Trends in the world of mobile marketing
A
Commercial in Consumer's Pocket
The very fact that the mobile
phone is always with its owner is very important from the point of view of the
advertiser and brands that surround us. This is a new marketing channel that enables
a very simple and fast two-way communication between brands and consumers regardless
of the time of the day or the place where the consumer is at that time. Furthermore,
by having an adequate database of consumers there are really great possibilities
of target marketing modified to their demographic data and consumer habits. Mobile
Marketing is significantly cheaper and easier to prepare, realize and monitor
its efficiency
By ADRIJANA MILOSAVLJEVIĆ
from Kruševac,
SERBIA
Translation: MILENA OTAŠEVIĆ
- Mobile marketing is definitely a "hot topic" and it was created as a result
of the constant development of mobile technologies. Mobile phone is, by itself
, a highly personalized device. We all have them and we all use them in our own
way and for our needs and for that we completely adjust them to our personality
and our habits - begins Aleksandar Petković from
Carnation group, an expert for mobile marketing and a lecturer
on several important IT conferences in Serbia and the region for WAVE magazine.
What is mobile marketing, what are the advantages of this type of advertising
in comparison to other types and why is it important to create a big client database
are some of the topics we covered with Aleksandar. You can also find updated
information about mobile marketing on his
Twitter and
LinkedIn profiles, as well as on a specialized blog
Mobilni marketing.
- The very fact that the mobile phone is
always with its owner is very important from the point of view of the advertiser
and brands that surround us. This is a new marketing channel that enables a
very simple and fast two-way communication between brands and consumers regardless
of the time of the day or the place where the consumer is at that time. Furthermore,
by having an adequate database of consumers there are really great possibilities
of target marketing modified to their demographic data and consumer habits. Alongside
everything stated, mobile marketing is significantly cheaper and easier to prepare,
realize and monitor its efficiency.
What are the ways to apply mobile
marketing and what are the segments that constitute it?
- There are
numerous ways of applying mobile marketing and it all depends from the final goal
of the marketing campaign. Its diversity is based on the technologies that are
applied so that mobile marketing can be realized through SMS or MMS marketing,
creating mobile applications, developing mobile web pages, delivering mobile coupons
for discount purchases, geo-location services, using m-commerce solutions for
payment of goods and services and also through mobile advertising over mobile
video contents, advertising banners for mobile applications and mobile websites.
There is an entire segment which is still in the making and which carries a great
marketing potential - mobile television. Also, what will in the following years
become a great trend in this industry is advertising on social networks on mobile
devices. All in all, the potential of this market is really great and brands and
advertisers in Serbia are slowly becoming aware of that.
Can you make
a comparison of the Western market and Serbia as far as consumer habits and potentials
of mobile marketing are concerned?
- Similar as in many other areas, Western market is far more advanced than
in Serbia. The main reasons for that are above all the greater purchasing power
and standard of living, the awareness of benefits of this type of marketing
but also the technologically more developed environment which is necessary for
the application of the wide range of services provided by mobile marketing. If
we only compare the percentages of smart phone usage here and in the West and
the availability of fast mobile Wi-Fi we can easily deduce that we are considerably
behind. Still, we are on a good path to overcome that because the number of smart
phones sold is recorded to be constantly increasing in Serbia and fast mobile
Wi-Fi is becoming more and more available.
Also, a very important issue
are very small marketing budgets allocated for this type of digital advertising.
The reason for that lies in the fact that marketing and brand managers of companies
aren't educated enough about the benefits such way of advertising can bring. Therefore,
education and presenting good practices from the West are something we should
work on a lot in the future.
What is necessary to consider before we
venture into mobile marketing?
- First of all you should set a
goal - what do we want to achieve? Is it to increase the sales, increase the
awareness about some product or a brand, to create the database of reliable consumers,
to increase the circulation at some stores, to sell the old collections or the
merchandise close to expiration date fast, to increase the number of visitors
on our website, to create loyalty program for the most loyal customers, etc. Often
the brands don't know in what way can they achieve some of the goals and they
should pay attention when choosing a suitable partner - most commonly it is a
marketing agency that has experience in working with mobile marketing and that
would suggest a campaign realization plan that is creative enough so more mobile
phone users would participate in it.
In order for a campaign to be successful
there are basic guidelines that should be followed. First of all, the campaign
should be adjusted to the overall marketing goal. Then, what is it that is
really of value and that will attract potential buyers to participate in the campaign.
The campaign should be clearly represented and with a simple mechanism for participation.
In the desire to make their campaigns more dynamic and interesting many companies
make a mistake here because they create a mechanism that is not simple enough
and intuitive for the user and requires a greater effort for participation.
During your lecture on one
Mobile Monday, professional congress in the area of telecommunication,
you talked about ways to create a client database. Is it and in what way possible
to create such databases but at the same time avoid spamming a big amount of people?
-
Every company that considers itself to be serious MUST have a unique database
of loyal customers with as wide set of demographic data about them as possible.
If they don't have it, then it is necessary for them to start creating one as
soon as possible. Serious companies have entire departments dealing with customer
relations. The rapid development of technology has plummeted the creation of numerous
communication channels and so now the way for the marketing message to reach the
consumer has, alongside print media, TV and radio, become segmented to e-mail,
mobile phone, internet search, social networks, etc.
The best way to create
a database is to cover as many different communication channels and gather,
for the most part same, general information. Creating a database of loyal
consumers is a process without an end. People join it and if they wish (free of
charge) they leave the database. The very fact that it doesn't have an end, this
process must begin as soon as possible in all those companies that don't
have such a database or something similar to it.
In order for someone
to be in the database they must join it willingly. That is, for instance, possible
by filling in a survey or through other OPT-IN services. The law in Serbia is
very thin when it comes to this issue. It states that someone can join the database
only if they endorse they agree. However, this is incorrect because then all the
online applications are against the law. Still, in Serbia no one is dealing with
this issue seriously and there are many examples of misuses of this type of information
gathering. Also, there are no legal nor moral standards when it comes to, for
example, how frequent promotional e-mails or SMS are sent. In comparison, with
e-mail and SMS marketing, 80 per cent of people think that e-mail marketing is
a type of spam but the same percentage doesn't perceive SMS marketing as such.
Research shows people don't see sending promotional SMS messages two to three
times a month as SPAM and more than 90 per cent will open the promotional
SMS and read the message.
Considering the constant increase of the
number of smart phones in usage in Serbia, the number of users of social networks
over mobile phones is also increasing. What is the influence of different social
networks that are becoming more and more popular on the field of mobile marketing?
- Not only over mobile phones but also over tablet computers. Here, the key role
is played by the network providers with technical capacities to provide stable
and good mobile internet connection. Social networks have a lot of users and
mass access should also be enabled for users of devices other than personal computers.
Facebook confirmed that almost half of the daily number of log-ins into Facebook
comes from mobile devices with the strong tendency to grow. Due to the huge
number of Facebook users in Serbia, and in the world, this type of advertising
will significantly influence the entire market. At the time of our conversation,
Facebook still hasn't started its advertising system for users of mobile devices
but that is expected to happen by the end of the second quarter of 2012. Twitter
is also preparing its advertising strategy for users of mobile devices.
(Published: 25.02.2012.) 
