Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

Penetration of mobile phones has reached to each and every part of India. Within last few years, number applications have increased. There are about more than 900 million cell phone users in India and internet users will be around 500 million incoming future. Starting from the first mobile phone which was introduced by Motorola, the mobile phones have evolved in a big way over the last four decades. Smartphones now dominate our lives and the penetration is increasing like never before. The major reasons for this increase in Smartphones are declining handset costs, low tariffs, faster bandwidth and greater connectivity. This has 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 and reaching the customers in a way that have much bigger impact than the conventional method of marketing communication. This paper tries to understand the acceptance level and behavior of Indian consumer towards the increasing mobile marketing communication. It demonstrates as to how the acceptance and attitude varies with gender, age, city, education, profession and income groups. A questionnaire based survey was carried out for the study. The sample size for the study was 180 respondents. 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. However, the acceptance level varies with different variables under observation and hence the marketers should adapt and design their strategies accordingly.
Keywords: Advertising, Consumers, Customerization, Marketing Communication, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Penetration, Privacy and Security