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Innovation Management and Marketing in the High-Tech Sector: A Content Analysis of Advertisements
Daniel Gerhard University of Erlangen-Nuremburg, Germany Alexander Brem University of Erlangen-Nuremburg, Germany Christian Baccarella University of Erlangen-Nuremburg, Germany Kai-Ingo Voigt University of Erlangen-Nuremburg, Germany Advertizing high-technology products is a tricky and critical task for every company, since it means operating in an environment with high market uncertainty. The work presents results of a content analysis of 110 adverts for consumer electronics products which examines how these products and the incorporated technology are communicated to the customer. Based on established coding schemes, the content and the appeals of the adverts are evaluated by coders. The results show that these adverts are very informative, mainly have rational appeals and feature products being in the early stage of their life cycles. Regarding the specific content, the mother brand is shown to play a very important role. On the other hand, the results show that incorporated technology, its superiority and functionality do not play an important role in the advertisements

Introduction
Technology plays an essential role in international competition (Mandel, 2000). Today, advances in all fields of high-technology are applied to products in many industries and not only in typical high-technology industries like electronics or telecommunications. Consequently, products which are based on one or even more sophisticated technologies are offered to customers. However, customers naturally have an attitude of reservation against a (new) complex technology they do not understand, which leads to a perceived risk they take in purchasing a high-technology product (Meldrum & Millman, 1991). That is why many new products, especially technological innovations, fail after being introduced in the market (e.g. Cooper & Kleinschmidt, 2000; Gourville, 2006). Therefore, marketing for new technologies does not only involve coping with a high inherent technological risk, but also with high market uncertainty (Moriaty & Kosnik, 1989; Zhurylo & Iazvinska, 2007). These specific requirements must lead to a different marketing strategy (Gardener et al., 2000), including an adjusted communication and promotion strategy, which has not been intensively researched yet (Singh & Schoenbachler, 2001). However in general, marketing activities proved to have a positive influence on the success of a new product (e.g. Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1987; Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1993; Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 2000; Langerak, Hultink & Robben, 2004). Therefore, companies need to pay attention to this topic.

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Hence, the aim of this study is to examine the most promising options for promoting technologies and high-technology products, focusing on the process how information on technologies resp. high-technology products are communicated to the customers in advertisement.

Theoretical Background and Recent Research

In general, communication of technologies can be viewed from two perspectives. On the one hand, it is part of high-technology marketing, in particular of the promotion activities. On the other hand, the communication of technology and innovation-related information is part of corporate communications (Mast, Huck, & Zerfass, 2005). These perspectives can be used to draw a framework that defines the activities for communicating technology to the customer. Corporate communications comprises all issues regarding the internal and external communication strategy of the company. Therefore, the innovation communication strategy should be embedded in this strategy. It consists of internal innovation communications, innovation marketing and innovations public relations (Mast et al., 2005). This basic framework also applies to technologies, as innovations in this case can also include embedded technologies. Internal innovation communication addresses all actors of the company, e.g. executives and employees, and is necessary to define innovation goals and visions. Innovation marketing addresses all external stakeholders related to the company, including competitors, suppliers, traders, and customers. Finally, innovations public relations address stakeholders which have no organizational or market relation to the company, but are still important for succeeding with an innovation in the market e.g. the government or press (Mast et al., 2005). High-technology products are products which have been developed in a highly technical environment, which incorporate a new or advanced technology which acts as a focus for their evaluation, or which are associated with a high degree of technology-based uncertainty. (Meldrum, 1995). High-technology marketing or technology marketing comprises the classic 4 Ps of marketing adjusted to these high-technology products (Mohr, 2001). However, the term technology marketing is not used consistently, as it is also used for the management of acquisition and exploitation of technologies (e.g. Escher, 2005). Within its meaning as 4 Ps for high-technology products, the communication activities towards the customer are within the promotion and advertising activities subsumed under the term promotion. Hence, our research scope is in this particular intersection of corporate communication and high-technology marketing (see Figure 1). It is examined in a content analysis how technology resp. technological products of consumer electronics are communicated to the customer in advertising. In contrast to former studies, we will also explicitly address the role of technology in the advertisement. Especially referring to the aspect of the communication of technology, there are some unique characteristics. Firstly, not all innovations which are communicated are based on a specific technology and are therefore technological innovations. Secondly, innovations

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resp. technological innovations are only the result of the application of technologies which the company is proficient in. The communication about technologies might even start earlier than about innovations e.g. to clarify regulatory issues before developing a technology. Regarding the special case of communicating technology to customers, the link between innovation and technology communications is closer because we focus on the case that the company communicates technologies incorporated in their products or services. Our work concentrates on the communication of product technology-related information to the customer by advertising or promotion activities. Giving information about technologies is a special challenge for the company. The information content has to be carefully considered because technological information is often too complex to understand for ordinary customers. The field of communication of technologies has not been empirically researched in depth yet. However, there are certain findings in the fields of communicating innovations and in the field of high-technology marketing in general. Furthermore, a new technology or innovation often has not been applied widely yet and the customer value and application is still indistinct. Therefore, newness in the context of technological innovation can result in curiosity as well as in refusal (Mast et al., 2005). Resulting from this customer uncertainty, high-technology

Figure 1. Research Scope for the Communication of Technology-related Information to the Customer

Product

Internal

Price

HighTechnology Marketing
Promotion

Other Stakeholders

Corporate Communications

Marketoriented Place

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products require a clear positioning on the market (Meldrum, 1995). A strong brand is especially important for high-tech products because it may reduce the perceived uncertainty for the customer (Mohr, 2001). That is why branding plays an important role for marketers of high-technology products (Traynor & Traynor, 2004). Another possibility to reduce the uncertainty is to prepare the market by preannouncements. This can help to stimulate the future demand and fosters the companys pioneer image. However, the demand for current products might suffer under the preannouncement. Also, competitors are warned and a potential delay against the announced market introduction can damage the companys image (Mohr, 2001). Chandy, Tellis, Macinnis, and Thaivanich (2001) show that argument-based appeal, expert sources and negatively framed messages are more effective for the advertisement in new markets in general. In the context of technology products, this means factbased advertising is more effective (Uslay, Malhotra, & Citrin, 2004). Beard and Easingwood (1992) show that durable competitive advantage especially arises from technical performance quality, distribution, and the rate of improvement. In a later study, Beard and Easingwood (1996) show that marketers therefore emphasize the technological components and positioning for radical products as opposed to market preparation or targeting. When introducing a new high-technology product, innovators and early adopters are targeted and pre-launch information is used to prepare the market. Easingwood and Koustelos (2000) and Easingwood and Harrington (2002) propose to emphasize technological superiority, exclusivity, and a low price for the positioning of a high-technology product. This naturally effects advertising activities. However, their findings remain in the phase of product launch. Furthermore, marketers of radical new products rely on a focused promotion mix which has also consequences on advertising (Uslay et al., 2004). Regarding the message which is communicated to the customers, Moreau, Lehmann, and Markman (2001) show that experts in a certain field have higher cognitive switching costs. Hence, early adopters and innovators are often not experts in the specific field, which means that information about unique features of the high-tech product is required. Uslay et al. (2004) conclude that it is better to focus on core benefits (simple message) instead of functionalities in advertising for radically new products to hold existing customers. On the other hand, Moreau (2001) shows that it is better to focus on functionalities (complex message) to acquire new customers for radically new products because switching costs become less important when customers gain an understanding about functionalities. There are also some findings regarding the information content. Singh and Schoenbachler (2001) analyzed adverts for technology products in different countries. They found that the types of information used most often are availability, quality, and component information (including information on technological details) in advertising for technology products. Regarding the thematic content, information about the effectiveness of a product, the underlying technology and its functions or the technological skills and convenience were found most often. Singh and Schoenbachler (2001) also identified cultural differences in the communication contents.

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Derivation of Hypotheses
From this literature review, we derive the following hypotheses for the advertisement of high-technology products. Relevance of Technology Hypothesis 1a: A clear majority of the adverts emphasize the technological superiority of the product (Rule: H1a is refused if less than 70% of the adverts do not refer to the technological superiority). Hypothesis 1b: The majority of the adverts refer to the incorporated technology and emphasize the superiority of the technology (Rule: H1b is refused, if less than 50% of the adverts do not refer to the incorporated technology and emphasize its superiority). Phase of Product Life Cycle Hypothesis 2: The majority of the products which are advertised are in the early phase of their product life cycle (Rule: H2 is refused if less than 50% of the products are in the early stages of their life cycle). Information Content Hypothesis 3: Adverts for high-technology products are predominantly informative. (Rule: H3 is refused if less than 50% are informative). Branding Hypothesis 5: A clear majority of the adverts for high-technology products try to associate the products with the company brand (Rule: H5 is refused if there is no connection between the product and the brand in less than 70% of the adverts). Emotionality/Rationality Hypothesis 4: Adverts for high-technology products are mainly rational (Rule: H4 is refused if less than 50% of the adverts have more rational than emotional or the same amount of appeals). Industry Description The consumer electronics industry was chosen as a research object for different reasons. The industry is a typical example for high-technology products because, the product life cycles are rather short and the technological development is very fast compared to other industries. This is one of the reasons why the industry could grow over the last years despite the global crises (Fanacht et al., 2008). As the products of the consumer electronics are by definition aimed at end-consumers, advertisement via the mass media plays an important role for the communication with the customer. Furthermore, the consumer electronics traditionally are a very innovative industry, in which several different technologies compete against each other (e.g. LCD against Plasma technology for display technologies). Therefore, we see this industry with its high market and technology dynamics as the ideal research object for our study. The aim is to clarify how technology and high-technology products in this industry are communicated to

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the customer. As advertisement plays an important role for the marketing of high-tech products (Traynor & Traynor, 2004), we decided to analyze advertisements in magazines for consumer electronics. The methodology used is described in the following.

Methodology and Sample

For our research, the contents of advertisements in the field of consumer electronics are analyzed with a content analysis. This method is widespread for this kind of research and is regarded as an appropriate approach to examine whether patterns in the content of print media support research questions (Kassarjian, 1977). Analyzing the content of adverts, our research focuses on two main aspects. The first part of the analysis examines which kind of information is used in the adverts and the relevance of technology in this context. The second part examines whether the content is more rational or emotional. For these evaluations, we use approaches from Resnik and Stern (1977) and Pollay (1983). These approaches, as Tebbey (2004) points out, were explicitly developed for content analysis and are used for the analysis of advertisement for consumer products. Also, the approach of Resnik and Stern (1977) was already successfully applied to analyze adverts in the field of high-technology products (Singh and Schoenbachler, 2001). Therefore, we might apply these approaches to consumer electronic products. However, the design was marginally adjusted to our research, as described in the following. Coding Scheme The relevance of technology is examined by the observed number of mentions of the term technology in adverts, concluding that a high number of mentions is an indication on the importance of technology. Furthermore, to evaluate the first four hypotheses, we use an approach of Resnik and Stern (1977) to analyze the information content, which was also used by Tebbey (2004). The model was originally developed for TV advertisement, but was later successfully applied to the analysis of magazines (Stern, Krugman, & Resnik, 1981). The model evaluates the content of an advertisement on the basis of 14 information categories or cues. However, despite to the original application of the model, which sees an advertisement as informative if one of the categories is represented, we follow the application of Tebbey (2004), who argues that it is necessary that more than one category is represented. Therefore, there have to be at least four cues for an advertisement to be informative. Also, as the model was originally developed for consumer products, some of the categories have to be replaced by categories which suit the use for high-technology products, following the approach of Singh and Schoenbachler (2001). The full set of categories to evaluate the information content is presented in Appendix A. In addition, the emotional and rational aspects of the illustrations and text components in the advertisement are examined. Rational contents address the self-interests of the potential customer, suggesting that the product achieves the desired benefits. Examples for rational aspects are quality, performance, or efficiency (Kottler & Armstrong, 1991). Emotional aspects address the experience of the customer causing positive or negative feelings. Examples for emotions used in advertising are humor and happiness, but also fear or guilt (Albers-Miller & Stafford, 1999). For the evaluation of rationality or emotionality

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of the content, we use a categorization of Pollay (1983) and Albers-Miller and Stafford (1999), which was especially developed for the measurement of rationality/emotionality. The categories used for the evaluation of emotional and rational aspects are presented in Appendix B. Additionally, some general information about the advertisements was gathered. Content analysis stands or falls by its categories (Berleson, 1952: 142). Therefore, we put effort in the choice and adjustment of the categories so that they meet the needs of selectivity and clarity. Coding Procedure The coding is based on a standardized questionnaire, which contained the explained categories. Once the coding scheme had been set, two independent persons were selected, who were unaware of the research goal and had no experience in the research field. Both coders were trained in the coding procedure and the relevant technical terms if necessary, following Davis (1997). Furthermore, each coder had the chance to practice the procedure with a few examples before the actual coding started. Inconsistencies were identified and discussed until both coders were familiar with the coding procedure. After the training, the actual coding started. The procedure was conducted over several days including breaks to avoid lack of concentration. The coding itself consisted of two parts. For the first part, examining the general criteria and the information content, the coders evaluated the advertisements independent from each other, consistent with Resnik and Stern (1977). The second part, the examination of the emotionality and rationality was conducted in a group discussion, consistent with Pollay (1983). Therefore, the results of the second part represent the consensus of the group discussion. This procedure is recommended for the evaluation of emotionality and rationality, as these adjectives are very subjective (Pollay, 1983). The intercoder reliability (calculated according to Holsti) was 98%, excluding the results of the group discussion and the general data (e.g. date of advertisement), which was seen as being sufficient. Sample Characteristics For the study, the German consumer electronics magazine HomeVision was randomly selected. It has a print run of 90,000 and is considered to be one of the leading media in the field of consumer electronics, which covers the full product spectrum of the industry. According to the media data of the magazine, the readers are mainly customers of the categories innovators and early adopters. To get an expressive sample, twelve issues of the magazines, from June 2008 to May 2009 were randomly chosen as a sample. Only advertisements which had at least the size of half a page were considered in the study. Furthermore, advertisements which occurred identically twice or more often were excluded to ensure that each advertisement was only analyzed once. To receive reliable results for high-technology products, we also had to exclude advertisements from retailers, as these advertisements often included several products of different manufacturers and could therefore hardly be analyzed. Since some advertisements focused on a specific event, they also had to be excluded to evaluate the products as these advertisements

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clearly differed from the normal advertisement and would have falsified the result. Overall, the final sample comprised 110 advertisements for high-technology products from eight different product categories (see Figure 2). 75% of the advertisements were one-paged, 25% were half-paged.

Results
At first, the relevance of technology was examined. In 48% of the adverts, the technological superiority was pointed out, which means that the majority of the adverts (52%) did not highlight the technological superiority. These results refer to the product as a whole. In addition, the technology was examined separately. In about 36%, the word technology was mentioned, i.e. in the majority of cases, the term did not appear (see Table 1). H1a stated that a clear majority of adverts emphasize the technological superiority of the product. Hence, this hypothesis cannot be confirmed based on our data. The 39 adverts which mentioned the term technology were examined in detail. In 31% thereof , the superiority of the technology was pointed out (Table 2). In about 41% thereof, the functionality of the technology was described. For the whole sample, this means that in 11% of the adverts, the superiority of the technology was pointed out, and in 15% of the adverts, the functionality was explained. Therefore, also hypothesis H1b cannot be confirmed due to our findings.

Figure 2. Frequencies of Different Product Categories

50 40 30 20 10 0
Set-top box and satellite equipment Other equipment Home entertainment systems Media recording Camcorder Video Audio TV
Note: n=110

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The majority (51%) of the adverts pointed out the newness of the product, which means that these products are in the early phase of their product life cycle. Regarding the reference on the newness of a product, there are remarkable differences across the different product categories from 20% to 70% (media recorder excluded). Especially for TV sets, the newness was frequently emphasized (see Table 3). In contrast, however rarely presented in the sample, the newness of camcorders was not emphasized in the adverts. Across all product groups, the majority still pointed out the newness or innovativeness of the products, which means that they are in an early phase of their product life cycle. Hence, hypothesis H2 can be confirmed.

Table 1. Mentions of the Term Technology

Number of mentions 3 2 1 0 Total Note: n=110. Frequency 2 9 28 71 110 In % 1.8 8.2 25.5 64.5 100 In % cumulative 1.8 10.0 35.5 100

Table 2. Superiority and Functionality of Technology for Adverts Which Contain the Term Technology
Superiority of technology (%) 30.8 69.2 100 Frequency 12 27 39 Functionality of technology (%) 41.0 59.0 100 Frequency 16 23 39

Yes No Total Note: n=39.

Table 3. Frequencies of Adverts in Which Newness of Products Was Pointed Out

Product group TV Video Camcorder Set-top box and satellite equipment Audio Other equipment Media recording Home entertainment systems Total No 6 2 4 1 22 7 1 10 53 Yes 14 3 1 1 22 5 0 11 57 Yes (in %) 70 60 20 50 50 42 0 52 52 Total (n) 20 5 5 2 44 12 1 21 110

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In the next step, the information content was analyzed using an adjusted approach from Resnik and Stern (1977). Across all product categories, there were on average 5.6 (SD=1.95) cues according to our coding scheme. 89% of the adverts had at least four of the information cues. 47% had at least six, and 70% had at least five cues (see Figure 3). Hypothesis H3 stated that adverts for high-technology products were informative if a majority of the adverts had more than four information cues. Therefore, based on our data, we can confirm this hypothesis. Besides the amount of information, the kind of information was also analyzed. 30% of the adverts contained information on technical details. 48% indicated that the product was technologically superior (see Table 4). The information given most often in the adverts referred to the brand (100%), packaging and shape (78%) and components or contents (70%). Company-sponsored research or tests (but also independent research or tests), guarantee or warranty and cues on special offers or sales were used least often. As all adverts referred to the technologys or products brand, hypothesis H4 can be clearly confirmed. For the analysis of the emotionality and rationality of the adverts, an approach from Resnik and Stern (1977) with 42 characteristics was used (see Appendix B). This part of the study was conducted in a group discussion to reduce the subjective evaluation. Table 5 shows the frequency of usage for the full set of appeals which were considered. The

Figure 3. Distribution Number of Cues

30 25 20 15 10 5 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Note: n=110

Frequency

Number of cues

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Table 4. Information Content in Adverts (in %)

Information content Brand Packaging or shape Component or contents New Ideas/ Newness/ Innovativeness Technological superiority/ benefits of the product Value/ experience Availability Technical details Independent research/ test results Price Special offers/ sales Guarantee or warranty Company-sponsored research/ tests User manual Note: n=110 Yes (%) 100 78.2 70 51.8 48.2 47.3 40.1 30 25.5 19.1 11.8 5.5 1.8 31.8 No (%) 0 21.8 30 48.2 51.8 52.7 50.9 70 74.5 80.9 88.2 94.5 98.2 68.2 Reliability 1 0.97 0.96 0.97 0.95 1 0.98 0.97 1 0.98 0.98 0.99 0.98 0.97

Table 5. Rationality/Emotionality in the Adverts, Ranked After Appearance

Appeal Frequency in % Effective R 87 79.1% Convenient R 68 61.8% Modern R 63 57.3% Neat R 57 51.8% Ornamental E 48 43.6% Wisdom R 48 43.6% Durable R 47 42.7% Distinctive E 46 41.8% Traditional E 31 28.2% Vain E 23 20.9% Technological R 23 20.9% Enjoyment E 17 15.5% Independence R 16 14.5% Status E 13 11.8% Relaxation E 13 11.8% Freedom E 12 10.9% Cheap R 12 10.9% Productivity R 12 10.9% Untamed E 10 9.1% Magic E 8 7.3% Sexuality E 7 6.4% Note: n=110, R: rational, E: emotional Appeal Adventure Safety Dear Casual Plain Affiliation Youth Family Popular Modesty Nurturance Frail Tamed Maturity Morality Humility Security Succorance Community Natural Healthy E R E E E E E E E E E E R E E E E E E R R Frequency 6 6 5 4 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 in % 5.5% 5.5% 4.5% 3.6% 2.7% 2.7% 1.8% 1.8% 1.8% 0.9% 0.9% 0.9% 0.9% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%

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appeals which were used most often were rational, particularly effectiveness, convenience, modernity and neatness. The emotional attribute stated most often was ornamental, which mostly referred to the shape or presentation which was perceived as beautiful. Within the ten appeals stated most often, 70% were rational. Furthermore, the average use of the different appeals was almost homogeneous across the different product groups, resulting in 3.96 rational and in 2.34 emotional appeals on average per advert. In reality of course, there is always more than one appeal per advertisement. Therefore, we also analyzed the balance of rationality and emotionality per advert. Table 6 shows that in almost 71% of the adverts, there were more rational than emotional appeals. Thus, we can conclude that the adverts are predominantly rational, overall as well as per advert. These observations are also confirmed by a pair-sampled t-test, which is used to examine, if the mean values for cues on rationality differ from those on emotionality. The items for the t-test were the amount of cues for rationality and emotionality in each advert. The observed difference between the average amount of cues on rationality and emotionality was 1.63. The difference was highly significant while the correlation between the items was weak and not significant (see Table 7). Due to our findings, we can confirm hypothesis H5, which stated that adverts for high-technology products are mainly rational. Overall, all hypotheses which were related to the content of the adverts were confirmed due to our findings. The hypotheses which referred to the relevance of technology and

Table 6. Rational and Emotional Cues per Advert

More rational Same amount or less Total Note: n=110 Frequency 78 32 110 In % 70.9 29.1 100

Table 7. Pair-sampled T-test for Cues on Emotionality and Rationality

Rationality AM SD Std. err. mean t df Significance (2-tailed) Correlation Significance correlation (2-tailed) Note: n=110 3.96 1.68 Emotionality 2.34 1.63 Pair Rationality & Emotionality 1.63 2.19 .21 7.79 109 .000 .12 .204

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the technological superiority could not be confirmed by our data. Table 8 summarizes the results of the hypotheses testing and the main findings of the study. In the following, these results are discussed in the context of existing literature, also deriving some theoretical and managerial implications.

Discussion

H1a stated that a lot of the advertisements point out the technological superiority of the product. Based on our results, this statement cannot be confirmed. Mostly, technical details were not used either in the adverts to inform or convince the customer. However, our findings also show that the amount of cases where technological superiority of the product is pointed out is not a minority. Regarding the technology itself, only about one third of the adverts explicitly refer to the incorporated technologies or solely deal with the technologies of a company. 31% thereof emphasize the technological superiority and 41% explain the functionality. For the whole sample, this means that only 11% point out

Table 8. Results of the Hypotheses Testing and Main Findings

Hypotheses A clear majority of the H1a adverts emphasize the technological superiority of the product Result Refused Main findings Majority of adverts do not point out technological superiority of the product Only one third of the adverts mention the term technology Only 11% of all adverts point out the superiority of the technology

The majority of the adverts H1b refer to the incorporated technology and emphasize the Refused superiority of the technology

Only 15% of the adverts refer to how a technology works The majority of the products Majority of products are in the early phase as 52% of the adverts H2 which are advertised are Confirmed of product life cycle of a product and its in the early phase of their refer to the newness product life cycle innovativeness On average, there are 5.6 information references in the adverts Adverts for high-technology H3 products are predominantly Confirmed About 89% of the adverts have at least four information cues informative A clear majority of the adverts for high-technology H4 products try to associate the products with the company brand No product group has on average less than four information cues

Confirmed In all adverts, there is a reference to the brand of the product The four appeals which are used most often are rational ones

H5 Adverts for high-technology products are mainly rational

rational Confirmed On average, there are about four advert but only two emotional cues per In over 70% of the adverts, there are more rational than emotional cues

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the superiority of the technology and only 15% of the adverts explain the functionality of a technology to a certain extent. Overall, it seems that technology itself or incorporated in the product, does not play an important role in advertising in the consumer electronics industry. Our findings regarding these hypotheses contradict proposals of Easingwood and Koustelos (2000) and Easingwood and Harrington (2002), who suggested emphasizing technological superiority. The functionality was frequently not explained either in the adverts, which stands in contrast to the suggestions of Moreau et al. (2001). The second hypothesis refers to the position of the product in the life cycle, stating that the majority of the products are new and therefore in an early phase. Our results support this statement. The results also show that there are product groups in which this is more distinct than in others. Especially adverts for TV sets pointed out the newness of the products. As discussed in the theory section, this is also a product group with a very strong market and technological competition as well as short product life cycles. This confirms the findings of Gardner, Johnson, Lee, and Wilkinson (2000) who propose that the strategy of marketing for high-technology products should depend on the technology turbulence. Hypothesis 3 claimed that adverts for high-technology products are predominantly informative, which can be confirmed by our study. On average, there are 5.6 different information cues per advert, which is even more than an empirical study on pharmaceutical adverts showed (Tebbey, 2004). 89% of the adverts have at least four information cues. Clearly, we can conclude that advertisements of high-technology products are informative. Also, these findings are homogeneous across all researched product groups. The results therefore confirm findings of Chandy et al. (2001) and Uslay et al. (2004) who suggest argument-based appeals and fact-based advertising in new market or for high technologyproducts. Regarding the type of information content, information on product components is important within the adverts in our study. The appeals used most often in the adverts are effectiveness and convenience. These findings are consistent with the results of Singh and Schoenbachler (2001). The fourth hypothesis stated that the majority of the adverts for high-technology products try to associate the products with the company brand. Based on our data, this statement can be clearly supported, as there was a reference on the brand in all cases. Our findings empirically confirm that a strong brand is important for high-technology products (Mohr, 2001). The fifth and last hypothesis stated that advertisements for high-technology products are mainly rational. This hypothesis is confirmed by our findings. Using the approach of Resnik and Stern (1977), our analysis shows that the four appeals which are used most often are rational. On average, there are significantly more rational cues in adverts than emotional cues, which was tested by a pair-sampled t-test. The correlation in this t-test was low and not significant, which means that the amount of cues on rationality is not correlated with the amount of cues on emotionality. Therefore, despite the fact that there are significantly more rational appeals in the adverts than emotional, there seems to be

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no connection between the amount of emotional cues and rational cues in an advert. However, as we already discussed, there are always cues on rationality and emotionality in an advert at the same time.

Implications for Theory and Practice

Our findings suggest that the role of technology in the advertisement of high-tech products is not as important as primarily expected. Neither solely technology nor the technologies incorporated in the product play an important role in the analyzed adverts. And, information on technological superiority and the functionality was not as important as expected either. However, when screening the adverts, some examples did indeed particularly emphasize technology. For example, one of the leading European consumer electronics companies designed an advert which did not contain information on a particular product at all, but communicated two important technologies of the company incorporated in many of its products. The same applies for an advert of one of the leading home entertainment audio manufacturers, explaining the technology of its product series in an advertisement. Therefore, one might conclude that technology does not generally play an important role in high-technology advertisement in the consumer electronics industry, but if technology is emphasized, it is by leading companies in their specific field. However, this is just an impression from our analysis. Overall, advertisements in the consumer electronics industry are highly informative and are mainly for innovative products in the early phase of the product life cycle because the majority of the adverts point out the newness or innovativeness. The adverts are dominated by rational appeals and are therefore functionally oriented. Finally, the brand plays a very important role in advertising high-technology products. Implications for practice are difficult to derive, as there are many interdependencies which cannot be represented in a study design. For example, the fact that technology is less emphasized might be attributed to a strategy of emotional branding and not because the emphasis would not work. This means a connection of the product with the company, not with the technology behind. However, advertising in the field of high-technology products implies for marketing managers in general to develop adverts which must highly informative. As the majority of products do not emphasize technology or technological superiority, this might be a possibility to distinguish oneself from the main stream, as the presented examples of leading companies have shown. At any rate, these activities have to be connected with the whole corporate strategy, especially in the area of marketing. Our study contributes to research in different ways. First, the study gives further insights in the advertisement of high-technology products, confirming earlier findings but also pointing out differences. In addition, this is the first study using this approach of a content analysis for the analysis of technology (and not only the product) as a communication object. Moreover, innovation communication is a very up-to-date topic, as several recent papers in this area show. Therefore, our study gives insights into such an instrument of the marketing mix. Finally, several opportunities for further research can be stated, which will be described in the following.

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Limitations and Further Research

The findings cannot be generalized as there are some limitations. Only adverts from one industry and one country are considered in this study. This is especially important for the results on emotionality and rationality, as these appeals may vary across countries and cultures (Albers-Miller & Stafford, 1999). Furthermore, only adverts from one specific magazine were considered in our study. Also, magazines like the analyzed one address a specific audience, which might be better informed than the average reader. Therefore, the results have to be put in the context of the addressed readers. Based on the discussion and the conclusion, we would like to point out some fields of further research. Firstly, as our analysis shows, technology in high-tech advertisement does generally not play an important role, but is existent especially in companies known for their technological or market success. As these statements are only an impression in our analysis, further research could examine this in detail. Unfortunately, our sample did not allow further analysis on this particular issue. Other studies could either especially examine adverts which focus on technology, e.g. across several industries, or could carry out in-depth studies, e.g. case studies, in leading companies in the field of technology marketing. Another suggestion for a study that arises from our results would be to examine if there is a link between the type of communication of technologies and the success or the reputation of a company.

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Appendix A
Information 1 Technical details Description Technical characteristics and details of the product characteristics of the product and which 2 Component or contents The inherentit has components The superior performance of a product indicating that the 3 Technological superiority/ product has a better or the best performance compared to benefits of the product competitors about the position 4 New Ideas/ Newness/ Indicationsthe words new or of the product in the life Innovativeness cycle with innovative Where can the product been purchased? 5 Availability When can the product been purchased? Presentation of data of independent research institutes or 6 Independent research/ other independent testers, e.g. product tests in specific tests results magazines Company-sponsored 7 research/ tests Test results which were initiated by the company itself 8 Packaging or shape Indications about the packaging or the shape of a product 9 Guarantee or warranty Offer of a service, e.g. with a special warranty The brand name is in the advertisement 10 Brand The brand slogan is in the advert The advert text refers to the brand name 11 Special offers/ sales Indication on a special offer, e.g. discount for a certain time Indication on the price or the cost/performance-ratio of 12 Price the product 13 Value/ experience Indications on the experience of using the product 14 User manual Information on how to use the product Source: adopted from Resnik & Stern (1977: 51)

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Appendix B
Appeal Effective Convenient Cheap Distinctive Traditional Natural Wisdom Productivity Enjoyment Youth Tamed Modesty Plain Adventure Freedom Vain Independence Status Nurturance Family Healthy Rational/emotional Rational Rational Rational Emotional Emotional Rational Rational Rational Emotional Emotional Rational Emotional Emotional Emotional Emotional Emotional Rational Emotional Emotional Emotional Rational Appeal Durable Ornamental Dear Popular Modern Technological Magic Relaxation Maturity Safety Morality Humility Frail Untamed Casual Sexuality Security Affiliation Succorance Community Neat Rational/emotional Rational Emotional Emotional Emotional Rational Rational Emotional Emotional Emotional Rational Emotional Emotional Emotional Emotional Emotional Emotional Emotional Emotional Emotional Emotional Rational

Source: Pollay (1983: 80-86) and Albers-Miller & Stafford (1999: 48)

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