Mobile marketing - Research Paper Example

? Mobile Marketing Research and number submitted Mobile Marketing Research Introduction Wireless communication has revolutionized human interactions and actions in ways that could not have been anticipated by Graham Bell, the founder of the telephone. The revolution has given new meaning to the term mass communication and the possibilities offered by the communication systems of today provide for continuing and prospective refinement of the whole concept of mass communication. Perhaps the most widely used conduit for communication these days is the mobile phone. It is needless to say that the advancement in communication technology has been crucial in the parallel progress and expansion of the global knowledge base and the pace of acquisition of further knowledge (Burns & Bush, 2000). And academic research being one of the main routes to progress in the understanding of human beings has been affected positively by the growth of the communication systems. For instance handling the data accumulated in any research process has become much easier thanks to the facility of software databases for storage of research data (Janssens, 2008). Data in this form is available for transport virtually without limitations of time for sending or the location of the sender and receiver. However the incorporation of technology into research methodologies is yet to take a form and most of the research procedures involve techniques that are indifferent to the use of technology. For example a lot of primary research is still conducted with data collectors going to the subjects of the research to collect the data and the communication facilities play a trivial role in facilitating the process (Malhotra & Birks, 2007). Hence research over mobile phones and similar communication devices is also not viable in most fields of research and because of many research limitations and requirements. The Benefits of Mobile Access in Research However the leading business organizations of the world are working on devising methods of capitalizing on the potential of market research insight provided by the prospective use of mobile networks for outreach to the subjects of the market research. The main advantages that the ubiquity, spread and incidence of mobile phone usage provide are the speed with which market research can be conducted, the delimitation of the timing restriction for conductance of research, the ability of capturing the opinions and other data of research at any particular time (for instance, reactions of a group of people can be captured using mobile technology immediately after an event), the ease of carrying out the research, the lack of restrictions of the location of the human subjects of the research or that of the researcher, and the possibility of both lateral and vertical research incorporating all the aforementioned advantages, i-e the ease of investigating the state of one factor over many different time instances and that of recording the state of a factor at any instance over many different locations. It has already been proven that the dimension of research corporations far longed for; the study of ‘pulse impact’ or the immediate short-lived effects of corporate tactics and decisions can be studied using the mobile research facility (Taylor, 2000). Hence a company might be able to study the causes and patterns of disinterest or interest among consumers for a newly launched product emanating from the first impression of the product. The possibility of research over the internet, which is one of the major forms of mobile market research and probably the main form of market research of the future, also addresses the vital facet of researching of creating interest for the participant in the research. With all the attractions that are available for use on the digital platform, the researcher can approach more people for the research using fewer resources than are required for conventional researching. In one informal study cited by N. Bradley (2010) in his book Marketing research: Tools & technique, it was suggested that because it provides for usage of less monetary, temporal and physical resources, the utility of market research over the mobile phone is actually more a blessing for small businesses than it is for large enterprises and could resultantly manifest as a disadvantage for larger corporations as it would grant start-ups and localized businesses greater access to markets in which the large corporations operate. Problems and Limitations Hence there is a plethora of benefits offered by research over mobile devices. However at the present time such kind of market researching is not viable due to several reasons. For a very elemental deficiency in the means of carrying out any such research one can consider the asymmetry of electronic technology among different gadgets possessed by different people. Not all mobile phones have the same class of technology and handling data dispatch and reception from many different types of software and hardware is not the cup of tea of every mass communication device. Hence technologically, the corporate world is a little behind the age where the promise offered by mobile communication for market research can be realized. Not that the world lacks the technology for making possible such interaction but the systems of the devices involved in the research would either have to be more equal or the least capable systems of mobile phones would have to be advanced enough to enable a fair number of participants of research to provide input to the research. Without such a situation, the research sampling would be biased towards those with the better mobile technology. Also there still are quite a lot of people who do not use their mobile phones for much more than attending and receiving calls. Then there are those who carry out the additional tasks sending and receiving text messages. And finally there is the group, purportedly comprising only nineteen percent of mobile users, who use the internet over their mobile devices (McGivern, 2008). Hence each of these levels of mobile phone usage restrict the method of conductance of the research to direct dialling, text messaging (Also, very few people who use the text messaging service reply to uninvited corporate messages) and mobile internet. Similarly while the phenomenon of mobile research does provide access to ever-larger samples of subjects and at much lower costs of resources than the other methods of primary research (Field, 2005), there is a problem of uncertainty of access to a specified subject and also of the unreliability of successful targeting of the target population for the research. This means that qualitative forms of research and especially those that require a strict determination of the characteristics of the participants can almost never employ this medium for researching as the access to a member of a group of a very specific target population could be lost through as simple a problem as the running out of the phone battery. Ethical Considerations Then there are the ethical shortfalls of some aspects of the usage of mobile networks for the conductance of market research. This involves the background data collection of the mobile users to marrow down the subjects to the required sample for the research. Hence for only a completely random subject selection, not involving any stipulations regarding the profile or characteristics of the mobile user participating in the research, the confidence of the human subjects of a research can be ensured. This is because any background research of human subjects for their selection for participation in the research could be considered intrusion into the subjects’ private matters unless the people involved are informed or asked for permission beforehand. Hence intrusion into the private lives of mobile users is a matter of ethical debate that needs to be addressed by any firm or individual preparing for mobile marketing research. The spying on people’s actions and communications using their devices’ internet and GSM connections has already been an issue that has caused great public uproar which for example resulted in the liquidation of one of Britain’s most circulated newspapers, owned by the media mogul Rupert Murdoch (“"CELL-PHONE GATE" WILL NOT BE RUPERT MURDOCH'S WATERLOO”, 2011), and in the decline of U.S. president Obama’s acceptance ratings due to the NSA spying scandal (“Edward Snowden NSA Scandal: US Tech Giants Back Bill to End NSA Snooping”, 2013). Hence any private businesses have to be very wary of the potential financial and political hazards that could be caused by the method of conductance of research over mobile phones. Conclusion There is no doubt that the mobile phone revolution has offered a great deal of leverage in connecting and communicating with, and affecting the people who use the technology. However market research is a facet of business promulgation and an inherently objective phenomenon directed towards the singular objective of creation of wealth (Perry, 1998). Hence one must be careful in applying the expertise of market researching in the realm of mass communication, especially as the technology is still not ripe to fully facilitate the process. None of the discourse of the ethical considerations of mobile marketing research is questions the future prospects, legality or sustainability of mass communication as a medium of research. However it is up to the regulators, governing bodies and standards organizations to make the corporations comply to the basics of Corporate Social Responsibility in this regard, the specific guidelines for which can be drafted out by concerted deliberation. It can be safely presumed that the battle between innovation and control will ultimately create space for the appropriate placement of both as is often the case with breakthroughs in human knowledge, understanding or utilities. References (2013). Edward Snowden NSA Scandal: US Tech Giants Back Bill to End NSA Snooping. International Business Times - US ed. BLACKER, S. (2011). "CELL-PHONE GATE" WILL NOT BE RUPERT MURDOCH'S WATERLOO. Media Industry Newsletter, 64(29), 6. Bottom of Form Bradley, N. (2010). Marketing research: Tools & techniques. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Burns, A. C., & Bush, R. F. (2000). Marketing research. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall. Field, A. P. (2005). Discovering statistics using SPSS. London: SAGE Publications. Bottom of Form Top of Form Janssens, W. (2008). Marketing research with SPSS. Harlow, England: Prentice Hall/Financial Times. Malhotra, N. K., & Birks, D. F. (2007). Marketing research: An applied approach. Harlow: Prentice Hall/Financial Times. Bottom of Form Top of Form McGivern, Y. (2008). The practice of market research. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall. Perry, C. (1998). Processes of a case study methodology for postgraduate research in marketing. European Journal of Marketing, 32(9/10), 785-802. Bottom of Form Top of Form Taylor, H. (2000). Does Internet research work? Comparing online survey results with telephone survey. International journal of market research, 42(1), 51-63. Read More