Mobile Marketing Initiatives on Consumer Attitudes and Buying Behaviour of Young Consumers in Sri-Lanka

Abstract

Purpose: Mobile marketing is act as a phenomenon of great impact and relevance for marketing communications because it provides a continuous access to the consumer “anytime and anywhere”. Development of mobile marketing has become a greater opportunity to maintain an interactive and meaningful communication with customers for businesses, especially within the young generation. Young consumers are not homogeneous audiences for mobile marketing as their usage patterns and attitudes are widely depending on their social background, technological literacy and urban/rural lifestyles. The main objective of this study is to examine the influence of innovative mobile marketing services on customer attitudes and buying behaviours of young consumers in Sri-Lanka.
 Method: Quantitative approach was used to investigate the specific research objective followed by explanatory research design. The sample size for this study was 130 undergraduates attached to university of Sri Jayewardenepura. Survey method was used to collect the data and a structured questionnaire was utilised as a data collection tool. 
 Findings: Multiple regression analysis results revealed the statistically significant relationships between mobile marketing initiatives (mobile app marketing and SMS marketing) and customer buying behaviour. The regression-based path analysis results indicated that customer attitudes mediate the relationship between mobile app marketing and customer buying behaviour. The path analysis on SMS marketing, customer attitudes and consumer buying behavior revealed that there was no mediating effect of customer attitudes for the relationship between SMS marketing and customer buying behaviour.
 Research Implications: Mobile marketing initiatives provide marketers and business to connect more closely to customers. It is important for the marketers to know the influence of mobile marketing initiatives on the consumer buying attitudes and behaviours whether they are positive or negative.

Exploring the impact of mobile marketing tools on the purchase intention of iberian consumers

“…Regarding the mobile marketing tools that have the greatest influence on the favorable attitude of the mobile consumer and, consequently, influence their purchase intention, it was found that they were mobile applications (β = 0.300; pvalue=0.008) and mobile location-based service (β = 0.289; pvalue=0.004). This result corroborates that obtained in the literature (Kim et al, 2016;Donga, 2017;Donga et al, 2018;Jang & Lee, 2018;Shieh et al;Shahina & Sachitra, 2021;Waheed et al, 2021).…”

“…Mobile applications have the advantage that they are driven by consumers and not by companies, being considered a receptive and more attractive means of communicating with the consumer. For consumers, using apps benefits from personalized services, savings, and time efficiency (Jebarajakirthy et al, 2021;Shahina & Sachitra, 2021). Concerning mobile location-based service, Gazley et al (2015) say that receiving location-based advertising messages at the right time and with the right content at the point of purchase strengthens company and customer relationships and is a powerful tool for marketers.…”

“…Mobile Applications are downloadable software for mobile devices that can be used by brands for education, entertainment, engagement, or sales to consumers (MMA, 2013). Shahina and Sachitra (2021) found in their research in Sri Lanka that mobile applications influence consumer purchasing behavior. Attitude towards the use of mobile applications positively affects the intention to use mobile applications (Kim et al, 2016).…”

Diversification of student consumption during the pandemic - Albania, Poland and Portugal

“…Analysing the scientific achievements in the field of consumer behaviour, it can be concluded that among the authors there is a wide variety of proposals for determining the age range describing the category of young consumers. Speaking about the category of young consumers in the context of this study, they are people born after 2000 (Beyhan, 2014;Tarka & Kukar-Kinney, 2022;Shahina & Sachitra, 2021;Guan et al, 2021;Sashikala & Vijayudu, 2021).…”