Mobile Marketing Initiatives on Consumer Attitudes and Buying Behaviour of Young Consumers in Sri-Lanka

Purpose: Mobile marketing is act as a phenomenon of great impact and relevance for marketing communications because it provides a continuous access to the consumer “anytime and anywhere”. Development of mobile marketing has become a greater opportunity to maintain an interactive and meaningful communication with customers for businesses, especially within the young generation. Young consumers are not homogeneous audiences for mobile marketing as their usage patterns and attitudes are widely depending on their social background, technological literacy and urban/rural lifestyles. The main objective of this study is to examine the influence of innovative mobile marketing services on customer attitudes and buying behaviours of young consumers in Sri-Lanka.

Method: Quantitative approach was used to investigate the specific research objective followed by explanatory research design. The sample size for this study was 130 undergraduates attached to university of Sri Jayewardenepura. Survey method was used to collect the data and a structured questionnaire was utilised as a data collection tool.

Findings: Multiple regression analysis results revealed the statistically significant relationships between mobile marketing initiatives (mobile app marketing and SMS marketing) and customer buying behaviour. The regression-based path analysis results indicated that customer attitudes mediate the relationship between mobile app marketing and customer buying behaviour. The path analysis on SMS marketing, customer attitudes and consumer buying behavior revealed that there was no mediating effect of customer attitudes for the relationship between SMS marketing and customer buying behaviour.

Research Implications: Mobile marketing initiatives provide marketers and business to connect more closely to customers. It is important for the marketers to know the influence of mobile marketing initiatives on the consumer buying attitudes and behaviours whether they are positive or negative.