Demographic factors and consumer attitude towards unsolicited mobile-based marketing messages: A factorial design

Abstract

The increasing number of mobile phone users and unethical practices of sending unsolicited mobile-based advertisement related messages without knowing the relevancy of customers have invited authors to this area of research. This study investigated the consumer attitude towards unsolicited mobile-based advertisement related messages in Pakistan. Data was collected via purposive sampling technique. Statistical tests such as t-test and one- and two-way ANOVA between groups were performed. Findings of the study revealed the existence of significant differences in the mean scores for age, education, and profession. Furthermore, results of two-way ANOVA revealed the presence of significant main effect for age and gender, whereas no interaction effect was found for such variables. The study, interestingly, found the interactive role of profession, which was further probed and confirmed via post-hoc test. The study concluded that mobile-based marketing is not unscrupulous in its true nature; however, doing mobile-based advertising at the cost of encroaching upon consumer privacy and without their permission is not the right way to achieve the desired benefits of the mobile-based advertising.