A New Way of Reaching Customers: An exploration of the differences between mobile and email marketing

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A New Way of Reaching Customers

-‐

An exploration of the differences between mobile and email marketing

Author(s): Oscar Carlsson, 861021

Johan Forshällen, 860224 David Knape, 870710

Tutor: Professor Anders Pehrsson

Examiner: Assistant Professor, Dr. Sarah Philipson

Subject: Marketing, 4FE02E

Level and semester: Masters Programme Degree, Semester 8. 2012-‐05-‐21

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Acknowledgement Växjö 2012-‐05-‐28

The execution of this thesis has been a great challenge with many obstacles along the way. It has also been a learning experience where we had the privilege to immerse in this new and exiting area of marketing and consumer behavior. During our proceeding we have been in contact with a numbers of vital persons with different interesting expertise.

We would like to express our gratitude to Assistant Professor Dr. Sarah Philipson for her mentorship, guidelines and expertise. We would also like to express our best gratitude to our tutor Professor Anders Pehrsson and our opponents who constantly provided us with interesting and important insights and suggestions for improvements.

We would also like to express our gratitude to Relevant Relations Lawyer AB and especially Ola Rynge and Carl Henriksson for their expertise and that they constantly has provided us with vital information, activities and contacts.

Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to the pharmacy Apotek Hjärtat and Mikael Lindell for his expertise within the field. Also, thanks to all respondents who took part of our survey.

____________________ ____________________ ____________________

Oscar Carlsson Johan Forshällen David Knape

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Abstract

Master Thesis 15crd, School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University & Course 4FE02E, Spring 2012 Authors: Carlsson, Oscar 861021

Forshällen, Johan 860224 Knape, David 870710 Tutor: Professor Anders Pehrsson

Examiner: Assistant Professor, Dr. Sarah Philipson

Title: A new way of reaching costumers -‐ An exploration of differences between mobile and e-‐mail marketing

Keywords: Mobile marketing, E-‐mail marketing, Marketing channel evaluation, Consumer behavior.

Background: Since the mid 1990s the usage of mobile phones has been increasing exponentially (Bauer, Barnes, Reichardt and Neumann 2006) and many firms are aware of the upraising potential with mobile marketing. Thus, the impact of mobile marketing is not yet fully exploited and in need of investigation to fully understand its potential. E-‐mail is another marketing channel that is claimed to be decreasing in effectiveness. This thesis explores where these channels stands today.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore differences in advertising response between mobile marketing through applications and electronic mails.

Research question: What differences can be identified in the consumer buying process when exposed to an offer trough the mobile marketing channel compared to the e-‐mail marketing channel?

Method: We have implemented a qualitative and deductive study where we expose one sample for an offer coming from the mobile marketing channel and one sample exposed to an offer coming from the e-‐mail marketing channel. The thesis is of a comparative character and the selection is a non-‐

probability sampling.

Conclusions: Offers coming through the mobile marketing channel are easier to recall, perceived as more attractive and lead to purchase decisions at a higher rate than offers coming from the e-‐mail marketing channel.

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Table of Contents

1. Background ... 7

1.1 Problem Discussion ... 9

1.2 Purpose ... 10

1.3 Research Question ... 10

1.4 Delimitations ... 10

2. Literature Review and analysis model ... 11

2.1 Hierarchy of Effects ... 11

2.2 The Development of Hierarchy of Effects ... 11

2.3 Cognition, Affect and Connotation ... 15

2.3.1 Cognition ... 15

2.3.2 Affect ... 15

2.3.3 Connotation ... 16

2.4 Analysis model ... 16

3. Method ... 18

3.1 Research strategy ... 18

3.1.1 Theory and Research ... 18

3.1.2 Selection of Purpose ... 18

3.1.3 Epistemological Orientation ... 19

3.1.4 Research approach ... 19

3.2 Research Design ... 20

3.2.1 Research Method ... 20

3.2.2 Sample ... 21

3.3 Summary of Our Methodological Choices ... 23

3.4 Operationalization ... 24

3.5 Analyze method ... 25

3.6 Trustworthiness and Authenticity ... 26

3.6.1 Trustworthiness ... 27

3.6.2 Authenticity ... 28

4. Empirical Data ... 29

4.1 Mobile application marketing ... 29

4.2 E-‐mail marketing ... 31

5. Analysis ... 33

5.1 Mobile marketing ... 33

5.1.1 Attention ... 35

5.1.2 Interest ... 35

5.1.3 Desire ... 35

5.1.4 Action ... 35

5.2 E-‐mail ... 36

5.3 A comparison between Application and E-‐mail ... 39

5.3.1 Attention ... 39

5.3.2 Interest ... 40

5.3.3 Desire ... 40

5.3.4 Action ... 41

6. Conclusion ... 42

7. Recommendation for further research ... 43

8. Reflection ... 44

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References ... 45

Electronic references ... 47

Interviews ... 48

Appendix ... 49

Appendix I ... 49

Appendix II ... 51

Appendix III ... 52

Appendix IIII ... 55

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Appendixes

I – Mobile market description II – Complete question form III – Key words e-‐mail IIII – Key words application

Table of Figures

Figure 1, Page 13, Matrix illustration of – Vaughn (1980) in how advertising works.

Figure 2, Page 16, illustration of – by Duncan and Mariarty (1998) A Communication-‐Based Marketing Model for Managing Relationships

Figure 3, Page 17, Own illustration of analysis model Figure 4, Page 22, Own illustration of sampling

Figure 5, Page 23, Own illustration of metrological choices Figure 6, Page 25, analysis method. Philipson (2011) Figure 7, Page 26, analysis method. Philipson (2011) Figure 8, Page 39, Own illustration of buying process

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1. Background

In this introducing chapter a background about the market is presented. This is followed by a problem discussion describing the gap of knowledge within the field of mobile and e-‐mail marketing. The introduction chapter culminates in to a purpose stated in the end of the chapter.

Since the mid 1990s the usage of mobile phones has been increasing exponentially according to Bauer, Barnes, Reichardt and Neumann (2006).

Many leading international brand manufacturers like McDonalds, IBM and Nike have used mobile phones as a mean to convey commercial messages to their customers (Bauer et al. 2006). Taylor, Voelker and Pentina (2011) state that the mobile marketing industry the last two years has grown from almost nothing to a 2 billion dollar marketplace, and the growth is predicted to continue (Dhar and Varshney, 2011; Friedrich, Gröne, Hölbling and Peterson, 2009). Mobile marketing is a new media for communicating with customers and the growth for this media can be explained by that smartphones have become more common, (Friedrich et al, 2009). A smartphone is a cell phone that runs on an operating software system that provides a standardized interface and platform for application developers. In general smartphones have bigger displays and more powerful processors than regular cell phones (Phonescoop, 2012). Taylor (2011) et al. confirm the popularity of smartphones and state that 44% of adult cell phone users in North America are smartphone users, 62% of them download an application within 30 days and 54% of the smartphone users frequently use their smartphones while shopping. These numbers are even higher among users aged 25-‐35.

Dhar and Varshney (2011) state that one of the reasons for the potential of mobile marketing trough smartphones is based on that smartphones today are small; the users carry them most of the time. This allows marketers to get an almost instant access to their target groups. There are different ways of

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wide spread on the Swedish market, according to Rynge (2012). There are many variations offered on the market, Short Message Service (SMS), mobile coupons and smartphone applications are some common ways of communicating trough smartphones (Rynge, 2012). One actor who is at the forefront of mobile marketing in the Swedish market is Relevant Relations Layer. They provide an application called ForMembers. The purpose of this application is that users should be able to collect their different memberships in loyalty programs in one application, enhancing the users control and overview of the memberships. The benefit for firms using ForMembers for their loyalty programs is that they can customize commercial messages and offers to their customers through the use of different attributes in the application (Relevant Relations, 2012).

Relevant Relations and similar firms are aware of the growth potential of phones as a marketing tool. Thus, the impact of mobile marketing is not yet fully exploited and need to be investigated to fully understand the mobile marketing channel and it’s potential. They need to understand how effective the channel is compared to other marketing channels. They need to understand customers’ attitude towards mobile marketing, how the customers use this channel in their buying process and the impact mobile marketing has on brand, sales and store visits. This is in order to decide how they should use mobile marketing in their marketing strategy in a relevant and effective way. See the market description (appendix I) for further reading about the need and development of mobile marketing.

Electronic mail (e-‐mail) is one of the marketing channels that mobile marketing can be compared against. E-‐mail marketing has been researched by e.g Marinova, Murphy and Massey (2002) who state that permission based e-‐mail marketing is more effective than so called spam. Spam is when a large quantity of e-‐mails is sent to targeted groups without permission. The statistics indicates that even permission based e-‐mail marketing is decreasing in effectiveness and a reason for this could be that the targeted group often shield themselves against these messages.

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It is therefore of interest to marketing managers, consultants etc. to know how to use these different channels in their marketing, what implications usage of each channel has and how the response from targeted groups will differ between the channels.

1.1 Problem Discussion

The hierarchy of effects is a widely accepted and dominating theory in the areas of ad testing and market channel evaluation (Grover and Vriens, 2006; Barry 2002). Hierarchy of effects is a theory with numerous sub-‐developments, many evolved around the AIDA model with small variations. AIDA is a theoretical model who explains the process of consumer going from attention of a message to a potential purchase. AIDA includes four different steps, attention, interest, desire and action (Strong, 1925). Related sub-‐developments of AIDA have been empirically validated, but it is reasonable to argue that the empirical validation of the theory is insufficient, which Weilbacher (2001) claims. Hence, further empirical validation of the AIDA theory is needed. Mobile marketing is, in opposition to hierarchy of effects, considered to be a theoretical gap. It’s a relatively new area of research, where there is no emerging or dominating theories. Research about e-‐mail marketing has a longer history than mobile marketing, but there is still no emerging or dominating theory in the field. Both mobile marketing and e-‐mail marketing are in need of further research.

Empirical validations of AIDA within these fields is applicable.

Smutkupt, Krairit and Esichaikul (2010) stress the importance of taking fast moving technology into account when researching new marketing tools. Each new technique within the marketing business has unique characteristics. The various impacts of these new emerging technologies have on customers and branding needs to be investigated for firms to adopt marketing strategies in relevant ways. Today there is a gap in knowledge about consumer behavior as individualized mobile marketing tool. The potential of a tool with such characteristics has not been fully explored. This means that it has to be showed how such tools should be used as a part of marketing (Mirbagheri and Hejazinia, 2010: Smutkupt et al. 2010: Varnali and Aysegül, 2010).

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effects that mobile marketing has on the consumers, marketers will not be able to get positive returns from their programs. Thus, research is needed to measure the results on e.g. store visits and sales, and the effects on consumer behavior and brand perception. Several approaches and areas need to be sourced. Fundamental to understanding ought to be the effects on the consumers buying process, when exposed to mobile marketing in smartphones. Another tool within marketing is e-‐mail. Marinova, Murphy and Massey (2002) state that e-‐mail exploded in popularity as a marketing tool in the late 90´s but has since been decreasing in efficiently. They state that more research is needed within e-‐mail marketing and the questions whether mobile marketing is becoming more efficient as a marketing tool than the more traditional e-‐mail marketing remains. The problem within the research area can be summarized as a lack of knowledge within the mobile and e-‐mail marketing channels. Which channel is more efficient, within which segments and how are different segments reacting to ad-‐exposure from these channels.

1.2 Purpose

The purpose of this thesis is to explore differences in advertising response between mobile marketing through applications and electronic mails.

1.3 Research Question

What differences can be identified in the consumer buying process when exposed to an offer through the mobile marketing channel compared to the e-‐

mail marketing channel?

1.4 Delimitations

This thesis is delimited to two marketing channels, mobile marketing and e-‐

mail. The time of advertising exposure against the consumer is also delimited.

The geographical aspect is delimited to Växjö, Sweden. The final delimitation is the business, where the thesis only is exploring the pharmaceutical business, the thesis therefore particularly explores their segments. The common reasons for these delimitations are time restrictions.

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2. Literature Review and analysis model

This chapter contains a review of the hierarchy of effects. Further on the chapter contains subjects involved in the hierarchy of effects such as the AIDA model, cognition, affect and connotation. Further is the state of the art, which describes where the current research within the field is today. Then the chapter ends with an analysis model showing what’s being analyzed.

2.1 Hierarchy of Effects

Advertising research grew dramatically in the 1950´s when television was introduced as a media. In the 1980´s the focus became more on measuring sales promotion. One common theory within ad-‐testing is hierarchy of effects.

It is a linear theory that presumes that the consumers must go through a rational and sequential series of steps that ends up in e.g. a buying decision (Grover and Vriens 2006).

A review of the advertising and marketing literature leads to the conclusion that there are several different models of hierarchy of effects that have been developed over time. The development of the hierarchy of effect models has, according to Barry (1987), gone trough three phases; “early development”,

“modern development” and “challenge & defense”.

2.2 The Development of Hierarchy of Effects

The very first hierarchy of effects model was developed in 1898 and was then a theoretical framework where Strong (1925) described how salespeople had to attract attention, maintain interest and create desire to be successful.

Shortly afterwards, “get action” was added and the model was to be known as AIDA. The model is one of the models most referred to, when it comes to advertising, personal selling and how people respond to sales and advertising presentations. The early development started in 1898 and ended in 1959, and various models of AIDA were released during this time. Common for these models is that they all were descriptive representation based on intuition and logic. There was no empirical analysis of any of these models at this point in

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are the foundation of the discussion of hierarchies during the modern development phase (Barry, 1987).

In the 1960’s human psychology became a bigger focus in the research about the hierarchy of effects. Lavidge and Steiner (1961) was one of the first to connect the human psychological aspects of cognition, affect and connotation to the hierarchy of effects. Their view on the hierarchy of effects was as follows:

AIDA component Lavidge and Steiner, 1961 Behavioral Attention Awareness and knowledge Cognition Interest & Desire Liking and preference Affect Action Conviction and purchase Connotation

These different behavioral components all reflect different dimensions of human behavior. The first, cognitive, are rational and intellectual states.

Affect refers to feelings and emotional states. Connotations are behavioral states, the striving, a constant tendency to treat objects as positive or negative goals and it is in this phase where a buying decision is made.

(Lavidge and Steiner, 1961)

In the same period another recognized hierarchy of effects model was released by Frankel (1964). The name of the model is “Defining advertising goals for measured advertising results” (DAGMAR) and the main aim is to simplify the measurement of advertisement campaigns. The main idea with DAGMAR is to define advertising goals and measure after these goals and not specifically after the sales being made. This is since there are a lot of other relevant factors that comes as a result from marketing other than sales. New communication objectives that are more concrete, easier to measure and based on a hierarchy of effects are promoted in DAGMAR. The results are a more precise way of measuring than then direct sales results to determine

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the relevance and effectiveness of the advertising campaign according to Frankel (1964).

In the 1970´s and 80´s new models and alternative orders of the traditional hierarchy of effects started to show up. There were numerous theories and models introduced, but the most influential was the grid model presented by Vaughn in 1980 (Barry, 1987). Vaughn (1980) state that advertising works but that the issue is to define how it works. To make the picture clearer Vaughn (1980) presents a matrix based on thinking, feeling, high involvement and low involvement, suggesting that the route of persuasion is altered depending on the involvement of the product and the characteristics of the consumer. Below is Vaughn’s (1980) model with explanations.

Thinking Feeling High

involvement

Low

involvement

Figure 1, Matrix illustration of – Vaughn (1980) in how advertising works.

Quadrant 1 – Informative/Thinker -‐ Hierarchy of effect: Learn, Feel, Do  Example: Car, House and Furnishing

Quadrant 2 –Affective/Feeler – Hierarchy of effect: Feel, Learn, Do  Example: Jewelry and Fashion

Quadrant 3 – Habit Formation/Doer -‐ Hierarchy of effect: Do, Learn, Feel Example: Household Items

Quadrant 4 – Self-‐satisfaction/Reactor -‐ Hierarchy of effect: Do, Feel, Learn  Example: Liquor, Cigarettes and Candy

Quadrant 1 Quadrant 2

Quadrant 3 Quadrant 4

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The type of products that are in each quadrant is not fixed; different individuals are more or less involved in different products and it changes over their life.

Later, Petty and Caccioppo (1986) described the elaboration likelihood model (ELM). A model which suggest that attitudes change through either the central route of persuasion or the peripheral route. The central route is used to evaluate high involvement products. The route of persuasion consists of logical argumentation. The peripheral route is used when evaluating low involvement product and consist of what the user finds visually attractive. Goldenberg, Mazursky, and Solomon (1999) delve into the area of advertising and state that ads using creative templates were more likely to be recalled. The different aspect within the hierarchy of effects is a heavily researched area. Smith, Chen and Yang (2008) state that its clear that different authors historically have had different views and opinions regarding the different steps of the hierarchy of effects, but it has always been generalized as a sequence going from cognition (attention), to affect (attitude) and to end in connotation (purchase). The connection between social psychological concepts and AIDA are fuzzy, but could be illustrated as follows:

AIDA Concept E.g.

Attention Cognition Ad exposure Interest Cognition & Affect Interest in product

Desire Affect A whish to buy the product Action Connotation Buying of the product

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2.3 Cognition, Affect and Connotation

The hierarchy of effects is strongly rooted in the psychological concepts of cognition, affect and connotation. It is therefore important to understand the interaction between these concepts and their relevance to the hierarchy of effects (Barry, 1987).

2.3.1 Cognition

Cognition is fundamental in advertising; it is the mental processing that occurs when people are exposed to information. The impact of advertising on the cognitive component in the hierarchy has been studied extensively.

Recognition and recall are both elements of cognition. Recognition is when e.g. a brand is recognized when the consumer is exposed to it. Recall is when e.g. a consumer can recall a brand without any recent exposure to it. Studies show for example that the ability to recall an advertisement is enhanced if the customer is exposed to it more often. Recall together with comprehension are proven to be important factors when moving down the hierarchy of effects (Barry, 1987).

2.3.2 Affect

Affect has for a long time been a stepchild to cognition in understanding consumer behavior. It is generally accepted that affect consists mostly of attitudes (Barry, 1987). An attitude is “a relatively enduring organization of beliefs about an object or situation, predisposing one to respond in some preferential manner” (Rokeach, 1966:530). Myers, Abell, Kolstad and Sani (2010) describe attitude as a reaction towards something or someone, rooted in one´s beliefs and exhibited in one´s feeling and means to act. The authors’

also state that attitudes are the most important area of social psychology, because attitudes may answer the question: Why do people do what they do?

An assumption is that our private beliefs and feelings determine our public behavior. Myers et al. (2010) means that if we want to change people’s behavior, we need to change their attitudes.

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For a long time marketers and advertisers have sought to show the relationship between attitudes and buying behavior (Barry, 1987). Assael and Day (1968) concluded that the affective components of the hierarchy of effects are more powerful in explaining market share variance than either the cognition or the connotation components.

2.3.3 Connotation

Gelb, Hong and Zinkhan (1985) state that connotative outcomes can be influential and persuasive. It affects the respondents stated intention to buy the advertised brand. Barry (1987) describes two schools of conative response measure. One who promotes audience tendency to change attitude and reevaluate a brand image. The other school means that the purpose of advertising is to promote sales and that is what should be measured. This means that connotation can be measured in purchase decisions such as sales and profits, but another aspect is the mental process when taking the purchase decisions, if it is an impulse or a volitional act (Barry, 1987).

2.4 Analysis model

A classical marketing communication models is described by Duncan and Mariarty (1998) and can be illustrated as follows:

Figure 2, illustration of A Communication-‐Based Marketing Model for Managing Relationships – Duncan and Mariarty (1998)

Source -‐ Is where the message origins from.

Message -‐ The content of what being send.

Channel -‐ How the message is being send.

Noise -‐ Distractions who affect the perception of the message.

Receiver – One who perceive the message

Source Message Channel Noise Receiver

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The problem investigated in this thesis is to see how different channels can affect the response of the receiver. This illustrated in following analysis model. Noise is taken out from this model because it is not measured or taken into account when analyzing.

Figure 3, Own illustration of analysis model Source – Origin of message

Message – A special offer

Chanel – 1) Mobile marketing channel and 2) E-‐mail marketing channel Receiver – One who perceive the message

Response – How far the receiver follows trough the AIDA model.

Source Message

Mobile Marketing

Channel Receiver

response E-‐mail marketing

channel

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3. Method

This chapter gives the opportunity to take part of and assess the reasoning and thinking that characterized the development of the thesis. Describing the whole research design contains parts like research strategy, research design, operationalization, analysis model, trustworthiness and authenticity.

3.1 Research strategy 3.1.1 Theory and Research

Deduction means that the researcher first review the theories within the field, which they then are testing empirically. On a deeper level deduction is about theory evaluation. The researcher concludes a set of hypotheses that is based on the existing knowledge within the research area. These hypotheses are then empirically evaluated. Bryman and Bell (2005) conclude that a qualitative research often is inductive, but can also be considered as deductive if the researcher tries a theory instead of generating new theories.

This study has a deductive approach since the questions are founded in the theoretical AIDA model, which we are testing empirically.

The procedure of the study is as follows. The purpose with this study is to explore the difference in advertising response between mobile marketing trough applications and electronic mails. The theoretical foundation for the thesis is the hierarchy of effects. AIDA is considered as the most appropriate for the thesis within the hierarchy of effects. From these theory questions are formulated for the empirical investigation. The empirical data was then gathered through telephone interviews. The empirical data was then analyzed according to a set procedure developed by Philipson (2011).

3.1.2 Selection of Purpose

The choice of purpose should be based on the level of knowledge that already exists within the research area. Explorative purpose is used when the knowledge within the area is low and the research phenomena needs to bee understood to build further research (Wallén 1996). Mobile marketing and e-‐

mail marketing is classified as a theoretical gap and the knowledge within the

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areas is considered as low. The purpose should therefore be explorative in order to create an understanding for the area.

3.1.3 Epistemological Orientation

The epistemological positions for this study is interpretation-‐oriented because the study seeks to understand instead of explain. Bryman and Bell (2005) state that an interpretation-‐oriented position includes empirical understanding of human action more than the external factors affecting the behavior. In this study we tried to understand the difference in the consumer behavior by looking and comparing two marketing channels. The study thereby becomes more interpretative than explaining because we try to understand the marketing channels affect on the human consumer behavior instead of explaining the results.

By taking an interpretative position we are obtaining the opportunity to understand how the respondents go through the four stages of AIDA in each channel. We are also gaining the opportunity to get an enhanced understanding about how the consumers reason when exposed to the mobile marketing channel and e-‐mail channel.

3.1.4 Research approach

In this study the qualitative approach is of choice. Qualitative approach focuses on gaining deepness in the study by focusing on words and social context. Qualitative approaches tend to be inductive, to be used as generation of new theories, but there are numerous examples when qualitative approaches are used as method to test an existing theory. Qualitative methods focus on understanding of the social reality and how the context is interpreted (Bryman and Bell 2005). In this study a qualitative method is used to explore and understand the differences between two marketing channels by using an established theoretical model. We chose to do a qualitative study because there was a risk that the number of respondents would be too small in a quantitative study. We also wanted to have the respondents own words about how they react on the different marketing channels.

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3.2 Research Design

This study is done with a comparative design since we applied two identical methods on two different cases. The two cases in this thesis are the mobile marketing channel and e-‐mail marketing channel. Bryman and Bell (2005) conclude that we can create a more comprehensive and evolved understanding for a subject if comparing it to its opposite. The channel of interest in this thesis is mobile marketing and it is compared against e-‐mail because of availability and cost effective reasons. There are several different units who can be the object of the analysis. In this thesis individuals are the targeted for analysis.

Bryman and Bell (2005) criticize comparative studies by stating that they can create a tendency among the researchers to devote less attention to the specific context and instead focus on how the different cases can be put against each other. This phenomena is avoided in this thesis by first analysing the different cases separately in order to put larger emphasis on the context and then compare the channels against each other.

3.2.1 Research Method

Qualitative interview is a term often used to describe the type of interviews used in qualitative research. These interviews are a type of primary data and are often less structured. In the semi-‐structured interviews the interviewer has a list of open questions. The semi-‐structured interviews are in this case preferred because there are several researchers involved in the empirical investigation and semi-‐structured interviews facilitates when creating a comparable structure. A more strict structure is also preferred in this study because the research has a more clear focus on a specific research area and because the analyze method is decided upon before the empirical investigation was made. The semi-‐structured interviews were held trough telephone because it was considered as cheap and time efficient compared to other channels.

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3.2.2 Sample

A population consists of all units available for the sample (Bryman and Bell, 2005). Our population for this study is the number of smartphone users in Sweden. This number is estimated to 5.17 million people (Impera, 2012). All of them are able to utilize an offer trough their phones.

Sampling frame are for a research all units from which the respondents in the population are chosen from (Bryman and Bell, 2005). The sampling frame in this thesis was members of the pharmacy Apotek Hjärtat in Växjö, who had their e-‐

mail registered at the pharmacies customer club when the research was made.

This sampling frame is a non-‐probability sampling and the type is a convenience sample. According to Bryman and Bell (2005) a convenience sample consist of persons who are currently available to the researcher. Convenient sample is ideal for pilot studies (Bryman and Bell, 2005). The reason why our study has a convenience sample is because that the study only measure from the sampling frame that is available (All the members of the pharmacy Apotek Hjärtat in Växjö who had their e-‐mail registered at the customer club when the research was made).

Within the sampling frame the study had a stratified probability sample. Bryman and Bell (2005) state that a stratified probability sample is segmented by certain criteria’s. In this study the criteria’s were the marketing channels; mobile marketing and e-‐mail. The first stratum is X, which are the ones who had downloaded the mobile application offered by the company Relevant Relations Layer and received an offer from the pharmacy Apotek Hjärtat. The rest of the sampling frame where Y, the ones who received an offer by e-‐mail from the customer club. From these stratums a simple random sample was made. The effect was that all units had the same chance to become a part of a stratum, but the respondent who was a part of the mobile marketing stratum had a bigger chance of becoming part of the stratified probability sample. This is because the mobile marketing stratum was smaller. The sampling is illustrated in following model:

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Figure 4, Own illustration of sampling

Sample Stratum Sampling Frame

Population

5.17 million units.

Smartphone users in Sweden

3300 units All units who have an e-‐mail account connected to Klubb

Hjärtat

Group X (21 units) All uniits who received an offer from Apotek Hjärtat trough their smartphone

10 Units

Group Y (3300 units) All units who received an offer from Apotek Hjärtat by

e-‐mail

10 Units

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3.3 Summary of Our Methodological Choices

Following models illustrates the methodological choices

Scientific Approach Deductive

Selection of Purpose

Explorative

Epistemological Orientation

Interpretation-‐oriented

Research strategy Qualitative

Research Design Comparative

Research Method

Semi-‐structured interviews

Sample

Non Probability sampling

Data Collection Primary Data

Figure 5, Own illustration of metrological choices

.

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3.4 Operationalization

Below is the operationalization. It’s a matrix where the questions used in the gathering of the empirical data are connected to the theoretical framework. The matrix does also describe what’s being measured.

Question Connection to

theory

Concept What is measured and how

Q1 Have you received an offer from Apotek Hjärtat recently?

2.3.1 Cognition.

Barry (1987).

B

Attention Measures if the

respondent has received any offer from Apotek Hjärtat.

Q2 How did you receive the offer?

2.3.1 Cognition.

(Barry 1987).

Attention Measures what channel the respondent received the offer from.

Q3 How did you react when noticing the offer?

2.3.2  Affect (Rokeach, 1966: Myers, et al 2010:

Barry 1987:

Assael and Day 1968)

Interest Measures reaction on marketing channel.

Q4 Can you describe this offer?

2.3.2 Affect (Rokeach, 1966: Myers, et al 2010:

Barry 1987:

Interest Measure recall of the offer.

Q5 What where your thoughts of getting the offer trough

application/e-‐

mail

2.3.2 Affect (Rokeach, 1966: Myers, et al 2010:

Barry 1987:

Desire Measure attitude towards marketing channel.

Q6 How did you feel when you

2.3.2 Affect (Rokeach,

Desire Measure attitude towards offer and marketing

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read the offer? 1966: Myers, et al 2010:

Barry 1987:

channel.

Q7 Did you take part of the offer?

2.3.3 Connotati on

(Gelb et al 1985: Barry 1987)

Action Measure purchase

decision.

Q8 Why did/didn’t you take part of the offer?

2.3.3 Connotati on

(Gelb et al 1985: Barry 1987)

Action Measures attitude

towards purchase decision

3.5 Analyze method

The qualitative analysis will follow the structure presented by Philipson (2011). The first step of analyzing is to present the whole answer from all respondents in a matrix. From here keywords were marked out and sorted into subcategories under the questions and color marked. When the respondent could not answer on the question it resulted in that a color mark was not made. This is illustrated in figure 6

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From here the keywords were removed and the respondents were re-‐arranged in order for patterns to appear clearer (figure 7). Differences and similarities in the marketing channels could then be identified and compared backwards through the operationalization against the theoretical concepts.

Figure 7, analysis method. Philipson (2011)

3.6 Trustworthiness and Authenticity

Bryman and Bell (2005) claims that reliability and validity are quality measurement strongly connected to the quantitative research methods.

There has been a discussion around these subjects and how valid they are for qualitative researches. One result of these discussions is the two terms advocated by many researchers; trustworthiness and authenticity. These are based on reliability and validity but adopted to qualitative research. The reason that the trustworthiness assessed in a qualitative study is considered is because there is more than one image of the social reality and therefore the authors can interpret their material in different ways. The authenticity is according to Bryman and Bell (2005) considered in order ensuring the way in which the surveys results provide a true picture of the respondents’ views, perceptions and the understanding that has been created among the survey process.

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3.6.1 Trustworthiness

The trustworthiness is composed in four sub-‐criteria’s:

Credibility

Bryman and Bell (2005) argues that the credibility indicates how acceptable the study is from another one’s angel. The thesis findings and results are reliable if it is carried out in accordance with existing rules and if the results are confirmed with the people who are part of the social reality that is studied. This in order to confirm that the research understands the reality and their answers properly and manner. To create a high credibility in our thesis our results was handed out to the people interviewed with the aim to get a confirmation that the description we convey is accurate.

Transferability

Bryman and Bell (2005) argues that the transferability indicates how transferable the results from the study can be into a different environment.

They further claim that it is important that the survey process is in need to be proper and detailed so that another could do the exactly same research. We have in this thesis clearly explained and showed all our steps in detail so that the study is replicable in order to make it transferable.

Dependability

Bryman and Bell (2005) claims that the dependability is an auditing angle of seeing the thesis. It means ensuring that a full and accessible explanation of all phases is reviewed. It should be reviewed by colleagues or other for the thesis relevant reviewers both during the research and in the end of it. These persons should judge the quality of the procedures chosen for the research and how they are applied. We ensure this by clearly presenting all phases of the research process in seminars and presentations, we do also have external people, different opponent teams, who review our work and judge the quality of the procedures selected and how they applied.

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