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Text message advertising: Response rates and branding effects

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The development of internet-based mobile electronic commerce (mcommerce) has been slow, but commercial applications for text messages have developed rapidly. This paper explores the role of SMS or text message advertising. Although SMS advertising is strictly a form of telemarketing, it shares features with e-mail marketing and mcommerce. An analysis of 26 text marketing campaigns (5,401 respondents) demonstrates the surprising effectiveness of this new form of telemarketing. SMS advertising is effective, both as a branding vehicle and in stimulating response; this was demonstrated by significant improvements in brand attitude and purchase intentions.Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing (2005) 13, 304-312; doi:10.1057/palgrave.jt.5740158
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advertising, including branding and
purchase intention effects. The paper is
based on the analysis of the market
research findings of 26 commercial SMS
campaigns, which were conducted in the
UK by Enpocket UK, a provider of
permission-based mobile marketing
services in the UK.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Mobile electronic commerce, or
mcommerce, has been defined as the use
INTRODUCTION
The development of internet-based
mcommerce has been slow in Europe
and the USA. SMS (Short Message
Service) text messages, however, have
continued their explosive growth. SMS is
proving to be an effective new tool in
marketing communications, used either
on its own, or integrated interactively
with television, print and poster
advertising.
The objective of this research was to
examine consumer response to SMS
304 Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing Vol. 13, 4, 304–312 Henry Stewart Publications 1479-1862 (2005)
Papers
Text message advertising:
Response rates and
branding effects
Received (in revised form): 16th February, 2005
Ruth Rettie
is an ex-Unilever brand manager and a senior lecturer in internet marketing at Kingston University, specialising in new media
and communications. She is also doing a PhD on mobile phone communication at Surrey University.
Ursula Grandcolas
lives in Paris and teaches at several French business schools. She is also an industrial fellow of Kingston University. Her
research interests include e-marketing, international marketing and sustainable development.
Bethan Deakins
completed her marketing MA at Kingston University. She is currently European Marketing Manager for BT Global Services.
Abstract The development of internet-based mobile electronic commerce
(mcommerce) has been slow, but commercial applications for text messages have
developed rapidly. This paper explores the role of SMS or text message advertising.
Although SMS advertising is strictly a form of telemarketing, it shares features with
e-mail marketing and mcommerce.
An analysis of 26 text marketing campaigns (5,401 respondents) demonstrates the
surprising effectiveness of this new form of telemarketing. SMS advertising is effective,
both as a branding vehicle and in stimulating response; this was demonstrated by
significant improvements in brand attitude and purchase intentions.
Ruth Rettie
Kingston University,
Kingston Hill, Surrey
KT2 7LB, UK.
Tel : 44 20 8547 2000;
e-mail:
RM.Rettie@Kingston.ac.uk
sent by mobile phones, but can also be
computer-generated. Recipients can
generally store a limited number of
messages; unlike e-mail, messages usually
do not have a subject line that can be
read without opening the message.
SMS has grown rapidly. In the UK
penetration reached 78 per cent in 2003,
when 20bn text messages were sent,
more than either letters or e-mails
together.
24
Direct marketing includes
direct mail, direct response advertising,
telemarketing and digital (e-mail)
marketing; it is often seen as intrusive.
Intrusive advertising can negatively affect
consumer attitudes and brand
perceptions.
25
SMS shares features with both
telemarketing and e-mail marketing.
Leiderman
26
denes telemarketing as
any measurable activity, using the
telephone to help nd, get, keep and
develop a customer. Telemarketing has
the advantages of impact, persuasiveness
and interactivity; its major disadvantages
are high cost and intrusiveness, which
reduce consumer acceptance.
27,28
Research
29
suggests that the initial
acceptance level for proactive
telemarketing may be as low as 13 per
cent. Although SMS advertising is
delivered to the phone, computer
mediation reduces costs and
intrusiveness, giving it some of the
advantages of e-mail marketing.
The advantages of e-mail marketing
include low costs and digital
processing.
30,31
Its major disadvantage is
the proliferation of spam, which taints
the reputation of e-mail marketing and
affects response rates.
32
Mobile phone
spam is relatively undeveloped, but
alreadyspamtextmessagesthattrick
recipients into phoning premium rate
messages have caused consumer
concern.
33
In addition to the impact of
telemarketing and the automation of
of mobile, wireless (handheld)
internet-enabled devices to communicate
and conduct transactions through public
and private networks.
1,2
Some denitions
of mcommerce include mobile marketing
which refers to marketing activities that
deliver advertisements to mobile devices;
3
this includes both SMS advertising
pushed to mobile phones and advertising
pulled down from mobile internet sites.
Worldwide mobile marketing revenue
(mainly SMS advertising) is expected to
be in the range of US$1623bn by the
end of 2005.
4
The development of mcommerce has
been comparatively slow:
5
research
suggests that it is seen as expensive,
with poor service and usability.
68
There are, however, indications of
growth in consumer interest in
mcommerce services. For example,
Strategy Analytics
9
research in West
Europe found that consumer interest in
mobile payments and services had
increased from 23 per cent in 2001 to
39 per cent in 2003. In the UK added
value services grew by 29 per cent to
£1.4bn, which was 4.3 per cent of
total mobile revenue.
10
Global research
by ATKearney
11
found that consumers
claiming to have made payments by
mobile phone rose from 3 per cent in
2003 to 10 per cent in 2004. This
was predominantly payments for ring
tones, logos and games.
The effectiveness of mobile marketing
has been related to timing;
1214
localisation,
15
relevance;
16
consumer value
and entertainment;
17
and
personalisation.
18,19
It is suggested that
mobile marketing is useful for
relationship building, particularly when
used with permission.
2022
Japanese
research
23
suggests that click through
mobile internet advertising is seen as
neither entertaining nor informative.
SMS or text messages were rst
introduced in 1992. They are usually
Henry Stewart Publications 1479-1862 (2005) Vol. 13, 4, 304312 Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing 305
Text message advertising: Response rates and branding effects
perceptions.
3941
Li and Hairong
42
speculate that intrusiveness may be
related to the utility and expectedness
of the interruption; this suggests that
incentives, targeting and permission may
mitigate intrusiveness. The concept of
intrusiveness is related to permission. If
consumers have given their permission,
they are less likely to construe
marketing as intrusive, as it will be
anticipated.
43
Factors that inuence
consumer attitudes to permission
marketing include message relevance
and monetary benet.
44
METHODOLOGY
The research amalgamated data from
separate research surveys that were
originally undertaken to evaluate the
effectiveness of 26 different SMS
advertising campaigns. For each of the 26
sets of research, approximately 200
people were randomly selected from
those who had received the campaigns.
The campaigns and research took place
between October 2001 and January
2002. The interviews were conducted by
phone and were conducted two days
after the consumer received the last text
message of the campaign. The campaigns
had a strikeor response rate of over 25
per cent; this is more than twice the
industry average of 12 per cent, probably
because Enpocket used mobile phone
numbers.
The 26 questionnaires shared a
common thread of questions, with
modications relevant to the specic
brand advertised. The population for this
study was held on Enpockets database;
all respondents had given permission to
receive third-party marketing. Responses
from all the campaigns were merged into
a single database of 5,401 post-campaign
interviews. The objective was to assess
the relationships between response, brand
attitude and purchase intention.
e-mail, SMS advertising enjoys
advantages specic to mcommerce. Rask
and Dholakia
34
describe it as your best
salesman in the pocket of your best
customer; the consumer is accessible at
any time, at any place. Like other direct
marketing, SMS can be personalised and
customised, in addition, targeting can be
based on time and location, so that
advertisements reach consumers at point
of action.
35
SMS advertising includes a
viral element as recipients can forward
messages to their friends. The main
disadvantage is its 160 character text-only
format, but MMS messages can
incorporate pictures or video clips.
SMS advertising pioneers initially used
it as a form of passive advertising and
were surprised by consumer responses.
Advertising varies from simple branded
slogans at the end of sponsored subsidised
messages (eg alerts when football goals
are scored), to special offers and
promotions. Research suggests that there
is a branding effect
36
but, like other
direct marketing, SMS advertising is
thought to be most effective when it
invites a response and includes an
incentive.
Barwise and Strong
37
report a trial of
incentive-based text message advertising
in the UK. Respondents, who were paid
a £5 fee on recruitment, and £0.05p
per message, received over 100 messages
during the six-week trial period. Almost
all respondents were satised or very
satised. Most (81 per cent) read all
messages, 63 per cent responded or took
action and 17 per cent forwarded at least
one message.
Industry studies suggest that in SMS
advertising relevance and added value
(discounts or special offers) reduce
perceived intrusiveness and increase
acceptance.
38
Intrusiveness in advertising
has long been recognised as a cause of
annoyance that can negatively affect
consumer attitudes and brand
306 Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing Vol. 13, 4, 304312 Henry Stewart Publications 1479-1862 (2005)
Rettie, Grandcolas and Deakins
wide ranging. Responsive actions ranged
from text back, which had the highest
response rate, to place visits, with nearly 5
per cent claiming to have made the
relevant visit. For most of the campaigns
(20 out of 26), respondents followed the
specied call to action, with the most
frequent response following the message
directions. These included calls to action
involving physical travel (eg visit
McDonalds or the Carphone Warehouse).
There was a relationship between level of
relevance and action taken. Where people
found the campaigns relevant they were
signicantly more likely to take action.
Those who took no action were more
likely to say the campaigns were not
relevant at all.
Branding effect
Overall, spontaneous recall of brand
advertised was 16 per cent. Prompted
brand recall was 43 per cent on average;
signicantly higher rates were found for
campaigns including monetary incentives
(Chi square, p0.01). Spontaneous
brand recall was signicantly correlated
with all forms of response: (Chi square,
p0.05, for each response type).
Respondents were also asked: Did this
RESULTS
Acceptability, interest and relevance
Overall, 44 per cent of respondents
found receiving campaigns on their
mobile phones very or fairly acceptable,
with only 21 per cent ndingitfairlyor
very unacceptable. Acceptability was
inversely related to respondentsage
(younger people have more favourable
views; Chi-square, p0.01), but not
related to gender. Acceptability was also
signicantly correlated with campaign
interest, campaign relevance and
monetary incentives. Campaign interest
and campaign relevance are strongly
correlated (Spearmans Rho correlation:
0.679). Interest and relevance are both
signicantly correlated with each form of
action. Table 1 indicates the wide
variation in acceptability, interest and
relevance by campaign.
Response
Most messages were read (89 per cent),
and 5 per cent were forwarded to friends.
All campaigns included a speciccallto
action (eg visit a website, reply by text,
visit an outlet). Response rates were high
(31 per cent on average, see Table 2) and
Henry Stewart Publications 1479-1862 (2005) Vol. 13, 4, 304312 Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing 307
Text message advertising: Response rates and branding effects
Table 1: Range of acceptability, interest and relevance
Acceptability Interest Relevance
(High or fair) (Very or fair) (High or fair)
Highest figure 60.5% 29.8% 27.3%
Lowest figure 16.1% 4.2% 6.5%
Average 42.3% 15.5% 16.2%
Valid responses 5,360 2,485 2,013
Table 2: Response to advertising messages
Any Text Watch Visit
Response action % back % television % Website % Purchase % place %
Highest 67.7 51.6 38.5 25.0 21.6 19.7
Average* 31.3 15.7 10.6 11.3 5.2 4.8
Lowest 3.1 1.2 2.3 1.5 1.0 0.8
S.D. 17.3 15.4 9.8 8.3 6.5 6.0
*Averaged for those campaigns where this response was relevant. 5,401 respondents.
wide variation in purchase intention, by
campaign.
Positive brand effect and purchase
intention are signicantly related to all
actions, ie visiting the companyswebsite,
visiting a shop, calling a number,
replying to a number, supplying an
e-mail address, watching television,
buying the product, visiting a WAP site,
buying a newspaper, requesting a
brochure and visiting a restaurant
(Chi-square, p0.000). Figure 1
illustrates the response pattern overall,
demonstrating that those who act on a
text message are much more likely to
purchase.
Ordinal regression was used to model
the dependence of change in purchase
intention (an ordinal measure) on a
number of predictors. Ordinal logistic
regression was used because the
dependent variable, purchase intention,
was measured with a three-item scale.
The nal model includes age (recoded
into four categories), positive brand
attitude change and message relevance, as
factors. The resulting goodness of twas
signicant at 99 per cent with an
appropriate predicting power (Cox and
Snells pseudo-Rsquared 0.26), see Table
5. The estimated coefcients in an
ordinal regression cannot be directly
campaign make you feel more or less
positive about xxxxx (eg Expedia.co.uk.)
or did it not change your impression at
all?. Unsurprisingly, for most respondents
there was no change in brand image (78
per cent average over all the campaigns),
but there were also considerable
improvements, for example, 35 per cent
felt more positive about the brand in one
campaign. Table 3 indicates the wide
variation in brand attitude change, by
campaign. Positive change of brand
attitude was related to spontaneous recall
(Chi-square, p0.01) and occurred for
campaigns that did not necessarily
produce high response in terms of action.
Purchase intention
Respondents were asked about purchase
intentions: Did this campaign make you
more or less likely to consider buying
from xxxxx (eg Expedia.co.uk) in the
future?. Increased likelihood to purchase
was signicantly correlated with
improved brand image; generally the
positive effect on purchase intention was
approximately twice that of the positive
effect on brand attitude. 85.7 per cent of
those who felt more positively towards
the brand claimed they were more likely
to make a purchase. Table 4 indicates the
308 Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing Vol. 13, 4, 304312 Henry Stewart Publications 1479-1862 (2005)
Rettie, Grandcolas and Deakins
Table 3: Range of brand attitude change
More positive about Less positive
the brand % No change % about brand %
Highest 35.4 93.3 8.5
Lowest 6.7 60.0 1.1
Average 18.4 77.9 3.8
2,651 valid responses.
Table 4: Range of purchase intention
More likely to buy % No change % Less likely to buy %
Highest 70.6 78.3 17.2
Lowest 15.6 25.9 2.0
Average 36.1 56.3 6.9
2,557 valid responses.
these three campaigns varied from one of
the best to one of the worst campaigns,
reecting the importance of the text
message creativity and contents. The
campaign rated highest included a much
better promotional offer. The other two
were similar, and, in fact, had a similar
response in terms of action, ie visits to
the website, but they had very different
branding and purchase effects. These
effects may be the results of the website
experience and unrelated to the text
content.
RESEARCH LIMITATIONS
This research is based on claimed
response and attitude change. It is likely
that respondents are exaggerating their
receptiveness and response to this new
medium. In addition, as the campaigns
took place over three months, some
respondents will have received several
advertising messages and responsiveness
interpreted. Rather, the impact of a
change in a particular variable can be
determined by examining the change in
the predicted probability (holding other
variables at their means). To do this
Long and Cheng
45
xpost spreadsheet was
employed. This showed that increased
purchase intention was related to positive
brand attitude change and relevance. The
youngest age range, 1624, was also
signicant.
Creative execution
The campaignsdiversity made analysis
difcult, but it was felt that promotions
that were more explicit, with greater
added value, or more involving, had a
stronger effect. For example, the two
campaigns beginning want to win
£1,000did well, as did an offer of £20
for opening a bank account, and riddles
or jokes. The research included three
campaigns for Expedia. Responses for
Henry Stewart Publications 1479-1862 (2005) Vol. 13, 4, 304312 Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing 309
Text message advertising: Response rates and branding effects
Figure 1 Relationship between response and purchase intention
100%
10.6%
89.4%
51.8%
48.2%
Read
Not read
Action
No action
51.3%
2.5%
26.4%
7.3%
More likely
to purchase
Less likely to
purchase
More likely to
purchase
Less likely to
purchase
Note: Neutral values omitted
recipients may be looking for
entertainment. The mobile phone,
however, is also perceived as extremely
personal,
49
so that SMS may be an
invasion of privacy. There is scope for
further qualitative research on this area,
which is pertinent to the timing and
creative style of SMS advertising.
These 26 campaigns demonstrate the
effectiveness of text message advertising.
Response rates varied from 68 per cent
to3percent,withanaverageof31
per cent. This compares very
favourably both with direct mail, with
reported response rates between 1 per
cent and 5 per cent,
50,51
and
permission-based e-mail marketing, with
reported response rates from 1 per cent
to 8 per cent.
5254
The average
response rate of 31 per cent compares
reasonably well with the 63 per cent
found by Barwise and Strong,
55
for an
incentivised scheme where respondents
were paid both to take part and per
message received. The correlation found
between acceptability, relevance and
interest supports Godins
56
argument for
permission marketing; moreover, these
three dimensions are also related to
response.
SMS advertising has three different
effects: response, branding effect and
may decline over time. The authors were
unable to determine, from these data,
whether response declines with repeated
exposure, or how creative content affects
response.
DISCUSSION
SMS advertising is an effective interactive
medium that combines the impact of
telemarketing, the digitalisation of e-mail,
and the localisation of mcommerce. Its
precise targeting makes SMS advertising
particularly suitable for time and place
sensitive advertising.
The overall acceptability of SMS
advertising was 44 per cent, signicantly
higher than the acceptability of
telemarketing.
46
This more positive
attitude could either be the result of the
novelty of the medium or an intrinsic
aspect of SMS advertising. The authors
suggest that it is the latter; the medium
is less intrusive than traditional
telemarketing, because respondents can
choose when and if they read a message,
unlike the telephone which produces a
summons which evokes a conditioned
response.
47
Moreover, unlike traditional
direct mail, text messages on mobile
phones are available in otherwise dead
time,
48
eg while travelling, when
310 Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing Vol. 13, 4, 304312 Henry Stewart Publications 1479-1862 (2005)
Rettie, Grandcolas and Deakins
Table 5 : Ordinal regression model
Parameter estimates
Estimate Std. error Wald df Sig.
Threshold
Location
[PURCHASE More likely]
[PURCHASE No change]
[POSITIVE More]
[POSITIVE No change]
[POSITIVE Less]
[AGE_NEW 1624]
[AGE_NEW 2534]
[AGE_NEW 3544]
[AGE_NEW 45+]
[RELEVANT Not]
[RELEVANT 2.00]
[RELEVANT 3.00]
[RELEVANT 4.00]
[RELEVANT Very]
2.908
1.162
5.269
2.806
0
a
0.412
4.53E-02
0.123
0
a
1.789
0.838
0.334
0.115
0
a
0.413
0.403
0.316
0.275
.
0.182
0.184
0.202
.
0.276
0.284
0.281
0.304
.
49.509
8.306
277.867
104.152
.
5.138
0.060
0.370
.
42.061
8.724
1.416
0.143
.
1
1
1
1
0
1
1
1
0
1
1
1
1
0
0.000
0.004
0.000
0.000
.
0.023
0.806
0.543
.
0.000
0.003
0.234
0.706
.
Link function: Logit.
a
This parameter is set to zero because it is redundant.
these response rates may be due to
novelty: the proliferation of text message
advertising and spam are likely to reduce
the effectiveness of the medium over
time. There is a need for future research
of this medium which measures actual as
opposed to reported behaviour to
facilitate this Enpocket is developing
bar-coded SMS coupons that enable the
tracking of actual responses.
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considerable effects in all three categories.
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