Mobile Marketing Research: A Comprehensive Analysis

Mobile marketing research is a crucial aspect of any business looking to reach a wider audience. A staggering 71% of adults in the US own a smartphone, making mobile marketing a vital channel for reaching potential customers.

Mobile marketing research helps businesses understand their target audience and create effective marketing strategies. By analyzing consumer behavior and preferences, businesses can tailor their mobile marketing efforts to resonate with their audience.

Mobile devices have become an essential part of daily life, with the average person spending around 3 hours and 15 minutes on their phone each day. This presents a unique opportunity for businesses to engage with customers through mobile marketing.

Effective mobile marketing research involves understanding the demographics, interests, and behaviors of the target audience. By gathering and analyzing data, businesses can create personalized marketing campaigns that drive engagement and conversions.

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Mobile marketing research involves using various methods to collect data from respondents. Four different kinds of methods can be used, as listed in the following figure.

Push studies without contexts (A) can be conducted independently from time and location. This can include CATI- or CACI studies, surveys by SMS or MMS, and the feedback impulse comes actively from the researcher.

With pertinent push studies (B), the researcher prompts the respondent to give feedback once they are in a particular environment or situation.

Pull studies are characterized by participants calling in the questionnaire themselves. In many cases, short notes draw attention to a survey or evaluation.

Non-context-sensitive pull studies (D) are not relevant for marketing research since they provide only general feedback with no relation to a fixed object of research.

Data collection on a technical level offers three possibilities. One possibility is the Short Message Service (SMS), which can be used as a basis to conduct interviews.

Surveys can also be accessed via the mobile internet, with questionnaires created in different formats. This allows respondents to complete the questionnaire on a different technical device with internet access.

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Consumer behavior and adoption are crucial aspects of mobile marketing research. The adoption stage of the customer journey for apps and via apps covers the continuation of the consumer decision-making process until app adoption.

Mobile shopping via apps and in-app purchasing are key behaviors signaling adoption, particularly in popular app categories such as retail, games, and lifestyle apps. These behaviors echo the focus of extant marketing studies, highlighting the importance of understanding consumer behavior in the context of app adoption.

Empirical research on the pre-adoption stage is abundant, focusing on technological features and benefits consumers seek, as well as individual consumer characteristics that drive the intention to download and/or adopt an app.

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The adoption stage of the customer journey for apps and via apps covers the continuation of the consumer decision-making process until app adoption, including any activities that signify adoption—e.g., behaviors resulting from using the app such as mobile shopping and in-app purchases.

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Mobile shopping and in-app purchasing are two key behaviors signaling adoption, echoing the focus of extant marketing studies.

The adoption stage of the customer journey for apps and via apps can be explored using theoretical approaches such as the technological features and benefits consumers seek, and specific individual consumer characteristics.

These approaches are inherent to the pre-adoption stage, which is abundant in empirical research.

The adoption stage of the customer journey for apps and via apps can be combined with theoretical approaches used to explore these aspects, as listed in Table 2.

Table 2 combines theoretical approaches used to explore these aspects; it also lists key themes for future research, alongside examples of unanswered questions.

The adoption stage of the customer journey for apps and via apps covers the continuation of the consumer decision-making process until app adoption, including any activities that signify adoption—e.g., behaviors resulting from using the app such as mobile shopping and in-app purchases.

The adoption stage of the customer journey for apps and via apps can be explored using theoretical approaches such as the technological features and benefits consumers seek, and specific individual consumer characteristics.

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These approaches are inherent to the pre-adoption stage, which is abundant in empirical research.

The adoption stage of the customer journey for apps and via apps can be combined with theoretical approaches used to explore these aspects, as listed in Table 2.

Table 2 combines theoretical approaches used to explore these aspects; it also lists key themes for future research, alongside examples of unanswered questions.

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Engagement is a crucial aspect of consumer behavior and adoption, especially in the context of mobile apps. Apps can trigger emotional connections between consumers and brands, on the basis of self-congruence or self-app connection, arising from personalized consumption experiences.

Research has shown that entertaining apps can heighten affective brand responses, making consumers more willing to act without thinking. Apps can also lead to brand attachment, identification, affect, love, and warmth, all of which are essential for building strong connections with consumers.

The persuasive nature of branded apps is well-established, with apps triggering frequent context-based brand recall. Apps can persuade consumers by increasing interest in the brand powering the app and in the product category, as well as offering cognitive, social integrative, personal integrative, and hedonic benefits.

Apps' persuasive power is widely recognized, with mobile advertising trends via apps continuing to overtake desktop advertising. However, there is still scope for new knowledge evaluating the outcomes of advertising via apps beyond attitude change and brand purchase intentions.

Building a strong emotional connection with consumers is key to app success, and can lead to increased brand loyalty and customer retention. By understanding the psychological mechanisms that drive engagement, app developers can create more effective and engaging experiences for their users.

The post-adoption stage is a crucial aspect of the customer journey for apps. It involves ongoing or continued app usage, which can be measured through stickiness and engagement.

Stickiness refers to the ability of an app to retain users over time. The post-adoption stage is where an app's stickiness is put to the test.

Engagement is another key aspect of post-adoption, as it measures how users interact with an app. The more engaged users are, the more likely they are to continue using the app.

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The post-adoption stage also has an impact on the app itself and the brand behind it. For example, ongoing app usage can lead to increased revenue through in-app purchases.

The adoption stage sets the foundation for post-adoption, as it covers the continuation of the consumer decision-making process until app adoption. This includes behaviors resulting from using the app, such as mobile shopping.

Researchers have identified several theoretical approaches to explore post-adoption, including the notion of stickiness and engagement. However, there are still many unanswered questions in this area, such as what factors contribute to an app's stickiness.

Table 3 maps out extant theoretical approaches and outstanding research themes and priorities for post-adoption, providing a roadmap for future research in this area.

Brand outcomes for an app are influenced by its stickiness, which affects consumer willingness to spread word-of-mouth about the app.

Research has shown that consumer willingness to spread positive word-of-mouth about a brand powering an app is attributed to the holistic brand experience resulting from using the app. This experience is linked to the level of app loyalty resulting from perceptions of value, service quality, and ease of use.

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Customer satisfaction with an app is influenced by perceptions of app value, consumer trust, and utilitarian and hedonic benefits that apps offer. However, the prediction of customer satisfaction is often too simplistic or too intricate, and frameworks not focused on this prediction are also common.

Emotional responses toward a brand can be triggered by apps, leading to a willingness to act without thinking. Apps can also lead to brand attachment, brand identification, brand affect, brand love, and brand warmth, all of which are emotional connections between the consumer and the brand.

Studies have explored how apps promote innovation and how to innovate apps, but more research is needed to reveal the mechanisms through which apps catalyze innovation to generate value for different stakeholders.

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The marketing mix for apps is a crucial aspect to consider for successful app adoption. It includes four key elements: product, price, promotion, and distribution.

Research has shown that apps' marketing mix elements are often conflated due to their nature as "all-in-one" gateways for products and services. This means that promotion and distribution are often combined, making it essential to determine the extent to which these elements are conflated.

App store optimization, push notifications, and leveraging user reviews and ratings are some of the practices used to promote apps, but there is limited understanding of their effectiveness. For example, using influencers to promote apps has been highlighted as a powerful strategy, but more research is needed to understand its implications.

Pricing is a crucial aspect of marketing strategies for apps. Research suggests that pricing strategies can significantly impact an app's adoption and success.

Monetary vs. nonmonetary tactics can be effective in cueing an app's novelty, according to Dinsmore, Dugan, and Wright (2016). This study found that nonmonetary tactics, such as data provision, can be just as effective as monetary tactics.

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Personality traits can drive the willingness to pay for apps and the willingness to make in-app purchases, as Dinsmore, Swani, and Dugan (2017) discovered. This means that understanding your target audience's personality traits can help inform your pricing strategy.

The presence of a free version of an app can reduce the speed of adoption, as Arora et al. (2017) found. This is because offering a free version can make the full version seem less valuable.

Freemium pricing strategies, where a basic app version is free and subsequent upgrades are payable, are common but may not always be feasible, as Arora et al. (2017) pointed out.

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The distribution of apps is a complex process that involves multiple stakeholders and factors. Critical factors in this network include feedback, innovation, service quality, device compatibility, and developers' diversity.

App stores play a crucial role in the distribution of apps, with profit-sharing models and review mechanisms counteracting low entry barriers. Jung et al. (2012) highlight the importance of these mechanisms in ensuring the success of apps.

Ready-to-use services and interfaces, such as data storage, security, and automatic updates, are also essential for the distribution of apps. Developers must consider these factors when creating and marketing their apps.

App stores are not just a means of distributing apps, but also a channel for communication and feedback that is crucial to market survival. Martin, Sarro, Jia, Zhang, and Harman (2017) emphasize the importance of this channel in the competitive success of apps.

Differences in monetization effectiveness across app stores have been observed, with Roma and Ragaglia (2016) revealing variations between Google Play and Apple's App Store.

Mobile apps offer a unique marketing landscape that requires a tailored approach. According to Tong et al. (2020), mobile technologies' marketing mix includes an element of prediction, where considerable amounts of consumer insights are elaborated.

Apps are 'all-in-one' gateways for the asynchronous provision of products and services, where promotion and distribution are often combined. This fusion of elements is a key aspect of mobile marketing.

Research suggests that the marketing mix elements for apps can be somewhat conflated, which presents opportunities for innovative strategies. By understanding how these elements interact, businesses can create more effective marketing campaigns.

Personalization is a crucial aspect of mobile marketing, with opportunities for enrichment throughout the marketing mix.

Effective dissemination of consumer insights and market intelligence across organizational functions is a crucial aspect of market orientation. This coordination is essential to deliver superior customer value.

Unfortunately, research on apps related to inter-functional coordination is currently missing. This creates a gap in understanding how to effectively manage app development, launch, and strategic management.

Market-orientated behaviors, such as product design excellence, play a significant role in app development and launch. For example, product design excellence can lead to better app performance and user satisfaction.

New studies could evaluate the effects of different managerial approaches and different levels of digital marketing knowledge on app success. This would provide valuable insights for app developers and marketers.

Market-level conditions, such as market dynamism, can also impact app success. Market dynamism refers to rapid changes in consumer needs and preferences, which can be challenging for app developers to keep up with.

Firms need to consider their overall digital marketing strategy and how it affects app development and launch. This includes evaluating the implications of a firm's digital marketing strategy on app success.

Research has shown that more than 60% of app developers generate less than $500 a month from their apps, indicating a need for effective inter-functional coordination to improve app success.

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Mobile marketing research has a lot to say about digital customer orientation and value creation. By 2006, more people owned a mobile phone than a landline, and by 2020, the mobile smartphone was the device used most to access the internet.

Technological advancements like AI, AR, and VR in apps provide highly customized experiences, impacting consumer preferences and behaviors. These advancements can improve consumer perceptions of benefits, encourage positive attitudes, and boost purchase intentions.

Apps can facilitate value co-creation by virtue of media richness, and research suggests that consumer co-production plays a fundamental role in making companies rethink the value creation process. This view matches the service-dominant logic, where consumers use resources to experience and co-create value.

Mobile phones have become the primary device for accessing the internet, with more people owning a mobile phone than a landline by 2006.

By 2020, smartphones had surpassed all other devices in internet access. This shift has opened up new avenues for businesses to engage with customers.

People are attached to their phones, making them willing to complete surveys. In fact, mobile phones have become a vital tool for research in underdeveloped areas where PC or laptop ownership is rare.

The rise of mobile technology has enabled businesses to reach a broader audience. With the ability to send emails, SMS, pop-ups, virtual chat, social media, and more, businesses can now easily interact with customers.

This increased accessibility has made it easier for researchers to gather data from a wider range of people, including those in underdeveloped areas.

Digital customer orientation is crucial for value creation, and apps play a significant role in this process. Apps have the potential to create value by facilitating value co-creation, as Lei et al. (2020) showed in the hospitality industry.

Mobile touchpoints, such as apps, can trigger a fusion of value that benefits shoppers, employees, and companies, as suggested by Larivière et al. (2013). This fusion of value is a key aspect of value creation.

The Dynamic Business Capabilities (DBC) theory, channel expansion theory, and generic theoretical frameworks have been used to evaluate the links between perceptions of value and customer satisfaction, but there is a lack of research adapting standard customer value theories and value fusion theory. This is surprising, given the potential of apps for value creation.

Apps can facilitate value co-creation by virtue of media richness, as Lei et al. (2020) found. This means that apps can provide a platform for consumers to co-create value with companies.

The service-dominant logic suggests that consumers use resources available to them to experience and co-create value, as Vargo and Lusch (2004) and Zhang, Lu, and Kizildag (2017) argued. This view is supported by Grönroos (2019).

Consumer co-production plays a fundamental role in making companies rethink the value creation process, as Dellaert (2019) contended. This is an important consideration for companies looking to create value through digital customer orientation.

Apps can be used during value exchanges, such as in shopping centers, as Rauschnabel et al. (2019) found. After value exchanges, apps can be used to mitigate purchase regret, as Wedel et al. (2020) showed.

By understanding how apps facilitate value co-creation and the marketing potential of co-created apps, companies can create more value for their customers and improve their digital customer orientation.

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The synthesis of existing marketing knowledge on apps revealed significant knowledge voids that need to be addressed to move marketing research on apps forward.

This outcome highlights the need for further research to fill these gaps and advance our understanding of mobile marketing.

The integration of core marketing notions such as the customer journey, digital customer orientation, value creation, and co-creation into a meta-theoretical lens has been a valuable contribution to the field, but it also underscores the complexity of the topic and the need for continued exploration.

This study has made significant contributions to the field of marketing research on apps, synthesizing two decades of research and hundreds of studies into a comprehensive framework.

The review has integrated core marketing notions such as the customer journey, digital customer orientation, and value creation and co-creation, modifying and expanding Lemon and Verhoef's (2016) customer journey in the process.

The meta-theoretical lens used in this study highlighted significant knowledge voids that need to be addressed to move marketing research on apps forward.

The synthesis revealed synergies vs. disconnections between industry trends and academic research on the topic of apps, fulfilling the second research objective.

The study has provided conceptual and practical contributions that can inform future research and business practices in the app industry.

The Future of Mobile Marketing Research is looking bright. With 71% of visitors to retail sites in the USA using their mobile phone in 2020, it's clear that mobile marketing research is becoming the norm.

People prefer texts over calls, and most internet users use their phone. This trend isn't slowing down and is expected to rise more and more in the future.

Companies that don't invest in mobile marketing research will be left behind. The use of SMS, pop-ups, and apps is becoming easier and more effective than traditional phone calls or letters.

Consumers are drawn to interesting and creative content, and mobile marketing research makes it easier to deliver that.

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