MA Strategic Fashion Marketing
MA RESEARCH Abstract Location-based services (LBS) offer immense potential in terms of targeting individual customers based on their preferences and location. The personalized service is opening a whole new chapter in brand communication especially with the meteoric rise of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Packaged as a location-based application (app) for mobile devices, LBS is becoming increasingly ubiquitous and advantageous for customers and companies alike. But, consumer privacy concerns exist which are inhibiting adoption. The purpose of this research is to build a framework to predict factors that influence consumer adoption of location-based apps for fashion brands for a particular personalization system, namely push messages. The framework considers technology acceptance factors, together with information disclosure factors and their combined effect on intention to adopt. To this end, an extensive literature review was conducted to formulate the proposed model for LBS adoption, which was empirically tested through a structured consumer survey and regression equation modeling, supported by focus group interviews to validate results and obtain rich insights. The findings show that among technology acceptance factors perceived enjoyment has a stronger effect on attitude than usefulness and among information disclosure factors, perceived risk outweighs the benefits. Personalisation is seen as a key benefit while overall intention is influenced more by technology factors than privacy issues. Thus suggesting significant implications for brands, developers, service providers and marketers alike. The research makes a significant contribution to existing literature on LBS by enhancing our understanding of adoption factors and also provides a starting point for further research into branded location-based apps or services such as m-commerce through branded apps. About me Economics (Hons) graduate with substantial prior experience (over 8 years) in brand marketing and advertising in international markets (London, Dubai, Delhi). Returned to education to pursue my love of fashion brands, marketing and digital through the MA Strategic Fashion Marketing programme at LCF, to learn new skills and competitively position career within the fashion/digital industry landscape. Email: suket.parihar@gmail.com