Filipino Millennials Motivational Behavior Toward Mobile Service Providers and Its Brand Advertising

This descriptive-correlational study which involved survey among 278 participants and investigated how Filipino millennials think, feel, and behave toward mobile service providers’ brand image and advertising initiatives. Filipino millennials believe that advertising can influence their brand preference and choice. Aside from the satisfaction of network coverage and quality, this generation strongly believes that advertising can influence the loyalty of subscribers. Overall, the respondents are satisfied with the current mobile service providers’ advertising initiatives and information dissemination and believe that the mobile service provider advertising initiatives can influence the loyalty as customers. There is a significant difference among the Filipino millennials’ overall perspectives on advertising initiatives of mobile service providers (0.851<). There is also a strong positive relationship among the factors influencing Filipino millennials’ choice of mobile service provider and the psychographic profiles (=.65). Furthermore, there is a moderate positive relationship between mobile service providers’ advertising initiatives and millennials’ brand preference and choice (=.36) Similarly, moderate positive relationships are obtained on the mobile service providers’ advertising initiatives and millennials’ motivation to continue using the products (=.32) and the mobile service providers’ advertising initiatives and millennials’ loyalty to the brand (=.3). In an industry where products and services are intangible in nature and with customers who are highly demanding, telecommunication companies should give consideration and effort in understanding the evolving needs and desires of their customers which can be applied in the form of usage, acquisition, up-sell, and cross-sell components.


Introduction
The concept of quality nowadays has gained traction in corporate management all around the world. In a globalized economy, internationalized markets, and severe competition, customer demand for quality has become increasingly sophisticated. In this regard, business survival and prosperity will rely more than ever on their capacity to detect consumer expectations, establish the internal causes of customer unhappiness, and ensure enhanced quality in order to supply services that match those needs. Quality is a broad concept that encompasses all services, goods, raw materials, and manufactured things (Rahmoun, 2020).
Due to continuous innovations and major technological developments, global telecommunications market transitioned into an industry which involves sharing and digital economy. The telecommunications industry is shaping one's lifestyle and behavior toward society, culture and environment. While the telecom industry undergoes continuous innovation to mold the behavior in dealing with everything -socially, culturally, and environmentally, business organizations are dependent to this industry because millennials are influenced by innovation and media. Among them are France Telecom, Vodafone, MTN, Bharti Airtel, Econet Wireless, and Millicom (Chapeyama, 2017). Developments and growth in the telecommunications industry have also had an impact on the economy of a nation (Sharif, 2016;Musingrimi et al., 2020), and the telecommunications business has also become vital for the development of the agriculture sector, education, manufacturing, and banking industries.
The Philippines recognizes that the importance of millennials have largest portion of the population (36%) in contrast to baby boomers or 50-64 years old age group (12%.).
Millennials also make up 75% of the workforce (Olivan, 2016) and expected to gain consumption due to their influence in the household (Nielsen, 2015). These are a complex group of individuals, but clearly make mark even though portrayed negatively in various circumstance. The generation intents on pushing the envelope and going beyond the box which provides a clear perception on the positive spectrum (Lim, 2015).
Understanding the consumers is key to business success. Dealing and conversing with Filipino millennials are more complicated than ever due to their very emotional and apprehensive attitude. In order to connect with Filipino Millennials, it is vital to get to know them than just simply the "selfie generation" (Ramos, 2015). The availability of devices feeds into the desire of Millennials to be the "first to know" (Adobo Magazine. 2015;Nielsen, 2015). Thus, one challenge for marketers, retailers, and advertisers is the idea that millennials have a keen observation on prices and promotions, which everybody expects that this generation to be the same online and offline experiences (Accenture, 2015). In addition, there are numerous promotional activities and severe rivalry in the telecommunications market, where subscribers can easily transfer network providers (Nhundu 2017). As a result, switching network providers is less expensive and easier, and subscribers can keep their mobile phone numbers while switching service providers. Thus, this paper presents a conceptual argument and model for managing mobile telecommunications subscribers, particularly their switching behavior, by conducting a thorough theoretical investigation of the literature on customer satisfaction, loyalty, and switching behavior and proposing some kind of relationship between the aforementioned constructs.

Millennials
Millennials are those born from 1980 to 1993, but some would include those born until 2000 (Rappler, 2015;Frey, 2018). Millennials are the people who want to live now, to experience many things and always aspire for something new to fulfill their wants and needs.
Due to its lifestyle, this is generation tagged as "YOLO" (You Only Live Once); it symbolizes that there is no such thing as permanent, every choice whether big or small will affect one's life (Levin, 2015;Leblanc & Gensler, 2018). The Majority of millennials have careers, with some raising their own kids, some living their own homes and some living with their parents; and because of their influential power, their spending habits will surely increase by 2020 (Accenture, 2016). Despite being the children of Baby Boomers and some in early Gen X, this generation grew up in optimism and economic prosperity and treated to be the most distinct group in history (Turner.com, 2016). This generation has been shaped by both the technological advancement and economic recession. These young professionals are said to be living in cloud storages, owning various gadgets from mobile and smart phones, laptop, │ 35 PC/Desktop, and tablet; and wanted a more flexible working conditions across different categories (ZenithOptimedia, 2015).
Given its increasing population, this generation is by far the largest group. Like other communities, millennials can be segmented into specific subgroups based on cause marketing, general outlook on life, and technology. These segments include Hip-ennial, Old-School Millennial, Gadget Guru, Clean and Green Millennial, Millennial Mom, and Anti-Millennial:  As more organizations face the issue of merging the newest working age with older colleagues, the work environment may suffer productivity challenges if changes to accommodate employees with differing attitudes and expectations are not made (Stewart, Oliver, Cravens, & Oishi, 2017). Similarly, marketing has taken their steps to the next level as millennials are not easily influenced at all by marketing and advertising. Only 1% from the millennial surveyed said that a compelling advertisement would encourage them to trust a brand or product because they believe that advertising is just a spin, and not organic nor authentic, hence they use to skip commercials from different platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and various sites (Dan Schawbel as cited in Forbes Online Magazine, 2015).
When it comes to this generation, they simply want to be more involved with the product development; their opinions must be heard by brands and organizations. From a media consumption standpoint, this generation is the biggest users of the digital media from mobile and smartphones, tablets, and PC/Desktops. Millennial consumers want a sincere and honest communication with every brand they love and they are looking for brands to value their relationship (Trautman, 2015).
Millennials have a strong preference for renting in cities or towns. When people decide to buy homes in downtown areas, they more closely resemble previous generations.
The increasing number of millennials purchasing single-family homes in suburban areas is a good example of this phenomenon. According to NAR (2018), the share of millennials who bought in urban or central city areas decreased from 21 percent in 2015 to 15 percent in 2017. In 2017, approximately 57 percent of millennials who bought homes chose suburban areas, which was more than three times the figure for urban areas (NAR, 2018;Leblanc & Gensler, 2018). Today's youth can be defined as a culturally "atomized" generation (Salasuo & Poikolainen, 2016).

2.2.Consumer Behavior
Industry 4.0 has transformed ordinary machines into intelligent systems capable of sensing and collecting necessary inputs without the need for human intervention, resulting in significantly improved overall performance. Industry 4.0 has enabled real-time data monitoring, allowing sellers to adjust prices and output in response to changes in a variety of factors (Vaidya et al. 2018). Until the 1960s, economic models and consumer behavior theories were based on the assumption of rationality. It was assumed that consumers were always rational in their purchases and thus purchased products that provided them with the greatest level of satisfaction (Le & Liaw, 2017). Consuming refers to the ways, which people acquire and use the products they buy; the process includes when the product is consumed and how the product is disposed. Consumer behavior has its own high advantage since it represents dynamic features and emphasizes many factors in determining the intended action of the consumer. This assumes that a strategy that worked in the past may not work or function in the future because strategy needs a constant review and that the world is in a constant change. The desire for successful and agile business plans fueled the development of business intelligence, which was aided by the internet of things and big data within organizations. This enabled businesses to obtain useful customer information, allowing for efficient decision-making through the identification of opportunities and threats, particularly by monitoring customers, suppliers, and competitors in real-time (Oláh et al. 2018).
Since the beginning of the 21st century, consumer behavior has been a major focus of market research. Consumer behavior and attitudes toward various brands, offers, sellers, and business strategies have been the focus of most studies (Mokrysz 2016). For instance, users typically search the Internet for information before purchasing goods or services for possible variations. Jun and Park (2016) investigated the relationship between purchase and search activity and behavior which showed that "search traffic can be a significant predictor of purchases, depending on both price and frequency of purchases" for non-durable goods.

2.3.Telecommunications Industry
Like any other categories of food, drinks, beverages, and apparel, the telecommunication industry became more complex due to the consumer's lifestyle.
Telecommunication sector is composed by networks, telephone, internet-linked PC's, and mobile phones that touches each and every one of us. It permits all of us to share and speak our thoughts via new technology and do business with nearly anyone around the world (Beers, 2021). In recent decades, the telecom industry has been under vast deregulation, innovation and witnessed dramatic growth in number of subscribers, network in size, and number of operators. In majority of the countries around the globe, this industry is already facing a plethora of new competitors. Traditional or old paradigm markets have tremendously experiencing growth and decline as internet is about to replace the voice system. Telephone calls were considered to generate revenues for companies, but this paradigm is changing quickly due to technological advancement. Telecom business is not just about voice, but it integrates already to text and image exchanges. Another important component is the high-speed internet accessibility to all, which delivers data applications and enable consumers to interact with others on a real time basis (Ranger, 2020). It is considered that residential and small business markets are the toughest. With the penetration of both the market players and products, each business owner is heavily dependent on price. Thus, the corporate market remains the industry's favorite. In another perspective, customers from the corporate accounts most likely concerned with the quality and reliability of the network. Big corporations both local and international, invest heavily on telecom infrastructure to provide a seamless experience to its customers (Twin, 2021). It is projected that telecommunication firms around the globe will post a higher growth year on year. This growth will be driven by cloud computing, mobile broadband, and big data management that will ensure the growth of firms to generate more revenue (Rogers, 2015). The industry predicts, even more, a vital growth in the future expanding business in terms of broadband network infrastructure, ranging from smartphones to the all-new-fiber connections from home to cities. According to Galla (2016), the Philippines telecom industry is currently heavily dominated by mobile communication, with players shifting their focus away from legacy telecoms such as voice and short messaging and toward data services and internet connectivity. To the extent that data is available, the discussion is further subdivided into prepaid and postpaid markets. The market cannot be divided into retail and wholesale due to the volume of data disclosed by Telcos. Finally, the market's geographic scope is national.
A Congressional franchise is required for a service provider, which is unique to the Philippines. Apart from the lengthy and time-consuming process of obtaining a franchise from Congress, licenses and permits to operate from the regulator, various national government agencies, and local governments can be seen as a deterrent to new entrants (Mirandilla-Santos, 2016). The availability of spectrum may be the most significant single barrier to entry at the moment. The PLDT and Globe purchases of SMC's telecom assets for PhP 69.1 billion leave less than a quarter of spectrum available for a third entrant; Globe claims this is sufficient to enable a future telecom player (Genio, 2016). This transaction was the subject of a legal battle between PLDT and Globe versus the PCC; in mid-October 2017, the Court of Appeals (CA) ruled that the acquisition was approved by operation of law and should be recognized by the PCC (Torres-Tupas, 2017). On the marketing side, this could take the form of customer product/contract lock-in, promotions that effectively temporarily lower prices, or an increase in advertising intensity; telcos' advertising expenditures are among the highest (Nielsen, 2016).

Methodology
This study used a mixed-method descriptive research design. This study aims to determine and describe the Filipino millennials, their general outlook on life, their lifestyle, values goals, traits, and attitudes, what psychological processes and motivational features behind Filipino millennials interactions, with their selected mobile service provider and toward its brand advertising initiatives; the Filipino millennials desire in their mobile service provider's brand television and social media advertisement and how crucial is the role of mobile brand advertising in motivating subscribers for their continuous usage of the product.
The respondents were asked about their thoughts, emotions, and intended behavior toward their current relationship as customer with their mobile service provider and its brand advertising. Given that most humans process visual information (pictures) faster than verbal information (text and words) (Harper, 2002), photo elicitation of four popular ads of Globe and Smart was used to assist in data gathering or to trigger a reaction from respondents.
Photos are symbols with meanings people must explain or document to others. Four advertisements of the following telecommunication brands were utilized in measuring the respondent's psychological constructs specifically the AIDA (awareness, interest, desire, and action) measurement toward brand TV and social media video materials, and in discovering Weighted means, standard deviations, frequency and percentage were computed.
ANOVA was used to determine the significant differences among the responses. Phi square contingency coefficient () was also computed to establish the relationships and associations between and among variables like millennials perceptions, impact of brand image/ advertisement, consumer behavior, gender and age group.   In selecting their mobile service provider, this generation looks for the network quality, which can give them a 100% seamless performance in terms of internet connection and efficiency in operation use. Except for the clean and green millennials, they chose data services offer, which include options such as the capacity of internet that will fit their budget and lifestyle compared to network quality.  The majority of the respondents (62.23%) are prepaid users while 37.77% are postpaid subscribers. Value for money is the main reason for choosing prepaid, for instance, on a specific promo value, it offers more access to different content such as gaming, music, and videos compared to a postpaid plan, which mainly offers a limited content access and fixed bandwidth of the internet. Since the majority of the respondents are prepaid users, Hip-ennial tops all at 29%. This segment comprises of both students and young professionals who are not yet ready for commitment like billing on a monthly basis; that they still value being efficient on their spending like food, apparel, and anything that has something to do with their mobile costs. When the respondents were asked if they tried to research about the product before signing subscription, 65.47% of the respondents said that they researched first about their mobile service provider before the purchase engagement. They were keen to know such information about the network quality, bundle offer, and features of mobile phones. As shown in Table 7, 56.83% of the respondents considered their friends and family's recommendations in knowing and getting such information about their mobile service provider.

Findings and Discussion
While 13.31% visited the brand website. Across all segments, recommendations from friends and family are very important when considering a certain mobile service provider. It is essential for them to hear such feedback from peers, which will help them during the pre-stage of their decision making. When the respondents were asked how they want to know and learn something about their mobile service provider, 42.81% of the respondents prefer the use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more, as these platforms are faster and real time, compared to television. When in fact, in social media, respondents able to revisit from time to time such advertisement versus a television commercial, where one needs to wait and predict when it will be shown again. From Hip-ennial to Anti-millennial, they all preferred social media channels in getting information about their mobile service provider product and advertising offerings. With this channel, they are not just visually informed, but they get more information about the brand. They considered television as a secondary platform. considered that their primary consideration before the actual purchase engagement is the features of the product. All they want is to have a seamless benefits for their call, data, and access to everything in a cost-effective way.    Table 11 shows the overall perspectives of respondents (n=278) on advertising initiatives. The respondents believe that their mobile service provider advertising initiatives can influence their brand preference and choice (3.19; agree); they strongly agree that in order to know and learn about the brand and product of their mobile service provider, they should follow their advertising initiatives (3.69). Their mobile service provider advertising initiatives motivate them for their continuous usage of the product (3.00; agree). They likewise agree that aside from the network and service satisfaction, they believe that their mobile service provider advertising initiative can influence their loyalty as customers (3.15; agree). Overall, the respondents are satisfied with their current mobile service providers' advertising initiatives and information dissemination (3.23; agree). When the respondents want to know and learn about a mobile service provider product offering advertisement, they most prefer an informative tone (3.68; strongly agree) and friendly tone (3.31; strongly agree). The respondents also like advertisements with educational tone (2.98; agree). However, the respondents least prefer either humorous (2.74; disagree) and serious (1.77; disagree) tonal qualities of advertisements. According to the respondents, they appreciate brands and products that reflect their personality (3.33; strongly agree). They prefer brands and products that give more value to its attributes than features (3.15; agree).   In order for mobile service providers to improve their image, the respondents suggest that mobile service providers should offer more innovative subscription packages (3.41; strongly agree), they should ensure and invest better quality of service and positive brand experience (3.12; agree) and they should constantly build and upgrade their network and bandwidth (3.07; agree). There is a significant difference among the respondents' overall perspectives on advertising initiatives (0.851<) based on their psychographic profiles because the P-value is lower than the alpha (a), thus the alternative hypothesis is accepted. The ANOVA for hypotheses 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, yielded the following: There are no significant differences among the respondents' preferred tonal quality of advertisements (1.00>); preferred brand, product and advertising initiatives (0.70>); preferred type of ad (0.98>); reasons for following ad initiatives (0.86>); and suggested improvements on brand image and advertising initiatives (0.56>); based on their psychographic profiles, thus the null hypothesis of no significant difference is accepted. As shown in Table 18  As shown in Table 19, there is a moderate positive relationship between mobile service providers' advertising initiatives and millennials' brand preference and choice as indicated by its Phi square contingency coefficient of +.36. In Telecommunications industry, brand choice and preference are two important attributes to be considered. The inferential data shows that this generation's brand preference and choice are moderately influenced by advertising. Such discussion of course will depend on how the advertising will be made to entice the customer to purchase or use such product. This generation is not after sales at all; Telecommunication is an intangible industry, since this generation is pragmatic and want to stay connected with the World Wide Web, they are looking for the product features such as ease of accessibility, call and phone features that can respond to their demands and needs, and cost-effective platforms with very rich business essentials. Hip-ennial and millennial moms believe that advertising initiatives from their mobile service provider could influence their brand's preference and choice. This is due to their being emotional and fond of seeing several advertisements from their service provider; that it helps them gain value as subscribers.  Table 20 shows that there is a moderate positive relationship between mobile service providers' advertising initiatives and millennials' motivation to continue using their products as conveyed by its Phi square contingency coefficient of +.32. They are most likely motivated to remain using the brand, if the brand mirrors their personality, personal values and caters to their desire to connect with the community. Given the tough competition in this industry, many products and services are being offered from time to time; thus, it is a must for marketers and advertisers to challenge their brands to keep their competition at bay. There is a moderate positive relationship between mobile service providers' advertising initiatives and millennials' loyalty to the brand as denoted by its Phi square contingency coefficient of +.38. All segments hold the notion that advertising initiatives from their mobile service providers can influence them to be loyal customers, as long as the brand also values them not just as customers but as partners in building the brand.

Conclusion
Consumer motivation and brand engagement of Filipino millennials can be best understood by examining their thoughts, emotions, motivations and intended outcomes.
Millennial psychographic groups are constantly exposed to different social and economic opportunities, different technological activities, different social perceptions and community norms. In Telecommunications industry, brand choice and preference are two important factors to be considered. The data showed that this generation is highly influenced by such advertising on their brand preference and choice. Such discussion of course will depend on how the advertising will be made to entice the customer to purchase or use such product.
The Filipino Millennials believe that their mobile service provider advertising initiatives can influence their brand preference and choice. They are aware that in order to know and learn about the brand and product of their mobile service provider, they should follow their advertising initiatives. Their mobile service provider advertising initiatives │ 53 motivate and influence them to continue using their products. The respondents are satisfied with the overall quality of their mobile service providers' advertising initiatives and information dissemination. When it comes to tonal qualities of their mobile service providers' advertisements and promotional materials, the millennials mostly prefer the ones with informative and friendly tones. They also like advertisements with educational tone.
They do not like advertisements that are either humorous or serious. Such results imply that millennials are no longer fascinated by generic brand advertising; they prefer a story that talks and symbolizes social value which then intrinsically motivates them to gain a deeper value as subscribers. The brand and product preferences of the millennials are most likely to be influenced by informational rather than transformational advertisements of mobile service providers. The millennials follow the brand's advertising initiatives because they want to be notified of special offers and promos, to remain up to date with brand/product news and they want to learn about new products and services. There is a significant difference among the millennials' overall perspectives on advertising initiatives of mobile service providers (0.851<) based on their psychographic profiles. There is a strong positive relationship among the factors influencing Filipino millennials' choice of mobile service provider and their psychographic profiles. There are moderate positive relationships among the following variables: mobile service providers' advertising initiatives and millennials' brand preference and choice; mobile service providers' advertising initiatives and millennials' motivation to continue using their products; and mobile service providers' advertising initiatives and millennials' loyalty to the brand.
In an industry where products and services are intangible in nature and with customers who are highly demanding, telecommunication companies should give consideration and effort in understanding the evolving needs and desires of their customers; this may also be applied in the form of usage, acquisition, up-sell, and cross-sell components.
Telecommunication companies may leverage on the power of technology and advertising creativity to incentivize customers by integrating human social values and mobile brand experience. Incentivizing, in the form of rewards and freebies for continuous usage of the product, cultivate strong relationships between the brand and the customer.
With the mobile phone penetration reaching a saturation, 'retention' became more significant than 'acquisition'. Further strategic and detailed consumer behavior exploration is required to provide stronger base in the study. Future studies on consumer behavior should concentrate on understanding the desires and motivations, which can be applied in real-world situations. Future research should also embrace the challenge of the new era where technology is disrupting everything. A brand is not only a powerful tool, but also a selection criterion which consumer base their decision. More attention and focus should be given to psychological components of attitude of consumers. Expose gaps that will lead every researcher to discover meaningful insights that can contribute to the body of knowledge, the academe and the industry. Researchers should expand the scope of their studies and go beyond the consumer's purchase and usage behaviors. Greater emphasis may be placed on non-purchase modes (e.g., motivation and loyalty) of their behavior, such as how they are as subscribers, and how they perceive brand advertisements. They may cover other areas such as consumer learning, perception, decision making, attitudes, and personality.