Should cigarette advertising be allowed on the Web?
Should liquor be sold in cyberspace?
Should filters be required for all school and public library computers to prevent access to pornographic sites?
For marketing researchers Don Cook and Eloise Coupey, these questions are among the host of potential public policy and regulatory issues resulting from increasing use of the Internet, particularly for buying and selling products and services. Cook has a law degree and is a Ph.D. student in marketing in the Pamplin College of Business; Coupey is an assistant professor of marketing in the college.
The researchers, whose specialty is consumer behavior and electronic marketing, say that the Web is largely unrestricted compared to traditional print and broadcast media, but that its growing use raises concerns about whether it should — or even can — be regulated.
A key reason to regulate the Internet — or any product or service — the researchers say, is to protect consumers from unsafe goods or services or to give them essential information for making decisions. “The image of the Marlboro Man may be novel to a generation that grew up without cigarette ads on TV,” Cook says, “but the policy concerns that sparked the ads banishment from TV are the same for the Internet, a medium that is particularly enticing to children.”
The challenge for policy makers, says Coupey, is to determine whether and how to extend the law into this new medium. “Do we need regulation, and if so, what type of regulation is likely to be most effective?” Before regulation issues can be addressed, Coupey says, more research on consumer behavior is needed, since relatively little is known about how Web marketing affects the way consumers process information and make decisions.
Take liquor sales on the Web, for example, Cook says. Several companies, including Finlandia Vodka, Jack Daniels’ Distilleries, and Glenfiddich Scotch, have set up Web sites to hawk their products. Concern over the possibility of liquor sales to underaged drinkers (with no means of verifying the purchaser’s age) may spur policy makers to curtail such sales on the Web.
However, early results from research by Cook and Coupey suggest that attempts to regulate such sales may be unwarranted. “Kids who are going to drink are not going to wait for it to be delivered,” Cook says. The researchers surveyed more than 200 Virginia Tech students, asking them a series of questions about their purchasing behavior over time. “There were Internet as well as non-Internet scenarios for purchasing different types of goods, including questions about the potential for buying alcoholic beverages over the Web,” explains Cook.
Though existing regulations governing traditional media can be extended to cover the Web, the researchers think it is likely that completely new rules will have to be drawn up for cyberspace. First of all, traditional media have not been treated alike by regulatory agencies: banned from radio and TV, cigarette advertising is allowed in print media.
Secondly, the Web is different. The Web provides “an information environment in which the characteristics of TV, radio, and print can be combined into a single presentation of text, sound, and video,” says Coupey.
The Web offers consumers more information and more flexibility for accessing and manipulating information than traditional media. It does this through links to deeper layers within a site or to different sites altogether, and through a combination of media that may include static images, full- motion video, and sound, in addition to text.
By clicking or not clicking on links, consumers can control how much information they want to receive, says Cook. Searching for that information costs little and is not limited geographically. A consumer can access Web sites anywhere in the world.
“Unlike radio or TV, the information is available on your schedule. Unlike a newspaper or printed catalog, it’s not what you’re given, but what you can go and get.”
To help policy makers think systematically about the issues, the researchers have developed a framework that applies marketing theories to assess the impact of the Web on consumer decision making. The researchers argue that the Web influences consumers on three levels that create different information environments.
The three levels of influence are the Web’s ability to provide consumers with information about a “vast number” of goods and services, its interactive aspect, and its sheer novelty. Thus, say Cook and Coupey, the Web exerts an influence through the amount of available information, the form of available information, and the medium itself.
By providing more readily accessible information, the Web can help consumers make better decisions and derive more satisfaction from their purchases. One unresolved issue, however, is whether too much information is bad and leads consumers to make poorer choices. Can consumers suffer from “information overload”? Study results on this issue are inconsistent, say Cook and Coupey.
At the second level, information processing and decision making can be changed in unique ways, when consumers create and then experience their “information environment.”
“A consumer can search for information about cars with a particular set of features and then display the information in a desired format — say, from cheapest to most expensive,” says Coupey. “Some companies, such as General Motors, already have Web sites that allow consumers to search and shop in this manner. This type of interactivity enables consumers to screen out information they do not consider central to the decision.”
With alcoholic beverages and other products where there are safe-use concerns, Coupey says, it is important to learn what information attracts consumers’ attention and how they might use information, such as nutritional labeling or product warnings, differently on the Web than in conventional shopping environments.
Studies have been done, she says, on how consumers notice and process “safe-use information” in traditional media. But the issue has to be investigated with regard to Web commerce, “given the anticipated differences in information use between traditional and interactive media.”
In her research, Coupey has found that in self-guided information searches on the computer, consumers may focus on “irrelevant or unimportant attributes,” resulting in incorrect information or perceptions about products. If they were in a store, such incorrect information or perceptions might be corrected by a sales person.
“We need to know more about the strategies consumers use for constructing displays and getting information,” Coupey says. If safe-use information is readily available in a familiar or convenient format, consumers may be better able to access it, and they may be more motivated to do so. As for level three, the novelty of the Web itself has an impact on decision making. “For some people, interaction with the Web is an enjoyable experience,” says Cook, “and the medium itself acts as a persuasive attribute in a decision.” One problem, however, might be that the enormous amount of time spent on the Web may not be matched by benefits, such as better decisions or increased knowledge.
Clearly, electronic commerce offers many interesting and unexplored issues for researchers of consumer behavior. Such studies, Cook and Coupey say, can help policy makers design regulations that work and that have minimal unintended effects. It can also, Cook adds, “help prevent regulations that are unnecessary and costly to taxpayers.”