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8/7/2019 Influence of mobile phones in our lives has grown significantly over time
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/influence-of-mobile-phones-in-our-lives-has-grown-significantly-over-time 1/2
Influence of mobile phones in our lives has grown significantly over time. From a simple talk technology, now it is used to send SMS, MMS, browse internet, watch T.V., and make
payments. With the advent of 3G services, the potential of mobile as a customer engagementmedium will grow significantly. Marketers and advertisers will leverage the direct and instantreach of mobile to reach out to their customers.
Mobile marketing (M-marketing) involves launching marketing campaigns via mobile. With 3G picking up and WiMax/LTE (4G) on its way, it’s the right time to analyze opportunities andchallenges that are in store for mobile marketing industry in India.
Let us quickly analyse why Indian telecom market is capturing the attention of global mobilemarketing companies and leading brands. If we go by TRAI figures, we are serving the secondlargest telecom market in the world, which accounts to 621 million telephone subscribers as of March 2010. Almost more than 90% of them are currently using 2G/2.5G/2.75G for wireless access.
According to Frost & Sullivan, 3G would iron out quite a few things for operators, particularlyin metros like Delhi & Mumbai. The report states that 20% of the metro subscribers wouldmigrate to 3G in the first year of launch, which accounts to 18 million or 3% of total mobile sub
base.
We call these 3% sub base as early adopters, which also forms the target base for all mobilemarketers, looking forward to leveraging the promise of NGN (Next Generation Network) for generating revenue.. The report also predicts that early adopters would spend approx 15% of their mobile expenditure on Mobile VAS, which currently stands stagnant at 10%.
In retrospection, every technology has significantly contributed to marketing techniques or
channels. Starting from 1G (Voice Communication), where mobile telemarketing was the trendof time to current 2G (Data Communication), where marketing campaigns relied heavily onmobile SMS/MMS to spread the word, each mobile technology generation has inspiredinnovative marketing tools and techniques.
What hasn’t changed over the generations are the three prime characteristics of mobile as amarketing channel – capabilities to launch location specific, personalized and interactivemarketing programmes. Definitely, NGN (3G/4G) & allied VAS would impart momentum tomobile marketing by enabling operator’s better exploit these features.
3G or Internet communication would extensively use Mobile Web/Internet as primary tool to
target subscribers. But we also have to keep in mind India is still unprepared to promote MobileWeb as tool for marketing. Latest TRAI report states that there are only 16 million Internetsubscribers in India, while broadband sub base has yet to cross 10 million mark. It means lessthan 1% of total mobile subscriber can access Internet. It is also noteworthy that (according toIMRB International), out of 18 million Internet sub base, 58% still rely on Cyber cafes, whileonly 4% have accessed the Internet via mobile. This means that only around 1 millionsubscribers in India access via mobile phones. In summary, the democratization of 3G andmobile marketing adoption will not happen immediately.
8/7/2019 Influence of mobile phones in our lives has grown significantly over time
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/influence-of-mobile-phones-in-our-lives-has-grown-significantly-over-time 2/2
But it will be worth starting off with early adopters of 3G. They will have a high propensity toadapt innovative services and will be friendlier to new technologies.
Meanwhile, we should by no means sideline the potential of 2G subscriber base which willcontinue to outnumber 3G subscribers at least for a few more years to come. According to
Wireless Intelligence, in Asia Pacific region, GSM (2G) would continue to hold bastion even beyond Q2 2014. As per one estimate approx 68% of subscribers in APAC region will continueto use 2G services (beyond 2014), while 13% of them would switch to WCDMA/HSPA. This
presents an exciting and challenging situation for mobile marketers. 2G/3G/4G will co-exist inIndia for many more years to come. The test for marketers will be maintaining the right balance
by integrating diversified channels including SMS, MMS, Mobile Web, Internet Marketing andmobile T.V.
Whatever the channel mobile marketers may use to engage the customers, two fundamental principles will remain key for the success of mobile marketing – relevance (of the channel/ offer/time/ context) and real-time response to customer needs. The ability to roll out relevant and real-
time mobile marketing campaigns to a large extent depends on the ability to leverage real-timesubscriber data.
Mobile is a real-time medium; it will be a serious error to compare it with any other digital or online marketing channels. Therefore, the technologies used for offline marketing channels andeven web based channels will not be effective for mobile.
“Mobile is real-time medium and before emerging as stand alone revenue generating medium, it would continue to complement existing traditional marketing mediums such as print &broadcast in India for quite some time”
The deployment of right technology will be the critical first step for the launch of successfulmobile marketing strategies. Otherwise, mobile operators and marketers will always face the risk of losing customer trust, and the value of mobile as a marketing channel itself will be at stake.
For operators and advertisers, it is the beginning of a promising journey. It would be interestingto watch how various stake holders in the mobile marketing value chain make use of theopportunity.