Extent of Internet Advertising of Local Businesses in Davao City and Customer Response of College Students

Abstract

Nowadays, internet advertising has become an important marketing tool that companies use to develop brand image and relationships with their target customers. However, not every company's online advertising is a success. Researchers conducted this study and surveyed college students from a non-sectarian school to establish any significant relationship between internet advertising and customer response regarding interactivity, accessibility, informativeness, and credibility toward customer awareness, preference, and purchase intention. Statistical tools such as mean scores, standard deviation, Pearson r and linear regression analysis were employed to interpret the data. Findings revealed that internet advertising and customer response have a strong, significant relationship. Internet advertising had a significant influence on customer response. More importantly, internet advertisements that are accessible, interactive, and informative have influenced customer awareness, preference, and purchase intention. This implies that Internet advertisements are sought to promote a high level of customer-vendor interaction. However, the credibility of internet advertisements has little effect on customer response, which implies that consumers are willing to learn about and explore unknown brands as long as product and service information is readily available and such goods or services are easily accessible. Researchers recommend that businesses use the internet for advertising their products and services to make them more interactive and accessible to customers by creating informative, accessible, and interactive advertisements. Related studies on this topic may involve a larger sample size for the generalizability of findings. The study may also be tested on another segment of the online market to determine whether the model established in this study may hold.