By: Ibrahim Alotaibi i.s.alotaibi@2010.hull.ac.uk Consumers’ Attitudes toward Mobile Advertising: A comparison study between United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia By: Ibrahim Alotaibi i.s.alotaibi@2010.hull.ac.uk

Introduction Aim Methodology Findings Implications Conclusion

Introduction In 2008 the mobile phone market reached 76 million subscribers in the UK. Consumers penetration reached nearly124% by 2008. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) the mobile phone market reached 36 million subscribers in 2009. Consumers penetration reached nearly 130% by 2009 in KSA. The market for mobile advertising UK was assessed to have a value of 28.6 million GBP in 2008 and that represents 0.16% of the total UK advertising market (17,5 billion GBP). Forecasts of Analysys Mason show that by 2012, mobile advertising will account for over 4% of total advertising spent in European countries. UK revenues for mobile content and services, mobile advertising and marketing have been forecasted to reach more than £1 billion by 2015, and the mobile advertising market is forecast to grow by 33 %.

Mobile advertising definition According to American Marketing Association Mobile advertising is “the placement of announcements and persuasive messages in time or space purchased in any of the mass media by business firms, non-profit organizations, government agencies, and individuals who seek to inform and/or persuade members of a particular target market or audience about their products, services, organizations, or ideas” (Vatanparast, 2007)

Figure 4 ( Types of Advertisement) Source: Barnes 2002

Aim The aim of this research is to contrast consumers’ attitudes toward mobile advertising between Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. The concept of mobile advertising is much broader and will not be covered in this research. There are other applications and services linked to mobile advertising such as MMS, games and music, which have already been used by marketers.

Methodology Secondary data Primary data Beneitez-Lefebvre’s (2005) study, sample size (126) Yu’s (2005) study, sample size (200) Primary data Self-administration questionnaire Sample size (110) Disrupted in three different spots in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia End Start Size Date Location 10.00 PM 7.00 PM 35 23/07/2009 Albadiah Mall 10.30 PM 9.00 PM 45 24/07/2009 Kingdom Mall 8.30 PM 30 26/07/2009 Alhokair Park

Findings The studies carried out on Saudi Arabia and UK showed no less than 96% of respondents received mobile advertising message. That reflect the respondents will be familiar with and understanding of the concept of mobile advertising. Furthermore, the respondents in Saudi Arabia received more SMS than MMS by 85% and among them received 1-3 messages per day.   The general attitude toward mobile advertising in Saudi Arabia was negative, 56% often felt annoyed whilst 29% they did not fell annoyed. UK respondents 68% of them dislike mobile advertising messages which end up with the negative attitude. There is 12% as a differentiation of the general attitude toward mobile advertising between UK and Saudi Arabia. That indicate UK respondents were more irritated by mobile advertisements than Saudi Arabia respondents. In terms of the mobile advertisements characteristics the respondents in Saudi Arabia believed the messages were not entertaining which represent 66%. In the UK the two studies respondents believed that messages were not entertaining but, it will be a crucial attribute to change consumers’ attitudes to positive toward mobile advertising. Attitude toward mobile advertising in KSA changed radically to positive attitude. The respondents showed more willingness to change their negative attitude to positive on the basis of incentives. The reason behind that change was incentive- based advertising. In fact, 52% accept receiving 1-3 advert messages on a daily basis while 27% accept receiving more than three messages per day. This goes on the line in confirming the results found in the UK that respondents’ attitudes will be enhanced when incentive techniques are adopted.

Implications Consumers in Saudi Arabia were more willing to accept incentive-based advertising than in the UK, which is an opportunity to reach the one-to-one market. Although UK and Saudi Arabian consumers did not show signification differences in the general attitude, the culture aspects have their presence in the attitudes. The mobile network operators have the opportunity to enhance the relationship with their customers by providing them with free minutes or texts. Furthermore, acting as a facilitator to companies to advertise their products or services to their target customers based on the customer database preferences, present an opportunity to generate profit out of mobile advertising methods.

Conclusion Both of UK studies and KSA study showed in general negative attitudes towards mobile advertising and to change them to positive, advertising based permission and advertising based incentive have to be adopted by marketers or advertisers. The researcher may need to investigate more on consumer attitude in relation to the mobile advertising concept, as well as the other mobile advertising approach as in games, MMS and mobile vouchers. Other important areas in this research which have not been sufficiently discussed are technology and consumer adoption, the differences between advertising a product and service to the consumer using mobiles as a medium, and consumer attachment to the mobile devices.

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