Online Advertisement Study of Star Online and Newspaper.
Advertisement is a business term used to refer to any form of paid announcement offering goods or services through various medium including newspapers, television, magazines, radios,and on the internet. Advertisements can either take the form of print advertising through newspapers, magazines, brochures, and fliers or in non-print form such as those found in television, radio, video, and internet. Online Advertisement Study of Star Online and Newspaper. The key purpose of advertisements is to bring to the attention of potential customers the existence of a new product or service. A good advertisement should be able to persuade the potential customers to purchase and keep them motivated to do a certain action (Tolani, 2010). While the function of advertising has not changed from the act of influencing the decision of a potential customer, the form of advertisement has gradually evolved with new advertisement media emerging. Radio advertisement emerged with the coming of radios in the 1920s. The number of people who owned radios increased to about 82% by 1940. However, television was introduced in the 1950s, and was soon a common appliance in almost all households. This resulted in the increase of television advertisement expenditure to nearly $1.5 billion by 1960s.Outdoor advertisement can be traced back to the post World War era to the American Safety Razor Company in 1925 when it advertised a brushless shaving cream on a mega billboard(Tolani, 2010). The advent of video cassette recorders saw a new trend in advertisement during the period between the early 1980s and late 1990s. The video cassette recorders became very popular with viewers, but video advertisement met a major hitch as viewers easily fast-forwarded through advertisements while watching tapes. Online Advertisement Study of Star Online and Newspaper. This compelled firms to resort to product placement in which their products were used in television shows and films.The latest media development in this field is the use of internet for advertising. There has generally been an increase in computer ownership and the use of internet has rapidly grown. It might not be easy to predict the advertisement media that will be widely used in the future.
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However, it is an open fact that advertisements will continue to improve and strive to become more useful to businesses and to the consumer (Tolani, 2010). Entrepreneurs and business managers are faced with the challenge of making a choice for an advertising media on a daily basis. This is because the success of their establishments greatly depends on the ability of the entrepreneurs and managers to create product and service awareness, build their firm’s image and reputation, and generate sales leads and revenues. These efforts can only be realized by the use of newspaper and magazine advertisements, radio advertisements, television advertisements, outdoor advertising, web advertising, among many other advertising media. What will determine the final medium choice may vary from one business to another and the various factors that are in play toward meeting the specific business objectives (Patsula Media, 2007). Irrespective of the medium of advertisement that a business chooses to use for its products and services, it is important to note that both the print advertising and online advertising are highly necessary, given that the approaches toward both, the purposes, and even the audiences are very different. It is not very advisable to consider one of these media as more effective that the other on mere basis of seasonal variance because either may overtake the other at some give time. A good number of people also have access to both sources and this makes it important for entrepreneurs and business managers to give due consideration to both (WebWindows, 2010). Online Advertisement Study of Star Online and Newspaper. Thesis Statement Given the increased growth of information that is available over the internet and the subsequent increase in the number of people who tend to spend more time on the internet,companies are turning to advertise their goods and service online so as to capture this newly generated market. Emphasis has thus shifted to the possible effects that this emerging trend of online advertisement may have on newsprint advertisement, both in popularity and advertisement revenue.Statement of the Problem Advertisement plays a very important function in the trading processes as it is the only means through which a business can bring to the attention of the consumers about their products,introduce a new product in the market or promote the sales of an existing product or service. All these are core activities—without which, a business setup cannot effectively compete for customers in the already-crowded market. Though there are numerous media through which a business may place its advertisements, the most commonly used medium is the newspaper because of its wide readership and circulation. With the advent and advancement of technology,newspaper publishers have embraced information technology to an extent of presenting their publications both as newsprint and online versions.This advancement means that entrepreneurs have the option of choosing which version of a newspaper through which to place their advertisements. This will mainly be determined by an entrepreneur’s own evaluation of the medium that will best suit the business needs. Lately, there has been growing debate about the popularity of online newspaper and newsprint. This debate cannot escape the attention of entrepreneurs who significantly rely on these news media for their advertisements. There is general consensus that online versions of newspapers are gaining popularity among readers worldwide. Could this increasing popularity and, to some extent,translate into increased preference by entrepreneurs to place their advertisements online instead of the newsprint version of newspapers?Background of the Problem Given the central role which newspapers play in the advertisement of goods and services by businesses, it is only important that entrepreneurs give special attention and critical evaluation on the volume of readership and scope of circulation of both the online version and newsprint version of newspapers. This would mean that new considerations are factored in when making a choice for advertisement media by business contrary to previous emphasis that focused only on readership and circulation. Ability to access an advertisement by potential customers is a major concern that attracts heated boardroom debates in companies, particularly due to intense competition for the crowded market.The significance of an advertisement media with regard to scope of outreach means that both entrepreneurs and advertisement agencies have a responsibility to adopt the use of advertisement media capable of optimizing market outreach for a product or service. Key aspects for consideration with regard to choice of advertisement media are mainly in areas of target audience and access. These entail considerations of readership and circulation which would ensure that an advertisement reaches the highest number of target audience within the shortest duration possible and draws attention in the most appropriate way. While many entrepreneurs are coming up with several measures of ensuring they significantly save on advertisement costs for their products and services, advertising agencies are of the opinion that optimizing market outreach can best be achieved by choosing a media with huge readership and wide circulation. Key areas suggested by advertisement experts include impact and ability to attract attention among other advertisements. When due consideration is given to these two aspects, an advertisement media will be able to achieve market outreach by approximately 70%, which is equivalent to nearly 5% of the total product market in a crowded environment.It is generally agreed that upgrading of newspapers to online versions can help to significantly improve their readership and accessibility, translating to wider market outreach foronline advertisements. Such advancement in technology has for long been credited as significant part of increasing readership, expanding circulation, and making lasting impact in advertisement.The most remarkable gain for online advertisement can be attributed to the increase in number of people owning computers and therefore spending a lot of time on the internet unlike the numbers of people buying newsprint and the time they spend reading it. Human Rights Protection The people who were interviewed were assured of their confidentiality. In addition, the information gathered ensures the people’s privacy. The entrepreneurs and their businesses will have their rights protected.Research Schedule/Timeline This research took a period of eight weeks. This is considered an ideal time frame given the busy schedule of some of the subjects who were to be interviewed and have granted appointments at later dates. A detailed summary of the work plan for the research has been tabulated below:Table 1: Work Plan Week 1Research proposal Week 2Preliminary literature review search Week 3Literature review and writing Week 4InterviewsWeek 5Case study collection Week 6Interview editing, coding and interpretation.Report interpretation Week 8Report writing and presentation
RESULTS Research findings indicate that The Star Online is not yet well explored as regularly as The Star Daily print version. According to the survey, only 41% of the users of The Star Online read it daily, as opposed to the 60% who read The Daily Star daily.Chart 2Seventy percent read The Star Online edition several times a week, while 80% read The Star Daily several times a week. Only 5% of online users say they never read a print version.Online newspapers are read less frequently and also for shorter periods than printed newspapers. Online Advertisement Study of Star Online and Newspaper. Four out of five users (81%) spend less than an hour reading The Star Online on days when they read it. Only 35% of print readers spend such a short time on it.About one-third of the readers of both The Star Online andThe Star Daily were unwilling to pin themselves down to a particular time of day for reading the paper. One in four (25%) said they read The Star Daily between 5 and 9 a.m. The main time for reading The Star Online is around 6 p.m. (38%)—this is the time preferred by users of the online edition, which can be read on the evening before the printed version appears or which are updated several times in the course of the day.In The Star Online version, the classic sections of the newspaper are the most frequently used. The section Local News is also highly popular. One in three readers of the online version uses the archive frequently (32%) and only about one-third of users did not read the small ads(37%). Items with entertainment value or with feedback possibilities were not very popular.Clear differences emerged between the different kinds of versions, and this only shows that preferences are transferred from the print media to their online equivalents. Proof of this is the strong interest in Local/Regional Affairs of Internet users of local and regional newspapers or the importance attached to up-to-date information on politics and business matters.A number of questions dealt with the comparison of the information content of The StarOnline compared with The Star Daily.Online Advertisement Study of Star Online and Newspaper. Compared with the print version, the online newspaper was rated 45% of the respondents as providing more expanse of information, while only 30%voted in favor of the print version on this criterion; 20% rated both versions on this count. The smaller size of The Star Online compared with The Star Daily may be the reason that the print newspaper was rated by considerably more respondents as providing greater scope of information.Chart 3
Regarding finding information in the paper, the position is more positive forThe Star Online: 50% of users stated that they could find their way around just as well as in The Star Daily, while 20% were able to find their way around the online version better. With regard to entertainment value, 40% of users found The Star Online just as good as print version, 35% of users rated print version better and 27% favored online version.What about reader loyalty? About 65% would have chosen The Star Daily and just fewer than 30% would have preferred The Star Online,if only one of the versions had been available.The decision in favor of the print version was based on its portability, while the advantages of the online version were seen as being its accessibility from outside the normal circulation area and the avoidance of unwanted paper. The main advantage, however, in the eyes of the respondents was that online newspapers are normally provided free of charge. Online Advertisement Study of Star Online and Newspaper. It is therefore not surprising that only 35% of users would be prepared to accept a charge. Out of these, 80% stated that they would only be willing to pay for online newspapers if they were cheaper than print newspapers. Only 1% of those users willing to accept a charge could imagine paying more foronline newspapers. Apparently, then, users are not willing to pay for the advantages of online newspapers. 0710747083
DISCUSSION The case study of Star Publications shows that online newspaper users base their activities and/or expectations on the print newspaper and use or design their product accordingly.The online user knows what to expect of a site as the online version retains the name of the printed version, use a similar layout, and similar contents. Moreover, the positive image of a paper can be transferred to the internet. On the other hand, too strong orientation toward the printed original could mean that the possibilities offered by internet technology are not fully exploited—that copy is simply lifted from the printed version.Given such trends toward the future consumption of newspapers, it is clear that online newspapers are steadily taking over the readership of print newspapers. This has the potential of influencing the choices of advertisement media, which entrepreneurs will be making regarding print newspapers or online newspapers. The concern for newspaper publishers would be about the time frame for which their print newspaper audience would be big enough to justify such huge investment toward publication and distribution of print newspapers. Similar concern would be to entrepreneurs and businesses which still rely heavily on print newspaper for their advertisements. Are they likely to continue using print newspapers for their advertisements or the trend would most likely shift toward online newspapers? The introduction of charges for use seems scarcely possible—at least not as long as the same or similar information is available on the Internet free of charge. The doubts of the advertising industry may evaporate as the Internet becomes increasingly widespread and commonly used (Mutter, 2010). Online Advertisement Study of Star Online and Newspaper.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Major Conclusions It would be quite wrong and misleading to rule out the future of print newspapers as advertising media just because of the increased use of online advertising. The reality is that paid circulation newspapers like The Star and Sunday Star still remain very popular advertising media for both local and international businesses. Print newspapers are the most aged forms of mass media, and will thus continue to be dominant in this field, recording big volumes of advertising revenue. Multinationals and local convenience store will continue to depend on print newspapers for their advertisements. Online Advertisement Study of Star Online and Newspaper. Print newspapers are found in each and every community world wide and readers are very fond of them (Brassil, 2010). Both online and newsprint advertisement have their characteristics which show strong and weak points. This explains why despite the perceived decline in readership of print newspapers, a scan through a print newspaper will reveal a number of businesses that continue to place their advertisements on daily basis. The continued presence of advertisements on news print clearly indicates that it still works as a very effective advertisement medium. Although printed newspaper no longer enjoys exclusive monopoly as the predominant source of news, it is clear that they still remain a strong factor in their specific sphere of influence, and online advertisement is not about to edge it out (Brassil, 2010)Recommendations1. Entrepreneurs should highly consider using both print and online newspapers for their advertisements since both have reasonable number of loyal readers. When placing advertisements on online newspapers, designers should avoid putting a lot of emphasis on feedbacks since readers rarely give them attention.3. Advertisements on both versions of newspapers should be critically placed on segments that are frequented by readers so as to attract their attention with ease.4. Links placed on online newspapers should be more easy to use so that readers can easily navigate through the paper.5. Most advertisements that target younger persons should be preferably placed on online newspapers while those targeting older people should be placed on print versions. Online Advertisement Study of Star Online and Newspaper.
References
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Sample Questionnaire1.How often do you read your newspaper version?2.How many times in a day do you read the paper?3.At what times in a day do you prefer to read the paper?4.How long do you spend on the paper at any given time?5.Which sections of the papers do you frequently read?6.Do you normally pay attention to the small advertisements?7.Do you normally respond to advertisements with feedback possibilities?8.How do you rate the information content between the two versions of The Star?9.If you had the option, would you prefer the other version to what you normally read?10.Are you willing to pay for online newspaper? Online Advertisement Study of Star Online and Newspaper.