Mobile devices and services are proposed to be powerful channels for both distribution and marketing communication. In this article, the authors study the effects of mobile channel additions on consumer-brand relationship dimensions. Surveys of three different brands reveal positive effects of mobile channel addition (SMS/MMS) usage on brand satisfaction, direct relationship investments, indirect relationship investments, and main channel usage. The results suggest that SMS channel additions are perceived as complements to the brands’ main channel, whereas MMS channel additions today primarily are perceived as supplementary channels. Moreover, the findings suggest that a promising strategy for increasing consumption of the brand’s main channel is facilitation of the consumers’ direct relationship investment in the mobile services. Implication for service researchers and industry players are discussed.
Agarwal, Ritu and Elena Karahanna (2000), “Time Flies When You’re Having Fun: Cognitive Absorption and Beliefs about Information Technology Usage,”MIS Quarterly, 24 (4), 665-694.
2.
Ancar, Bill, Christer Carlsson, and Pirkko Walden (2003), “Factors Affecting Consumer Adoption Decisions and Intents in Mobile Commerce: Empirical Insights,”Online Conference Proceeding of the 16th Bled eCommerce Conference (Password required). Retrieved from http://www.bledconference.org/bled2003proc/bled2003.pdf
3.
Anderson, James C. and James A. Narus (1995), “Capturing the Value of Supplementary Services,”Harvard Business Review, 73 (1), 75-83.
4.
Andersson, Annica and Johanna Nilsson (2000), “Wireless Advertising Effectiveness. Evaluation of an SMS Advertising Trial,” master’s thesis in marketing, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm, Sweden.
5.
Arbuckle, James L. and Werner Wothke (1999), Amos 4.0 User’s Guide. Chicago: Small Waters.
6.
Balasubramanian, Sridhar, Robert A. Peterson, and Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa (2002), “Exploring the Implications of M-commerce for Markets and Marketing,”Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 30 (4), 348-361.
7.
Barbieri, Matt (2002), “SMS Marketing,”Brand Strategy, 162 (August), 3.
8.
Barua, Anitesh, Prabhudev Konana, Andrew B. Whinston, and Fang Ying (2001), “Driving E-Business Excellence,”Sloan Management Review, 90, 36-44.
9.
Barwise, Patrick and Colin Strong (2002), “Permission-Based Mobile Advertising,”Journal of Interactive Marketing, 16 (1), 14-24.
10.
Battacherjee, Anol (2000), “Acceptance of E-Commerce Services: The Case of Electronic Brokerages,”IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, 30, 411-420.
11.
Berry, Leonard L. (1995), “Relationship Marketing of Services—Growing Interest, Emerging Perspectives,”Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 23 (4), 236-245.
12.
Berscheid, Ellen S. and Harry T. Reis (1998), “Attraction and Close Relationships,” in The Handbook of Social Psychology, Vol. 2, Daniel T. Gilbert, Susan T. Fiske, and Gardner Lindzey, eds. New York: McGraw-Hill, 193-281.
13.
Bitner, Mary J. (1995), “Building Service Relationships: It’s All About Promises,”Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 23(4), 246-251.
14.
Bloemer, Jose M. M. and Hans D. P. Kasper (1995), “The Complex Relationship between Consumer Satisfaction and Brand Loyalty,”Journal of Economic Psychology, 16, 311-330.
15.
Bolton, Ruth N. and James H. Drew (1991), “A Multistage Model of Customers’ Assessments of Service Quality and Value,”Journal of Consumer Research, 17 (March), 375-384.
16.
Brehm, Sharon S. (1985), Intimate Relationships. New York: Random House.
17.
Buunk, Bram P. (1996), “Affiliation, Attraction and Close Relationships,” in Introduction to Social Psychology, 2nd ed., Miles Hewstone, Wolfgang Stroebe, and Geoffrey M. Stephenson, eds. New York: Blackwell.
18.
Chen, Pei-Yu (Sharon) and Lorin M. Hitt (2002), “Measuring Switching Costs and the Determinants of Customer Retention in Internet-Enabled Businesses: A Study of the Online Brokerage Industry,”Information Systems Research, 13 (3), 255-274.
19.
Chin, Wynne W. (1998), “Issues and Opinion on Structural Equation Modeling,”MIS Quarterly, 22, vii-xvi.
20.
Conway, Joseph C. and Alan M. Rubin (1991),“Psychological Predictors of Television Viewing Motivation,”Communication Research, 18 (4), 443-463.
21.
Cronin, J. Joseph and Steven A. Taylor (1992),“Measuring Service Quality: A Reexamination and Extension,”Journal of Marketing, 56 (July), 55-68.
22.
Doyle, Shaun (2001), “Software Review: Using Short Message Services as a Marketing Tool,”Journal of Database Marketing, 8 (3),273-277.
23.
Fishbein, Martin and Icek Ajzen (1975), Belief, Attitude, Intention and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
24.
Fogelgren-Pedersen, Ann, Kim V. Andersen, and Christian Jelbo (2003), “The Paradox of the Mobile Internet: Acceptance of Gadgets and Rejection of Innovations,”Online Conference Proceeding of the 16th Bled eCommerce Conference (password required). Retrieved from http://www.bledconference.org/bled2003proc/bled2003.pdf, 903-917
25.
Fornell, Claes (1992), “A National Customer Satisfaction Barometer: The Swedish Experience,”Journal of Marketing, 56(January),6-21.
26.
Fornell, Claes, Michael D. Johnson, Eugene W. Anderson, Jaesung Cha, and Barbara E. Bryant (1996), “The American Customer Satisfaction Index: Nature, Purpose, and Findings,”Journal of Marketing, 60 (October), 7-18.
27.
Fournier, Susan (1998),“Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research,”Journal of Consumer Research, 24, 343-373.
28.
Fournier, Susan and Julia L. Yao (1997), “Reviving Brand Loyalty: A Reconceptualization within the Framework of Consumer Brand Relationships,”International Journal of Research in Marketing, 14, 451-472.
29.
Geng, Xianjun, Yun Huang, and Andrew B. Whinston (2003), “Smart Marketplaces: A Step beyond Web Services,”Information Systems and Business Management, 1 (1), 15-34.
30.
Geysken, Inge, Katrijn Gielens, and Marnik G. Dekimpe (2002), “The Market Valuation of Internet Channel Addition,”Journal of Marketing, 66 (April), 102-119.
31.
Hair, Joseph E., Rolph E. Anderson, Ronald L. Tatham, and William C. Black (1998), Multivariate Data Analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
32.
Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten, Kevin P. Gwinner, and Dwayne D. Gremler (2002), “Understanding Relationship Marketing Outcomes: An Integration of Relational Benefits and Relationship Quality,”Journal of Service Research, 4 (3), 230-247.
33.
Johnson, Michael D., Eugene W. Anderson, and Claes Fornell (1995), “Rational and Adaptive Performance Expectations in a Customer Satisfaction Framework,”Journal of Consumer Research, 21 (March), 128-140.
34.
Kannan, P. K., Ai-Mei Chang, and Andrew B. Whinston (2001), “Wireless Commerce: Marketing Issues and Possibilities,” in Proceedings of the 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Maui, Hawaii: IEEE Computer Society, 1-6.
35.
Kleinschmidt, Elko J. and Robert G. Cooper (1991), “The Impact on Product Innovativeness on Performance,”Journal of Product Innovation Management, 8, 240-251.
36.
Kwon, Hyosun S. and Laku Chidambaram (2000), “A Test of the Technology Acceptance Model: The Case of Cellular Telephone Adoption,” in Proceedings of the 33rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Maui, Hawaii: IEEE Computer Society, 1-10.
37.
Lai, Tung L. (2002), “Short Message Service (SMS): The Impact of Service Quality and Perceived Value on Satisfaction, Intention and Usage,” working paper, Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
38.
Leung, Louis and Ran Wei (1998), “The Gratification of Pager Use: Sociability, Information-Seeking, Entertainment, Utility, and Fashion and Status,”Telematics and Informatics, November, 253-264.
39.
Leung, Louis and Ran Wei (2000), “More Than Just Talk on the Move: Uses and Gratifications of the Cellular Phone,”Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 77 (2), 308-320.
40.
Ling, Rich (2001), “It Is In. It Doesn’t Matter If You Need It or Not, Just That You Have It. Fashion and the Domestication of the Mobile Telephone among Teens in Norway,” working paper, Telenor R&D, Oslo, Norway.
41.
Lot21 (2001), The Future of Wireless Marketing. San Francisco and New York: Lot21. Retrieved July 26, 2004, from http://outputlinks.com/content/whitepapers/pdf/Lot21_Wireless.pdf
42.
Mattila, Anna S. (2001), “The Impact of Relationship Type on Customer Loyalty in a Context of Service Failures,”Journal of Service Research, 4 (2), 91-101.
43.
Newel, Frederick and Katherine Newell Lemon (2001), Wireless Rules. New York: McGraw-Hill.
44.
Oliver, Richard L. (1993), “Cognitive, Affective, and Attribute Bases of the Satisfaction Response,”Journal of Consumer Research, 20 (December), 418-430.
45.
Oliver, Richard L. (1997), Satisfaction: A Behavioral Perspective on the Consumer. New York: McGraw-Hill.
46.
Oliver, Richard W., Roland T. Rust, and Sajeev Varki (1998), “Real-Time Marketing,”Marketing Management, 7 (4), 29-37.
47.
Perse, Elizabeth M. (1996),“Sensation Seeking and the Use of Television for Arousal,”Communication Reports, 9 (1), 37-49.
48.
Reichheld, Frederick F. and Phil Schefter (2000), “E-Loyalty: Your Secret Weapon on the Web,”Harvard Business Review, 78(4),105-115.
49.
Riel, Allard C. R., Veronica Liljander, and Petra Jurriëns (2001),“Exploring Consumer Evaluations of E-Services: A Portal Site,”International Journal of Service Industry Management, 14 (4), 359-377.
50.
Rusbult, Caryl E. (1980),“Satisfaction and Commitment in Friendships,”Representative Research in Social Psychology, 11, 96-105.
51.
Rusbult, Caryl E. (1988), “Commitment in Close Relationships: The Investment Model,” in Readings in Social Psychology: Classic and Contemporary Contributions, Letitia A. Peplau, David O. Sears, Shelly E. Taylor, and Jonathan L. Freedman, eds. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
52.
Rusbult, Caryl E., John M. Martz, and Christopher R. Agnew (1998), “The Investment Model Scale: Measuring Commitment Level, Satisfaction Level, Quality of Alternatives, and Investment Size,”Personal Relationships, 5, 357-390.
53.
Rust, Roland T., Chol Lee, and Ernest Valente Jr. (1995), “Comparing Covariance Structure Models: A General Methodology,”International Journal of Research in Marketing, 12, 279-291.
54.
Rust, Roland T., Katherine N. Lemon, and Valarie A. Zeithaml (2004), “Return on Marketing: Using Customer Equity to Focus Marketing Strategy,”Journal of Marketing, 68 (January), 109-127.
55.
Samu, Sridhar, Shranker Krishnan, and Robert E. Smith (1999), “Using Advertising Alliances for New Product Introduction: Interactions between Product Complementarity and Promotional Strategies,”Journal of Marketing, 63 (January), 57-74.
56.
Sheth, Jagdish N. and Atul Parvatiyar (1995), “Relationship Marketing in Consumer Markets: Antecedents and Consequences,”Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 23 (4), 255-271.
57.
Siau, Keng, Ee-Peng Lim, and Zixing Shen (2001), “Mobile Commerce: Promises, Challenges, and Research Agenda,”Journal of Database Management, 14 (3), 4-13.
58.
Sinha, Indrajit (2000), “Cost Transparency: The Net’s Real Threat to Prices and Brands,”Harvard Business Review, 78 (2), 43-50.
59.
Smith, Michael D. and Erik Brynjolfsson (2001), “Consumer Decision-Making at an Internet Shopbot: Brand Still Matters,”Journal of Industrial Economics, 49 (4), 541-558.
60.
Spreng, Richard A., Scott B. MacKenzie, and Richard W. Olshavsky (1996), “A Reexamination of the Determinants of Consumer Satisfaction,”Journal of Marketing, 60 (July), 15-32.
61.
Stern, Barbara B. (1997), “Advertising Intimacy: Relationship Marketing and the Service Consumer,”Journal of Advertising, 19 (4), 7-15.
62.
Stewart, David W. and Paul A. Pavlou (2002), “From Consumer Response to Active Consumer: Measuring the Effectiveness of Interactive Media,”Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 30 (4), 376-396.
63.
Thibaut, John W. and Harold H. Kelley (1959), The Social Psychology of Groups. New York: John Wiley.
64.
Thorbjørnsen, Helge (2002). “Building Brand Relationships Online: The Role of Interactivity, Relationship Motives, and Internet Experience,” doctoral dissertation, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Bergen, Norway.
65.
Thorbjørnsen, Helge, Einar Breivik, and Magne Supphellen (2002), “Consumer-Brand Relationships: A Test of Alternative Models,” in Proceedings of the 2002 AMA Winter Educators Conference, Vol. 13, Kenneth R. Evans and Lisa K. Sheer, eds. Austin, TX: American Marketing Association, 283-285.
66.
Thorbjørnsen, Helge, Magne Supphellen, Herbjørn Nysveen, and Per E. Pedersen (2002), “Building Brand Relationships Online: A Comparison of Two Interactive Applications,”Journal of Interactive Marketing, 16 (3), 17-34.
67.
Tse, David K. and Peter C. Wilton (1988), “Models of Consumer Satisfaction Formation: An Extension,”Journal of Marketing Research, 25 (May), 204-212.
68.
Turban, Efraim, David King, Jae Lee, Merrill Warkentin, and H. Michael Chung (2002), Electronic Commerce: A Managerial Perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
69.
Watson, Richard T., Leyland F. Pitt, Pierre Berthon, and George M. Zinkhan (2002), “U-Commerce: Expanding the Universe of Marketing,”Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 30 (4), 333-347.
70.
“Why Mobile Is Different” (2001), Economist, October 11. Retrieved May 8, 2004, from www.economist.com/surveys
71.
Yi, Youjae (1990), “A Critical Review of Consumer Satisfaction,” in Review of Marketing, Valarie A. Zeithaml, ed. Chicago: American Marketing Association, 68-123.
72.
Yunos, Hassim M. and Jerry Gao (2002), “Wireless Advertising,” Working Paper, Department of Computer Engineering, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA.
