Mobile advertising is becoming more popular in marketing and can be especially effective for certain products, according to the findings from a Columbia Business School study published last month.
The research was published in the Journal of Marketing Research and is titled "Which Products Are Best Suited to Mobile Advertising? A Field Study of Mobile Display Advertising Effects on Consumer Attitudes and Intentions." Its authors are Miklos Sarvary, co-director of the Media Program at Columbia Business School, Andrew T. Stephen, assistant professor of Business Administration at Columbia Business School and Yakov Bart, assistant professor of Marketing at INSEAD.
Critical findings included that mobile ads work well for products with a specific practical use, such as lawn mowers, and for "high involvement" purchases, such as cars, while they work less well for "low-involvement" or luxury items, such as movie tickets and watches, respectively.
The Columbia researchers examined survey responses from some 40,000 U.S. consumers who received mobile ads. The survey questions were designed to gauge consumers' "attitude[s] toward and intention of buying the product." Moreover, the researchers separated the products according to their uses: "Utilitarian" or "hedonic," that is were the products useful or simply for pleasure. They also classified items either as "high involvement" or "low involvement."
The fact that mobile ads worked especially well in persuading consumers to buy useful and high involvement items has to do with psychology, according to Sarvary. He explained, that given that there is a longer marketing window for these items, during which the consumer weighs the pros and cons of purchase, mobile ads can serve a vital purpose in "reinforc[ing] what you already know about the product." Savary added that companies may get the best results by launching mobile display ads after campaigns for the product in other media have already taken place.
If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of mobile advertising, consider working with a display advertising company such as KeyMedia Solutions.