Adoption, Acceptance and Use of Premium Rate Services (Prss) in Marketing, Publicity and Promotion in Nairobi: a Case Study of Inmobia Mobile Technologies

Abstract

PRS offer content, or a product, platform (for making a payment for goods or services, for participating in lotteries or claiming a prize or for registering a vote or conducting polls), the charges for which are made to a consumer’s phone bill or pre-pay account. After the market for ordinary SMS messages has boomed mobile operators in Kenya and around the world have started introducing a new type of SMS that varies in price compared to what content they contain. Most companies now use PRSs in promotion and marketing their products. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the factors that influence the adoption, acceptance and use of PRSs in marketing, publicity and marketing in Nairobi. To be able to do so a case study of Inmobia Mobile Technologies was chosen. This Company was chosen because it is a registered Telecommunications company with the CCK and it is based in Nairobi. Its subscriber base of 100,000 subscribers in Nairobi also provided a good population to study. The case study was also chosen because it dealt with the three forms of PRSs. Another reason was the accessibility of research materials from this company. Interval/systematic sampling was used to choose 450 subscribers from 100,000 subscriber base list given by the case study. A questionnaire and a thematic table were used to collect data. Data was thereafter analyzed using statistical software. Information was presented using frequency tables, bar graphs and charts. From the findings factors like demographic characteristics (gender, age, education level and income level) do influence the subscriber's intention to adopt and use Premium rate services. Other key factors are perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and transaction cost. This study also looks at the challenges that the PRSs users encounter and how they try to solve these challenges. This study recommends more research on this topic on a population that includes PRSs non-users. The demographic characteristic of men using the PRSs more has been highlighted for further research.