Behavior and attitude of the mobile phones users towards SMS advertising: A study in an emerging economy

Advertisement through SMS is a commonly used medium in the era of technology. Companies are utilizing this medium of advertisement quite frequently. Rapid increase of the usage of mobile phone has developed an innovative way of utilizing this marketing tools. Due to the exponential growth in telecommunication industry after introduction of SMS and MMS, this study has conducted to investigate the consumer attitude towards SMS advertisement and its relationship with behavior. Entertainments, irritation, product involvement and appeal were used in order to investigate attitude of the consumer. A questionnaire was used to examine the relationship among variables of the study. Overall 350 useable responses were gathered. SEM was used to obtain the results of the overall model. Result of the study indicates that 1 product involvement, appeal and entertainment have a positive impact on attitude towards advertisement. Only irritation was found to be negatively insignificant. (2) Relationship between consumer attitude towards SMS advertising and attitude was positively significant. (3) Positive and direct relationship between attitude and consumer behavior was also found. (4) Permission appeared to be significant on consumer attitude towards mobile advertisement, which confirmed that prior permissions required to gain the positive response of the consumer. (5) Consumer are attracted by rewards therefore monetary benefits was also found to be significant factor.