The Netvertising Image: Netvertising Image Communication Model (NICM) and Construct Definition

Abstract

This paper presents a communication model and nominal definition of advertising images on the Internet, here called the netvertising image (Stern 2001). The model and attribute-based definition facilitate the construction of a formal language system for theory development and hypothesis testing specific to images in the multimedia context. The necessity for so doing is that netvertising has inherited a legacy of fuzzy meanings from marketing, advertising, and consumer behavior research, in which “image” is used variously across the domains of media, message, mental responses, and marketplace behavior. Transformation from this ordinary but ambiguous language system to a formal scientific one proceeds through building a model, sourcing the roots of ordinary meanings, recasting them as attributes, and setting forth a nominal definition. The paper ends with suggestions for future research.