| The present study tested the Persuasion Knowledge Model (Friestad & Wright, 1994) using the World Wide Web, a relatively new, but very influential marketing medium. Participants were presented with a persuasion attempt for a financial services company in one of three formats: (1) a traditional printed brochure, (2) an Internet ad or (3) a fully interactive Internet homepage. After viewing the material, participants were tested for their persuasion knowledge of the domains: (a) beliefs about marketers' persuasion goals, (b) beliefs about psychological mediators, and (c) beliefs about marketers' persuasion tactics. It was predicted that participants would demonstrate less persuasion knowledge regarding the Internet stimuli than compared to the traditional brochure. Results failed to lend notable support to the Persuasion Knowledge Model with effects occurring in the opposite direction as predicted by the Persuasion Knowledge Model. Some results were consistent with the Elaboration Likelihood Model, which predicts that involvement can mediate a persuasive message. The results of this study fail to confirm that the psychological processes for Internet marketing are different than those for traditional marketing. However, this was a first study of its kind and more refined methodology is needed to discern whether persuasion on the Internet is mediated by different psychological processes than other forms of persuasion. |
