Attitude Towards Mobile Advertising and Purchase Intention of Swedish Customers
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Attitude towards mobile advertising and purchase intention of Swedish customers A quantitative study on the impact of message content and flow experience Authors: Madawa Abeywickrama Jana Vasickova Supervisor: Galina Biedenbach Student Umeå School of Business and Economics Spring semester 2014 Bachelor thesis, 15 hp Abstract Due to the rapid technological development in information technologies, and mobile phone industry the usage of smart phone became a new trend consequently leading to more than one billion Smartphone users in the world. One of the most significant characteristic of those users is their growing need to be always connected to the Internet. Desire to do not miss important conversation, news, favorite TV series or result of sports events leads them to subsribe for mobile broad band or else use internet- on-the-go. Consequently telecommunication service providers witnessed increasing trend in mobile broad band subscription over the past five years outnumbering access to the Internet via desktop or other fixed broad band alternatives. Telecommunication providers are not the only one who experienced those changes. The crowd of smart phone users is constantly growing, thus on one hand it represents a compelling group of customers to target yet on the other hand due to its novelty it represents an obstacle for marketers and advertisers when executing communication with customers via a new channel, mobile advertising. Based on market research firms’ predictions of future trends in marketing, mobile advertising represent a one of the most effective communication channels due to its measurability, individual targeting via personalised messages and geo-location targeting. Therefore, in this thesis paper we identified research gap in form of lack of knowledge, that prevents both marketers and advertisers from leveraging the potential of mobile advertising. Designated purpose of this theis is to investigate role of attitudes and flow experience in mobile advertising. Research question to be answered is: What is the impact of advertising message personalisation, permission, and flow experience on attitude towards mobile advertising? And consequently examine what is the effect of attitude towards mobile advertising and flow experience on purchase intention of Swedish customers? In order to address such an issue we developed theoretical framework and conducted survey among Umeå inhabitants to find out their preferences and experiences with mobile advertising. Collected information were analysed in regards to the theoretical framework consisting of theory of flow experience and theory of reasoned action. However the data analysis did prove flow of experience theory as well as theory of reasoned action not all aspects did stand. Through our work we found out that flow experience and attitude towards mobile advertising were supported for purchase intention. While permission, personalisation, infotainment and incentives were supported for attitudes towards mobile advertising. Keywords: digital marketing, mobile marketing, mobile advertising, smartphone, broad band, m-commerce i Acknowledgements We would like to thank those who gave us the possibility to complete our bachelor thesis, to our supervisor Galina Biedenbach, to our Swedish friends, who helped with translating and reviewing survey questionnaire, consequently provided valuable feedback and to all who were willing to participate in the survey and provide information of their opinions, it helped us to understand theories in real life. We are thankful for the support, valuable guidance, knowledge and advice provided to us throughout the research from our families, friends and academic staff. This all enabled us to conduct this thesis paper and fulfil our thesis purposes. Umeå, 27th of May 2014 Madawa Abeywickrama & Jana Vasickova ii Table of Contents 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Choice of subject ........................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Problem Background ..................................................................................................... 1 1.3 Research gap ................................................................................................................. 5 1.4 Research question ......................................................................................................... 9 1.5 Purpose ......................................................................................................................... 9 1.6 Scope ........................................................................................................................... 10 2 Scientific methodology ........................................................................................................ 11 2.1 Research Philosophy ................................................................................................... 11 2.2 Research approach ...................................................................................................... 11 2.3 Research design ........................................................................................................... 12 2.4 Data collection method ............................................................................................... 12 2.5 Research strategy ........................................................................................................ 13 2.6 Survey methods ........................................................................................................... 13 2.7 Time Horizon ............................................................................................................... 14 2.8 Choice of theories ....................................................................................................... 15 2.9 Criticism of sources ..................................................................................................... 16 3 Theoretical framework ........................................................................................................ 17 3.1 Mobile advertising ....................................................................................................... 17 3.2 Consumer attitudes towards mobile advertising ........................................................ 20 3.3 Flow theory and experience ........................................................................................ 25 3.4 Attitudes towards mobile advertising and purchase intention .................................. 26 3.5 The Models used ......................................................................................................... 27 3.6 Conceptual model ....................................................................................................... 28 4 Practical Methodology ........................................................................................................ 30 4.1 Operationalization and measurement of variables .................................................... 30 4.2 Designing the questionnaire ....................................................................................... 30 4.3 Sample strategy ........................................................................................................... 32 4.4 Sample size .................................................................................................................. 34 4.5 Data analysis ................................................................................................................ 34 4.6 Regression analysis ...................................................................................................... 35 4.7 Ethical Considerations ................................................................................................. 35 5 Empirical findings & Data analysis ...................................................................................... 37 iii 5.1 Demographics ............................................................................................................. 37 5.2 Additional findings ...................................................................................................... 38 5.3 Cronbach’s Alpha and Descriptive Statistics ............................................................... 40 5.4 Regression analysis ...................................................................................................... 42 5.4.1 Regression 1 ............................................................................................................ 42 5.5 Regression 2- Attitudes and Flow experience effect on purchase intention. ............... 44 6 Discussion ............................................................................................................................ 46 6.2 Regression 2 - Attitudes and Flow experience effect on purchase intention ............... 47 6.3 Revised conceptual model .......................................................................................... 48 7 Conclusion and Recommendations ..................................................................................... 49 7.1 General Conclusions .................................................................................................... 49 7.2 Theoretical Contribution ............................................................................................. 49 7.3 Practical Implications