An Exploratory Study of Consumer Attitudes Toward Mobile Coupons in Relationship Marketing

Abstract

Relationship marketing is an important concept in both the contemporary marketing academia and practice. Companies have been searching for the most effective way to talk to their targeted customer segment, and establish sustainable long-term relationship with them. However, the vast majority of the extant literature has only examined this phenomenon at the conceptual level: for example, from the classic foundational piece of Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh (1987) to the recent monograph of Palmetier, (2008), although with one exception of Fournier’s work in 1998, and very little empirical work has been conducted on relational metaphor. With the rapid development and dissemination of mobile technology, many applications of mobile marketing have been gaining popularity among companies. Mobile coupons, in particular, are believed to be appropriate for relationship marketing with its inherent media characteristics, such as easy to carry, access to network 24/7, and emotional bond with customers. The emerging application of mobile coupons provides one possible venue where relationship constructs can be empirically examined. Therefore, the research objectives of this paper are: (1) to gain a better understanding of how companies benefit from mobile couponing campaigns in relationship marketing activities; and (2) to explore consumers’ attitude toward mobile coupons and their concerns with this marketing technique.