Striking it niche. Extending the newspaper brand by capitalizing in new media niche markets: A baseline study of daily newspaper niche Web sites and suggested model for achieving consumer brand loyalty.

摘要

This is the first nationwide study to examine newspaper niche Web sites. It will serve as a baseline for studying long-term changes in this area. Online directors at U.S. daily newspapers were surveyed to determine if they were creating niche Web sites, what types of niche sites were produced, how they were selecting and targeting specific audiences for the sites and what marketing or advertising plans were in place to achieve consumer brand loyalty.; This study attempted to develop a theoretical model, titled the "Communicator-Based Hierarchy-of-Effects Model," to provide a quantitative method for measuring the steps that managers needed to accomplish to ensure consumer brand loyalty. This model, adapted from other hierarchy-of-effects models, may be used when producing niche Web sites and creating marketing communications plans to ensure a strong brand image and consumer brand loyalty. The communicator-based model begins with the creation of the product and incorporates marketing communications concepts that will encourage the target audience to initiate trial, ultimately leading to consumer loyalty to the product and brand. The study's data support the inclusion of the first five steps in the model.; Circulation size had an impact on the number of newspapers that created niche Web sites, size of the online department and online ad salespeople whose main responsibility was to sell advertisements for the Web products. Circulation size appeared to have no impact on the number of newspapers that were completing tasks related to the second through fifth steps of the model.