E-Tailers Prefer Conventional Advertising Media

As the Internet market has grown, more companies retailing online have shifted away from online advertising and invested more dollars in conventional media in 1998. These are the results of Cambridge, MA-based market research firm Walden Media’s analysis of 200 web vendors.

About 86 percent of e-commerce concerns are now investing in traditional media, while 14 percent are continuing to focus their advertising campaigns exclusively on the Web, the study found.

Magazines and newspapers are the most popular forms of traditional media favored by Internet companies, capturing about 55 percent of e-tailer dollars, according to the study. About a third of the sites are investing in radio and television advertising, while 47 percent continue to devote some of their advertising money to online banner ads.

The study also found that the shift to off-line advertising is enjoying some success. It found that a quarter of Internet users surveyed have used magazine ads to locate specific Websites, and about 14 percent of users said they discovered a Website through TV commercials.

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Some e-commerce brands that were figments of entrepreneurial imaginations just a few years ago are approaching household name status among both wired and non-wired adults, according to a random telephone survey.

About 117 million adults, or 60 percent of the US adult population, recognize the name Amazon.com, according to the report. Other brands that scored high in awareness were Priceline.com (55 percent), eBay (46 percent), and E-Trade (43 percent). All of the brands saw their name recognition nods jump between April and August.

Other e-commerce sites ignited fewer sparks of recognition from survey participants. EToys and HotJobs elicited a recognition response of 26 percent each, while about 24 percent of adults said they recognized Monster. com, 22 percent acknowledge knowing online car dealer Autobytel and 20.2 percent recognized the music site CDNow.

The study was commissioned by Priceline.com and conducted by the independent research firm, Opinion Research Corp. International (ORC).

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