An interpretive structural modeling approach to advertisement effectiveness in the Indian mobile phone industry

Purpose: The mobile phone industry in India is highly competitive, fast paced and technology-driven. In such a hyper competitive era, effective advertising is considered a key success driver for a mobile phone brand. The purpose of this paper is to identify advertisement effectiveness dimensions for Indian mobile phone industry and to develop hierarchical interrelationships among these dimensions in the Indian print context. Design/methodology/approach: Structured Delphi approach is used to derive the set of dimensions for advertisement effectiveness. Further, techniques such as interpretive structural modeling and MICMAC analysis are used to establish hierarchical linkages among identified dimensions. Findings: On the basis of experts’ opinion, refinement through structured Delphi resulted in the identification of 14 advertisement effectiveness dimensions specific to Indian mobile phone industry. Interpretive structural modeling assisted in the development of linkages among these identified dimensions based on their interrelations. Further, attention, relevance, excitability, liking and consumer preference, etc., turned out to be the dimensions of utmost importance for measuring advertisement effectiveness for the Indian mobile phone industry. Research limitations/implications: The present research work is limited to the recognition and development of hierarchical interrelationships among advertisement effectiveness dimensions specific to mobile phone business in the Indian print context only. Further studies may be carried out for other product or service category in some different media context. Practical implications: The present research has several significant implications for academics and advertising practitioners involved in designing and developing promotional campaigns for mobile phone brands in India. The identified 14 dimensions and developed hierarchical model provide valuable insights for improving advertisement effectiveness. Originality/value: This paper demonstrated successful implementation of Delphi and interpretive structural modeling technique to explore the research area of advertisement effectiveness.