“It brings money to me in situations where I thought I had none” : Meanings of mobile payment methods among millennials in Germany
Wolsztynski, Marc (2021)
Wolsztynski, Marc
2021
Master's Programme in Leadership for Change
Johtamisen ja talouden tiedekunta - Faculty of Management and Business
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2021-05-14
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202104273950
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202104273950
Tiivistelmä
The payment landscape in Germany is currently experiencing great changes. A country, that is well-known for its love for cash is slowly opening up for new alternatives, the latest being mobile payment. While the great majority of older generations seem to hold on to familiar payment methods, millennials are increasingly exploring more recent mobile services.
The purpose of this thesis is to uncover meanings that millennial consumers in Germany associate with mobile payment methods, as well as finding out in which ways mobile payment providers can market their services more successfully. To achieve this, I adopted a social-constructionist approach and conducted qualitative interviews using the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET), a procedure that explores both conscious and unconscious thoughts and feelings by exploring people’s symbolic and metaphorical expressions.
Before the interview process, the participants were given the task to look for images they associate with mobile payment, which were gone through and explained during the interview meetings. During the analysis process of the 9 interviews, including quantitative coding to ensure research reliability, the information from 71 images and 57 pages of transcription resulted in 60 in-vivo codes, 12 sub-meanings, and six meanings. These were 1) Shrinking wallets, increasing freedom, 2) Drive for being more, 3) Ease and internal relaxation, 4) Setting new speed and hygiene standards, 5) Loss of control, 6) Better safety, highest possible accuracy.
The findings are concentrated into a consensus map showing all six meanings and the most important sub-meanings. Furthermore, this research found an overall theme, which is ‘Leading a (payment) revolution’ because most participants see this as an important objective of their usage and encourage others to use mobile payment methods as well to drive digitalization and mobile services forward. Besides 2) Drive for being more and 5) Loss of control sticking out, the research found out, that the other four meanings concern functional improvements in comparison to cash and card payments. Overall, the most practical features are the most convincing to customers.
Practical features will eventually lead to more users. Bringing out that message and further understanding the meanings of consumers should therefore be the biggest priority for players engaged in mobile payment, as the benefits are already existing, but not (yet) seen by everyone. Standardizing the user experience, strengthening the brand identity of mobile payment as a payment method, as well as educating consumers about the usage are other necessities identified as important for future growth.
The purpose of this thesis is to uncover meanings that millennial consumers in Germany associate with mobile payment methods, as well as finding out in which ways mobile payment providers can market their services more successfully. To achieve this, I adopted a social-constructionist approach and conducted qualitative interviews using the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET), a procedure that explores both conscious and unconscious thoughts and feelings by exploring people’s symbolic and metaphorical expressions.
Before the interview process, the participants were given the task to look for images they associate with mobile payment, which were gone through and explained during the interview meetings. During the analysis process of the 9 interviews, including quantitative coding to ensure research reliability, the information from 71 images and 57 pages of transcription resulted in 60 in-vivo codes, 12 sub-meanings, and six meanings. These were 1) Shrinking wallets, increasing freedom, 2) Drive for being more, 3) Ease and internal relaxation, 4) Setting new speed and hygiene standards, 5) Loss of control, 6) Better safety, highest possible accuracy.
The findings are concentrated into a consensus map showing all six meanings and the most important sub-meanings. Furthermore, this research found an overall theme, which is ‘Leading a (payment) revolution’ because most participants see this as an important objective of their usage and encourage others to use mobile payment methods as well to drive digitalization and mobile services forward. Besides 2) Drive for being more and 5) Loss of control sticking out, the research found out, that the other four meanings concern functional improvements in comparison to cash and card payments. Overall, the most practical features are the most convincing to customers.
Practical features will eventually lead to more users. Bringing out that message and further understanding the meanings of consumers should therefore be the biggest priority for players engaged in mobile payment, as the benefits are already existing, but not (yet) seen by everyone. Standardizing the user experience, strengthening the brand identity of mobile payment as a payment method, as well as educating consumers about the usage are other necessities identified as important for future growth.