The Direct Marketing Association released the mobile marketing research. The online survey indicated that text messaging is by far the most often cited mobile marketing method -- accounting for 70 percent of consumer mobile marketing responses - compared to a 41 percent response rate to surveys and a 30 percent response rate for e-mail offers.
Edward T. Manzitti, Ph.D. and vice-president Research & Market Intelligence at the Direct Marketing Association, said, "These findings suggest that mobile marketing will continue growing into a multi-billion dollar industry as more mobile phone users are enticed by falling prices to purchase data plans and broadband enabled devices."
The survey also revealed:
- About one-quarter (24 percent) of those surveyed have responded to a mobile offer;
- One-third of the group that did not respond to any mobile marketing reported that they had never received an offer.
- 71 percent of people who respond to mobile offers have data plans with lack of interest and
cost of airtime cited as the leading reasons by those who haven't responded to mobile offers; - 21 percent of mobile marketing responders indicated that they responded to three or more
offers per month; - Respondents that used AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile were more interested in
mobile marketing incentives than respondents who used Verizon Wireless; - Teens between 15-17 years old (19 percent) and young adults between 21-30 years old (19
percent) are twice as likely to respond to offers on their mobile devices as individuals between
18-20 years old (seven percent); - Single (never married) respondents were the most likely of all groups to respond to mobile
marketing appeals; - Overall, higher-income respondents making more than $60,000 per year were more likely to
respond to mobile offers; - Responders to mobile marketing were typically more tech savvy -- for example, responders
were twice as likely than non-responders to subscribe to Internet-based music subscription services;
Buyers of entertainment/music/video products were the most likely to respond to mobile
offers; and, categories of mobile offers were dominated by entertainment/music/video (44 percent),
followed by:
o Food/beverage (21 percent) and Telecommunications/Mobile (21 percent)
o Beauty/personal care (15 percent),
o Automotive/transportation, business services, consumer electronics, financial services, and vacation/travel each accounted for 12 percent; and,
o Healthcare/pharmaceutical and real estate each accounted for 7 percent of mobile offers.
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The online survey, conducted in March and April, 2008 collected data from 800 mobile phone owners. 157 surveys were completed by respondents between 15-20 years old and the remaining 643 surveys were completed by respondents 21 years old and older.
The report is available for downloading at DMA's Online Bookstore.