View article

Marketing communications on the Web provide benefits to both consumers and marketers. Many of these benefits stem from the form of the interaction between the web site and the consumer. Consider Zeke, an individual in the market for binoculars. Although he had little expertise, he did have some beliefs about binoculars. For example, he believed that well-performing binoculars would be very expensive because of the exacting nature of the optics. Similar logic led him to believe that it was important to match the type of binoculars to the intended use, such as hunting, bird watching, or watching sports. His search for information about binoculars began with locating and reading a Consumer Reports’ study on binoculars published in 1988. Although the report contained a great deal of information, he was somewhat skeptical about the usefulness of this information primarily because (1) the information was …