Goin' Mobile
Does mobile marketing have potential? Our 1to1 Weekly story certainly raises a lot of that potential. And you know what they say about the heavy burdens of potential. I think that for mobile marketing to succeed it needs to grow beyond its youth-heavy culture. As it stands now, mobile marketing is a very cool and engaging way to reach kids on their cell phones. It needs to grow into a very convenient way to help organize the lives of adults. If I ran a travel company I would be all over cell phones and smart phones with alerts, text messages and small screen ads. If I ran a restaurant chain I would do the same. If I was a high volume e-retailer like Amazon, I would develop interfaces to keep busy adults connected to their music and books. I would also work hard on ways to encourage cell phone payments, or as it’s known in industry parlance, the wireless wallet. Mobile marketing has huge potential because it's starting from a customer-centric standpoint. Now it just needs to grow up.
Great to see that you guys finally wrote about mobile marketing. It is not coming, it is here already and it has a great potential. I am not only saying this whilst i work in an ad agency that 100 % specializes for mobile marketing and uses mobile as marketing media/medium but I have seen it working in my previous job (i spent last 4 years in Nokia corporation doing mobile marketing and 1to1).
Why it works is really simple. Mobile can be used like a glue between different medias. You can integrate mobile into any other media and give consumer deeper experiences. In Europe this is becoming more and more common and big brands have had great results with mobile campaigns that are integrated with on packs, events, outdoor, print and tv. So with mobile you can use also PULL mechanism which many marketeers forget.
And then possibilities with CRM and 1to1. If you already as a company have a good relationship and loyal customers that are willing to have a dialogue in mobile, you should really allow them to choose the channel they prefer. Mobile is interactive and can be used regardless of time and place but also location based if necessary. Mobile activities are measurable so you can really show the bottomline effects with campaigns and drive traffic to stores with mobile coupons.
What is more personal media than mobile. You carry it with you, you have your whole life in it. Therefore respecting it and understanding the medium is essential to everything you do with mobile. Organizations like MMA are therefore very essential in securing that all parties involved with mobile marketing act like responsible marketeers. Furthermore i really want to stress that companies select only agencies that have experience and know this media. It is always easy to blame the media for the unsuccess rather than execution :)
As a consumer and a business owner I do not favor "Mobile Marketing". If a customer has given me their cell phone number or if I have given a business my phone number than I feel it's okay to contact them or be contacted. I feel our cell phones are private and that space should not be invaded unless we choose so.
As far as the mobile marketing sector goes, I find that it is necessary tool for two reasons. Today, a multi-channel approach ensures that customers receive the right message at the right time with the right medium. Therefore, if a customer prefers a voice message to a piece of mail then it is in our best interest to market in that way. Secondly, mobile phone have a current feature that is about to get more sophisticated—text messaging. Studies show that Generation Y and M use text messaging as their preferred method of communication. Furthermore, 94% of all text messages are read and no other medium can boast of that open rate--neither email, voice communication nor direct mail. The mobile industry while is vastly changing is in fact a necessary tool in the 21st century.
I think the mobile industry needs to rethink its business model before large companies are willing to get into mobile marketing in a big way. Currently the ROI for both the consumer and the marketing company is not worth the investment. The only ones winning are the carriers
While the potential of mobile marketing is clearly prolific I believe the key to its success is the manner in which is deployed. Customers receiving information from unexpected or unwanted companies are likely to become irrated and fast - thus turning potential customers into brand loathers. The answer in my mind relies on greater CRM capability to support the targeting of messages and ensure that each customer only recieves a controlled number of messages relevant to their known needs and wants.