Editorial Board

A Refereed Monthly International Journal of Management

Consumer’s Attitude towards Mobile Marketing: an empirical investigation

Author

Rekha PhD Scholar UTU Dehradun & Assistant Professor Banarasi Das Chandiwala Institute, Dwarka E-mail:- rekkhadahiya@gmail.com

Dr. Pooja Jain Associate Professor Jagan Institute of Management Studies Rohini, Delhi-110085 E-mail:- Poojajain0578@gmail.com

Abstract

Today marketers have realized the potential of one of the most prominent digital communication tool of modern times - the ‘Mobile Phone’ which is also known as ‘third screen of communication’ after television and internet that enables them to communicate with their target customers in customized, relevant, specialized, measurable and interactive manner. Indian mobile marketing landscape is witnessing a significant augmentation with each passing year. Mobile phone is writing new rules in Indian digital arena with more than a 1.18 billion in February, 2018(TRAI). India has emerged as a leading contributor along with China towards smartphone usage. The present study dealt with understanding the consumers’ attitude towards mobile marketing along with understanding consumers’ response towards mobile ads. Data was collected from Delhi area from 205 respondents. Non-probability sampling was used to collect the data. Structured questionnaire based on 5 point Likert scale was used to collect the data. Data was analyzed with the help of non-parametric tests like one sample bi-nomial test and one sample wilcoxon signed rank test. It was concluded from the study that consumers had positive attitude towards mobile marketing.

Keywords: Mobile Marketing, Attitude, Mobile Advertisement, Mobile Apps.

Mobile: The Contemporary Digital Channel

Mobile phone technology has witnessed transformation as the most significant contemporary channel of communication from simply being a connection device since its inception in 1973. Now mobile phone has been accepted as ‘third screen of communication’ after television and internet (Moore and Benbasat, 1991; Tanakinjal, Deans & Gray, 2007). Interactivity, measurability, localization and ubiquity of mobile phones are responsible for its acceptance as modern day marketing tool among the customers (Barwise and Strong, 2002; Hjorth, 2009; Manzoor, 2010). Interactivity facilitates the bi-directional communication, instant reply and building direct dialogue between marketer and customer. Customers can also actively demand the specific information by using GPS service. This has led to creation of location based services by marketers that help customers to pick the best service available. The most important feature of a mobile phone which makes it as most desired digital tool of today is its ubiquity which deals with possession of mobile phones every time and everywhere. It enables a marketer to contact its potential customer at any place and time (Hongcharu and Eiamkanchanalai, 2009).

Today marketers have realized the potential of the device as a communication channel that enables them to communicate with their target customers in customized, relevant, specialized, measurable and interactive manner. Today marketers need to develop innovative tools to attract customers in overcrowded and highly competitive marketplace. Mobile marketing can be understood as using mobile as a medium of delivering relevant marketing communication like information and promotion to the target audience (Hongcharu & Eiamkanchanalai, 2009). Rising costs of traditional media, lack of absolute measurement of the communication impact, limited or no customization with traditional media and high penetration of internet enabled devices are the factors that motivate marketers to look towards mobile marketing that acts as strategic communication tool (Storkel, 2014). Mobile has proven itself as a cost-efficient device when it comes to capturing attention of customers as compared to traditional media (Turow, 2006). Marketers are using mobile phones as communication channel because of its measurable nature as with the help of Subscriber Identity Module (SIM); it becomes easy to identify and contact with the potential customers. Global Positioning System helps operators to utilize the current location of the customers for informing them about relevant information thereby triggering impulse purchases. Mobile advertising, apps, wallets, entertainment, internet, discount coupons, location-based mobile services, and mobile banking are few of the mobile based marketing promotional activities successfully used by the marketers (Hjroth, 2009).

The success of mobile communication can be attributed mainly to providing instant connectivity irrespective of location, specific and relevant information through calls, sms, mms, alerts, notifications, apps, value added services and high speed data services to mobile users (Pandey and Shukla, 2010). Now people use their mobile devices for activities like shopping, browsing products, comparing price, reading product reviews, in-store price comparison, receiving online coupons and purchasing products (Yang and Kim, 2012).

Mobile’s application as a communication tool also has certain drawback like customers feel annoyed with the marketers when they breach their privacy and send unsolicited messages (Norris, 2007). They don’t take unsolicited messages in good spirit. Moreover customers are cynical about its authenticity and security. Consumer’s attitude toward mobile marketing is considerably affected by the perceived entertainment, informativeness and credibility of an advertisement (Liu and Jang, 2007). Mobile marketing being dependent upon technological innovation and improvements; also needs to take into consideration aspects like relative advantage, compatibility, complexity and trial-ability into consideration (Rogers, 2003). Mobile being a primarily digital access device, offers plethora of opportunities for the marketers who now can easily access the customers that were traditionally difficult to reach. The present study aims to assess the consumers’ attitude towards mobile marketing. The next section gives the brief snapshot of mobile marketing in India.

Mobile Marketing: The Concept

Traditional channel are ineffective when it comes to getting attention of customers. But, mobile is an interactive and capable device of getting time and the attention of consumers (Pousttchi, and Wiedemann, 2006). Mobile is a device with huge potential (Kavassalis, et al., 2003; Norris, 2007; Nysveen, Pedersen and Thorbjørnsen, 2005) that targets consumers more efficiently (Barwise and Strong, 2002). One can trace back the history of mobile to early seventies. The first mobile call was made in 1973. At that time mobile was having a battery life of less than 30 minutes and took more than 10 hours to recharge. Now Mobile has been acknowledged as a media powerhouse all over the world (Nielsen Study, 2013).

Mobile marketing can be defined as mobile enactment of activities and processes that help a marketer to deliver, exchange and communicate offers of value to the customers (Manzoor, 2010). Mobile enactment here means mobile channels and collectively the term refers to wireless network, mobile phones, application providers and marketers. Mobile marketing is also referred as Wireless Communication. Mobile marketing makes use of text, graphics, audio and video. Mobile Marketing facilitates organizations to communicate and engage with the target audience in an interactive and relevant conduct through any mobile device.

Cengiz and Tetik (2010) defined mobile marketing as process of delivering relevant promotional information to the target customers using mobile devices. Mobile marketing aims to promote the sales of marketer’s products along with building brand awareness. Scharl, Dickinger and Murphy (2005) stated that mobile marketing uses a wireless medium to deliver consumers the personalized time and location specific information that promotes products, services and ideas of the marketer.

Ryan (2014) in his study attributes technology responsible for making an impeccable contribution towards the success of mobile marketing. Author asserts that customers expect a certain standard of service or experience while using mobile. The technology must be usable by the customers and should offer relative advantage over traditional medium. Marketers also take into consideration the different types of devices held by the consumers along with platforms and transmission technology (Nielsen Study, 2015).

Currently marketers use number of mobile marketing instruments namely SMS, MMS, web browsing, QR Codes, Mobile applications and Local Transmission Technologies like Bluetooth and WLAN. Marketer can go for pull or push strategy. Pull is the situation when user demands for particular content of service. This might happen in case of idle time, emergency situation, seeking situation and quasi –stationary situations. Push strategy on the other hand refers to the unsolicited content that is pushed by the marketer. Marketer can use this strategy at various occasions or to inform the customer about special offers. Here concept of permission marketing (Godin, 1999) becomes important where marketer seeks the permission of the consumer before sending the content (Kavassalis, et al., 2003). As a result of this, consumers only choose that information to receive that they have interest in. A study conducted by Criteo Survey revealed that mobile has secured a prominent place for key marketing channel both for traditional and new age marketers. It has evolved into channel facilitating brand comparisons, analysis, buying and selling, content sharing and brand building. 36% of traffic for online retail, travel and e-commerce companies in India comes from mobile devices especially mobile websites and apps which ultimately contribute 32% towards overall sales. Mobile apps alone are contributing towards 11% of the online traffic which ultimately gets converted into sales. More than 60% search queries come through mobile. The study also revealed that video formats are the most effective mobile marketing tool offering superior returns in comparison to banner ads. 55% of the YouTube videos are watched over mobile phones (Rai, 2016).

People resort to mobile marketing for obvious reasons of location and time independence, personalization, location ability and interactivity. A marketer can contact the customer anytime and anyplace as geographical constraints don’t apply here (Hronek et al., 2006). Moreover mobile marketing is highly personalized and interactive in nature as normally mobile device is held by an individual and person can react in real time (Bauer, Barnes, Reichardt and Neumann, 2005). Locatability helps the marketer to know the exact location of the customer by with the help of technology like GPS and COO.

Consumers however remain cynical about the authenticity of the information provided over mobile phone. The information is not credited as authentic as obtained from traditional sources. Apart from this size of display, memory and access point affect the applicability of mobile applications. Customers should also find the technology easy to use and hassle free. They must be assured of the privacy of the information shared with the marketers. Security remains a big issue in mobile advertising in India (Pandey and Shukla, 2010).

Social networking sites are also on surge in terms of their usage. There are 217 million social networking sites users in India with 17% penetration level (Statista, 2016). 97 million users access social media via their mobile phones. Social networking giant Facebook has 166 million users in India. More than 157 million Facebook users in India access their account daily via their phones (Gupta, 2016).

There is no denying to the fact that Indian consumers are continuously embracing mobile technologies despite screen size constraints, low per capita income, language barriers etc to name a few. Mobile also represents itself as an excellent marketing opportunity to the marketers in the form of mobile advertising, mobile apps downloading; web browsing, using real time statistics, services like mobile banking, wallet money and mobile shopping. So, theme of analyzing attitude towards mobile marketing presents itself as strategic area for the researcher. However, it must not be interpreted that high penetration of mobile phones essentially leads to success of mobile marketing. There are challenges of compatibility, complexity, trialability along with safety, security, trust, permission and authenticity which apply to mobile marketing. These challenges make role of technology in mobile communication research worthy so that communication from marketers’ end could reach the right target audience in a hassle free manner.

Research Methodology

Companies are increasing their ad spend on mobile phone technology and customers also accept it as a new tool of communication leaving behind the barrier of location. Mobile marketing is rewriting new rules in marketing communication as it is offering relevant and personalized content to the target audience at a reasonable cost. So, the present study aims to study the attitude of customers towards Mobile Marketing as a communication channel. The study is descriptive in nature as it intended to understand the preference, attitude and response of consumers towards mobile marketing.

To be more precise, following objectives were envisioned for the proposed study:

. To study the most preferred mobile marketing tool used by the customers.

. To understand the consumers’ response towards mobile advertisements.

. To study the attitude of customers towards Mobile Marketing.

Data was collected from Delhi area from 205 respondents from Sept 2017 to December 2017. Non-probability sampling was used to collect the data. Structured questionnaire based on 5 point Likert scale was administered to the respondents. Reliability of the measures was checked with the help of Cronbach’s Alpha that ensured the internal consistency of the items in the construct. Data was analyzed with the help of SPSS. Non-parametric tests were used as test of significance.

Respondents Profile

Table 1.1 given below gives the profile of the respondents in the study. It can be seen from the table that 53% of the respondents were in the 15-25 years age group whereas 23% respondents belonged to 26 to 35 years age group. 81% of the respondents possessed either a graduate or post-graduate degree. 47% of the respondents fell in to the annual household income bracket of 5 to 10 lakhs. 25% respondents belonged to below 5 Lakhs income category. 40% of the respondents were in service and 20% respondents corresponded to business as an occupational category. 25% of the sample was represented by students. 63% males and 37% females respondents constituted the sample in the study. 85% of the respondents claimed to possess a smartphone whereas only 15% respondents possessed a feature phone.

Table 1.1: Respondents’ Profile

Source: Authors’ Analysis.

Consumers’ Activities over Mobile Phones

Mobile is no longer a connection device only as it is emerging as channel of preferred choice for number of consumer activities ranging from watching videos, shopping, social networking, chatting to making payments and making payments. Table 1.2 given below gives the details of most preferred consumers’ activities undertaken through mobile phone.

Table 1.2: Consumers’ Activities over Mobile Phones

Source: Authors’ Analysis

It can be seen from the table 1.2 that sending messages (84%), reading and surfing internet (80%), watching videos (77%), playing games (75%) and looking for directions and locations (70%) emerged as the most performed activities over mobile phone. Mobile banking (33%) and making payments (44%) were the least performed activities over mobile phone. It can also be seen from the table that 61% respondents ordered and shopped via their mobile phones. One sample Bi-nomial Test was applied as test of significance at .05 (5%) level of significance; as data dealt with bi-nomial categorical data. The hypothesis for the test stated

H_a: Customers performed certain activities more than other activities over mobile phone.

The results of the test of significance are given below in table 1.2. P value was found less than .05 for all the consumer activities which indicated the significance of the test. So, alternate hypothesis was accepted and it was concluded that sending messages, reading and surfing internet and playing games were the most performed activities whereas mobile banking and making payments were the least performed activities over mobile phones.

Most Preferred Mobile Marketing Tool: Apps

Marketers use number of mobile marketing tools to meaningfully interact and engage with the target customers. The most commonly used mobile marketing tools include SMS, QR Codes, Mobile Apps, Mobile site and Mobile advertisements. From the study it was found that mobile apps were the most preferred mobile tool whereby 35% of the respondents agreed to use them the most, followed by SMS (23%), Mobile Site (18%), Mobile Advertising (16%) and QR Codes (8%). Table 1.3 given below illustrates the findings.

Table 1.3: Most Preferred Mobile Marketing Tool

Source: Authors’ Analysis

One sample binomial test at 5% level of significance was used as test of inference to understand whether there was a statistical difference among usage of various mobile marketing tools. The hypothesis for the test was

Ha1: People discriminately used the mobile marketing tools.

As shown in the table 1.3, the significance level for each category was below .05. So, we failed to accept the null hypothesis and accepted the alternate hypothesis which stated that people didn’t use all mobile marketing tools indiscriminately. So, Mobile apps was the most used mobile marketing tool.

Consumers’ Response towards Mobile Ads

Mobile advertisement is also one of the major tools used by marketers to engage with its target audience. A recent report by Zenith’s Mobile Advertising Forecasts claimed that mobile advertising would overtake desktop advertising in the year 2018 thereby contributing 52% of overall internet advertising (CIOL, 2016). Another research by eMarketer (2015b) pegged the Indian mobile advertising market at $100 billion by the end of 2020. E-commerce segment is the largest player in mobile ads constituting 50% share of the pie. Mobile advertising is going to be 15-20% of total advertising budget by 2020. So, it was thought appropriate to study the consumers’ perception towards mobile advertising. Table 1.3 given below represents the details of Mobile ads. It can be seen from the table 1.3 that 100% respondents agreed in the study that they had received the mobile ad. It can also be appreciated from the table that 30% of the respondents delete the ads received over mobile whereas 21% ignore the mobile ads. 37% of the respondents in the study claimed to read the mobile ads immediately after receiving. 21% respondents ignored the mobile ads received whereas 12% of the respondents read the ads later on.

Table 1.3: Consumers’ Response towards Mobile Ads

Statement	Response	% of Respondents
Mobile Ad Received	Yes	100
	No	0
Response Upon Receiving Mobile Ads	Read that immediately	37
	Ignored that	21
	Deleted that	30
	Read that later	12
Most Interesting Mobile Ad Format	Text Ads	15
	Banner Ads (At the top or bottom featuring text and graphic)	28
	Native Ads (Don’t look like ads, provide more relevant info, merge with publishers’ site)	8
	Video Ads (Basically videos which play when user clicks/interacts)	45
	Interstitial Ads (Ads displayed on entire screen with a call to action )	4

Source: Authors’ Analysis

Marketers use different ad formats to convey the relevant information to the consumers. Most common formats used by marketers include text ads, banner ads, native ads, video ads and interstitial ads. Researcher aimed to know the most interesting mobile ad format from consumers’ perspective. It can be seen from the table that consumers preferred video ads the most (45%), followed by banner ads (28%) and text ads (15%). Native ads (8%) and interstitial ads (4%) were least preferred mobile ad formats.

The findings can be understood from the fact that video ads present the marketer’s message in an interesting and more understandable manner; which also has the capability to incite the consumer’s interest in the advertised products. Banner ads and text ads might be preferred because of their maximum usage by the marketers and simplicity. Native ads and interstitial ads might not be preferred by the consumers because of their intrusive and annoying nature.

Attitude towards Mobile Marketing: Construction of Scale

Attitude can be defined as a predisposition to behave in a favorable and unfavourable manner towards an object, person or situation. Existing literature was reviewed to elicit the commonly held belief about mobile marketing. The beliefs were converted into the statements and attitude of the customers was measured using five point scales. Table 1.4 gives the details of the scale constructed for measuring attitude towards mobile marketing.

Table 1.4: Scale for Measuring Attitude towards Mobile Marketing

Sr. No.	Mobile Marketing Statement	Reference Studies
1.	Mobile marketing facilitates an informed purchase decision.	Koo, 2010; Lamb, 2011; Yousif, 2012.
2.	I get the relevant information over mobiles.	Shimp and Kavas (1984); Ducoffe, 1996; Le and Nguyen, 2014.
3.	I especially prefer the marketing information over mobile containing discounts, coupons and special offers.	Ashraf and Kamal, 2010; Patet, 2011.
4.	I find mobile marketing information exciting.	Ducoffe, 1996; Noor, Sreenivasan and Ismail, 2013; Saleem, 2015; Dincheva and Nikolovska, 2016; Le and Nguyen, 2014.
5.	I get good value deal over mobile phone.	Noor, Sreenivasan and Ismail, 2013; ALhrezat 2013.
6.	Information sent by marketers over mobile increases my understanding.	Noor, Sreenivasan and Ismail, 2013.
7.	Using mobile for searching about products before buying is a cost effective alternative.	Winer, 2009; Chowdhury Parvin, Weitenberner and Becker, 2010; Yousif, 2012.
8.	Mobile marketing is not technical in nature.	Luxton et al., 2009; Chowdhury, Parvin, Weitenberner and Becker, 2010; Tsang et al., 2004.
9.	I sometimes find mobile marketing annoying.	Le and Nguyen, 2014; Ducoffe, 1996; Tsang et al., 2004
10.	I can easily share the information with my friends.	Bush, Smith, and Martin, 1999; Bauer et al., 2005; Nabizadeh and Gharib, 2012
11.	I can trust the information sent to me over mobile.	Kamphuis and Ramnarain, 2012; Le and Nguyen, 2014.
12.	I am cautious about the privacy of my personal details shared with marketer.	Hess, Foss, and Carroll, 1995; Kamphuis and Ramnarain, 2012.
13.	Mobile marketing increases the loyalty towards marketer.	Merisavo et al., (2007); Chowdhury et al., 2010; Yousif, 2012.
14.	Mobile marketing helps increasing the brand awareness.	Pelau and Zegreanu, 2010; Yousif, 2012.
15.	Mobile advertisement affects the attitude towards advertised product.	Pelau and Zegreanu, 2010; Yousif, 2012.

Source: Literature Review

Consumers’ Attitude towards Mobile Marketing: The Analysis

Data was analyzed with the help of Cronbach’s Alpha. The value of tool should be more than .7 or more. The value of the scale used was found as 0.891 which indicated a high internal consistency. Table 1.5 given below presents the details of attitude towards mobile marketing.

Table 1.5: Attitude towards Mobile Marketing

Attitude Statement	Mean Value	Std. Deviation	Test	Sig.	Decision
Mobile marketing facilitates an informed purchase decision.	3.90	.972	One Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test	.000	Reject the Null Hypothesis
I get the relevant information over mobiles.	3.73	.968	One Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test	.000	Reject the Null Hypothesis
I especially prefer the marketing information over mobile containing discounts, coupons and special offers.	4.22	.945	One Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test	.000	Reject the Null Hypothesis
I find mobile marketing information exciting.	3.66	.876	One Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test	.000	Reject the Null Hypothesis
I get good value deal over mobile phone.	3.85	.925	One Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test	.000	Reject the Null Hypothesis
Information sent by marketers over mobile increases my understanding.	3.52	.987	One Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test	.000	Reject the Null Hypothesis
Using mobile for searching about products before buying is a cost effective alternative.	3.83	.919	One Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test	.000	Reject the Null Hypothesis
Mobile marketing is technical in nature.	3.86	.939	One Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test	.000	Reject the Null Hypothesis
I sometimes find mobile marketing annoying.	3.94	.991	One Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test	.000	Reject the Null Hypothesis
I can easily share the information with my friends.	3.53	.841	One Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test	.000	Reject the Null Hypothesis
I can trust the information sent to me over mobile.	2.02	.754	One Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test	.000	Reject the Null Hypothesis
I am cautious about the privacy of my personal details shared with marketer.	4.25	.928	One Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test	.000	Reject the Null Hypothesis
Mobile marketing increases the loyalty towards marketer.	3.41	.958	One Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test	.000	Reject the Null Hypothesis
Mobile marketing helps increasing the brand awareness.	3.56	.874	One Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test	.000	Reject the Null Hypothesis
Mobile advertisement affects the attitude towards advertised product.	3.92	.893	One Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test	.000	Reject the Null Hypothesis

Source: Authors’ Analysis

It can be seen from the table 1.5 that all statements had mean value above 3 except the statement dealing with ‘trusting the information sent by marketer over mobile phone’ which indicated a positive preference towards various attributes of mobile marketing which makes it an important marketing channel of recent times. However it may also be noted that respondents were cautious about the trustworthiness of the information, annoying and intrusive nature of mobile marketing technicality of the medium and privacy of the personal details.

One sample t-test was applied as test of significance at 5% level of significance to determine whether customers’ positive attitude towards mobile marketing is statistically significant. Hypothesis for the test stated:

Ha2: People do not have indifferent attitude towards mobile marketing.

From the table 1.5, it can be seen that customers’ attitude was found significant towards mobile marketing. Therefore we fail to accept the null hypothesis that stated that people have indifferent attitude towards mobile marketing. However, significance of test towards statements dealing with trustworthiness, privacy of personal details and annoying nature also highlighted the credibility and trustworthiness issues in mobile marketing.

Findings of the study

The major findings of the study were as follows:

. Sending messages, reading and surfing internet, watching videos, playing games and looking for directions and locations were the most performed activities over mobile phone. Making payments and mobile banking were the least performed activities over mobile phone.

. There are various mobile marketing tools that are used by the marketers namely Mobile Apps, Mobile Sites, Mobile Advertising, SMS, QR Codes etc. Among all the mobile marketing tools, Mobile App was the most widely used mobile marketing tool followed by text message and mobile advertisement. The findings of the study correlate well with the findings of the study conducted by IAMAI on smartphone users whereby the study revealed that on an average an Indian smartphone mobile user installs 29 apps in his/her phone. Rate of installing apps on mobile phones is higher than the uninstallation rate (Alawadhi, 2016).

. More than half of the respondents either ignored or deleted the mobile ads received. 37% of the respondents agreed that they read the mobile ads.

. Video ads followed by banner ads were the most preferred mobile ad formats.

. Customers had positive attitude towards mobile marketing as they thought mobile marketing as relevant, interactive and cost effective channel of communication.

. Consumers also appreciated the communication containing discounts, special offers and coupon codes.

. Consumers appreciated the easiness in sharing details with their friends or colleagues.

. Consumers expressed their concerns towards privacy of their personal information shared with the marketer, trustworthiness of the information, technicality of the medium and annoying nature of mobile advertising.

. Consumers also agreed that mobile marketing increases the loyalty and brand awareness.

. Mobile advertisements affected the consumers’ attitude towards advertised product.

Recommendation and Conclusion

. Marketers can leverage the power of well designed mobile apps to reach their target audience furnishing product details to the customers facilitating an informed and convenient purchase decision. Compatibility of the app with various mobile operating systems should also be taken into consideration.

. Marketers should design the mobile ads in such a way that could incite the interest of the customers for the advertised product. Clear call to action and special offers and rewards could also be used to kindle the desire of the prospects.

. It was concluded from the study that customers had positive attitude towards mobile marketing like many other new emerging digital technologies. So marketers should share only relevant information with the customers and avoid sharing annoying and unwanted content with the customers. Companies using mobile as a communication channel should focus on evolving new technology that facilitate fast, easy and efficient transfer of information from marketer’ side. They should provide users with more feature-rich access. Marketers should also build applications and websites compatible with existing operating system of various consumers’ devices.

. Customers also expresses certain concerns regarding mobile marketing which should be given due consideration while devising a marketing strategy. Marketers should continuously provide information in the form of help pages, links or tutorials that would help consumer feeling at ease while getting exposed to mobile marketing activities. Text displayed on mobile screen is normally smaller than the desktop. Sometimes only a portion of the marketer’s website is displayed on the mobile screen. Small screen size is inconvent for majority of customers that restrict their activities on mobile platform. Marketer should design their mobile communication strategy in a way that would cross the screen size barriers. Ideally they should build a special website for mobile browsers in order to generate better customer experience. Special efforts should be taken from marketers’ side to ensure the privacy of the personal information shared by customers with marketers.

. Marketers should analyze how people are responding to various mobile marketing tools and try to engage at each and every step of user life-cycle. Marketers should identify which feature the consumers are interacting with most and efforts should be made to generate apps loyalty. Innovative mobile loyalty programmes can also be designed by the marketers to instill loyalty among users. Consumers should be made aware about the app of particular company both by personal and commercial channels of communication. App of the company should be made available at popular apps stores. Mobile marketing enables marketers to segment customers group efficiently on the basis of parameters like history, frequency of visit, favourite items, list items etc. Marketers should carefully target these distinct segments with customized messages about their favourite items, activity and specific promotional program.

There is no denying the fact that Mobile would become indispensable part of communication mix of the companies in the near future. Decreasing data prices, more number of people joining digital revolution, availability of cost effective digital devices and equipment and increasing enthusiasm around internet are the motivating factors which further brighten the potential of this medium. Mobile would also fuel the mobile commerce industry which is growing at a very fast pace in India. The ever evolving technology would further augment its potential in reaching the masses.

Limitations of the Study

The study was conducted in Delhi which is a metropolitan city. So, the results of the study should be applied with caution in non-metro cities. Study made use of 205 sampling units and concluded the results of the study. A larger sample size might yield different results. The study aimed to study the attitude but explicitly didn’t use any specific model of attitude. A suitable model of attitude building in technological settings might be used to better understand the results. Consumers’ response towards mobile advertisements was studied, but why consumers prefer a particular advertisement was not studied. Specific association of demographic factors and consumers’ attitude was not seen. Such an association might reveal important customer segments for marketer to cater.

Implications of the study

The role of mobile phone in marketing communication is quintessential. Impact of advertising on mobile phones enhances the product related vocabulary of consumers and makes them aware, conscious and demanding. As consumers spend a lot of time with their mobile phones, they are subsequently influenced by it. The work will offer the marketers a platform to develop marketing and communication strategies. Therefore, this research will provide insights to the marketers to comprehend the role of mobile phones in shaping the promotion strategies for consumers. Mobile marketing have been an area of interest globally. Mobile phones have acquired enough consumer power to be treated seriously. Vast literature has been studied pertaining to mobile marketing have been conducted primarily in the international markets but not in indian context. India offers an interesting and varied culture and mobile penetration in still increasing which is different from the West, in various social as well as economic variables, thus meriting further research in Indian scenario.

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