Incentives in Permission Based SMS Advertising Does it (Always) Work? – A Special Case of Mginger

Mobile phone is a ubiquitous phenomenon creating new opportunities for marketers in from of SMS advertising. But intrusiveness of this innovative medium is serious concern, here permission based SMS advertising sounds an effective solution. This study explores the role of incentives in SMS advertising on permission granting by mobile users and type of incentives preferred most by the mobile users. Study further explores the factors leading to growing dissatisfaction among subscribers of mGinger - a permission based SMS advertising model offering cash incentives for receiving SMS ads to its subscribers. For this focus group study and survey methods were used to empirically analyze the data using percentile analysis, ANOVA and T- test. Study makes number of important implications for marketers and mGinger in particular