Assessing the influence of mobile direct social media advertising on consumer attitudes: a study of Kuwaiti consumers

With the growing number of mobile device users and the rise of engaging social media platforms, the mobile advertising industry is evolving rapidly, presenting marketers with new challenges in reaching customers while maintaining positive attitudes toward advertising. In this paper, we investigated the impact of personalizing advertisements on consumers’ attitudes and intentions toward mobile advertising in Kuwait. Additionally, we explored the influence of other factors, such as informativeness, entertainment, credibility, and irritation, which have been reported to affect consumer attitudes. Our study analyzed a sample of 162 usable questionnaire responses using Partial Least Squares. The analysis was carried out in two steps, first examining the measurement model followed by the structural model. This research reveals that entertainment, informativeness, and personalization are the three most crucial attributes affecting consumer attitudes toward mobile advertising in Kuwait, while credibility and irritation have a less significant impact. Interestingly, our results differ from similar studies in different cultures and geographical locations, as consumers in Kuwait display a relatively positive attitude toward receiving mobile advertising. Furthermore, consumers who perceive advertisements as personalized exhibit more favorable attitudes and intentions toward mobile advertising, finding the ads less irritating and more informative and entertaining. Notably, our study highlights that credibility was not a significant factor influencing consumers’ attitudes in Kuwait. This could indicate that consumers in an open market, similar to Kuwait, may be more receptive to new brands and products, with lower credibility expectations impacting their attitudes.