The netvertising image: Netvertising Image Communication Model (NICM) and construct definition.

Research on Internet advertising, a phenomenon barely a decade old (Leigh 2000), lacks both a theoretically grounded definition of "image," here called the netvertising image (Stern 2001), and an image communication model. When the first model of computer-mediated communication (CMG) was presented

in the mid-1990s, Hoffman and Novak (1996, p. 52) pointed out that "virtually no scholarly effort has been undertaken by marketing academics to understand hypermedia CMEs [computer-mediated environments] both as media for marketing communications and as markets in and of themselves." Since that time, even though research on the medium, marketing strategies (Zinkhan 2000), and on-line consumer behavior (Coupey 1999) has grown, and a new journal--Journal of Interactive Advertising--has been established (2000), research on images is still at an embryonic stage.

The current paper alms at advancing image research by presenting a model and definition specifically derived for this newest and most rapidly growing advertising medium (Zeff and Aronson 1999). Since netvertising first appeared in 1994, its popularity has expanded geometrically, and until the end of 2000, the increase in revenues was robust. From a starting point of $.10 billion in 1995, revenue grew to $5.3 billion by 2000 (Reidman 2001); by 2001, it is expected to grow to $7.3 billion (Jupiter Media Matrix 2001). This relatively small increase indicates that revenue growth is slowing (Reidman 2001), attributable to both a sluggish economy and the impossibility of sustaining a 120% annual growth rate over the long term. Notwithstanding the economic downturn, some analysts still claim that revenue can be increased, but only if advertisers "get creative and innovative on how they attract their audience" (Reidman 2001, p. 74). In this regard, images are at the core of imaginative message design aimed at stimula ting consumer responses such as attention and attitude toward the ad or toward the brand, as well as behavioral activity in the marketplace.

However, two obstacles hamper research on netvertising image design, processing, and effects. The first is the lack of an appropriate communication model, and the second is the lack of a generally agreed on definition of "image." To overcome these obstacles, this paper first presents a model assembled from ordinary language meanings in the marketing literature and adapted to the netvertising context. It then revisits the definitions to transform them into a nominal definition that researchers can use to construct theory, derive hypotheses, and measure consumer responses.