A STUDY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION OF MOBILE MARKETING CAMPAIGN BY MARKETERS

Transcription

1 A STUDY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION OF MOBILE MARKETING CAMPAIGN BY MARKETERS M.K.BALAKRISHNAN 1 Dr.N.BALU 2 1 PhD Scholar, Part time, Sree Ramu College of Arts and Science, N.M,Sungam,Pollachi, Tamilnadu. 2 Research Guide and Professor, Sree Ramu College of Arts and Science, N.M,Sungam,Pollachi, Tamilnadu ABSTRACT Mobile phones are the most adored personal item of an Individual. Over the last 2 decades the mobile phone has become an increasingly attractive product. In this decade Mobile phones have seen a metamorphosis with added features and functions. In India the use of Mobile phones are growing at a phase and it has become one of the fastest growing Industries. In India the total GSM Subscribers 1, Million with a Teledensity of The total Wireless Data Usage during the quarter 4,206,415 TB. While the primary function of a mobile phone is to enable users to talk to each other, the popularity of other mobile phone services, such as short messaging services (SMS), have grown very rapidly (Jayewardene et al. 2009). Marketers, worldwide have used this extensively to sell their product The mobile communication relationship between a Customer and Marketer has been well explained Shankar and Maltose (2006: 3) defined interactive marketing as an integrated exchange process by which an organization uses the understanding of customer behavior, technology and other resources to create and manage customer value and collaborative relationships and enhance shareholder value through relevant brands, products/service offerings, ideas and messages communicated and delivered to the right customers through appropriate channels and contact points at appropriate times.. With the advantages, there come the challenges too. On one hand marketers must ensure that their mobile phone marketing strategies are not invading the privacy simply because mobile marketing is a relatively easy and inexpensive way to reach consumers.on the other hand Customers want more information about products and brands and they spend more time browsing for the same in their phone. Therefore, a thorough understanding of why and how consumers feel about the company information and is it satisfactory became a quest to the Research. A questionnaire based survey was carried out for the study. The sample size for the study was 174 respondents and it is found that there is no significant difference in the level of satisfaction among Gender, Age, and Occupation and Marital status of the respondents. Important Terms TB- Terabytes GSM-Global system for Mobile Communications MMS-Multimedia Messaging services ANOVA- Analysis of variance Z Test-Statistical Test for which the distribution of the test under the null hypothesis can be approximated Null Hypothesis No significant difference Alternative Hypothesis Contrary to Null Hypothesis Introduction To The Study Get closer than ever to your customers. So close, in fact, that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves - Steve Jobs (late) Apple icmrrjournal@gmail.com

2 It s all about Customer satisfaction. Mobile phones are reaching every home in India. With a whooping figure of 1100 million users, there are about 500 million Internet users. Starting from the late 80 s to this date the mobile phones have transformed the way people interact, associate, travel, buy and sell. Definitely there is an invasion happening through Smartphone s.the robust Electronic industry, worldwide has made Smartphone s affordable.intense competition and mass subscription has also helped in low tariffs,. The IoT (Internet of things) is the future and there has been a strong bandwidth and greater connectivity. For a country like India, it has really contributed to the existing growth and Image of the Country. All the above features have caught the attention of marketers in a big way and mobile marketing is now emerging as one of the best platforms for advertising, brand awareness, promotions. Quicker and affordable reach to the customers has created much bigger impact than the conventional method of marketing communication. This paper tries to understand the satisfaction level on the ever increasing mobile marketing communication. It demonstrates as to how the satisfaction level varies with gender, age, education, profession and income groups. It was found that the customers are reacting to these mobile based communications in a fairly positive manner provided these communications are customized to their needs. More than just knowing whether they welcome the Communication from Marketers, It became necessary to find the level of satisfaction on the Type of Communications received. SMS, MMS and the Speed of Communication. Mobile Phones envisage the speed of communication with frequency at its best and cost effective. It s a well known fact that marketers personally communicate with consumers, and continue to evolve through Short Message Service (SMS). Studies on this advertising medium indicate that mobile advertising campaigns can generate responses that are as high as 40%, compared with a 3% response rate through direct mail and 1% with internet banner ads (Jelassi & Enders 2004).However, one has to look at marketing communication from a consumer perspective and it is understood that the issue of media effectiveness is challenging. Why this challenge is, because of the increased number of media. There will be a natural query in the minds of the marketer, whether his campaigns are relatively attractive and keeping his customer happy. Today the key words are Time and cognizance. Both have become not only scarce resources but also an imminent factor in decision making. Consumer behaviors are fast changing and have become yet another challenge for Marketers to record it. It has been argued that the information age empowers consumers and creates immediate 24-hour access, which changes consumers behavior (Seybold 2001). Marketers have taken this seriously and are employing the best methods and resources to capitalize with this Medium which has penetrated so deeply. Review of Literature The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators, April - June, 2017, indicates that the total number of Internet subscribers has increased from million at the end of Mar-17 to million at the end of Jun-17, registering a quarterly growth rate of 2.14%. Out of million, Wired Internet subscribers are million and Wireless Internet subscribers are million. Tripathi S. in his study called investigating the impact of mobile marketing in the current Indian scenario and proposing Customerization as a solution. 2007, Points out that, customerization is very important and solves many customers negative thinking of mobile marketing. This also helps in getting better responsiveness from the customer hence helping companies. Generally mobile marketing does not get much responsiveness and many advertisements sent on the mobiles are deleted without noticing hence failing the purpose of the mobile marketing. But when a customer gets his choice of advertisements including the brand he/she likes; the kind of product 16 icmrrjournal@gmail.com

3 he/she enjoys the advertisement gets responsiveness. This is an important lesson for the companies as the focus on the mass marketing approach like mass mobile advertisements which might not satisfy many consumers needs hence customerization is important. Hofacker C, et al. Mobile Marketing in the retailing environment. J Interact Market. 2010, revealed that mobile marketing is not just one way communication rather it is two ways or more communication also promotion between the customer and the firm which involves a communication device i.e. mobile. According to this research the mobile growth in the retail sector with change the paradigm of retail marketing. This research paper conceptualized a framework, working around i.e. the key entities were the mobile, the customer and the retailer. The framework addressed many issues including mobile adoption enablers and inhibitors, mobile consumer segment, key retailer mobile marketing activities etc. A study done by Heinonen & Strandvik (2003) showed that mobile channels are perceived to be more personal than traditional and e mail channels. This creates high expectations for the relevance of marketing communication messages. A consumer expects messages to be personal and of high interest and this makes the disappointment greater when they get undesired messages. Objectives of the Study The objective of the research is to 1. Study the socio -demographic factors of the Respondents and 2. Satisfaction of the Respondents towards mobile marketing campaign by Marketers in India. This is a pilot study leading to a detailed study in the follow. Research Methodology A self-administered questionnaire was designed to collect data. The sample size of the research was 174 respondents from the Urban and semi urban areas of Coimbatore. Simple percentage analysis was adopted to study the socio demographic factor and Z- test (Normal Distribution) to analyze the opinion given by the respondents on the basis of their personal profile. ANOVA Test has been used to find the Statistical significance of the groups. Results and Conclusion Table 1: Socio-Economic and Demographic Profile of the Respondents S.no Profile Variable Particulars No. of Respondents Percentage 1 Gender Male Female Age Less than 20 years years years More than 40 years Occupation Salaried employee Business man Students House wife icmrrjournal@gmail.com

4 4 Monthly family Income INR Less than More than Missing Marital Status Married Unmarried Area of residence Rural Urban Average cost of mobile phone 8 9 INTERCONTINENTAL JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH REVIEW How often do you change your mobile phone Most important feature of your mobile phone INR Less than More than Below 1 year year year More than 3 years Basic Android I Phone MS The following are the inferences Out of the total respondents the no of female respondents (52.9 percent) were more than the male respondents (47.1 percent). Majority of the respondents were in the age group between 21 years to 30 years (44 percent).the study had a balanced proportion of respondent s occupation and it is inferred that 30.5 percent belonged to salaried class. A vast majority of the respondents were in the income group of INR to19999 (47.1percent). A majority (55.2 percent) of the respondents were married. The study concentrated on both rural area and Urban and the respondents were more in the urban area (74.1percent). A vast majority of the respondents were using Android phones (61.5 percent).majority of the respondents (51.1 percent) possessed mobile phone in the value between INR to percent of respondents change their mobiles in two years 18 icmrrjournal@gmail.com

5 Tables 2- Level of Satisfaction of various Profile Variables Z test 2.1 Gender and Satisfaction Null Hypothesis -There is no significant difference between Gender and the satisfaction level Alternative hypothesis -There is significant difference between Gender and satisfaction level Construct Gender Mean Zo significance Remark Satisfaction Male Not Female significant From the above table it is inferred that the significance value (0.839) is greater than 0.05, the level of significance. Therefore the Null hypothesis is accepted and the result is Satisfaction level between male and female do not differ significantly Table 2.2 Marital Status and Satisfaction Null Hypothesis -There is no significant difference between Marital Status and the satisfaction level Alternative hypothesis -There is significant difference between Marital Status and satisfaction level Construct Marital Status Mean Zo significance Remark Satisfaction Un Married Not Married Significant From the above table it is inferred that the significance value (0.404) is greater than 0.05, the level of significance. Therefore the Null hypothesis is accepted and the result is Satisfaction level of respondents married and unmarried do not differ significantly. Table 2.3 Age Groups and Satisfaction ANOVA INTERCONTINENTAL JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH REVIEW Null Hypothesis -There is no significant difference between Age and the satisfaction Alternative hypothesis -There is significant difference between Age and satisfaction level Construct Age Mean F significance Remark Satisfaction Less than Not years Significant years years More than 40 years From the above table it is inferred that the significance value (0.992) is greater than 0.05, the level of significance. Therefore the Null hypothesis is accepted and the result is Satisfaction level of various age groups do not differ significantly 19 icmrrjournal@gmail.com

6 Table 2.4 Occupation and Satisfaction ANOVA INTERCONTINENTAL JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH REVIEW Null Hypothesis -There is no significant difference between Age and the satisfaction Alternative hypothesis -There is significant difference between Age and satisfaction level Construct Occupation Mean F significance Remark Satisfaction Salaried Not employee Significant Business man Student House wife From the above table it is inferred that the significance value (0.367) is greater than 0.05, the level of significance. Therefore the Null hypothesis is accepted and the result is Satisfaction level of Occupation groups do not differ significantly Discussions and Conclusion The importance and the attachment to the mobile devices and its uses have been mentioned earlier. The review of literatures too mention the same.in this study, we find that majority of them spent a good amount i.e., a month s salary on the gadgets. It s not only that, there were quick replacement with new gadgets as the study revealed that majority of them buy a new handset in the second year itself.the respondents in this study were from the rural and Urban area, Together, a vast majority opted for android phones. These inferences very clearly reveals that, there is an extensive dependence on mobile phone and the same is capitalized by the Marketers in advertising their Products and Brands.Had the satisfaction not been there, the reliability on the mobile phones, the money spent on it, the replacement in a shorter period would not be there.a good amount of enthusiasm and usage is seen among the Demographic profiles. A product can be confirmed as a product of high relevance, when the mass enjoys the product and its applications uniformly.in simple form, they derive a better level of satisfaction irrespective of their socio economic profiles. Testimonial to the above point, we find in this study that Respondents of different Gender, age groups, Occupation and marital status have not differed in the level of satisfaction. Well, therefore we see that as the dependency increases, Marketers can be assured that Mobile Marketing campaigns can still be the best medium to increase Brand promotion and sales. References 1. Jayawardhena, C., Kuckertz, A., Karjaluoto, H and Kautonen, T. (2009) Antecedents to permission based mobile marketing: an initial examination, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 43, No3/4, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators April - June, Tähtinen J (2005) Mobile advertising or mobile marketing - A need for a new concept Proc the ebrf 2005 conference: Tähtinen J & Salo J (2004) Special Features of Mobile advertising and their Utilization. Proc the 33rd EMAC Conference, Murcia, Spain icmrrjournal@gmail.com

7 5. Varshney U & Vetter R (2002) Mobile Commerce: Framework, Applications and Networking Support. Mobile Networks and Applications 7(3): Virtanen V & Raulas M (2004) Forms, obstacles and accelerators of mobile marketing. Publications of the Center of Direct Marketing Excellence & & LTT Research Ltd., Helsinki, Finland. 7. Venkatesh V, Ramesh V & Massey AP (2003) Understanding usability in mobile commerce. Communications of the ACM 46(12): Hofacker C, et al. Mobile Marketing in the retailing environment. J Interact Market. 2010; 24(2): Newman E. 3 mobile marketing trends to emerge in Nov 18. Available from: Nielson. The Asian mobile consumer decoded Sep 17. Available from: Avendus. India Mobile Report Available from: Files/Fund%20Performance%20PDF/Avendus_Report-India s_mobile_internet-2013.pdf 21 icmrrjournal@gmail.com