SMS Advertising in Tanzania: Factors Affecting Consumer Attitudes

The rapid increase of the use of mobile phones has created a new channel for marketing. The use of Short Messaging Service (SMS) has become more important to access potential customers through their mobile phones. The new advertising platform, which is termed 'mobile advertising', refers to any communication about products, services, and ideas using mobile phones for promotional purposes. This study examines the factors that affect consumer attitudes towards SMS advertising and the relationship between these factors and attitude. The study used a survey of Tanzanian University students who are mobile phones users. The results, conducted on 260 students who are mobile phone users, showed that Informativenss and credibility were found to uniquely, significantly and positively influence the prediction customers attitude towards advertising SMSs (beta=0.227, p=0.000) and (beta= 0.129, p=0.022) respectively while irritating and frequency were found to uniquely, significantly and negatively influence the prediction customers attitude towards advertising SMSs (beta= -0.269, p=0.000) and(beta=0.265, p=0.000).