Scope and Impact of SMS Advertising in India: The Case of Bundelkhand Region

Abstract

on. However, even today SMS, a traditional short message service on mobile, is pretty much the mostfrequently used feature after calling or even more than calling. Even professionals use it for myriad ofreasons, including checking bank balances, mobile bills, and status of trains/flights etc. Recent TRAI datashows that Indians are using SMS as an extension of their lives more and more every year, an averageIndian sends 29 SMS per month (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, 2011). Just multiplying thatwith the number of ever growing Mobile subscribers in India gives an idea of the amount of SMS trafficIndia generates. In India there are over 850 million mobile subscribes and the number is rapidlyincreasing day by day. SMS marketing is one of the most popular forms of mobile marketing. The presentresearch investigates consumers’ attitudes towards mobile advertising, and constructs a research framework in order to extract relevant factors affecting consumers’ attitude towards SMS based advertisementsand users’ actual behavior. The results of the research revealed that the attitude of the consumers towardsSMS advertising is reflected in terms of privacy, irritation (anger), prior permission, time of sending,local language, operating knowledge and consumer preferences. The research was conducted with asample size suitable for study about the changing attitude and behavior of mobile users or consumers.Keywords: Information Technology, Mobile marketing, Mobile advertising, SMS, Consumer attitudes.