International Bulletin of Business Administration ISSN: 1451-243X Issue 11 (2011) EuroJournals, Inc. 2011 http://www.eurojournals.

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Factors Influencing Jordanian Universities Students Motives and Attitudes toward SMS Advertising: Empirical Study Based on Jordanian Students View
Talal Taher Nusair Assistante Prof., Middle East University, Amman, Jordan E-mail: Talal52t@hotmail.com Younes A. A. Megdadi Associate Prof., Middle East University, Amman, Jordan. E-mail: Younes_megdadi@yahoo.com Abstract This study aim to examine Jordanian universities students motives and attitudes for using SMS, their SMS usage frequency, and their attitudes towards SMS advertising. Factor analysis on the motives for using SMS revealed seven factors, namely convenience, social involvement, enjoyment, escape, personal communication, economical reasons, and public expression. Study sample consist of (800) Jordanian students were selected randomly out of (7) public and private universities in Amman capital. The findings show that convenience and economical reasons influence SMS usage frequency. Social involvement influences attitudes towards SMS advertising. Managerial implications and limitations are also presented.

Keyword: Consumer Behaviors & attitudes, Advertising, and E-Marketing.

Introduction
Marketers today want to use efficiently the communication channels that mobile media provide, they need to understand how mobile consumers perceive and evaluate mobile devices as a source of advertising. For a long period of time it has been clear that perceptions of the advertising medium affect attitudes toward individual advertising (Ducoffe, R. H., 1995). Mobile technologies have become a commonplace in our everyday lives (Balasubramanian, S., Peterson, R. A. and Jarvenpaa S. L. 2002). Mobile devices have changed the way we communicate and interact (Dickinger, A., Haghirian, P. and Schlegelmilch, B. B. ,2003,). More than that, mobile technologies have not only altered our style of communication, but they also have a strong impact on modern management. They allow existing activities to be carried out more efficiently and enable many entirely new activities (Balasubramanian, S., Peterson, R. A. and Jarvenpaa S. L. 2002). As a consequence, mobile technologies have the potential to create new markets, alter the competitive landscape of business, and change existing societal and market structures (Stewart, D. W. and Pavlou, P. A. ,2002,). Mobile technologies have a very powerful impact on modern business. Proponents of this technology claim that the growth and importance of m-commerce will exceed that of e-commerce (Lee, Y. E. and Benbasat, I. 2003,).But mobile devices have also changed the marketers world. Mobile 12

devices enable interactions between customer and advertiser that become increasingly rapid and easy and are independent from the consumers location. Users of mobile devices can receive digital photographs, moving video images and high-quality audio from their mobile handsets. Corporate users can connect to their office computer networks and send and receive e-mails (Robins, F. 2003). Consumers can be provided with information they are interested in, which gives marketers the chance to build customer relationships of a new dimension. Good marketing management emphasizes the building of long-term relationships (Houston, F. S. and Gassenheimer, J. B., 2002 ). Mobile advertising can support these goals in various ways, because it allows reciprocal communication processes between marketer and consumers. In Japan, where wireless Internet is already a reality, several portals are sending simple advertising messages to mobile phone users (Varshney, U. ,2003 ). As more wireless bandwidth will be available, content rich advertising involving audio, pictures and video clips can be produced for individual users with specific needs, interests and inclinations (Varshney, U. and Vetter, R. ,2002, ). It is therefore assumed that mobile advertising will be also an important source of revenue for mobile operators in the future (DeZoysa, S. ,2002). The use of SMS as an advertising medium has received widespread attention in recent years(Carroll et al., 2007; Grant and ODonohoe, 2007 Leung, 2007; Muk, 2007). Prior studies have been conducted to examine consumer attitudes towards SMS advertising, however it isstill limited (Vrechopoulous et al., 2003). Research in this area has investigated a number of aspects of SMS advertising, such as acceptance (Carroll et al., 2007; Rettie and Brum, 2001),uses and gratifications (Leung, 2007; Leung and Wei, 2000), interpersonal influences (Muk,2007), demographic effects (Okazaki, 2007; Barnes, 2002). However, little has been done to investigate the relationship between motives for using SMS technology and the relationship with attitudes towards SMS as an advertising or promotional tool. Furthermore, this study have focused on Jordanian perspective is yet to be understood. Although, this medium is suggested to be a potentially effective and profitable channel to advertise targeted messages (Leung, 2007), the Jordanian youth markets reception towards this medium is still under researched (Grant and ODonohoe, 2007).

Related Literature Reviews Advertising as any paid form of no personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor (Kotler, P. 2003). Mobile advertising (in the following abbreviated as madvertising) refers to the transmission of advertising messages via mobile devices such as mobile phones. There are different synonyms for m-advertising, such as wireless advertising (Krishnamurthy, S. 2000 ) or wireless advertising messaging (Petty, R. D. 2003 ). Usually, m-advertising messages are transmitted via short message service (SMS)( De Reyck, B. and Degraeve, Z. 2003). For marketers, SMS advertising provides several advantages, such as cost effectiveness ,ubiquity, immediacy, and targeted message delivery (Rettie and Brum, 2001). However, it is found that 79% of online consumers find receiving mobile ads through their mobile phones irritating and intrusive (Muk, 2007; Grant and ODonohoe, 2007; Xu, 2006/2007). Conversely, studies have also found that mobile advertising campaigns generate a higher response rate as compared to direct mail and internet banner ads, thus its potential cannot be undermined (Jelassi and Enders, 2004). Barnes (2002) also found that SMS advertising is more capable of attracting the younger consumer market, whereas other media have found it a challenge to do so. Motivations for using wireless or SMS technology is derived from the uses and gratification theory. This theory purports that the consumer is actively involved in the decision to determine their media use and is motivated by the need to fulfill certain needs (Peters et al.,2007). Furthermore, these consumers select the media contents that they wish to be exposed .Based on the studies conducted by Katz et al. (1973), the use of mass media is goal oriented, and the consumer seeks to link the need 13

gratification with their choice of media. The consumers use of the media also competes with other sources of need satisfaction and gratifications from media use, which usually encompass diversion ,entertainment, escapism, and information. Attitudes of customer has always been a critical issue in marketing, but has assumed a greater significance in recent years with the rise of Internet-based commercial transactions (Rust, R. T., Kannan, P. K. and Peng, N. 2002). Most consumers are still quite uncomfortable with the concept of mobile business and they are skeptical whether these businesses are feasible and secure (Siau, K. and Shen, Z. 2003). Originally meant to connect the world of business, the mobile phone has been increasingly applied by private households and therewith entered the domestic sphere. Accordingly, the mobile phone has changed its identity: it has lost its internal coherence and its connotations of being a mobile technology (Fortunati, L.,2001). Consumers regard their mobile phone a very private item. Mobile technologies are considered personal technologies, attached to a particular body or person (Green, N., Harper, R. H. R., Murtagh, G. and Cooper, G. 2001). Consequently, they are very sensitive towards receiving messages from unknown persons or organizations. Data control by unknown individuals can easily lead to annoyance among receivers (Whitaker, L. ,2001). The consumer also seeks to satisfy the need to express personal identity and to build relationships through the use of media(Xu, 2006/2007). Furthermore, social influences and psychological states of consumers also impacts on the decision. Media use is considered as a natural composition of the environment, its use is therefore a part of the consumers social action and routine. As such, consumers would interpret SMS messages by incorporating it as part of their daily routine (ODonohoe, 1994). The utilitarian dimension of uses and gratification theory can be applied to examine the consumers motives for using SMS text messaging (Leung, 2007).Based on prior studies, there are evidence that consumers utilize SMS on the basis of its convenience, usefulness and ease of use (Grant and ODonohoe, 2007; Peters et al., 2007). Furthermore, SMS is infused with the fun factor (Grant and ODonohoe, 2007), which makes it especially attractive to young consumers. However, the nature of SMS technology is dissimilar to other media, as it is ubiquitous, text based, and personal in nature. Leungs (2007) study revealed six factors, namely entertainment, affection ,fashion, escape, convenient and low cost, and coordination. With SMS use gaining a bigger share of our daily media use.

Customer Motives and Attitudes towards SMS Advertising

Motives and attitudes are conventionally regarded as an indicator of the effectiveness of advertising (Junand Lee, 2007). According to Allen et al. (1992), attitudes is defined as the affect or the general sentiment of dislike or like of a particular action or behavior. According to (Fish and Ajzen ,1975), an attitude towards an object is defined as an individuals internal evaluation based on his or her beliefs. Customer motives and attitudes towards SMS advertising can be determined by the values that they attribute to SMS advertising (Ducoffe, 1995; Jun and Lee,2007), suggested that when customers are provided with benefits such as entertainment and information, they will perceive advertising in a more favorable light. In addition ,SMS advertising has been suggested to be attention grabbing, an information provider, interesting ,and interactive (Maneesoonthorn and Fortin, 2004; Lee et al., 2006).

Study Problems
This study aims to extend on prior studies to examine the motives for using SMS. As such, the motives for using SMS messaging would also the influence factors of SMS a customer send (Maneesoonthorn and Fortin, 2006).Based on the above discussion, the following research questions are formulated: RQ1: What are the motives and attitudes for using SMS? RQ2: How does motives and attitudes for using SMS influence SMS usage frequency? 14

Study Hypotheses
SMS advertising has been stated to be a more effective medium to generate customer response (Barnes, 2002). However, it has been found that young customers hold increasingly negative attitudes towards advertising (Tsang et al., 2004), therefore, it is crucial to examine if negative attitudes towards SMS advertising/promotions would discourage the frequency of using SMS (Jun and Lee, 2007). Hence, the following hypotheses are formulated: H1: There is a positive relationship between students motives and attitudes towards SMS advertising/promotions. H2: There is a positive relationship between SMS usage and students motives and attitudes towards SMS advertising/promotions.

Study Methodology
Data was collected using a convenience sampling method from (7) Jordanian universities in Amman capital. A self administered questionnaire was distributed in a lecture setting that captures the young adult demographic segment. The survey instrument comprised of four sections .Section A consists of a screening question to determine if the respondent has used SMS before, followed by a question on the respondents weekly SMS usage. Section B consists of an adapted scale from various sources that examines customer attitudes towards SMS advertising/promotions (Carroll et al., 2007; Lee, Tsai and Jih, 2006). Section C comprised of scale items adapted from Leung (2007) that investigates the motives for using SMS. Both Section B and C are measured on a seven point Likert scale with 1 = strongly disagree and7 = strongly agree. Section D consists of questions that capture the respondents demographic information. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted using Varimax rotation on the 30-item uses and gratification scale which constitute the motives for using SMS. Seven factors emerged from the analysis namely, convenience, social involvement, enjoyment, escape, personal communication, economical reasons, and public expression. These seven factors(motives) explain 63.38% of the total variance and recorded a KMO of 0.849. All factors recorded a Cronbachs Alpha of 0.6 and above, which is deemed reliable (Nunnally, 1978).

Study Results
Table 1: Sample Demographical Data:

Demographical Items: Education Level: Bachelor Degree Mastered Degree Doctorate Degrees Gender: Male Female Age: 18-22 Years 23-27 Years 28-32 years 33-37 Years 37 Years and above

Count 620 130 50 400 400 420 190 85 70 35

Percentage 77.5% 16.3% 6.2 % 50% 50% 52.5 % 23.8 % 10.6 % 8.8 % 3.4 %

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Table 2:

Correlations Between the Seven Factors of Motives and Attitudes Toward SMS Advertising.
.302** .323** -.112** .52** -.082** .143** -.047

H1: Convenience H2: Social Involvement H3: Enjoyment H4: Escape H5: Personal Communication H6:Economical Reasons H7:Public Expression *p<.05 **p<.01 ***p<.001

Table 2 shows that the seven motives and attitudes factors for using SMS were regressed towards high and low SMS users. The two user groups were formed through a median split of usage frequency. It was found that convenience has a significant positive influence on user levels (Sig. = .000,=.302). However, economical reasons was found to have a significant negative influence towards user levels (Sig. =.044, =-.143). Both factors account for 11.8% of the variance .Next, the seven motives for using SMS were regressed against attitudes towards SMS advertising. Social involvement was found to have a significant and positive influence on attitudes towards SMS advertising/promotions (Sig. = .000, = .323, Adj R2 =.091). However, the other factors do not have a significant relationship with motives and attitudes towards SMS advertising. Hence H1 is partially supported.
Table 3: Regression Analysis of Factors Influencing Students Motives and Attitudes Toward SMS Advertising
T-Value t = 10.12 t = 3.44 t = -4.11 t = 6.31 t = -2.34 t = -.221 t = -.711 .005 Beta .282** -.126 -.075 .136 -.075 -.080 -.082 0.008 P-value 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.01

Factors of Motives & Attitudes of Using SMS Convenience Social involvement Enjoyment Escape Personal communication Economical reasons Public expression Adj R2 ** = sig<.01

Table 3 shows that the seven motives and attitudes for using SMS were next regressed towards SMS usage per week. The results showed that convenience has a significant positive relationship towards SMS usage per week (Sig =.001, =.282) explaining 13.9% of the variance . This suggests that the higher the perceived convenience for the customer, the greater the number of SMS sent within a week. SMS usage frequency was regressed against attitudes towards SMS advertising. The results showed that there is no relationship between the frequency of SMS usage and students motives and attitudes towards SMS advertising/promotions (Sig. = 0.01, = -.008, Adj R2 = .005). Hence, H2 is rejected.

Discussion and Managerial Implications

SMS advertising provide many new opportunities and challenges for marketers. They allow addressing the consumers individually and enabling a direct and reciprocal communication with customers. However, in contrast to Internet-based advertising, the effects of advertising via mobile devices have not yet been sufficiently investigated. 16

The paper at hand presents antecedents of SMS advertising into the marketing activities of a company. Specifically, the effectiveness of mobile advertising is investigated. Focuses of the study were influence factors on consumers motives and attitudes toward SMS advertising. The results show that the SMS advertising is strongly related to the content and the frequency of the SMS advertising message sent via mobile devices. The assumption that mobile advertising is more effective among younger consumers could neither be verified. Consumers today consider their SMS advertising a very private item and are extremely sensitive about the messages they receive. This creates numerous challenges for marketers, which need to be investigated in greater detail. The integration and interaction into marketing activities using other media vehicles should be researched further as there can be cross-media interdependencies and image transfers. Additional experiments need to be designed to investigate the information process of the mobile ad recipients to develop normative recommendations in how to most effectively integrate mobile advertising into marketing activities. The study has identified seven factors that influence SMS usage frequency, which are convenience, social involvement, enjoyment, escape, personal communication, economical reasons, and public expression. However, only convenience is found to influence SMS usage frequency of the Jordanian universities students, because consumers find that it is quick and easy to use. In addition, convenience is also composed of keeping in touch with friends, and keeping up with everyone. As such, well crafted and relevant advertising messages could well be forwarded and circulated within the social network (Grant and ODonohoe, 2007).Marketing strategies such as referrals and promotional vouchers and coupons that are relevant to their interest can be used to reach this market. Economical reasons is found to negatively influence SMS usage frequency for high SMS users. This can be explained by the fact that heavy users are not concerned about the economical benefits, such as cost control or that phone calls are more expensive. As heavy users, they would understand that the cost of their SMS habit would be relatively substantial .Furthermore, the cost to send an SMS (JD 0.03 above) in Jordan is more cheaper than many other countries. Most mobile plan rates make it cheaper to call rather than to SMS (i.e. free calls to users of the same service provider). Hence, this could be a reason as to why SMS advertising and SMS technology adoption is much slower in Jordan than other countries. Social involvement is found to be the only factor that influences consumers motives and attitudes towards SMS advertising. Previous studies have found that a large portion of responses to SMS advertising campaigns is complemented with another media, such as contests that are also advertised on TV. In Jordan, most of consumers have a positive acceptance towards such advertising and promotions .It is found that SMS usage frequency does not influence motives and attitudes towards SMS advertising .This could be due to the fact that consumers utilize SMS for the sake of communication, and do not perceive it to be an advertising channel. It can be argued that because the SMS advertising market in Jordan is relatively new, marketers would need to further explore what young consumers would like to benefit from this form of advertising. This study has only examined youths consumers in Jordan. Social and personality influences can also be introduced to examine if they influence the motives for using SMS, as well as attitudes towards SMS advertising. In addition, future studies can delve into what forms of SMS advertising messages are relevant and attractive to young consumers in order to influence their motives and attitudes.

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