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RESEARCH ANALYSIS

5.1 Introduction

With the research data in place, analysis could be implemented through the use

of a number of SPSS procedures. All analysis was carried out with the intention of

resolving each research objective as outlined in Sections 4.2 and 4.3. This chapter will

proceed in the following manner.

1. Traditional promotion: The traditional methods of promotion used by Irish SME

respondents will be examined.

2. Online promotion usage and awareness: Here, a number of issues will be

considered. Firstly, the number of respondent firms using online promotion will be

shown. Secondly, the level of awareness of the various types of online promotion

will be derived. Any interactions between the respondent’s awareness of online

promotion, and whether they use online promotion will also be investigated.

3. Online promotion – the most popular techniques, benefits, and barriers: This

second examination will assess the situation of online promotion itself. More

specifically, the most popular methods of online promotion being used will be

established as well as the individual reasons why SME respondents believe that

online promotion is of benefit to their business. The predominant barriers of

innovation will also be described.

4. The Web Site: This will examine a number of issues regarding the use of web sites

to support the respondents business. More specifically, whether or not respondents

have a web site, if so for how long, if their company has someone with the relevant

skills to implement one, and whether or not the site it is mentioned in their

traditional promotion. The possibility of any of interactions between the length of

time businesses have used a website, and their perceptions of the benefits and

barriers (as outlined in the third section) will be examined.

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5. The Users of Online Promotion – the accountability, measurability and value of it to

their business: This will examine those who do use online promotion, and to

determine if they are gaining value from their online efforts, or if they are even

aware of any value being created. Interactions between this point, and the amount of

time they have had an online presence will be investigated. It is important to also

determine whether these respondents had any definite objectives or goals in mind

when they decided to use online promotion, or if they were merely involved for the

sake of it, in a reactionary manner. Also, it is useful to note that if they did have a

number of objectives, whether they were met.

6. The Future: This section will examine the future place of online tools in the

promotional mix of respondents’ businesses. Two points will be highlighted. The

first of these will examine the strength of the respondent’s belief as to whether

online promotion is going to redefine their business. Secondly, regardless of the

strength of their beliefs, it is important to note if respondents actually plan to

implement some form of Internet activity in the next year, be it in the form of a

website or an online promotion program.

7. General perceptions: The final section will summarise the predominant ways in

which respondents felt that Internet promotion would change the way they would

conduct business.

5.2 Traditional Promotion

This section determines the primary traditional promotional techniques being

used by Irish SME’s. These techniques include the use of television, press, radio,

outdoor advertising, sponsorship, sales promotion, public relations and trade

publications.

A frequency analysis on the variables examining the use of traditional

promotional techniques yielded the following results, as seen in Figures 5.1 and 5.2.

125

Figure 5.1Most Popular Traditional Promotion Techniques

Most Popular Traditional Promotion Techniques

4.0% 38.7% 26.0% 36.0% 6.0% 58.7% 27.3% 9.3%yes%

television

%

press

%

sponsorship

%

sales promotion

%

radio

%

trade publication

%

public relations

%

outdoor

From Figure 5.2 below, it is evident that the three most popular methods of

promotion for Irish SME’s are trade publications, press publications and sales

promotion respectively. More mainstream and costly media such as television, radio and

outdoor promotion are used less, supporting the claims of Carson et al (1996) that

SME’s are frequently resource driven, and hence may often lack the funds needed for

these forms of mass promotion.

126

Figure 5.2

Awareness of Online Promotion Techniques

5.3 Online Promotion: Usage and Awareness

5.3.1 Usage

From Figure 5.3. to the right, it can be

seen that over 57 percent of Irish companies

use some form of online promotion to

supplement their traditional efforts, with

42.67 percent yet to use any Internet methods of

promotion. Bush et al (1998), in Section 3.2

suggest that approximately 50 percent of

SME’s in developed countries use some form of

Internet promotion. Hence, it can be seen that

Ireland is on par with this prediction.

5.3.2 Awareness

It is important to recognise that though a large percent of Irish SME’s are using

some form of online promotion, there will inevitably be differing levels of awareness

between the various promotional tools available. In order to determine this, a frequency

analysis from the data yielded the following results.

70.0% 86.7% 84.0% 50.3% 76.5% 69.8% 32.9% 23.5%yes%

aware of

banner

advertising

%

aware of

email for

potential

customer

acquisition

%

aware of

email for

customer

support

%

aware of

link

exchanges

%

aware of

search

engine

promotion

%

aware of

newsletter

promotion

%

aware of

online

sponsorship

promotion

%

aware of

online

public

relations

promotion

127

Do Irish SME's use online promotion?

Figure 5.3

Figure 5.4

According to Figures 5.4 and 5.5, 86.7 percent of Irish SME’s, are aware of the

uses of e-mail as a promotional tool. Assuming common knowledge of the area, one of

the main reasons people become Internet users is for the use of e-mail. Hence, the

author predicted that this high awareness level would exist, as a result of the current

waves of Irish people adopting the Internet, as described in the industry review in

Section 3.1.3.1.

It can also be seen how respondents are also very aware of search engines,

newsletters and banner advertising. An important finding however, is that respondents

are largely unaware of other methods of online promotion, such as online public

relations and online sponsorship.

5.3.3 Inter-relationships

Fusing these two findings together, one would expect that a respondent who uses

online promotion, would have a higher level of awareness of the various methods

available, than a respondent that did not use online promotion. In order to investigate

128

Figure 5.5

Uses Online Promotion X Aware of Online Sponsorship

this, eight hypotheses are suggested, representing the awareness of each promotional

tool. These are outlined below.

H0 : There is no statistically significant relationship between the respondents

awareness of (relevant promotional tool), and whether or not they use online

promotion.

H1: There is a statistically significant relationship between the respondents

awareness of (relevant promotional tool), and whether or not they use online

promotion.

By crosstabulating the ‘useonle’ (whether the company uses online promotion

or not) variable, with the variable describing the awareness of each promotional tool, a

set of tables were generated. In each and every one of these eight tables, it is suggested

that the awareness of each appropriate promotional tool increases significantly, if the

company uses some form of online promotion. Two such examples are shown in

Figures 5.6 and 5.7 below, in the cases of the awareness of link exchanges, and online

sponsorship among respondents.

Crosstab

50.0% 28.6%

50.0% 71.4%

100.0% 100.0%

% within aware of onlinesponsorship promotion



no

yes

does thecompany useonline promotion

Total

no yes

aware of onlinesponsorshippromotion

129

Figure 5.6

Uses Online Promotion X Aware of Link Exchanges

Crosstab

59.5% 26.7%

40.5% 73.3%

100.0% 100.0%

% within awareof link exchanges



no

yes

does the company useonline promotion

Total

no yes

aware of linkexchanges

Chi-square significance tests were then run on all cases to test the eight

hypotheses statistically. The hypothesis results are explained in Figure 5.8. In

conclusion, excluding banner advertising and the use of e-mail for customer acquisition,

there is a statistically significant relationship between the awareness of Irish SME

respondents of the various methods of online promotion, and whether or not they are

engaged Internet promotion. In simpler language, if a respondent uses some form of

online promotion, they are more likely to have a higher awareness of each promotional

tool.

Awareness of each tool Pearson Chi-Square Accept HO Accept H1

Banner Advertising .084

E-mail for customer acquisition .092

E-mail for customer support .000

Link Exchanges .000

Search Engines .002

Newsletters .016

Online Sponsorship .013

Public Relations .019

130

Figure 5.8

Figure 5.7

5.4 Online promotion – the most popular techniques, benefits and barriers

This section will explain the analysis that deals with the area of online

promotion itself.

5.4.1 Primary Promotional Tools Employed

Firstly, it is necessary to determine the most popular methods of online

promotion for Irish SME respondents, from a range of possibilities. These possibilities

include the use of banner advertising, e-mail to existing customers, e-mail for new

customer acquisition, link exchanges, search engines, newsletters, online sponsorship

and online public relations.

It is clear from Figure 5.9, that of the respondents that use online promotion, the

use of e-mail is by far the most popular method for Irish SME’s. This supports the

findings of the Webcmo (1998) in the literary review. E-mail is shown to be used for

both for customer support and customer acquisition. Search engines are used by 50

percent of SME’s. Online newsletters are still used by only 29.1 percent, and as argued

by Loro (1999) and Levinson and Rubin (1997) in Section 1.3.4.4, represents a growth

area for SME’s, as online newsletters are distributed through e-mail, and are merely an

extension of customer support, sponsorship and public relations.

Again, as is suggested in Section 5.3, the use of the Internet as regards online

public relations and sponsorship promotion, is heavily underdeveloped and could be

argued to represent an opportunity for SME’s to capitalise on, if seeking competitive

advantage. Respondents are not fulfilling the second of the recommendations of online

promotion suggested by Duignan (1999) in Section 1.3.1, i.e. that online promotion

should satisfy a PR function. This finding also supports the argument of Holtz (1999)

who in Section 1.3.7 suggests that online public relations is still “in many aspects, in the

womb”.

131

Most Popular Methods of Online Promotion

As regards online sponsorship, the predictions suggested in Section 1.3.6 by E-

marketer (1999) that banner advertising would migrate eventually to online sponsorship

by 2001, which would comprise 58 percent of online ads, seem unlikely in the context

of this survey. This is as a result of the very low level (5.8 percent) of respondents that

use this form of promotion.

5.4.2 Benefits / Reasons of Use

With an understanding of the most popular methods of online promotion in

place, the analytical process turned to determining the reasons why respondents felt that

online promotion could benefit their business. Figure 5.11 display the most important

reasons as to why Irish SME respondents feel that online promotion is beneficial.

132

Figure 5.9

The mean level of agreement for each statement is shown in visual form in

Figure 5.10. To explain briefly, the higher the mean, the higher the preference, from 1,

strongly disagree to 5, strongly agree, with 3 as a neutral midpoint.

Below are the top benefits of online promotion for Irish SME respondents.

Reason 1: To broaden their markets

Reason 2: To look for new customers

Reason 3: To communicate with existing customers

Reason 4: To gain an innovative image

Reason 5: For customer service

Reason 6: For direct sales

Reason 7: To achieve cost savings

Reason 8: Because a competitor uses them

Reason 9: Because Internet promotion is more measurable

133

Figure 5.10

The predominant reasons respondents are promoting online are to broaden their

markets and look for new customers. This is in agreement with Dolgenos (1996) and

Kantor and Neubarth (1996) who in Section 1.5 argue the advantages of online

promotion over traditional methods as a result of the possibilities of extended market, or

global reach. The third most important reason is that of communication with existing

customers, or customer relations. Interestingly, the factor of cost saving is recognised

by respondents as the second least important factor. This is in disagreement with Seger

(1999) who in the industry review, in section 1.3.4 defends the cost saving advantages

of e-mail for SME’s as the primary benefit of online promotion.

Following these observations, it is possible to see the strength of the benefits as

a whole, by creating a new variable, which consists of the sum up the responses of each

case, in each variable.

For example, someone answering strongly disagree for all questions would

receive a score of 1 X 9 = 9 (where 1 is the value of strongly disagree and 9 is the

number of cases), whereas a respondent answering strongly agree for all questions

would receive a score of 5 X 9 = 45. This helps identify the polarity of responses, as

well as the general level of agreement of Irish SME’s of how online promotion can

benefit them as a whole, by the manners suggested.

Statistics

Total score of agreement - reasons to promote138

12

32.2246

33.0000

32.00

6.1704

-1.346

.206

4447.00

Valid

Missing

N

Mean

Median

Mode

Std. Deviation

Skewness

Std. Error of Skewness

Sum

134

Figure 5.11

This mean value, from Figure 5.11, shows that on average, as a whole,

respondents agree that Irish SME’s agree to a level of 32 out of 45, or 70 percent, that

Internet promotion aids their business in the manner suggested.

This can be shown more clearly if this score is recoded back into a 5 point

agreement scale, but taking into account the use of all the 9 variables in one overall

satisfaction rating. This satisfaction rating is described in Figure 5.12.

135

136

1-9 = strongly disagree (1.00)

10-18 = disagree (2.00)

19-27 = neutral (3.00)

28-35 = agree (4.00)

37-45 = strongly agree (5.00)

Figure 5.12

Total Level of Agreement of Online Promotion Benefits

From the output, we can see in an overall context, that 81 percent of SME

respondents agree that the online promotional methods suggested would benefit their

business in the manners suggested.

5.4.3 Barriers to Innovation

As argued by the NCC (1999) in Section 2.8 of the industry review, the SME

sector is a vibrant source of innovation in the economy. Taking this into account, it is

suggested by the author as necessary to investigate the possible barriers to innovation

faced by Irish SME’s as regards online promotion. The results of this analysis can be

seen below.

Statistics

3.06 4.00 2.90 2.83 3.61 3.66Mean

not enoughconsumers

online

lack ofunderstanding/

skills

too costly/time

consumingefforts not

measurablethey fear

technology

securityand

privacyworries

137

Figure 5.13

Figure 5.14

Below are the summarised findings, an ordered list of the main reasons Irish

SME’s are not using online promotion. As described earlier, the higher the mean, the

higher the preference, from 1 (not at all important), to 5 (very important), with 3 as a

neutral midpoint.

Reason 1: Lack of understanding/ skills

Reason 2: Security and privacy worries

Reason 3: Fear of technology

Reason 4: Not enough consumers online

Reason 5: Too costly/ time consuming

Reason 6: Efforts aren’t measurable

The only variable that respondents agree is a barrier to innovation is within the

area of company skills/ resources. In this case, the analysis returned a mean value of

4.00. This is in direct agreement with Ducoffe (1996) who in Section 1.6 highlights the

how the lack of familiarity with the medium, and the shortcomings in business skills

and resources prevent the SME from capitalising on Internet opportunities. This finding

138

also supports the arguments of Bohan (1994) and Ó’Gorman (1997), who also highlight

the skills deficiencies of Irish SME management.

The author was extremely surprised with the low level of agreement as regards

the importance of the other barriers to innovation. This was especially in the light of

issues regarding security and / or privacy. The majority of respondents did not agree

that issues such as security, time, cost, measurability or fear of technology were

important to their perceptions of online business. This disagreed with much of the

argument in Chapter 3, which focused on key industry drivers regarding privacy and

trust (Cheskin Research 1999). Much of this information was however orientated

towards consumer perceptions, and not business perceptions. This suggests that there is

a possibility that the barriers to innovation may be higher from the mindset of the

consumer, and not the business.

To view the level of dissatisfaction with, or problems with online promotion as a

whole, a new variable was created which summed up the responses of each case in each

variable.

Statistics

REASONNO138

12

19.8913

20.0000

21.00a

4.4749

-1.160

.206

2745.00

Valid

Missing

N

Mean

Median

Mode

Std. Deviation

Skewness

Std. Error of Skewness

Sum

Multiple modes exist. The smallest value is showna.

Figure 5.15 shows that as a whole, on average, respondents agree to a level of

19.89 out of 30 (five levels of agreement X six variables), or 66 percent, that the

suggested problems, or barriers to innovation are relevant.

139

Figure 5.15

This can be shown more clearly if this score is recoded back into a 5 point

agreement scale, but taking into account the use of all the 6 variables in one overall

rating. This rating is described below.

From Figure 5.16, it can be seen that 66 percent agree, or strongly agree that the

potential problems in engaging in online promotion are important. 28 percent were

neutral, and only 6 percent did not believe that the suggested barriers to innovation were

a problem for their businesses.

5.5 The Web Site

This section will investigate the various issues regarding the use of web sites

among respondents.

5.5.1 How Many

140

1-6 = Not at all important (1.00)

7-12 = Not important (2.00)

13-18 = Neutral (3.00)

19-24 = Important (4.00)

25-30 = Very important (5.00)

Figure 5.16

Primarily, it is important to examine the number of respondents who have a web

site to supplement their traditional promotion, and whether this differed between

sectors. This can be seen below.

According to the study, 72.5 percent of SME respondents have websites to

supplement their business and promotional efforts. The differences among sectors are

not distinctive, the figures being 76 percent of services, 68 percent of manufacturing

and 73.7 percent of exporter companies having websites. The only exception is the

importer business sector. This is argued to be attributed to the low number of import

company respondents (only 8 percent of the sample) skewing the results of this section

heavily. According to a May 2000 report from NewWorldCommerce and The

Marketing Institute, 87 percent of Irish businesses (all sector sizes) have a website.

Contrasting this finding against that of this study, it signifies that the SME sector is

competing well with larger business, as regards web site presence.

5.5.2 Length of Presence

As regards the length of time that respondents have had their web site, the

following analysis was carried out. The 6 months to a year category returned only 2

respondents. Hence, this category is omitted, and is treated as a missing value.

141

The percentage of Irish SME respondents who have a company website

Figure 5.17

Respondents on average have had a site for over a year (mean 3.33). There is a

relatively even spread in the category of web presence time, as can be seen from the

cumulative percent in Figure 5.18. However, as can be seen from Figure 5.19 below, 29

percent of companies have had their websites for over three years, and could hence be

argued that this represents a significant number of innovative SME’s.

.

How long have they had the site?

24 16.0 22.6 22.6

30 20.0 28.3 50.9

21 14.0 19.8 70.8

31 20.7 29.2 100.0

106 70.7 100.0

2 1.3

42 28.0

44 29.3

150 100.0

Less than 6 months

More than one year

More than two years

More than three years

Total

Valid

Less than one year

System

Total

Missing

Total

Frequency PercentValid

PercentCumulative

Percent

5.5.3 Internal Skills

The relevance of SME resources and skills were argued to be a paramount

barrier to innovation for the firm in Section 5.4. With this in mind, the internal skills

regarding the creation or updating of a web site were examined. Some 72 percent of

respondents claimed to have some person in their company who would have the skills to

be assigned to, or maintain a website. 25 percent do not have the skills, and the

remainder consists of a small number of non-respondents (3 percent), who presumably

felt this information confidential.

5.5.4 Complementation of Media

Section 1.4 dealt with the possibility of the complementation of online and

offline promotion, and the scope that is available to the SME in this regard. Hence, it

142

Figure 5.18

was investigated whether SME’s with a website, and who use forms of traditional

promotion, mention their website in their traditional promotion.

In order to ascertain this, a split case analysis was carried out on account of any

company who used any traditional method of promotion, who had a website, and who

also used any form of online promotion. 85.7 percent of respondents fulfilling the above

criteria mention the website in their traditional promotions. This highlights the fact that

Irish SME’s are noticing the benefits in promotional spend and awareness by integrating

their online and offline promotions as suggested by Maddox and Mehta (1997) and

Coffey and Stipp (1997), in Section 1.4. These results can be seen in Figure 5.19.

is website mentioned in traditional media

15 10.0 14.3 14.3

90 60.0 85.7 100.0

105 70.0 100.0

45 30.0

150 100.0

no

yes

Total

Valid

SystemMissing

Total

Frequency PercentValid

PercentCumulative

Percent

5.5.5 Differences between variables

Considering the total sum of perceptions of the barriers to innovation, one might

expect there to be a difference between the strength of these perceptions and the amount

of time that respondents have had an online presence. This hypothesis is suggested

below.

HO: There is no statistical difference between the amount of time a respondent has

had a web presence, and their strength of perceptions of the barriers to

innovation.

H1: There is a statistical difference between the amount of time a respondent has had

a web presence, and their strength of perceptions of the barriers to innovation.

143

Figure 5.19

Length of Online Presence X Barriers to Innovation

These hypotheses are attempting to discover whether the longer a respondent

company has had an online presence, the less their level of apprehension or total

agreement, towards the mentioned barriers to innovation. Hypothetically, if this were

true, it would signify a learning process on behalf of the respondent, whereby the longer

their business had been online, the less significant the perceived barriers to innovation

would be, as a result of the knowledge and learning gained over time on behalf of the

business.

In order to carry out the analysis of these two subgroups the categorical variable,

‘web_time’, or the amount of time a respondent had a web site presence, needed to be

recoded from a variable with five cases, to a mutually exclusive variable with two cases.

For this reason, the ‘web_time’ variable was recoded into two cases, ‘less than two

years’ (0) and ‘more than two years’ (1). The ‘web_time’ variable was then assigned as

the independent, or categorical variable, with ‘reasonno’ (the total sum of agreement of

the barriers to innovation) as described in objective six, being the dependant, or

continuous variable. A means test, and a summary bar chart was then run, yielding the

7following results, described in Figure 5.20 and Figure 5.21.

These observations were then compared with an Independent Samples T-Test

(Figure 5.23). By observing the Levene’s Test Sig. Value, and noting whether it is

above or below .005, we are directed to note either the top or bottom Sig. (2-tailed)

values respectively. If this value is greater than .05, then we accept the null hypothesis,

and vice-versa.

144

how long

more than two yearsless than two years

Me

an

RE

AS

ON

NO

19.70

19.68

19.66

19.64

19.62

19.60

19.58

19.56

19.54

19.69

19.56

Report

REASONNO

19.5600 25 5.0915

19.6892 74 4.3319

19.6566 99 4.5089

how long

less than two years

more than two years

Total

Mean N Std. Deviation

Independent Samples Test

.062 .804 .123 97 .902 -1.9514 2.2098

.114 36.457 .910 -2.1737 2.4321

Equal variances assumed

Equal variances not assumed

F Sig.

Levene's Test for Equality of Variances

t dfSig.

(2-tailed) Lower Upper

95% ConfidenceInterval of the

Difference

t-test for Equality of Means

As can be seen from Figure 5.22, at a significance value of .902, we must accept

the null hypothesis. This means that from the data, there is no significant statistical

difference between respondents, taking into account the total sum of the barriers of

innovation, and the amount of time they have had an online presence.

A similar analysis was then conducted investigating the difference between the

length of time a respondents business was online, and their total level of agreement with

the benefits of online promotion. This hence, investigates if the longer a business has

145

Figure 5.22

Figure 5.20

Figure 5.21

been online, the more the positive their outlook of online promotion. The following

Independent Samples T-Test was generated (Figure 5.23).

Independent Samples Test

1.083 .301 -.676 100 .501 -3.2912 1.6192

-.622 37.942 .538 -3.5582 1.8862

Equal variances assumed

Equal variances not assumed

F Sig.

Levene's Test for Equality ofVariances

t dfSig.

(2-tailed) Lower Upper

95% ConfidenceInterval of the

Difference

t-test for Equality of Means

Hence we see that a corresponding analysis, but in the case of total agreement of

the uses of online promotion, as opposed to the barriers of innovation, also leads to the

acceptance of the null hypothesis.

5.6 The Users of Online Promotion – the accountability, measurability and

value of it to their business

The concept of the creation of value is important when considering promotional

efforts. The following section will investigate this area.

5.6.1 Value towards margins, sales and awareness

Primarily, online promotion was suggested to benefit the SME in three value

driven ways, by improving sales margins, by improving sales, or by improving

awareness of the business. A simple frequency analysis was run on the variables

‘bnftsale’, ‘bnftmarg’ and ‘bnftawar’, highlighting a number of results.

146

Figure 5.23

147

Firstly, as shown in Figure 5.24,

there is a high level of uncertainty

as regards the benefits of online

promotion towards the respondent

companies margins, with 38

percent claiming ‘don’t know’ as

the answer to this question.

Missing values counted for 2.1

percent of this particular analysis.

38 percent are also not getting any

value on the side of margins, from

online promotion.

Figure 5.25 highlights that 50

percent of respondents claim that

they are benefiting from increased

sales as a result of online

promotion. 31 percent of

respondents are unsure.

Benefits to Sales

Benefits to Margins

Benefits of sales

Benefits of margins

Figure 5.25

Figure 5.24

Figure 5.26

5.6.2 Inter-Relationships

One could assume in essence, that the longer one has had experience of the

Internet and it’s promotional benefits, the more certain they might be of its benefits to

their companies’ sales, margins and awareness. Hence, the following crosstabulations

were generated, to shed light on this hypothesis.

In this case, the three variables were crosstabulated, with the variable describing

how long the business has had a website online (web_time), in all three cases. The

highest percentage value in all three tables is also the ‘yes’ case crosstabulated against

148

Figure 5.26 shows how 68 percent of

respondents claim that their business

is benefiting from increased

awareness as a result, with the lowest

number not gaining any value, at 13

percent. Hence, most respondents are

confident that they are benefiting

mostly from increased awareness as

a result of online promotion.

Benefits to Sales

Benefits of awareness

Benefiting from Sales X Length of Time Online

Benefiting from Awareness X Length of Time Online

the ‘more than three years’ case. The occurrences of the ‘yes’ case also increase the

more the time variable increases. An, example of two of these apparent interactions,

which occurs in all three cases are shown the following crosstabulation tables.

is the company benefiting from sales with online promotion * How long have they had the site? Crosstabulation

1 6 3 4 14

7.1% 42.9% 21.4% 28.6% 100.0%

6 11 7 20 44

13.6% 25.0% 15.9% 45.5% 100.0%

7 7 2 7 23

30.4% 30.4% 8.7% 30.4% 100.0%

14 24 12 31 81

Count

% within is the companybenefiting from sales withonline promotion

Count


Count


Count

no

yes

don't know

is the companybenefiting fromsales with onlinepromotion

Total

Less than 6months

More thanone year

More thantwo years

More thanthree years


Total

is the company benefiting from increased awareness from online promotion * How long have they had the site?Crosstabulation

1 4 1 3 9

11.1% 44.4% 11.1% 33.3% 100.0%

9 12 11 26 58

15.5% 20.7% 19.0% 44.8% 100.0%

4 8 2 14

28.6% 57.1% 14.3% 100.0%

14 24 12 31 81

Count

% within is the companybenefiting from increasedawareness from onlinepromotion

Count


Count


Count

no

yes

don't know

is the companybenefiting fromincreasedawareness fromonlinepromotion

Less than6 months

More thanone year

More thantwo years

More thanthree years


Total

Hence, to statistically test the significance of these tables, three hypotheses are

suggested.

A/

H0: There is no significant relationship between a company’s awareness of the

benefits of online promotion to their margins

H1: There is a significant relationship between a company’s awareness of the

benefits of online promotion to their margins

Chi-square = .176 therefore we accept the null hypothesis.

149

Figure 5.27

Figure 5.28

B/


benefits of online promotion to their sales

H1: there is a significant relationship between a company’s awareness of the benefits

of online promotion to their sales

Chi-square = .325 therefore we accept the null hypothesis.

C/


benefits of online promotion to their awareness in the market

H1: There is a significant relationship between a company’s awareness of the

benefits of online promotion to their awareness in the market

Chi-square = .047 therefore we accept the alternative hypothesis.

To summarise, in the case of hypothesis C, the study finds that the longer an

SME respondent has had an online presence, the more certain they are of the benefits of

online promotion to the awareness of their firm. In the case of the other two factors, of

sales and margins, the study agrees with Lyons (1998) and Munster (2000), who in the

study Introduction, state that there is a significant uncertainty towards how the new

medium can add value.

5.6.3 Defined Objectives

As also outlined in the thesis introduction, it is suggested that SME’s and

businesses in general engage in online promotion “because it seemed like a good thing

to do.” Hence, the level of objectivity of respondents was analysed, to determine

whether or not Irish SME’s businesses have a set number of promotional objectives in

mind when employing online promotion, and in the case of those that to set objectives,

to see if the objectives have been met.

150

As can be seen from Figure 5.29, 57 percent of respondents do not consider any

promotion objectives when engaging in online promotion. Of the 43 percent that do,

there is no considerable difference between the 53 percent of respondents who admit

that their objectives were fulfilled, and the 47 percent stating that they weren’t. This

goes some way in agreeing with Munster (2000) and Lyons (1998), in that Irish SME’s

are adopting a ‘learn as you go’ type approach to online promotion.

5.7 The Future

This section will examine the future place of online tools in the promotional mix

of respondents’ businesses.

5.7.1 Statement

151

Figure 5.29

To begin, the level of agreement of Irish SME respondents, was examined, in

light of the statement that the “Internet is going redefine the way Irish businesses

operate in the future.”

By employing a means analysis on the ‘statemnt’ variable, it was found that the

mean value of agreement is 4.77. This is seen below in Figure 5.30. This figure is from

a possible range of –7 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The most commonly

occurring answer (the mode) was the highest level of agreement of 7.

Statistics

Level of agreement whether the internet will redefinethe way irish businesses promote in the future

148

2

4.77

5.00

7

706

Valid

Missing

N

Mean

Median

Mode

Sum

Further investigation into the spread of responses highlighted that no responses

occurred in some of the lower categories, so cases were grouped together and recoded

evenly, to represent a new 5-point scale, similar to other scale questions in the study.

Again, there were no responses within the lower ‘strongly disagree’ case, so this was

recoded again into a 4-part scale, seen below in Figure 5.31. This was recoded in turn

into a three part scale (Figure 5.32), to more accurately represent the responses,

consisting of the cases disagree, neutral and agree.

152

Figure 5.30

Level of statement agreement

strongly agreeagreeneutraldisagree

Pe

rce

nt

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

59

33

6

statement

statement

agreeneutraldisagree

Pe

rce

nt

100

80

60

40

20

0

88

11

Hence, it is suggested that 88 percent of Irish SME respondents believe that the

Internet is going to redefine the way Irish businesses promote in the future. A mere 1.4

percent of respondents disagree with this statement.

This represents a clear ‘vote of confidence’ of the relevance of online promotion

in the Irish SME sector. This figure also represents a clear increase from a similar

survey conducted in 1998 by the NUI, Galway. The results of that survey found that 33

percent of SME respondents did not find that the Internet was vital to their business, as

opposed to the much lower 1.4 percent level of this research study.

5.7.2 Respondents Plans of Action

153

Figure 5.31

Figure 5.32

Respondent Plan of Action

In the previous finding, it is noted that vast majority of respondents believe that

the Internet is going to alter the way Irish SME’s conduct their business. If this is true,

then it is necessary to observe how these respondents are going to deal with the changes

in their competitive environment. The following analysis investigates whether Irish

SME respondents plan to creating or updating a company website, and/ or begin to

implement online techniques into their promotion strategy, within the next year.

The positive results of the previous finding are shown to be reflected in the

actual intentions of respondents. As described in Figure 5.33, of respondent companies

without a web site at time of research, 81.6 percent plan to create/ update one in the next

year. Of those currently with a website, 97.2 percent of these companies plan to

continue their presence.

Similarly, as seen in Figure 5.34, 79 percent of respondents not using online

promotion at time of writing plan to do so in the next year. Of those that are currently

promoting online, 97.6 percent of these respondents wish to continue doing so for the

next year.

18.4% 81.6%

17.9% 82.1%

2.8% 97.2%

7.5% 92.5%

plans to create / updatewebsite in the next year

plan to promote onlinein the next year

no



yes

does the companyhave a website

%

no

%

yes

154

Figure 5.33

11.5% 88.5%

21.3% 78.7%

3.5% 96.5%

2.4% 97.6%



no



yes

does the companyuse onlinepromotion

%

no

%

yes

From an overall perspective, as seen in figure 5.35, 93.2 percent of total

respondents claim that they will create their site or update their current site in the next

year, with almost 90 percent planning to promote online within the year. This represents

a considerable level of confidence in the area of online promotion for Irish SME’s.

5.8 Analysis of open-ended question.

In addition to the closed questions of the research instrument, respondents were

also asked to complete a final open ended question, it being “How do you think that

promotion and marketing using the Internet (or will not) change the way you conduct

business?”

155

Irish SME’s Online Plans for the next year (overall)

Figure 5.34

Figure 5.35

Of 150 respondents, 89 responded to this optional question. The full transcript of

these responses can be seen in appendix x. Responses were individually analysed, and

the key, broad points of each was noted. Below are table highlighting the key points,

both positive and negative, that arose, and the frequencies of their occurrences.

5.8.1 Positive Effects on Business Operations

Frequency Positive Aspects

20

More global presence/ new markets

17 Better service & customer support

17 Efficiency

8 Opportunities in potential customer acquisition

7 Increased awareness

7 Opportunity to display catalogue/ product offering

4 Better targeting possibilities

3 Reduce traditional promotion expense

3 Keeping up with competition

3 A better sales channel

1 Innovation

1 Measurability

As shown in Section 5.4.2, the most popular way that respondents believe that

Internet promotion will change their business is in the area of the opening up of new

global markets, with small amounts of resources. For the purposes of the study, privacy

will be retained, and the actual quotes will not be included.

The second most popular aspect which respondents identified as a benefit of

online promotion, was in the area of increased customer support and service

possibilities. Also, promotion efficiencies, by the way of cost and time savings

economies, were mentioned on a par with the aforementioned benefits.

156

Figure 5.37

Thirdly, respondents also identified the promotion opportunities for potential

customer acquisition.

5.8.2 Negative Effects on Business Operations

As regards the negative comments given by respondents towards the impacts of

online promotion, the primary reason given was that it was simply not applicable to

their business

Frequency Negative Aspects

4

Not applicable to type of business

3 Not enough face to face communication

3 Not enough consumers online

2 Internet Service Provider fixed charges too high

2 Lack of a sound business model

2 Increased e-mail spamming

2 Lack of certainty/ knowledge

Two other significant areas of concern identified by respondents are that online

promotion does not enable the element of face-to-face communication, and that there

are currently not enough consumers online, to merit the use of online promotion.

Thirdly, other aspects such as ISP fixed charge prices, the lack of a sound

business model, and the lack of understanding/ skills are cited, as problems respondents

believe relevant to online promotion.

157

Figure 5.38

5.9 Conclusion

The analysis above deals with each research objective and hypothesis,

explaining, answering, and reviewing each in the light of the first three chapters. All

analysis was carried out with the use of SPSS 9.0, and an example of the research

datasheet can be seen in the Appendix. With the analysis implemented,

recommendations and conclusions derived from these results are explained in detail in

the following chapter.

158

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