Global Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Public Attitudes toward Mobile Advertising in Botswana: An Empirical Study

Alexander N. Ifezue

This study surveyed the opinions of 334 randomly selected cell-phone users in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana, to ascertain their attitudes towards the advertising messages they received through SMS. The results show that the predominant types of messages they received were on the availability of products and services (64.7%), entertainment messages (61.9%) and sports (45.6%). Majority of the respondents (63%) described the SMS–advertising messages received as informative and 59% described the messages as rather irritating. A multivariate logistic regression model reveals that employment status is the only attribute that significantly influences the odds in favour of positive attitude towards mobile advertising messages via SMS. The study recommends that marketers should therefore design (MAMs) that will respond to the broadest number of consumers through reduction or elimination of irritations inherent in SMS-based advertising so as to increase their acceptance.