Mobile Marketing

Goin 'Mobile

Goal determination and measurement are two advantages of mobile marketing, which are very attractive to marketers.

By Tracy Mayor

Nike is doing it, Volvo and Allstate Corporation are doing it, and Jun Yue Hotel has tried it.

"It" is mobile marketing - a direct, personalized communication channel that can communicate with people at any time and anywhere through mobile phones and other wireless devices.

Consider the following possibility: according to JupiterResearch statistics, the number of mobile phone users in the United States reaches 184 million, sending billions of SMS messages to each other.

This is 184 million of potential customers, each hand holding a wonderful little information pmission system.

This is a private space within reach.

In other words, this is the space that any good marketer can not ignore.

Jim Manis said: "mobile marketing is aimed at personal interactive marketing, which has a large customer contact rate."

Jim is the global chairman of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and a senior vice president of M-QUBE, a mobile application software provider. This company is an important company in the emerging mobile content and application services market.

He said, "you can contact them at any time in the presence of customers, and establish a personalized interaction with them."

Supporters say that when mobile marketing develops in an all-round way, it is possible to provide real opportunities for innovation.

Photo consumers download product information from your website just like shopping in an electronic supermarket.

Imagine that a premium customer can get a coupon directly by entering the phone shortcut on the retail terminal.

There is also this possibility: with all kinds of new and high technology equipment - the next generation of pocket computers, handheld game players, digital music players, VoIP phones, that is, any device that can connect wirelessly and have a business card size display, send rich customized audio-visual information to willing customers and pleasing customers.

But now brand managers talk about mobile marketing. They only send SMS messages to mobile phone users, including BlackBerry game fans occasionally. They can choose to play games, Download ringtones, receive promotional messages, participate in betting or get sports scores, headlines, weather reports and so on.

Jordan, Nike's branch company, is exploring this new medium. Its brand manager Roman Vega said: "our customers are always in a mobile state.

As a Brand Company, as a marketer, if you can't let customers follow you, you can only go out and look for them.

Mobile Internet is now as hot as our favorite market, the Internet.

Bill Carmody is the chief marketing officer of Seismicom, a brand promotion company.

He said, "the development of wireless marketing in 2005 is exactly the same as that of the Internet in 1994."

Carmody warned that the current wireless marketing market is like the early stage of Internet development.

The mobile stage is uncertain: the business model is not yet mature, the mobile commerce standard has just started, the problem of fraud has not yet been solved, and many companies engaged in mobile information are mixed.

"Everyone is groping in the dark trying to figure out this new information medium," said a director of the national marketing company who did not want to be named.

Some companies are constantly boasting about their mobile propaganda activities, but when they talk about the publicity effect, they soon become haste.

The director said, "I dare say that 85% of mobile propaganda activities are useless at present.

The remaining 15%, even if they are successful, will not be able to reveal the secret of success to their competitors.

To tell them the difference, companies that master mobile secrets are more skeptical than companies who frequently make mistakes.

The successful company has adopted a prudent and optimistic approach to pilot in a special customer group.

In addition to using mobile phones, these companies also incorporate wireless elements in highly integrated campaigns, combined with outdoor, online, desktop computers, print, radio and television.

Cyril Reimer, chief marketing officer of Euro RSCG 4D in New York, said: "I can safely say that no company is really ready to carry out the mobile war."

Carmody suggested: "if you are worried about fraud, if you need effectiveness and return, you'd better not spread mobile marketing on a large scale.

First try in the scope of certainty, and see what wireless marketing can do for you.

Mobile marketing market test water

Mobile marketing has long been suppressed by the rapid expansion of the European market.

With the number of mobile phones with micro browsers reaching a critical scale, mobile marketing has become popular in the United States.

With the increasing number of mobile phone users, the use of SMS communication has become a common means of various user groups.

Moreover, a new round of new technology entering the market will help brand managers to contact customers in a richer and more friendly environment.

The next generation of information pfer technology, multimedia information service (MMS), enables mobile phones to have functions of sending and receiving charts, video clips and audio files.

The current wireless application protocol (WAP) and the upcoming WAP2 will enable mobile Internet browsing. The updated 3G data standard also provides high-speed connections, making mobile Internet browsing as fast as the Office Internet.

All these developments and innovations have attracted many marketers to move forward and try mobile marketing.

Allstate Corporation has long sponsored the BCS championship series of college football matches and posted its brand on the competition table to fans.

Online giants YAHOO, Google and MSN expand their customer contacts by sending news, sports, weather forecasts and other user selected content.

For a time, Hyatt sent preferential price information to specific business travelers (customers who voluntarily chose to join the mailing list).

Nike is also involved in the mobile marketing market.

To commemorate the launch of the Air Jordan series basketball shoes 20th anniversary, Nike Jordan branch has developed a new shoe, Air Jordan XX, to commemorate Michael Jordan's legendary basketball career.

There are 20 magic patterns on the bandage of this shoe. There are a total of two different patterns to choose from.

For example, the icon 69 represents the highest score in Jordan's single match, and there is a hand with six fingers representing his six NBA champion rings.

In order to create a new shoe, in mid January 2005, Jordan launched an integrated marketing campaign, using TV, print, network, desktop computers and various marketing methods in the store.

And this is the first time that Jordan has used mobile marketing in American marketing, according to the company's brand manager, Vega.

The company encourages consumers to collect clues to decipher the meaning of the icon on each pair of shoes, and then log on to Jordan's website to participate in a network interactive game hosted by black director Spike Lee.

The winner of the game is the Air Jordan series basketball shoes. The Grand Slam winner also went to Denver in February to participate in the new sports shoes conference held during the NBA all star weekend.

Mobile users can download a desktop application, use it to get the clues of the icon answers through streaming video, and can also apply for a reward clue in the form of SMS or voice mail.

Mobile users can also download their favorite icons to their phones and apply for voice mail sent by Spike.

Vega said that because the target customers are 16~20 year old men, it is very easy to use mobile phones.

It is very important for the customer group to provide the answer clue only to the mobile phone users and create a sense of people in the circle.

"Jordan's customers are very close to the brand, and they want to be part of the brand," he said.

Getting voice mail from Spike lane is cool for these sixteen and seven year old teenagers.

Jordan's customers seem to think so.

The campaign triggered more than 108000 SMS and mobile downloads.

Vega said this figure really made him "too excited".

At a new conference in Denver, many children came to Vega to show off the icon he downloaded to his cell phone.

"It's inspiring for me to see this scene, especially in Denver, which is not our main market," he said.

Mobile marketing is on track

Other companies' mobile marketing has also been successful.

Volvo North American Motor Company tried mobile marketing in the 2003 XC90 series NCAA promotional activities.

In the four month 2004 Volvo XC90 winner drive, the mobile media was reused, and the Internet and TV were also publicized.

Online activities include Volvo sponsored American Broadcasting Company enhanced television (eTV), which allows computer viewers to participate in certain programs, interactive quiz, discussion and public opinion polls.

This sponsorship gives Volvo the opportunity to send information to enhanced TV users through mobile devices.

The mobile phone users who volunteered to join the mailing list received SMS from Volvo and invited them to visit the "winner driving" website. After registration, they got a 2004 XC90 SUV.

On the website, users can register applications to receive the scores of football matches throughout the season through their mobile devices.

Dennis Klaus, an e-commerce manager at Volvo North American Motor Company, said that mobile devices are mainly used to promote visitor traffic on publicity sites.

Claus said: "we have been trying to close to customers through new channels, including mobile phones and other mobile devices, to supplement and improve other media. We are very satisfied with the current traffic of visitors."

According to Claus, a total of 134 thousand people took part in the competition on the Internet. 51% of them chose to join the mailing list voluntarily, and agreed that Volvo North American Motor Company continued to send messages to them.

Euro RSCG 4D is a partner of Volvo's activities.

"The aim of this event is to get more enrolmen and establish dialogues with potential customers," the company's Latin America said.

"Mobile and sports events are completely different ways of marketing for us.

People with mobile phones can first accept new technologies. They are voice makers and tell new friends and relatives about new information.

Key to mobile marketing success

In order to fully explore the potential of this new medium, Jordan and Volvo's publicity activities joined two elements: voluntarily choosing to add mailing lists and adding additional value.

Mobile marketing people think these two elements are the key to success.

Suffering from many years of telemarketing and the intrusion of spam, American consumers are tired of all kinds of information that they do not want to receive on their cell phones, especially when some information is charged.

Heidi Lyman, vice president of Third Screen Media's strategic alliance and vice-chairman of the best practices committee of Mobile Marketing Association, said: "cell phones are a very personal medium, and consumers hate all kinds of information that looks like garbage."

Lehmann said that in order to prevent the publicity activities from being smashed before the first phone rang, businesses must emphasize the protection of consumers' privacy and have a complete and detailed voluntary choice to join the mailing list plan.

But in addition, there are still more difficult problems to solve.

If consumers agree to join mobile marketing, how long will "join" last?

What kind of product and service information is he willing to accept?

For example, if consumers want to download free ringtones, can you recommend other related free products to him?

After customers chose to join Jordan's Air Jordan XX series mobile promotional campaign, Vega did not hesitate to send another product message to Jordan's company's mobile phone, but other companies were not so sure.

Steven Flinn, chief marketing officer of a media purchasing and planning agency, said: "we suggest that business customers must be