ABSTRACT
In the last 10 years, the Internet has witnessed extraordinary market penetration, and it continues to grow unabated; from approximately 500 million users in 2001, the Internet is predicted to grow to approximately 1 billion users by 2004 (IDC Research, 2001). One area that has experienced tremendous growth is online advertising, a global market predicted to grow from approximately $10 billion in 2001 to over $28 billion by 2005 (Gluck, 2001). In essence, online advertising includes any paid advertisement, from banners to sponsorships, which appears on the Web or other Internet channels, including e-mail. Online advertising has become increasingly sophisticated as retailers and service providers utilize the Internet's capabilities to focus on prospective consumers, identify their particular interests, and position products and services in a way that not only leads to one-time purchases, but to long-term, ongoing customer relationships (Dutta and Segev, 2001). This potential has been improved by the development of a range of online customer relationship management (CRM) tools and techniques, whereby online advertisements can be electronically linked to back-end systems that facilitate interactive e-mail campaigns, incremental customer profiling, opt-in mailing lists, special offers, and many other opportunities (Adflight, 2000).
