Making the relationship mobile: an exploratory study of the impact of mobile marketing on the customer-brand relationship

The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding of how mobile marketing, in particular branded apps, impacts the customer-brand relationship. To gain a holistic comprehension of the phenomenon, the relationship is looked at from both the brand’s and the customer’s viewpoint. In order to fulfill the purpose, a qualitative approach was followed. The empirical data was analyzed through qualitative content analysis and grounded analysis respectively. This thesis it exploratory, thus laying the foundation for future research into the field of mobile marketing and branded apps. The empirical data was collected by employing two different methods. Firstly, the branded apps of the top 50 brands were analyzed. Secondly, two focus groups were carried out. It was found that mobile marketing has empowered the customer. In this process, the communication between customers and brands has turned into a two-way dialogue and permission based marketing, one-to-one marketing, customer engagement and brand advocacy have become the major communication tools employed for building meaningful customer-brand relationships.