Traditional versus digital : retail bank marketing communication

Abstract

The advent of Web 2.0 has given individuals and organizations the ability to easily share information over the internet. (Tiago et al., 2014). This fast and cost-efficient means of communication has paved the way for business to make use of digital marketing to advertise products and services. While this emerging strategy has become a steeple in most marketing strategies, there is a lack of literature suggesting that the same can be said for the retail baking industry. This research aims to fill this gap by comparing the effect of both digital and traditional marketing on University of Malta students’ attitudes and subsequent purchase intentions towards services provided by a leading local bank. The study adopts a quantitative approach, specifically in the form of an experiment, analysing the r4esponses of a total 150 participants. Findings from this study show that University students exposed to a digital advertisement were more likely to hold a positive attitude towards BOV, a leading local bank, as opposed to students exposed to traditional forms of advertising. The study also confirms that a positive relationship between attitude towards the brand and purchase intention exists, as initially postulated by Ajzen (1975) in his ‘Theory of Reasoned Action’. By supporting the proposed hypotheses, this study may encourage marketers within the retail baking industry to dedicate more resources to the ever-growing forms of digital marketing, especially when promoting services that target the University student demographic.