Processing Internet Communications: A Motivation, Opportunity and Ability Framework

Abstract

Despite the rapid growth of the Internet as a vehicle for communication and commerce, substantive theory to guide Web-based marketing communications is still in its infancy. Combining the distinctive characteristics of the Internet with recent models and research findings regarding information processing, this paper proposes a framework for understanding consumer response to Web-based communications. Consideration of Internet communication options (advertisements, Web sites, viral messaging), message characteristics (attention devices, encoding variability, framing, mood tone) and individual-difference moderators (involvement, cognitive/affective motivations, gender, context) leads to propositions regarding consumer motivation, opportunity and ability to process.

Key Words:

• Internet
• advertising
• information processing