessible(...).”
The vast number,structure and content of those documents and web sites are constantly alternating
and increasing.(Janoschka, Anja 2004, p.43)
According to Armstrong (2001: 19),
“for most people the world wide web seems to be the only part they use on
the Internet, which may be the reason for a rather synonymous treatment of the terms
Internet and the shortened name the Web.” (Janoschka, Anja 2004, p. 44)
There are additional terms and abbreviations that describe the Web on a metaphorical level such as
cyberspace or virtual world. “Both notions refer to a digitized simulation of a three-dimensional
zone in the global network”. (Münker 1997: 108). Other terms for the world wide web are the
initialism www, which is also part of the web site address, or the version W3. Marshall McLuhan
created the well-known term global village. In his opinion, “the electronic age decentralizes life,
turning the globe into a village” (McLuhan 1964; McLuhan & Fiore 1967). He created this
metaphor to show that as a result of electronic mass media, an extension of people’s visual and
auditory senses had taken place, which allows them to act and react accordingly, at the same time,
in the same space. Due to electronic media, it is possible to observe events that happen any- where
in the world. (Janoschka, Anja 2004, p.44)
Web advertising generally follows the same principles as traditional advertising. It is a paid or
unpaid form of promotional communication through a medium, used in order to
“increase the number of sales of the advertised product” (Armstrong 2001: 28) and an
awareness of the product. To achieve its goals, online advertising also tries to favorably persuade
addressees using primarily written language, graphics, and to a lesser extent, sound. With regard to
its presentation, digital web ads, like print ads, are transferred by a carrier medium. (Janoschka,
Anja 2004, p.47)
2.3.1) Effectiveness of online advertising
The description of the effectiveness of online advertising is divided into two parts. This distinction
is useful for later analysis of linguistic means and functional aspects (AIDA) in the online
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advertising message. (Janoschka, Anja 2004, p.72)
2.4) Types of Conventional and Direct Mass Advertising
This section introduces briefly some advertising carriers, such as newspapers,
magazines and Television (tv). The rather comprehensive treatment of typical futures of traditional
advertising,language use and message structure will provide necessary background information for
the later analysis of web adverts and the distinctiveness of the digital medium.
2.4.1) Print Media and Advertisements
2.4.2) Newspapers and magazines
Print media are very old carriers of mass communication and advertising. They reach a
large and geographically dispersed audience. They take up to 43 % of the whole advertising sector,
compared to television, radio and Internet. (Janoschka, Anja 2004, p.20)
Newspapers are periodically published for example, available in daily,weekly and
monthly issues or on certain days like Sundays etc. Newspapers provide their readership with more
or less comprehensive accounts of recent events and news, entertainment and other categories.
There are also free sheets which only exist because of the abundant paid advertisements places in
them. Because they are freely available, they attract a large but specific readership which in turns
makes them attractive for advertisers to invest in. Newspapers and magazines can be taken almost
everywhere because of their low weight and compact format and can be easily shared with and
passed on to the readers.
Magazines are also periodical publications and are generally used quarterly, monthly or
more frequently. They offer their audience restricted information and entertainment but according
to the frequency of publication, this is often less recent and thus with a different focus. Magazines
like newspapers, can be divided into 'general interest' and 'special interest' publications.
Consequently they attract on the one hand,smaller segments of readership but on the other hand
readers with high involvement. Special interest magazines and newspapers are therefore very useful
for advertisers as they can be reasonably sure of reaching their target audience with less 'coverage
waste'. ( Shurmann 1999:87) (Janoschka, Anja 2004, p.21 )
2.4.3) Print advertisements
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Print advertisements are means of concentional advertising transported by print media
such as newspapers and magazines. The creation of advertisements and their advertising message
basically depends on two main aspects namely conceptual conditions and the medium's specific
realization capabilities.(Janoschka, Anja 2004, p.21)
A print advertisement consist of basic components which make up the advertising message. These
include written language such as headlines in some cases sub-headlines, a body copy, slogan, a
signature and graphic elements like key visuals, pictures, symbols, icons. Print ads can combine
multiple graphic and written elements or may use only a few of them. (Janoschka, Anja 2004, p.22)
The headline is a crucial element in an advertising message. It summarizes the body or
gives the most important aspects of the messages. Since most of the readers might only read the
headline, it is clearly responsible for the fulfillment of at least two factors of the AIDA concept.
First it should catch the readers attention and secondly, create sufficient interest so that the audience
starts reading the copy. Moreover, appeal can be achieved by using emotional or informative
reader-addressing strategies in a subliminal or direct way. Advertisers can achieve attention for
instance, by setting apart the headline from the body copy and emphasizing it. (Janoschka, Anja
2004, p.23)
The perception of an ad is visually oriented( e.g. Kroebler -Riel & Weinber
1999:76).specific features used in an advertisement have an effect on a recipients perception and are
responsible for the successful practice of the Aida concept. (Janoschka, Anja 2004, p.25)
2.4.4) Television medium and TV-commercials
Television is historically viewed after print print media and radio – the third mass
medium which reaches a large audience with public broadcasting services, satellite and cable
programs. The main functions of television are to entertain, to inform and to educate. When the
mass medium entered the communication market, its acceptance grew quickly. From black-and-
white to colored television programs, flexible transmission of information is characteristic of
television. It combines spoken and written language,sound, music and pictures, animated mode.
Thus television is audio-visually conceptualized and received which means it attracts two sensory
stimuli, in contrast to mono-sensory print media and radio.(Janoschka, Anja 2004, p.27)
2.4.5) TV commercials
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A television commercial is a visualized advertising message of animated pictures and is
often of short length, averaging 10-30 seconds or less. (Janoschka, Anja 2004, p.27)
TV commercials are able to stimulate their audience through the combination of
audio,visual and animated message components. This can make advertising on television very
captivating and appealing although television viewers might not always be motivated to concentrate
on commercials. Some reasons for this might be the food of advertising information, especially
during prime time, on cable which finances programming with commercial ads. Television
commercials are broadcast consecutively during a particular time period which is called a
'commercial break'. The historical development of an increasing impact through more commercials
and longer commercial breaks affects its receiving audience in at least two ways. First, as
information overload, the impact and thus the recall of single commercials decrease. Secondly,
viewers might become more and more annoyed by advertising. (Janoschka, Anja 2004, p.28)
2.4.6) Direct mailing and coupon ads
Direct advertising is mass communication like conventional advertising too but it differs in at least
one essential aspect. It is aimed at the direct feedback of the addressees which should be made
possible by separated or included response elements of the mailing. (Janoschka, Anja 2004, p.31)
2.4.7) Direct mailings
Direct advertising usually addresses a large audience, though smaller target groups can
also be contacted. Demographic information about the addressed audience is more important than
geographic aspects. With this demographic data, direct advertising is even able to reach its
addresses individually by name and particular need.
Following Stone et al.(1995:1) direct marketing is
(…)about direct (…) contact with individual customers, and receiving responses directly from
them.
Direct advertising works through contact with individuals and it is aimed at customers direct
response. It is clearly differs from conventional advertising i.e. the personalized way in which the
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sender contacts its mass audience.
Stone et al. (1995:14) point out that,
'the medium most readily associated with direct marketing is mail. This medium gave birth to
direct marketing and it still dominates direct marketing expenditure.'
But there are various barriers which can reduce the rate of response. A lot of mailings are
ineffective for reasons aside from the previously mentioned problem of information overload.
Mailing are simply thrown in the trashcan because they do not appeal to readers, are just annoying
or achieve no response for reasons of unpleasant creation and conception, in Mattmuller's
(2000:261) words:
'Many addresses tend to throw away 'direct mailing' – at least the ones which are
badly designed – without reading them or only after glancing at them.'
2.5) Web Advertising
Web advertising generally follows the same principles as traditional advertising. It is a paid or
unpaid form of promotional communication through a medium, used in order to
“increase the number of sales of the advertised product” (Armstrong 2001: 28)
and an awareness of the product. To achieve its goals, online advertising also tries to favorably
persuade addressees using primarily written language, graphics, and to a lesser extent, sound. With
regard to its presentation, digital web ads, like print ads, are transferred by a carrier medium. For
technical reasons, the whole monitor screen cannot be used as an advertising surface. Thus, only
parts of a web site serve the advertising purposes. This spatial limitation is identical to traditional
media advertising. Print ads also have limited sizes within their carrier medium. (Janoschka, Anja
2004, p.47)
Online advertising is a new form of communication. There is always a sender who posts
some kind of information on the Web and there are users who feel addressed by some part(s) of this
data. Online advertising is interaction-orientated. Digital ads are meant to be directly activated. This
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activation of advertising is a form of interaction, a kind of user response which provides evidence
for the novel role of addressees. But not only the communication process is interaction-orientated.
Different types of web ads allow different degrees of interactivity. From the commercial
perspective, the early stages of online advertising seemed to predict a profitable future (e.g. Zeff &
Aronson 1999; Armstrong 2001), which might explain the worldwide enthusiasm that had been set
in motion and the economic boom around the turn of the century.
It is not surprising that advertisers investigated the Internet as a new medium to communicate easily
and quickly with a wide audience penetration. Online advertising is available 24 hours a day and up
to 365 days a year at very low cost, compared to traditional media communication. (Janoschka,
Anja 2004, p. 47)
Currently, different forms of one-, two,and multi-way communication are realized on
the Internet. Web sites quickly carried the first web ads. Due to technical capabilities, these
appeared initially in a static mode, but soon web ads were animated and employed interactive
elements besides other technical formats. Today, all three types are used in variations and different
sizes. However, compared to other existing advertising media and instruments, online advertising is
still in its infancy. As the most modern type of advertising, it is just a decade young.
According to Hyland (2001),
“Internet advertising began in 1994, when the firrst banner ads were sold (Hotwired, October
1994) and the first commercially available Web browser, Netscape 1.0, was released (November
1994).”
Messages on the Web are primarily text and picture based. Web sites or web ads may transfer their
content by just written information or in combination with pictures, animations, illustrations and
even short films or commercials, and sound. Far-reaching and exhaustive wide-band cable
connections are still not frequently found, but are becoming more common. They would permit
faster transmission of immense sizes of digital data. Hence, online video and film techniques are
currently not very frequently applied. (Janoschka, Anja 2004, p 48)
2.5.1) Definition and functions
Web ads, such as banners, buttons, and pop-up windows etc., are instruments of online
advertising. The term “web ad” is used to subsume different types of web ads that are composed of
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small text and graphic-based advertising places, formatted as four-sided figures and are located on
or jump out of a web page. Web ads contain a short advertising message or body copy and often an
instruction to click on them. They are aimed at informing users about the existence of certain web
sites and persuading them to visit these sites. Web ads are hyperlinks which enable activation
through their users. Once users have clicked on them, they take their initiators to another connected
web page, the linked target source. As hyperlinks, they consist of three elements, i.e. the web
advertisement which is located on a web page, the link which connects and, the target. (Janoschka,
Anja 2004, p 49)
2.5.2) Classification of web ads Web ad sizes
Web ads can come in many different sizes. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB),
(http://www.iab.net), evaluates and proposes different standard ad sizes, measured in pixels. One
standard format, which is called “full banner” 10 size, is 468 pixels wide and 60 pixels high.
According to Ad Relevance (2000), these have been the most frequently used during the
past years of online advertising,
“the full banner is still the most widely used(...)ad format”. (Janoschka, Anja 2004,
p.51)
2.5.3) Static web ads
Static web ads attract users’ attention only through their textual information and static
graphic design. Due to the limited space, only the most necessary information can be given. The
three following static ads serve to give an idea about the different emphasis of web ad components.
(Janoschka, Anja 2004, p.52-53)
Sentence makes use of various linguistic strategies that integrate their addressees communicatively
in order to encourage them to act. First, it addresses their viewers directly with a question.
Obviously, this must be negated by the addressees since it was the first banner on the Web, and
evidently no user had ever clicked any advertising banner before. Secondly, it uses the personal
pronoun you, and the possessive your. Both emphasize personal addressing and create
“communicative immediacy” (Koch & Oesterreicher 1990: 12) since they imitate dialogicity as in
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interpersonal communication. Direct you-addressing is a device typically found in interpersonal
communication 14 as a reference to the communication partner(s). Thirdly, the question implies a
description of action, i.e. how to handle the banner. That is to say, of what to do, to click,how to do
it, by using the mouse,and where to execute the action, here.
From the AIDA point of view, attention is generally created by the graphic and
functional innovation of the ad, confronting users with something new and unusual. It is intended to
arouse the users’ curiosity and interest, and to awake the desire to experience what is behind this
new technology. Pragmatically, the performative effect would be the action. (Janoschka, Anja
2004, p. 55)
2.5.4) Animated web ads
Animated web ads are online images that use the graphic format GIF. This format
enables the presentation of a sequence of pictures which creates the impression of movement. The
elements of animated web ads can be repetitive, changing or can stop at a certain point. Having
more than one static image at their disposal, animated web ads can enlarge their advertising
message by exploiting additional space. In other words, they can provide more information than
static web ads. Following the rules of attention, graphic elements like blinking or moving images
generate more attention than static images. Nevertheless, even with animations, a web ad must have
a strong, convincing message to be activated and to call for action at the expense of the site on
which it is placed. The animated web ad consists of three different moving images. Once the web
ad has been loaded, the images appear one after another, repetitively, in a fixed sequence. Textually,
animated web ads often transfer a coherent advertising message with a beginning and an end. The
comprehension of the online ad above depends mainly on the textual elements which are supported
by illustrations. The initial advertising message starts with an image, continues with and ends with
an image. The web ad refers to a widely-known game that is often used by magicians who challenge
their audience to find a hidden object under cups. (Janoschka, Anja 2004, p 56.)
2.5.5) Interactive web ads
21
Different types of interactive web ads emerged in the third stage of web ad
development. Almost per definition, interactive web ads seek interaction with users, but this is more
than a mere click. Interactive web ads employ another communication strategy. They persuade
users to click by offering an individual information search based on the users’ decision. Interactive
web ads implement elements which enable users, for instance, to type in data or to select
predetermined issues. This ad allows users to type in individually-selected keywords in the search
field. Once activated, the link leads to the category or item which has been chosen. If there is no
appropriate match, users arrive at a page which explains the reason for the unsuccessful or
inappropriate search. The wording searching for is a help device for users, explaining to them what
they can do, i.e. search for items. With the three dots, the phrase symbolizes the beginning of a
truncated sentence which has to be completed in the field of entry. The Go-button expresses an
imperative call to action and initiates the search. The next banner ad of an insurance company
allows both a free individual entry, like date of birth, and a predetermined selection with four pull-
down menus, defining insurance coverage, state, tobacco use, and gender.
Linguistically, the banner tries to persuade its users appellatively by instructing them to save
money, under the imperative condition, Quote It. “Saving money” is a motivation strategy which
implies the benefit that users have to spend less money than usual for life insurance .
It was observed that users who are exposed to web ads with pull-down menus find them more
appealing, novel, and persuasive than the same web ads without a pull-down menu.(Janoschka,
Anja 2004, p.59- 60)
2.5.6) Pop-up advertisements
“Pop-up advertisements” or “pop-up windows” or “pop-ups” for short are online
advertising instruments that jump out of the screen. A separate browser window opens
automatically as soon as some particular web sites are called up. The appearance of pop-ups
interrupts the users’ navigation, comparable to TV-commercials which also break up a ?film or a
program. As such, pop-up ads have a high attention-getting potential. They leap in without any
signal beforehand and thus, attract the users’ attention right away, in a positive or negative respect.
Due to their technically appealing structure, they cannot be ignored. A corresponding phenomenon
to banner blindness, 19 which could be called “pop-up blindness”, cannot therefore exist. The
content, however, can be disregarded, but its appearance on the screen cannot. Pop-ups affect a
reaction in any case on the part of the users. Pop-ups are independent of fixed places on a web page
22
and vary in size. They can offer a high degree of interactivity, i.e. they might permit a customized
search with pull-down menus , a selection of features or ask for certain information etc.
(Janoschka, Anja 2004, p.63)
During the short time of the development of web ads, new creations have occurred
which can irritate users because of their appearance. I will call these “web ad traps”. There are two
different types of web ad traps. The first category is comprised of web ads which graphically
imitate technological advice or applications for computers . I call them “faked application web ads”
because they pretend to be computer applications, graphically, technically (if realized as pop-ups),
and linguistically. Graphically, they use, for instance, typical signs of technical operations like the
OK-button or small buttons for minimizing, re-establishing, and closing a window in the top right-
hand corner. If users click on these, even for closing, then they are directly linked to a web site
instead of the expected function being carried out. From the perspective of language use, these ads
employ characteristic computer specialized vocabularies, such as alert, security, download. By
using these features, faked application web ads are, at first, not recognizable as advertising
instruments. The second category consists of web ad traps which can be clearly identified as
advertising instruments, but which seem to have certain interactive functions, like pull-down
applications, games to participate in, but which do not work as such. Instead, if the users click on
them intending to customize their search, they are immediately connected to the linked web page. In
most cases, it is unimportant where to click because clicking means getting connected. I will call
these web ad traps “faked interactive web ads”. (Janoschka, Anja 2004, p.66)
There are two crucial points when implementing web ad traps. First, users might be
annoyed when realizing that they have mistakenly activated an ad that forces them to leave the web
site they initially wanted to visit. Secondly, the more users become familiar with this kind of
advertising instrument, the less likely it is that they will activate such ads again. (Janoschka, Anja
2004, p.67)
2.6) Effectiveness of on-line advertising
The description of the effectiveness of on-line advertising is divided into two parts. This
distinction is useful for later analysis of linguistic means and functional aspects (AIDA) in the on-
23
line advertising message. In the first part, I will focus on some cognitive issues, making a brief
excursion into the psychology of perception and motivation research, reading behavior, users’
involvement, and banner blindness. I have already used some motivation methods in examples of
traditional and on-line advertising in this and the previous chapter in order to explain users’ motives
for acting. The second part shows some technical criteria which are responsible for effective web
ads and measurements of on-line advertising. (Janoschka, Anja 2004, p. 72)
2.7) Psychological aspects
Perception and motivation play an important role in the comprehension and
deconstruction of the on-line advertising message. Perception covers not only visual and acoustic
experiences, but also the evaluation and decoding of environmental information. This means
“..perception is a process of experiencing objects and events” (Zimbardo 1995: 159). With
reference to advertising, the deconstruction of an advertising message depends on the users’
perception in correlation with their background knowledge. Consequently, as perception and
knowledge differ from user to user, message interpretations and comprehension can differ, too.
Successful advertising should try to reduce misunderstandings or multiple interpretations. One
method is the “KISS-principle” meaning ‘Keep it simple and stupid’ (e.g. Wirth 2002: 180; Vögele
1996: 119). This principle is applicable to both pictures and language. The simpler a message is, the
more likely the interpretation and understanding of its intended meaning will be. This might be even
more important on the Web, where communication is very fast and competition between different
elements is high. 26 In the previous chapter, I have already outlined some rules of attention,
referring to the appealing potential of size and color, which are generally as applicable to traditional
advertising as to on-line advertising. A separation between background and foreground information
can be perceived (Wirth 2002: 142), corresponding to the concept of motivators and filters in direct
advertising. Especially on the Web, the aspect of getting attention is crucial to an ad’s effectiveness
because of the new reading situation. In contrast to printed texts, screen reading requires more effort
by users who have to select relevant information and to separate it from less interesting issues
within a very large amount of data. Users start reading if their interest has been caught by
something.
According to Wirth (2002: 209),“..reading behavior or style also depends on factors like quality of
information, interest or motivation, the time readers have to surf on the Web, and personal habits.”
24
For advertising, it seems favorable to attract users’ attention as soon as possible; for
this, web ads use certain devices, like animations or other eye-catching elements. The more
appealing ads are and the closer they are to the center of interest, the more likely they are to be read
and activated. However, the tendency towards picture-dominated messages in print ads does not
seem to be as relevant for web ads. Naturally, pictures are important, but I argue that language often
has a priority in the on-line advertising message . This might technically result from the minimized
space which web ads have at their disposal. (Janoschka, Anja 2004, p.73)
2.8) Motivations and explanation of behavior
Users’ involvement also gives an explanation for their activity. The level of involvement may well
correlate with the probability of a web ad being clicked on.
Zaichkowsky (1985: 341) defines involvement as
“a person’s perceived relevance of the object based on inherent needs, values and
interests.”
Highly involved people look actively for detailed information about the object in which
they are interested and form an opinion. Their final opinion depends on relevant information about
the object which has attracted the ‘central ways of influence’ (Kroeber-Riel & Esch 2000: 140), for
instance, a rational description about a product’s advantages and benefits. This is also confirmed by
a study by ComCult (2002) which observed that in the textual matching between web sites and web
ads, the involved user is motivated to extensively process information and appreciates
comprehensive and argumentative advertising messages. In contrast, the stimulation of low-
involved persons is characterized by peripheral mechanisms. Since low-involved persons are not
actively interested in an object and might have only little knowledge about it, other features apart
from factual information will attract their attention. Therefore, advertising tries to attract them, for
instance, by emotionally appealing aspects such as trigger words, attractive pictures and eye-
catching designs, innovative packaging or technically advanced realizations.
In conventional advertising, the selection of a carrier medium for print ads basically
follows the structure of readership related to a defined target group (Pawlenka 1997: 5). For
instance, print ads that promote expensive luxury goods, like automobiles, can be placed in all
25
media with a wealthy readership who can afford such items. These are diverse magazines which do
not necessarily deal with automobiles, even though it seems plausible that a high number of target
readers would be addressed in these magazines. It would make no sense to place such a product in
magazines which are primarily read by readers with a lower income, even if the subject matter
might seem apt.
In traditional advertising, the selection of media depends on the correlation between a
specific demographic target group and the nature of the products being advertised. To a certain
degree, targeting (Jucker 2003: 136) is also applied to web ads, but here, it is more important that
they fit the contextual environment.
According to Forrester Research (quoted by Webreference.com n.d.),
“..web ads are more effective if they are closely related to the editorial context: An
Internet ad is most effective when it is integrated into an environment.”
One reason for this might be the way in which web users look for certain information. There are
different ways of receiving the information wanted. Often users seek a specific content, using
search engines which allow a keyword search in web pages and which provide the matching results
as hyperlinks. (Janoschka, Anja 2004, p.76)
Downloading time is also a very crucial point for the effectiveness of web ads on the
fast Web. The more complex the presentation of an ad or web page, the bigger its digital size and
the longer its downloading time. The downloading time is closely connected to a site’s
attractiveness and the number of user visits.
According to a survey by Nielsen in 1999 (2000a: 46) in which he compared the traffic
of twenty major web sites with long (on average 19 seconds) and short (on average 8 seconds)
downloading times, Nielsen came to the conclusion that the sites with less downloading time are
more frequently visited than their counterparts. Other studies, like the one conducted by Hewlett-
Packard, found that downloading times of around 10 seconds “encourage users to believe that an
error has occurred in the processing of their request” (Bouch et al. 2000). Downloading times of
less than 10 seconds, on average 8.57 seconds, are tolerated (ibid.). This means users might
cognitively stray from their currently intended search after approximately 10 seconds. At worst,
users become impatient and presumably more likely to interrupt loading and leave the site in favor
of another web site. The same is true for web ads and pop-up windows. The longer their
26
downloading time, the more likely initially gained attention will be lost in favor of other skimmed
elements. In the case of pop-ups, they might just be deleted while the user waits for loading. It goes
without saying that if web sites are not downloaded completely, the web ads placed on them will
also not be viewed in most cases, although it is possible to program the sequence of loading
elements on the page, for instance, in favor of web ads which are then visible first.
3.0) AIDA
AIDA explains how an advertising message is created and how it basically works.
There are four-step process of direct mail marketing to the Internet. The acronym AIDA sums it up:
• Attention. In any marketing approach, you must first get your prospect’s attention. Use
good graphics, attention-grabbing headlines, and a benefits-based lead to draw viewers to
your site.
• Interest. You need to pique their interest to pull people to internal pages of your site.
Whether by telling viewers where to find information or entertainment, or stimulating them
with the sense that a good value is waiting at the next click, you can use additional pages of
your site to intrigue your viewers.
• Desire. Let the viewer’s desire increase by moving through your site to locate the answers
needed for a buying decision. Building desire to obtain a particular service or product is
tricky.
• Action. A call to action, an explicit step that directs people to take a step toward a
purchase, is critical. On the Web, it’s easy to have a viewer take concrete actions. With most
other forms of advertising, you have to wait until viewers have switched to another activity
after hearing or seeing an ad. On the Web, they are already at their computers,mouse at
hand, just two clicks away from a purchase.
(Marketing on the Internet: Your Seven Step Plan for Succeeding in e-Business Now That the Hype
is Over (6th Edition) by Jan Zimmerman)
Here are the benefits and features by Maria Velroso
'Web Copy That Sells: The Revolutionary Formula for Creating Killer Copy Every Time'
Features are the attributes, properties, or characteristics of your product or service.
27
Benefits, on the other hand, are what you can do, what you can have, or what you can be because of
those features. People buy benefits— not features. This is one of the most important lessons you can
learn in writing copy. The best way to distinguish benefits from features is with the following
exercise: Begin by stating the feature. Then follow it up with the sentence, “What that means to you
is . . .” or the phrase, “. . . which means that you can . . .”
From the AIDA point of view, attention is generally created by the graphic and functional
innovation of the ad, confronting users with something new and unusual. It is intended to arouse the
users’ curiosity and interest, and to awake the desire to experience what is behind this new
technology. Pragmatically, the performative effect would be the action. ( Janoschka, Anja 2004, p.
55)
3.1) DAGMAR
Russell Colley (1961) ..
‘Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results’ was developed for setting
advertising objectives and measuring the results.'
DAGMAR was introduced by R.Colley on 1961 in a report to the American Association of National
Advertisers entitled. It was specifically designed
“...to help the setting of objectives and was built on the premise that consumers passed
various hurdles on their way to purchasing, the DAGMAR model suggested that these were
awareness,comprehension, conviction and action and that these were the primary goals of
advertising.” (Marketing Communications By John Egan p.108)
DAGMAR model suggests that the ultimate objective of advertising must carry a consumer through
four levels of understanding:
from unawareness to Awareness—the consumer must first be aware of a brand or company
Comprehension—he or she must have a comprehension of what the product is and its benefits;
Conviction—he or she must arrive at the mental disposition or conviction to buys the brand;
Action—finally, he or she actually buy that product. ( Russell Colley (1961) )
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Awareness
Awareness of the existence of a product or organization is necessary before the purchase behavior
can be expected. Once the awareness has been created in the target audience, it should not be
neglected. needs to be created, developed, refined or sustained, according to the characteristics of
the market and the particular situation facing an organization at any one point of time.
Comprehension
Awareness on its own may not be sufficient to stimulate a purchase. Knowledge about the product
or the organization is necessary. This can be achieved by providing specific information about key
brand attributes
Conviction
The next step is to establish a sense of conviction. By creating interest and preference, buyers are
moved to a position where they are convinced that a particular product in the class should be tried at
the next opportunity. To do this, audience’s beliefs about the product have to be moulded and this is
often done through messages that demonstrate the product’s superiority over a rival or by talking
about the rewards as a result of using the product.
Action
Communication must finally encourage buyers to engage in purchase activity. According to Russell
Colley (1961) “ advertising can be directive and guide the buyers into certain behavioral
outcomes.”
3.2) Lavidge & Steiners Hierarchy-of-effects model
A major premise of this model is that the receiver of the advertising message must
“pass through a series of distinct stages in a defined sequence in order to ensure a purchase of the
product/service that is being advertised.” But if any of the stages are missed out, the desired
29
outcome will not be achieved. The starting point is that consumer must be stimulated to become
aware of the product or service being advertised.
Message must be capable of breaking through to gain the receiver's attention.
Following this, he/she needs to be provided with specific information about the product which
improves their knowledge and understanding of the brand. (attributes, features, benefits of the
product or service) this state of knowledge must then be developed into a liking for the product or
service. Next stage is that of creating a preference. The task of ad must be to offer some point of
distinction to create a separation in the mind of the consumer between the product being advertised.
Implicit in this statement is the assumption that there is a correspondence between this
point of difference and the consumer's needs and desires. The penultimate stage of conviction is the
result of the consumer forming a specific purchase intention towards the advertised product or
service.
Lavidge and Steiner suggest that,
“...only when all of these stages have been concluded will the consumer convert
intention into action and purchase the brand.” (Advertising By Tony Yeshin p.33-34 )
The communication process model is created to show that communication consist of
several different elements in constant interaction with each other. There are seven main elements in
this process model: sender, message, receiver,feedback, channel, context or setting and noise or
interference.
(Dwyer, 2005) said that this
“...seven are equally important in the process of communication and without one of
them, the process will not be complete.”
Another very important element in this process is the communication barriers. These occur as a
result of misunderstanding of the message. Being able to recognize these is an important step
towards having a successful external marketing communication. According to Dwyer (2005) it is
important that,
“ ...the customer decodes the message right and the process model is in some cases too
focused on what to do up until the point where the customer is met with the message.”
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A simple model that identifies the fundamental elements of communication.
“Source=>Message=>Receiver” whilst this model is over simplistic, it depicts the three basic
elements of communication.
1.source of message which in this context is the advertiser.
2.there is the message itself, designed to deliver specific information to the third part of the
equation, namely the receiver. (Tony Yeshin p.29)
This model introduces a number of new elements that serve to demonstrate the complex nature of
communications. When we send any form of advertising message, we need to encode it into some
form of symbolic representation.
The particular response which the receiver makes will itself be dependent on a variety
of factors. Some advertising simly conveys info to the consumer; other forms are intended to elicit
some form of invitation to purchase or to take some other specific type of response. Clearly, the
response of the receiver to the message will be of considerable importance to the sender.
Accordingly the sender will often build in some form of feedback mechanism in order to
understand the nature of the response which in turn can be used to refine the message if it fails to
deliever the desired response.
(Advertising by Tony Yeshin p.31)
For advertising to be effective it is important for advertisers to be aware of how the
message may be met by customers on the market. By understanding the different behavioral levels
that customers pass through, the advertiser can create a message that will meet all requirements and
thereby be effective (Ciadvertising.com, 2007).
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4.0) Methodology
This chapter is about methods collection of information. My research will be based on
two organizations Vodafone and O2 in Prague, Czech Republic. I decided to pick two organisations
of the same sphere. I will apply different approach and strategy for the research. I am able to get an
access to the Vodafone and O2 companies. So the basic information for my dissertation I am
planning to get from them. According to the interviews with the two companies I can analyze and
see do they provide effective methods of advertising and also make comparison about
methods,theories and models of advertising that they use. These methodology methods will help
me to know how advertising in Prague helps international companies to grow with the profit and
according to the methods they use I can provide some recommendation on improvement. I decided
to pick these two companies because they are very strong competitors.
Types of information that I want to receive from them are about:
Advertising theory and model that they use
Advertising methods
Internet advertising
What is more effective, Internet advertising or basic ad
How they treat their customers
ATL(press,Internet,indoor/outdoor ads ,radio,TV) /BTL ( consumer promotion, trade
promotion,direct marketing,event marketing)
4.1) Data Collection techniques
Data for my paper will be collected from different sources and by various ways. I will
collect information according to primary research. Primary research involves getting original data
directly about the product and market. For my research I decided to interview about 100 people by
online survey also include face-to-face interview with the random people(customers) . This is only
initial start as the research will be done for the first time, the further research will be consist of more
people. Secondary research involves the summary, collation and/or synthesis of existing research
32
rather than primary research, where data is collected from, for example, research subjects or
experiments. For obtaining secondary research I was using a reliable literature.
The framework consist of the:
1.Research Design
2.Primary Research
3.Online Surveys
4.Face-to-face Interviews
5.Structures Interviews
6.Secondary Research
7.Reliability/Validity
8.Sampling Frame
9.Contingencies
10.Ethical Considerations
11.Methods for Analysis
4.2) Research Design
Research design require an overall plan for research, about finer detail of data collection
and analysis. There are exists various techniques for primary research methods. My project have
took both the exploratory study and descriptive study forms.
Robson (2002:59) cited exploratory study as
' ...a valuable means to find out what is happening;to seek new insights; to ask questions
and to assess phenomena in a new light.'
There are three principle ways of conducting exploratory research by Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill,
(2006, p. 133):
a search of literature
interviewing 'experts' in the subject
conducting focus group interviews
33
But only two of them will be integrated to the research process, a search of literature and
interviewing 'experts' in the subject.
“...research approach involving the development of a theory as a result of the
observation of empirical data,” (Saunders Lewis & Thornhill, 2006, p. 599)
Adams and Schvaneveldt,1991 says that,
“...exploratory research can be likened to the activities of the traveler or explorer.”
The advantages of it is that it is flexible and adaptable to change.
Robson, (2002;59) described the object of descriptive research as,
“...to portray an accurate profile of persons,events or situations.”
This may be an extension of a piece of exploratory research or a piece of a explanatory research.
It is necessary to have a clear picture of the phenomena on which you wish to collect data prior to
the collection of the data.
Interview will be with the representatives(managers of the advertising department) from the
organisations, O2 telefonica and Vodafone. This will essentially consist of contextual data.
A survey strategy allows to collect quantitative data, the data collected using a survey
strategy can be used to suggest possible reasons for particular relationships between variables and to
produce models of these relationships. Using a survey strategy should give you more control over
the research process and when sampling is used,it is possible to generate findings that are
representative of the whole population. Online survey will be placed at monkeysurvey.com website,
and I will collect answers from 100 people from different countries. It is more introduce at the
section ..
All data collection methods work together, to back-up each others findings. Data was
collected through the use of primary research. The qualitative and quantitative methods carried out
34
in the primary research includes interviews and survey. It will be more described in the next
session.
4.3) Primary research
To collect primary data I carried out field research. Primary research is research used to collect data
for a specific task. In my dissertation I use two types of primary data collection methods, they are:
Interviews
Online survey
The main advantages of primary research and data are that it is:
Up to date.
Specific to the purpose – asks the questions the business wants answers to.
Collects data which no other business will have access to (the results are confidential).
In the case of online surveys and telephone interviews, the data can be obtained quite
quickly (think about how quickly political opinion polls come out).
But also there are exists disadvantages of primary research are that it:
Can be difficult to collect and/or take a long time to collect.
Is expensive to collect.
May provide mis-leading results if the sample is not large enough or chosen with care; or if
the questionnaire questions are not worded properly.
4.3.1) Online Surveys
It is by using email or the Internet. This is an increasingly popular way of obtaining primary data
and much less costly than face-to-face or telephone interviews. ( tutor2u)
There are some advantages of postal surveys
35
No travel expenses so economic if good return rate.
No interviewer Bias
Anonymous returns
Can be completed at respondents’ leisure.
But also exists disadvantages of postal surveys, like:
Low response rate approximately 3%
Take longer
Have to be short.
Questions may be misinterpreted, and there is no interviewer their to guide the respondent.
I have conducted online survey on monkeysurvey.com. I have collected 100 answers
from different nationalities people. Most of them were using Vodafone. Online survey helped me to
collect very important data.
Data consisted of the customer opinions, for example, why the have chosen this
operator, does their operator provide some offers, and will they use this operator in the future. The
answers helped me to analyze which company provides better service for their customers, and the
main point is that customers told what kind of improvements they would like, will they use this
service in the future.
4.3.2) Face -to Face Interview with customers
Personal Interviews it is a face -to face interview between an interviewer and the
respondent at offices, at the street, shopping mall, metro. Advantages of personal interviews are that
I can receive in-depth answers possible, qualitative data obtained from small sample, then
observation improves accuracy and rapport leads to fewer refusals.
I was asking people on the street or on their doorstep a series of questions. Interviews
with the customers were done informally, and 'on the fly' and, therefore, haven't required scheduling
time with respondents. In fact, respondents may just see this as 'conversation.' It is also foster 'low
pressure' interactions and allow respondents to speak more freely and openly.
I have conducted an interview to ask random people in the street. This method is not expensive, but
36
it takes more time to find people and ask them to answer. I have interviewed 50 people about what
kind of operator they use and why etc.
Also can be helpful in building rapport with respondents and in gaining their trust as
well as their understanding of a topic, situation, setting, etc. It is an essential part of gaining an
understanding of a setting and its members' ways of seeing. And can provide the foundation for
developing and conducting more structured interviews.
Informal interviewing is typically done as part of the process of observing a social setting of
interest.
These may be best used in the early stages of the development of an area of inquiry, where there is
little literature describing the setting, experience, culture or issue of interest. The researcher engages
in fieldwork -observation and informal interviewing - to develop an understanding of the setting and
to build rapport. Informal interviewing may also be used to uncover new topics of interest that may
have been overlooked by previous research.
I was asking the same type of questions for on-line survey and face-to-face interview. The reasons
why I has structured this type of questions were for example,
1.Where are you from?
There are many people of different nationalities and cultures live in Prague. And I need to know
where is from the customers of telecommunication operators.
2.How long have you been in the Czech Republic?
This question will give me an information that will show for how long they are using their
telecommunication company.
3.Do you use Vodafone? Why did you choose this company?
It will give an answer what telecommunication operator the customer use, and why he decided to
use Vodafone, what were the main reasons in choosing Vodafone operator.
37
4.Do you use O2 ? Why did you choose this company?
It will give an answer what telecommunication operator the customer use, and why he decided to
use O2 Telefonica and what were the main reasons in choosing O2 Telefonica operator.
5.Does the company you use provide some special offers, discounts?
It is interesting to know what customers will say do they get some discounts offers while they use
their operator. Because some customers say that it is provided and some says not of the same
operator.
6.Does the company keep you up to date with new offers?
I decided to ask this questions because it will show me the opinion of the customer ,how their
operator treat them and provide good customer service.
7.Are you satisfied with the quality, price, customer service?
This questions shows the customers opinion about the whole product and customer service. Do
they satisfied or maybe they do not satisfied and wants some changes or improvements. That will
give a good feedback for the companies.
8.Does the company provide Internet services?
I decided to ask this question because it was interesting to know about the Internet services of the
two competitors companies, because it is well and very fast developed nowadays.
9.Are they free of charge? Do you use them?
I asked this question in order to know are they expensive or free and does the customers use it.
10.Do you want to improve something within the service? What would it be?
I asked this question to know if the customers satisfied or not satisfied, if not, then what they would
38
like to see as an improvements in the future.
11.Will you continue using services of these company or change the operator in future?
It is also very interesting to know will the customers of this two operator continue using them in the
future as the competition grows more and more nowadays.
4.3.3) Structured Interviews with O2 and Vodafone
I have planned to do structured interviews with the companies managers of O2
telefonica and Vodafone. Development of a structured interview guide or questionnaire requires a
clear topical focus and well-developed understanding of the topic at hand. A well-developed
understanding of a topic allows researchers to create a highly structured interview guide or
questionnaire that provides respondents with relevant, meaningful and appropriate response
categories to choose from for each question.
Structured interviews are, therefore, best used when the literature in a topical area is
highly developed or following the use of observational and other less structured interviewing
approaches that provide the researcher with adequate understanding of a topic to construct
meaningful and relevant close-ended questions. Also structured interviews can be conducted
efficiently by interviewers trained only to follow the instructions on the interview guide or
questionnaire. And do not require the development of rapport between interviewer and interviewee,
and they can produce consistent data that can be compared across a number of respondents. But
there is a disadvantages of structured interview were difficulties to contact the telecommunication
managers.
I was asking this type of questions because I get the information about their service and
product that they provide to the customers. I was asking this type questions and I will explain why I
was asking:
What is the advertising theory and model used by the company?
It is important to know how O2 Telefonica advertised its services and products, what methods they
use, is it only ATL or BTL. The question gave me an answer why they using this methods of
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advertising.
Are they effective and bring profits?
As they use all kind of communication to advertise their products, this question gave me an anwer
about is that all methods are bring profits or not.
Is Internet advertising effective and does it bring profits for the company?
As I mentioned Internet advertising is now well developed. I know that O2 do Internet advertising,
and it is interesting to know if it effective and does it bring profit to the company.
What methods ATL or BTL are more effective and what type do you often use?And why?
As O2 Telefonica use all types of communications, it is ATL( press,Internet,indoor/outdoor
ads ,radio,TV) /BTL ( consumer promotion, trade promotion,direct marketing, Pos,event
marketing), I need it to know what is they use more often and also why they use more ATL than
BTL for example.
What is more effective, Internet advertising or consumer promotion Traditional?
Traditional advertising was all the time, but then came a new era of Internet. And people started
using Internet and also provide Internet advertising. It is important to know what is more effective
for them to be in that new era or still continue with the traditional advertising.
Do you provide some special offerings to attract more customers?
Every company try gain more customers. It is very important how they attract the customers by
what methods they try to be visible and gain customer and more profit.
Do you keep up to date the offers with the consumers?
I was asking this question because it will show how well developed the relationships between them
and customers. Does the customers satisfied and how often and how they keep informing the
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customer about some news, offers, discounts.
What is the most important for you company - quality, price, customer service?
This questions shows what is the aim for the company, is it to get more benefits and profit or maybe
to provide a higher quality or even is to concentrate on customer satisfaction.
What methods of Internet advertising are more effective? Web pages, online adverts with
mail providers etc.?
As i mentioned above O2 uses all types of communication, and my research is more focused on
Internet Advertising. I m interested to know what O2 Telefonica uses as an Internet advertising,like
what kind of web pages for example.
Where do you see the future of advertising for your company, a continuation of the mix of
traditional and Internet, only Internet?
I was interested what is the O2 opinion about the future advertising, will they use only Internet
advertising or will do only traditional advertising method. The answer shows me the ability and
want to attract the customers in the future.
Are there any drawbacks with advertising online?
There are exists some disadvantages of online advertising like it is expensive, and sometimes
people does not concentrate on it. I am interested to know what is the main drawback of online
advertising that O2 has.
What are the main advantages of online advertising?
But also there are exists the advantages of online advertising, and they are very important for the
companies to have. I asked this question to know what advantages they receive from online
advertising.
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4.4) Secondary research
Secondary research is where you use information that other people have gathered through primary
research. (Prof Mark Girolami )
Secondary information has some distinctive advantages over primary data collection
efforts. The most significant of these advantages are related to time and cost.
Secondary data are available from a variety of sources and in a variety of forms,
although the largest and most frequently consulted source is a library. Libraries differ in the kinds
of materials they have available. University libraries tend to carry academically relevant materials.
Public libraries carry more general interest and business-relevant materials.
For obtaining theories to form the fundamentals for the project, the use of text books was very
essential.
The value of Secondary Research is in what it can bring to the student as a basis for
their own work and individual contribution. It is of value when, for example, reports are compared
and analysed or set within a particular context or the student performs a critical review of existing
work. (Prof Mark Girolami )
Secondary research is information or data that someone else has previously collected. I
have found in printed sources (books, magazines, journals, and trade newspapers) and in electronic
sources (CD-ROM encyclopedias, software packages, or online services, such as the Internet).
(Prof Mark Girolami )
4.4.1)Books
Author's name, title of book, place of publication, publisher, copyright date, and pages
read or quoted. Books in general are a good resource; however, I was ensure that the latest edition
of a book is used and that the subject matter and its treatment within the book are relevant and up to
date. The whole research were based on a different theories by Koch & Oesterreicher, R. Colley,
Lavidge & Steiners, Dwyer and many other well-known authors.
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I was receiving the secondary data resource from digital library. This digital library
provides lots of books (over 44,000 in total) on different types of advertising theories,
definitions,models ultimately it provides the ability to compare previous theories with new research
(Stewart and Kamins, 1993).
I was obtaining secondary data from advertising, marketing, marketing communications,web
advertising, Internet advertising books.
4.4.2) Trade Newspaper
Author's name, title of article, name of newspaper, date of publication, and section and
page numbers. Trade newspapers provide a good resource for identifying current trends in the
industry. However, unlike refereed journals, the content of such newspapers will be biased in that a
particular company product may be advertised in an article and as such objective analysis may be
difficult to find. The student should exercise a high degree of critical thought and caution when
taking information from such a source. But the limitations are that it can be out to dated.
4.4.3) Document from online service
Author of document (if known), title of document, name of organization that posted
document, place where organization is located, date given on document, and online address or
mailing address where document is available.
The use of Internet was very helpful , it is provided relevant and helpful information and additions
source for obtaining secondary data.
4.5) Reliability & Validity
Information data are reliable because it will come from Vodafone and O2 employees.
All the books, articles, magazines that I will use for my dissertation are very reliable. They are
based on a business advertising world. And the authors are famous business writers and researchers.
Easterby-Smith et al., (2002:53) defined that,
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“reliability refers to th extent to which data collection techniques/analysis procedures
will yield consistent findings.'”
Validity refers to
“...the extent to which data collection method or methods accurately measure what they
are intended to measure”, (Saunders Lewis & Thornhill, 2006 p.614).
Main factors for the interviews were the ‘willingness to be interviewed’ and ‘appropriateness of
location.’ It was essential to provide a location where ‘it is convenient, participants feel comfortable
and where there will be no interruptions’, (Saunders Lewis & Thornhill, 2006, p.321).
The participant of the interview were honest by giving their opinions about the services, also
interview with the companies were recorded that is a justification of the reliable data used.
4.6) Sampling Frame
Sampling is the process of selecting units from a population of interest so that by
studying the sample we may fairly generalize the results back to the population from which they
were chosen. (web center for social research methods)
Sampling theory is very important because when undertaking any survey, it is essential
to obtain data from people that are as representative as possible of the group that you are studying.
Even with the perfect questionnaire survey data will only be regarded as useful if it is considered
that my respondents are typical of the population as a whole. For this reason, an awareness of the
principles of sampling is essential to the implementation of most methods of research, both
quantitative and qualitative.
4.7) Contingencies
My contingency plan will be in case that if Vodafone and O2 employees will refuse
answer my interview about their company and some data, my contingency plan will be based on
online surveys and their customers. Also in case, I will do the Internet research and some reading
44
the article, book and some special editions in detail. I will make research according to a Vodafone
and O2 Telefonica websites, company records,corporate responsibility and also including articles
and customers review. That information will be enough for to do the further research.
Also Internet provide lots of interesting information and data. I have conducted also face-to-face
interview with customers, it will give me more useful information.
4.8) Ethical Considerations
Jerrold S.Greenberg (p.3) defined Ethics as
“a branch of philosophy that deals with systematic approaches to understanding
morality.”
The expression "basic ethical principles" refers to those general judgments that serve as a basic
justification for the many particular ethical prescriptions and evaluations of human actions.
Research ethics is defined as;
“The appropriateness of the researcher’s behaviour in relation to the rights of those
who become the subject of a research project, or who are affected by it ”. (Saunders, 2006, p.610).
Ethical behaviour helps protect individuals,communities and environments,and offers the potential
to increase the sum of good in the world. ( Diener and Crandall,1978) p.2 By Mark Israel and lain
Hay
Here is another definition of ethics by Beauchamp and Childress(1991,p.4),
“it is a generic term for various ways of understanding and examining the moral life.”
In a process of writing my dissertation I am adhere to the following codes:
Respect privacy of others. All used information will be cited.
Respect the property rights of Vodafone and O 2 and will not use proprietary without
45
permission.
Provide only relevant information of research paper.
Collect data accurately and fully
Avoid observing something that is related to the participant's personal life, telephone.
Maintain confidentiality and anonymity
Privacy of possible and actual participants
Effects of participants to the way in which will use, analyze and report data
Information from interviews will be confidential
Possible ethical problems encountered
Access to confidential information from 2 competitors
Reliable and truthfully information from the organisation, the 2 competitors.
All data that I will gain from the 2 organisation will be confidential and used only for the
dissertation research . It will not be used out of the research, for some other reasons.
The structured interviews will provide the evidence of the process, I will use type recorder, in case
that the information in my dissertation are reliable.
There were no potential problems connected with achieving the overall aim through the use of data
collection relating to ethics.
(http://www.dhhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/belmont.htm#xethical) (The Belmont Report )
4.9) Methods of Analysis
The strategy I use include the qualitative and quantitative research techniques. My
research involves analysis of numerical data(survey statistics) and involves analysis of data such as
words (e.g., from interviews).
Quantitative research is research involving the use of structured questions where the response
options have been predetermined and a large number of respondents is involved.
By definition, measurement must be objective, quantitative and statistically valid. Survey is
calculated to determine how many percent of customers are using the telecommunication from a
given population in order to achieve findings with an acceptable degree of accuracy.
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Qualitative Research is collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data by observing what people do and
say. Whereas, quantitative research refers to counts and measures of things, qualitative research
refers to the meanings, concepts, definitions, characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and descriptions
of things.
The strengths and weaknesses of qualitative and quantitative research are a perennial, hot debate,
especially in the social sciences. The issues invoke classic 'paradigm war'.( Miles & Huberman
(1994))
Participants were asked to respond to general questions and the interviewer explores their responses
to identify and define people’s perceptions, opinions and feelings about the telecommunications.
This type of research is often less costly than surveys and is extremely effective in acquiring
information about people’s communications needs and their responses to and views about specific
communications ( qualitative research).
Quantitative Qualitative
Begins with hypotheses and
theories
Ends with hypotheses and
grounded theory
Experimentation Researcher as instrument
Uses formal instruments Naturalistic
Seeks consensus, the norm Seeks pluralism, complexity
(Glesne, C., & Peshkin, A. (1992). Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction. White
Plains, NY: Longman. )
5.0) Findings
This chapter provides the results from the all methodology types, like online survey, face-to-face
interviews with customers and company O2 Telefonica.
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5.1) Primary Findings
5.1.1) Online Survey
From the evidence we can see the findings taken from the online survey that was prepared to the
100 random consumers of different telecoms operators,on the 28.4.09 and closed on 5.5.09 ,
Prague, Czech Republic 2009. The survey was introduced by asking the participants about
telecommunication services in Prague, CR.
Question1
First question asked participants to select where they are from. The data was going to reveal a range
of different nationalities of the customers as the online survey was administrated to consumers at
random. This would also prove an interesting source of data to show how the questions could relate
to the different nationalities categories.
Where are you from?
This graphs gives the results of where the customers of the two operators from. The graphs shows
us that the most of them are from Asia, it is 65 %. So this is very interesting that most of the
customers are from Asian culture and are new to the European market. 20 % are from Europe, it is
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means they know Czech market very well and USA are 8 % and other countries are 7 % and 2 %
participants skipped the question.
Question 2
The 2nd question asked customers for how long they are living in Czech Republic, Prague. The data
will show the percentage of a living range.
Results:
How long have you been in the Czech Republic?
The graph shows that most of the participants live in Prague less than 5 years. It is means that they
probably have less experience with the operator they choose. 25 % of participants are leaving in
Prague from 5 – 10 years. This explains that customer know the market and operator service quite
well. And the last 19 % are leaving in Prague more than 10 years, that is very long-term and it is
means that customers has more experience with different operators.
Question 3
The 3rd question asked participant about what telecommunication services they use and why they
decided to use this company, what reasons affected them.
Results:
Do you use Vodafone? Why did you choose this company?
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The graphs shows that 88 % are the customers of Vodafone according to the 100 participants.
It is tell us that Vodafone are quite popular than the O2 Telefonica and propbably better tarriffs.
The reason why participant decided to use Vodafone were:
Good quality and price
It was a sponsor of FC MU.
Family and friends are using Vodafone
Most known company with qualified services
People recommendations
Reasonable prices for abroad calls
The most available network
Question 4
The 4th question asked participant about what telecommunication services they use and why they
decided to use this company, what reasons affected them.
Do you use O2 ? Why did you choose this company?
50
This graph shows that only 12 % are using the O2 Telefonica. And that tells that is not best results
of the survey than the Vodafone. Maybe this is because of the higher prices than in Vodafone.
The reason why participant decided to use O2 Telefonica were:
Mostly for home link, mainly Internet paushal for good price
Promotional advertising
Friends were on O2
Flat rate tariff, unlimited free calling to all networks.
Better coverage and good for business.
Question 5
Question asked participants if their telecommunication company provide a good customer services .
This data is very interesting to compare the two companies how they provide a good customer
service for the potential and new customers.
Results:
Does the company you use provide some special offers, discounts?
51
That graph shows that 84 % participants answered yes that their operator provide specail offers.
That shows a very good customer service. And 8 % answered no, it is maybe that customer doesn't
have any interest in this information or just do not pay attention to that promotion of offers. Because
all operator provide some special discounts, offers and etc.
Question 6
This question asked how the Vodafone and O2 Telefonica treat their customers as a whole . It is
gives an important feedback of customers opinions about a good customer services.
Results:
Does the company keep you up to date with new offers?
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0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
No 20 %
Don't know 7%
Yes 71 %
Skipped 2%
Options
Nu
mb
er
of r
esp
on
de
nts
This graph shows that 71 % of participants confirmed that they provided with any new information
of their operator. It is means that operators care about their customers. And 20 % answered no and
other 7 % don't know and 2 % participants has skipped the question. People are different someone
maybe ignore this information or maybe do not has any interest.
Question 7
This question asked customers about the service quality. It was an important question to receive
feedback on as research of the secondary data.
Results:
Are you satisfied with the quality, price, customer service?
This graphs shows that 81 % are satisfied with the provided quality, price and customer service.
This is very good results and it means that customers like the service and products. And only 19 %
answered no.
Question 8
Question asked about additional services and offering that company provides, and if they are free of
charge and if customers using them or not. This question shows a important data that competitors
companies provide to the customers.
Results:
Does the company provide Internet services? Are they free of charge? Do you use them?
53
This graph is about Internet services. 82 % of participants answered that their operator company
provide Internet but they all not use it. And 12 % answered no, and 6 % don't know. That is also can
be because of lack of interest from customers side.
Vodafone provide Internet services but they are free of charge only until June and customers use it.
And also Vodafone provides free messages from the Internet. Vodafone company provides Internet
service, but it its high cost.
O2 Telefonica Internet services are not free of charge. It is via EDGE technology and it is a paid
service. Almost all customers prefer to use O2 as home Internet because it provides good service
and prices.
Question 9
Question asked the participants whether they felt service quality had improved over the years, this
was an important to receive feedback on as research of the secondary data had shown that
service quality can be improved in some ways to gain more reputation and customers.
Results:
Do you want to improve something within the service? What would it be?
54
This graph shows that 45 % of participants would like if their operator will improve something
within the service. And 37 % answered no, so that means they satisfied with the quality and service.
And 18 % do not care. Here is a list of improvements that customer would like to see:
Participants has shared their opinions about improvements within the service.
Vodafone
Lower price and more discount for regular clients
Cheaper roaming tariff
More benefits for people with prepaid cards
Sometimes free calls
Videocall
Friendlier staff & 24-hour English service
Free Internet on paushal service
Do not send messages about payments early in the morning
Customer benefits such as loyalty discounts special offers for foreign people, it could be 1
free call to parents & 1 to friends
Customer service in call centers Vodafone
O2 Telefonica
Mobile Internet Service for free
Faster Internet
Cheaper international call prices
loyalty discounts
55
coverage, 3G network
improve wireless connection
Videocall
Better signal
Customer benefits
Mobile services cheaper, like in normal European countries e.g. Swiss, France, Germany ;
Personal service like someone can have in a bank (your personal banker)
Question 10
Question 10 asked participants will they use their operator in the future. The data shows how they
satisfied with the service.
Results:
Will you continue using services of these company or change the operator in future?
This graph tell us that 85 % of participants will continue using their operator so that they satisfied
with everything and 9 % are thinking, and only 6 % will change.
5.1.2) Primary Findings - Informal Face-to-face Interview with Random Customers
I was asking the same type of questions for online survey and face-to-face interview. I was asking
50 participants. From the evidence we can see the results of findings. The reasons why I has
structured this type of questions were for example,
56
1.Where are you from?
There are many people of different nationalities and cultures live in Prague. And I need to know
where is from the customers of telecommunication operators.
This graphs gives the results of where the customers of the two operators from. The graphs shows
us that the most of them are also from Asia, it is 18%. So this is very interesting that most of the
customers are from Asian culture and are new to the European market. 11 % are from Europe, it is
means they know Czech market very well and UK is also 11 % . USA are less and it is 6 % and
other countries are 4 % and 2 % participants skipped the question.
2.How long have you been in the Czech Republic?
This question gave me an information that will show for how long they are using their
telecommunication company.
57
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
UK 11 %
Other 4 %
USA 6 %
Europe 11 %
Asia 18%
Skipped 2%
Options
Nu
mb
er
of r
esp
on
de
nts
The graph shows that most of the participants live in Prague more than 5 years.
It is means that they have good experience with the operator they choose.
15 % of participants are leaving in Prague from 2 – 5years. This explains that customer probably
have less experience. And the last 10 % are leaving in Prague less than 1 year and it is shows that
they do not have any experience with their operator and just started to know the company and its
services.
3.Do you use Vodafone? Why did you choose this company?
It will give an answer what telecommunication operator the customer use, and why he decided to
use Vodafone, what were the main reasons in choosing Vodafone operator.
The graphs shows that 31 % are the customers of Vodafone according to the 50 participants.
58
It is tell us that Vodafone are quite popular than the O2 Telefonica and probably better tariffs.
And 10 % of participants were not using O2 and Vodafone, they have another operator.
4.Do you use O2 ? Why did you choose this company?
It will give an answer what telecommunication operator the customer use, and why he decided to
use O2 Telefonica and what were the main reasons in choosing O2 Telefonica operator.
This graph shows that only 9 % are using the O2 Telefonica. And that tells that is not best results of
the survey than the Vodafone. Maybe this is because of the higher prices than in Vodafone. And 10
% of participants were not using O2 and Vodafone, they have another operator.
5.Does the company you use provide some special offers, discounts?
It is interesting to know what customers will say do they get some discounts offers while they use
their operator. Because some customers say that it is provided and some says not of the same
operator.
59
That graph shows that 28 % participants answered yes that their operator provide special offers.
That shows a very good customer service. And 12% answered no, it is maybe that customer doesn't
have any interest in this information or just do not pay attention to that promotion of offers. Because
all operator provide some special discounts, offers and etc. I was not counted those other 10 % of
participants that use another operator.
6.Does the company keep you up to date with new offers?
I decided to ask this questions because it will show me the opinion of the customer ,how their
operator treat them and provide good customer service.
This graph shows that 33 % of participants confirmed that they provided with any new information
of their operator. It is means that operators care about their customers. And only 7 % answered no.
People are different someone maybe ignore this information or maybe do not has any interest. And
also I was not counted those other 10 % of participants that use another operator.
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7.Are you satisfied with the quality, price, customer service?
This questions shows the customers opinion about the whole product and customer service. Do
they satisfied or maybe they do not satisfied and wants some changes or improvements. That will
give a good feedback for the companies.
This graphs shows that 38 % are satisfied with the provided quality, price and customer service.
This is very good results and it means that customers like the service and products. And only 2 %
answered no. I also was not counted those other 10 % of participants that use another operator.
8.Does the company provide Internet services?
I decided to ask this question because it was interesting to know about the Internet services of the
two competitors companies, because it is well and very fast developed nowadays.
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This graph is about Internet services. 39 % of participants answered that their operator company
provide Internet but they all not use it. And only 1 % answered no. I also was not counted those
other 10 % of participants that use another operator.
9.Are they free of charge? Do you use them?
I asked this question in order to know are they expensive or free and does the customers use it.
This graph shows that 25 % of participants use Internet services and other 15 % does not use.
Customers are different and some of them like to be on Internet and other does not use the Internet
at all. I also was not counted those other 10 % of participants that use another operator.
10.Do you want to improve something within the service? What would it be?
I asked this question to know if the customers satisfied or not satisfied, if not, then what they would
like to see as an improvements in the future.
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This graph shows that 425 % of participants would like if their operator will improve something
within the service. And 15 % answered no, so that means they satisfied with the quality and service.
I was not counted those other 10 % of participants that use another operator.
11.Will you continue using services of these company or change the operator in future?
It is also very interesting to know will the customers of this two operator continue using them in the
future as the competition grows more and more nowadays.
This graph tell us that 32 % of participants will continue using their operator so that they satisfied
with everything and 8 % will change. I also was not counted those other 10 % of participants that
use another operator.
5.1.3) Primary Findings - Structured Interviews with O 2 Telefonica
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I have conducted an Interview for the O2 Telefonica company. From the evidence we
can see the results of Interview with the O2 Telefonica manager. I found a good contact of the
marketing communication manager of O2 Telefonica, Bc. Ondrej Dub. I wrote him an email, that I
am a student and writing dissertation and using O2 Telefonica as an example. We met in O2
Telefonica cafe, close to their office. The interview was very friendly and nice, I recorded the
interview. The questions that I was asking and the Ondrej Dub answers will be further seen in the
next section . I have conducted 12 questions.
Questions:
1. What is the advertising theory and model used by the company?
We use all kind of communications,because we have the products that are for mass market and
everyone. We use ATL communication with all kind of media channels and BTL we do direct
communication,promotional events.
2. Are they effective and bring profits?
Advertising is not about making profit, it is about product,consumers, creating and making
awareness across the target group we want and basically about the profit we make. We have current
customers and new customers and it is difficult to measure and also there are some promotions, for
example, product is discounted for something and then it is difficult to measure. We use all kind of
media and if we want arise an awareness quickly so then we use mainly Television,outdoor, but
also it is depends on the product and the target group.
3. Is Internet advertising effective and does it bring profits for the company?
Internet is still growing I think if we compare the consumers in CR and Western countries we are
still far behind and Internet is still kind of phenomenon. Focusing on Internet, it is not the main
media channel we would use because it is still less expensive than TV also it is difficult to find
some target groups on Internet. But we are focusing on doing on Internet campaigns, we do
standart campaigns ,if we do just banner campaign so then it is advertising and TV or other.
We create an awareness but people see it and they don't click through rate(0,5%) so then we have
64
to do something more to engage those people and sometimes even not speaking about the brand and
product but to create totally different .
If there are too much advertisings on Internet, people just loose attention and they don't care. So ,
people on Internet are quite independent. If you will push our brand/product on Internet too much,
people will loose attention and just switch to another website. But we still doing more things on
Internet and we focus carefully on different targets.
4. What methods ATL or BTL are more effective and what type do you often use?And why?
It is depends on product you want to communicate and if the product is more focused on customers
and there is no acquisition potential then we do BTL. To reach own customers in media its the most
expensive tool .
There are exists some other tools how to reach customers for example, for our current customers we
offer some bonuses and send sms to customers. It is possible to reach own customers. But if there
is a different products like launching a new tariff (it depends also what are objectives) and if the
objective is to reach the whole population and create quickly awareness about new tariff then we
use media. As we are only integrated operator on this market, we have many products not only
mobile but some services, ADSL, IP Television through the fix line. So it is difficult to coordinate
all this together and we have to focus on good coordination,good media mix in order to reach out
the objectives and carefully focus on different targets.
5. What is more effective, Internet advertising or consumer promotion? (some competitions)
Consumer promotions are usually promoted in FMCG. We don't use this much only if we do any
competition then usually we focus on our customers, if we want to give them something more in
addition. We have done some competitions, like if you buy something you get something ( special
offers).“ Last year we made a VMW, win 100days and 100 cards if u sent smses but it was
something that was not supported our products it was only competition, we do not do that much ”.
6. Do you provide some special offerings to attract more customers?
The market is already are saturated, and everyone has mobile. But if we need to have more
customers to make bigger profits then we try to require a new ones. There is no big motivators for
people to switch their telecom company and the only motivators to switch or to change the number
65
are the lower monthly fee or lower cost, good subsidize hardware. Sometimes we do Christmas
promotion, for example if someone buys ADSL and he got something more. It is not about
communication, it's about marketing and product development. In case of communication we do
standart job and we have to create some awareness about the promotions we have it and how
people can get it.
7. Do you keep up to date the offers with the consumers?
There are many tools for communication between us and our customers. We communicate when
there is a new product and it has the higher priority. We send them smses also we have standart
tools how to communicate to our customers, we send the invoice, so that invoice include some
leaflet with some new offers.
New customer get something more than the current one. We have to convince new customer to use
our our service and push him to buy.
The Western Europe are more focused on their current customers base and they offering
more. Czech market still offer more benefits to a new customers. We try to convince who are not
our customer to come to us, but also we are trying to focus more on a current base and to show
other customer s that it is good to be with O2. We have some tools, like loyalty programs that our
customers gets. We also make some campaign or communication to people that is not our
customers yet, to connect to O2. In ATL campaigns we had the opposite, it was more offer to the
new customers. We try to make all the benefits to current customers buts it is not always possible to
do that. For example,the acquisition promotions, come these week or 14 days and get 30 %
discount on our tariff. But these is only for new ones, if we will give it to everyone in our customer
base we will loose a lot of money.
8.What is the most important for you company - quality, price, customer service?
Its close to our positioning. There are only 3 operators in this market, According to image they look
all the same(image profiles). We are more kind of specialists, we always had been technology
leader,and focusing on service quality we offer to our customers.
O2 was a part of Czech telecom, we try to make improvements that is why we offer
many new products on a fixed line, in the past it was just voice, now through fixed line you can get
the ADSL. Through fixed line you can get O2 TV, IP TV but then as our customers you can
combine this services even with mobile and get something more. So this is the way for us to the
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future to offer complete direct communications to our customers. We have to focus on a quality of
the service and the customer is the 1st one to claim and the customer is the 1st to be satisfied. And
the 3rd thing is for the future is really important is to care about the brand because the brand is the
differentiated. So sometimes it is not about product itself, about BTL conditions, because if people
will go deep to the conditions, if they search and spent hours on the Internet and trying to find the
best tariff solution across the operators, and in the end they will come out that those offers would be
the same. The difference is the brand. We can offer loyalty programs that are important and we
really want to make our customers happy and people can share what we offer. O2 brand is much
more different than any other and it is giving some more emotions and differentiating and help us to
be visible on the market.
9. What methods of Internet advertising are more effective? Web pages, online adverts with
mail providers etc.
It is depends on the campaign we are doing, so for example we can have the product- tariff for
youngsters. Then we ask media agency and they recommend us which web sites are the best ones
for youngsters. Principle of the communication is to reach the most effective way of our target
group. Then if the product is about youngsters and target group are youngsters, so I can go to
spoluzacy.cz etc.( sites for young people) and has some communication there. If it is about ADSL
for example, we focus more on families and households and will choose different pages. We need
to have the biggest reach for the money we give. Then if you are on a homepage, you will get
million self-impressions and this is what you pay. But to the future, There are also some systems
that we try to get,we have paper click communications, you pay only for those people who click
through and something it is more effective, we pay only for those people who really interests and
they went to our website. It is always depends on a target group you are.
10. Where do you see the future of advertising for your company, a continuation of the mix of
traditional and Internet, only Internet?
No,Never Internet only. There are 10 mil people and Internet population is about 5 mil. So if we
use only Internet we won't reach other people. TV is still less important but for us it is still an
important media channel.
Its about 45-42 % of our media expenditure, TV is still #1. We have many campaigns that is week
offer for ADSL or products for home. We need to reach our target group very quickly and there is
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no better solution than base it on TV because it will reach the target group.
Internet population is different. Our Internet can be provided in any village, we are not UPC that
has coverage only the big cities. Everyone can have our O2 Internet and everywhere, so we need to
reach also this people, even people that not on Internet. In the future, Internet will play important
role than right now, but everyone would be visible on Internet, so then it is really difficult to
prepare the campaign properly. One thing on Internet that we could focus on a small target groups,
it could be really effective. We can target people with some special need or specific wishes. For
example, we have product for mothers, we can try to find on Internet communities that are focus on
mothers and share all that experiences with their children. But it is difficult to coordinate all this
together, because they are not only mothers,youngsters, fathers etc. We have to be very careful in
targeting.
11. Are there any drawbacks with advertising online?
There are quite a lot advertisers already and everyone wants to be visible. The biggest trouble in
comparison with TV is that Internet is everywhere. And if we are pushing something somewhere so
people just can switch the pages. On Internet people are not willing to see any commercial, they are
fed up with commercials, and we have to change our style in order to be successful. It is the same
with TV, can you imagine people are watching their favorite soap opera, and during it there are 5
minutes commercial break . So we have to be differentiate it first , that people will keep in mind
also we have to make people to think about us,and try to change behaviour. We have to make them
buy our service, and it is not easy. One communication is about brand but also we have to
consistently work with them and try to perceive all this people. And on Internet it is more
difficult,standart commercial in my opinion, on Internet just doesn't work. For the future, we have
to focus on communities but to this community we cannot communicate standardly , we have to
change it and offer something.
People spend their 2nd life on Internet, all this people like addicted to that and their behaviour is
different. But this people won't use standart commercials. 2nd thing is that we can make smth
successful on Internet,if it is more commercial driver like advertising everywhere, its successful but
only for a short time because then people start to fed up with all that and we have constantly
develop new offering to keep their attention. Otherwise they will just connect once and never
return back.(website)
12. What are the main advantages of online advertising?
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Vodafone has special micro site and they try to engage people on that micro site with something
unique. Since November they communicating Internet in a handset. For that they created special
micro site, they feed it with some content inside and they try to engage people.( we did that some
time ago) the problem is for example, I can come there once and if it interesting, then maybe twice.
We made the same for our new tariff, many various stuff around , some special movies operating
with stream. The newest project we have on Internet is a website called, O2streammusic.cz. This
website offering about 1000 video clips in a high quality for your screen like TV. You can choose
whatever clip you like to watch and can have it on your play list and you can just watch it as a
music TV . Its for free, it is not like www.youtube.com. It is paid by us and stream for the music
labels that we can use this spot and the customer can choose whatever spot he wants and it is
connected with many activities we are doing around. We hope this project could be perceived and
people will smile. We can do something more for them, they can find any sound,sports earlier than
it will launched to the Czech market.
Advertising plays a big role. My vision for the future is that strong brand can leave, we can be
compared with Apple or Coca-Cola.
The services (competitors) are almost the same. ,It is more about focusing on customer and their
engagement, relationship, emotions with the brand. Through the communication we need to be
visible so that people know us and our good products. It is true that last year the
telecommunication industry was slow down and investments now are lower that it used to because
the market is already saturated and it is really effective to repeat all this messages again and again
and to push this to the customers. Potential is questionable. Communication should help us with
building strong emotional brand, create quick awareness about new services /products.
5.2) Secondary Findings
5.2.1) Website- Online Services
Telefónica O2 Czech Republic
Telefónica O2 Czech Republic is a major integrated operator in the Czech Republic. It
is now operating more than seven million lines, both fixed and mobile, making it one of the world’s
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leading providers of fully converged services.
Here is a brief information about it according to the O2 Telefonica website :
Launched the O2 brand in September 2006
Leading telecommunications provider in the Czech Republic. Offering complete portfolio of
voice and data products and services.
In September 2007, Telefónica O2 Czech Republic acquired 100% of the shares in
DELTAX Systems a.s., one of the top ten system integrators in the Czech Republic
Customers:8.0 million (mobile, fixed, broadband incl. Slovakia)(Business fact sheet)
Telefónica O2 Czech Republic is part of Telefónica Europe within the global Telefónica
group.
According to the O2 Telefonica website, the organization offers the most
comprehensive portfolio of voice and data services in this country. It is paying special attention to
the exploitation of the growth potential, particularly in the data and Internet sector. Telefónica O2
Czech Republic operates the largest fixed and mobile network including a 3rd generation network,
CDMA (for data), and UMTS, enabling voice, data and video transmission. Telefónica O2 Czech
Republic is also a notable provider of ICT services.
Telefónica O2 Czech Republic has implemented and received certifications for its
Quality Management System (ISO 9001:2000), Environmental Protection System (ISO
14001:2004), Industrial Safety & Health System (ČSN OHSAS 18001:2007) and Information
Safety System (ISO 27001:2005). Our company has received numerous other awards such as
“Recognised for Excellence” by the European Foundation for Quality Management in 2006 or
“Health-Supporting Business” by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic in 2008.( o2
Telefonica)
O2 Services
Telefónica O2 provides a lot of services like: Internet, calling, O2 TV digital television, prepaid
services, savings, calling from abroad (roaming), calling to abroad (international calling), customer
care, sms, mms, chat, entertainment, stay informed, financial services.
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Advertising
Telefónica has announced the launch of a single global platform for mobile advertising, via a global
deal with Amobee Media Systems - the idea is that there will be a single point of contact for
agencies and advertisers wanting to deploy to the 170mn customers it has. The single centralized
ad server enables precise contextual and behavioral targeting across all users on all handsets for all
non-voice related applications and services including WAP banners, games, video and music
players, applications, messaging (SMS & MMS), ring back tones as well as video & music
streaming. Also Telefónica retains complete control of the solution which means that each operating
business will have access to customer data, localization, behavioral profiles and the opt-in database.
The business will then instruct the Ad-Server to deliver a relevant ad to customers with a certain
profile and handset type.
The advertising impressions from the Amobee platform occur in a relevant, contextual and non-
intrusive manner, thus giving the users control over the engagement. The alliance with Amobee will
enable Telefónica to fund its growing number of mobile data services, while ensuring that
customers get better value, as well as a richer mobile experience. (Cellular News report, by Ben
Robinson O2, Telefonica)
5.2.2) Secondary Findings – Online Services ( Vodafone's website)
From the evidence of the online services finding we can see the information about Vodafone
company, about services and product they provide and also including the information about
advertising and advertising development program. This will be described in the next session.
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Plc is the world's leading mobile telecommunications company, with a significant
presence in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the United States through the
company's subsidiary undertakings, joint ventures, associated undertakings and investments.
According to Vodafone website , Vodafone has 2,950,000 customers as of June, 2009.( Vodafone
official site)
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Vodafone's mission statement:
“To be the communications leader in an increasingly connected world.“
Vodafone's vision:
“..is to lead the industry in responding to public concerns regarding mobile phones,
masts and health by demonstrating leading edge practices and encouraging others to follow.”
“..is to be one of the most trusted companies in the markets where we operate.”
According to Vodafone website , Vodafone has the five year Czech Republic strategy that was
developed in 2005 and continually evolving – is designed to help realise the visions. It sets clear
priorities to:
Capture the potential of mobile to bring socio-economic value in both emerging economies
and developed markets, through broadening access to communications to all sections of
society.
Deliver progress against stakeholder expectations on the key areas of climate change, a safe
and responsible Internet experience, and sustainable products and services.
Ensure operating standards are of a consistent and appropriate level across the Group.
( Vodafone official site, strategy)
Little bit of History
According to Vodafone website , the operator was formed in 1984 as a subsidiary of Racal
Electronics Plc. Then known as Racal Telecom Limited, approximately 20% of the company's
capital was offered to the public in October 1988. It was fully demerged from Racal Electronics Plc
and became an independent company in September 1991, at which time it changed its name to
Vodafone Group Plc. Following its merger with Air Touch Communications, Inc. (‘Air Touch’), the
company changed its name to Vodafone AirTouch Plc on 29 June 1999 and, following approval by
the shareholders in General Meeting, reverted to its former name, Vodafone Group Plc, on 28 July
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2000(( Vodafone official site, history)
Vodafone says, that
“..mobile is always at the heart of what we do, but now we are moving into integrated
mobile and PC communication services. We are doing that in two ways – wirelessly through 3G
and HSDPA (High-Speed Download Packet Access), but also using fixed line broadband services
like DSL (Digital Subscriber Line).”
According to Vodafone website , Vodafone's customers benefit from a complete
Vodafone experience in and out of their homes and offices. They are notified about email with
consumer push email service, access existing instant messaging services on the move, and share
images and video captured on their handsets. Vodafone offer a suite of products that, starting with
voice calls, offers customers an alternative to a traditional fixed telephone line. And have extended
their reach into the office by delivering richer business applications and integrated fixed and mobile
services, such as higher speed Internet access. With developments in technology Vodafone can
provide integrated mobile and PC offerings to give customers a consistent experience whether they
are at home or on the move.( Vodafone official site)
Technology
Vodafone enrich customers’ lives by enabling them to communicate in an increasingly
connected world. Vodafone provides a range of voice and data mobile telecommunications services,
including text messages (SMS), picture messages (MMS) and other data services. It is continually
developing and enhancing service offerings particularly through third generation (3G) mobile
technology, which is being deployed in the majority of our operations. Mobile services are offered
over the GSM network on which a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is also provided. The
move to higher performance 3G (W-CDMA) networks is well underway in the bulk of our
operations, and we are now in the process of upgrading these networks to 3G broadband (HSDPA)
with the promise of even higher data rates.( Vodafone official site, technology)
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Products and Services
Vodafone offers voice, messaging, data and fixed broadband services through many devices and
supporting technologies. Use of the data services continues to grow, driven by advances in 3G
networks and handset capabilities.
Vodafone offer to customers a wide range of innovative tariffs and services for use at home, in the
office and while traveling. They are:
Vodafone At Home includes a number of offers designed to meet all your home communications
needs through a single device, now available in most European markets.
Vodafone Office is the umbrella name for a series of products and services designed to meet all our
business customers’ communications needs.
Vodafone Passport makes it possible for your home tariff to travel with you, offering better value
and simplicity when you go abroad. ( Vodafone official site, products and services)
According to Vodafone website, they also offer a number of products and services to enhance
customers’ access to data services, including Vodafone live! for consumers as well as a suite of
products for business users such as Vodafone Mobile Connect data cards and Internet-based and
corporate email solutions.
Vodafone Live- “Internet on your Mobile” offers easy to use and secure browsing, including
Google search, an unlimited browsing tariff and access to some of the most popular online services.
You can use your mobile to access and update your social networking profiles, view and upload
YouTube videos, buy and sell items on eBay, and check locations on Google Maps. You can also
chat to friends easily with Yahoo! and MSN instant messaging using an easy to use dedicated
interface. Using the new Vodafone live! mobile and PC music player you can search for music,
artist pages and previews from a catalogue of more than 750,000 songs. Music from some of the
world’s greatest artists is available, with music secured from agreements with major record labels
such as Sony BMG Music Entertainment, EMI, Universal Music, Warner Music, as well as
independent music labels.
Vodafone Mobile Connect enables you to access the Internet on your laptop or PC via Vodafone
Mobile Connect data cards or Vodafone Mobile Connect USB modems. Business customers can
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access services such as email, corporate applications and company intranets using the service.
According to Vodafone website here is some information about fixed and other services they
provide.
To meet customers’ total communications needs Vodafone have expanded into fixed broadband
services, mobile advertising and new ways of enabling our business customers to increase the
mobility and efficiency of their workforces. Vodafone has developed fixed broadband services in
many of our markets, to meet our customers’ total communications needs, mainly through Digital
Subscriber Line (“DSL”) technology. Vodafone offer business fixed broadband in the Czech
Republic and Italy and a fixed broadband WiMax offer is available in Malta.
Mobile advertising
Vodafone have introduced mobile advertising in nine of our markets and continue to develop
capabilities such as WAP banners and messaging formats, as well as more sophisticated targeting
offers.
Business managed services
Vodafone offer to their business customers solutions which meet a wide variety of their
communications needs:
Secure remote access – a service enabling customers’ employees to access their network
through their laptop, on the move, both while in their home country and when roaming
Applications – many software programs have been developed for use on mobile devices and
we can integrate these into our customers’ mobile portfolios. For example, workforces can
have up to date sales information available at any time, anywhere and schedules can be
updated centrally and in real time.( Vodafone official site, products and services)
Vodafone was announced that it has fulfilled its ambition to expand the availability of its mobile
advertising services to 18 operating company markets in the last 18 months. Despite the worsening
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economic climate, Vodafone has also enjoyed strong revenue growth from mobile advertising
services during 2008/9 and plans to continue the roll out, expanding both the portfolio of mobile
advertising services and their reach.
Over the last year Vodafone Marketing Solutions has run over 2000 campaigns across its global
footprint for hundreds of global brands*. While those brands continue to enjoy considerable success
with mobile banner campaigns, they are increasingly trying newer mobile advertising formats
including the use of branded content, sponsored alerts, opt-in push messaging and advertising on
service based text messages.
Rick Fant, Head of Internet Discovery at Vodafone said
“..In the current economic climate brands will look even harder at their budgets and
how they spend them. Mobile advertising offers a combination of great response rates alongside the
opportunity for advertisers to reach out to and engage with their customers. We are pleased with
the performance of Vodafone’s mobile advertising business and that more and more brands are
moving spend to this innovative medium”.
Vodafone will continue to invest in its advertising offering in the coming year both by adding to its
global reach through its network of operating companies, affiliates and partners – including
operators such as Mobilkom, Proximus, Vodacom, and China Mobile – as well as by seeking to
extend the number, type and effectiveness of its portfolio of advertising services.
Vodafone’s Advertising Development Program
Vodafone’s advertising development programme is designed to provide customers with relevant
and engaging advertising experiences and advertisers with effective and responsive marketing
platforms. Services in development or trial include:
Zonal marketing trial – it allow opted-in customers to receive promotional messages from
brands relevant to their profile and their realtime location. As they enter a pre-defined area
they will receive an mms or sms message from Vodafone containing the promotion.
Incoming voice/text alerts advertising trial – full screen advertisements from a range of
advertising partners will be shown to opted-in customers during the moments before they
answer a call or view a message. Customers who choose to join the database, and who go on
to view adverts will be rewarded with points that they can redeem against goods or services.
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Branded applications and widgets trial – assessing customer acceptance of and interaction
with, as well as brand marketing effects of, branded mobile applications.
Location based advertising trial – Vodafone plans to trial customer acceptance of and
engagement with branded Points of Interest, (locations of – for example – stores, restaurants
and petrol stations) and branded locational search.
Trial of an enhanced mobile Internet browser – Vodafone is looking at how to simplify and
enhance the mobile Internet browsing experience for opt-in customers as well as
investigating opportunities for mobile publishers and advertisers.
Vodafone my Campaign – an online self-service platform for mobile advertisers. Currently
in development in Germany and Czech Republic, with further markets planned, this tool will
allow small businesses to set up and run cost-effective, and local mobile advertising
campaigns. The service is designed to be simple, quick and easy to use - combining creative,
reporting and online prepayment via credit card.
Fant said, that
“..we are an ambitious company in a leadership position and we have big plans for this
space. Vodafone has always been an innovator in its products and services, in its technology and
most importantly in its customer offering. So over the next year it’s natural for us to continue to
invest in and improve our offering for all of customers – be they consumer & business subscribers
or our brand & agency customers around the world ”. (Vodafone news release)
Unfortunately, I could not arrange an Interview with Vodafone. I had two contacts of
the marketing,advertising department but unfortunately I have not received a feedback. So as I had
this problem with contacting Vodafone, I made some Internet research about the company, a little
brief of the history and information about what services they provide to their customers and
Vodafone advertising development program that actually gave me the results of the interview
questions.
I found out what is the most important for the Vodafone company what is their vision for future and
what they want to achieve. What services and products they provide and as their competitor provide
also the same services how they keep updated their customers. And the most important is to
research Vodafone’s advertising development programme. What for it is designed and what kind of
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goals they want to achieve with this programme.
6.0 Conclusion
The study was conducted in order to gain better knowledge and understanding about
advertising of telecommunication services in Prague and to analyze two companies in the
telecommunications sphere in Prague about how they advertise their products and services and find
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out what are the main governing rules of advertising in their business sphere.
My objective of the study as detailed in section 1.2.was investigated to know is advertising in
Prague helps international companies to grow with the profit and find out the most effective
methods of advertising that companies in Czech republic are using.
With reference to the objective I made a research about advertising as a whole, what is
the advertising functions and also advertising types including advertising methods . Comparing the
traditional advertising with online advertising on a examples of two telecommunications services in
Czech Republic.
I was using enough literature of advertising industry relating to the telecommunication companies
in Prague, describing their advertising functions and types they use.
Primary data concludes different methods that I was using in order to gain information
from the customers their opinions and customer satisfactions and expectations. From the results of
online survey and face-to-face interview with random customers we can see that all customers have
different tastes and expectations and as well as having different opinions on what they think matters
the most within the using the telecommunication service. That is why they use different operators
and that operator provide different offers and prices to the consumers.
The results show as could have been expected that customers are satisfied as a whole with the
provided services, the price and the quality, but as always there are some things that need to be
improved.
From the results of structured face-to-face interview with the company we can see what
is their position and advertising methods they use. And the main important to know how they want
to achieve a profit and attract more new customers.
Secondary research suggested reliable variety of sources and in a variety of forms of
advertising literature. From analyzing the results of primary data and the researching of secondary
data I will provide some recommendations to O2 Telefonica and Vodafone companies from
analyzing my opinion from primary research.
Primary data undertaken supports the secondary research, which is describing the advertising
sphere in a business world.
Basically Vodafone and O2 companies provide almost the same services but in different
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prices and different offers. And the companies try to stay visible on the market by their own
development strategies.
My research shows that the most quantity of the participants of the survey and interview are using
Vodafone operator. At first they liked it , because they considered as the most cheapest and
comfortable operator, but O2 do provide more service and interesting special offers too. And
nowadays customers of Vodafone wants to change the operator. I have seen from my research the
fact that many customers complains about customer service in Vodafone.
So, in my opinion the effectiveness of online advertising can be measured and analyzed
in various forms and ways. My dissertation and research helped me to understand that methods of
advertising evaluation and effectiveness focus on possible and actual results, both of a single
advertising instrument and of a whole advertising campaign. So, on the large scale, evaluation starts
with the advertising idea, the selection of target groups and continues to the course of advertising
action and the objectives to be achieved. And on a small scale, evaluations can be applied to an ad
and its structural and linguistic elements, like headline, body copy, or general linguistic strategies.
Media agencies, advertisers, and companies might have their own selfserving definition and
objectives of successful advertising but nevertheless, there are some factors that can provide a
general guideline. And should focus on aspects like click-through rates, log-file analysis, and
cookies.
(Janoschka, Anja 2004, p.78)
6.1) Limitations
There were no specific segments of respondents during primary data collection and
although on the whole data was indicative of principal themes, I was comparing the two competitors
companies and their customers about different operators and its services and products and showing
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and analyzing the results.
Results from primary data gave me the results that I have expected. By using the online
survey I asked 100 customers and the results were satisfied and if I have asked more than 100
people the results would be more equal. I mean the results of survey showed that more people are
using Vodafone. But If I have asked about 300 people results could be equal or maybe even more
than Vodafone.
And using face-to-face interview I have asked 50 customers, and the results also showed
that most of the participants were using the Vodafone operator. If I have asked more participants
like 100 or 200. Results could be also equal or can be more customer of O2 Telefonica.
I could not have the interview with Vodafone, but I found good information about them and their
advertising program. But if I had an interview with Vodafone I think the information would be
more in detailed.
6.2) Recommendations
Having research the O2 Telefonica and Vodafone about their advertising and
advertising methods, program and types they use I would like to provide some recommendation on
improvements.
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I want to suggest them to apply the AIDA formula. It works for the explanation and
structure of online advertising, although with a slightly different polarization. Great emphasis must
be placed on the first step, getting attention, which results in the competitive environment of various
other elements on a web page. Comprehensive information that might show a product’s advantages
and users’ benefit cannot be given on that small space of web ads. Often, the linguistic strategy of
persuasion follows the principle of simplicity and uses imperative instructions to initiate action,
supported by graphics to create interest and desire. (Janoschka, Anja p.48)
The headline is a crucial element in an advertising message. It summarizes the body or
gives the most important aspects of the messages. Since most of the readers might only read the
headline, it is clearly responsible for the fulfillment of at least two factors of the AIDA concept.
First it should catch the readers attention and secondly, create sufficient interest so that the audience
starts reading the copy. Moreover, appeal can be achieved by using emotional or informative
reader-addressing strategies in a subliminal or direct way. Advertisers can achieve attention for
instance, by setting apart the headline from the body copy and emphasizing it. (Janoschka, Anja
2004, p.23)Awareness increases if web ads are placed in a corresponding editorial environment.
As the online advertising is developing now and both companies are using it and it is
very important to know that the online advertising message must be concrete in fewer words and
must use smaller images in order to mediate the intended meaning. The intended message
deconstruction of web ads is especially important. It is the trigger for activating the web ad. The
initial advertising message is also responsible for creating the expectations users have when they
enter the linked web page. Users’ motivations and involvement play an important role in the
effectiveness of web advertising. Hence,motivation is an activation of behavior. This function also
applies to web ads.
“Motivations are associated with factors like goals, needs, wishes and intentions ”.
(Zimbardo 1995: 407).
The perception of an ad is visually oriented( e.g. Kroebler -Riel & Weinber
1999:76).specific features used in an advertisement have an effect on a recipients perception and are
responsible for the successful practice of the Aida concept.
From the AIDA point of view, attention is generally created by the graphic and
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functional innovation of the advertising, confronting users with something new and unusual. It is
intended to arouse the users’ curiosity and interest, and to awake the desire to experience what is
behind this new technology. Pragmatically, the performative effect would be the action.
(Janoschka, Anja 2004, p. 55) I have extracted some of the motivations from Wirth’s list (2002:
221) which explain users’ motives for behavior. I will use this table to explain the strategies of the
AIDA concept and its linguistic realizations found in examples of online advertising throughout the
book.
Motivations Explanation of behavior / Implication – goals
Curiosity Contact Variety, novelty, inquisitiveness, broadening
one’s horizon
Safety Building and extending relationships Risk
prevention, avoidance of failure, pain, disease
Giving support Supporting, helping, protecting, caring
Receiving support Being supported, directed, protected
Ease Saving time, avoiding exertion
Order Simplicity, comprehensibility, predictability of
environment
Entertainment Games, distraction
Gain Earning and investing money, good bargains,
accumulating wealth/ possession, saving money
Sex Real and fantasized sexual activities
Emotions Excitement, sensation seeking, avoidance of
negative and incitement of positive emotions
Prestige Esteem, admiration of oneself, admiration by
others (real or imagined third persons)
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In order to development for setting advertising objectives and measuring the results it is
important to research and apply DAGMAR model, Russell Colley (1961). because it was designed
to help the setting of objectives and was built on the premise that consumers passed various hurdles
on their way to purchasing. So four levels of understanding: from unawareness to awareness—the
consumer must first be aware of a brand or company then comprehension—he/she must have a
comprehension of what the product is and its benefits then goes conviction he/ she must arrive at
the mental disposition or conviction to buys the brand and the last is action it is actually buy that
product
Also I think they should provide excellent customer service because as I mentioned
earlier there were many complaints from customers from survey results about unsatisfied customer
service. People want to see very friendly and always helpful staff. And companies should take this
as a main point in order achieve the success.
7.0 Self Reflection
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Kolb ( 1984) provides one of the most useful (but contestable) descriptive models available of the
adult learning process, inspired by the work of Kurt Lewin.
It is suggests that there are four stages in learning which follow from each other: Concrete
Experience is followed by Reflection on that experience on a personal basis. This may then be
followed by the derivation of general rules describing the experience, or the application of known
theories to it (Abstract Conceptualisation), and hence to the construction of ways of modifying the
next occurrence of the experience (Active Experimentation), leading in turn to the next Concrete
Experience. All this may happen in a flash, or over days, weeks or months, depending on the topic,
and there may be a "wheels within wheels" process at the same time.
85
86
Figure 1 represents four different learning experiences’ each area of application was experienced at
some point throughout the duration of the project.
I feel I can be closely associated with characteristics portrayed by ‘theorists’. I mostly like to
understand underlying reasons, concepts and relationships. ( learning experience,Kolb1984)
My self-reflection process includes 5 areas of learning process, they are :
Learning Experience
Personal Development/Achievements
Positive and Negative Aspects of The Work
Improvements
Opportunity for Future Work
7.1 Learning experience:
This is my first dissertation and it is the most challenging piece of work within my
degree programme. The whole process of the work was planned from the beginning in a proper
way . It is helped me to review my personal learning experience and preparing me for the future
work and creating awareness of strengths and weaknesses within my approach to the working
regime.
It was the most interesting and useful experience for me to write this dissertation
according to the interested topic. And I have gained a lot of valuable information for my future
studies and my future job in the advertising sphere. Interview was taken in a proper way and was
recorded that help me to analyze carefully the received material and provide some conclusions.
Face-to- face interview were administrated effectively, as this process was done by the researcher
distributing them by hand with the consumer completing it at that moment, this procedure also
proved to be successful as it ensured a 100% response rate.
87
It was very important for me to select a topic area that was relevant to me and I was
interested in. Advertising is very interesting for me. At the beginning of my studies I get very
interested in advertising sphere.
I was always wondered how the companies advertise their products and services and do
they receive a feedback and also what are the main advertising tools exists. So I decided to pick the
topic for my dissertation about (concerning) advertising.
7.2) Personal development:
Through witting this study I have gained good and valuable knowledge. This study is
the largest and most involved piece of academic work I have ever undertaken. I have achieved
important ad useful experience while witting and researching my dissertation. I have achieved my
own personal goals of improving my academic writing style. It is helped me to understand the
most logical and relevant way to approach a large piece of work such as this one, as to not feel
incapable of taking on the challenge.
I feel that my writing skills have improved considerably making my work more
objective. And also being confidence it is very important for me and my personal development and
after finishing this paper I feel myself more able to do any type of work and provide it in a clear and
logical way.
The whole process of my research was very interesting but not easy. I tried to use all
relevant resources and materials for writing this paper. The main part was the literature review. I
think literature review gave me a process of researching and analyzing current advertising literature
and allowed the major topics of interest to be discussed.
The successful literature review gave an opportunity to construct a methodology based
on the most appropriately discussed areas of advertising model and types. There were no any
difficulties with providing the online survey and collecting results. The same was with the face-to-
face interview with customers. Participants were very friendly to participate in this methods.
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7.3) Positive and Negative areas of the work:
As a whole I think my research had a more positive areas than negative. Also,this point
about taking the interview with the big company as O2 Telefonica, I was very excited about it,
because it was the 1st interview in my life. It was very interesting to research this methods and it is
gave me very good experience for the future and also a good business contact.
What about the research as a whole, it was interesting to investigate different advertising models
and apply them to the examples taken.
The main strength of the research paper are the achieved results ,collecting form
primary research, surveys, interview with the customers and company. The participants of the
primary research was able to answer and fill out the interview forms in a proper way.
The main negative area that I had to learn at the very beginning of the study to manage my time
effectively in order to submit the paper on time and in a proper way. I consider my ability about
contacting Vodafone company to be in a area of negativity, I should start contacting them before
writing dissertation, in order to have the interview with them on time or even change the operator
company to another one. As I was contacted two companies and only one company replied to me
and was able to answer my interview. The interview was in a very friendly atmosphere and it was
enough time to contact and wait them to reply.
7.4) Improvements:
To improve upon the work, additional information between the competitors could have
been included for example, if I had the same interview with Vodafone as I had with the O2
Telefonica, would have showed more useful data between the advertising developments programs.
Also improvement of my time management skills would have helped me with the
writing the dissertation. Because during writing my dissertation I had exams and presentation
projects and assignments and it was hard to carry out work on more than one module at a time.
I was able to manage my time a lot more efficiently than in the earlier stages, suggesting my time
management skills have improved.
7.5) Opportunities for future work:
89
As discussed previously, an area for future work to satisfy outcomes on a more precise
level would be through the development of the primary research -interviewing the second company,
Vodafone and also time management skills.
7.6) Summary:
As a conclusion, I think I made a good achievement as a result of completion of my dissertation
even have some negative areas of the work project. This dissertation helped me to be more
responsible and optimistic that it has well prepared me within the advertising area and the
advertising theories and types including practical knowledge according to the telecommunication
companies.
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