Abstract
The article provides insights into consumers’ experience with mobile marketing by presenting a review of the mobile consumer behavior literature in an organized framework. An important contribution of this study is that it compiles a list of prominent predictor variables that come into play in the process of consumer adoption and acceptance of mobile marketing. The resulting list is purported to be beneficial to both academics by providing a state-of-the-art and practitioners by providing a powerful item battery to be used in setting up effective mobile marketing campaigns.
TopPerceived Value In The Mobile Context
Since customer value is what every business entity ultimately seeks, there is a need to understand which elements and unique features of mobile medium provides value from the consumers’ perspective. The most frequently noted value proposition of m-marketing is “ubiquity,” that is, the omnipresence of information and continual access to commerce (Clarke, 2001). Ubiquity creates value to consumers by fulfilling time-critical needs and arrangements regardless of time and place (Anckar and D’Incau, 2002). Indeed, a large proportion of mobile service value is derived from time savings (Kleijnen, Ruyter and Wetzels, 2007).
Next, “convenience,” the agility and accessibility provided by mobile devices (Clarke, 2001), is another key advantage of mobile medium for consumers. Anckar and D’Incau (2002) suggest that “convenience” creates value to consumers by fulfilling efficiency needs and ambitions, such as the need to increase productivity during dead spots of the day as the consumer is unable to access PC-based Internet. In fact, mobile services are used primarily for convenience (Kim, Chan and Gupta, 2007). Spontaneity, flexibility, immediacy, accessibility, time-criticality and instant connectivity are other terms used to refer to forms of ubiquity and convenience. None of these value propositions are mutually exclusive, but each provides important insights into the drivers of m-marketing adoption.
A distinctive feature of m-marketing is that it allows precise identification of the location of the consumer through the use of GPS technology. Leveraging this technology, m-marketers are able to send location-specific messages capturing contextuality. Applications involving this “localization” value proposition include time- and location-sensitive discount offers, roadside assistance, services allowing identification of nearby buyers and sellers, route guidance, road pricing, weather or traffic updates, accessibility information for disabled users, and speech-based guidance for visually impaired.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Permission Marketing: Type of marketing campaign that requires consumers to ‘opt in’ before they receive marketing messages of any kind and have the option to ‘opt out’ at any stage.
Mobile Marketing: The use of personal mobile and wireless devices as a medium for creation, communication and delivery of customer value.
M-Loyalty: A deeply held commitment to re-use a preferred mobile service or service/network provider consistently in the future.
Customer Value: Overall assessment of the utility of a market offering based on what is received and what is given.
M-Satisfaction: Overall affective and cognitive evaluation of the mobile service experience
Personalization: The degree to which a service/message is tailored to meet the needs and wants of the individual consumer.