1. i
Master of Science in Marketing Management
Academic Year: 2010-2011
MUBBASHAR QAYYUM
1092497263692
AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF ASIAN STUDENTS’
PERCEPTION AND ATTITUDE TOWARD MOBILE ADVERTISING:
RECENT EVIDENCE FROM UK
Supervisor:SyedMuhammad Amir Hashmi
07 OCT 2011
Study Centre: LONDON SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND FINANCE

2. ii
Statement of Originality and Authenticity
This dissertation is an authentic piece of work which was solely written by me. I
certify that, to the best of my knowledge, my thesis does not infringe upon anyone’s
copyright. Any statements utilized from other literatures have been appropriately referenced.
This research, in whole or part, has not been presented elsewhere for assessment.
I have read and understood the Examination Regulations and I am aware of the
outcome if there is a breach of them.
Signature:
Name: Mubbashar Qayyum
Date: 07.10.2011

3. iii
Acknowledgments
First of all I would like to thanks to my dearest uncle Muhammad Naseer and Aunt
Jameela Naseer, who encouraged and supported me immensely during my toughest moments
of this year. Only because of them I was able to concentrate on my studies.
I am very great full to my parents who always pray for my success in life. My sincere
thanks to my cousins Naqash and Adam who always support me and take care of me.This
may not have been possible if it was not for your dear support.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Syed Muhamad Amir
Hashmi for his patience, intelligence,and his guidance throughout my research work and his
professional attitude to responsibility
Finally, I am thankful to my love Nadia Mubbashar who always trust in my abilities
and encouraged me during my dissertation.
Oct 2011 MUBBASHAR QAYYUM

4. iv
Abstract
This dissertation aims to examine theoretical foundations of mobile marketing and its
influence on Asian migrant students in UK. It has been found that literature on mobile
marketing is still inconsistent. Mobile marketing has substantial impact on consumer’s
perception and attitude. The main aim of this study is “To look into those factors that affect
Asian student’s perception and attitude in response to mobile marketing communication”
The first section of this thesis is introduction which gives a brief overview on mobile
marketing and consumer’s perception and attitude towards mobile marketing/advertising.
This section also describes the effects of gender, age, economic situation, language on
consumer’s responses toward mobile advertising messages. The next section provides
literature on this complex phenomenon. A short survey based research has done which very
useful in social sciences. This is a qualitative study but the data was collected through
questionnaire due to less time and finance.
The results suggest that Asian students are familiar with mobile marketing and they think that
mobile advertising messages are very useful because these messages increase their brand
awareness. It has also found that their perception and attitude will be positive toward mobile
marketing/advertising if advertisers obtain permission before sending mobile advertising
messages. This concept is also known as permission based mobile marketing. Their
acceptance of mobile marketing depends on advertising value. They like to receive relevant,
short and concise, interactive and entertaining messages. Factors such as age, gender, income
level and language affect their responses toward mobile advertising.

5. v
List of Original Papers
This dissertation is based on the following papers;
1. Carroll, A, Barnes JS, Scornavacca, E, & Fletcher, K 2007, ‘Consumer Perception
and Attitude toward SMS Advertisement: Recent Evidence from Newzeland’,
International Journal of Advertising, 26, 1, pp.79-95.
2. Leppaniemi, M & Karjaluoto, H 2008, ‘Exploring the Effects of Gender, Age, Income
and Employment Status on Consumers’ Responses to Mobile Advertising Campaign’,
Journal of Systems and Information Technology, 10, 3, pp.251 – 265.

6. vi
List of Abbreviations
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
 This system enables organizations to transfer information on intranet and to retrieve
hypertext pages from internet
MMS Multimedia Messaging Service
 This service enables to send multimedia messages that include audios, videos and
images. User can also include text within the message.
MMSC Multimedia Message Service Center
 This service enables mobile phones to send and receive multimedia messages.
PBMM Permission Based Mobile Marketing
 It is strategy that advertisers use to obtain consumer’s permission before sending the
mobile marketing messages.
Ringtone
 Ringtone alert the mobile phone user about incoming call. However, there are
different ringtone available on cell phones.
SMS Short Message Service
 This service enables to send only text messages with maximum length of 160
characters between mobile phones. User can only include normal text.
SMSC Short Message Service Center
 It is a part of cellular network. This service enables mobile phones to deliver text
messages.
WAP Wireless Application Protocol
 This system enables the user to access internet from their cell phones and this service
increased the use of internet.

7. vii
Table of Contents
Statementof Originality …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................................
Abstract ....................................................................................................................................................................................
List of original papers ................................................................................................................................................................
List of Abbreviations.................................................................................................................................
Table of figures,chartsand tables............................................................................................................
1.0 Introduction.........................................................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Background of the Study..............................................................................................................................................…1
1.2 Aims and Objectives .........................................................................................................................................3
1.3 Research Framework..........................................................................................................................................4
1.4 Outline of the Study...........................................................................................................................................4
2.0 Literature Review ..............................................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Marketing...........................................................................................................................................................4
2.2 IntegratedMarketingCommunications............................................................................................4
2.2.1 Defining IMC ..................................................................................................................................................................6
2.2.2 Why Use IMC .................................................................................................................................................................5
2.3 Mobile Commerce .............................................................................................................................................5
2.3.1 Definition of Mobile Commerce ..................................................................................................................................7
2..3.2 Mobile Commerce Technology .................................................................................................8
2.4 Mobile Marketing...............................................................................................................................................................9
2.5 Mobile Marketing Communication ...............................................................................................................................10
2.7 Consumer Analysis ..........................................................................................................................................................10
2.8 Perception..........................................................................................................................................................................11
2.8.1 Consumer Perception towards Mobile Advertising ................................... ...12
2.9 Attitude ..............................................................................................................................................................................13
2.9.1 Consumer Attitude towards Mobile Advertising ........................................................................................14
2.10 Mobile Marketing Publications on Consumer's Perception and Attitude towards Mobile
Advertising.............................................................................................................................................................15
2.11 Factors That Affect Consumer's
Response................................................................................................................................................................16
2.11.1 CulturalFactors............................................................................................................................................17
2.11.1 Language …………………………………….……………………………………………………….17

8. viii
2.12 Personal Factors ............................................................................................................................................17
2.12.1 Gender .......................................................................................................................................................18
2.12.2 Age .............................................................................................................................................................18
2.12.3 Economic Situation ....................................................................................................................................18
2.13 Opinion Leader’s Influence Asian Students Response towards Mobile Advertising….……… …………..19
2.14 Summary .....................................................................................................................................................19
3.0 Research Methodology..................................................................................................... .... ....20
3.1 Research Philosophy........................................................................................................................................................21
3.2 Research Approach..........................................................................................................................................................23
3.3 Research Strategy.............................................................................................................................................................23
3.4 Time Horizon....................................................................................................................................................................24
3.5 Theoratical Approaches ..................................................................................................................................................25
3.6 Primry / Secondary data …………………………………………………………………………………….25.
3.7 Population .......................................................................................................................................................26
3.8 Sample Selection .............................................................................................................................................26
3.9 Ethics of the Research Methodologies .........................................................................................................................27
3.10 Reliability ......................................................................................................................................................27
3.11 Validity..........................................................................................................................................................27
3.12 Questionnaire ................................................................................................................................................28
3.13 Summary........................................................................................................................................................29
4.0 Analysis of Data – Findings .......................................................................................................30
4.1Familiarity with Mobile Marketing and Brand Awareness ………………………… ……………………...32
4.1.1 Reasons/Evaluation ………………………………………………………………………………………..33
4.2 Location-Based Services through Mobile Media .......................................................................................................34
........................................................................................................................................................................................................
4.2.1 Reasons/Evaluation ......................................................................................................................................................35
4.3 Acceptance of Mobile Marketing ................................................................................................35
4.3.1 Reasons/Evaluation .....................................................................................................................................................36
4.4 permission based Mobile Marketing.............................................................................................................................38
4.4.1 Reasons/Evaluation ......................................................................................................................................................39
4.5 Consumer’s Attitude towards Mobile Advertising.....................................................................................................40
4.5.1 Reasons/ Evaluation………………………………………………………………………………………………………....41
4.6 Factors that Affect Asian Migrant Students Responses toward Mobile Advertising ………………………..43

9. ix
4.7 Effects of Personal Factors on Consumer's Response ……………………………………………………….43
4.7.1 Reasons/Evaluation ……………………………………………………………………..............................44
4.8 Impacts of Economic Situation on Asian Students Response ……………………………………….……..46
4.9 Effects of Language on Asian Students Response …………………………………………………………..47
4.9.1 Reasons/Evaluation …………………………………………………………………………… ….. .........48
4.10 Influence of Opinion Leaders on Asian Students Response ……………………………………….………48
4.10.1 Reasons/Evaluations …………………………………………………………………………….………49
4.11 Summary …………………….……………………………………………………………………………..50
5.0 Conclusions and Recommendations.............................................................................................51
5.1 Review of the findings ....................................................................................................................................................51
5.2 Conclusions .....................................................................................................................................................52
5.2.1 Familiarity with Mobile Marketing and Brand Awareness .........................................................................52
5.2.2 Location-Based Services through Mobile Media ................................................................................53
5.2.3 Acceptance of Mobile Marketing ........................................................................................................53
5.2.4 Permission based Mobile Marketing .................................................................................................54
5.2.5 Consumer’s Attitude towards Mobile Advertising .......................................................................... 54
5.2.6 Effects of Personal Factors on Consumer's Response …………………………………………..…...55
5.2.7 Effects of Language on Asian Students Response …………………………………………….….…55
5.2.8 Influence of Opinion Leaders on Asian Students Response …...……………………..……………..56
5.3 Recommendations ...........................................................................................................................................57
5.4 Summary .........................................................................................................................................................58
List of References ...................................................................................................................................................................59
Appendices 68

10. 1
1.0 Introduction
The purpose of this chapter is to give background information of mobile
marketing/advertising. The chapter also presents research question in the light of aims and
objectives and purpose of this dissertation. It highlights the practical problems related to this
research study also. The chapter ends with the outline of this project.
1.1Background of the Study
The environment of marketing communications has changed rapidly during last decade.
According to Kotler & Armstrong (2005:428) there are two major factors that have changed
the face of today’s marketing communication environment. First, mass markets have broken
down and fragmented into segmented markets, marketers are shifting their marketing and
advertising activities away from mass marketing. The marketing practitioners are focusing on
micro markets to build closer relationships with customers. Second, vast improvements in
information technology are speeding the movement toward segmented marketing. As a result
more information about consumers at individual and household level is available than ever
before.Thus, organization’s interaction with customers depends on latest technology that
enables companies to personalize marketing communications through different media
channels. Thus, marketing communication is more interactive nowadays (Bezjian-Avery et
al.,1998).Interactive media leads marketing communications toward two way process with
the interaction of marketers and consumers at same time (Bezjian-Avery et al.1998). Duncan
& Moriarty (1998: 8) have suggested that “interactivity is a hallmark of the paradigm shift
in both marketing andcommunication.”
According to Kotler & Armstrong companies often fail to integrate various
communication channels which results as a clutter of communications to consumers.
Therefore, IMC helps the marketers to communicate the same message through multiple
media channels(2005). It has been argued that interactive marketing helps in bringing
together multiple media channels, messages and customers(Peltier et al., 2003). Therefore,
the shift from mass marketing to segmented marketing has had a dramatic impact on

11. 2
marketing communications and this shift toward segmented marketing provides a sufficient
way to develop durable customer relationships (Kotler & Armstrong 2005:428).
Considering the new marketing communications environment, marketers and
practitioners are using new and interactive media to communicate directly with consumers
(Barwise & Farley 2005). Besides internet and digital marketing communications, mobile
media provides new opportunities to interact directly with targeted consumers. Indeed,
mobile media has become an essential tool for marketing and advertising activities and it is
used as a direct response channel in integrated mobile marketing campaigns (Trappey III &
Woodside, 2005). Many of the global brands such as McDonalds, Subway, Pepsi, Coca cola,
Nike, MTV, Mazda, Adidas, Disney and Volvo are investing high amounts on mobile
marketing and advertising to personalize the communication (Sultan & Rohm 2005, Mobile
Marketing Association 2008).
It has been argued that mobile marketing techniques such as mobile advertising are
effective both in stimulating consumer responses and to increase brand awareness (Barwise &
Strong 2002, Rettie et al. 2005). According to Sultan & Rohm (2005) mobile media gives a
platform to marketers to deliver location based messages to the targeted consumers. Subway
franchisees are running SMS marketing campaign in UK with the partnership of O2 to deliver
location based messages (discount coupons and promotional offers) to consumers when they
entered in the area of local store (Kats, 2011).
There are two types of mobile advertising namely push based mobile advertising and
pull based mobile advertising. In push based mobile advertising permission based messages
have been requested by the consumer after filling an agreement to receive advertising
messages. While, in pull based mobile advertising marketers use call to action technique to
get a direct and quick response from customers through an SMS in response to a call to
action, for instance, from electronic and print media (Trappey III & Woodside 2005).
These mobile marketing techniques also influence consumer’s perception, attitude and
behavior towards mobile advertising. Integrated mobile marketing campaign affects
consumer brand purchase intentions through perception, attitude and behavior. It has been
argued that “The process of a marketing communication takes consumers through three
stages of response: perception, attitude and behavior stages”Ace (2001, p. 4).

12. 3
The perception stage is the first stage in which consumers pays attention toward
mobile advertising messages and get the information of interest. Fill Stated that “each
consumer is exposed to over 550 advertisements every day”(2002: 63). According to Kotler
and Armstrong (2005) consumers use five senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste to
understand the flow of information. It has been argued that the attitude toward a brand can be
established and maintained in a consistent way, so it is important for every company to
manage attitudes towards the brand (Ace, 2001, p. 4). The third and final stage is behavior
where positive influence of mobile advertising messages affects consumer behavior in a
positive manner to make a purchase decision.
Besides mobile advertising strategies and techniques there are other factors that affect
Asian students’ responses toward mobile advertising. Those factors are personal factors such
as gender, age and economic situation. According to Leppäniemi & Karjaluoto (2008)
female consumer more actively participate in all kind of SMS competitions in response to
mobile advertising. Age and economic situation also affect Asian students’ responses toward
mobile advertisingSimilarly, language is an important factor that affects consumer’s response
toward mobile advertising. In this project the researcher explores the effects of language on
Asian students’ responses to mobile advertising messages. Social factors such as opinion
leaders have an influence on consumer’s responses. This study will see opinion leader’s
influence on Asian student’s responses toward mobile marketing. Therefore, this study looks
into the above mentioned factors that affect Asian migrant students’ responses toward mobile
advertising campaigns.
1.2 Aims and Objectives
The main aim of this research study is “To look into those factors that influence Asian
migrant student’s perception and attitude in response to mobile advertising”.Within the
research context some tentative research objectives would be:
 To review the current state of mobile marketing research.
 To examine howmobile advertising messagesdo shape Asian student’s perception and
attitude.
 To look into those factors that affect Asian students’ responses toward mobile
advertising.

13. 4
The aims and objectives are shown below in the figure 1.1
Fig 1.1 Research Framework
1.3 Outline of the Dissertation
Chapter 1: The first gives the background of mobile advertising. The purpose of this research
work, aim and objectives of this research study are presented.
Chapter 2: The second section provides literature relevant to consumers’ perception and
attitude toward mobile advertising which provides a basis for the analysis of primary data.
Chapter 3: The third chapter presents the research method adopted to conduct this research
study. This chapter also includes questionnaire, sampling techniques and population size. It
also provides reliability and validity of this research work.
Chapter 4: The fourth section of this dissertation provides analysis of empirical data with the
help of previous literature. Interpretative analysis technique was used to analyze the data.
Chapter 5: The section five of this dissertation provides conclusions and recommendations.
Chapter 6: Chapter six provides list of references and appendices.
How do mobile advertising strategies shape Asian Students’
perception and attitude?
How do gender, age, economic situation, language and opinion
leaders affect on Asian students’ responses toward mobile
advertising campaigns?
1
2
Mobile Advertising Environment
Aim: To look into those factors that effects Asian students’ perception and
attitude in response to mobile advertising campaigns
ResearchinMarketing

14. 5
2.0Literature Review
The second chapter of this project provides a loose theoretical framework (see Miles &
Huberman 1994) to build this research study. The relevant theories and literature helped the
author in empirical data analysis. The chapter ends with summary.
As this concept is relevant to marketing communication, therefore, the discussion of
this chapter starts from the definition of marketing and an overview of integrated mobile
marketing communication. Furthermore, this chapter explains the relevant theories regarding
mobile marketing communication and the factors that influence consumer’s perception,
attitude and behavior in response to mobile marketing communication.
2.1 Marketing
Marketing has become a part and parcel of today’s life. According to some marketing
theorists it is defined as “The process by which companies create value for customers and
build strong customer relationships in order to capture value in return” Kotler &
Armstrong, 2005:5). Marketing is essential for every company, because, the financial success
always depends on marketing management and ability (Kotler & Keller, 2009).
2.2 Integrated Marketing Communications
“…IMC is the major communications development of the last decade of the 20th
century” (Kitchen & Schultz 1999: 34). It has been argued that the trend has changed from
traditional communication changes to more personalized, customer-oriented and technology-
driven approaches, referred to as integrated marketing communications (Fill, 1999). IMC has
become an essential strategy for effective marketing now days (Kitchen et al., 2004). The
marketing gurus are not investing in mass media due to increased media fragmentation
(Kotler et al.,2005) and easier access to consumer databases (Kitchen & Shultz 1999).
Aside from academic point of view the concept of IMC has been adopted by many
companies and advertising agencies globally (Gould et al.,1999, Gronstedt & Thorson 1996).

15. 6
2.2.1 Defining IMC
The concept of IMC was first introduced in Northwestern University in 1989
(Kliatchko 2005). This concept was used in a survey conducted by Northwestern University
in 1991 (Shultz and Shultz, 1998). The very first definition of IMC stated that “IMC a
concept of marketing communications planning thatrecognizes the added value of a
comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategicroles of a variety of communications
disciplines, e.g. general advertising, directresponse, sales promotion and public relations –
and combines these disciplinesto provide clarity, consistency and maximum
communications impact”(Duncan & Caywood, 1996 cited in Thorson & Moore 1996: 16).
It has been argued that “thestrategic coordination of all messages and media used by
an organization tocollectively influence its perceived brand value” (Duncan & Caywood
1996 cited in Kliatchko 2005: 17).
2.2.2 Why Use IMC
According to most of marketing theorists and experts marketing communication
environment is changing rapidly and it has given way to new realities affecting the marketing
communications environment of 21st century (Kliatchko, 2005&Kotler et al.,2005).
Marketers are developing focused marketing programs design to build closer relationship
with customers in more narrowly defined micro markets. Also, vast improvements in
information technology are speeding the movement toward segmented marketing (Kotler &
Armstrong, 2005:428).
Thus IMC provides a theoretical grounding for conducting a research on mobile
advertising and its influence on Asian migrant students.
2.3 Mobile Commerce
Most of the marketing experts argued that mobile marketing is a subset of mobile
commerce (Barnes & Scornavacca 2004, Venkatesh et al. 2003). Therefore, the researcher is
providing literature regarding mobile commerce. Mobile commerce has resolved the issue to
reach to the target consumers at different locations for marketing products and services which
really helps marketers to personalize communication anywhere at right time and at right place
(Samuelsson & Dholakia 2003). Table 3 shows the complex combination of consumers’

16. 7
location, role and stance. Barnes (2002) proposed the basic model for value-creation in m-
commerce as shown in fig 2.1 below.
This model identifies the key players and technologies that form a part of the m-
commerce value chain and comprises six core processes in two main areas and that are
content and infrastructure and services(Barnes, 2002).Content includes content creation,
content packaging and marketing making that focuses on creating digital material,
formatting, and editing and customer care while infrastructure and services include mobile
transport, mobile services and delivery support and mobile interface and applications that
focus on implementation and integration of mobile marketing campaigns (Barnes, 2002).
2.3.1 Definitions of Mobile Commerce
There are numerous definitions of mobile commerce proposed by marketing theorists
and academics “M-commerce is defined as any transaction with a monetary value either
direct or indirect that is conducted over a wireless telecommunication network” (Barnes
2002: 92). According to Yang (2005: 258), mobile commerce is “direct or indirect
transaction conducted and facilitated through a wireless telecommunication network.”
Fig2.1 Mobilecommerce valuechain modifiedfrom(Barnes2002b:93)

17. 8
Therefore, it is concluded that mobile commerce is “business transactions conducted while
on the move” (Kalakota & Robinson 2002:8).
2.3.2 Mobile Commerce Technology
The roots of wireless communication start from beginning of 1910s when radio
transmission was tested for the first time (Kumar, 2004). It is essential to mention that
information technology does play an important part in mobile commerce efforts.Table 2
illustratesthe technological milestones achieved in mobile technology.There is a need of
technology that enables mobile commerce and mobile marketing for a company as shown in
the fig below.
Figure 2.2 depicts that how a server or platform enables companies to plan, designand
implement mobile advertising campaigns. It is necessary to mention that the success of
mobile commerce depends on server’s ability to support content types and mobile networks.
Fig 2.3 Mobile advertising platform (Paananen 2003).

18. 9
2.4 Mobile marketing
Mobile media has grabbed the attentions of marketing academics and practitioners
during last decade and it has an essential platform for marketing activities which widely
recognized (Balasubramanian et al., 2002, Watson et al.,2002). A lot of research work is
done on mobile marketing during the last decade. Mobile marketing is based on one-to-one
marketing: “The old paradigm, a system of mass production, massmedia and mass marketing
is being replaced by a totally new paradigm, a one-to oneeconomic system. …the goal of
most business competition will be share ofcustomer - one customer at a time” (Peppers &
Rogers 1993: 5). This view was also enhanced by marketing theorists in integrated marketing
communications context: “Mass marketing was invented to sell standardized mass-produced
products to asimilarly standardized, undifferentiated mass of consumers. Enter a new age
ofadvertising: respectful, not patronizing; dialogue-seeking, not monologuic;responsive, not
formula-driven and it speaks to the highest point of common interest,not the lowest common
denominator” (Schultz et al.,1994: 5-13).
The mobile marketing studies can be classified into three categories: consumer,
business and management as shown in Table 2 which provides a characterization of each
category and the distribution of articles across the three categories (Leppäniemi, Sinisalo
&Karjaluoto, 2006).
2.5 Mobile Marketing Communication
Mobile marketing has grabbed the attention of marketing experts and theorists during
last decade. Many journals focusing on mobile marketing have been issued. In addition many
of the well known consumer brands are focusing on mobile marketing such as McDonald’s,
Subway, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, MTV, Volvo, Sony Pictures, Nike, Disney and Adidas (Sultan &
Rohm 2005, Mobile Marketing Association 2007). Moreover, mobile media is interactive by
nature. Definitions relevant to interactivity are given in table 4.
It has been suggested that mobile marketing communications can be divided into three
sections (1) pull-based, (2) push based and (3) interactive communications illustrated in the
fig 2.3 below (Sinisalo & Karjaluoto 2006).

19. 10
A push based mobile marketing is where a company generates to help ‘push’ its goods
and services through mobile media from the one intermediary to the next until it reaches to
the end user (Richardson 2010). It includes, for instance, audio, short message service (SMS)
messages, e-mail, multimedia messaging (MMS) and picture messages (MMA 2006). Pull-
based mobile marketing is defined as any content sent to the mobile subscriber upon request
or shortly thereafter on a one-time basis (MMA 2006). For example, when the demand is
high from the end user (Richardson, 2010) or when he/she requests for a mobile coupon.
2.6 Mobile Advertising
There is no commonly accepted definition of mobile advertising (Leppäniemiet al., 2005).
Mobile advertising can be defined as “Marketing and advertising activities that deliver
advertisement through mobile media to promote goods and services and build brand
awareness” (Yunos et al., 2004 cited in Dincer, 2011).According to Leppäniemiet al., (2005)
“Mobile advertising is any paid message communicated by mobile media with the intent to
influence consumer perception and attitude, intentions and behavior of those addressed by
Fig 2.3 Communication modes in a mobile contextmodified from (Sinisalo & Karjaluoto, 2006)2006).

20. 11
the commercial messages”.Mobile media is one of the most powerful medium to directly
communicate with consumers to personalize the communication.
It has been argued that mobile advertising is increasingly flexible by nature because
consumers can search information, make enquiries and make purchase at any location
(Dincer, 2011). Furthermore, advertiser use mobile media tocommunicate relevant
information with consumers based on their interest at right time and right place t (Scharl et
al., 2005). Therefore, time and location are very important factor that need to be considered
during the implementation of mobile advertising campaigns (Dincer, 2011). The literature on
mobile advertising is fairly fragmented and mobile advertising is still at its early stages
(Dincer, 2011).Marketers and advertisers who do not use mobile media for marketing and
advertising activities are in effect ignoring one of the most powerful means of direct
communication with consumers (Haig, 2002).
2.7 Consumer Analysis
Many of the marketing experts have done research work to examine consumer’s
attitude towards mobile marketing (Haghirian & Madlberger 2005, Rettie & Brum 2001,
Tsang et al., 2004), and how consumers perceive mobile advertising(Okazaki, 2004).It has
been argued that “the process of a marketing communication (promotion) takes consumers
through three stages of response: perception, attitude and behavior stages” (Ace, 2001:4). But
this study will only focus on consumer perception and attitude toward mobile advertising. It
has been argued that perception and attitude give an overview of psychological responses
while behavior refers to the physical response. The three elements are further explained
below (Blythe, 2008).
2.8 Perception
It has been argued by Kotler &Armstrong (2005) that how a person acts is influenced
by his or her own perception of the situation. In addition, consumers use five senses: sight,
hearing, smell, touch and taste to understand the flow of information (Kotler& Armstrong,
2005). Consumers then divide this sensory information in three steps to complete the
perceptual process. First consumer receives information, organizes it and finally interprets it.
However, every single person in this world receives, organizes, and interprets this sensory

21. 12
information in an individual way (Kotler &Armstrong, 2005). Figure 2.4 shows consumer
perceptual process.
It has been suggested that perception “is the process by which people select, organize,
and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the world” (Kotler & Armstrong,
2005:151). One can say that perception is a process of building knowledge about the world. It
has been suggested that there are three stages that make up the perceptual process namely
sensation, attention and interpretation as illustrated in the figure (Solomon, Bamossy and
Askegaard, 1999).
2.8.1 Consumer’s Perception toward Mobile Advertising
It is always difficult to analyze consumer’s perception because it involves the input of
basic five senses plus senses of direction and sense of balance. Each sense provides
information to brain where the process of collection and selection completed by brain
(Blythe, 2008).
Fig 2.4 Consumer Perceptual Process (Solomon, Bamossy and Askegaard 1999:40)

22. 13
There are two factors that have largest impact on consumer’s perception towards
mobile advertising and those factors are advertising value and advertising message content
(Haghirian & Madlberger, 2005). Consumer’s perception toward mobile marketing messages
actually develops through the acceptance of mobile advertising. It has been argued that the
acceptance of a mobile marketing message depends upon consumer’s acceptance of the
mobile medium, the context of the mobile marketing message, and the relevance of content.
(Heinonen & Strandvik 2003; Barnes & Scornavacca 2004&Dickinger et al., 2004).
Moreover, consumer’s permission also develops positive perception toward mobile marketing
and advertising. Consumer’s permission before sending advertising messages is an important
variable, as consumers are seen to be fearful of SMS mobile advertising and high levels of
spam (Carroll et al., 2007). As this research is based on Asian migrant students so the
researcher tried to find some literature regarding Asian consumer’s perception toward mobile
advertising which is discussed under this section.
2.9 Attitude
It has been argued that people have attitudes regarding religion, politics, clothes,
music, food, and almost everything else and it is stated that “A person’s consistently
favorable or unfavorable evaluations, feelings, and tendencies toward an object or ideas”
(Kotler & Armstrong, 2005:153). Kotler & Armstrong further explained that consumers
develop attitude toward products by liking or disliking them (2005).Solomon, Bamossy and
Askegaard argued that marketers have to consider another factor regarding consumers
attitude before marketing and advertising activities and that is consumers attitude toward
objects and act of buying in general (1999).
Generally, attitude is formed by, cognition, affect and conation which are interrelated
in a complex way (Blythe, 2008). At the cognition stage, consumers learn the information of
interest about the product. In contrast, consumers start liking or disliking product at affect
stage. To conclude, one can say that consumers might start forming attitude about with any of
the three stages (cognition, conation and affect) with the others coming into play afterwards
(Blythe, 2008).

23. 14
2.9.1 Consumers Attitude towards Mobile Advertising
Consumer’s attitude towards advertisement is his/her predisposition in respond to a
particular advertisement in a favorable or unfavorable manner (Solomon, Bamossy &
Askegaard, 1999). Determinants of advertisement include the viewer’s attitude towards the
advertiser, evaluations of the ad execution itself, the mood evoked by the ad and the degree to
which the ad affects viewer’s arousal level (Solomon, Bamossy &Askegaard, 1999:126).
Tsang et al., (2004) argued that most of the consumers have negative attitude towards
mobile advertising and it is found that there is direct relationship between consumer attitude
and consumer behavior. This view is advocated by Rettie &Brum (2001) that in start
consumer attitudes towards mobile advertising were negative, but many of them were
prepared to accept mobile advertising in exchange of offers and discounts. There are two
factors that have largest impact on attitude towards mobile advertising and those factors are
advertising value and advertising message content Haghirian & Madlberger (2005).
According to Osgood &Tannenbaum (1955) consumer always develop positive attitude
toward advertising messages if there is a link between the message and their ethnic orign.
According to Morimoto & Ferle (2005) Asian consumers develop their positive and
favorableatitude toward and advertisement if the model used in that particular ad belongs to
their race/ethnic background. They also developed favorable attitude toward racially charged

24. 15
products and ultimately, Asian consumers developed positive attitude toward brand and their
purchase intentions (Morimoto & Ferle, 2005). It has been argued that consumer attitude is
also influenced by advertising value and it can be defined as “a subjective evaluation of the
relative worth or utility of advertising to consumers” (Ducoffe, 1995:1).
Interactive and entertaining messages immediately capture consumers’ attention toward such
mobile advertising messages (Katterbach, 2002). The quality of information also influences
consumers’ perception and attitude toward company and its products when it is transferred
through mobile media (Parissa & Maria, 2005).“When advertising employstechniques that
annoy, offend, insult or are overly manipulative, consumers are likely to perceive it
asunwanted and irritating influence” (Ducoffe, 1996:23). Advertising credibility can be
defined as “consumers’ perception of the truthfulness and believability of advertising in
general”(MacKenzie & Lutz, 1989: 51).
Fig2.4Antecedents of attitude towardadvertisingviaMobile devices
(Parissa & Maria, 2005).
Fig2.5 Antecedents ofAttitude toward AdvertisingviaMobiledevices (adoptedfromParissa& Maria,2005)

25. 16
It has been argued that the frequency of mobile advertising messages is a crucial factor that
influences consumers’ responses toward mobile advertising campaigns (Haghirian &
Dickinger, 2005).It has been suggested that consumer privacy issues could be very critical
while addressing consumers through mobile advertising messages becausemost of the
consumers feel insecure and uncomfortable while receiving messages from unknown
advertisers(Parissa & Maria, 2005).
2.10Mobile Marketing Publications on Consumer Perception and Attitude
toward mobile Advertising
About 38% of mobile marketing publications focused on consumer behavior and its different
aspects as show in the table 1 in appendices. Many of the marketing researchers have done
their research work to examine the consumer’s attitude toward mobile marketing (Leung &
Cheung 2004, Tsang et al.,2004) and perceptions of mobile advertising (Okazaki 2004,
Haghirian et al.,2005). Mobile marketing Influence on consumer’s perception, attitude, and
behavior and its responsiveness have gained interest in existing literature (Barwise & Strong,
2002, Rettie et al.,2005). It has been suggested that SMS advertising is the best way to
approach young consumers between 15 to 24 years of age (Barnes & Scornavacca,2004).
Figure 2.5 shows mobile marketing publications per year.
Fig2.6 The number ofMobileMarketing publicationsperyear(adoptedfrom Leppäniemi, Sinisalo & Karjaluoto, 2006)

26. 17
2.11 Factors That Affect Consumer’s Response
There are different factors that influence consumer behavior namely cultural, social and
personal factors. This study explores the effects of gender, age, economic situation, language,
and opinion leaders on Asian students’ responses to mobile advertising campaigns.
2.11.1 Cultural Factors
According to Kotlerand Armstrong (2005)marketers need to understand the influence of
cultural factors on consumer behavior before launching advertising campaigns. Culture can
be defined as “the set of basic values, perceptions, wants and behaviours learned by a
member of society from family and other important institutions” (Kotler &Armstrong,
2005:137). It has been argued that each culture is combination of different subcultures, or a
group of people who shared norms and value systems (Kotler &Armstrong, 2005).
As this study focuses on Asian consumers (students) so it will be analyzed and evaluated that
how Asian cultures influence targeted consumer behavior to make a purchase decision.
Each culture contains subcultures, or group of peoples with shared value systems these
subcultures include language, nationalities, religion, racial groups, and geographic region
(Kotler & Armstrong, 2005). Some of the marketing theorists argued that Asian consumers
are the most brand conscious of all the ethnic groups and one of the famous brand Wal-Mart
stocks a large selection of CDs and videos from Asian artists, Asian favored health and
beauty products, and children’s learning videos that feature multiple language tracks (Kotler
&Armstrong, 2005).
2.11.1.1 Language
There is no significant literature written on the effects of language on Asian students
responses toward mobile advertising but there is some literature which is not according to
mobile marketing context. According to Kotler& Armstrong(2005) Sears which is a very
famous brand in retail sector of USA had launched magazines in Spanish language to attract
Hispanic consumers. This research will find out how language affects Asian student’s
responses toward mobile advertising.

27. 18
2.12 Personal Factors
It has been argued that consumer’s behavior can also be influenced by personal factors such
as occupation, economic situation, life style, and personality and self concept (Kotler &
Armstrong, 2005:144):
 Demographics: Factors such as age, gender, occupation, income, employment status,
family life cycle and ethnicity affect consumer behavior while making a purchase
decision.
 Level of Involvement: Level of involvement also influence consumer behavior to
make a purchase decision such as level of interest and time spent in information
search.

2.12.1 Age
According to Leppäniemi & Karjaluoto (2008) consumers between 36-45 years of age like
to send SMS to an advertisement and participate in all kind of SMS competition. It has
become clear that mobile advertising is not only for teen agers. Students take less interest in
mobile advertising messages (Leppäniemi & Karjaluoto, 2008). This study will see how age
affects Asian student’s response towards mobile advertising campaigns and mobile
advertising messages.
2.12.2 Gender
Gender is the most important factor that effect Asian student’s response toward mobile
advertising. Female responses differ significantly from male consumers and female
consumers participate actively in SMS competitions and order mobile services by using SMS
(Leppäniemi & Karjaluoto, 2008). In this project the researcher will see how gender of Asian
students affects their responses toward mobile advertising.

28. 19
2.12.3 Economic Situation
According to Leppäniemi & Karjaluoto (2008) income level does not have substantial
impact on consumers response toward mobile advertising. Though previous literature show
that economic situation of consumers does not have any substantial impact on consumers but
the researcher will see whether this view is right with respect to Asian students.
2.13 Opinion Leader’s Influence Asian Students Response towards Mobile
Advertising
According to Kotler & Armstrong (2005) opinion leaders are those personalities who have
got some special skills, knowledge and personality exerts influence on others. The researcher
has tried a lot but no literature has been found relevant to the opinion leader’s influence on
Asian students responses toward mobile advertising. Therefore, in this research work the
research will try his best to find out the influence of opinion leaders on the responses of
Asian students toward mobile advertising messages which they receive from fast food brands.
2.14 Summary
The first section of this chapter gives an overview of new environment of marketing
communications, integrated marketing communications and mobile marketing literature.
Furthermore, it explains the relationship between mobile commerce and mobile marketing,
mobile commerce technology and mobile marketing communications in consumer markets. It
also gives an overview of mobile marketing tools. Finally first section explains the concept of
interactivity and describes the interactive nature of mobile media.
The second section focuses on consumer analysis. It explains how mobile marketing and
advertising campaigns affect consumer’s responses through the stage of perception and
attitude. This section examines consumer’s perception, attitude toward mobile
marketing/advertising. The section ends with the brief overview mobile marketing
publications on consumer’s perception, attitude and behavior towards mobile marketing and
advertising. The third and final section looks into the factors that influence consumer’s
responses toward mobile advertising. These factors are gender, age, economic situation, and
language and opinion leaders.

29. 20
3.0Research Methodology
This chapter introduces research philosophy, research strategy, and research approach for
this study, sample selection and time horizons as well. It also explains method used for
primary data collection. The reliability and validity of this thesis is discussed in the end of this
chapter.
The purpose of this chapter is to introduce, research philosophy, research strategy and
research approach of dissertation. Research can be defined as “the formal, systematic
application of the scientific and disciplined inquiry approach to the study of problems” (Gay
& Airasian, 2003:3). This section highlights research tools and techniques (selected in the
light of objectives) used in this study and their significance to validate the data (input).
Furthermore, this chapter explains why alternative research methods are rejected to conduct
this research study with in the proposed context. Finally, the methodology is designed
according to set aims and objective to produce a feasible and valuable research.
As it is incredibly difficult to understand that how do foreign Asian students develop
perception and attitude toward mobile marketing and advertising campaigns. This research
will be conducted to look into those factors that influence Asian student’s perception and
attitude in response towards mobile marketing communication. Both primary and secondary
research will be conducted to finalize the methodology to be used to collect the relevant data.
There are two different approaches to collect the data called qualitative and quantitative
methods. Qualitative interviews, for instance, differ vastly from quantitative interviews
because qualitative interviews are flexible in nature and allow the respondent to react and
answer the questions in order or randomly (Sampson, 1967 & 1996).
Trying to figure out what methodology to be used, will be assessed on what research
philosophy, research approach, sampling and research strategy will be utilized in this research
study.

30. 21
3.1. Research Philosophy
To meet the set aims and objectives of this project it is essential to have a clear idea of
research philosophy. Research philosophy depends on the way that researcher thinks about
the development of existing literature and knowledge (Saunderset al., 2003).
Fig 3.1 Saunders Research Onion
There is various research philosophies involved when conducting a research project. As the
research philosophies contains different set of assumptions about the way in which theorists
and researchers view the social world, therefore, the author will use a specific set of
assumptions to underpin research strategy (Saunders et al., 2009). According to Saunders et
POSTIVISM
REALISM
INTERPRETIVISM

31. 22
al (2009)there are four different types of research philosophies positivism, interpretivism, and
realism and pragmatism.
The researcher highlights the research philosophies in the figure 3.1 that will be used in this
dissertation. These are Interpretivism, Realism and Positivism. Each of these philosophies has
a substantial impact on the framework that is applied when developing and acquiring the
knowledge for this research.
Saunders et al. (2009) suggest that positivism relates to the philosophical stance of the natural
scientist. You will prefer working with an observable social reality and that the end product
of such research can be law-like generalizations similar to those produced by the physical and
natural scientists’ (Remenyi et al., 1998:32). By adopting this research philosophy, the
researcher become independent in data collection and neither affects nor is affected by the
subject of the research (Remenyi et al., 1998). According to a marketing theorist realism is
based on the belief that a reality exists that is independent of human thoughts and beliefs and
it shares some philosophical aspects with positivism (Saunders et al., 2003). It has been
argued that the social world of business and management is far too complex to lend itself
theorising be definite ‘laws’ and rich insights to the complex world are lost if such
complexity is reduced entirely to a law – like generalisations (Saunders et al., 2003).
The last type of research philosophy is Pragmatism that “holds the idea that the most
important determinant of the epistemology, ontology and axiology adopted is the research
question” (Saunders et al., 2009:112).It encompasses the research ideology that the
researcher is concerned with rather than trying to ascertain levels of truth and reality
(Tashakkori & Teddlie, 1998). If one advocates this view then research philosophy will be
interpretivism.
It has been argued that business and management approach is often a mixture between
positivist, interpretivism and realism (Saunders et al., 2003). As this research study is within
the context of business and management, therefore, a mixture of positivism, interpretivism
and realism will be used as research philosophy in this dissertation.

32. 23
3.2. Research Approach
It has been argued that a research project always involves the use of theory that may or may
not be made explicit in the design of the research (Saunders et al., 2003). The selection of
research approach always depends on research logic, i.e. how to build understanding of the
phenomenon under investigation.
In western world the researchers have been using two research approaches when involved in
a study, namely, inductive theory building and deductive theory testing (Kovács & Spens
2005). According to Saunders et al. (2009), deductive approach follows a conscious path
from existing theories and model to specific case which is tested through empirical studies
later. In contrast, inductive approach infers that research starts from empirical studies or a
specific case to a general law or existing theories (Kovács & Spens 2005).
There is a third research approach called abduction (Bergman & Paavola 2003, Paavola
2005). The term abduction means to examine a set of data that represent the description of a
phenomenon under investigation (Kovács & Spens, 2005). As this study is starts from
existing theories, therefore, the researcher decided to utilize deduction approach in this
project.
3.3. Research Strategy
According to Saunders et al. (2003) research strategy is a general plan that how one will go
about answering the research questions which contains clear objectives. The objective of
research strategy is to specify the sources of data collection and to consider the constraints
that one will invite ably have (for example access to data, time, location, and money) or one
can say that research strategy is about the finer detail of data collection and analysis methods
(Saunders et al.,2003).
Some of the research strategies belongs deduction approach and other to induction tradition
Saunders et al. (2003). There is a third approach called abduction which is used when there is
a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods to collect data.
As the researcher is using deduction approach while conducting this study, therefore, a
survey will be utilized to collect data. Survey strategy gives more control over the research
process. However, this strategy takes more time in designing and piloting the questionnaire.
However, the data collected by the survey strategy may not be as wide-ranging as those

33. 24
collected by other research strategies. There is a limit to questions that a questionnaire can
contain which over all represents the research question. Unfortunately, the biggest drawback
with the questionnaire is the capacity to do it badly Saunders et al.,(2003:92). Survey is used
to collect data and allows the researcher to explore relations and connections between the
investigated variables, and then the researcher can set up new models and draw conclusions
for a whole population (Saunders et al., 2009).
Considering the advantages of a survey and the limits of finance and time, the empirical
material for this dissertation has been collected through a survey. As this is a short survey
based research which is used in social sciences nowadays, therefore, a questionnaire will be
designed to collect the data from Asian students about their perception and attitude toward
mobile advertising campaigns.
3.4. Time Horizon
There are two dimensions of time horizons, cross-sectional studies and longitudinal studies.
“Cross-sectional study can be recognized as a snapshot, which is the study of particular
phenomenon (or phenomena) at a particular time” (Saunders et al., 2009: 155). In contrast,
“longitudinal study can be recognized as a diary, which is the study of a particular
phenomenon (or phenomena) over an extended period of time (Saunders et al., 2007: 594).”
The main strength of longitudinal research is the capability that is has to study change and
development. As the researcher study particular phenomena at a particular time, therefore,
cross-sectional time horizon fits in this research.
The researcher will conduct a survey, and seek to explore Asian student’s perception and
attitude toward mobile marketing/advertising. Furthermore, this survey will explore the effect
of gender, age, cultural factors, social factors and personal factors affect Asian student’s
response to mobile advertising. This is, therefore, a cross-sectional time horizon.

34. 25
3.5. Theoretical Approaches
Generally, there are two methods for data collection consisting of qualitative and quantitative
methods. Hollensen & Svend (2007) describe that a qualitative research provides a holistic
view of a research problem by integrating a larger number of variables, but asking only a few
respondents. Quantitative research data analysis is based on questionnaires from a large
group of respondents. Though, this thesis is using the method of questionnaire but this is a
qualitative research because the research questions are based on how and what. Due to less
time quantitative tool was selected to collect primary data but this is a qualitative research
and interpretative analysis method will be used in data analysis section.
A grounded approach is suitable for this study because this approach starts by collecting data
then aims to gradually establish research assumptions themes which can be analyzed
interpretatively later (Husey&Husey, 1997). The researcher will use both primary and
secondary data collection methods to collect the data which will be grouped into the
appropriate categories that provide a basis to draw conclusions.
3.6 Primary / Secondary Data
It has been suggested that primary research is used to collect the data directly from
respondents to answer specific research questions (Hollensen & Svend, 2007). This data is
referred as ‘primary data’ because the information is collected first hand which does not exist
prior to collection.Primary data can be collected through direct mail, questionnaire, focus
groups, experiments, direct observations and interviews.Both quantitative and qualitative
methods have advantages and disadvantages in terms of data collections and interpretation.
This is a short survey based research; therefore, a questionnaire will be used as a quantitative
tool to collect the data directly from the respondents.
Once the questionnaire is designed, pilot tested, and amended and sample is selected; the
questionnaire can be used to collect data (Saunders et al., 2003:310).Delivery and collection
questionnairewill be used as quantitative research method to collect the data. This research is
based on Asian students’ perception and attitude toward mobile advertising messages so
questionnaire will ask the questions that explore the effects of factors on their responses
toward mobile advertising campaigns.According to Hollensen and Svend (2007:98),

35. 26
secondary data can be defined as “information that has already been collected for other
purposes and thus is readily available”. Secondary data was collected through different
articles, websites, journals, research papers and relevant books.
3.8 Population
It is always difficult to select a size of a population which represents the whole population.
As the research of this project is based on Asian student’s perception and attitude toward
mobile marketing/advertising, it is decided to distribute the questionnaire among Asian
students. This study will provide the recent evidence from UK. The respondents will be a
mixture of male and female Asian students of age between 20-30 years. The respondents will
be studying in different educational programs. To produce feasible and valuable research it
was decided to collect the data from more than hundred students. So the population size will
be one hundred and twenty students.
3.9Sample Selection
This is impossible to include each individual from the targeted population but the data can be
collected from a sample which represents the targeted population. Therefore, sample
selection is a very important step when conducting a research and when time is a constraint
and the results from the collected data are needed quickly (Saunders et al., 2009).
There are two types of sampling methods probability or representative sampling method and
non probability or judgmental sampling method. Saunders et al., (2009) has stated that
probability sampling which is also known as random sampling and is most commonly
associated with survey-based research strategies. There are assumptions/inferences made
from the sample about a population to meet the aims and objectives of the study. “Non-
probability sampling, it is impossible to answer research questions or to address objectives
that require statistical inferences about the characteristics of the population.” (Saunders et al.,
2009:213).

36. 27
As this is a short survey based research and moreover a qualitative research in which the
researcher will analyze the data with the help of interpretative analysis method, therefore,
random sampling method will be used for data collection.
3.10 Ethics of the Research Methodologies
Ethical considerations will be taking into account primary and secondary data collection of
this research study. All the research work will be appropriately referenced and cited, in
Harvard style of referencing. The data will be collected from reliable and up to date sources
to ensure a sound credibility of this research.
When questionnaire was designed and given to some students for pilot testing then they were
not willing to give their email addresses and date of birth. Therefore, it was decided to
remove date of birth box from questionnaire. Also, all respondents were told that their email
addresses will remain confidential so that no can misuse email address.
3.11 Reliability
It has been suggested that reliability is “the extent to which data collection techniques or
analysis procedures will yield consistent findings” (Saunders et al. 2009:156). According to
there may be four threats to reliability of data and that are subject or participant error, subject
or participant bias, and observer error and observer bias (Robson, 2002).
As far as the reliability of this study is concerned it totally depends on respondents.
Sometimes, respondents do not reveal their real behaviour while answering the questionnaire.
The other problem with the reliability of this research is that respondents change their
opinions. These opinions differ from those that have been expressed in questionnaire.
Another issue is respondent biasness while answering the questionnaire because it is possible
that students may create a bias about their purchase habit.
The survey was not repeated due to limited time and finance. It is possible that some of the
Asian students would have changed their opinions in answering the questionnaire if the
survey would have been performed once again. All these threats to the reliability of this
research study show that the reliability of the test is rather low.

37. 28
3.12 Validity
Saunders et al. (2009, p. 157) said that “validity is concerned with whether the findings are
really about what they appear to be about.” Saunders et al. (2009:603) argued the project
validity depends upon two factors: “(1) the extent to which data collection method or
methods accurately measure what they were intended to measure. (2) The extent to which
research findings are really about what they profess to be about.”
To ensure the validity of this research work the researcher spent a lot of time in designing and
reviewing the questions. A pilot test was also done by providing Questionnaire to 20
respondents to complete it. Some errors were found and corrected.
3.13 Questionnaire
A questionnaire normally contains factual questions and mater of opinion questions. There
are different types of questions namely open ended and close ended questions. Researches
also design questions by using different scale methods for example, licker scale method and
close ended questions. Specifically, factual questions are based on demographics such as
gender, occupation, family lifecycle, ethnic origin and consumer types. As the delivery and
collection questionnaires technique will be used to collect the data; therefore data will be
questionnaires will be delivered and collected same day.
After designing the questionnaire it was distributed among twenty respondents and data was
collected. The researcher found some mistakes in the questions which were corrected and the
questionnaire was amended later.The first five questions were relevant to the background of
Asian migrant students. In these questions respondents age, gender, nationality, education
program and purchasing habit were asked. Q6 and Q7 were designed to see whether
respondents are aware of mobile marketing and how do they interpret mobile
marketing/advertising activities which develop their perceptions toward mobile
marketing/advertising.
Q8 and Q9 were relevant to respondent’s acceptance of mobile marketing. Q10, Q11, Q12
were designed to measure respondents attitude toward mobile marketing campaigns. These
questions are designed to address the first research question. Q13 is designed to investigate
the personal factors that affect Asian student’s responses toward mobile advertising.

38. 29
Similarly, Q14, Q15 and Q16 were designed to see how income level, language and opinion
leaders affect Asian students’ responses toward mobile advertising.
Summary
To meet the set aim and objectives a mixture of positivism, interpretivism and realism will be
used as research philosophy in this dissertation.This is a qualitative research as the questions
are based on how and what but due to less time and finance it was decided to use a
quantitative tool to collect the data. This is a short survey based research; therefore, a
questionnaire was designed to collect data from Asian students. The size of the population
will be one hundred and twenty respondents who will participate in this research.
Questionnaire was designed to ask the questions relevant to Asian students’ perceptions and
attitude toward mobile advertising messages. These questionnaires will be distributed and
collected same day due to less time. The reliability and validity of this study is comparatively
low because there are chances of biasness in respondents’ responses. All the will be collected
from reliable sources and it will be appropriately referenced and cited using Harved
referencing system.

39. 30
4.0Analysis of Data – Findings
The purpose of this chapter is to report the generated data and in depth examination and
analysis of data. This research is based on Asian student’s perception attitude and behavior
towards mobile marketing communication and to look into those factors that affect their
responses toward mobile advertising.
As the researcher is was quite sure about the questions that need to be ask from target
consumers with in proposed context, therefore, a quantitative questionnaire was designed
according to research questions to get the relevant results. To be more specific the main
research aim was of this study was to “To look into those factors that influence Asian
migrant student’s perception and attitude in response to mobile marketing
communication”.
To aid this investigation, the analysis was broken down into two research questions;
Q1. How do mobile advertising campaigns shape Asian student’s perception and attitude?
Q2. What are those factors that affect Asian students’ responses toward mobile advertising
campaigns?
The two research questions helped the researcher in answering the main aim of this research
study. The primary research consisted of questionnaire. As this research is based on Asian
students who are studying in universities and colleges of UK, therefore, this questionnaire
was distributed between Asian students. Due to less time the delivery and collection
questionnaire technique was used to collect the data same day. The questionnaire contains
factual and close ended questions because close ended questions are very easy for
respondents to answer. Likert scale method was also used in the questionnaire which allowed

40. 31
the respondents to have difference of opinion. There are sixteen questions in a questionnaire
that cover all the aspects of this research.
The secondary data was collected through journal, articles and publications done on mobile
marketing communication in consumer markets. All the data was relevant to consumer’s
perception, attitude and behavior and other factors that affect Asian student’s behavior to
mobile advertising. According to Leppäniemi& Karjaluoto (2008) age, gender, income and
employment status affect consumer responses to mobile advertising.
The first four questions were related to background of Asian students and the rest questions
were designed to understand Asian student’s perception and attitude to SMS mobile
marketing. The last section of questionnaire explores those factors that affect Asian
consumer’s responses to mobile advertising. The questionnaire was distributed among 150
Asian students and the response rate was 80 percent which means out 150 students’ 120
students gave response. 81(67.5%) of the respondents were male and 39(32.5%) were female.
The students are studying in LSBF Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, Leeds
Metropolitan University and Middlesex University London. All the respondents were
between twenty to thirty years of age. To look into the nationalities of respondents most of
68%
32%
0%
0%
(4.1) Percentage of Male and Female participants
Male
Female

41. 32
them belongs to Pakistan. 72(60%) respondents were from Pakistan, 38(31%) from India and
10 (9%) from China. As the respondents have different ethnic origin, therefore, their
responses differ from each other.
The last question relevant to background of respondents is understand the in which consumer
category they fall. 52(43.34%) respondents collect information before making a purchase
decision that means 43.34 percent of Asian students are rational consumers. 23(19.16%)
respondents are brand conscious which proves that they belong to unconscious type of
consumers. 39(32.5%) respondents buy habitually. That means they are learned consumers.
There is another type of consumers which is called social consumers and their purchase
decision is normally influenced by others. 06(5%) respondents decision is influenced by
others.
As the first research question is “How mobile advertising campaigns do shape Asian
migrant students perception and attitude?” therefore, first this research will prove that
SMS mobile marketing campaigns develop Asian student’s positive perception and
favorable attitude to mobile advertising, fast food product and fast food brand. For that
purpose the relevant questions that were asked in the questionnaire are described below with
respondent’s views.
4.1 Familiarity with Mobile Advertising and Brand Awareness
Two questions were designed to measure Asian student’s awareness of mobile marketing.
The question was “Have you ever heard about mobile advertising?” This question was
designed to find out Asian students awareness of mobile marketing and how it increase their
awareness of fast food brands. The main purpose to ask this question from respondents is to
see how mobile advertising campaigns increase their brand awareness when respondents are
aware of mobile marketing and they understand mobile marketing messages then it really
helps to build stronger brand awareness. 102(85%) respondents have heard about mobile
marketing and 18(15%) have not heard about mobile marketing as shown in the bar chart
below.

42. 33
When they were asked that “Do you think mobile advertising campaigns increase brand
awareness?” 99% Asian students think that mobile advertising increases brand awareness.
Therefore, it is concluded from the findings that most of Asian students are familiar with
mobile advertising and they think that mobile advertising increases brand awareness.
4.1.1 Reasons/Evaluation
According to Barnes and Scornavacca (2004) SMS mobile marketing typically helps to
increase the brand awareness. This study reconfirms previous research literature that mobile
advertising is an important tool to build brand awareness. There could be many reasons. Most
of the Asian students come to UK for higher education. At that time everything is new for
them even they are unaware of many famous brands in UK. To increase their brand
awareness advertisers can send them advertising messages with their permission which can
be very helpful tool to capture this type of consumers.
It has been argued that Mobile marketing is a successful tool to increase brand awareness and
an important factor in consumer acceptance (Enpocket 2002b & Dickinger et al. 2004).The
author has also found that most of the Asian students want to receive SMS advertising to get
ware of different brands of their interest. For example, Muslim students who are in majority
are unaware of fast food brands that sell Halal food. Therefore, fast food brands such as
McDonalds, KFC and Subway who are using mobile media for marketing advertising
0
50
100
150
Heard it Before Not heard it
before
(4.2) Have You Ever Heard about Mobile Advertising

43. 34
activities can also target Muslim students by advertising Halal food through mobile media.
To conclude, it is said that this study reconfirms previous literature that mobile
marketing/advertising increases consumer’s brand awareness which builds brand trust as
well.
4.2 Location-Based Services through Mobile Media
Receiving information or awareness is the first step in perceptual process. After measuring
the Asian students awareness of mobile marketing the researcher decided to give an activity
relevant to SMS mobile marketing campaigns to see how respondents interpret this activity.
To complete Asian students perception process the researcher had given an activity in the
questionnaire that is “A UK based fast food brand is running an SMS marketing campaign.
When consumers approach to its local store they start receiving advertising messages
which advertise different food products with discounts and other promotional offers. How
do you interpret this activity?”
71(59.16%) Asian students interpret this activity as value to customers that means company
creates value for its customers by this way. 39(32.5%) respondents think that the UK based
fast food brand is egoistic that means brand is doing this activity for its own benefits. Asian
students think that brand involve in such mobile marketing activities are just focusing on their
profits and sales. Only 10(8.34%) respondents don’t know about these activities as illustrated
in the figure below
0
20
40
60
80
Value to
Customers
Egoistic Don't Know
(4.3) Interpretation of Location-based Mobile Marketing

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4.2.1Reasons/Evaluation
This activity shows that on average Asian students interpret location based mobile
marketing/advertising as value to customers which means their perception about this mobile
advertising strategy is positive and this can lead to develop their liking toward mobile
advertising. There could be different reasons. According to Kats (2011), Subway is providing
location based services through mobile media to their consumers and letting them opt-in to an
SMS service when they approach to a local store. Britian based spokes man for Subway
Simon Wallwork said that “The Subway core audience tends to be very savvy digitally and so
the strategy here is to reach out to this type of customer while they’re out and about near our
stores and encourage them to actually walk into the stores” (Kats, 2011).
An executive at DMA:2011 said “Location-based services not only engage consumers, but
also help advertisers such as McDonald's and Gilt Groups better target them with offers”
(Kats, 2011). During the survey it has been found Asian students prefer to eat fast food
instead of cooking at home due to their busy schedule. Most of the time they are being busy
in studying in universities or colleges and every day they pass by any fast food local store.
So, they prefer to buy food from fast food local stores and if they receive SMS or MMS about
offers and discounts then it can be very beneficial for the fast food brand. Another reason
could be that they do not need to search information for discounts and offers. Also, they have
positive perception regarding location-based services through mobile media and they
consider it as a value for customers
On average most of Asian students are aware of mobile marketing and interpret the given
activity in a positive way which clearly shows that mobile marketing campaigns and
messages develop their perception in a positive way to mobile marketing campaigns and
ultimately to fast food brands.
4.3 Acceptance of Mobile Marketing
It has been argued that the acceptance of a mobile marketing message depends upon
consumer’s acceptance of the mobile medium, the context of the mobile marketing message,
and the relevance of content. (Enpocket 2003; Heinonen & Strandvik 2003; Barnes &
Scornavacca 2004; Dickinger et al. 2004; Bauer et al. 2005). To measure Asian student’s
acceptance of mobile marketing messages a question was designed to ask from respondents

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that “What kind of mobile marketing message do you like?” 48(40%) respondents like
concise and funny mobile marketing messages. 56(46.67%) respondents like interactive and
entertaining messages. Only 16(13.33%) respondents were in the favor of long mobile
marketing messages and nobody was in the favor of irrelevant messages as shown in the bar
chart below.
Therefore, advertisers who are targeting Asian students then they should advertise relevant
content messages, interactive and entertaining messages through mobile media to receive
positive response. The results of this study indicate that Asian students would love to accept
mobile marketing messages if the messages are interactive and entertaining, concise and
funny and relevant to their needs and wants. So this study reconfirms the previous research
work that has done on consumer acceptance of mobile marketing.
4.3.1Reasons/Evaluation
There could be some reasons that why Asian students want to receive concise and funny,
interactive and entertaining and relevant content. During the survey it has been found that
respondents do not like long and irrelevant messages because it really wastes their time. As
they are full time students and they are working above twenty hours a week, therefore, they
don’t like to receive irrelevant and long mobile marketing messages. As it is mentioned in
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Interactive and
entertaining
Concise and
Funny
Long Irrelevant
(4.4)Acceptance of Mobile Marketing Messages

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literature review that acceptance of mobile marketing messages depends upon acceptance of
mobile medium, message context and relevant content (Enpocket 2003; Heinonen & Bauer et
al. 2005). Furthermore, mobile advertising content should be relevant because irrelevant
messages develop negative attitude of respondents to mobile marketing messages. Asian
students like to receive relevant content messages which are relevant to their needs and
wants. For example, if a fast food brand is advertising non Halal food products through
mobile media then many of Asian student’s response will be negative because most of Asian
students who are studying in UK are Muslims and many of non Muslims are vegetarian
which means they also prefer to buy Halal food.
To investigate Asian students’ attitude toward the content of mobile advertisement a question
was designed regarding Halal food because many of Asian students are Muslims and
vegetarian. The question was “Would you like to receive the advertisement of Halal food
through mobile media?”74(61.67%) response is yes, definitely yes while 28(23.34%) say no,
definitely not. 16(13.33%) think that they will not buy Halal food if the price increases by
10%. Only 02(1.67%) say yes they will buy as shown in the bar chart below.
This shows that if the message is relevant then response of Asian students will be positive. It
has been argued that concise, funny, interactive and entertaining messages that are relevant to
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70
80
Yes, Definitely Yes No, Defiantely Not No Yes Don,t Know
(4.5)Attitude toward mobile adevrtising messages

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the target consumers usually achieve higher levels of success (Dickinger et al. 2004). On
average Asian students accept mobile marketing messages if the messages are interactive,
entertaining, concise relevant to their needs and wants. Therefore, this study reconfirm that
consumers (Asian students) love to receive mobile marketing messages if they are relevant,
short and interactive. This research also explores that there is also a need to apply permission
based mobile marketing technique to influence Asian student’s response toward mobile
marketing messages.
4.4 Permission Based mobile Marketing
Permission based mobile advertising is very important mobile advertising strategy to develop
more favorable consumer’s attitude toward mobile advertising. Consumer’s permission
before sending advertising messages is an important factor that affect consumer attitude
because consumers are fearful of mobile marketing messages due to high level of spam in
mobile advertising messages (Carroll et al., 2007). A question was designed to take
respondents view about permission based mobile advertising and the question was “Do you
think advertisers should obtain permission from message recipientsbefore sending them
mobile advertising messages?
115(95.83%) students think that companies should request for permission before the
bombardment of advertising messages while only 5(4.23%) were not in the favor of this view
as shown in the pie chart below.
96%
4%0%0%
(4.6) Do you think advertisers should obtain permission from message
recipients before sending them mobile advertising messages
Yes No

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So, this study reconfirms the previous researches that permission is an important factor to be
considered before sending advertising messages.
4.4.1 Reasons/Evaluation
Consumer’s Permission marketing is an important marketing strategy to build stronger
relationship with customers by obtaining customer permission to receive information of
interest from a company and make sure that permitted messages are tailored to time, location
and personal characteristics, to get closer to the consumers (Carroll et al., 2007). As Asian
students think that marketers should obtain their permission before sending advertising
messages which clearly indicates that permission is very important factor. There are some
reasons behind this.
Asian students start feeling irritate with the bombardment of mobile advertising messages
without their permission. It has been found that they start developing negative attitude toward
mobile advertising and marketing campaigns if are receiving irrelevant messages without
their permission. This view was also advocated by Tsang et al. that “The empirical data
shows that respondents held negative attitude about receiving mobile ads. This may have
been because they found mobile marketing adds irritating, given the personal, intimate
nature of mobile phones. Their attitudes were favorable if advertisements send with
permission”. Also Asian students only want to receive those messages which are relevant to
their needs and wants. Only 4.23% Asian students accepts unfamiliar advertising messages.
Factors such as usability, acceptance, remembrance and interaction influence consumer’s
attitude in permission based mobile marketing (Cengi & Tetlk, 2010).
A consumer’s attitudetoward PBMM is affected by their environment. A consumer from the
youth segment using mobile phones as a lifestyle may be more inclined toward interaction
and interactive mobile advertising messages (Okazaki, 2004). According to Haghirian &
madlberger (2005) advertising content and frequency of the advertising messages are very
important factor that can affect Asian student’s perception toward mobile marketing
messages. In sum, this study indicates that Asian student’s perception will be more

49. 40
positiveand attitude will be more favorable if they receive relevant advertising messages
about fast food with their permission.
Overall, the findings of this research clearly show that Asian migrant students are very much
aware of mobile marketing and they interpret mobile marketing messages in a positive way.
They think that organizations give them value by sending them mobile marketing messages
because through this way they receive discounts and offers. Moreover, they do not need to
collect information about products and brands because they are receiving information through
mobile. The acceptance level of mobile marketing messages in Asian students is higher if the
mobile marketing messages are short, concise, interactive, entertaining and relevant to their
needs and wants.
4.5 Consumer Attitude towards Mobile Advertising
According to Kotler and Armstrong (2005) “A person’s consistently favorable or unfavorable
evaluations, feelings, and tendencies toward an object or ideas”.In this section the researcher
will prove that Asian migrant students have favorable attitude toward mobile advertising
campaigns. Tsang et al. (2004) argued that most of the consumers have negative attitude
towards mobile advertising messages and it is found that there is direct relationship between
consumer attitude and consumer behavior. When Asian students were asked that “Do you
agree that SMS and MMS mobile advertising messages are very useful?”61(50.84%)
respondents strongly agree that mobile advertising messages SMS and MMS are useful.
21(17.5%) respondents agree that mobile advertising messages are useful. 8(23.34%)
strongly disagree that SMS and MMS mobile advertising messages are useful while 18(15%)
disagree with this statement and 12(10%) said none as shown in the bar chart below.
On average Asian students Asian migrant students think that mobile advertising messages are
very useful. To go more deep to make sure that their attitude is favorable toward mobile
advertising, another question was designed to ask from respondents and question was “Do
you agree that Asian celebrities should be used as advertising models in mobile marketing
campaigns?” This question investigates how mobile marketing campaigns shape Asian
migrant students attitude toward organizations. 66(55%) strongly agree that Asian celebrities
should be used as brand ambassador in mobile marketing campaigns which means their
attitude will be favorable to the company if Asian models advertise fast food products.
19(15.84%) respondents agree and 10(8.34%) disagree. 5(4.17%) strongly disagree from this

50. 41
statement and they think Asian celebrities should not be used in mobile advertising/marketing
campaigns. Only 12(10%) respondents think that it does not matter for them whether the
advertising model is from their ethnic origin or not as shown in the bar chart below
So, this study contradicts with previous literature on consumer’s attitude and found that
Attitude of Asian students is favorable toward mobile advertising.
4.5.1 Reasons/Evaluation
According to Tsang et al.,(2004) consumers generally have negative attitude to mobile
advertising which contradicts with this study. This study totally contradicts with earlier
researches on consumer’s attitude toward mobile marketing and advertising. During survey it
has been found that Asian students like to receive mobile advertising messages. Though, in
start their attitudes were not that much favorable toward mobile advertising, but later they
start accepting it as a value for them. Another reason is that they want to receive discounts
and offers and information of their interestfrom advertisers as well. This is because of their
economic situation. This view is also advocatedby Rettie &Brum (2001) that in
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Strongly Agree Agree Neither Disagree Strongly Disagree
(4.7) Attitude toward mobile advertising
(Use of Asian Models in Ads)

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start,consumershave negative attitude toward mobile advertising but many of them start
accepting mobile marketing messages in exchange of offers and discounts.
The researcher also found that Asian students want to receive offers at right time and right
place. For example, at lunch break in University they feel free and relax. If advertiser sends
them advertising messages at that time then their attitude toward mobile advertising will
increase more. Marketing theorists also advocated this view of researcher that discounts and
offers in the advertising message should be delivered to the target consumer at right time and
right place, consumer will definitely find it useful, and finally it may develop consumer
attitude toward mobile marketing in positive direction (Marcussen,2002; Barnes &
Scornavacca, 2004).
According to Morimoto and Ferle (2005) Asian consumer’s attitude would be more favorable
if the model used in the ads belongs to their ethnic origin. When a question relevant to this
was asked from Asian students then most of them said they want to see Asian models in
mobile advertising ads as they influence their attitude and behavior. Moreover, Asian
students follow their celebrities such as film stars from Bollywood and cricket stars. Another
reason could be that most of respondents are from Pakistan and India. Both are cricketing
nations if they see their cricket heroes such Sachin Tendulker and Shahid Afridi advertising
Kfc southern chicken or McDonald’s fast food when they receive a MMS then definitely
Asian student’s attitude will be dramatically changed toward mobile advertising
There are differences between this research findings and previous research because in this
research researcher have found that consumers (Asian students) have favorable attitude
toward mobile advertising while previous researches clearly indicates that generally
consumer have negative attitude toward mobile marketing messages.This study indicates that
Asian migrant students have favorable attitude toward mobile advertising campaigns.
Previous studies show that overall, consumers have negative attitude towards mobile
marketing but they start accepting it later. This study contradicts a bit with previous studies
and proves that Asian students have positive perception and attitude toward mobile
advertising messages, mobile marketing campaigns, and organizations who are advertising
their products through mobile media.
In sum, this study indicates that Asian migrant students have favorable attitude toward mobile
advertising campaigns and they perceive it as value for customers.

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4.6 Factors that Affect Asian Migrant Students Responses toward Mobile
Advertising
The second research question of this study is “What are those factors that affect on Asian
migrant students’ responses toward mobile advertising”. In addressing this research
question respondents were asked different questions regarding those factors that affect on
their responses toward mobile advertising. Many of the journals and articles have been
published on how gender, age, income level, occupation and employment status affect on
consumer responses toward mobile advertising campaigns. This research will further explore
other factors including these and their affect on Asian students’ responses toward mobile
advertising.
4.7 Effects of Personal Factors on Consumer’s Response
A buyer’s decision is always influenced by personal characteristics such as age, gender,
economic situation and occupation (Kotler and Armstrong, 2005). With in mobile advertising
context, Leppäniemi and Karjaluoto (2008) explored the effects of age, gender, income level
and employment status on consumer’s responses toward mobile advertising campaign.
A question was designed to explore the effects of personal factors on Asian student’s
responses toward mobile advertising. They were asked “What do you think which personal
factors effect Asian students responses toward mobile advertising?” 45(37.5%) respondents
think that age is an important factor that effects their responses toward mobile advertising.
35(29.16%) view was that gender has an effect on their responses while 40(33.34%) said
their economic situation plays an important part to develop a positive or negative response
toward mobile advertising as shown in the bar chart below.

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Thus, researcher assumes that age, gender and economic situation of Asian migrant students
affect their responses toward mobile advertising messages.
4.7.1Reasons/Evaluation
The researcher has found that personal factors such as gender, age and economic situation
effects Asian student’s response toward mobile advertising. This research also reconfirms
previous literature written by different authors on factors such gender, age and income level
effects consumer’s response.
1) Age
The respondents who have participated in this research are between 20-30 years of age.
According to Leppäniemi &Karjaluoto (2008) consumers between 36-45 years of age like to
send SMS to an advertisement and participate in all kind of SMS competition. When a
question was asked that “Do you think SMS and MMS mobile advertising messages are
useful?” then on average the response was yes mobile advertising messages are very useful.
Furthermore, when they were asked that “Would you like to participate in SMS
competitions?” then on average (58.33%) their response was yes which clearly shows that
Asian students between 20-30 years of age like to receive mobile advertising messages and
would love to participate in SMS competitions.
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Age
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Situation
Gender
None
(4.8)Personal Factors That Affect Asian Students Responses to
Mobile Advertising