Attitude toward SMS Advertising: A Survey with Reference to Indian Consumers

There has been tremendous growth in the mobile telecommunication industry. An estimated 5.8 billion mobile subscribers worldwide was projected for 2011 (Ahonen 2011). The high penetration and growth rates of mobile phones combined with recent technological developments such as near field communication, Google Wallet, and one tap mobile payment have borne a new communication channel with consumers: mobile advertising. Research shows that the success of mobile advertising depends on customer acceptance of it. Although recent studies have addressed consumer attitudes toward mobile advertising, a systematic study of these for India is lacking. This article tried to address this void, as Telecom Regulatory Authority of India reported that India crossed the 806 million mobile users mark in January 2011. In this article, the factors influencing consumer attitudes toward mobile advertising and the relationship between their attitudes and behavior are investigated. An empirical method is used, and six hypotheses are tested.