Print vs. Online

Ricci, Tom (Tom.Ricci_at_mars.process.com)
Wed, 07 Aug 1996 12:00:07 -0400

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Hi all.

As corporate communications manager for a software company I find myself
currently embroiled in an ongoing controversy as to the merits of online
vs. print advertising. I'm sure many of you have had similar discussions
and perhaps come to conclusions based on documented research that may be
available. I apologize if you've already covered these issues.

Our objective is to get people to our Web page and evaluate our software.
I've been able to measure the results of our print advertising by sending
prospects to a specific URL. We do the same for our online advertising
(search engines and static sites) by measuring click throughs. As you
would expect, the online ads bring more prospects to the site by a factor of
10.

Certainly, on the surface these results would point to online advertising.
However there is a school of thought that proposes that online prospects,
particularly those using search engines to identify specific sites, tend to
be more research oriented and info seekers, rather than potential buyers,
while the appropriate print media brings in more potential buyers. These
unsubstantiated suppostions lead to my questions.

1) Is there Web based research data available to support either of these
suppositions, and 2) is there data available to support the merits of online
advertising in search engines vs. static sites.

I've looked at research referenced here
(http://www-personal.umich.edu/~sgupta/hermes/survey4/) which, if I've
interpereted it correctly, suggests that the leading mechanism for propects
to find a URL of interest is from print, either print editorial or
advertising. The study also suggests the Web search engines are becoming
more frequently used in finding sites of interest.

Pointers to any additional available info would be helpful. Thanks in
advance.

Tom Ricci

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