Document Type

Article

Abstract

Participants were presented with a list of Internet banners and asked to perform a series of matching tasks to test the effectiveness of using graphic images as compared with verbal characters in web-site banners for e-marketing purposes. Participants studied ten different web pages. The web banners consisted of image or characters that had some degree of linkage to the corresponding web contents. Results show that: (a) participants have a greater ability to match web contents if banners are relevant to the web page contents; (b) contextual cues can be enriched by the context of the images used in the web banners; (c) frequent web surfers are less likely to recall web banners than normal web users. These findings are discussed in light of research on the effect of “picture superiority” and “semantic coding” on memory of pictures and words. This study concluded that the selection of graphic elements in web banners is important to an effective e-marketing strategy.

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