Mobile marketing in Indian retail: a preliminary investigation of relationship and promotional endeavours through Short Message Service

Abstract

Mobile marketing entails reaching customers through voice, Multimedia Services (MMS) and Short Message Services (SMSs) for various promotion-related objectives. Mobile networks and technologies removed the barriers of time and distance, and made marketing ubiquitous, flexible and personalised. This research explores Indian customers’ perception towards mobile marketing, through SMSs, undertaken by companies. The perception of Indian customers towards the mobile marketing strategies of companies was segregated into relationship, promotion, shopping efforts and the inconvenience attributes. Correlation, ANCOVA and Multiple Regression tests were used to analyse the data. The results reveal that there exists a positive relationship between the four attributes of mobile marketing. Customers’ attitude towards mobile marketing is affected by promotions, however, over usage of this media makes people consider it inconvenient. For mobile marketing to be successful, the inconvenience dimension has to be balanced while designing SMS-based marketing strategies.