The Effects of Mobile Marketing on Purchasing Decisions in Serbia ^†

Abstract

Mobile marketing is a multi-channel digital promotional activity to reach the target audience through their mobile devices. Mobile marketing has great potential due to the large number of users that can be covered. The subject of this article is the analysis of the influence that mobile marketing has on the purchasing decisions of consumers in Serbia. Research was conducted in order to examine general opinion of respondents about mobile marketing and to examine the influence of the way of using the phone and the importance of permission on the attitude towards mobile marketing.

1. Objectives

The behavior of modern consumers is under the constant influence of significant technological changes. The analysis of the digital consumer and the factors that influence him is a very popular topic in academic circles. The main goal of this research is to analyze the influence of mobile marketing on purchase decisions, as well as to examine whether consumption depends on the characteristics of consumers or the purchase value.

2. Methodology

Primary and secondary data collection techniques were utilized. Primary data were collected using a questionnaire created with Google Forms and shared via LinkedIn. The questionnaire consists of three parts: questions related to the respondents themselves for the purpose of respondents segmentation, questions about the use of mobile marketing, and questions on purchasing decisions. The obtained data were processed using the statistical software STATA (StataCorp LLC, College Station, TX, USA) in order to perform correlation analysis.

3. Results

The results displayed that the relationship between mobile marketing and purchase decisions is significant and positive. The analysis also showed that the impact of mobile marketing on purchase decisions is greater among Millennials, which was expected since they are the first generation to grow up entirely in the internet era. There is also a notable group of respondents who find mobile advertising meaningless, which is also in line with some previously conducted research.

4. Implications

The results of the research conducted in this paper are primarily intended for the purpose of scientific research but also for marketers. The analysis, in a comprehensive manner, includes, through different parts of the questionnaire, both the consumer factors on which purchases depend as well as purchase characteristics themselves in order to better understand the connection between mobile marketing and purchase decisions.

5. Originality Value

This paper’s results would be of great importance to anyone interested in digital marketing and consumer behavior under the influence of technological changes that are taking place. Most studies on mobile marketing have been conducted in developed countries. However, in the context of developing countries, such as Serbia, there has been an insufficient number of studies, which gives additional importance to this research.

6. Contribution

The conducted analysis represents a good foundation for a number of future studies, which could be extended with a new time range or questions related to another digital marketing channel. In this way, the effects of multiple digital marketing channels could be measured. As this research only covers the territory of Serbia, it would be interesting to expand the research to countries in other regions as well.