CORPORATE WEB SITES AS ADVERTISING: AN ANALYSIS OF
FUNCTION, AUDIENCE, AND MESSAGE STRATEGY
Jang-Sun Hwang, Sally J. McMillan, and Guiohk Lee
ABSTRACT: The primary purpose of this study is to explore and explain the concept of the Web site as corporate advertisement.
Three coders analyzed 160 corporate Web sites. Corporate Web sites are able to combine multiple functions such as providing
information and image-building strategies for companies and their brands as well as direct and indirect selling functions.
Corporate Web sites are also able to address multiple audiences from a single umbrella site. Message strategies were more likely to
be informational than transformational - possibly reflecting the information-delivery potential of the Web. In general, highrevenue companies had more functions and addressed more audiences through their Web sites than low-revenue companies.
High-revenue companies were also more likely than low-revenue companies to use transformational message strategies.
However, no predicted relationships were found between overall message strategy and either number of functions at the Web site
or number of audiences served. The study provides details on application of a relatively new message strategy model to a unique
new form of corporate advertising - the World Wide Web.
Internet advertising is more than banners, buttons, and popups. This study starts from the premise that the corporate Web
site can be an extension of, or a different form of, traditional
corporate advertising and that corporate Websites can be
broadly defined as Internet advertising.
This study examines literature on three characteristics of
corporate advertising - function, audience, and message
strategy - and explores how those characteristics are applied in
the multiple types of corporate Web sites. Product category
and size of company were considered in selection of corporate
Web sites analyzed in this study to ensure that a wide range of
functions, audiences, and message strategies could be
identified.
The primary purpose of this study is to explore and explain the
concept of the Web site as corporate advertisement. Banners,
buttons, and pop-ups may more closely resemble traditional
advertising than do Web sites. But this does not diminish the
importance of the corporate Website. Rather, this study will
seek to show how Web sites can build on and expand the
function of corporate advertising.
This study is an important addition to the literature because it
shows how Web sites are changing both the theory and
practice of advertising. Traditional concerns such as function,
audience, and message strategy remain, but issues may shift in
an environment where marketers have virtually unlimited
time and space to communicate their messages. By examining
the corporate Web site as corporate advertising this study may
provide advertising practitioners with tools that will help them
to better integrate the Web site into the marketing
communication plan. The study also tests a relatively new
model for defining message strategies and seeks to expand
advertising-related theories to Web-based messages. Thus,
findings may also provide researchers with new tools for
analyzing Web sites and new directions for theory
development.
LITERATURE
Corporate Advertising: Purpose, Audience, and Message
Strategy
With the enormous growth of the advertising industry,
corporate advertising has become a significant business
activity with expenditures exceeding $9 billion as of 1996
(Belch and Belch 1996). It is critical for brand managers as well
as corporate advertising practitioners to understand corporate
advertising strategies, because consumers' knowledge formed
from corporate advertising may influence the way they think
about individual brands the company markets (Biehal and
Sheinin 1998). Research on corporate advertising has
examined its messages (Garbett 1983; Rothchild 1987), its
objectives of enhancing corporate image (Haley 1996; Javagli
et al. 1994; Schumann, Hathcote, and West 1991), and its role
in increasing investment for brands (Javagli et al. 1994;
Winkleman 1985; Winters 1986).
Corporate advertising (CA) pursues several purposes.
Schumann, Hathcote, and West (1991), in their historical
review of CA, stated that the role of CA has changed over
time. In the 1960s, CA's primary function was "goodwill" and
its subdividing topics were "patronage," "public relations," and
"public services" (Stanton 1964). The concept of "image
Journal of Interactive Advertising, Vol 3 No 2 (Spring 2003), pp. 10‐23. © 2010 American Academy of Advertising, All rights reserved ISSN 1525‐2019 11 Journal of Interactive Advertising Spring 2003
advertising" was broadened in the 1970s and advocacy and
issue advertising became central to CA. Advocacy and issue
advertising provide means for companies to promote political,
social and economic ideas and to elicit public support for
corporate positions (Schumann, Hathcote, and West 1991).
Currently, the demands of the marketing environment require
that corporate image advertising continue to promote
goodwill, but also that the message being conveyed have more
clout. This can be achieved through issue or advocacy
advertising, or through the newer "hybrid" ads - advertising
that combines promotion of products and services while
communicating a general message about the company
(Hartigan and Finch 1986) thus addressing the constraints of
limited advertising budgets.
McLeod and Kunita (1994) proposed a typology of corporate
advertising based on either image-based objectives such as:
"goodwill," "charity," "financial," "employee recruitment," and
"awareness" or issue-based objectives such as "issue position"
and "counter arguments." Garbett (1983) also categorized
corporate advertising as "issue or advocacy," "image or
identity," "financial or investor relations," and "market
preparation (sales-related)" advertising. He also identified
different objectives for different kinds of corporate ads. Many
researchers suggest that issue advertising is fundamentally
different from other types of corporate advertising (Garbett
1983; Rau and Preble 1988; Waltzer 1988). Issue or advocacy
advertisements are designed to promote the corporation's
position on current social issues in order to influence public
attitudes or public policy (Sethi 1979; Waltzer 1988).
One objective of CA may be to persuade an investor to look
into a company's stock while other ads have objectives such as
attracting top scientists to work for the company. Therefore,
the corporate advertising campaign of a company usually
needs to consider multiple objectives to satisfy multiple
audiences (Garbett 1983; McLeod and Kunita 1994).
Different objectives, or functions, and different target
audiences can be associated with different message strategies
in corporate advertising. Message strategy is usually
determined after advertising objectives and targeting are
established. Thus, corporate advertisers need to vary their
message strategies for different stakeholders (e.g., investors,
consumers, etc.) and objectives (e.g., building corporate image,
driving sales, etc.).
Web sites can be used for all of the roles of corporate
advertising identified above. To address multiple objectives
and the differing needs of different audiences, corporate
advertisers can include a variety of content in their sites. For
example, multi-purpose umbrella corporate advertising can be
effectively used in the Web environment because adding
additional messages does not result in the need for purchasing
additional time or space in media vehicles. In fact, like hybrid
advertising, many corporate Web sites contain information
about their products and services as well as messages that
focus on both corporate image and issues.
Many features of these corporate Web sites reflect the
objectives of corporate advertising detailed above. For
example, some Web sites contain menu items for investor
information that lead to information targeted to stockholders
and other investors. A career menu item often leads to
information targeted at prospective employees. Features such
as these may satisfy the objective of enhancing relationships
with various stakeholders. Other parts of the Web site provide
information and/or branding for the company and its
products.
The corporate Web site adds an important functionality that is
not often available in traditional corporate advertising: sales.
Many corporate Web sites combine advertising messages and
distribution channels. Additionally, the Web offers a unique
opportunity to combine multiple message types targeted to
multiple stakeholders that was simply not possible when
corporate advertisers were limited by the constraints of time
and space available in traditional media. Thus, the Web has
the potential to build on and expand the opportunities for
corporate advertising.
Finally, the nature of corporate Web sites might be influenced
both by product category and company size. Inherent
characteristics of product categories are a critical factor
affecting message strategies because the consumer's
motivation to purchase a product can vary based on product
characteristics. For example, food companies might be more
likely to appeal to the senses while apparel companies might
be more likely to appeal to the ego.
Big companies are more likely to invest heavily in corporate
Web sites than are smaller companies resulting in sites with
more features and more message sophistication. High-revenue
companies are also more likely to manage relationships with
multiple stakeholders and will thus be likely to address more
audiences through their Web sites than do small companies.
Theoretical Framework for Message Strategy
Although many researchers have investigated message
strategies in advertising for specific products or services (e.g.,
12 Journal of Interactive Advertising Spring 2003
Laskey, Day, and Crask 1989; Morrison and White 2000;
Ramaprasad and Hasegawa 1992; Reid et al. 1985; Zandpour,
Chang, and Catalano 1992), no studies were found that
examined message strategies of either corporate advertising or
corporate Web sites. While the purposes of corporate
advertising are often quite different from those of brand
advertising, basic principles of message strategy apply to both
types of advertising. To provide a framework for analysis of
corporate Web sites, more detail is provided here on the
concept of message strategy.
Advertising strategy is about "what to say" while advertising
tactics address the actual implementation of the message
(Felton 1994). Many studies use the terms message strategy
and creative strategy interchangeably. However, some
researchers (Frazer 1983; Laskey, Day, and Crask 1989; Taylor
1999) have distinguished the two terms suggesting that the
term message strategy focuses on the concept of "what to say"
while creative strategy incorporates both "what to say" and
"how to say it." Taylor (1999) defined message strategy as "a
guiding approach to a company's or institution's promotional
communication efforts for its products, its services, or itself (p.
7)." The current study adopted this definition of message
strategy and used Taylor's six-segment message strategy wheel
as a framework for examining corporate Web sites.
Taylor (1999) proposed a comprehensive message strategy
model synthesizing a large body of knowledge dealing with
message strategy. The model first divided advertising strategies
into Carey's (1975) two communication views: transmission
and ritual. The division is similar to the informational and
transformational dichotomy suggested by Wells (1980) and
Laskey, Day, and Crask (1989) and those more familiar terms
are used throughout the reminder of the current document.
The purpose of advertising operating in the informational
view is to impart, send, transmit or give information to
consumers. Advertising using informational strategies
provides factual product information about a brand. The Web
would seem to offer an ideal venue for information-based
strategies because of the virtually unlimited amount of
information that can be included in a single Web site. The
purpose of advertising operating in the transformational view
is to construct and maintain an ordered, meaningful cultural
world
where
consumers
live.
Advertising
using
transformational strategies associates the experience of using a
brand with a set of psychological characteristics of consumers
and constructs a shared meaning of using a brand among
consumers. Larger companies have often made better use of
transformational strategies than have smaller companies
because they have more time and money to invest in building
their brands through these experience-based strategies.
Taylor (1999) proposed six segments of advertising appeals by
subdividing each of the primary categories. Within the
informational view he identified three segments: ration, acute
need, and routine. The transformational view is also divided
into three segments: ego, social, and sensory.
In the ration segment under the informational view, purchase
decisions are very important to consumers who seek as much
information as they can get. The role of advertising is to
inform and persuade. In the acute need segment, consumers
need information to make purchase decisions but time limits
the amount of information they can process. The role of
advertising in this segment is to build brand familiarity and
recognition. In the routine segment, purchase decisions are
made on the basis of rational buying motives, but consumers
buy according to habit without large amounts of deliberation
time. Advertising appeals in this segment deal with
convenience, ease of use, and product efficacy.
In the ego segment under the transformational view, purchase
decisions are emotionally and personally important to
consumers and "allow the consumer to make a statement to
him/ herself about who he/she is" (Taylor 1999, p. 13).
Appropriate advertising appeals are ego-related. In the social
segment, products are "used to make a statement to others"(p.
13). The advertising appeals are related to gaining social
approval and to recalling and reliving social experiences
through product consumption. In the sensory segment,
products provide consumers with "a moment of pleasure"
based on any of the five senses.
Taylor's model is valuable to the current study for two reasons.
First, the model was developed on the basis of previous
theoretical work from the fields of communication, consumer
behavior, and advertising. Therefore, the model considers
message strategy from the perspective of how people make
buying decisions and how advertising works. While previous
typologies of message strategies proposed various kinds of
advertising appeals identified by practitioners without
theoretical frameworks, Taylor's model is based on several
theoretical frameworks (i.e., Kotler's buying model and
individualism-collectivism). Second, the model offers more
detailed reasoning for identification of sub-segments than
other previous models (e.g., the FCB Grid) did. Because this
model is based on consumers' motivational behaviors, its
application is not limited to message strategies in traditional
media such as television and newspapers.
13 Journal of Interactive Advertising Spring 2003
RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
The following hypotheses about the corporate Web site as
corporate advertising grow from the literature reviewed in the
previous sections:
H1: Corporate Web sites will combine multiple functions
found in traditional corporate advertising including: a)
communication about the company, b) communication
about the brand, and c) facilitating sales.
H1a: Web sites developed by high-revenue companies
will have more of the above functions than those
developed by low-revenue companies.
H1b: Web sites that utilize informational message
strategies will have more of the above functions than will
those that use transformational message strategies.
H2: Corporate Web sites will have messages targeted for
multiple audiences available from the same umbrella Web
site.
H2a: Web sites developed by high-revenue companies
will target more types of audiences than those developed
by low-revenue companies.
H2b: Web sites that utilize informational message
strategies will target more audiences than will those that
use transformational message strategies.
H3: Message strategies based on the informational side of
the strategy wheel will be more prevalent than those based
on the transformational side of the strategy wheel.
H3a: High-revenue companies are more likely than lowrevenue companies to utilize transformational approaches
in their corporate Web sites.
Finally, two research questions were developed to further test
the application of Taylor's (1999) six-segment strategy wheel
in the context of corporate Web sites.
RQ1: What message strategies are used most frequently
at corporate Web sites?
RQ2: How do message strategies differ among the eight
product categories used in this study?
METHOD
Content analysis offers a method for examining manifest
content of messages and is an ideal tool for the current study
that examines corporate Web sites. Traditionally, content
analysis is primarily a quantitative method but it requires
some qualitative analysis as well (Berelson, 1952; Stern, 1989).
Researchers generally need to develop their own coding
scheme for analyzing content, although sometimes researchers
can adopt existing coding schemes established by their peers.
Human intuition can intervene in the process of developing
coding schemes. Although all research is subject to some
human intuition, the process of content analysis allows
relatively more room for the researcher's intuition (Kassarjian
1977) than do some methods such as surveys or experimental
designs.
Analysis of Web-based messages adds new complexity to the
process of content analysis. McMillan (2000) reviewed
nineteen empirical studies that applied content analysis to the
World Wide Web and pointed out some problems with
application of content analysis to Web research. Particularly,
she noted that problems of sampling, unit of analysis, and
work of coders are most challenging because of characteristics
of the Web that are different from traditional media. The
number of Web homepages is virtually impossible to measure
and the number of subsequent pages under a homepage varies
considerably by site. Moreover, many sites continuously
change content. This ambiguity and complexity lead to
complications in sampling, defining units of analysis and
achieving reliable coding. But, as detailed below, steps can be
taken to address these concerns.
Before the final content analysis was conducted, a series of
initial pre-tests were used to develop a coding scheme for
message strategies and Web features. Using the sampling
frame and procedures to collect data as described below, 44
Web sites were examined by two coders in the first pretest.
This pretest primarily aimed to identify ways to measure site
functions and types of audiences addressed through Web sites.
Later, three researchers each examined eight sample Web sites
in two pre-tests that also provided coder training. The primary
purpose of these final two pre-tests was to refine earlier coding
schemes for message strategy to make them appropriate for
Web site analysis and to finalize the coding of functions and
audiences. This final coding document (see Appendices) was
used to code 160 corporate Web sites.
SAMPLING
Eight product categories were selected for analysis: Cookies,
Beer, Clothing, Footwear, Audio & Video, Computers, Life
Insurance, and Hotels & Motels. According to Taylor's (1999)
preliminary study of consumers, these product categories are
expected to distribute across the six segments. For example,
Life Insurance and Hotel & Motel categories would be
14 Journal of Interactive Advertising Spring 2003
expected to employ acute need strategies more than other
product categories, while Cookies and Beer are expected to use
routine or sensory strategies. The ration strategy is expected in
Computers and Audio & Video categories. Selection of these
product categories also reflects the distribution of message
strategies across the product categories in a previous study
using Taylor's model to examine TV commercials (Lee, Nam,
and Hwang 2001). Nonetheless, this distribution is not rigid;
as Taylor stated, any ad may easily contain either a single
strategy or multiple message strategies. Thus, this sampling of
eight product categories is not designed to predict the
outcome of this research but to enhance its external validity by
considering a variety of product/service types.
Ward's Business Directory provided the sampling frame. The
directory contains all industries sorted by four-digit SIC code.
This directory provides a good sampling frame for this study
for several reasons. First, the directory contains numerous
companies in each industry. For example, more than 250 life
insurance companies are listed. Second, companies in each
industry are listed by financial data, which enables the
researchers to sample from both high-revenue and lowrevenue companies to test hypotheses 1a, 2a, and 3a.
A total of 160 companies were identified (20 for each of the 8
product categories). In most categories, the top-10 and
bottom-10 companies, ranked by revenue, were selected. A
few exceptions were made. For example, three different
divisions of Nabisco were the top three listings in the Cookies
category; the second and third listings were disregarded and
additional selections were made from the next high-revenue
companies. Search engines such as Yahoo! and a database
showing more than 1,600,000 manufacturing companies D&B Million Dollar Database - were used to find Web sites for
selected companies. Web sites were found for most companies
in the initial sample, but some could not be found. In those
cases the next highest-revenue (or lowest-revenue) company
on the Ward's Business Directory list was substituted.
Unit of Analysis
The unit of analysis was the homepage of corporate Web sites.
Analysis of message strategy focused on text and graphics of
the homepage but did not include analysis of links. By looking
at the homepages in this way, the primary text and graphics
can be considered as similar to many print advertisements.
Furthermore, focusing on just the primary text and graphics
helps to equalize differences between small sites with few links
and larger sites with many links. Analysis of functions and
audiences focused more on the links that were provided on the
homepage. For example, if a menu item was labeled shopping,
the site was coded as having a sales function. Similarly, if a link
was labeled investor information the site was coded as
targeting investors as an audience. In some cases researchers
had to go to sub-menus to verify content, but the primary
focus was on the homepage.
By using the homepage as the unit of analysis, Web sites of
varying sizes can be more effectively compared. Web sites vary
substantially in size. Ha and James (1998) reported Web
Techniques' estimates that Web sites range from one page to
50,000 pages. They argued that coding an entire site could be
extremely time-consuming and introduce biases based on the
size of Web sites. Furthermore the homepage is central to
Web-based communication because it takes on a role more
important than the headline of traditional print ads. The
homepage not only states a key message, but it also provides a
kind of "front door" to all corporate messages contained in the
site. Most visitors to a Web site decide whether they will
continue to browse a site based on their impressions of the
homepage (Ha and James 1998). Thus, the homepage of
corporate Web sites is an effective and valuable unit of analysis
for this study.
CODING FRAMEWORK
Message Strategy
This study took two separate steps in the coding process. First,
message strategies of corporate Web sites were evaluated and
coded. As previously noted, only the homepages of corporate
Web sites were evaluated at this stage. However, when a Web
site showed introductory pages, usually using Flash, before
loading their homepages, an exception was made. To get
consistency, these introductory pages were disregarded.
Throughout the pre-tests, the researchers were able to identify
the main images and text in each Web site without confusion.
Message strategy was coded in two stages. First, researchers
determined whether or not each of the six strategies was used
in the home page image and text. Because Taylor (1999)
argued that multiple message strategies are frequently
employed in a single advertisement, all specific message
strategies employed on a homepage were coded. Then, coders
used a 5-point Likert scale to indicate whether the message
strategy
was
entirely
transformational,
relatively
transformational, both transformational and informational,
relatively informational, or entirely informational. This coding
of message strategy was similar to coding schemes used in
15 Journal of Interactive Advertising Spring 2003
studies of message strategies of traditional advertising media
(Morrison and White 2000; Lee, Nam, and Hwang 2001).
Functions and Audiences
In the second step of the content analysis, functions and
audiences were examined. The pilot study of 44 sites generated
a pool of 32 items that might indicate the function of Web
sites and/or the audiences targeted. After review, this list was
narrowed to three types of functions: communication about
the company, communication about the brand, and facilitating
sales. Communication about the company includes both
informational and image-building features (e.g. corporate
histories, philanthropy activities). Communication about the
brand includes both informational and image-building
features related to specific brands (e.g. product feature lists,
individuals' experiences in using a brand). The unique selling
capability of the Web was coded in terms of both direct
transactions (online sales) and indirect transactions such as
providing contact information for sales people. Six different
types of audiences were identified: business partners (e.g.
distributors/retailers), communities, consumers, employees
(prospective and/or current), government, and investors.
Final coding was conducted between September 18 and
September 23, 2001. Data collection was compressed to
address concerns about potential changes in content.
However, this particular time frame resulted in a unique code
that was added to the coding sheet during the final pre-test in
mid-September. Researchers discovered some Web sites had
added a message to their home page directly related to the
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Most of these messages
expressed concern for victims and their families and some
indicated what companies and/or their employees were doing
to help. This code is shown as an "acute response" function,
but it may have also had some effect on the message strategy
because most of these messages draw on the social message
strategy. However, coding at this time provides a good
opportunity to observe how each company reacts to a socially
critical phenomenon. This is what traditional corporate
advertising also does with a form of issue advertising as
previously described.
Three researchers who are familiar with Taylor's framework
conducted the coding. The total of 160 Web sites were divided
and each researcher examined one third of the sample.
RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
Average time spent coding each Web site was approximately
ten minutes. To calculate the intercoder reliability, 20% of the
sample (32 Web sites) was selected. Selected sites were
representative of the whole sample in terms of product
category and size of companies. Two out of three researchers
examined each of the 32 sites and the intercoder reliability of
each coding item was calculated using Holsti's formula.
Intercoder reliability ranged from 75.9% to 87.5% with an
average of 81.0%. Reliability scores were 80% or higher in
most categories. The few items with lower reliability required
qualitative and subjective decisions (e.g., the five-point Likert
scale for overall message strategy).
Functions of Web Sites
As shown in Table 1, most corporate Web sites combine
multiple functions as predicted by hypothesis 1. Only 4 of the
160 sites (2.5%) had a single function and 105 of the sites
(65.63%) combined all three functions. The second-most
frequent mix (20.63%) was sites that combined
communication about the company and the brand but had no
sales functions. Almost a third of all sites incorporated a
message about the September 11 tragedy on their home pages.
Table 1. Summary of Functions
Hypothesis 1a predicted that Web sites developed by highrevenue companies would have more functions than those
created by low-revenue companies. As illustrated in Table 2,
this hypothesis was generally supported. High-revenue
companies were particularly more likely to have both
company and brand-related news releases linked to their home
pages than were low-revenue companies. Web sites created by
high-revenue companies were also much more likely to
respond to the September 11 tragedy.
The smallest differences between high- and low-revenue
companies were found in terms of how they either directly or
indirectly facilitated sales. This may suggest that company size
is not much of a relative advantage in terms of ability to do
business online. This possibility is further supported by one of
the significant findings reported in Table 2 that is not in the
16 Journal of Interactive Advertising Spring 2003
direction predicted by hypothesis 1a - low-revenue companies
were more likely than high-revenue companies to include
indirect transaction information. An example would be
information about where to purchase goods and services in a
particular area.
Table 3. Audiences addressed
Table 2. Functions by Revenue of Companies
Most numbers in the high/low revenue columns above
represent percent of sites that included a specific function (e.g.
87.5% of high-revenue sites included basic corporate
information). However for the bold face categories (e.g.
Communication about the Company) the numbers in the cells
are the mean number of functions in the category (e.g. highrevenue sites had an average of 2.04 Communication about the
Company functions).
Hypothesis 2a predicted that high-revenue companies were
likely to target more audiences than were low-revenue
companies. This hypothesis was supported with Web sites
from high-revenue companies having links to an average of
3.13 audiences while those created by low-revenue companies
linked to an average of only 1.63 audiences (F = 52.407, p <
.001). As illustrated in Table 4, the largest differences were
found in investor, community, and employee relations. No
low-revenue companies had government relations links while
only 7.5 percent of high-revenue companies had such links.
Table 4. Audiences by Revenue of Companies
Hypothesis 1b predicted that Web sites utilizing informational
strategies would have more functions than those utilizing
transformational strategies. The mean number of functions
(combining all items coded for communication about the
company, communication about the brand, and sales
functions) for informational strategies was 3.99 and the mean
number of functions for transformational strategies was 4.13,
but this difference was not significant (F = .256, p > .05). Thus
hypothesis 1b was not supported.
Audiences
Hypothesis 2 predicted that corporate Web sites would have
messages targeted for multiple audiences from the same
umbrella site. Table 3 shows this hypothesis was supported.
Most sites had links targeted to two or more audiences. The
most common audiences addressed by these Web sites were
consumers, business partners, and employees.
Hypothesis 2b predicted that Web sites using informational
strategies would have more audience links than would those
using transformational strategies. Informational sites linked to
an average of 2.45 audiences; transformational sites linked to
an average of 2.30 audiences. This difference was not
significant (F = .955, p > .05); hypothesis 2b was not
supported.
17 Journal of Interactive Advertising Spring 2003
Message Strategy
Hypothesis 3 predicted that informational strategies would
dominate Web sites. Table 5 shows support for this
hypothesis. Nearly two thirds of sites are based on
informational strategies while only about one third of the sites
are based on transformational strategies. The prevalence of
informational strategies is understandable because the Web
requires more viewer involvement than traditional media such
as television. In fact, most viewers enter corporate homepages
very intentionally. Additionally, one of the most frequent
motives users have for Web use is "information search" or
"research" (Strauss and Frost 1999).
Table 5. "Transformational - Informational" Distribution of
Corporate Web Sites
Hypothesis 3a predicted that high-revenue companies would
be more likely than low-revenue companies to utilize
transformational strategies. Of the sites that utilized a
transformational strategy, 69.1% were high-revenue
companies and only 30.9% were low-revenue companies (Chisquare = 11.641, p <.01). Thus, hypothesis 3a was supported.
Specifically, ego and social strategies were preferred by higherrevenue companies, while the routine strategy was prevalent in
the Web sites of lower-revenue companies as shown in Table
6.
Table 6. Message Strategies by Company Revenue
Two research questions were posed to further explore
applications of Taylor's strategy wheel to corporate Web sites.
In answer to the first research question, Table 7 shows the
distribution of Web sites among the six message strategies.
Routine was the most popular message strategy (employed at
73.1% of Web sites), and the other five strategies were
distributed relatively evenly (ranging from 25.0% for sensory
to 37.5% for ego). Many corporate homepages show a single
visual image and a short amount of copy designed to provide
cues or reminders of communication about the company. This
type of simple site was most likely to be coded as routine thus
accounting for the high occurrence of that message strategy.
Table 7. Specific Message Strategies of Corporate Web Sites
Table 8 addresses the second research question as it illustrates
differences in message strategy based on product category.
Message strategies varied somewhat by product category.
Specifically, the three transformational message strategies
(ego, social, and sensory) showed significantly different
distributions across product categories. The ego strategy was
most often found in the Clothing and Footwear product
categories. These categories often use ego appeals in their
traditional advertising as well. The social strategy was most
likely to be found in the Life Insurance category. This finding
was strongly influenced by the social-based messages related to
the September 11 tragedy found on many (11 of 20) of the Life
Insurance sites. The sensory strategy was most likely to be
employed in the Cookies and Hotel & Motel categories.
Cookie sites often appeal to the taste or smell whereas Hotel &
Motel Web sites often stimulate the sight.
18 Journal of Interactive Advertising Spring 2003
Table 8. Message Strategies Across Product Categories
DISCUSSION
Summary
This study explored corporate Web sites' functions, audiences,
and message strategies. Most of the hypotheses were
supported. The study provides strong evidence that the
corporate Web site can fulfill many of the functions of
corporate advertising.
Furthermore, with the virtually unlimited time and space a
Web site enables, multiple audiences can be addressed at a
single site. The information-driven nature of the Web was
reflected in the dominance of informational message
strategies.
While high-revenue companies were generally able to provide
more functionality at their Web sites than were low-revenue
companies, there is some evidence that the Web could actually
help to level the playing field for smaller companies. Generally,
low-revenue companies were able to come fairly close to highrevenue companies in the number of sales-related functions
they provided. This may suggest that small companies are
more focused on using the Web as sales tools then are their
larger competitors. In particular, low-revenue companies seem
to be doing a better job than high-revenue companies of
providing Web-based information about how to do business
with them. For example, many low-revenue companies
provided information about where to find their retail
locations.
High-revenue companies also were more likely to appeal to
multiple different kinds of audiences than were low-revenue
companies. This is intuitively logical because high-revenue
companies will generally have more stakeholders than lowrevenue companies. High-revenue companies are more likely
to be publicly owned which could easily explain the fact that
one of the biggest differences in audiences was that 56.3% of
high-revenue companies include investors as an audience
while only 8.9% of low-revenue companies targeted investors.
As shown in Table 4, even in the area of audiences there is
some evidence that the Web might provide opportunities for
smaller companies to compete more effectively with their
larger competitors. The audience with the smallest difference
between high-revenue and low-revenue companies was
business partners. This is consistent with the trend noted for
low-revenue businesses to use the Web as an indirect selling
tool. Some of the smaller Life Insurance company sites provide
an interesting example of how these two trends complement
each other. A site might provide consumers with information
about how to contact local agents of a small insurance firm.
The site might also provide links that enable those agents to
stay current on the offerings of the small company. Thus,
using the Web to build and support networks of independent
agents, small companies can provide many of the same
services as their larger competitors and often have a price
advantage because they have reduced overhead by doing much
of their business virtually.
The lack of support for hypotheses 1b and 2b suggests message
strategy is not closely related to number of functions or
number of audiences addressed by a Web site. These two
hypotheses were based on the idea that an informational
strategy might be driven by the need to inform multiple
audiences and/or support multiple functions. However, the
findings are not surprising because both functions and
audiences are potentially more enduring than message
strategy. A company may choose to change message strategy
as part of a new advertising campaign, but that is not likely to
change the number or type of audiences it addresses. Shifts in
audience would reflect a major organizational change such as
becoming a public company and adding an investor audience.
Similarly, shifts in the basic functions identified in this study
represent large organizational issues. Decisions to sell online
are often tied to long-standing distribution agreements that
cannot be changed as easily as can advertising campaigns.
Findings related to hypothesis 3a found message strategy is
related to company size. Specifically, high-revenue companies
19 Journal of Interactive Advertising Spring 2003
are more likely to use ego and social strategies than are lowrevenue companies. These strategies may work best when
there is already a relatively high level of corporate or brand
awareness. Investing in brand building is a long-term strategy
that is often not available to smaller companies that must
focus more on reaching short-term sales goals in order to
survive. The high number of low-revenue sites that used the
routine strategy may reflect lack of attention to brand building
among these companies. Many of these sites were little more
than a corporate or brand logo with minimal text and links for
various functions and audiences. Such a layout reflects a
strong tactical focus without much strategic underpinning.
Even though high-revenue companies generally use
transformational strategies more than low-revenue companies
do, Table 6 reveals one interesting trend that should be
explored in more detail. Low-revenue companies actually used
the sensory approach more than high-revenue companies even though the difference was not statistically significant.
Again, this might reflect more tactical thinking rather than
true strategic message planning. For example, low-revenue
food companies might have simply selected a sensory-based
strategy without thinking of other ways to effectively
communicate their messages. By contrast, some of the highrevenue food companies utilized ego and social strategies that
were more focused on building product and/or the company
image through long-term branding efforts.
The routine strategy of Taylor's model was the most popular
message strategy. The dominance of routine is consistent with
the result of an earlier study by Lee, Nam, and Hwang (2001)
that reported routine as the most popular strategy in U.S.
television commercials (found in 58.6% of 886 commercials).
By contrast, Morrison and White's (2000) study of Super Bowl
ads found ration to be the most popular strategy (52%).
Distribution of other strategies in this study is quite different
from findings of earlier studies. While ego, sensory, and acute
need were employed in less than 10% of TV commercials as
either the primary or secondary strategy in the study by Lee,
Nam, and Hwang (2001), corporate Web sites were more
likely to employ these strategies as reported in Table 7. Acute
need was used in a quarter of all Web sites, while only 1.4% of
TV commercials used this strategy. Morrison and White
(2000) rarely found routine, sensory, and acute need strategies
in TV commercials. This high use of the acute need strategy
could be related to constant availability of the Web. A person
in an acute need situation could use the Web to search for
relevant products/services that will help to meet that need.
Product category is related to message strategies. Informationintensive products such as Computers and Audio & Video
were likely to use informational strategies, while emotionladen products like Footwear and Clothing were dominated by
transformational strategies.
IMPLICATIONS
Previous sections have suggested some implications for
marketers. Specifically, low-revenue companies lag behind
high-revenue companies in terms of many of the
characteristics of corporate Web sites examined by this study.
But, there is evidence that low-revenue companies can still
make effective use of the corporate Web site. In particular,
small companies seem to be exhibiting a fair amount of
flexibility in using their corporate Web sites to support their
sales functions and maintain their relationships with business
partners.
While some connections were found between message strategy
and product category, they were not strong enough to suggest
any kind of mandate. Not all cookie companies used a sensory
strategy and not all clothing companies used an ego strategy
(in fact the most common message strategy for both of these
product categories was routine). This suggests that Web site
developers have a great deal of flexibility in determining what
strategies to use for making the corporate Web site an effective
advertising venue. However, there is some evidence that the
simple type of routine strategies described earlier can often be
a kind of "crutch" for low-revenue companies that do not
spend the time or creative effort to develop a solid message
strategy.
The study also has implications for researchers. Perhaps most
significantly, it confirms the notion that the corporate Web
site can be considered to be a form of advertising. It fulfills
many of the purposes of corporate advertising and allows the
marketer to address multiple audiences. From a research and
theory perspective this has broad implications ranging from
identifying the corporate Web site as a valid venue for the
study of advertising to the possible need to redefine
advertising itself. Banners, buttons, and pop-up messages are
"like" traditional advertising because they are messages placed
in a medium by a marketer with the intent of reaching a
specific audience. The entire corporate Web site is a marketercontrolled message that doesn't have to be bought from any
content provider. Targeting of audiences ceases to be based on
concerns about finding the right venue for a message and
shifts instead to a focus on how to make sure that the
20 Journal of Interactive Advertising Spring 2003
appropriate audiences find relevant information in the Web
site.
The study also provides an important venue for applying
Taylor's (1999) message strategy wheel. It illustrates the
flexibility of that model for identifying message strategy of a
new form of advertising - the corporate Web site. The coding
sheet provided in the appendices offers other researchers
specific guidance in how to apply the strategy wheel to an
analysis of message strategies in the complex venue of
corporate Web sites.
Limitations and Suggestions for Future Studies
Future studies should address a few factors that potentially
limited this exploratory study. A more sophisticated guideline
may be needed for evaluating message strategies of corporate
Web sites. Taylor's six-segment strategy wheel was designed
for use in analyzing strategies of traditional media. Future
studies should consider ways to adapt the model to address
unique characteristics of the Web such as depth of
information available and interactive capability.
Future studies may also want to revisit the unit of analysis.
While the homepage provides an important "front door" to the
site, other links might provide more information about the
corporate Web site as advertising. Evaluating entire Web sites
may seem to be a daunting task. But qualitative research might
help provide focus to future work. For example, interviews
with consumers or viewers can capture what they feel about
the homepage, subsequent pages, and specific Web site
features.
Another qualitative approach that may be valuable in future
studies is to employ in-depth interviews with practitioners
who develop corporate Web sites. Understanding how they
formulate message strategies and determine Web features
could provide key insights into the use of the Web for
corporate advertising. Researchers could also use qualitative
research to compare intended strategies with consumer
perceptions of Web sites. Such qualitative research could also
explore what kinds of motivation arise from specific content
and features.
The fact that multiple functions and audiences are
accommodated at a single Web site as well as the reality that
multiple message strategies are usually employed in a single
Web site makes content analysis of corporate Web sites very
demanding. To grasp the overall picture of each Web site,
more work may be needed to develop an effective coding
scheme without undermining intercoder reliability, a
fundamental rule of the content analysis. One solution is to let
a third person who is familiar with the study intervene in the
coding stage as Morrison and White (2000) did. Another way
to solve this problem is to have detailed discussion of
disagreements between coders.
Nevertheless, this study can give some helpful insight for
corporate advertisers as well as researchers who are interested
in Internet advertising. The Web does seem to provide a venue
for the primary functions of corporate advertising and it
enables companies to address multiple audiences. Highrevenue companies currently seem to be utilizing the Web as a
venue for corporate advertising more than low-revenue
companies do, but there is evidence that the Web can help
level the playing field for smaller competitors. In the sites
examined for this study, informational approaches dominate
message strategy, but some companies are using
transformational approaches. Technological development may
influence future strategy development. For example, the
sensory strategy might need more advanced technologies,
which can stimulate visitors' five senses. But even without
tapping future potential technologies, this study shows that the
Web is a viable and robust forum for corporate advertising.
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22 Journal of Interactive Advertising Spring 2003
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Jang-Sun Hwang is a doctoral candidate in the Department of
Advertising at The University of Tennessee at Knoxville. His
academic interest is consumer behavior on the Web with
qualitative research.
Sally J. McMillan (Ph.D, University of Oregon) is an Assistant
Professor of advertising at the University of Tennessee. He
research focuses on exploring the concept of interactivity,
definitions and history of new media, and impacts of
communication technology on organizations and society.
APPENDIX 2.- Coder Guide
1. Message Strategy
General direction: Mainly examine the main visual and texts
but links including buttons. To get consistence, code the
specific strategy (a) first followed by overall strategy (b).
a. Specific Message Strategy
Guiohk Lee (Ph.D., University of Tennessee-Knoxville) is an
Assistant Professor of Communication Art at Sejong
University, Seoul, Korea. Her research interests focus on
advertising message strategy, cross-cultural advertising, and
the social roles of advertising.
APPENDIX 1. - Coding Scheme
1. Message Strategy
b. Informational/ Transformational Strategy
2. Web Features (Check All That Apply)
3. Notes
General direction: This five-point scale needs to get somewhat
qualitative sense. The decision needs to be made strongly
based on the result of specific message strategy (1-a). For
example, if no transformational strategy (e.g., Ego, Social,
sensory) is found in the precedent step of 1-a, the decision on
this item should be either "Relatively informational" or
"Entirely informational." If the coder evaluate that both
transformational-side strategy and informational-side strategy
are almost equally employed, "Both transformational and
informational" should be coded. Both "entirely informational"
and "entirely transformational" can be coded when all specific
strategies coded in 1-(a) are one-side (either transformational
or informational) strategies. (Basic assumption: Six message
strategies can cover all message strategies.)
23 Journal of Interactive Advertising 2. Web Features of Corporate Sites
Spring 2003