CHAPTER-I

INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the Study

The marketing environment and the techniques used in decision-making are

constantly evolving and changing. To compete effectively in a changing business
environment, organizations must increase customer satisfaction, outpace shareholder
expectations, and integrate and align all marketing efforts with the interests of both
consumers and marketers. With the emerging set of digital technologies revolutionizing
every sphere of the commercial sector landscape, being untouched by the digital
presence is not a choice. Digital is no longer a medium, but it is the way business is
done. With the rising number of internet users and software applications over the last
three decades, businesses have begun to shift their emphasis from offline to online
advertising in an attempt to reach out to a more customer base. With the rapid increase
in Internet users in India, online platforms have become the fastest-growing advertising
medium this decade. According to IAMAI research, the total number of internet users
in India was approximately 622 million in 2020, which is expected to rise to 900 million
users by 2025, reflecting a CAGR of 45 percent. In alignment with this extensive
internet user base, according to FICCI-EY (2021) report, Indian online advertising
revenue also increased from Rs 596 crores (8.46 billion) in 2020 to Rs 915 crores (12.98
billion) in 2023, representing a massive growth rate of 53.5 percent (Figure 1.1). This
1.54-fold increase reflects the importance of online advertising to the advertising
industry's delivery through various channels in different display formats.

Figure 1.1: Indian Advertising Revenue

Source: IBEF Report: Media & Entertainment, July 2021.

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According to Interactive Advertising Bureau (2012), Online advertising is the

use of the internet to communicate and advertise products and services. It's a
technological convergence and is complimented by the multiplicity of devices which
has enabled customization and mass distribution to achieve different marketing goals.
It is also known as Internet Marketing, E-Marketing, and Web Marketing across the
industries. Online advertising is constituted by various digital types, formats, devices,
and channels to connect with the customers online, covering the following under its
umbrella:

CHANNELS OF ADVERTISING
1. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) 2. Social Media Advertising.
i) Search Engine Optimization. 3. E-mail Advertising.
ii) Pay per Click or Paid Advertising.
4. Website Advertising.
5. Mobile
Advertising.
DEVICES 11 Affiliate
6. Desktop TYPES OF
Advertising. Marketing. ADVERTISING
12 Inbound
7. Display
Marketing.
Advertising.
13 Content
8. Blogging. FORMATS Marketing
9. Video Marketing
10. Audio Marketing
14 Analytics. TRACKING AND MEASUREMENT
Table 1.1: Constituents of Online Advertising.

Out of these, the main channels are Search Engines, Social Media, E-mail &
Websites. This study focuses on the three main channels: Search engines, Social media
& E-mail. Because of their unique flexibility, interactivity, and personalization
characteristics, these channels have grown tremendously in applications and user base.
These channels fundamentally differ from other communication channels because
marketers and consumers can learn so much about each other simultaneously and share
their experiences in real-time, especially on social media. Hence the concept of online
advertising on these channels is supported by defining characteristics, which are:-

 User centricity.
 Measurability.
 Ubiquity.

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 Interactivity.
 Personalization

Online advertising is thus a marketing technique which marketers practice using

online media to sell their products and services, create customer engagement and
influence their behaviour, measure and track return on investment and create their brand
value (Dave Chaffey, 2015). The deep penetration of the online consumer base on these
channels reflects the consumer behavioural change that is taking place, distinguished
by the above-stated elements. Consumers now have more control over how they access
information about products and services via the internet. This facility has made the
marketing world very transparent, and authentication of each marketing practice is the
most valuable asset.

Several factors contribute to consumers' desire for online content, which have
proven to be extremely useful for communication, entertainment, education, and
electronic commerce. According to (Septianto et al., 2021), there are various emotions
which are incidental to consumers, and the internet serves as an effective medium for
evoking such emotions by subconsciously touching them. It persuades them to actively
take an interest in engaging with the online content offered to them via ads on different
channels. Similarly, (Nallaperuma et al., 2021) suggested that incorporating a mixed
emotional appeal element in online ads can offer higher cognitive flexibility that can
impact consumer behaviour.

Therefore, the internet is regarded as the most important direct marketing

channel for influencing consumer behaviour. Companies are investing billions of
dollars in internet advertising to maximize their investment return. The ease of
accessibility and combined effects of the internet elements which influence consumers'
perception and purchase behaviour help create a synergetic effect for achieving
advertising objectives (Tan et al. 2014). Advertising studies have reflected that the
advertising objectives of brands are often ambiguous due to an unclear understanding
of consumers' expectations on a global platform. Therefore, the internet helps offer
advertisers an optimal solution for offering personalized content to consumers with the
help of big data, which uses the pull technique to attract consumers (Godey, 2016).
Personalization has been intensely helpful in engaging customers with brands on online

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platforms; Jackson (2011) suggested that half of the online consumers engage with the
online content of the brands either by purchasing the product or by recommending the
same to others in the online community.

Figure 1.2: Share of Industries in E-commerce Retail in India

Source: IBEF Report: E-commerce, February 2022.

As illustrated in Figure 1.2, 40 per cent of online e-commerce retail share is

owned by the apparel (fashion) industry owing to the increasing online dependence of
shoppers. This online shopping behavioural change is gaining prominence as an
average social media user now spends up to 3 hours on average on an online networking
app. Many social media networks are advancing their business strategies to facilitate
in-app shopping, enabling online stores to reach out to customers who are actively
planning to purchase. Social e-commerce sales are expected to nearly triple by 2025,
with more than one-third of Facebook users planning to purchase directly through the
platform in 2022. Social media is integral to the e-commerce marketing strategy of
many online fashion brands. Therefore, brand building is an alternative to expensive
advertising and limited customer data in the fashion industry. Studies show companies
that invest in branding see the more organic acquisition and customer retention rates.
They also find it easier to increase profits since customers of strong brands are more
receptive to price variations. Brands need to shift from traditional advertising to
narrative and personalized advertising, which accounts for up to 20 percent of the share,

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to bring more emotional connection, supported by diversified promotions across

different online channels. Personalized advertising with relevant content in rich digital
formats like blogs, newsletters and e-mails increases customer engagement rates and
decreases cost per acquisition.

The dynamics of the fashion industry are changed as it has moved from a push-
to-pull economy. Rather than promoting products by forecasts, fashion now pulls based
on demand. Personalization has the advantage of facilitating shoppers in exploring the
overwhelming e-commerce options and making their purchase decision faster. This can
be essential for a brand to assist customers in overcoming "analysis paralysis," a
situation in which having too many options leaves one unable to choose one. Accenture
(2017) found in their research that "nearly 40% of consumers leave a website as they
get overwhelmed by too many options". With its many sizes, collections, and styles,
fashion is much more complicated and overwhelming to consumers than most other
retail categories. With all these industry complexities, it is no surprise that conventional
approaches to personalization are falling short in fashion. Therefore, the efficiency of
personalization is essential, achieved through making sensible use of individual data.
The data should reflect target consumers' habits and should represent their future
behaviour. It's also important to have enough of it to account for statistical deviations
and variations.

To reap the additional technological benefits, consumer engagement should also

be as important as personalization, where brands rely on customers' sharing useful
information from the first interaction. Shoppers fill out a quiz about fit, size, style,
budget preferences or any additional information that would be useful for styling as per
their preferences. Furthermore, they share more personal information that is difficult to
capture in a usual buying process, for instance, if they are planning a trip or a special
event for which they need a classic sequin dress.

Therefore, considering the revolutionary change in consumers' behaviour in the

online shopping experience, brands are investing heavily in technology-driven
advertising techniques. Advertisers try to collect accurate data for incorporating the
elements of personalization, engagement, or other elements that evoke emotional
appeal and motivate consumers to form a positive attitude towards the brands. A study

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by Nielsen (2013) discussed that maximum advertisers are increasing their online
advertising budget. Through the internet, companies can position their brands amongst
consumers in a smart way where they can interact with customers to persuade them by
generating awareness and effectively tapping their preferences, creating utility for both
ends. As stated above, social media has emerged as the most advanced platform for
persuading consumers to develop a positive attitude towards the brands by impacting
them on cognitive, affective and behavioural levels. According to Ernst & Young
(2013), more than 95 percent of brands use social media to build communities around
their fashion brands by positioning them in a personalized & targeted way. In the
context of other mediums, Yulihasri et al. (2011) studied the factors influencing
consumers' online shopping behaviour, and they established that web advertisement
positively influences their purchase decisions. In a study on the effectiveness of online
advertising by YetMee et al. (2011), online advertising as a part of the advertising mix
can substantially impact the purchase decision. Also, Sen et al.(2014) suggested
effective integration of the use of design elements with other elements to increase the
ad's value. Therefore, the studies have indicated that the measurement of the
effectiveness of online advertising is a significant challenge for advertisers to evaluate
the impact the campaigns have on creating ad value for the customers.

The effectiveness of advertising is therefore achieved when the consumers value

the ads. The focal point for developing an effective advertising strategy is where the
interests of consumers and sellers meet. To optimize the value of ads for consumers,
advertisers should make them as informative and entertaining as required. Therefore,
(Ducoffe, 1995) suggested ad value is the key to persuasion, and both the content and
the format of the ad are crucial for the ad effectiveness. Ducoffe (1996) later mentioned
the importance of consumers' attitudes towards web advertising effectiveness.
According to him, the most relevant online ads must be designed to increase their value
as it is essential in targeting viewers' attitudes towards advertising. For achieving this
objective, he employed four antecedents (as an extension to previous factors) for
increasing the ad value: Entertainment, Informativeness, Irritation, and Credibility, of
which credibility and entertainment were the strongest predictors, followed by
informativeness. And irritation reduces the ad effectiveness. In line with this idea,
(Mahatmavidya & Yasa, 2020) suggested that the millennials are heavy users of the social

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networking site Instagram; they tend to respond more to credible and enjoyable ads than
traditional ads.

However, various other antecedents also influence consumers' motivation on

their online journey. Determining a standard way of measuring these motivations for
evaluating ad effectiveness is still unclear. Even though sales are the ultimate
measurement criterion but throughout the consumer journey, advertising influences
consumer behaviour at multiple touchpoints that shape their onward journey. Various
motivating factors impact consumer responses at a behavioural, psychological, or
cognitive level, and these responses can be employed as metrics to measure the ad's
effectiveness. These factors are referred to as 'site-centric' variables in this study,
providing the interface between users and online channels.

As mentioned in the above lines, consumer responses are used as metrics to

measure the effectiveness; CTRs (click-through rates) are also indicative of consumer
response to an ad and thus provide insight into how effective the ad is in stimulating
various consumer motivations. Similarly, conversion rates connect the clicks received
with the final transaction made, which explains the share of consumers that completed
their consumer journey after clicking on a given ad. Also, there are strategical
marketing effectiveness measures as well as tactical marketing effectiveness measures.
Strategic factors include measuring market share, brand strength, purchase intent, and
lifetime value. Tactical factors include measurement of return on investment, cost of
acquisition, conversion rate, and click-through rate (simplefirst.com). Strategical
factors measure the campaign's effectiveness, while tactical factors measure its
efficiency.

Therefore, in this study, channels of online advertising focus on the dependent

variables like customer satisfaction, customer awareness, and brand credibility (all of
which determine the brand strength). This study analyzes the impact of online
advertising factors based on the AIDA model on different elements of consumer
behaviour by measuring the effectiveness of online advertising on three different
channels- Search engines, Social media, and E-mails. As behavioural targeting has
advanced so much lately, the internet has become a platform for shaping brand
dimensions like awareness, credibility, image, loyalty, satisfaction, commitment, and

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advocacy. This study refers to these brand dimensions as 'user-centric' variables,

representing consumer behaviour. Advertising formats have evolved into a more
sophisticated and measurable form. Online advertising capitalizes on communicating
with the consumers by behaviorally targeting them to develop their positive orientation.
Since the fashion sector relies largely on online platforms, it is critical for marketers to
analyze the effectiveness of their online advertising activities to maximize the
opportunities for understanding their online consumers.

Strategical factors are taken into consideration to measure the effectiveness of

these online advertising channels. Consumer motivations are considered by conducting
market research based on the AIDA model, due to which they are motivated to click on
the ads exposed to them on these channels. Click on those ads (efficiency measure),
define their behaviour at a given stage on their consumer journey. Since CTRs measure
the consumer response through the effectiveness factors like market share, brand
strength, purchase intent, and lifetime value, they have been considered as a
determining metric to determine the effectiveness of online channels in this study. It
measures whether consumers' motivations based on the AIDA model are stimulated at
the behavioural, cognitive, and psychological levels. It ultimately persuades them to
respond based on their developed attitudes regarding brand awareness, user satisfaction,
and brand credibility.

Therefore, based on the above arguments, the considered online channel's 'site-
centric' motivating factors have been identified in the following manner to model them
in a framework for measuring the effectiveness of online advertising, which impacts
'user-centric' behavioural variables.

Effectiveness of Search Engine Advertising: As proposed above, in this study,

the effectiveness of online advertising will be measured with the help of click-through
rates received; it is necessary to develop such search engine advertising strategies that
help secure the same. Also, CTRs have their own set of limitations; therefore, the study
will attempt to take into consideration various passive motivating 'site-centric' factors
that facilitate increasing the number of clicks on the ads shown on search engines. These
factors are search intent, search behaviour & search keywords, which have their own
measuring variables such as transactional need, navigational need, information need,

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user understanding, user response, user commitment, user relevance, long-tail

keywords & short-tail keywords.

Effectiveness of Social media Advertising: Similarly, developing social media

advertising strategies is necessary to achieve branding objectives. Therefore, the study
will take into consideration various passive motivating 'site-centric' factors that increase
the number of clicks on the ads shown on social media. These factors are
Personalization & Consumer Engagement, which have unique measurement variables
such as informativeness, credibility, entertainment & creativity for personalization and
involvement, interaction, intimacy, and influence for consumer engagement. Also, the
measuring variables for personalization have been taken according to the Uses and
Gratifications Theory (UGT).

Effectiveness of E-mail Advertising: In the same context, it is necessary to

develop e-mail advertising strategies. Therefore, the study will take into consideration
various passive motivating 'site-centric' factors that increase the number of clicks on
the ads shown on e-mail. These factors are both TAM primary predictors (perceived
usefulness & perceived ease of use), Lead Magnets, Personalization & Consumer
Engagement which have their own unique measurement variables such as perceived
usefulness & perceived ease of use, incentives, Value, Incentives, Friction and Risk,
brand reputation, subject-lines, timing & frequency, first impression, personal
conversation, entertain & call to action. Also, the measuring variables for 'attention'
have been taken according to the Technology acceptance model (TAM) (Lee et al.,
2003; Song et al., 2021).

Following the above arguments, it is evident that the study attempts to

emphasize the importance of developing effective online advertising strategies with
respect to each channel. The following section discusses the need for these strategies,
which supports the narrative of developing the framework's ideation.

1.2. Need for Online Advertising Strategies for Fashion Brands.

Formulating an online advertising strategy facilitates making informed and optimal

decisions by ensuring that efforts are focused on those elements of ad campaigns that
resonate with the objectives and are also relevant to the customers. The internet's

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capacity widens the scope of advertising reach with advanced precision that helps
transcends traditional marketing constraints. The internet is a two-way platform for
both the customers and the marketers to meet their respective requirements. Alongwith
the interactivity feature for the customers, it provides a lot of tools for the marketer to
reach out and engage with the customers, making the marketing landscape much more
dynamic and challenging. Therefore, a coherent customer engagement and retention
strategy will spur opportunities to stand and compete in the industry.

Thus, the crux of having an informed online advertising strategy is to have a thorough
understanding of online customers of the fashion industry, and their relationship with
the advertisement on the online channels can be used to harness rewarding relationships
with them. A direction-oriented, well-structured strategy aligns advertising efforts with
the concerned objectives and also helps in simultaneously optimizing the interface
experience between both ends.

1.2.1. The 3i Principles for Devising Online Advertising Strategy.

There are certain principles on which online advertising strategies are based for fetching
more efficient results. These principles define a practical framework to be adopted for
effective online advertising and illustrate the need to follow a completely different
approach than traditional marketing. These principles can be applied to each channel of
online advertising. Accordingly, the advertisers can formulate an action plan to
implement a comprehensive, structured, and successful online advertising strategy.
According to the Online advertising Institute, the key to executing successful marketing
strategies is the 3i principles:

 Initiate.
 Iterate.
 Integrate.

Principle 1: Initiate.

According to this principle, the customer is the focal point of all online
advertising activities, and all marketing activities should be user-centric. According to
Ian Dodson (2018), Digital marketers should understand that online platforms are for

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customer engagement and interactions, not broadcasting. The content should be

relevant to the customers' needs, and the point of initiating any marketing activity
should be strictly about the need of the customer. By focusing on what customers need,
advertising activities will radically become much more effective.

Principle 2: Iterate.

The second principle – Iterate, is based on the fact that online advertising
practices can be tracked, measured and modified. Publishing any ad on the internet
media makes it possible to see through its click-through rates, conversion rates and
response rates. Also, according to the user-generated feedback, the ads can be modified.
Hence, the principle emphasizes the importance of the modifications that can be done
per user interaction. The effectiveness of the ad campaigns can be supremely improved
by applying the iterative process. The insights gained through measurability criteria of
Online advertising help in resonating with the customers' needs, and hence the
repetition of modifications helps improve the campaigns over its lifetime depending
upon the digital channel.

Principle 3: Integrate.

The third principle is based on integrating different online channels, online

channels with the traditional channels and the integration of reporting sources.

 Integration of different online channels: The information received from one channel
can be successfully applied to another digital channel. For example, keywords with
effective click-through rates on search engines can be included in e-mails or on
social media to get more receptivity from the customers. Hence, insights from one
channel can effectively improve the performance of another channel.
 Integration of Online channels with Traditional channels: because of the
interactivity feature of the online platforms, it is easier to tap the keywords or
content resonating with the customers. The same or similar content can be used on
traditional platforms to gain more responses from the customers. For example, the
content getting maximum clicks on search engines or the content getting shared a
lot on social media can be put on radio or television to increase customer response
on traditional channels.

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 Integration of reporting sources: tools like Google Analytics provide insights about
the sources of leads, conversions, clicks or visibility. It is easier to estimate which
campaign is working more effectively. For example, it can be identified that social
media campaigns are giving more return on investments than e-mail campaigns. So
accordingly, the advertiser can modify his practices to gain more investment return.
An integrated view of the customer responses and many other data about the
available customer can be very helpful in setting the correct marketing strategy.

1.3. Understanding Online Consumers

In the previous section, the importance of 3i was explained to frame an effective

online advertising strategy. As the first principle emphasized the initiate aspect, which
expects marketers to be consumer-oriented, initiation of any marketing activity should
solely first revolve around user-centricity. It is an unavoidable option for marketers not
to have an understanding of the digital consumer. A lot of research has been done to
understand the behavioural aspect of the new era's digital consumer. Marketers should
therefore strive to provide a positive consumer experience by evaluating the impact or
performance of their advertising efforts. A consumer 'inhabiting' a virtual world is more
demanding and shares his experience in the real world, which demands brands to adapt
to emerging trends quickly. (Jolanta Tkaczyk, 2016). Hence, it is important to
understand an online consumer's behavioural aspects and the trends of today's
marketing world.

The interactivity element has empowered consumers that technology has

created. Customers who are demanding, conscious, rational and active are known as
Prosumers ( Domanska, 2009; Wolny, 2013), whereas e-Consumers are used in the
context of a virtual environment who fulfil their needs by purchasing products and
services online (Wolny,2012). Besides purchasing products and services online, the
niche segment of consumers also buffer for information and take advantage of digital
content (blog/articles/videos/games etc.) are known as Digital Consumers. Therefore,
the digital consumer concept is broader than the e-consumer as it consists of both active
and passive consumers (Jolanta Tkaczyk). Marketers must understand that all
consumers care about their overall experience on their digital platform, from the point
of first information to the point of purchase and the post-purchase experience. Today's

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consumers are actively personalizing their online experience and increasing the
frequency of sampling niche content and video. (www.chiefmarketer.com).

Consumers are using different platforms from search engines, social media, and
e-mails to videos and blogs on multiple devices in a much more personalized way. They
prefer to interface customized start pages, share content, read blogs, give feedback, and
create their own niche segment. The practice of broadcasting generic ads is being
usurped by specific targeting and precise marketing through online channels to an
increasingly diverse and segmented marketplace. The targeting has been advanced to
even a single individual for whom uniquely tailored personalized relationships are
maintained.

1.3.1. Key Traits of the Online Fashion Consumers

Simply put, online fashion consumers are those who use online media platforms
to purchase products or services or gather information. (Persaud and Azhar, 2012) They
have the power to interact with each other and with the marketer. They access highly
personalized content to their needs, which they can easily share, save or give feedback.
In the case of the digital world, 4 or 5 P's of the marketing mix do not fit in anymore;
instead, consumers are empowered with an ABCDE set of tools- Anyplace, Brand,
Communication, Discover, Experience. (Tapscott,2008). Therefore, with instant
gratification and real-time consumer responses, brands today have little time to adapt
to changing consumer behaviours. It has changed from unidirectional broadcasting to
multichannel, cross-devices and platforms conversations between consumers and
brands. Organizations deal at an individual level to devise personalized marketing
strategies. The research was done by ReachFirst (www.reachfirst.com) on the online
consumer behaviour of the fashion industry. The following traits were discussed, which
help a fashion brand's advertiser to optimize its plan according to the target audience in
a more specific and personal way:

 They are tech-savvy and well-informed and prefer authentic brands.

 They want relevant and quick information.
 They share content, feedback and experiences a lot via social media.
 Real-time searches change consumers' journey.

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 Consumers prefer digital assistants to make their choices convenient.

 Customers prefer paying more for an enriched customer experience.
 Customers buy from brands that personalize and customize content accordingly.
 Consumers rely on online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
 App-user consumers prefer added functionality over the appearance of the app.
 Digital consumers prefer images, videos and voices.

1.4. The Motivation for the Study

The idea of the study was motivated by a study on 'Measuring the effectiveness
of online advertising', conducted by PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) for IAB
(Interactive Advertising Beaurau) & SRI (Syndicat Des Régies Internet)(PwC Advisory
et al., 2010). That study focused on measuring the performance of display advertising
and on key areas like formulating communication strategy, branding objectives,
measuring the effectiveness of media mix, and measuring the impact of online
campaigns on all its aspects. The limitations of this study suggested the reconciliation
of user-centric and site-centric measurements. Also, since the study talked about
behavioural targeting, we derived the idea of modelling a framework where the
measurement of the effectiveness of online advertising is studied in context with user-
centric and site-centric specific variables, which help in behaviorally targeting online
customers of the fashion industry.

1.5. Research Questions

The research gap led us to inquire about these questions:

 How is the effectiveness of online advertising measured?

 What are the site-centric variables that help in measuring the effectiveness of online
advertising?
 What are the user-centric variables that get influenced by site-centric variables?
 How can reconciliation of site-centric and user-centric variables help in
behaviorally targeting consumers of the online fashion industry?

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1.6. Significance of the Study

There is a gap in the literature on online advertising regarding a comprehensive

theoretical model to understand the effectiveness of online advertising. Therefore, this
study aims to address and develop a comprehensive online advertising effectiveness
model. As discussed above, online consumers have specific requirements that act as the
basic criterion for formulating advertising strategies; the study will attempt to integrate
determining factors from consumers' perspectives for formulating effective online
strategies in context with the main online channels: Search Engines, Social Media, and
E-mail.

Also, the study attempted to develop a standardized measurement criterion for

measuring the effectiveness of online advertising by identifying those 'site-centric'
factors which aid in the efficiency of the widely accepted measurement metric, CTRs,
to analyze their collective impact on the 'user-centric' factors. As the study has been
conducted from an online consumers' perspective to understand the motivating factors
for engaging with online ads of fashion brands on three main online channels, the study
will be beneficial for fashion marketers to develop advertising campaigns for their
fashion brands by considering the factors which motivate Indian consumers to click on
ads across these channels according to the objectives of behaviorally targeting the
consumers. It deemed necessary to devise a framework by considering the objectives
that can be specifically relevant to the selected variables concerning the online fashion
industry.

The study emphasized selecting those variables which are specific to each
channel and can also impact consumers' specific behaviour. For each channel, the
selected site-centric variables will give comprehensive coverage as per the
requirements of the objectives of the advertising campaign of the fashion brands. Search
intent, search behaviour and search keywords are selected as sufficient site-centric
variables which cover almost all the important aspects of search engines through which
consumers interact. Also, the user-centric variables selected against these variables
represent the possible results of these site-centric variables, the consumer experience of
which will lead to user satisfaction and user commitment. Similarly, personalization

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and consumer engagement are the two significant site-centric aspects of social media
that motivate consumers at cognitive and affectionate levels, leading to approximate
behavioural aspects such as brand awareness, brand image, brand loyalty and brand
advocacy. These user-centric variables are also specific to social media in general, as
this platform is widely used for branding purposes. Supported by the same ideation, the
site-centric variables selected for E-mail advertising cover almost all the touchpoints of
the consumers who receive newsletters from the fashion brands. Also, the user-centric
variable selected for e-mail is brand credibility which is generally what the fashion
brands advertisers attempt to develop or sustain via this platform which eventually may
develop purchase intentions accordingly.

1.7. Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study are:

 Examining the trends and growth of Online Advertising in India

 To propose a model representing the relationship between the Effectiveness of
Online Advertising and Consumer Behaviour factors for each channel.
 To validate the model and assess the impact of the Effectiveness of Search Engine
Advertising on User Satisfaction.
 To validate the model and evaluate the impact of the Effectiveness of Social Media
Advertising on Customers' Brand Awareness.
 To validate the model and appraise the impact of the Effectiveness of E-mail
Advertising on the Brand's Credibility.

1.8. Scope of the Study

To differentiate from the existing literature, the study selected three main online
channels: Search Engines, Social Media & E-mail, on which the fashion brands do their
advertising. The study surveyed the online consumers of the fashion industry, including
apparel, footwear and accessories. We tried to make the survey as inclusive as possible
by encompassing all the significant aspects of online shopping of fashion brands via
these channels and keeping the process confidential. The study conducted a quantitative
online survey by introducing new measuring constructs and adapting the questionnaire
to the established standard measurement scale. Since youth represent the maximum

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proportion of fashion industry consumers, Millennials (1981-1996) and Gen Z [1997-

2012(2005)] across India were targeted for the survey. The limit for Gen Z consumers
was kept till 2005 only because the minimum age for the study was 16 years as of the
time when the questionnaires were distributed. The data collection period was from
March to April 2022 via online Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, LinkedIn & E-mail.

1.9. Original Contribution by the Thesis

Pavlov and Stewart (2000) proposed a research ideology for measuring the
effectiveness of interactive advertising but are not equivalent to online advertising
effectiveness measures. It will be beneficial to investigate how online scholars have
implemented their proposed framework as the findings can be relatable to some extent.
They posited applying structuration theory to interactive advertising, which entails
determining how consumers sculpt the production, replication, and transformation of
the ads, prospective offerings, and relationships with brands as well as customers.
However, hardly any research in the review investigated the consumer's contribution to
the development of online ads. The studies suggest two different sets of measures to
assess the effectiveness of online advertising. The first approach focuses on media
selection, information search, attention, and processing. The latter concentrates on the
impact of interactive media on customers' awareness, recall, attitude, and product
choice. However, the new indicators they propose, such as personalization,
engagement, and comprehension, which is the extent to which a claim reduces
uncertainty and the scope to which it could minimize equivocality, have not been
implemented in any of the online advertising studies in this review, where they both
constitute a framework to measure the totality of the effectiveness of online advertising.

Advertising effectiveness metrics should be aligned with advertising objectives,

regardless of whether they use online or offline media. If the only goal of the ad is to
generate a specific response to the ad, click-through is the appropriate metric. The
participation rate in a contest or loyalty programme can be employed to determine if
customer engagement is the primary objective. However, if the objective is simply to
generate interest or brand awareness, then traditional measures like brand recall and
recognition should be employed in the advertising effectiveness study. As a result of
the limitations and gaps in the online advertising effectiveness literature, future online
advertising studies should specifically state the advertising objectives and investigate
the use of appropriate measures to test the effectiveness.

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 Introduction

Therefore, this study employs a new set of elements of online platforms to

measure advertising effectiveness, such as search intent, search behaviour, search
keywords, personalization, consumer engagement, sign-ups & lead magnets. All the
items of the latent variables were taken from literature except for search intent, search
keyword, lead-magnets, & purchase intention for measuring the effectiveness of online
advertising which the authors developed to measure these dimensions in the developed
conceptual framework. Also, new items have added to the existing measurement scales
of other latent variables which have never been used before (explained in Chapter 5,
Section 5.3). These represent an approximate comprehensive selection of site-centric
variables respective to their channels to aid the existing measure, CTRs. The study
further incorporated the variables representing the interactive media effects of the
above-stated site-centric variables on consumers, referred to as user-centric variables,
such as user satisfaction and commitment, brand awareness, image, loyalty and
advocacy, and brand credibility and purchase intention. Therefore, the study focuses on
understanding how the reconciliation of site-centric and user-centric variables can help
behaviorally target online fashion industry consumers for measuring the effectiveness
of online advertising through CTRs.

Thus theoretical contribution, practical contribution and integrated framework

for measuring the effectiveness of online advertising on online channels will be three
major contributions to research in online advertising. First, the theoretical contribution
is the development of comprehensive theoretical models that explains the effectiveness
of multichannel online advertising, which fills the significant gap as supportive
literature does not explain the observed phenomena (Ghose & Yang, 2009; Hollis,
2005; Ilfeld & Winer, 2002; Rutz & Bucklin, 2011). These models were framed by
relying on the advertising theories of AIDA, TAM & UGT to extract variables relevant
to this study and thereby help to extend these existing widely accepted theories. The
AIDA model has been employed vertically in the conceptual framework of the study
which has never been studied before. The independence of each stage of the AIDA
model from each other is the base for considering it vertically. Also, the study's model
develops new concepts that are powerful predictors of online advertising effectiveness
and their impacts strictly in relevance to the advertising objectives. Second, the study
provides a practical contribution by providing insights into the successful execution of
online advertising campaigns. If advertisers follow an integrated campaign strategy,
simultaneous advertising on multiple channels can increase click rates. Third, the study

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 Introduction

will propose an integrated framework model for online advertising effectiveness based
on the above theoretical concepts. These models describe how a combination of
different elements of online advertising can offer a systematic approach which can
increase the effectiveness of online advertising and impact consumer behaviour. It
reflects the abovementioned 3i guiding principles of initiate, iterate & integrate based
on knowledge of channels.

1.10. Structure of the Thesis

Analysis
Chapters Objectives
Design
CHAPTER 1: -------------------
-------------------------
Introduction ------
Theoretical in
CHAPTER 2: Examining the trends and growth of Nature- Based
Fashion Industry in Online Advertising in India on Secondary
India: An Overview data reports and
statistics.
CHAPTER 3: -------------------
-------------------------
Literature Review ------
To propose a model representing the Based on an
CHAPTER 4:
relationship between the Effectiveness extensive
Conceptual
of Online Advertising and Consumer Literature
Framework
Behaviour factors for each channel Review
CHAPTER 5:
-------------------
Research -------------------------
------
Methodology
CHAPTER 6: To validate the model and assess the
Structural
Effectiveness of impact of the Effectiveness of Search
Equation
Search Engine Engine Advertising on User Satisfaction.
Modelling
Advertising
To validate the model and evaluate the
CHAPTER 7:
impact of the Effectiveness of Social Structural
Effectiveness of
Media Advertising on Customers' Brand Equation
Social Media Awareness. Modelling
Advertising
To validate the model and appraise the
CHAPTER 8: Structural
impact of the Effectiveness of E-mail
Effectiveness of E- Equation
Advertising on the Brand's Credibility.
mail Advertising Modelling
CHAPTER 9:
Summary, -------------------
-------------------------
Conclusion & ------
Suggestions.

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 Introduction

Chart 1.1: Conceptual Model of the Study

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