The Impact of SMS, MMS and Mobile Banner
Advertising Format on Consumer Attitude Towards
Advertising and Products
Master thesis author: Siyu Wu (11585641)
Under the supervision of: Supervisor: Nayak, Abhishek
MSc. in Business Administration-Marketing Track Amsterdam Business School
University of Amsterdam
Key words: Mobile Ads, Mobile Ad Format, Consumer Attitude 22 June 2018
ABSTRACT
The high penetration of mobile phones contributes to the growth of mobile marketing. Many marketers choose to deliver commercial information to consumers by mobile phone (Chowdhury et al. 2006). Therefore, how to improve mobile ad effectiveness becomes important. Mobile Banner advertising format, SMS and MMS advertising format are frequently used by marketers (Chen and Hsieh 2012). However, there is no article studying the effects of these three mobile ad formats on consumer attitude towards advertising and products. Therefore, this paper looks into the research question (s): What is the impact of SMS, MMS, mobile Banner advertising format on consumer attitude towards the advertising? And what is the impact of SMS, MMS, mobile Banner advertising format on consumer attitude towards advertised products?
A 3 (mobile ad format: SMS, MMS, Banner) x 2 (product type: utilitarian, hedonic) between-subjects experiment is conducted online via Qualtrics. A key finding is that in terms of hedonic products, MMS ad format generates the most positive consumer attitude towards the ad and the advertised products. SMS ad generates the least positive consumer attitude towards the ad and the advertised products when it comes to hedonic products. However, when it comes to utilitarian products, consumer attitude is more positive towards SMS ad than MMS and Banner ad format. Furthermore, there is no significant difference between the impact of MMS and mobile Banner ad on consumer attitude towards the ad when utilitarian products are advertised. For an academic perspective, this research finds that there exist interaction effects between mobile ad format and product type on consumer attitude towards the ad and the advertised products. From a managerial perspective, this research provides insights for marketers to know how to combine proper advertising format and product type and develop effective marketing strategies.
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION ... 6
1.1 Background ...6
1.2 Define the gap ...7
1.3 Methodological method ...8
1.4 Contributions ...9
2. LITERATURE REVIEW ... 11
2.1 Mobile advertising ...11
2.2.1 Mobile advertising formats ...12
2.2 Consumer attitude ...13
2.2.1 Consumer attitude towards advertised product ...14
2.2.2 Consumer attitude towards advertising ...14
2.3 Product type (Hedonic vs. Utilitarian) ...15
2.4 Congruity theory ...16
2.5 Define the gap and research question ...16
3. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOTHESES ... 21
3.1 Conceptual framework ...21 3.2 Hypotheses ...21 4. METHODOLOGY ... 29 4.1 Procedure ...29 4.2 Measurement ...33 4.3 Sample ...35 5. RESULTS ... 36 5.1 Data Preparation ...36 5.2 Reliability Analysis ...37
5.3 Correlations ...37
5.4 Testing of Hypothesis ...38
5.4.1 Two-Way Factorial ANOVA analysis: Model One ...39
5.4.2 Two-Way Factorial ANOVA analysis: Model Two ...43
5.5 Overview of hypotheses...46
6. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION ... 48
6.1 Conclusion ...48
6.2 Discussion ...49
7. IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH ... 52
8. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE ... 53
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Mobile technologies usage has increased significantly due to recent technological advances
(Kuss et al. 2018). In UK, around 93% of the population have a smartphone in 2016, and users
spend approximately 20 hours per week on their phone (Ofcom 2016). According to Fernandez
(2000), more than 80% of the population have a mobile phone in Hong Kong in 2000. In 2016,
adults in India spend average 4 hours per day on mobile phones (eMarketer 2017). The high
penetration of mobile phones contributes to the growth of mobile marketing. Many marketers
choose to deliver commercial information to consumers by mobile phone (Chowdhury et al.
2006). In 2014, mobile advertising spending has increased to more than $20 billion in the
United States (eMarketer 2015).
However, around 43% of marketing managers report that they are not satisfied with their efforts
on mobile advertising effectiveness (Yang 2011). Around 40% of mobile advertising clicks are
useless (Kim 2012). Therefore, knowing how to enhance mobile advertising effectiveness
advertised products could be one way to enhance mobile advertising effectiveness (Vakratsas
& Ambler 1999).
1.2 Define the gap
Prior articles have already studied several factors that could improve mobile advertising
effectiveness. For example, people in crowded trains are more likely to buy the advertised
products than in non-crowded trains (Andrews et al. 2016). Furthermore, customer responses
could also be improved by geographical targeting (Rajala and Westerlund 2010). Only Bart et
al (2014) focus on advertising format and find that mobile display advertising has a positive
effect on consumer attitude towards products which are both utilitarian and higher involvement.
Mobile Banner advertising format, SMS and MMS advertising format are frequently used by
marketers (Chen and Hsieh 2012). However, there is no article studying the effects of these
three mobile ad formats on consumer attitude towards advertising and products. Moreover,
consumer attitudes toward TV ads and magazine ads are revealed to be different (Soo and Chia
2007), which means consumer attitude could be influence by the advertising formats. Therefore,
consumer attitude towards advertising and products is probably influenced by mobile
mobile Banner advertising format on consumer attitude towards advertising and products. Thus,
the paper aims to answer these two questions: (RQ1) What is the impact of SMS, MMS, mobile
Banner advertising format on consumer attitude towards advertising? (RQ2) What is the
impact of SMS, MMS, mobile Banner advertising format on consumer attitude towards
advertised products?
1.3 Methodological method
A 3 (mobile ad format: SMS, MMS, Banner) x 2 (product type: hedonic, utilitarian)
between-subjects experiment is conducted online via Qualtrics to measure the impact of SMS, MMS
and mobile Banner advertising format on consumer attitude towards advertising and the
advertised products. Around one thousand and two hundred respondents are involved in the
experiment and each respondent would be shown utilitarian and hedonic products advertised
in SMS, MMS and mobile Banner ad formats via Qualtrics. Respondents are asked to fill in a
liking or annoying scale towards the advertising and the advertised products. There are two
dependent variables needed to measure, which are consumer attitude towards advertising and
Consumer attitude towards the products would be measured by the means of liking scale of
consumer attitude towards the products and the purchase intensions towards the products. A
seven-point Likert scale is used to measure how favorable consumers’ attitudes are towards the
products and purchase intension. After data collection, SPSS is conducted for data analysis.
1.4 Contributions
For an academic perspective, this research could contribute to the existing literatures. Firstly,
it proves the impact of mobile advertising formats on consumer attitude towards advertising as
well as the advertised products, which are not sufficiently studied. It deepens the knowledge
that mobile advertising effectiveness could be improved by advertising formats. Secondly, the
research also finds that there exist interaction effects between mobile ad format and product
type on consumer attitude towards the ad and the advertised products, which also has not been
studied by existing literatures.
From a managerial perspective, this research provides insights for marketers on mobile
advertising effectiveness and helps them to develop more effective mobile marketing strategies.
mobile ad format could improve the effectiveness of advertisement. Consumer would generate
more positive attitude towards this ad and the products. As a result, brand awareness would be
improved.
The next section is organized as follows: Firstly, prior literatures would be reviewed to define
some key concept. And then, research gap as well as research questions will be defined to
explain why to choose this topic. Next, a conceptual framework is developed to measure the
impact of SMS, MMS and mobile Banner advertising on consumer attitude towards ad and
advertised products. After that, method and data part will elaborate how this research is
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
The article aims to study the impact of SMS, MMS and mobile Banner advertising on consumer
attitude towards the advertising and the advertised products. Therefore, the concepts of mobile
advertising and consumer attitude will be explained first to make this sentence clearly
understood. The congruity theory which is used to explain the impact of mobile ad format on
consumer attitude towards the ad and the advertised products would also be introduced in this
part. Finally, the research gap and research question would be elaborated.
2.1 Mobile advertising
Many scholars have defined mobile advertising. For example, mobile advertising is defined as
one kind of advertising that delivers advertising to consumers by mobile phones (Mobile
Marketing Association 2003). Tripathi and Siddigui (2008) also raise a similar mobile
advertising definition as a type of advertising targeting the users of mobile phones. One of the
advantages of mobile advertising is that it could affect users immediately (Mobile Marketing
Association 2003). Mobile advertising could be categorized on the level of interaction with
consumers, such as permission-based advertising and location-based advertising (Zoller et al.
consumers are willing to receive this ad (Zoller et al., 2001). Location-based advertising refers
to sending the message to consumers in real time based on the location of consumers (Zoller
et al., 2001). Mobile advertising has also been classified into six formats: branded mobile
websites, mobile display advertising (MDA), Short Message Service (SMS), spot adverts
around mobile TV and video, branded applications and bar codes (Zollar and Oliver 2011).
However, there are only three types of mobile adverting used by marketers frequently, which
are Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Message Service (MMS) and mobile Banner
ad (Chen and Hsieh 2012). 2.2.1 Mobile advertising formats
SMS text messages are in text format sent to consumers’ mobile phones and each message can
only contain 160 characters (Chen and Hsieh 2012). Marketers could use SMS technology to
promote goods and messages could be sent to consumers directly (Sultan et al. 2009). There
exist some limitations of SMS ad, such as irritating and an invasion of privacy (Watson et al.
2013). However, Jelassi and Enders (2004) mention that marketers still regard SMS ad as
attractive because SMS ad has higher response rates than banner ads and email. The recall of
SMS is also higher than other mobile ad formats (Fortin 2000). Furthermore, younger
of SMS, which could contain, video clips, audio clips and text (Gang et al 2005). Mobile banner
advertisements are displayed as small banner images at the top or bottom of smart phone’s
screen or in a web browser (Bart et al 2014). Mobile banner ad usually contains minimal
information such as a slogan or a very short message. Marketers could use Banner ad to make
many people know their brand name and products (Bart et al 2014). Among these three mobile
advertising forms, mobile banner ad is the most popular one that used by marketers (Zolloer
and Oliver 2011).
2.2 Consumer attitude
Consumer attitude is an important concept in marketing research because it could be a
predisposition to behave (Andrew A. Mitchell and Jerry C. Olson 1981). There are quite a few
literatures about the consumer attitudes concepts. Aaker et al (1995) defines consumer attitudes
as mental states used by consumers to guide the way they respond to the environment. An
attitude also could be a person’s emotional feelings, enduring favorable or unfavorable
2.2.1 Consumer attitude towards advertised product
Vakratsas er al. (1999) use two methods to measure consumer attitude towards products. The
first is to see how favorable consumers’ attitudes are towards the products. The second one is
to see the purchase intentions of consumers towards the products. The final purpose of
delivering an advertisement is purchase intension (Xu et al. 2009). Huarng et al. (2010) defines
purchase intension as the process by which consumers decide to buy a product. It is considered
as an important factor in advertising impact assessment (Brown et al., 2003). Therefore,
purchase intension could be an important dependent variable to assess the mobile advertising
effectiveness.
2.2.2 Consumer attitude towards advertising
In the early survey, consumer attitude towards advertising is generally positive because many
respondents think advertising is informative (Gallup 1959). However, Alwitt and Probhaker
(1994) found evidence of unfavorable consumer attitudes toward advertising after 1970. Many
consumers ignore advertising impatiently because they feel they are interrupted (Barnes 2002).
However, there exist some factors that can positively impact consumer attitude towards
consumers, their attitudes toward advertising would become positive. Consumer attitudes
toward advertising could be likeable, enjoyable, annoying etc. (Bauer and Greyser 1968).
Attitude towards advertising is also defined as a tendency to react in a favorable or unfavorable
way to advertising (Lutz 1985). Therefore, consumer attitude towards the ad is measured the
degree of liking of consumers towards advertising in this research.
2.3 Product type (Hedonic vs. Utilitarian)
In general, product type can be divided into hedonic product and utilitarian product. According
to Bhat and Reddy (1998), products which are needed by consumers could be either hedonic
or functional. Most consumers consume hedonic products for sensory pleasure, and utilitarian
products deliver functional benefits (Woods 1960). According to congruity theory, hedonic
appeals would be more effective than utilitarian appeals if the product considered as hedonic
instead of utilitarian (Sirgy 1982). Moreover, Marko et al. (2007) also mention that mobile
advertising works differently for different products. Therefore, product type may have
moderating effect on the relationship between mobile ad format and consumer attitude towards
ad. It may also have moderating effect on the relationship between mobile ad format and
2.4 Congruity theory
The congruity theory provided by Sirgy (1982) is used to explain the impact of mobile ad
format on consumer attitude towards the ad and the advertised products. Sirgy (1982) finds that
advertising effectiveness could be improved if the nature of the appeal is consistent with
product type. To be more specific, hedonic appeals are more effective when the products are
regarded as hedonic (Sirgy 1982). Conversely, utilitarian appeals would be more effective
when the products are considered as utilitarian (Sirgy 1982).
Moreover, pictures are considered as more hedonic and aesthetic than words (Hirschman,
1986). This claim is based on the format instead of the content (Hirschman, 1986). Therefore,
the use of pictures may be more effective than the use of words for hedonic product. Conversely,
the use of words may be more effective than the use of pictures for utilitarian product.
2.5 Define the gap and research question
Many existing articles focus on the factors that could influence the consumer attitudes towards
advertising. Some articles study the impact of environmental context on consumer attitude
apps could offer consumers relevant information, such as price comparisons across stores,
which could positively influence consumer attitude towards mobile advertising. Feng, Fu, and
Qin (2016) also consider both environmental and consumer-related context as the determinants
of consumers’ responses towards mobile advertising. Extrinsic (i.e., timeliness, personalization,
and localization) and intrinsic (i.e., consumer innovativeness and perceived enjoyment)
motivations have positive effects on consumer attitudes (Feng, Fu, and Qin 2016).
Crowdedness is also an important environmental factor, which affects mobile advertising
response (Andrews et al. 2016). People would spend more time on browsing on the phone when
they are in a crowded subway environment (Andrews et al. 2016). Technology is also an
important factor identified by many authors. Rajala and Westerlund (2010) mention that
technology, such as global positioning system (GPS) enables marketing professionals to target
consumers by their locations. Customer responses could be improved by geographical targeting
(Rajala and Westerlund 2010). Chung, Rust, and Wedel (2009) also emphasize the importance
of technology on consumer responses. Mobile technology could allow marketers to
communicate with consumers through messages at the optimal moment (Chung, Rust, and
attitude towards mobile advertising. For example, perceived value, perceived usefulness, and
satisfaction are significant drivers of consumer loyalty towards mobile advertising (Hsiao and
Chang 2014). Yang (2011) finds that consumer adoption behavior of mobile advertising could
also be influenced by cultural dimensions. To be specific, consumers with strong individualism
are more likely to use mobile SMS advertising (Yang 2011). Personalized mobile
advertisement provides detailed product information that attracts consumers, such as
promotion activity and brand information (Chen and Hsieh 2012). Furthermore, some authors
also find some audience factors, which could influence the consumer attitude on ad. For
example, involvement could determine consumer attitude on ad (Celsi & Olson, 1988). If
consumers actively involved with a persuasive message, they would be likely to consider all
information contained in the ad and generate positive attitude on this ad (Cacioppo & Petty,
1983).
However, few articles study the impact of mobile advertising formats on consumers attitudes
towards advertising. Only one literature finds that products which are both utilitarian and
not the only mobile advertising format used by marketers. SMS and MMS mobile advertising
are also worth studying because they are frequently used by marketers. Furthermore, consumer
attitudes toward TV ads and magazine ads are revealed to be different (Soo and Chia 2007),
which means consumer attitude towards advertising could be influence by the advertising
formats. Therefore, the thesis is going to find whether mobile advertising format has impact on
consumer attitude towards the advertising. As a result, the research question of this article is
as follows:
(RQ1) What is the impact of SMS, MMS, mobile Banner advertising format on consumer
attitude towards advertising?
Furthermore, many existing articles have found factors that have effect on consumer attitude
towards the advertised products. For example, when ad messages are sent to consumers at a
convenient location, consumers think that less effort would be needed to purchase the
advertising product (Fan-Chen Tseng 2011). Therefore, they would generate positive attitude
towards this product. Product attitude is positively related to content relevance and delivery
important factor which could improve purchase intentions of consumers (DeAnna 1999).
Consumer attitude on products could also be affected by WOM communication (Shavitt 1994).
However, there is no article studies the impact of mobile advertising format on consumer
attitude towards the advertised products. Therefore, the thesis is going to find whether mobile
advertising format has impact on consumer attitude towards the advertised product. As a result,
the research question of this article is as follows:
(RQ2) What is the impact of SMS, MMS, mobile Banner advertising format on consumer
3. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOTHESES
In this part, the relationships and effects between subjects would be demonstrated by a
conceptual model. Then hypotheses are introduced and stated.
3.1 Conceptual framework
The following conceptual framework demonstrates the relationship between subjects.
3.2 Hypotheses
Consumer attitudes toward an advertisement are positively related to the content relevance of
the advertisement (Varnali 2014). High content relevance of an advertisement means it matches
consumers’ preference (Zhou. J et al 2011). Therefore, consumer attitudes toward mobile ad
message could be positive if this ad message is relevant and matches consumers’ interests
(Varnali 2014). For example, the visual and text-based aspects should be designed to be
consistent with cognitive styles of the consumers (Varnali 2014). However, SMS mobile ad
format has graphical limitations (Catherine. W et al. 2004). It is difficult to design an attractive
text message with only 160 characters (Catherine. W et al 2004). MMS mobile ad format
includes visual elements, like a picture or video (Catherine. W et al. 2004). Therefore, MMS
ad seems more likely to be designed attractively than SMS ad. Furthermore, ads which involve
both photographs and text could convey additional information and strengthen memory relative
to ads which only contain text (Mayer 2001). To conclude, MMS mobile ad are more likely to
attract greater consumer attention than SMS mobile ad (Goodrich, 2011).
Furthermore, according to congruity theory, hedonic appeals would be more effective than
utilitarian appeals if the product is perceived as hedonic instead of utilitarian (Sirgy 1982).
Hirschman (1986) reveals that pictures are considered as more hedonic and aesthetic than
words. This claim is based on the format instead of the content (Hirschman, 1986). Therefore,
the use of pictures may be more effective than the use of words for hedonic product. Conversely,
Therefore, for hedonic product, MMS mobile ad format seems has more positive effect on
consumer attitude towards received ad than SMS mobile ad format. Most hedonic products
attract consumers by their appearance. It is difficult to describe a hedonic product clearly by
only 160 characters and consumers may feel confused what the appearance of this product is.
Good combination of ad visual and text could improve the content relevance of advertisement
and is more likely to arouse consumer interest on this ad. The foregoing reasoning leads to the
following hypotheses:
H1a: Consumer attitude is more positive towards MMS ad than SMS ad when hedonic
product is advertised.
H1b: Consumer attitude is more positive towards SMS ad than MMS ad when utilitarian
product is advertised.
Furthermore, Bettman (1979), shows that consumers would be more likely to develop positive
attitude towards the products if they comprehend information of the products. The use of words
(Feierenisen et al. 2013). Therefore, consumer would develop a more positive attitude towards
a utilitarian product when words are used for it instead of pictures (Feierenisen et al. 2013).
The difference of SMS ad format and MMS ad format is that SMS ad only contains text while
MMS could involve pictures and text. Hedonic products advertised in MMS ad format could
trigger higher product comprehension than advertised in SMS ad format because MMS
contains pictures. Therefore, MMS ad format will trigger more positive consumer attitude
towards the product than SMS ad format for a hedonic product. The use of words for utilitarian
products are more effective than the use of pictures (Feierenisen et al. 2013). Thus,
H2a: Consumer attitude is more positive towards hedonic product advertised in MMS ad
format than in SMS ad format.
H2b: Consumer attitude is more positive towards utilitarian product advertised in SMS
ad format than in MMS ad format.
According to congruity theory, consumer would develop a more positive attitude towards a
utilitarian product when words are used for it instead of pictures (Feierenisen et al. 2013).
when pictures are used for it instead of words (Feierenisen et al. 2013). Both MMS and Banner
ad format contains words and pictures. Mobile Banner ad is displayed on small screen (Bart et
al. 2013). Mobile banner ad usually contains minimal information such as a slogan or a very
short message. Therefore, to attract consumers attention Banner focuses more on pictures. As
a result, consumer may develop more positive attitude towards Banner ad when hedonic
products are advertised. MMS mobile ad format has not space limitations (Bart et al. 2013). It
focuses more on words than Banner ad. Therefore, consumer attitude may be more positive
towards MMS ad when utilitarian products are advertised. Thus,
H3a: Consumer attitude is more positive towards Mobile Banner ad than MMS ad when
hedonic product is advertised.
H3b: Consumer attitude is more positive towards MMS ad than mobile Banner ad when
utilitarian product is advertised.
Both MMS and banner ad format contains words and pictures. Banner ad has space limitation
and could only involve a very short message (Bart et al. 2013). MMS ad format is more likely
than banner ad format. Therefore, MMS ad format will trigger more positive consumer attitude
towards the product than mobile banner ad format for a hedonic product. Thus:
H4a: Consumer attitude is more positive towards hedonic product advertised in MMS ad
format than in banner ad format.
H4b: Consumer attitude is more positive towards utilitarian product advertised in
Banner ad format than in MMS ad format.
The consumption of hedonic products is characterized by sensory experience (Kempf. D. S.
1999). The appearance of product would stimulate customers to evaluate and generate attitude
towards the product (Feierenisen et al. 2013). Therefore, consumers are likely to generate
pleasure emotion through reviewing the pictures of hedonic products. Then content relevance
of this advertisement will be high because the content of ad matches consumers’ preference
(Varnali 2014). Mobile banner ad contains pictures while SMS ad does not contain. Therefore,
consumers will prefer mobile banner ad than SMS ad when hedonic product is advertised.
products could be described by words clearly (Feierenisen et al. 2013). Using words for
utilitarian could lead to high content relevance. Thus:
H5a: Consumer attitude is more positive towards Banner ad than SMS ad when hedonic
product is advertised.
H5b: Consumer attitude is more positive towards SMS ad than Banner ad when
utilitarian product is advertised.
According to congruity theory, use words for product could trigger more positive consumer
attitude towards the product than use pictures for utilitarian product (Feierenisen et al. 2013).
Conversely, use pictures for product could trigger more positive consumer attitude towards the
product than use words for hedonic product (Feierenisen et al. 2013). Banner ad contains
pictures while SMS ad does not contain. Therefore, banner ad format will trigger more positive
consumer attitude towards the product than SMS ad format for a hedonic product. Mobile
banner ad usually contains minimal information such as a slogan or a very short message. (Bart
positive consumer attitude towards the product than Banner ad format for a hedonic product.
Thus:
H6a: Consumer attitude is more positive towards hedonic product advertised in Banner
ad format than in SMS ad format.
H6b: Consumer attitude is more positive towards utilitarian product advertised in SMS
4. METHODOLOGY
This session aims to address how and where the data are obtained to measure the influence of
advertising formats on consumer attitude towards advertising and products. First, the research
design will be described. Then, measurement scales of the variables and the sample collected
will be explained.
4.1 Procedure
A 3 (mobile ad format: SMS, MMS, Banner) x 2 (product type: utilitarian, hedonic)
between-subjects experiment is conducted online via Qualtrics. The experiment involves six conditions,
which are stated in Table 1. Each condition involves approximately 240 respondents. Therefore,
the experiment involves around one thousand and two hundred respondents and these
respondents are divided into six groups. In this research, independent variable is mobile ad
format. Dependent variables are consumer attitude towards the received ad and consumer
attitude towards advertised products. Product type is regarded as a moderating factor.
In this experiment, respondents are shown three kinds of utilitarian products in SMS, MMS
and mobile Banner ad formats respectively, such as microwave, shampoo and laundry
detergent. They are also shown the hedonic products, such as watch, perfume and red wine in
those three mobile ad formats respectively. Therefore, each condition contains three pictures.
The pictures are shown below:
Condition 1: SMS-Utilitarian
Condition 3: MMS- Utilitarian
Condition 5: Banner-Utilitarian
Respondents could see the SMS, MMS and Banner dialogue boxes like these pictures. The
research controls the content of each advertising, which aims to promote the product by
offering discounts. Afterwards, several Likert scale questions are answered by respondents. At
the end of the experiment, the respondents are asked some demographic questions, such as age
and gender.
4.2 Measurement
Two dependent variables need to measure in this research, which are consumer attitude towards
advertising and consumer attitude towards the products.
Consumer Attitude Towards Advertising. Attitude towards advertising is defined as a
tendency to response in a favorable or unfavorable way to advertising (Lutz 1985). Kotler
(2000) also defines attitude as a person’s emotional feelings towards some object. Therefore,
the research chooses to measure the degree of liking of consumers towards advertising.
Respondents would be asked “How do you like this advertising?” A seven-point Likert scale
that ranges from 1= “Strongly disagree” to 7= “Strongly Agree” is used to measure the degree
Consumer attitude towards the Products. Vakratsas et al. (1999) use two methods to
measure consumer attitude towards products. The first is to see how favorable consumers’
attitudes are towards the products. The second one is to see the purchase intentions of
consumers towards the products. The measurement for consumer attitude towards the products
would not only focus on actual behaviors. The reason is that it is hard to stimulate consumer
behaviors only by mobile ad because most consumers do not buy products on mobile devices
(Mojiva 2012). Attitude and behavior intention are combined into the same measure because
they are closely linked (Ajzen 1985). Therefore, in this research consumer attitude towards
the products would be measured by the means of liking scale of consumer attitude towards the
products and the purchase intensions towards the products. To measure how favorable
consumers’ attitudes are towards the products, a 7-point Likert scale (1, “extremely disliking,”
to 7, “extremely liking”) is used (Allen et al. 2008). Purchase intension is also measured by a
7-point Likert scale (1, “extremely unlikely,” to 7, “extremely likely”) (Kamins and Marks
1987). The specific questionnaire is as follows:
Question Likert scale
Consumer Attitude Towards Advertising:
4.3 Sample
Non-probability convenience sample is used to conduct the experiment. There are around one
thousand and two hundred respondents involved in the experiment. They are divided into six
groups evenly. There is no restriction for respondent selection because most people use mobile
phones every day and they are familiar with mobile advertising. Respondents are approached
via Facebook, Wechat and Whatsapp.
Consumer Attitude Towards Products:
How do you like this product?
How likely is it that you will purchase this product?
1= “Extremely disliking” to 7= “Extremely liking” 1= “Extremely unlikely” to 7= “ Extremely likely”
5. RESULTS
5.1 Data Preparation
There are 612 questionnaires collected via Qualtrics and imported into SPSS Statistics. Data
preparation has been done before data analysis. First, invalid data has been deleted. Some
respondents choose the same options for all the questions. These responses are considered
invalid and deleted. Furthermore, some questionnaires are completed in a very short time, such
as 30 seconds. In general, respondents usually need at least one minute to answer the survey.
Therefore, data are deleted when the survey completion time is below 30 seconds. As a result,
around 143 respondents are removed. Finally, there are 469 valid data used for data analysis
after data cleaning. Moreover, a frequency test was used to check missing data. The amount of
missing data was less than 0.5% for all variables except product type and mobile ad format. A
hotdeck imputation was used to complete the data sets. Furthermore, the moderator used in the
research is recoded. The scale of product type is adapted from 1 (Utilitarian), 0 (Hedonic) to 0
5.2 Reliability Analysis
Reliability analysis is conducted for the scale of consumer attitude towards products. In this
research consumer attitude towards the products is measured by the means of liking scale of
consumer attitude towards the products and the purchase intensions towards the products. As
a result, the reliability of consumer attitude towards products scale is high, with Cronbach’s
Alpha > .7. Moreover, each item has a high corrected item-total correlation score, which are
higher than 0.3. Therefore, internal consistency has been verified and data collected from the
experiment are reliable for further analysis. Reliability analysis results are shown in the Table
1.
Table 2. Reliability analysis results
5.3 Correlations
Table 3 shows the means, standard deviations and correlations of the variables. From this table,
towards advertising with a r=0.531, p <0.01. Product type is significantly correlated with
consumer attitude towards advertising with a r=-0.095, p <0.01. It shows that consumer attitude
is more positive towards the ad when hedonic products are advertised. Moreover, product type
is also correlated with consumer attitude towards product with a r=- 0.061, p < 0.05. It reveals
that in general, consumer attitude would be more positive towards advertised hedonic products
than utilitarian products.
Table 3. Means, Standard Deviations, Correlations
5.4 Testing of Hypothesis
Two models in this research would be tested. First, the impact of mobile ad format on consumer
attitude towards ad is tested. Then the impact of mobile ad format on consumer attitude towards
5.4.1 Two-Way Factorial ANOVA analysis: Model One
Two-Way Factorial ANOVA is conducted to test hypotheses in the first model, which are H1a,
H1b, H3a, H3b, H5a and H5b. Table 4 shows that advertising format has significant effect on
consumer attitude towards advertising F (2, 1395) =3.967, p<.05, η²=.012. There also exists a
main effect of product type on consumer attitude towards ad F (1,1395) =16.921, p<.05,
η²=.006. Furthermore, there is a significant interaction effect between product type and
advertising format on consumer attitude towards advertising F (2, 1395) =46.951, p<.05,
η²=0.063. The correlation analysis results also support the existence of this interaction effect.
It shows that product type is significantly correlated with consumer attitude towards advertising
with a r=-0.095, p <0.01. As a result, it is proved that product type has the moderating effect
Table 4 Factorial ANOVA-Model One
The plot also shows that there is an interaction effect between mobile ad format and product
type. Three lines in this graph are not parallel to each other, which indicates the existence of
interaction effect. To be more specific, when hedonic products are advertised, advertising in
MMS format perceives higher estimated marginal means of liking scale than in mobile Banner
format. Table 5 shows that the mean of liking scale of MMS ad is around 4.043 while Banner
ad is around 3.481 when hedonic product is advertised, thus hypothesis H3a is rejected. The
means of liking scale of SMS ad is 3.116, which is the lowest in terms of hedonic product.
Therefore, both MMS and Banner ad format perceives higher means of liking scale than SMS
ad when hedonic product is advertised. Thus, H1a and H5a are supported.
Similarly, the plot shows that SMS ad perceives the highest estimated marginal means of liking
(see Table 5). However, the mean of liking scale of Banner ad is 3.047 and the mean of liking
scale of MMS ad is 2.988. Therefore, consumer attitude is more positive towards SMS ad than
MMS ad and Banner ad when utilitarian product is advertised. Thus, H1b and H5b are
supported.
Table 5 Means of Liking Scale towards Ad
However, it seems there is no significant difference between the mean of liking scale of MMS
Table 5 shows that the mean of liking scale of MMS ad is 2.988 and the mean of liking scale
of Banner ad is 3.047. There is little difference between the mean of liking scale of MMS and
Banner. Then One-Way ANOVA is used to test whether there exists a significant effect of
mobile ad format (MMS vs. Banner) on consumer attitude towards ad when utilitarian products
are advertised. According to Table 6, there is no significant effect of mobile ad format (MMS
vs. Banner) on consumer attitude towards ad when utilitarian product is advertised, F (1, 462)
=0.249, P>0.05. Thus, H3b is rejected.
5.4.2 Two-Way Factorial ANOVA analysis: Model Two
Two-Way Factorial ANOVA is also used to test hypotheses in the second model, which are
H2a, H2b, H4a, H4b, H6a and H6b. According to Table 6, mobile ad format has significant
effect on consumer attitude towards the advertised products F (2, 1395) =6.488, p<.05, η²=.009.
There is a main effect of product type on consumer attitude towards the advertised product F
(1, 1395) =6.223, p<.05, η²=.004. Moreover, there exists a significant interaction effect
between product type and advertising format on consumer attitude towards the advertised
products F (2, 1395) = 16.29, p<.05, η²=0.063. The interaction effect is also supported by
correlation analysis result. It shows that product type is correlated with consumer attitude
towards product with a r=- 0.061, p < 0.05. Therefore, product type has the moderating effect
on the relationship between mobile ad format and consumer attitude towards the advertised
Table 7 Factorial ANOVA-Model Two
The plot also shows the interaction effect between mobile ad format and the product type on
consumer attitude towards the advertised product. More specifically, in terms of hedonic
product, product advertised in MMS ad perceives the higher estimated marginal means of
liking scale than in other two ad formats. The mean of liking scale of hedonic product in MMS
format is about 3.813 (see Table 8). Thus, H2a and H4a are supported. Hedonic product
advertised in SMS format perceives the lowest mean of liking scale, which is only 3.092 (see
Table 7). Thus, H6a is supported.
Similarly, utilitarian product advertised in SMS ad format perceives the highest mean of liking
scale, which is about 3.44. Thus, H2b and H6b are supported. However, utilitarian product
towards the utilitarian product advertised in Banner format are more positive than in MMS ad
format. Thus, H4b is also supported.
5.5 Overview of hypotheses
H1a ‘Consumer attitude is more positive towards MMS ad than SMS ad when hedonic product
is advertised.’ ——Supported
H1b ‘Consumer attitude is more positive towards SMS ad than MMS ad when utilitarian
product is advertised.’ ——Supported
H2a ‘Consumer attitude is more positive towards hedonic product advertised in MMS ad
format than in SMS ad format.’ ——Supported
H2b ‘Consumer attitude is more positive towards utilitarian product advertised in SMS ad
format than in MMS ad format.’ ——Supported
H3a: ‘Consumer attitude is more positive towards Mobile Banner ad than MMS ad when
hedonic product is advertised.’ ——Not supported
H3b: ‘Consumer attitude is more positive towards MMS ad than mobile Banner ad when
H4a ‘Consumer attitude is more positive towards hedonic product advertised in MMS ad
format than in banner ad format.’ ——Supported
H4b ‘Consumer attitude is more positive towards utilitarian product advertised in Banner ad
format than in MMS ad format.’ ——Supported
H5a ‘Consumer attitude is more positive towards Banner ad than SMS ad when hedonic
product is advertised.’ ——Supported
H5b ‘Consumer attitude is more positive towards SMS ad than Banner ad when utilitarian
product is advertised.’ ——Supported
H6a ‘Consumer attitude is more positive towards hedonic product advertised in Banner ad
format than in SMS ad format.’ ——Supported
H6b ‘Consumer attitude is more positive towards utilitarian product advertised in SMS ad
6. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
6.1 Conclusion
The increasing popularity of mobile phones contributes to the growth of mobile marketing.
Many marketers choose to promote their product and deliver commercial information to
consumers by mobile phones (Chowdhury et al. 2006). Mobile Banner advertising format,
SMS and MMS advertising format are frequently used by marketers (Chen and Hsieh 2012).
However, there is no article studying the effects of these three mobile ad formats on consumer
attitude towards advertising and products. Therefore, this paper looks into the research question
(s): What is the impact of SMS, MMS, mobile Banner advertising format on consumer attitude
towards the advertising? And what is the impact of SMS, MMS, mobile Banner advertising
format on consumer attitude towards advertised products? As a result, there are two models
needed to test. Product type (hedonic vs. utilitarian) is the moderator in both models. To test
the hypotheses, six experimental surveys are conducted via Qualtrics to collect the data of
consumer attitude towards ad and the advertised products. Two-way factorial ANOVA is used
Then the results would be discussed in this paragraph. The interaction effects between mobile
ad formats and product type on consumer attitude towards the ad and the advertised products
are analyzed by Two-Way Factorial ANOVA. The results show that that there exist significant
interaction effects between mobile ad format and product type on consumer attitude towards
the ad and the advertised products. To be more specific, in terms of hedonic products, MMS
ad generates the most positive consumer attitude towards the ad and the advertised products.
SMS ad generates the least positive consumer attitude towards the ad and the advertised
products when it comes to hedonic products. However, when it comes to utilitarian products,
consumer attitude is more positive towards SMS ad than MMS and Banner ad format.
Furthermore, there is no significant difference between the impact of MMS and mobile Banner
ad on consumer attitude on the ad when utilitarian products are advertised.
6.2 Discussion
All the hypotheses are consistent with congruity theory, except H3a and H3b. According to
congruity theory, consumer would develop a more positive attitude towards a utilitarian
product when words are used for it instead of pictures (Feierenisen et al. 2013). Conversely,
are used for it instead of words (Feierenisen et al. 2013). MMS contains pictures and words
while SMS ad only contains words. Therefore, MMS ad could generate more positive
consumer attitude towards ad and the advertised products when it comes to hedonic products.
Similarly, when utilitarian products are advertised, consumer attitude would be more positive
towards SMS ad than MMS ad because of congruity theory. However， in terms of utilitarian
products, the result shows that there is no significant difference between the impact of MMS
and mobile Banner ad on consumer attitude towards ad. Banner ad focuses more on pictures
than MMS ad. Therefore, according to congruity theory, consumer attitude would be more
positive towards MMS ad than mobile Banner ad when utilitarian products are advertised.
However, the result is inconsistent with this theory. The reason may be that both MMS and
Banner ad format involve pictures and words. Consumers may not notice the proportion of
pictures contained in Banner ad and the proportion of words contained in MMS ad, which may
need to be studied in the future research.
Furthermore， although mobile Banner ad focuses more on pictures than MMS ad consumer
attitude is still more positive towards MMS ad when hedonic products are advertised. This
JinYoung (2014) may explain this inconsistency. Yoo Jung and JinYoung (2014) consider
informativeness also contributes to consumer attitude towards advertising. Informativeness
refers to the degree of informational contents included in the advertising message (Aaker &
Norris, 1982). Mobile banner ad is displayed on small screen (Bart et al. 2013). Mobile banner
ad usually contains minimal information such as a slogan or a very short message. It is difficult
to deliver rich information to consumers through pictures, videos, text or combination of these
media types (Bart et al. 2013). MMS mobile ad format has not space limitations (Bart et al.
2013). Therefore, mobile banner ad seems less likely to have high informativeness than MMS
mobile ad. Furthermore, irritation is one of the main drivers of consumer attitude towards
mobile advertising (Martı ́Parreño et al. 2013). According to Yoo Jung and Jin Young (2014),
irritation is negatively related to the consumer attitude towards advertising. Some consumers
consider banner ads as a source of irritation and they think Banner ads negatively affect
browsing experience (Martı ́Parreño et al. 2013). Therefore, although mobile Banner ad
focuses more on pictures, space limitation would reduce its informativeness. Furthermore,
Banner ads are regarded a source of irritation, which would also have negative effect on the
attitude towards ad than MMS ad when it comes to hedonic products. Therefore, consumer
attitude towards the ad cannot be only explained by congruity theory. It could be influenced by
many other factors, such as informativeness (Yoo Jung and JinYoung 2014).
7. IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH
Many existing articles have studied the factors which could influence the consumer attitude
towards mobile advertising and the advertised products. Factors, such as environmental context,
cultural dimensions and consumer-related context are found to have positive effect on
consumer attitude towards mobile advertising. Consumer attitude towards the advertised
products could be improved by sending ad messages at a convenient location. Few existing
articles focuses on the impact of mobile ad format on consumer attitude towards the ad and the
advertised products. This research could contribute to the existing literature. It proves the
impact of mobile advertising formats on consumer attitude towards advertising as well as the
advertised products, which are not sufficiently studied.
Moreover, the research also finds that there exist interaction effects between mobile ad format
and product type on consumer attitude towards the ad and the advertised products, which also
the most positive consumer attitude towards the ad and the products. SMS ad generates the
least positive consumer attitude towards the ad and the advertised products when it comes to
hedonic products. The research provides a new perspective of improving advertisement
effectiveness.
8. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
The research shows how to choose proper mobile ad format based on product type to improve
advertisement effectiveness. Marketers would know how to combine proper advertising format
and product type. For example, when marketers aim to promote a hedonic product, they could
choose to send a MMS to consumers instead of SMS. Marketers could also use SMS ad to
provide utilitarian products information to consumers. Proper combination of mobile ad format
and product type could generate positive consumer attitude towards the ad and the products.
9. LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH
This study has found that there exists the interaction effect of mobile ad format and product
type on consumer attitude towards the ad and the advertised products. It shows how to
combine proper mobile ad format and product type. However, there still exists some
limitations, which provide the direction for the future research.
Firstly, this paper studies the moderating effect of product types on the relationship between
mobile ad format and the consumer attitude towards the ad. Product type could moderate the
relationship between mobile ad format and the advertised products. However, there also exists
other variables that can moderate the model, such as brand attitude and the degree of familiarity
towards the products. Future research could explore interaction effect between brand attitude
and mobile ad format. Furthermore, some products feature both hedonic and utilitarian
attributes, which is not considered in this research. Therefore, future research should include
Secondly, only three kinds of hedonic products and utilitarian products are chosen to conduct
the survey. There may exist a bias in the characteristics of these products. Therefore, future
research could include more products in experiment to improve the sample generalizability.
Thirdly， consumer attitude on advertising could also influence the consumer attitude towards
the products. However, in this paper the relationship between these two factors is not studied.
Furthermore, when testing the impact of mobile ad formats on consumer attitude on products,
consumer attitude on advertising are not considered as a control variable, which may affect the
results of the experiment. Therefore, future research could regard consumer attitude on ad as a
control variable when studying the effect of mobile ad formats on product attitudes.
Finally, the study only focuses on three kinds of mobile ad formats, which are SMS, MMS and
Banner. Banner could also be divided into static banner and Animated banner. The paper only
emphasizes on the impact of static banner and ignore the animated banner. Furthermore, there
are also many other mobile ad formats. Future research could include more kinds of mobile ad
