Consumers’ attitudes and behavioural intention towards mobile advertising

Abstract: The rapid proliferation of mobile devices worldwide has created new opportunities for organisations to communicate with their customers at anytime, anywhere. The use of the short messaging service (SMS) to reach clients through their mobile devices is gaining popularity and making the cell phone an essential tool for direct marketing. However, not much is known about consumer attitudes towards this new form of communication. This study aimed at empirically contributing to closing this gap by investigating consumers’ attitudes towards mobile advertising and the factors that influence them. As this research was deductive in nature, and tested a number of hypotheses on precursors and outcomes of attitude towards mobile advertising, the study was quantitative in nature. A self-administered questionnaire was used to gather data. The target population was mobile phone users who were 18 years or older and living in Gauteng (South Africa). A total of 184 usable responses were used in the analysis. The results of the study reveal that consumers’ attitudes towards mobile advertising by SMS are neither positive nor negative. While some people had a positive attitude, a large number of others had a negative attitude. This resulted in overall means that were in the neutral range. Informativeness, entertainment and perceived effectiveness were found to have positive influence on consumers’ attitudes towards mobile advertising. Irritation was found to have a negative influence on consumers’ attitudes towards mobile advertising. The findings further show that relevance of the message and incentives were considered to be the major factors that have an influence on purchasing behavioural intention.M.Com. (Business Management