Value Creation through Smartphones- An Ethnographic Study about Consumer Value and Social Interaction through Smartphones

Abstract

Smartphones are currently conquering the mobile market in an explosive fashion. They have become a part of our everyday lives and increased the availability, frequency and rapidness of our communication with the surrounding world. The increased use of smartphones means that marketers are facing new chal-lenges, with the smartphone as a new marketing channel. In this new marketing environment, it is essen-tial for marketers to understand how consumers use their smartphones, and more specifically how they experience value through smartphones. Through this study, we enhance the knowledge about how con-sumer value is created by social interaction through smartphones. To conceptualize how consumer value can be created through smartphones we have conducted an ethnographic study, consisting of diary writing and in-depth interviews, upon a sample of Swedish consumers described as the most smartphone active. By focusing on acts of social interaction, one of the most important uses of the smartphone, we exemplify how interactivity is motivated and how consumer value is created and experienced through these actions, related to theories of consumer value and con-sumer motivation. We propose a model based on four situations where motivations and consumer values differ and explains behaviors of smartphone activities. Implications towards mobile marketing are reflected upon in the discussion.