Mobile marketing: An Emerging Marketing Opportunity for Entrepreneurs

By

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am most thankful to my family colleagues and instructor for providing me assistance and guidance throughout the tenure of this research project. This research would not have been completed without their undue support.

DECLARATION

I declare that this study has not been published previously and represents my own work based on the secondary and the primary research analysis.

ABSTRACT

This research aims to understand the effectiveness of mobile marketing for the entrepreneurs. To narrow down the scope of this research and to better understand the effectiveness of mobile marketing, the research has focused on the hotel industry. Interviews with the marketing managers of the selected hotels were conducted. The main themes of the interview were the applicability, benefits, applications and tools and the issues in implementing mobile marketing. It was found that the aim of the mobile marketing is mainly to improve the customer relationship and service, and to promote the new campaigns and discount features. Smart phones are the most effective devices, on which the hotels provide the ancillary services through the mobile apps. The hotels use mobile applications in the form of apps and mobile version of the website. However, the main issues lie in the complexity of implementation and often, no response from the customers. This research facilitates the understanding of the businesses, and marketers to understand the feasibility of the employment of mobile marketing strategy.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTII

DECLARATIONIII

ABSTRACTIV

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Background1

Purpose of the Study1

Feasibility of focusing on the Hotel Industry2

Research Questions2

Scope of the Study3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW4

Introduction4

Mobile Marketing5

Benefits of Mobile Marketing6

Challenges in implementing mobile marketing7

No continuous tracking7

Privacy8

Fraud8

Download Fixation8

Factors Affecting Mobile Marketing9

Mobile Marketing and Hotel Businesses10

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY13

Research Design13

Sampling13

Data Collection14

Data Analysis14

Ethical Concern15

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS16

Main Themes' Summary16

Details17

Hotel 117

Hotel 217

Hotel 318

Hotel 418

Hotel 519

Hotel 620

Hotel 720

Hotel 821

Hotel 921

Hotel 1021

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION23

Applicability23

Benefits24

Increased Sales24

Strengthen Loyalty25

Mobile Marketing Tools and Applications25

Issues26

Recommendations for Future Research27

Conclusion27

REFERENCES28

APPENDIX32

Research Questions32

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background

Mobile marketing refers to the mobile making activity that is engaged in the design and implementation of the marketing activities through the mobile devices (Berney, 2010, 9-11). The research conducts an analysis of the mobile marketing use in hotels keeping inv view the interviews carried out with the hotels. The analyses are based on data from hotels which currently use mobile marketing in their operations.

The number of "mobile users" increases without stops around the world. The hotel industry gets directly impacted by the use of these new technologies with applications to better fit in a better way of life through mobile (Krum, 2010, 25-36). One can define mobile marketing as an activity dedicated to the design, implementation and execution of marketing activities conducted through mobile devices. Mobile devices are small digital media, easy to use and management, enabling their transfer to any place without difficulty, and whose consumption is without electrical connection. Among these, the most important are mobile Phones, PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), iPod, Handhelds, GPS, etc (Michael, Salter, 2006, 21-53).

Purpose of the Study

To narrow down the scope of this research, the impact of mobile marketing on the hotel ...