M-Marketing

Factors influencing mobile services adoption: a brandequity perspective

About Author: - Wei-Tsong Wang received both his PhD in Information
Science and his MBA (concentration in management information systems)
from the State University of New York at Albany, USA. Dr Wangs areas of
interests include knowledge management, crisis management, system
dynamics, information system implementation, and electronic commerce. His
works have appeared in various journals, such as Journal of Information
Science, Computers and Education, Industrial Management & Data Systems,
and Systems Research and Behavioral Science. He is currently working on a
number of research projects related to consumer behaviors in ecommerce/m-commerce contexts and user acceptance of information
technology. Wei-Tsong Wang is the corresponding author and can be
contacted at: wtwang@mail.ncku.edu.tw
Hui-Min Li received her Masters degree from the Institute of Information
Management, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. Her research interests
include electronic commerce and intelligent business systems. Ms Li is
currently a System Administrator of the Advanced Semiconductor
Engineering Global Group, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

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Abstract
Purpose: - The purpose of this study is to develop and validate empirically
a research model that depicts the relationships between the identified key

value proposition attributes of mobile value-added services and the core

factors of brand equity.

Design/methodology/approach: - Survey data collected from 497

mobile value-added service consumers were examined using structural
equation modeling to validate the research model.

Findings:- The results indicate that the mobile service attributes of

personalization, identifiability, and perceived enjoyment have significant
positive influences on the key brand equity factors, including brand loyalty,
perceived quality, brand awareness, and brand associations. Additionally, the
results confirm the significance of all four of the brand equity factors in
interpreting consumer purchase intention in the context of mobile valueadded service consumption.

Practical implications: - The research results provide insights into how

mobile value-added services may be better designed and delivered to
enhance brand equity and, in turn, profits.

Originality/value: - While the market potential of mobile value-added

services and the importance of brand equity have both been widely
recognized, the development and empirical validation of a model that
specifically depicts the determinants of mobile value-added service
consumption from a brand-equity perspective has not yet been undertaken.
Consequently, this study investigates the relationships among key mcommerce attributes, core brand-equity components, and consumer
behaviors. The research results have extended the application and advanced
the understanding of previous mobile-commerce and brand-equity theories
in the context of mobile value-added service consumption.

The research paper is organized into six sections as follows

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Introduction
Literature review
Research model and hypotheses
Research method
Results and discussion
Implications
1. Introduction: - In the introduction part of this paper describes for
what reason the research is needed for enhancing brand equity. The
specific links between key m-commerce features and brand equity
have rarely been considered. Therefore, this study aims to investigate
the relationships among key m-commerce attributes, core components

of brand equity, and behaviors of m-commerce consumers to answer

the following research question: what are the key m-commerce
attributes that significantly influence the development of m-commerce
brand equity and consumer purchase intention, and how do they do
this?
2. Literature review: - Literature review includes,
(2.1). Consumer adoption of mobile services
(2.2).Attributes of mobile commerce
2.2.1.
2.2.2.
2.2.3.
2.2.4.

Usability
Personalization
Identifiability
Perceived enjoyment

(2.3).Brand equity
(2.4).Mobile service adoption and brand equity
3. Research model and hypotheses: - Research model and
hypotheses includes,

3.1 The research model

3.2 M-commerce attributes and brand equity
3.3 Brand equity and purchase intention
4. Research method: - Research method includes,
4.1Development of instruments
4.2 Data collection
4.3 Data analysis method

5. Results and discussion: - Results and discussion includes,

5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4

Profile of the sample

Measurement model
Structural model
Discussion

6. Implications: - Implications includes,

6.1Implications for theory
6.2 Implications for practice

Factor influencing mobile service adoption: a brand

equity perspective

Introduction

Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is an umbrella term for the marketing of
products or services using digital technologies, mainly on the
Internet, but also including mobile phones, display advertising,
and any other digital medium.

The way in which digital marketing has developed since the 1990s
and 2000s has changed the way brands and businesses utilize
technology and digital marketing for their marketing. Digital
marketing campaigns are becoming more prevalent, as digital
platforms are increasingly incorporated into marketing plans, and
as people use digital devices instead of going to physical shops.

Digital marketing activities are search engine optimization (SEO),

search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer
marketing, content automation, campaign marketing, and ecommerce marketing, social media marketing, social media
optimization, e-mail direct marketing, display advertising, e
books, optical disks and games, and any other form of digital
media. It also extends to non-Internet channels that provide
digital media, such as mobile phones (SMS and MMS), callback
and on-hold mobile ring tones.

Mobile Marketing
Background

Mobile marketing is marketing on or with a mobile device,

such as a cell phone. Mobile marketing can also be defined
as the use of the mobile medium as a means of marketing
communication, the distribution of any kind of promotional
or advertising messages to customer through wireless
networks. More specific definition is the following: using
interactive wireless media to provide customers with time
and location sensitive, personalized information that
promotes goods, services and ideas, thereby generating
value for all stakeholders".
Mobile marketing is commonly known as wireless marketing,
although viewing advertising on a computer connected to a
home local area network is not considered to be mobile
marketing.
After high penetration of the internet, mobile broadband
subscription rate also increased dramatically. Subscriptions
of mobile broadband outnumbered the subscriptions of
broadband by 2008, which is indicating tremendous potential
for mobile internet (International Telecommunication Union,

2009). Another research conducted by ITU (International

Telecommunication Union, 2010) shows that 90% of the
world population has internet access, and 80% of people
who is living in rural areas also have internet access.
Different reasons are playing a role in rise of mobile devices
usage; Improvements in mobile technology, and integration
of data, video and audio context in one mobile device
absolutely increased the usage of mobile devices. Flexibility
in communication and information sharing became possible
with improvements in mobile technology and integration of
internet and computing in to mobile medium. The possibility
of reaching the information anytime and anywhere triggered
the improvements of mobile devices lately.
Potential of interaction with consumer, target marketing and
managing consumer relationship made mobile devices
especially important channel for marketers. Mobile services
and marketing has become powerful source for marketing
communication and distribution. Backed up marketing
activities with mobile devices provide companies an
opportunity to directly communicate with consumers
anytime, anywhere.
Internet has been used as an effective channel by companies
for building and managing consumer relationship with the
mobile internet, marketing opportunities are defined by
different authors like when mobile internet subscriptions
outnumber the broadband subscriptions mobile internet will
have the larger potential audience. Marketing potential of
the mobile devices also as, probably mobile medium have
more potential opportunities for marketing than new media.

Mobile Technology

 Certainly mobile technologies have a very crucial and

important impact on todays businesses. As a result mobile
technologies are providing many opportunities for marketing
activities, especially direct communication opportunity with
consumers anytime, anywhere. Latest improvements in an
area of internet and wireless technology during the late
1990s paved the way for unique telecommunication service
mobile internet. Mobile technology holds great strategic
importance, and it is integrating internet and computing into
wireless environment, and improving the communication,
information sharing and interworking. Even mobile phones
and assistive networks seem to be dominant mobile
commerce providers, other technologies and devices will
probably have important role in mobile commerce soon For
instance, there are new devices that combine mobile phones
and personal digital assistants (PDA) features in one device.

Mobile communication devices, such as cell phones,

laptops, PDAs, etc., have provided people with new
approaches to accessing web contents, emails, instant
messaging, and commerce services in a convenient and
flexible fashion which fully takes the advantages of mobility
and timeliness of mobile communication technologies. More
information about mobile technology will be provided in
chapter 2 (3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Software and Technology,
SMS & MMS).

Types of Mobile Marketing

SMS marketing
Marketing through cell phones' SMS (Short Message Service)
became increasingly popular in the early 2000s in Europe

and some parts of Asia when businesses started to collect

mobile phone numbers and send off wanted (or unwanted)
content. On average, SMS messages are read within four
minutes, making them highly convertible.
Over the past few years SMS marketing has become a
legitimate advertising channel in some parts of the world.
This is because unlike email over the public internet, the
carriers who police their own networks have set guidelines
and best practices for the mobile media industry (including
mobile advertising). The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau)
and the Mobile Marketing Association, as well, have
established guidelines and are evangelizing the use of the
mobile channel for marketers. While this has been fruitful in
developed regions such as North America, Western Europe
and some other countries, mobile SPAM messages (SMS sent
to mobile subscribers without a legitimate and explicit opt-in
by the subscriber) remain an issue in many other parts or
the world, partly due to the carriers selling their member
databases to third parties. In India, however, government's
efforts of creating National Do Not Call Registry have helped
cell phone users to stop SMS advertisements by sending a
simple SMS or calling 1909.
Mobile marketing via SMS has expanded rapidly in Europe
and Asia as a new channel to reach the consumer. SMS
initially received negative media coverage in many parts of
Europe for being a new form of spam as some advertisers
purchased lists and sent unsolicited content to consumer's
phones; however, as guidelines are put in place by the
mobile operators, SMS has become the most popular branch
of the Mobile Marketing industry with several 100 million
advertising SMS sent out every month in Europe alone.

 Over the past few years mobile short codes have been
increasingly popular as a new channel to communicate to
the mobile consumer. Brands have begun to treat the mobile
short code as a mobile domain name allowing the consumer
to text message the brand at an event, in store and off any
traditional media.
SMS marketing services typically run off a short code, but
sending text messages to an email address is another
methodology. Short codes are 5 or 6 digit numbers that have
been assigned by all the mobile operators in a given country
for the use of brand campaign and other consumer services.
Due to the high price of short codes of $500$1000 a
month, many small businesses opt to share a short code in
order to reduce monthly costs. The mobile operators vet
every short code application before provisioning and
monitor the service to make sure it does not diverge from its
original service description. Another alternative to sending
messages by short code or email is to do so through one's
own dedicated phone number. Besides short codes, inbound
SMS is very often based on long numbers (international
number format, e.g. +44 7624 805000 or US number
format, e.g. 757 772 8555), which can be used in place of
short codes or premium-rated short messages for SMS
reception in several applications, such as product
promotions
and
campaigns.
Long
numbers
are
internationally available, as well as enabling businesses to
have their own number, rather than short codes which are
usually shared across a number of brands. Additionally, long
numbers are non premium inbound numbers.
One key criterion for provisioning is that the consumer opts
in to the service. The mobile operators demand a double opt
in from the consumer and the ability for the consumer to opt
out of the service at any time by sending the word STOP via

SMS. These guidelines are established in the MMA Consumer

Best Practices Guidelines which are followed by all mobile
marketers in the United States. In Canada, opt in will be
mandatory once the Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act
comes in force in mid 2012.

MMS
MMS mobile marketing can contain a timed slideshow of
images, text, audio and video. This mobile content is
delivered via MMS (Multimedia Message Service). Nearly all
new phones produced with a color screen are capable of
sending and receiving standard MMS message. Brands are
able to both send (mobile terminated) and receive (mobile
originated) rich content through MMS A2P (application-toperson) mobile networks to mobile subscribers. In some
networks, brands are also able to sponsor messages that are
sent P2P (person-to-person).
Good examples of mobile-originated MMS marketing
campaigns are Motorola's ongoing campaigns at House of
Blues venues, where the brand allows the consumer to send
their mobile photos to the LED board in real-time as well as
blog their images online.

Push Notifications
Push Notifications were first introduced to smart phones by
Apple with the advent of the I phone in 2007. They were
later further popularized with the Android operational
system, where the notifications are shown on the top of the
screen. It has helped application owners to communicate
directly with their end users in a simple and effective way. If

not used wisely it can quickly alienate users as it causes

interruptions to their current activities on the phone. It can
be much cheaper if compared to SMS Marketing for the long
run, but it can become quite expensive on the short run,
because the cost involved in application development. Once
the application is downloading and installed provided the
feature is not turned off It is practically free, because it uses
internet bandwidth only. SMS and Push Notifications can be
part of a well developed Inbound Mobile Marketing Strategy.

In-Game Mobile Marketing

There are essentially four major trends in mobile gaming

right now: interactive real-time 3D games, massive multiplayer games and social networking games. This means a
trend towards more complex and more sophisticated, richer
game play. On the other side, there are the so-called casual
games, i.e. games that are very simple and very easy to
play. Most mobile games today are such casual games and
this will probably stay so for quite a while to come.
Brands are now delivering promotional messages within
mobile games or sponsoring entire games to drive consumer
engagement. This is known as mobile averaging or Adfunded mobile game.

Mobile Web Marketing

Google and Yahoo! as displayed on mobile phones
Advertising on web pages specifically meant for access by
mobile devices is also an option. The Mobile Marketing
Association provides a set of guidelines and standards that

give the recommended format of ads, presentation, and

metrics used in reporting. Google, Yahoo, and other major
mobile content providers have been selling advertising
placement on their properties for years already as of the
time of this writing. Advertising networks focused on mobile
properties, SMS reseller and advertisers are also available.
Additionally, web forms on web pages can be used to
integrate with mobile texting sources for reminders about
meetings, seminars and other important events that assume
users are not always at their computers.

Literature review
According to Matti Leppniemi, Jaakko Sinisalo and Heikki
Karjaluotos research paper on A REVIEW OF MOBILE
MARKETING RESEARCH (2006), the following is the abstract
for the same.

They list these under five headings: Integrated marketing

communications,
mobile
specific
metrics,
mobile
marketing value system, trust in mobile marketing, and
issues related to mobile marketing technology.
Integrated marketing communications (IMC). For
many marketers and their advertising agencies, mobile
marketing still represents a mysterious and challenging new
component of a companys communications mix. However,
companies should not treat the mobile channel as a standalone medium but rather as one component in an overall
marketing strategy that must be integrated with other
channels. In other words, it is just a new, different means of
communication which should be integrated into the
marketing communications mix. Thus, we need more
research on the role of each of the main tools of the
promotional mix when used in a mobile context.
Mobile-specific metrics There is a general consensus
that there are no well-accepted measures for the
effectiveness of mobile marketing, such as those used to
measure the more traditional forms of marketing
communications. Thus, in order to evaluate the effectiveness
and efficiency of mobile marketing practices and determine
the most effective formats of mobile marketing campaigns,
more empirically oriented research is needed. In fact, as
reported by Virtanen (2005), Marketing Summit 04
workshop ranked mobile marketing effectiveness and ROI
research as one of the top challenges facing industry
practitioners today.
Mobile marketing value system The emerging mobile
marketing value system has received less attention in
current literature. More insights into the roles and aspirations
of different players are needed in order to fully exploit the
potential of mobile marketing.

 Trust Privacy issues are particularly sensitive with respect

to mobile marketing due to the intimate nature of mobile
devices. Besides worries about intrusion into ones private
space, mobile spam raises privacy concerns related to the
utilization of the personal and location data used to
personalize mobile marketing messages. Thus, empirical
investigations into the factors that affect consumers
willingness to provide personal information and grant
permission to use it in mobile marketing are invited.
Mobile marketing technology - A literature shows a
variety of technological platforms such as SMS, MMS, WAP
and Java that are available to support mobile marketing.
However, studies have so far mainly focused on SMS-based
mobile marketing. Therefore, further studies should be
conducted in relation to mobile marketing technologies,
especially on how different technologies and applications are
implemented in different campaigns.

According to Joel Lattos research paper on MOBILE

MARKETING AND ITS IMPLEMENTATIONS (UNIVERSITY OF
JYVASKYLA DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND
INFORMATION SYSTEMS 2014), the following is the abstract
for the same.
In a summary, five distinct and important key elements can be
extracted to describe the benefits of mobile commerce for
businesses. Of these five, the first four mentioned are the most
commonly found across different studies, but the last one is
usually present as well, just not as often highlighted:
Ubiquity is a primary advantage of the mobile medium. It
refers to the ability of users to receive information and
perform transactions wherever they are and whenever they
want. Such ability can be realized due to the fact that a

mobile device is portable and is switched on most of the

time. Today, people do not leave home without their mobile
phones, and usually do not leave them unattended.
Personalization The mobile phone is highly personal, rarely
used by anyone except its owner. It is also equipped with a
SIM card that can store personal information and identity. For
teenagers, a mobile phone is used as a means of selfexpression, as its features, are personalised to reflect the
preferences of its user. For adults, the mobile medium
becomes more personal when it contains important
information, such as contacts and messages.
Two-way communication is another feature that
substantiates the potential of mobile devices in marketing.
Mobile devices allow for greater two-way communication
than any other tool because of their always on connectivity
and short set up times (e.g., for booting).
Localizations refers to the ability to identify the
geographical position of a mobile user by locating the mobile
device. This feature is made possible through various
locationbased technologies, led by GPS. With this
technology, marketers are able to target location-specific
products or services to potential customers.
Industry background The current mobile environment
offers multiple channels to reach customers, ranging from
simple messaging services such as SMS and MMS, to the
mobile Internet. (Smutkupt, Krairit & Esichaikul, 2010, pp.
128).
According to Somayeh Hajizadeh, Mirza Hassan Hosseini,
Bahram Hassanpour, Rahim Akrami, Kazem Zendehdel s
research paper on Factors affecting success of mobile
advertisements through short message services (SMS) for

public donation for cancer(Basic & Clinical Cancer Research

2011), the following is the abstract for the same.
Advertisement through SMS seems to be effective methods
to motivate the public donations for cancer. Different factors,
particularly perceptive aspects, are associated with
promotion of the people and their motivation for the
donation.

According to Mohammad Aamir, Waseem Ikram, Syed

Muhammad Ali, Syed Amjad Farid Hasnu and Khalid Zaman
s research paper Impact of Short Message Service (SMS)
Advertising on Purchasing Behavior of the Customers: A Case
Study of Pakistan(COMSATS Institute of Information
Technology, Pakistan, 2013), the following is the abstract for
the same.

SMS advertising has created a lot of opportunities for

marketers to interact with their customers as well as
promote their products effectively but not all their customers
consider it to be of much importance.
Certain tools have been used to conduct the research work
which indicates that the products advertised through SMS
have rarely any relevancy to the customers particular
needs. The research also shows that customers of different
age groups react towards the SMS campaign activity
differently, depending upon their employment status. As well
as gender response towards SMS marketing holds great
importance to its success and failure. So it may be concluded

that SMS advertisements are of significant importance but

the companies which are using this method for analyzing
customers needs and Assessing their purchasing behavior
should address all the issues mentioned in the research to
get maximum benefit out of this campaign.