Analysis of Consumers' Attitudes toward Interactivity and Relationship Personalization as Contemporary Developments in Interactive Marketing Communication

Purpose: Interactive marketing communication and relationship personalization present some of the most recent developments in the field of marketing communications. This paper analyzes consumers' attitudes towards the two concepts. Methodology: This study used an online survey on a convenience sample of Internet users in Croatia and a telephone survey (CATI method) on a representative sample of Croatian citizens. Findings: Two main hypotheses researched in this paper are: consumers have a more positive attitude toward interactive marketing communication than toward one‐way communication (H1); consumers have a more positive attitude toward relationship personalization than toward classical transactional relationship (H2). It was found that consumers do want interactive communication, but they are more rigorous about personalization. H1 was accepted, while H2 was accepted only for certain industries. Implications: These findings have implications for the direction of relationship development with consumers. They provide an insight into how consumers want to communicate with companies and organizations and what level of personalization they expect or require. In addition, the findings indicate what companies or organizations should do in order to draw consumers into interactive personalized relationships.