Nasser KHALUFI Khairul Anuar Mohammad SHAH Qaisar IQBAL

Effectiveness of Mobile Marketing on the Customer’s Experience in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A Social Media Perspective

This study aims to explore the role of mobile marketing communication on social media networks and how it contributes to customers' experience. For analyzing the gathered information, both qualitative and quantitative techniques have been used. Analysis has been performed with the use of thematic perception for exploring the role of mobile marketing communication on social media networks and how it contributes to customers' experience. Empirical evidences claim that companies which are using social networking sites can easily attract many customers in order to increase the sales and profit. People are more aware of products and they like online purchasing because of various reasons, such as lack of time and the ability of comparing different products. In modern era, people are focused on the mobile phone as they spend most of time on it, and this especially applies to young people. Therefore, companies should take advantage this known fact and increase the visibility of their brands. Moreover, most of the customers who state that the availability of social media on their mobile phone has made customers more informed about brands when they make purchasing decisions. It shows that social media on mobile phones makes the purchasing process easier than ever before for the customers in helping them to make a purchasing decision of products and services.
Keywords
JEL Classification M31
Full Article

1. Introduction

In the present era, mobile phones have become a necessity and have replaced not only landlines but also desktops, with the introduction of smart phones and tablets. Advanced mobile technology provides numerous benefits to organizations, as people can easily chat and communicate with others across the world. Many businesses are taking advantage of this advanced technology, such as the Amazon Company which accomplished success of 20 years with the use of online retailing and marketing. Nowadays, the organization also launches a mobile app so that people can easily access its website on the mobile phone for purchasing products and services.Yet, customers simultaneously suffer from the issues of comprehension and accessibility of information in different formats (Iqbal et al., 2019).

Mobile marketing is a rapidly growing industry that is transforming the marketing world. There are a high number of products that are overstocked and unused services in the company due to the weak advertisement or unused online ads for their products and services. For this purpose, all organizations are required to focus on effective marketing strategy techniques in order to enhance sales and profits. An effective marketing campaign requires effective dealing with the exponentially rising information (Iqbal et al., 2018). Among the effective marketing strategies, mobile marketing is a useful tool which assists the company in effectively promoting and selling their products and services online. Presently, customers have started to buy online because of time constraint and their tight schedule. Similarly, firms are required to understand the mobile marketing techniques and effects in the current era. This study intends to explore the role of mobile marketing communications on social media and investigate the customers’ feedback.

2. Literature Review

2.1. User’s experience about the marketing influence of social media

As per the view of Armstrong, Kotler and Brennan, (2015), there is a continuous increase in the rate of mobile users all over the world. Many mobile companies have adopted new technology for modifying the mobile feature so that people can easily access different social media sites on the mobile phones. Mobile users are highly inclined to use their devices for purchasing online. Hence, it can be stated that this generation is more familiar with mobile marketing instead of traditional marketing.At the same, this generation is lacking skills to deal with polluted information in knowledge economy (Iqbal and Nawaz, 2019).

Mo, Kim and Kim (2017) in their study mentioned that before purchasing the products and services customer can see the previous reviews on company websites of different customers on a product or service that they can quickly decide on purchasing products or services as they get some idea about their need’s products. There are many organizations which are taking advantages of social media platforms by selling their products and services on it. Moreover, there are different types of mobile marketing which are benefiting organizations which includes SMS marketing, mobile internet marketing, and MMS marketing. Sending a short text message to a potential buyer is one of the effective methods for grabbing their attention to the company’s products and services.

Ozcan and Santos (2015) suggest that a company can easily accomplish success if it effectively uses mobile marketing for grabbing the attention of many customers. In a single day, people spend more than 5 hours on their mobile phone for different purposes. Therefore, with the use of a mobile marketing strategy, it becomes convenient for the organizations to start a relationship with customers and grab their attention toward their products and services.

2.2. Mobile marketing and its benefits from the perspective of customers

The mobile marketing is a process where buying and selling activities can be done on the phones and via the internet. According to the view Bosomworth, (2015), firms cannot take advantages of mobile technologies without proper understanding of this applications. Moreover, Mobile marketing on social media helps small sellers or businesses to reach up their numbers of customers and followers at considerably low prices or free of charge, so that mobile marketing considers as the lowest and cheapest technique to reach customers as compared to TV, and radio. Regarding this aspect, there are certain E-commerce websites such as eBay, and Amazon which provide online facilities to their customers so that the customer selects his/her product from numerous products that are displayed on the website. Through that technique, the seller provides from time to time various special deals, and new products ads to their customers, essentially offer from time to time massive discount, and free offering things to their most potential and profitable customers. Therefore, that builds up a strong relationship with customers so their loyalty regarding the company's product will increase and that directly helps in building up of goodwill and generate brand value.

 Watson, McCarthy, and Rowley (2013) state that most sellers provide after-sale follow up services to their customer, such as warranty, guarantee, changing in case of wrongly delivered, and returning in case of damage all of which should be clearly displayed on the website from where the user has purchased the product. The portable devices allow the customer to take and operate his/her mobile device from everywhere and can essentially reach products and meet his/her needs anytime.

Chang (2017) argues that application of mobile marketing is similar to the other media. Sometimes, it can be challenging to navigate and track the product and reach the place of the seller. In addition, with many advertisements found on the screen makes it difficult for the user to operate his or her mobile phones and to perform tasks. The mobile network or internet service is necessarily an important aspect in the case of mobile marketing because it makes accessing the website and processing the purchase very difficult for the users to place such an order for purchasing a product or service online. Also, errors have been found to occur while placing the purchasing order. As a result, from that mobile marketing may sometimes be hard to make a deal on it. Shankar, Kleijnen & Morrissey (2016) said that some product is not appearing as it appears under Pcs and laptops due to its size and operating function. So that, the appearance, non-appearance, capacity, and performance depend on the potentiality of the types of mobile phones.

Lamberton and Stephen (2016) explained the benefits of mobile marketing for customers. For instance, it makes reaching and communicating with companies’ staff members very easy. Also, customers can ask for any query. Customers can quickly make a purchase anytime and from any place around the world. Also, mobile marketing provides detailed information about the products and services which help customers deciding whether to buy or not. Iqbal and Nawaz (2019) have claimed that information quality is increasing linearly but polluted information shows an exponential trend. So, there is the emergence of a phenomenon known as information pollution (Iqbal et al., 2018). Companies can efficiently respond to the client feedbacks and provide them with respect services according to their query. Customers are having their phones with them most of the time, so that they can see an advertisement if it tailors to meet their expectation and then the two-way communication can be established.

Over the course of time, there have been significant advancements in technology. Marketing over social media platforms and mobile devices has led to the success of many brands. The mobile marketing has proved to be a major support to the present generation consumers. It has many benefits for the customers. Most prior, as it is a mobile device, it can be accessed from anywhere and anytime. Thus, it acts as an instant media for the customers to get notified about a launch or update in any product or service that they interested in (Tadesse and Bahiigwa, 2015). Also, accessing data content about a product or a company through the means of mobile devices is entirely economic and quickly way as compared to that in a laptop or a desktop. In addition, it saves time and effort for the customers. Also, mobile marketing and social media apps for mobile devices make an outstanding benefit for the companies to issue promotion and marketing services to the user. As sometimes receiving a call cannot be possible for the customer, messages can be delivered by the companies to notify the user. Also, the user can save this virtual information about a product or service which can be later accessed by the customer. As mobile devices are compact and with a small display, the companies, thus keep their data content precise and straightforward keeping in mind the customers' convenience. So that, it can be clearly understandable by the customers.

As it is quite convenient to share content over mobile devices, the customer finds that it is accessible to use mobile marketing for this activity. Customers can share any information about new product or service efficiently with their family and friends using mobile marketing. On the other side, contextual information pollution makes it hard to seek information in one’s own context (Iqbal et al., 2019). As mobile device is accessible and in hand every time, it allows customers to be a direct part of any marketing campaign anytime anywhere, and thus customers can directly give their feedback or reviews over a product or service. Also, it allows customers to interact with other users or experts and get an idea about such a product and service they interested in (Shankar, Magrath & McCormick, 2013). Furthermore, mobile marketing helps customers to develop a long-term relationship with companies. As using mobile devices is comparatively more convenience, it makes company’s service available every time, whenever customers need it. Apart from this, the introduction of mobile payment apps has allowed purchasing a product or service online, directly from the company making it a reliable, safe and instant method to use features of online marketing. Also, various online marketing and e-commerce apps for mobile devices have caused a strong competition for the price of similar products or services on low costs. Therefore, a customer has an opportunity to choose from the best product at a minimum or reasonable price. Also, many companies emphasize the use of mobile apps or devices to purchase the products and services. It not only makes the product well known and fast selling but also makes customers liable for certain benefits or offers provided by the company to the online or mobile devices users leading to customers’ benefits.

2.3. The influence of mobile marketing on customer relationship management

According to the view of Strom, Vendel, and Bredican (2014) building a relationship with the customers becomes necessary for any company in order to carry out business for a long time. There are different ways firms build a strong relationship with the customer such as through delivering them quality products, solving their issues, responding to their needs and wants, etc. All of these are effective methods with respect to building a relationship with customers. In the present era, for building the relationship with Customers, companies are started using mobile marketing because mobile marketing has become popular and there are many people in all over the world use smartphones such as Samsung and iPhones. According to Shankar, Armstrong, Harker & Brennan (2015) view that it is hard and challenging for the companies to understand the customers’ behavior and to build a relationship with them, especially on mobile phones. Therefore, it can be stated that mobile marketing is new and still in the infancy. Lam and Shankar (2014) state that mobile as a marketing tool is unparalleled marketing channel which can easily achieve more than what can be done with it. It is because smartphones technology plays a significant role in the life of customers. In order to build a relationship with customers, marketers try to create a reason for continuous consumer engagement on mobile’s app. That should be done through personalized, push notification, and rewarding consumers for acting or making them know and informed of the arrival of any new product or availability of a product. That can be integrated into the app by sending customers alert at the time when a product is on sale.

Tiago and Veríssimo (2014) say that companies create websites and mobile apps that help them stay connected with customers for all the time. At the time, when a customer downloads the app on his/her mobile, company starts providing a notification related to new product and product on sales. All the records of the customer activity can easily be tracked and get to the company at the time when customer signs up on the app. Therefore, it can be stated that company’s mobile app assists in building a good relationship with customers. Many benefits of making a relationship with customers through mobile marketing, companies can get, such as stay-connected customers. It helps the companies to increase customers’ base because they recommend a firm product to the other customers such as family members and friends. Moreover, mobile marketing assists in making lots of sense at the time of considering that how often consumers are checking their phones. The mobile device is the first thing which individual see in the morning and last when they go to bed at night. There are different ways through which company build a relationship with the customer with the use of mobile marketing techniques, such as push notification, with the use of smartphones' geolocation technology for promoting special, coupon and send a personalized message to the customer. A few social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter can be integrated into their mobile marketing strategies. Further, sending a promotional offer on message also help in building a stable relationship with customers.

According to the view of Thakur (2014) it is helpful for the companies to make a strong relationship with customers with the use of mobile marketing. If the company’s employees quickly respond to the clients' query, also, it leads to increase the satisfaction level of customers. In addition, customers can engage with their favorite brands and build a strong relationship to turn it into the loyal brand. Within the use of mobile, marketing becomes apparent to reach the targeted audience, and it can directly communicate with the different customers' group because users generally have to opt-in receiving message. The company can efficiently track its customer's response and can quickly identify its customers who regularly visit their websites. Through direct communication, it becomes easy for the company to make strong relationships with customers. Different customers have different sets of expectations which are important for the companies to fulfill their satisfaction with respect to establish a strong relationship with all of them. Sometimes, customers do not make a purchase by seeing ads because they think that product may have an adverse quality. It is important for companies to communicate with the customers and make them aware of the quality of products and services which lead to making them loyal.

As per view of the Miquel-Romero, Caplliure-Giner and Adame-Sanchez (2014) in the mobile phone, customer search product than in search results list of many products appear among which customers can make a purchasing decision on which product they want to buy. After selling a product if customers face any issues and company respond to that problems, it also helps in making good relationship with customers.

2.4. The customers’ attitudes and perceptions towards the use of social media as a marketing tool

According to the view of Dwivedi, (2015), social media has changed the way through which information is communicated to the people in all over the world. Many studies which have focused on the attitude of the users toward the social media publicity and they all report that customers often have some inclination to avoid advertising. It is essential for companies to track the behavior of employees because of that will influence the customers’ attitudes. Further, it is analyzed that many people have positive attitudes and perception toward the use of social media as a marketing tool. Additionally, the attitude toward the social network advertising is essential because it does not only benefit the organizations but also provide websites with the vital revenue which assist their survival. Advertising avoidance can be efficiently done for instance, at the time of reading a newspaper an individual purposely skip the advertisement (cognitive method) and closing the banner is a mechanical method of avoiding the ads. Beyond the age and gender, the attitude toward social media advertising is influenced by the different numbers of factors.

According to the view of Kim, Kim & Wachter (2013) with the advancement in the field of technology and Internet, and with growth in the popularity of social media subscription, these platforms have emerged as marketing tools for various companies that have not only gained a significant market share but has also received an idea about customers requirement. Moreover, the social media platforms have evolved as a powerful tool for the companies. Also, the reviews or the feedback gained through it helps businesses to make more consumer-oriented strategies. Many companies post ads on websites and social media sites that are attractive and get the attention of many customers. For instance, if advertisements on websites reflect the bumper offer such as buy one and get one free, or discount for a limited period can get and attract many customers. Nowadays, most of the companies are embracing the social media approach as major market opportunities and challenges.

As per the view of Yadav, Joshi & Rahman (2015) social media marketing platforms help customers get idea about a service or a product that has been introduced by the company. Many times, target customers like teenagers, or business professionals are informed or notified about a service or a product related to their use, from the social media tool. Apart from that, they can also compare various products or services provided by different companies, discuss the pros and cons of a service or a product from other customers and experts over social media platform and can get or give their feedbacks. Also, it helps the customers to directly approach the company for any issue or review.

Many customers find social media marketing as an innovative and interactive approach as compared to the traditional marketing practices. Majority of the customers use various social media platforms to browse the products and based on its reviews, make the final purchase. The interaction with people over the social media platforms motivates customers to buy the services that have been advertised. Also, tech-savvy customers find it as a fast way to view the details and features of a launched product. Moreover, customers find it helpful to be part of any sort of brand or product-related activity that has been held on social media platforms. Also, if they liked a product, they can recommend it further in their social media circle or group, benefiting other customers and promoting for the company too (Borah and Tellis,2016).

Additionally, as many times, it is impossible for a customer to check a product or service online physically, it may lead to a feeling of uncertainty about quality in his minds. Also, customers are not sure about the claims of massive sale or discounts made over social media platform as many times such offers turn out to be a hoax (Kim, Kim, and Wachter, 2013). The reviews and responses of multiple experts on multiple social media platforms lead to the customer in a state of confusion to whether buy the product or not. Moreover, many times the customers find the online ads or social media advertisements as disturbing or annoying and try to avoid them. Sometimes the excessive marketing of a service or a product raises the customers’ expectations, failing to make the customer frustrated and affect companies’ image.

3. Data Analysis

The present investigation is based on online survey results. Further, the total questions are 19, and the total responses to the survey questions are 139 participants. SPSS is a widely used program in the marketing research in respect to obtain statistics overviews of the data. Further, this data is limited with the use of statistical indicators. This is used for studying separate variables and to study the relationship between variables.

Theme1: Most of the respondent who are between the 26 to 35 age group

Figure 1. Group age

From the chart, it is analyzed that 65% of the respondents are between the age of 26 to 35 years. Moreover, 26.49% are between the age of 18 to 25 years while the rest are between the age of 36 to 45, and 45 and older with 8% and 0.51%. It is analyzed that in this survey question most of the customers are between the age of 26 to 35 respond to the questionnaire. Moreover, a few people are between the age of 46 and older. It shows that young generation is more attentive and interested in social media sites and in taking a participant in the survey as compared to older age generation.

Theme 2: Most of the participants who are male.

In the present study, it is interpreted that 71% of participants are male and 29% are female. It shows that males are interested in using the mobile phone for using social sites as compared to female. They take actively the large part in this survey and respond to all the survey questions effectively.

Theme 3: Most of the respondents who are students.

Figure 2. Employment level of respondents

The chart shows that 68.4% of respondents are students and 28.2% are employed and rest of them are unemployed with 0.40% and with 3% employed students. It shows that students are more interested in taking part in the survey as compared to employed. It is analyzed that students are more interested in the mobile marketing and they spend time in mobile marketing.

Theme 4: Most of the participants whose cell phone have access to the internet.

In the present study, 99% of participants whose cell phones have access to the internet. On the other side, only 1% do not have access to the internet on the mobile phone. From the result, it is analyzed that most of the respondents use the internet on their mobile phones. It shows that people are more interested to have mobile phones that have access to the internet.

Theme 5: Most of the respondents who ignore the advertisement which they received on mobile phone.

In this study, 68% of respondents ignore the advertisements which they received on the mobile phone. On the other hand, 29% only read the advertisements while only 3% with them read and open the link or call the number after receiving the advertisement.

It shows that most of the respondents ignore the ad which they received on the mobile phone. Therefore, there is utmost importance to reveal about different factors involved in the mobile marketing. There are different reasons due to people avoid advertisements such as annoying them while browsing websites, reading or watching on the Internet.

Theme 6: Social media ad is the advertising method which influenced customers.

Figure 3. Social media use

This chart shows that 59% respondents get influenced through social media advertisement. On the other hand, 21% of participants influence through the email ads, while 9% from SMS and 8% from Television. The radio and newspaper ads affect further rest of the respondents with 2% and with 1%. The result shows that social media sites play a significant role as most of the customers are using it for receiving ads as compared to other methods. Ads which are given on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites lead to attract the customers' attention and encourage them to buy the products and services. Thus, it analyzed that social media highly influenced the customers and got their attention very efficiently. Hence, companies can increase their sales and profit through advertising their products and services on the social sites. People get influenced because of the social media ads. Despises of the fact if ad is attractive, people will prefer to go through with it instead of ignoring it.

Theme 7: 1 to 25 percent of the time customers view mobile marketing and follow through with purchasing the product through the using of their mobile phone.

In this study, 39% of participants who state that 1 to 25 percent of the time customers view mobile marketing and follow through with purchasing the products through the using of their mobile phones. On the other hand, 33% of them said that they notice mobile marketing and follow through with purchasing up to 50%. Also, 15% replied that they do not fallow their viewing of mobile marketing with a decision purchasing or they do that with less than 1 %. Moreover, 15% of the customers agree that they view mobile marketing and follow through with purchasing of products through the using of their mobile phone up to 75%. The above result shows that up to 39% of customers are using mobile phones for making a purchase and give time to view mobile marketing and follow through with the purchase of the products with the use of social networking sites. People are more attracted toward the company products and services.

Theme 8: Mobile marketing do not influence customer’s decision of purchasing.

In the present study, 46% of respondents said that mobile marketing does not influence customers’ decision of purchasing. On the other side, 44% said yes mobile marketing influence customers’ decision of purchasing a product or service. Further, there are few of respondents said sometimes it influenced with 8% and rest of them state that it depends on the effectiveness of the ad with 2%. From the above result, it is analyzed that most of the respondent do not influence from mobile marketing. Also, it does not influence their decision-making making regarding the purchase. It shows that company needs to change the way of influencing customers. They can make their ads more attractive through adding few features such as providing discounts or different types of offer. It is because customer usually get attracted from the offer which they get in advertisement and it leads to changes their decision toward the purchasing of products and services.

Theme 9: 3 to 5 advertisements received by the customer on their mobile phone per week.

In this study, 45% of customers state that they received up to 3 to 5 ads per week on their mobile phone. Further 15% said they do not receive any ads on their mobile phones while 15 % of participants replied that they received more than 5 ads on the mobile phones weekly. It shows that companies are using mobile marketing effectively with respect to promote their products and services. This result can assist the companies in promoting the products and services effectively with the use of mobile marketing.

Theme10: Mobile marketing helps customers keep up-to-date information about products and services that they are interested in.

In this study, 44 % of people who participate in this study highly agreed, and 20 % of them only agreed that Mobile marketing helps them keep up-to-date about products and services that they are interested in. On the other side, 8% state that they disagree and 1% highly disagreed while 27% are neutral they neither agreed nor disagrees with the given statement about the helping of Mobile marketing to keep them up-to-date.

Theme 11: Mobile marketing enables customers search and compare different products.

23% respondents are strongly agreed and 41% of customers agreed that mobile marketing enables them to search and compare different products and services. Further, 9% of them disagreed, and 2% strongly disagreed with the given statements while 24% are in the category of nor agreed, neither disagreed with the given statement.

Theme 12: Mobile modality can affect consumer attitudes positively towards mobile marketing.

43% of respondents strongly agreed and 20% of them only agreed that mobile modality can affect their attitudes positively towards mobile marketing. Further, below 13% of them disagreed with the given statements and 7% strongly disagree, while 17% neither agreed, nor disagreed that mobile marketing can affect consumer attitudes positively towards mobile marketing. It is analyzed that most of the respondents agreed that mobile modality can affect consumers attitudes positively towards mobile marketing. Mobile is user-friendly, cost-effective and time-saving due to this reason it leads to impact their attitude toward mobile marketing positively. Therefore, it shows that more additional features are supported in the mobile phones which provide a more extensive range of support to customers regarding searching and purchasing the products and services. Moreover, through downloading the app, it makes easy for them to get notification of different products which lead to provide them with information related to new products. That result shows mobile marketing makes companies more comfortable to enhance their sales and profitability with the use it.

Theme 13: Customer unable to decide that content of message in mobile marketing is relevant for them or not.

11% of respondents strongly agreed and 12 % only agreed that they unable to decide that content of a message in mobile marketing is relevant for them or not. Moreover, 13% of them disagreed and below 7% highly disagreed that with the given statements while 57 % did not agree, or disagree. From the above result, it is analyzed that most of the customers are unable to decide that content of message provided to them on mobile is relevant to them or not. Hence, it shows that content of message in the mobile marketing confused them. They do not make any types of decision-related to the content. Therefore, it is important for companies which are using mobile marketing for promoting their products and services to post specific content in the message that they send out to the customers. Further, customers also need to provide them with detail information about products and services. Companies should provide chat and facility to communicate in chance if customers are unable to decide to make a purchase related to products and services because of the relevant content.

Through only providing information and data is not appropriate, it is essential to provide a customer's service so that customers easily contact a company if they get confused with the process of purchase or products information. Therefore, providing contact facility help customers trusting that content is relevant and right to them.

Theme 14: Social Media is great place to increase engaging with consumers

In this study, 40% of respondents strongly agreed and 13% of them agreed that social media is a great place to increase engagement with consumers. Moreover, below 17% of the customers are disagreed and 6% are highly disagreed with the given statements while 24% are neither agreed, nor disagreed with the given statements. The result shows that with the help of social media, people are engaging with each other and with companies which they are interested in. Also, social media increase the engagement between customers and companies. Further, companies should use social media to gain customers' attention toward the company’s products and services and informed them about realizing of new product or update model.

Theme 15: Customers are more exposed to Mobile Marketing communications as a result of increasing social media use.

27% respondents are strongly agreed, and 38% of the customers are agreed that they are more exposed to mobile marketing communications as a result of increasing social media use. Moreover, below 4 % of them are disagreed, and 4% highly disagreed that with the given statements while 27% are neither agreed, nor disagreed. The above interpretation shows that most of the respondents’ state that customers are exposed to mobile Marketing communications as a result of increasing social media use. Hence, it is analyzed that with the use of social media customers can easily communicate with a particular company. Social media makes accessibility for customers to ask any query or post any questions with the use of Facebook, and Twitter, directly complaint to the company products and services. Due to this reason, it is essential for the company to ensure that it sells quality products to customers and respond their query on time in order to increase sales and profit. Many people all over the world use social networking sites on the mobile phone, so that companies should expose them to mobile marketing communication.

Theme 16: Customers are disagreed that they usually respond to marketing messages communicated via social media

29% of respondents disagreed, and 27% of the customers strongly disagreed that they usually respond to marketing messages communicated via social media. Further, below 7 % of the customers agreed, and 9% highly agreed with the given statements while 28% neither agreed, nor disagreed with the statement mentioned above. Most of the customers are not agreed that they respond to the marketing message communication via social media. It shows that marketing message related to any products and services appear on Facebook, and twitter is respondent by few people. Customers who are interested in buying products and services only respond to the message while people who are not interested ignore the messages. On the other hand, if the marketing message is effective and interesting then it leads to get the attention of customers. Attractive messages with unique content help companies encourage customers to respond to the message. Customers also respond to the message with the use of social media content. Hence, it shows that different customers have different needs and wants as it depends on the organizations. The way companies use to communicate with the use of social media for responding the customers should be valuable.

Theme 17: The availability of social media from mobile phone has made customers more informed about brands when making purchasing decisions.

In this study, 41 % of respondents strongly agreed, and 23% of them only agreed that the availability of social media on their mobile phone has made them more informed about brands when making purchasing decisions. Moreover, 6% of the customers disagreed, and 1% of them highly disagreed with the given statements, while 29% neither agreed, nor disagreed. The above result shows that most of the customers who state that the availability of social media from mobile phones has made customers more informed about products when making purchasing decisions. It shows that social media on mobile phones make customers more knowledgeable about brands, so that customers can be informed before they decide related to purchasing products and services. Through downloading an app such as Amazon app, customers can get notification related to products of different companies and sellers which they posted for sale. Moreover, any offers on the occasion also get them through the e-marketing. People can easily see the image of products and features along with the price. In addition to that, they can even make a comparison of product with other companies to make sure which company is selling a quality product at reasonable price. It is important for the company to ensure that its sale of quality products so that people can easily trust them before making second time purchase.

Theme 18: More than 30 percent of day customers spend on social media using their cell phone.

From the data analysis, it reflects that 32% of customers spend more than 30% of the day on social media with the use of their cell phone. Further 31% of customers agreed that they spend maximum 30% of their day on the mobile phone, while only 11% of participants spend, 10% of the day on social media with the use of their cell phone. The result shows that most of the customers spend more than 30% of their daily time on social media with the use of mobile phone. Also, it shows that many people are using the mobile phones for spending time on social media as a daily habit. The result explains that mobile becomes one of the important needs of people around the world. It shows that if companies do marketing on their products on social media sites that will be beneficial for them. Many customers like to see ads which are posted on social networking sites because of the high discount. Therefore, it is essential for a company to acquire customers through posting attractive ads. Hence, for the companies, social media platform is one of the effective platforms which help in increasing the sales of the products and services.

Theme 19: 1 to 25 percent of purchases customers make using mobile sites

The data analysis shows that more than 41% of participants said that they make between 1 to 25% of their purchase with the use of mobile sites. On the other hand, 26% of respondents replied that up to 50% of purchase they made with the use of mobile sites and 19% of participants made purchase up to 75% while only 10% do not make or make a too low purchase with using of mobile websites. The above result shows that 41% of people are using the mobile version sites for making a purchase decision. It shows that companies which are using the mobile version sites can easily attract many customers for increasing the sale and profit. People are more aware of products, and they like online purchasing because of various reason such as lack of time and the ability to compare multi products and services. In the modern era, people have diverted themselves toward the mobile phone as they spend most of the time on it mostly younger age people. Therefore, companies can take advantage of that with respect to make their brands one of the top brands around the world. In addition, they should improve their mobile sites feature and performance. The below table 1 has presented the results in the form of summary.

Table 1. Themes generated in Study

Themes % Age of respondents who agreed
Theme 1: Most of the respondent who are between the 26 to 35 age group 65%
Theme 2: Most of the participants who are male. 70%
Theme 3: Most of the respondents who are students. 68.4%
Theme 4: Most of the participants whose cell phone have access to the internet. 99%
Theme 5: Most of the respondents who ignore the advertisement which they received on mobile phone. 68%
Theme 6: Social media ad is the advertising method which influenced customers. 59%
Theme 7: 1 to 25 percent of the time customers view mobile marketing and follow through with purchasing the product through the using of their mobile phone. 39%
Theme 8: Mobile marketing do not influence customer’s decision of purchasing. 46%
Theme 9: 3 to 5 advertisements received by the customer on their mobile phone per week. 45%
Theme10: Mobile marketing helps customers keep up-to-date about products and services that they are interested in: strongly agreed 44%
Theme 11: Mobile marketing enable customers to search and compare different products. 23%
Theme 12: Mobile modality can affect consumer attitudes positively towards mobile marketing 43%
Theme 13: Customer unable to decide that content of message in mobile marketing is relevant for them or not. 11%
Theme 14: Social Media is great place to increase engaging with consumers 40%
Theme 15: Customers are more exposed to Mobile Marketing communications as a result of increasing social media use. 27%
Theme 16: Customers are disagreed that they usually respond to marketing messages communicated via social media 29%
Theme 17: The availability of social media from mobile phone has made customers more informed about brands when making purchasing decisions. 41%
Theme 18: More than 30 percent of day customers spend on social media using their cell phone. 32%
Theme 19: 1 to 25 percent of purchases customers make using mobile sites 41%

4. Conclusion

The findings of this study help in developing understanding of researchers related to the factors that influence the likelihood of mobile marketing and way it influences customers decisions. The present study focused on the factors that influence the decision of customers related to making purchases. Therefore, it can be questioned that decision of customer related to purchase is influenced from mobile marketing. Mobile marketing is increases as all the literature part is based on it. For this study, there were 139 respondents that took part of the surveys and most of the respondents were males and students.

From the first objective, namely “To analyze the recent mobile users’ reaction of using social media platforms for marketing of products and services,” it is concluded that many people are using the mobile phone for purchasing the mobile phone. Implementation of new technology in the mobile phone help companies to sell their products and people can easily buy through it. There is an increase in the trend of marketing through the internet. There are many companies are sending ads on the mobile phone with respect to promote their products and encourage customers to buy them. In the modern era, people become more familiar with the mobile, and they use it for different purposes. On Facebook, Twitter and company websites, customers also get different choices for selecting products, and they can even compare one company product and service with another one with respect to selecting a product. At the same time, it is hard for them to understand information in a diverse format (Iqbal et al., 2019). Apart from the data analysis chapter, it is concluded that many people are using social networking sites on their mobile phone, and they are making purchase decision through seeing the advertisement on the mobile phone.

From the second objective, namely “To evaluate benefits of mobile marketing for customers,” it is concluded that there are many benefits of mobile marketing for customers such as through mobile marketing company can efficiently provide to customers timely and important information with the use of social media platform. The further customers can track their products and services which they purchase and change them, in case it was damaged or not effectively as per the secondary data information. Apart from data analysis chapter, it is concluded that people are getting benefits from the mobile phones as they can comfortably purchase any products and services from any place and at any time.

From the third objective, namely “To analyze the significance of mobile marketing in building relationships with customers” it is concluded that with the use of mobile marketing, customers are building a relationship with companies. Many organizations are using mobile marketing for the purpose of communicating with customers. With the help of that companies can quickly identify the perception of customers toward their company's product, and they can serve and help them accordingly as it leads to helping in making a strong relationship. From the data analysis chapter, it is analyzed that people use more than 30% of a day on their mobile phones for the using social media websites.

From the fourth objective, namely “To understand customers’ attitudes and perceptions towards the use of social media as a marketing tool, it is concluded that” many customers who avoid the ads which they receive on their mobile phones because they are not interested, or the ads have no influence on them. It is important for the companies to track the behavior of their employees because any mistake can influence the customer attitudes. Social media changes the perception of the customer toward the advertisement, further, it can be stated that customers who wish to buy product firstly they make a comparison with different companies and make their purchase decision.

4.1. Limitation and Recommendations

The findings of research present new aspects related to the role of mobile marketing communication on social media and customers’ experience regarding mobile marketing effectiveness. In the present research, however, some limitations and shortcomings have had an impact on the research. It can be stated that first, there is a limitation of time and resources due to which highly detail investigation and analysis were not carried out. For considering the present topic, researchers have reached only 139 customers for this survey.On the other side, Iqbal, Yang, Nawaz, and Lin (2018) have recommended to enhance the learning at an organizational level to improve the effectiveness of information processing in the era of information pollution.

In the present time, mobile marketing plays a significant role for both companies and customers. Further, these tools can be seen by both the organizations and customers to improve their respective experiences. In the present undertaking study, the role of the type of marketing is being explored. Interaction use various social media marketing tools have been a great approach to handle customers in any geographical location. Further, there are some recommendations for effective use of mobile marketing tools for both buyers and the sellers. Organizations are suggested to limit the actions which are required to avail services. These various steps are disliked by the consumers, and thus, it affects their buying behaviors. If companies undergo a more straightforward set-up process with limited actions, then more customers will be attracted towards it. This, in turn, will increase the profitability of the firm. Further, organizations while using mobile marketing should be aware of the content and the pictures they are using. High-quality images on the websites are captivating. However, it should be recognized that the use of large size files will slow down page load times. Thus, this optimization plays a significant role which should be considered by the organization while marketing through internet. That, in turn, will again dislike by people. The content used in the mobile marketing should be relevant and realistic. Also, it is recommended that the information should be kept simple so that consumers can understand it. It is further recommended to the entities that use, they should be careful of using font size, colors, line, and spacing, so that customers can access the information with a clear view. Besides this, companies are advised to undergo proper sorting of the data based on its priority for their business. It should be further recognized that the most important content on the site should be written in the very first line. It is because customers would not scroll around if they are not satisfied with that. In addition, companies should pay attention to the development of highly mobile-friendly websites. It helps in achieving a good customer base by making the marketing platforms simpler to read and to navigate. This simplified navigation through the website will assure that the consumers do not face any problem while accessing the marketing information. Thus, the content will be read out by a towering figure. Hence, entities will gain more profitability.

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Article Rights and License
© 2019 The Authors. Published by Sprint Investify. ISSN 2359-7712. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Creative Commons License
Corresponding Author
Nasser Khalufi, School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
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Author(s)

Nasser KHALUFI
School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia

Khairul Anuar Mohammad SHAH
School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia

Qaisar IQBAL
School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
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