Mobile marketing influences a third of US shopper to visit certain stores, study finds

As many as a third of US shoppers who have signed up to mobile marketing alerts say that they strongly influence the stores they visit, while as many as 27% say it has also impacted their decision to purchase goods a study commissioned by Placecast and conducted by Harris Interactive has found.

Since the first survey on location-based mobile marketing and advertising in the Summer of 2009, overall consumer interest in such programs increased with ‘somewhat interested’ consumers growing by 2% to 28% of all cell phone owners. As in the first survey, interest is most pronounced among the youngest cell phone owners: 42% of those ages18 – 34 are at least somewhat interested. Interest grew 6 points to 40% among women ages 18 – 34 from the survey conducted in 2009. Interest levels between men and women are now about equal overall.

Groceries (68%), national restaurant chains (64%) and fast food items (50%) took three of the top four most popular segments for those who are at least somewhat receptive to overall opt-in mobile marketing. Women skewed higher than men when it came to interest in offers/promotions for groceries and apparel, while men skewed higher in interest for electronics and sporting goods products.

One data point across all cell phone owners is the importance of texting; considering texting more important than other activities on their mobile phones. An average of 40% of all cell phone owners say that texting is “extremely” or “very important” to them. Even with the buzz of services like Foursquare and Gowalla, only 7% of men showed the same level of interest in these types of social networks, and only 3% of women.

The survey also delved into consumer attitudes about using the location of their phones to trigger opt-in marketing messages. Thirty-seven percent of those who have opted to receive text alerts thought location-based texts could be useful, 29% thought they would be interesting and an equal percentage (24%) thought they could be more relevant and innovative.

“Our findings demonstrate that if done correctly and on an opt-in basis, location-based mobile marketing is resonating with consumers,” says Placecast CEO Alistair Goodman. “I think now that more data is becoming available to retailers, more exciting and valuable programs will be created now that the technology and market receptivity is there.”

The survey forms part of a larger body of research work entitled, “The Alert Shopper” (http://blog.placecast.net) which is focused on understanding consumer attitudes towards mobile marketing messages