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116 Pages·2015·0.78 MB·English
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UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ School of Business and Economics CONSUMERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD MOBILE ADVERTISING – A RHETORICAL APPROACH Master’s Thesis, Marketing Author: Sanna Andersson 16.6.2015 Supervisors: Heikki Karjaluoto Matti Leppäniemi ABSTRACT Author Sanna Andersson Title Consumers’ attitudes toward mobile advertising – a rhetorical approach Subject Type of degree Marketing Master’s Thesis Time of publication Number of pages 2015 115 Abstract Mobile advertising adoption has not been as rapid as it could have been, even though the techniques for its full exploitation have existed for years. Understanding consumers’ attitudes toward the phenomenon is crucial in order to enhance the situation. The purpose of this research was to examine young consumers’ perceptions about mobile advertising in order to clarify what type of meanings they give to the phenomenon, what kind of argumentation means are found and in which contexts it is evaluated positive or negative. The theoretical framework of this research is based on the principals of rhetorical social psychology (Billig 1987/1996). The data of this study was gathered by using the method of qualitative attitude approach. The target group was asked to comment the claims presented to them. Eighteen personal interviews were conducted for both Finnish (9) and American (9) young adults. The interviewees’ views and arguments behind the views were categorized and analyzed. Based on the analyses, an interpretation of their attitudes and the way the attitudes appeared in the interviewees’ speech could be done. Nine argumentation categories could be formed. Further, four contextual dimensions, from which the argumentation was done could be distinguished: 1. Societal 2. User (including advertiser, consumer and personal role), 3. Technical, and 4. Time dimension. Attitudes and objects of attitudes varied in different dimensions. Mobile advertising was experienced more positively in the role of a member of society than in the role of a customer. The biggest concerns were the purposes the advertiser uses one’s information and the fear of one’s information getting into wrong hands. From advertiser’s perspective mobile advertising was seen only positive. Mobile advertising was viewed more positively from the general consumer view than from the role of the receiver/oneself. Mobile advertising was perceived safe and reliable in general, but the functionality of personalized advertising caused doubts. Mobile advertising was seen better and more beneficial in the future, when it will be more developed. Certain parts of the results show similarities to previous research. Key words mobile advertising, attitudes, rhetorical social psychology, qualitative attitude research, qualitative attitude approach Storage Jyväskylä School of Business and Economics CONTENTS ABSTRACT CONTENT 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Basis of the research .......................................................................................... 5 1.2 The objectives of the study and the research questions .............................. 6 1.3 The research methods ....................................................................................... 7 1.4 The structure of the research ........................................................................... 8 2 MOBILE ADVERTISING AS AN ADVERTISING CHANNEL AND A RESEARCH OBJECT .................................................................................................. 9 2.1 What is mobile advertising? ............................................................................ 9 2.2 Different categorizations of mobile advertising ......................................... 10 2.3 Mobile advertising today ............................................................................... 12 2.4 Attitudes toward advertising ........................................................................ 13 2.5 Attitudes toward mobile advertising ........................................................... 16 2.5.1 Context-awareness and personalization in mobile advertising ........ 17 2.5.2 Trust, control and privacy issues in mobile advertising .................... 20 2.5.3 Novelty in mobile advertising ............................................................... 22 3.1 The concept of attitude ................................................................................... 24 3.2 Criticism toward mainstream attitude research ......................................... 24 3.3 Rhetorical nature of attitudes ........................................................................ 27 3.4 Attitudes and qualitative attitude approach ............................................... 29 3.5 Qualitative attitude approach in previous research .................................. 32 4 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RESEARCH....................................................... 33 4.1 The interview strategy .................................................................................... 33 4.2 Research interviews ........................................................................................ 33 4.3 The themes and formation of the claims ..................................................... 34 4.4 Principles of the analysis ................................................................................ 38 5 ANALYSIS .............................................................................................................. 40 5.1 Background information ................................................................................ 40 5.1.1 Mobile phone features ............................................................................. 40 5.1.2 Receiving mobile advertising ................................................................. 41 5.2 Categorization of the claims .......................................................................... 43 5.3 Summary of the analysis ................................................................................ 87 5.4 Argumentation types ...................................................................................... 91 6 CONCLUSIONS: DIMENSIONS OF EVALUATION AND DISCUSSION .. 93 6.1 Dimensions of evaluation .............................................................................. 93 6.1.1 Societal dimension ................................................................................... 94 6.1.2 User dimension ........................................................................................ 96 6.1.3 Technical dimension .............................................................................. 100 6.1.4 Time dimension ...................................................................................... 100 6.2 Cultural roles in argumentation ................................................................. 101 6.3 General discussion and managerial implications .................................... 102 6.4 Evaluation of the study ................................................................................ 106 6.5 Implications for future research .................................................................. 108 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................... 110 5 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Basis of the research The importance of advertising as a social phenomenon is undeniable. Advertising has positive effects on consumption and economic activity as it modifies lifestyles and values. (Pollay & Mittal 1993.) Despite of its notable role and positive effects on today’s society, advertising industry has also suffered from unfavorable reputation in recent years. Advertisements have been accused, for instance, triviality and bad influence on morality as well as for cheating, manipulating and underestimating consumers (Pollay & Mittal 1993; Mittal 1994). It is important to understand consumers’ perceptions of advertising, because – according to several studies – attitudes toward advertising in general may affect attitudes toward an individual commercial (Lutz 1985; Mehta 2000), brand in question (Lutz 1985) and ultimately, to purchase (Bush et al. 1999). Similarly, personal attitudes toward advertising influence on consumers’ exposure and attention to advertising, politics and regulations and other outcomes that have a remarkable effect on the whole advertising industry (Shavitt, Lowrey & Haefner 1998). Further, a study concentrating especially on mobile advertising, a form of advertising that is communicated to the consumer via a handset (MMA 2008a), reveals that customers who are satisfied and trust advertising can convince other potential customers of the benefits of the service. Viral marketing is also the most effective way over any campaigns to boost mobile advertising. (Vatanparast & Butt 2009.) Advertising has both existed and been studied for a long time, but what is fascinating right now is digital marketing, which is booming. Along with the high penetration rate of mobile phones, the use of mobile devices as advertising channel has increased notably (Ul Haq 2012; eMarketer 2013). Mobile commerce offers a significant advantage, since it can deliver personalized messages to a user by utilizing the user-profile and location- awareness (Tsang et al. 2004; Lee & Jun 2007). Actually, due to the personalization possibilities and the fact that mobile devices are affordable and accessible to more consumers compared to having access to ‘traditional’ electronic commerce via personal computers, the mobile technology can be seen offering better opportunities than ‘traditional’ internet-based advertising (Haghirian & Inoue 2007). Also, mobile marketing is a cost-effective way to reach customer segments (Leppäniemi & Karjaluoto 2005; Vatanparast & Butt 2009). Nevertheless, without fully understanding the elements affecting consumers’ perceptions about mobile advertising, marketers will not be able to get good results from their marketing efforts (Vatanparast & Butt 2009). 6 One of the biggest challenges in mobile advertising is the consumer adoption, which can be seen as a side effect of consumers’ attitudes toward mobile advertising. Although the overall trust and familiarity with mobile advertising is much higher than in its beginning, there still is a lot of work to do in convincing consumers of the benefits and the safety in mobile advertising. Lack of consumer trust is one reason why marketers hesitate using mobile marketing: they assume consumers are afraid of spamming (Grenville 2005). Important questions are how to bring more relevant advertisements to consumers by utilizing the opportunities of the mobile channel and how to make difference between the mobile advertising experience to other advertising channels. Asia has been considerably ahead of Europe and USA in terms of mobile internet development and adoption (Haghirian & Inoue 2007), which can result from the privacy concerns and stricter legislation common in Western countries. Therefore, it is crucial to examine trust issues and attitudes toward using contextual information in mobile advertising in order to develop marketing methods more efficient and consumer-friendly. Combining features such as personalization, interactivity, low cost of reaching the consumer at the right time and place is so far possible only for mobile channel, which makes mobile marketing a unique marketing tool compared to other media (Jayawardhena et al. 2009). Therefore marketers need information about how to best approach an individual consumer. Attitudes toward advertising have been mostly researched with quantitative surveys and large sample sizes (e.g. Tsang et al. 2004). Nevertheless, personal interviews provide more possibilities to interpret the answers and give deeper reasoning for presented opinions (Hirsjärvi, Remes & Sajavaara 2006, 194-195). Therefore, instead of giving the respondents prepared options to choose from, this study aims to reveal reasons consumers think in a certain way. In this study the concept of attitude is seen differently than in major of the studies about attitudes toward advertising. Attitudes are understood according to Billig’s (1996) ideas of their rhetorical nature, which will be presented in chapter 3. 1.2 The objectives of the study and the research questions The object of this study is to find out how the use of personalization (both context-aware and history information), trust, control and privacy issues and novelty of mobile advertising phenomenon are experienced among consumers and in which contexts the phenomenon gets positive and reserved arguments. This will be done by using the qualitative attitude approach by Vesala (Vesala 1996; Vesala & Rantanen 1999), in which the analysis will be done by examining what kind of speech the topic mobile advertising (including its subthemes evolved from previous research) arise and what types of arguments are used in presenting one’s views. 7 The purpose of this research is not to find the absolute truth about peoples’ attitudes toward mobile advertising but to examine speech related to the topic. Further, the goal is not to present an inclusive depiction of everyone’s views and attitudes related to mobile advertising. Thus, this study can be viewed as a sample of current attitudes toward mobile advertising. Personal interviews are conducted in order to study aforementioned themes and thus, some new factors affecting consumers’ attitudes toward mobile advertising that have not been taken into consideration in previous research, might emerge. By using a qualitative approach (personal interviews) it is possible to find more in-depth information about consumers’ viewpoints than by using a survey. The concentration on factors personalization, trust, and novelty in mobile advertising is justified with the previous research and publications about mobile advertising. This research aims to clarify consumers’ attitudes towards mobile advertising by answering the following research questions: • What are consumers’ attitudes toward mobile advertising? o What kind of meanings and benefits consumers relate to mobile advertising? o What kinds of dimensions are appeared in the evaluations and what kind of argumentation means are found? o In what kind of contexts the evaluations are positive or negative? 1.3 The research methods The research approach applied in this study, qualitative attitude approach (see Vesala 1996; Vesala & Rantanen 1999), is not only a methodological perspective but also a method. This approach has its origins in rhetorical social psychology and it concentrates on resolving what people are justifying, with which reservations and from what kind of role (Vesala & Rantanen 2007.) The research was conducted by first getting familiar with the topic by reviewing mobile marketing literature and attitude theories. The most relevant themes appeared in the literature were chosen to be scrutinized in this research. In qualitative research it is not typical to set or test hypotheses but to view the data miscellaneously and with a detailed manner (Hirsjärvi et al. 2006, 155). Thus, no hypotheses were set in this study. Half-structured theme interviews were used as data collection method, and the themes derived from the literature formulated the basis of the interview framework. The sample group consists of young, from 21 up to 27 years old college or university students or working persons. Eighteen persons were interviewed, of which half consists of USA citizens and the other half of Finnish citizens. Data collection was done via Skype, a software application that allows users to make voice calls over the internet. Skype was chosen to be used for data collection since half of the interviewees lived in another continent. To make the interview experience as similar as possible for 8 everyone, also the interviews with Finnish respondents were conducted via Skype, even though personal interviews could have been possible. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The results were analyzed according to the principles of qualitative attitude approach. 1.4 The structure of the research In the first chapter the topic and the background of the research are introduced and the research objectives and methods are presented. The second chapter introduces the concept of mobile advertising and its features relevant for this study. Further, the state of mobile advertising today, especially in the countries covered in this study, Finland and the USA, is discussed. Also, a review of the previous research about attitudes toward advertising in general is presented followed by an overview of studies on attitudes toward mobile advertising. The third chapter presents the rhetorical nature of attitudes. First, some criticism toward the mainstream attitude research is presented. Next, the concept of attitude, according to Michael Billig’s rhetorical social psychology, is presented. Lastly, the method of qualitative attitude approach and its use in previous research are introduced. In the fourth chapter, the research methodology is introduced. The methods of qualitative attitude approach are explained as well as the interview strategy and the principles of the analysis. Further, the themes and claims used in the interviews are introduced and justified. The fifth chapter consists of the analysis of the interviews and the argumentation types that were driven from the interviews. In the final chapter the conclusions and dimensions of evaluation are presented, and managerial implications, evaluation of the study and implications for future research are discussed. 9 2 MOBILE ADVERTISING AS AN ADVERTISING CHANNEL AND A RESEARCH OBJECT Mobile advertising opens new opportunities for advertisers. Due to the fact that mobile phones are very personal devices, advertising via them needs to be more personalized than before. Furthermore, since the devices are portable, it is possible for the advertiser to connect the consumer anytime or anyplace. Like traditional fixed-line access internet advertising, mobile advertising enables the consumer identification and behavior analysis, but in addition to that, it can also exploit the mobility. Thus, in location-sensitive and time-critical cases it might be experienced in a more positive way. (Tsang et al. 2004.) This chapter introduces the concept of mobile marketing and discusses about previous research of attitudes towards advertising in general and particularly towards mobile advertising. This chapter explains, by the previous research, why personalization, history and novelty are the themes chosen to be scrutinized in this study. 2.1 What is mobile advertising? In the literature there are several terms used referring to marketing via wireless data transmission such as ‘mobile marketing’, ‘mobile advertising’, ‘wireless marketing’, ‘wireless advertising’ and ‘mobile commerce’. However, commonly accepted definition for the concept of mobile advertising does not exist (Leppäniemi & Karjaluoto 2005). Virtanen and Raulas (2004) define mobile marketing as wireless data transmission, transferring digital content or digital dialog via a mobile device, which purpose is to create a measurable change in the recipient’s reaction toward a company, product or service. The Mobile Marketing Association MMA (2008a) doesn’t even include ‘wireless marketing’ in its glossary and defines mobile marketing as “the use of wireless media as an integrated content delivery and direct response vehicle within a cross-media or stand- alone marketing communications program”. Mobile advertising and wireless advertising are defined similarly as “a form of advertising that is communicated to the consumer via a handset” and which most common forms are mobile web banners (top of page), mobile web posters (bottom of page banner), full screen interstitials (appears while the requested page is “loading”), SMS and MMS, mobile gaming, mobile video advertisements (MMA 2008a) and in-app advertising. Further, Balasubramanian, Petrson and Järvenpää (2002) remind that ‘wireless’ is not necessarily ‘mobile’. For instance, communicating via a desktop computer at home, with signals carried over a satellite network, would be considered as wireless but not mobile communications. Devices that use mobile technology include e.g. cellular telephones and pagers, cordless telephones, two-way radios, baby crib monitors, remote car-

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Mobile advertising was viewed more positively from the general consumer mobile advertising, attitudes, rhetorical social psychology, qualitative
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