MOBILE ADVERTISING IN THE FORM OF SMS – STATUS AND POTEN- TIALS IN BANGLADESH Farooq Hossan* Mahmuda Akter** Laboni Ferdous*** ABSTRACT Mobile ad is a marketing technique in which marketers try to encourage customers to buy products and services through generating and launching advertisement with the help of mobile phone. Among various types of mobile ad SMS ad is relatively low cost and cost effective. The study aims at measuring the potentials of SMS ad in Bangladesh. To finalize the paper both primary and secondary data are collected and used. The study reveals that responses to SMS ad contain any product or services are very much positive. Mobile phone users give importance to SMS advertising. Most of the mobile phone users have willingness to pay attention to SMS ad specially if the ad is related to profession or need. Mobile phone users also provide their affirmative position in the question of information passing to others and registration option offered by the mobile phone operator for receiving a category SMS ad. All these indicate a prospective future of SMS ad in Bangladesh. This paper presents the status and potentials of SMS advertising in Bangladesh. The paper is exploratory in nature. Key Words: Advertising, Mobile advertising, SMS advertising, campaign, two-way communication, Media. 1. INTRODUCTION A mobile ad is a type of campaign that uses mobile phones to generate ad. Through sending ad to the users of mobile phones, a company can reach millions of people effectively. Advertising through mobile phone is a rapidly growing sector providing brands, agencies and marketers the opportunities to connect the consum- ers beyond traditional and digital media directly on their mobile phone. SMS adver- tising is one of the different methods of mobile advertising. SMS advertising campaigns are relatively cheap and cost-effective.1, 2 SMS advertising is growing globally, and the indications are that the trend will continue well in the future. It presents actual and relevant content based on target profiles. The latest information is inserted in every delivery attempt in SMS advertising. Our research questions are about different methods of mobile advertising and the scope of mobile advertising. *Assistant Professor, Department of Marketing, Hamdard University Bangladesh, Monshigonj and PhD student at the University of Dhaka. **Lecturer, Department of Finance, Hamdard University Bangladesh, Monshigonj. ***Assistant Professor, Department of Business Administration, World University of Bangladesh, Dhaka. 79 Page Green University Review of Social Sciences, Volume 02, Issue 01, June-2015 In the context of Bangladesh, mobile advertising in the form of SMS is developing. It offers various opportunities for the marketer. In near future, it is expected to gain more acceptability and popularity. Already some leading companies have started using mobile advertising in Bangladesh. So, this is time to conduct the research on such issue to understand mobile advertising and to disseminate the knowledge gained from findings. This study is conducted to (i) investigate the methods of mobile advertising and (ii) find out the views of the mobile phone users toward mobile advertising. 2. IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY Mobile ad can provide assistance to consumers to assess swiftly regarding the information they need to make a decision and also make them determined to buy products and services. On the other hand, today advertisers have a window of opportunity to think about the contribution of mobile ad to their businesses. By taking help from mobile company, businesses can transform their relationships with their customers. At this time without question, mobile ad can play an essential role in driving significant and incremental revenue to businesses. The explosive growth of wireless as a communication medium offering new advertising opportunities and the study of advertising through mobile phone and status and potentials in Bangladesh is interesting. It will help researchers to under- stand the contribution of a new information technology for doing business. In Bangladesh, SMS advertising is making the position in the market though it is in the initial stage. Mobile operators are offering SMS advertising to business communities, professionals and government. This is the right time to know the status and measure the potentialities of SMS advertising in Bangladesh. This study will obvi- ously help the stakeholders, – mobile operators, advertisers and customers – of mobile advertising. 3. LITERATRURE REVIEW Advertising is a form of communication which is used to encourage and persuade consumers to take an action. Philip Kotler [et.al (2010)] define advertising as any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by any identified sponsor.3 Advertising can be used to build up a long-term image of a product or trigger quick sales. Advertising can efficiently reach to geographically dispersed buyers.4 The proliferation of smartphone devices and 80 Page Mobile Advertising in the Form of SMS – Status and Potentials in Bangladesh tablets are shifting the ways that marketers look at mobile advertising, making the channel more important to the multichannel strategy.5 Mobile advertising becomes an increasingly important element in the marketing mix. De Reyck and Degraeve (2003) define mobile advertising as, “targeting well-identified potential customers with text messages, thereby increasing the response-to-advertisement ratio”.6 Also, it can be defined as, “the business of encouraging people to buy products and services using the mobile channel as a medium to deliver the advertising message”.7 Mobile advertising can also be defined as any paid message communicated by mobile with the aim to influence the attitudes and behavior of those addressed by the commercial messages. Mobile advertising has proven to be more efficient than internet advertis- ing. Unlike personal computers (PCs), mobile devices typically are not shared among people, which allows for precise targeting of advertising to a single person.8 This unremarkable two-way communications caught the attention of business industry and advertisers as well as cell phone producers and telecom operators. Eventually SMS became a new medium – called the seventh mass media channel by several media and mobile experts, even more it is a two-way mobile media, as opposed to one-way immobile media like radio, newspapers and TV. Thus mobile advertising is much more interactive and personal than traditional advertising.9 Besides the immediacy of responsiveness in this two-way media is a new territory found for media industry and advertisers, who are eager to measure up market response immediately. Using cell phone to spread advertisements to users is a crucial part of the marketing industry. With the introduction of the cell phone, marketers found that users could be reached quickly. Specifically, mobile ads are difficult for users to avoid and the users usually read many ads. Evelyne Beatrix Cleff (2007) explains that mobile advertising is inexpensive and novel, and can be highly targeted towards a certain individual.10 The potential of mobile devices as direct marketing tools has not gone unnoticed and advertisers have realized the opportunity to use the mobile channel to ‘text’ information to targeted consumers. Unlike traditional print, TV, or even email advertising, companies can now reach specific consumers groups or even individuals, virtually anywhere, anytime, and based on the physical location of the mobile users. Many companies rely now on mobile phone ad to spread the news about a product or service to the target market. The mobile phone is an extremely personal device. One mobile phone typically has one unique user. This makes the mobile phone a precisely targeted communication channel, where users are highly engaged with content. As a result, the mobile channel delivers excellent campaign effectiveness and response levels compared to other media.11 81 Page Green University Review of Social Sciences, Volume 02, Issue 01, June-2015 5. METHODOLOGY 5.1. Population, sample size and sampling technique The population of this research is comprised of the mobile phone users of various professionals. For this survey the researchers select 600 samples which are random- ly selected from the six different types of profession or user groups. Selected user groups are teachers (100 persons), engineers and architects (100 persons), pharma- cists and doctors (100 persons), advocates (100 persons), general service holders (100 persons) and students (100 persons). These groups are chosen based on their using rate of mobile phone and involvement of type of professions for more repre- sentation. 5.2. Data needed and sources of data Both primary and secondary data are collected for this study. To complete the research initially the researchers have started their investigation by examining secondary data to gain facts on mobile advertising. Secondary data are collected through the study of thesis and journals of mobile advertising, mobile phone user guide and Internet. Primary data are gathered through conducting formal interview from the targeted respondents. 5.3. Contact method From the different methods personal interview is employed for this study in which researchers face the interviewees in their residents, offices and also at mall-inter- cepts. Before taking final interview a number of filter questions are asked to identify the appropriate interviewees. 5.4. Designing research