Tonnette Bennett

Consumer Purchase Motivation in Digital Environments Tonnette Bennett

Abstract: Evolving technology and consumer trends have led to the marketing industry's re-evaluation of the effectiveness of traditional advertising theories and strategies. Today's marketers are immersed in the digital world of marketing, meaning they must learn to effectively navigate these channels to create successful advertising campaigns. While there is a consensus that digital marketing is more cost-effective and less labor-intensive, underlying skepticism remains as to its effectiveness for building brands and directly impacting consumer choice. In general, advertising effectiveness has consistently been measured by assessing the change in attitude toward a product, service or brand and monitoring actual buying behavior following exposure to an advertising stimulus. However, effective methods for developing creative messaging in digital marketing environments that engage behavioral and psychological dimensions of the consumer have been noticeably limited in the extant literature. Furthermore, the fragmented nature of marketing research because of academia's focus on developing a unique body of knowledge and marketing practitioners' concerns with applied research and putting knowledge into practice further exacerbates the problem. The purpose of this study is to bridge a gap in the marketing literature by studying the impact of intrinsic motivators as themes in digital banner advertisements for a sector of the service industry (academic institutions) and the effect the intensity level of each motivating theme has on a consumers' attitude toward the advertisement and intention to engage with the advertisement by clicking for more information. The results of this study are applicable to marketing professionals who contend with varying levels of intangibility in the services sector, particularly faith-based and/or higher education, as they attempt to craft impactful messaging and content strategies through digital marketing efforts. Dissertation Discovery Company and Jacksonville University are dedicated to making scholarly works more discoverable and accessible throughout the world. This dissertation, "Consumer Purchase Motivation in Digital Environments" by Tonnette Michelle Bennett, was obtained from Jacksonville University and is being sold with permission from the author. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation.