(mobileYouth) Context Drives Experience: How Ethnographic Research on Mobile Data Drives Sustainable Profit for Mobile Carriers

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  • 7/29/2019 (mobileYouth) Context Drives Experience: How Ethnographic Research on Mobile Data Drives Sustainable Profit fo

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    Context Drives Experience:How Ethnographic Research on MobileData Drives Sustainable Prot forMobile Carriers

    The Optus CEO recently declared his companys shift to sustainable protgrowth, moving from raw subscriber acquisition to an emphasis onretaining and increasing revenues from existing customers.

    Sustainable protability means retaining existing customers and encouragingthem to spend more money on mobile. Central to this proposition in the era ofdata is understanding why .

    Monetizing the increase in data use means building a better customerexperience around social context. Customers dont consume data, theyconsume what data does for them. Understanding the motivations and driversbehind data usage will provide more solid foundations for pricing and

    marketing strategies.

    Find the most relevant insights on youth mobile marketing: http://www.mobileYouthReport.com

    http://www.mobileyouthreport.com/http://www.mobileyouthreport.com/
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    Carriers need to upgrade their marketing strategies: without context-drivencustomer experience, data is simply a commodity. Competing on data volume

    and price will become a race to the bottom that operators will lose to newentrants wanting to establish a foothold in the market.

    The 4 Benets of Ethnographic Research on Data for MobileCarriersThe best way to understand customer drivers is to research mobile data incontext i.e. in the malls, street and homes (not focus groups and online)where people actually use data. This ethnographic approach yields 4 keybenets for operators:

    1) Drive product development road map by identifying customer pain pointsand usage proles. Identify the quick wins that operators can x to improvecustomer experience.

    Smartphone customers who experience between fewer problems with slowmobile web speeds spend an average of $11 more per month than those who

    experience considerable problems ($140 vs. $129, respectively). (source JDPower)

    2) Develop relevant marketing messages to help migrate the sales strategyfrom being about selling commodities on price to being about selling thepremium of social benet.

    Rohan Ganeson, MD of retail sales at Optus recently said of the carriersintentions to ramp up retail investment that, We want interactions with Optusto exceed expectations and the feedback, both good and bad, from our pilotstores will be invaluable in helping us shape the experience for the rest of thetransformation. Success at the Frontline will depend on arming the retail staffwith the most competitive insights.

    3) Empower frontline and service employees with insight on how customersuse/could use data and help them cross-sell other data products in theoperator portfolio.

    4) By identifying the power users and inuencers, operators can dedicatemore resources to these key market makers. The power users (20% of the

    Find the most relevant insights on youth mobile marketing: http://www.mobileYouthReport.com

    http://www.mobileyouthreport.com/http://www.mobileyouthreport.com/
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    market) currently use 80% of data trafc, with top 1% generating 17% oftrafc (source Cisco).

    All 4 benets combine to create a better customer experience which in turnreduces customer attrition (churn), increases individual revenues (ARPU) anddrives recommendation (NPS).

    The Starting PointYouth drive mobile trends.

    They are already at the forefront of change. Youth are both the heaviest usersof mobile internet and those with the greatest social need to make operatorrollouts successful. Youth are the inuencers. Technologies that reach massmarket adoption often lter through the youth market rst (e.g. SMS,Facebook, Messenger). Not only do youth inuence each other but data fromthe 2013 Mobile Youth Report shows that they exert a signicant inuenceover the adult market.

    Compared to adults, youth are more likely to use mobile internet services like

    social networking (50% vs 12% for adults), photo sharing (38% vs 12%) andstreaming videos (24% vs 5%) (source Gallup).

    Quantitative research into mobile data consumption patterns cannot revealthe ofine scenarios in which youth use mobile internet. Mobile carriers needqualitative research to step into the 3Hs (homes, hangouts and hideouts).Actionable insights for marketing and innovation can only be achieved whenwe understand how and why youth use mobile internet.

    Operators should start developing their future customer propositions byemploying ethnographic research to understand how youth are using datatoday.

    What Should be The 3 Key Outputs of Ethnographic Research?The key outputs of ethnographic research should help operators identifywhich users and activities within mobile data are most conducive toprotability (e.g. We found that 15% of SingTel customers now generate 85%

    of the data trafc but not necessarily 85% of their prots). MobileYouthethnographic research focuses on building operator customer propositions

    Find the most relevant insights on youth mobile marketing: http://www.mobileYouthReport.com

    http://www.mobileyouthreport.com/http://www.mobileyouthreport.com/
  • 7/29/2019 (mobileYouth) Context Drives Experience: How Ethnographic Research on Mobile Data Drives Sustainable Profit fo

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    around a solid context-driven customer experience. The 3 deliverables ofsuch research are:

    1) A gradation of young data users based on behavior and attitude asopposed to more traditional demographic segmentations.

    2) Pen proles of key data users that identify both drivers and the ofinescenarios where they use data. How do pen proles vary by usage scenarioand handset? (e.g. NPS for mobile internet varies by handset ownership:Apple +49%, HTC +41%, Samsung +23%). Proles providers operators witha natural starting point by identifying youth market inuencers.

    3) Reframing of app categories based on social context (e.g. arrangingmeetings, while watching TV, photo sharing) as opposed to traditional formats(e.g. games, business, utility). Already 60% of youth use mobile data toorganize gatherings, and 45% of youth use mobile data to settle arguments(source Pew Research). These behaviors are more relevant to youngpeoples social lives and are unlikely to change as they enter the adult world.

    Positive Customer Experience for Data Creates a Barrier to MarketEntryIn an interview with Rutgers, Verizon CEO McAdam spoke of the early daysthe mobile industry where operators focused on monetizing negativecustomer experiences (e.g. roaming charges, paid voicemail etc) but that leftthe door open to new players (such as Verizon Wireless).

    It was a pretty ugly experience, he said. There was a good opportunity for

    someone to come in and disrupt the environment to consolidate and createscale.

    Verizon successfully disrupted the environment by building its culture aroundcustomer need as opposed to customer revenue maximization. As operatorstalk up the opportunity to maximize customer data revenue through pricingstructures which by comparison to xed line offerings are archaic, they tooexpose themselves to external disruption. By contrast, focusing on thecustomer experience has enabled Verizon to maintain the lowest churn and

    highest customer recommendation rates in their market, despite rivals payingextensively for iPhone exclusivity.

    Find the most relevant insights on youth mobile marketing: http://www.mobileYouthReport.com

    http://www.mobileyouthreport.com/http://www.mobileyouthreport.com/
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    Today, operators need to re-engineer their cultures around the customer

    experience of data and leverage ethnographic insights to guide theirstrategies.

    If operators fail to get data strategies right now they leave the door wide opento prot erosion from new competitors such as Google who thrive in xingbroken technology experiences. As the handset industry has learned, oncethey invite new players like Apple in, its impossible to regain their marketposition.

    Find out more:The 2013 mobileYouth Report

    Find the most relevant insights on youth mobile mark eting: http://www.mobileYouthReport.co m

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