Mobile Marketing Guide:
Using Handsets to Drive Sales Imagine a sales channel that provides direct access to more than two billion consumers worldwide.
Mobile phone service offers businessto- business (B2B) and business-toconsumer (B2C) merchants new and better ways to promote their brands, interact with existing and potential customers, and process sales.
The number of mobile phone subscribers worldwide recently surpassed the number of wireline phone subscribers. Consumers and enterprises are increasingly making mobile phones their only phones. The percentage of wireless users in the U.S. who have disconnected from their landline phone service is approaching 10%.
The mobile phone is one of the most successful high-tech products in history. The number of mobile phones sold in 2005 is estimated at over 800 million dwarfing the number of personal computers shipped during the same period.
Mobile phones are changing the way people shop. Mobile phone and Internet technologies are being combined to create new services. For example, mobile subscribers can search for local retailers, access ticket information, and securely make purchases.
Mobile phone services are ubiquitous and affordable. Mobile phone service is available in more than 210 countries and costs as little as $10 per month. With approximately 2.2 billion mobile phone subscribers worldwide4, roughly one-third of the world's inhabitants now have mobile phones. A leading market analyst firm predicts 3 billion mobile phone subscribers worldwide by 20105. The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) estimates there are 204 million mobile subscribers in the U.S. alone.
People take their mobile phones with them everywhere just like their car keys and wallets or purses. And no wonder. Mobile handsets deliver hours of talk time and days of standby operation on a single battery charge.
Mobile phones aren't just for making phone calls. The vast majority of today's mobile phones support text messaging. Consumers can use text messages to access promotions, enter contests, and buy products and services. Merchants can use text messages to send customers reminders, perform quick surveys, and deliver sales receipts.
Mobile phones are available with integrated digital cameras, music players, and PDAs. The mobile phone industry has begun its long-awaited migration to third generation (3G) wireless technology promising robust Internet access and multimedia communications. 3G services are available or rolling out in all major U.S. cities.
Meanwhile, advertising in traditional media is in decline. According to one source, while newspaper and free TV advertising budgets grew less than 2% in 2005, advertising budgets for cable TV and Internet increased 15%.
Advertisers recognize that new digital media offer the precision targeting and interactivity that traditional media lack.
Mobile phone trends
Placing and receiving phone calls is still the top mobile application. However, text messaging is skyrocketing. By 2004, more than 500 billion text messages were being sent per year to and from mobile phones.
Though wireless data services were slow to take off, content downloads are now common. Popular downloads include games; mobile ringtones, which customize the sound a phone makes when it rings; and wallpapers, which are pictures that appear on the mobile phone's screen. 3G services are being launched in Asia, North America, and Europe; faster networks make it easy for mobile phone users to download songs and stream videos. Mobile commerce is growing rapidly.
Today it's dominated by ringtones, games, and wallpapers. Mobile ticketing for movies, concerts and transportation is poised for dramatic growth. Shrewd Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs, covered later in this guide) such as Amp'd Mobile are making movie ticketing the centerpiece of their entertainment offering.
Mobile phone billing systems are ideal for handling micropayments transactions worth up to $3 or $4 each. Mobile game, ringtone, and wallpaper purchases are added to the user's mobile phone bill. New techniques will allow mobile users to buy items from vending machines with their mobile phones. Solution include sending a text message to the vending machine; displaying a paymentauthorizing bar code on the phone's screen; and swiping the mobile phone near a reader (much like a credit card) using a technology known as Near Field Communications (NFC).
Another application would enable users to hail taxis using mobile phones and location detecting technology; a small hailing fee would be added to the mobile phone bill.
