How to Advertise in 5 Inches or Less: A Qualitative Study Towards Mobile Advertising

91 Pages·2016·1.26 MB·English

by  Helena Mallin

Bachelor Thesis
How to Advertise in 5 Inches or Less:
A Qualitative Study Towards Mobile Advertising
Authors: Gustavo Lima Moraes de
Oliveira, Christoffer Lundberg,
Fredrik Viktorsson.
Tutor: Dan Halvarsson
Examiner: Åsa Devine
Date: 27/05/2016
Subject: International Marketing
Level: Bachelor Thesis
Course Code: 2FE21
Abstract

Authors: Gustavo Lima Moraes de Oliveira, Christoffer Lundberg, Fredrik
Viktorsson.

Title: How to Advertise in 5 Inches or Less: A Qualitative Study Towards Mobile
Advertising.

Keywords: Mobile advertising, smartphone, credibility, entertainment,
informativeness, irritation, personalization.

Background: With the adoption of smartphones, a new mean of communication
emerged for businesses, calling for deep knowledge on how to leverage this
profitable direct-link to consumers. However, previous literature has mainly studied
the subject from a quantitative standpoint with a theoretical foundation built on
traditional advertising, hence, not studying the subject on its own. It is therefore
relevant to study the topic from the ground up, exploring users perspective on main
factors driving their attitudes towards mobile advertising.

Purpose: To explore consumer attitudes toward mobile advertising.

Research question: What are the main factors driving attitudes towards mobile
advertising?

Methodology: A qualitative exploratory study based on 4 focus groups, sampled
through convenience sampling and analysed using direct content analysis.

Conclusion: Findings indicate that, mobile advertising lack credibility, which drives
negative attitudes and that entertainment was non-present in mobile advertising.
Perceptions expressed a vast element of irritation and that informativeness depends
on the relevance of ads forming the outcome of attitude. Additionally,
personalization emerged as a component influencing the majority of the studied
factors, and consequently suggested to be further studied as a factor on its own.

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Acknowledgements
This bachelor thesis has been conducted as a final task at the Marketing program,
Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden. Its purpose has been to explore and gain a
deeper understanding of user attitudes towards mobile advertising. The authors
would like to thank a selected few for helping accomplish this paper.

First, thanks to our tutor, Dan Halvarsson for the valuable insight and feedback
provided during the course of this thesis. We would also like to express our deep
gratitude towards the direction and help received from our examiner Åsa Devine,
enabling us to achieve a higher level of structural consistency and content quality.
Lastly, a special thanks to all participants taking part in this research, providing their
insight and honest opinions and assisting this paper in exploring user attitudes
towards mobile advertising.

Växjö: 2016 – 05 – 27.

Gustavo Lima M. de O.,
Christoffer Lundberg,
Fredrik Viktorsson.

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Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 BACKGROUND 1
1.2 PROBLEM DISCUSSION 2
1.3 PURPOSE 4
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION 4
2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 5
2.1 ATTITUDES IN THE CONTEXT OF MOBILE ADVERTISING 5
2.2 CREDIBILITY 6
2.3 ENTERTAINMENT 7
2.4 INFORMATIVENESS 8
2.5 IRRITATION 9
2.6 OTHER IDENTIFIED FACTORS 10
3 METHODOLOGY 13
3.1 RESEARCH STRATEGY 13
3.2 DEDUCTIVE VS. INDUCTIVE 15
3.3 RESEARCH DESIGN 16
3.4 DATA COLLECTION 18
3.5 RESEARCH METHOD 19
3.5.1 OPERATIONALIZATION 21
3.5.2 FOCUS GROUPS APPLICATION 22
3.6 SAMPLING 23
3.7 DATA ANALYSIS METHOD 24
3.7.1 THE CODING PROCESS 26
3.8 RESEARCH QUALITY 27
3.9 LEGAL, SOCIAL AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS 29
3.10 SUMMARY OF METHODS CHOSEN 31
4 EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION 32
4.1 FOCUS GROUP 1 32
4.2 FOCUS GROUP 2 36
4.3 FOCUS GROUP 3 42
4.4 FOCUS GROUP 4 49
5 ANALYSIS 56
5.1 CREDIBILITY 56
5.1.1 INTRUSIVENESS 56
5.1.2 PERMISSION 57
5.1.3 VIRUSES 57
5.1.4 CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS AND HIDDEN ADS 57
5.1.5 PRODUCTION VALUES/AD QUALITY 58
5.2 ENTERTAINMENT 58
5.2.1 HUMOR 59
5.2.2 STORYTELLING AND EMOTION 59
5.2.3 STRESS 59
5.3 INFORMATIVENESS 60
5.3.1 PERSONALIZATION AND RELEVANCE 60
5.3.2 SCREEN SIZE 61
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5.3.3 INFOTAINMENT 61
5.3.4 INTERACTIVITY AND CONTROL 61
5.4 IRRITATION 62
5.4.1 GOAL IMPEDIMENT 62
5.4.2 TOLERANCE LEVEL/OVERSATURATION 63
5.4.3 DISTRACTION/CREATION OF WANTS OR NEEDS 64
5.5 OTHER IDENTIFIED FACTORS 64
5.5.1 EASE OF USE/TECHNOLOGY ACCEPTANCE 65
5.5.2 CONTEXTUALIZATION 65
5.5.3 FLOW 65
5.6 DRIVERS OF ATTITUDES AND ITS RELATION TO EACH OTHER 66
5.6.1 ENTERTAINMENT IN RELATION TO OTHER DRIVERS OF ATTITUDES 66
5.6.2 INFORMATIVENESS IN RELATION TO OTHER DRIVERS OF ATTITUDES 66
5.6.3 CREDIBILITY IN RELATION TO OTHER DRIVERS OF ATTITUDES 67
5.6.4 IRRITATION IN RELATION TO OTHER DRIVERS OF ATTITUDES 67
5.7 THE ROLE OF PERSONALIZATION 67
6 CONCLUSION 69
7 MANAGERIAL AND THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS 71
7.1 THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS 71
7.2 MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS 71
8 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 73
9 REFLECTION 74
9.1 SENSITIVE TO CONTEXT 74
9.2 COMMITMENT AND RIGOR 74
9.3 TRANSPARENCY AND COHERENCE 75
9.4 IMPACT AND RELEVANCE 75
10 REFERENCE LIST 76
11 APPENDICIES I
11.1 APPENDIX A: LITERATURE REVIEW I
11.2 APPENDIX B: FOCUS GROUP TEMPLATE I
11.2.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE FOCUS GROUP I
11.2.2 GROUND RULES II
11.2.3 FOCUS GROUP GUIDE II
11.2.4 PICTURES USED DURING THE FOCUS GROUP III

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1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background
Technology has often caused massive shifts in communication. The radio allowed for
fast, effective sound broadcasting to the masses (Gugliotta, 2007). The television added
video, letting viewers see colorful imagery from societies and environments entirely
different from their own (Fincham, 2007). The invention of the Internet was even more
disruptive. Initially, it allowed people to get access to electronic mail and static pages of
information, but eventually developed to enable social networking, shopping, instant
messaging, banking, advanced searching and more (Internet Basics, 2016). A more
sophisticated evolution of this technology can be seen through the smartphone, a
pocket-sized device that allows for all these forms of communication to happen on-the-
go, for the consumer to utilize it whenever he or she is in need or want of it (Coustan et
al., 2016).

Companies, with marketers and advertisers at the forefront, have always been on these
formats to communicate and promote their products. On television, events such as the
Super Bowl (the final game in the NFL season) are famous for its advertisements, with
companies spending millions of dollars for a 30-second spot to be seen by over 100
million viewers (Siltanen, 2014; Statista, 2016). On the Internet, video sharing sites
such as YouTube has made “viral” marketing campaigns possible, with advertisements
such as Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” reaching over 50 million
viewers and movie trailers like “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” reaching almost 90
million viewers (Youtube, 2016a; Youtube, 2016b). Evidently, marketers have been
able to utilize the strengths of these mediums to engage consumers.

The next frontier for advertisers is to understand their niche in mobile marketing. By
far, the fastest growing platform that can be utilized by marketers today is mobile, as its
usage increased by 394 percent worldwide between 2010 and 2014 (Dreyer, 2014). As
of 2015, 30 percent of online shopping in the US was on mobile (Grove and Mirza,
2016). Popular apps like Angry Birds also incorporate advertisements, leaving
consumers constantly messaged by companies who want to sell their products
(McDermott, 2013). As many ads allow consumers to simply click them and go straight
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to online purchasing, revenue can increase dramatically as action from consumers is
immediate.

There are multiple formats by which mobile advertisement can be conveyed; among
them are banner ads, graphical interstitials, video ads and “native ads” (Foroughi,
2015). The first is a format that has been used for a long time – a small strip on the
bottom or top of the screen that is generally made to generate awareness. The second is
a full-screen ad that has more room to show creative ideas and engage the consumer.
The third are video ads – generally 15-30 second clips that are similarly made to engage
customer. The last form, native advertising, does not have a specific format, but rather
gives the publisher of the ads a template of what elements should be on the platform,
which can then be contextualized into content (Foroughi, 2015).

1.2 Problem Discussion
There are many forms and opportunities for companies to communicate using mobile
platforms. An increase in shopping and an explosion in usage give mobile devices great
marketing potential. And, in order to explore this potential efficiently, practitioners and
scholars need deep knowledge about the mobile platform (Le and Nguyen, 2014).

However, despite the need for deep knowledge, Liu et al. (2012) states that there is not a
lot of research showing consumers attitudes towards mobile advertising. And to make
matters worse, the few existing studies are usually specific to certain contexts, present
inconsistent views and are almost exclusively quantitative. In other words, it is unclear
how/what consumers feel and think about it. To cite a few examples; Lee (2009)
experimented exclusively on three products, making his research non-generalizable;
Gupta (2013) claims that ads that take too much space and time are perceived
negatively, while Su et al. (2016) support an opposing view and encourage the use of
rich media ads (videos and ads that take the whole screen). Even within studies, like the
one conducted by Liu et al. (2012), there are large inconsistencies, where one sample
group finds irritation to be a significant factor while the other does not. Bhave et al.
(2013) was the only author found to use a qualitative approach; And, Izquierdo-Yusta et
al. (2015) states that there are “contradictory results in prior academic literature” (p.
363) (see table 1 in Appendix A for more examples). As a consequence, it becomes hard
to assess the impact mobile advertisements have on the consumer's mind.
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Moreover, the increase in usage of mobile phones in combination with this inconsistent
body of knowledge has implications for practitioners as well. During a presentation at
Europe’s biggest digital marketing conference, Stephen Bardega, a marketing executive,
outlined trends for the future of this advertising format (Marketing Insider Group,
2016). He stated that, while social media and videos have been well adopted (with over
50 percent of mobile users adopting the former), product searches via mobile devices as
well as ad-blockers have proven to be problematic. As stated by Liu et al. (2012) and Le
and Nguyen (2014), lack of knowledge regarding the mobile format is an issue, hence it
is not surprising that practitioners are having trouble with ad blockers. In light of that,
some argue that the right way to deal with this matter is to design advertisements
properly in order to diminish irritation (Thomas, 2016). Yet again, this field of research
is theoretically inconsistent (Liu et al. 2012; Le and Nguyen 2014), and so far
“properly” is an imprecise subject. Therefore, extended research on drivers of attitudes
could help practitioners avoid the consequences of negative attitudes, such as in the
example of ad blockers.

Nevertheless, as of now, there are four factors out of a handful that have been
mentioned more often than others as main drivers of consumers’ attitudes in the
literature, those were studied mainly through survey-based quantitative research being:
credibility, entertainment, informativeness and irritation (see table 1 in Appendix A).
While these factors are brought up in mobile research more often, there is no emphasis
on studying mobile advertising as a subject of its own, instead they study mobile
advertising using a theoretical framework made for different kinds of mediums such as
the internet or television. It seems that researchers have assumed that attitudes in mobile
advertising are equivalent to attitudes for other mediums.

As a consequence, the authors see literature saturated with inconsistent quantitative
research trying to adapt existing theories into mobile marketing and very little
qualitative research trying to understand mobile advertising from the foundation. This
causes an issue, as quantitative researchers often have the aim to explain correlations
based on previously developed theoretical standpoints (Bryman and Bell, 2011). In the
context of advertising platforms, Persaud and Azhar (2012) explains that continuous
innovation in mobile technologies allows for new ways of advertising, something that is
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not found on more traditional mediums. Thus, if one tries to repeatedly apply findings
from other mediums to the mobile platform without concern for its uniqueness, one will
repeatedly find different results (as seen so far in literature). Not because the conduction
of the research in itself was flawed, but because proper theoretical foundations were not
present in order to support those correlations and account for these differences.

All in all, it is important to step back and look at smartphones as an independent
medium rather than an extension of other mediums. And thus, investigating attitudes
towards mobile advertising qualitatively can create value to this emergent body of
knowledge by giving context to existing theories and additionally opening the
possibility for new findings to surface.

1.3 Purpose
To explore consumer attitudes toward mobile advertising.

1.4 Research Question
What are the main factors driving attitudes towards mobile advertising?

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2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This chapter starts with a discussion on the meaning of attitudes according to literature.
Next, from the literature reviewed, a number of factors serve as determinants for user
attitude on the topic of mobile advertising. Out of the numerous articles that were
looked at, four dominant factors emerged: credibility, irritation, entertainment and
informativeness. Thus, these are the main focus of this theoretical framework. Also,
some less prevalent tendencies have also been identified, which are summarized under
the last headline. Finally, a table mapping the views of the reviewed articles can be
found in the Appendix A (table 1).

2.1 Attitudes in the context of Mobile Advertising
According to Solomon (2013), attitudes are a generalized perception by a person
towards something. It represents the beliefs, intents and feelings that an individual has
against a person, object, issue or phenomena. In the context of advertising, MacKenzie
and Lulz (1989) claims that the attitude held by a consumer towards advertising in
general affects their attitude towards specific advertisements in most cases.

In previous literature, there are numerous researches with different results examining
the effect of attitudes toward mobile advertising. A study by Le and Nguyen (2014)
claims that attitudes towards the subject is mixed, where consumers do not feel positive
towards the medium overall but admits it does help them find information about
products. Findings by Watson et al. (2013) say that consumers’ attitudes are negative
towards mobile advertising because they want more control on their device. Liu et al.
(2012) states that the perceived value the consumers feel he or she gets from an ad can
affect the attitude towards it. Jasarspahic and Duman (2014) adds that consumers build
their attitudes primarily based on the ad’s ability to inform and entertain. Overall, these
two factors, along with credibility and irritation, have been found to be recurring
throughout previous literature (as can be seen in the Appendix A), with most reviewed
authors having a consensus that these are the most important in the context of attitudes
towards mobile advertising.

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