Current Issues in Mobile Marketing - Coursework Example

Current Issues in Marketing and Section # of Mobile Marketing INTRODUCTION The worldof marketing is a very happening place, thanks to the ever changing society and its inhabitants. This is because whenever there is a change of demand from the customer side, the suppliers have to mould their operations, businesses and products in such a way which ultimately meets these new demands, or else they will lose in the race for a competitive advantage. As times move ahead, the customer becomes more and more sophisticated and oriented towards technology. The booming generation has been born with technology and have never seen life without it. In such times, it is imperative for any organization to align their practices, policies and marketing attempts to the needs, wants and convenience of their customers so as to put maximum impact on the target audience about their product or company. Therefore, the marketers of today should have a hawks eye on any new marketing trends and issues so that they can be adopted and addressed respectively and so that they benefit the marketing activities of the product to the maximum possible. The current issues in marketing are those which have not been that prevalent/popular or even existent a year ago, and this is where the need for spotlight on them arises. Marketers in the making need to have a close look at these current issues so that they can incorporate them in their marketing practices when they step into the practical life. Not just those in the making, but it is essential for current established marketers to be flexible for these current issues so as to provide the best marketing services to the product or company. Rationale for Mobile Marketing When the mobile phone was initially invented, it was done so for the purpose of wireless communication and was used specifically for emergencies or when someone had to travel. But with the passage of time, dependence on the mobile phone has increased as this little device has become more than just a means of communication for emergency purposes. The mobile phone has become a very interactive medium, with the invention of other services like SMS (Short Message Service), MMS (Multimedia Message Service) and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service). These services have increased the attractiveness of this little piece of phone and opened many horizons and opportunities for marketers. This can be said because the mobile phone is a device which is present with the owner 24/7. It is not a television, which is seen only when time is available or the newspaper, which is read once its got hold of. It is the mobile phone, which is individually owned by every single person and they keep it. Therefore, access is unlimited and the user is bound to go through any SMS or mms that hits their cell phone, thereby increasing the chances of attention that a particular marketing attempt will get in the eyes of the target audience. (Salter, 2007) With passing time, the popularity of the mobile phone marketing is ever increasing and this rate is not getting stagnant. In the year 2008 only, it has been reported that over 89% of businesses will be considering marketing through using the mobile phone. At times, the issue in this type of marketing often gets raised that the users of mobile phones are bombarded with unwanted advertisements and marketing efforts, something that stands as a boulder to the important messages that they might be waiting for. It was even regarded as "spam", a term popularly known for email, but can be used when the customers are abused by unwanted content in any other media as well. But in some parts of the world, mobile marketing through using the SMS facility has been made a legal act to do, and therefore, this increases the opportunities for all marketers as they can now reach their optimal potential in marketing without worrying about harming laws. (Goswami, 2008) Mobile marketing can take many forms: they can be done through MMS, through sponsoring the games that are available in a cell phone, through advertising on the pages that are specifically designed to be opened through the cell phone, through other mediums available within the cell phone like Bluetooth and infrared, it can be done based on the location the customer is present with, or as per the demand and needs of the customer known as user controlled media, or through the relatively new concept of mobile viral marketing, where advertising and marketing of a specific product is done by the consumers themselves as they "forward" these messages to people of their social circle. Thus, as it can be seen in the above mentioned lines that mobile marketing can take many forms and its popularity is rising by the day. Businesses need to realize this and take into account the unlimited opportunities that it is offering to them in terms of enhancing the marketing impact of their product/service and/or company. (Hesselborn, 2007) Relevance to Marketing Profession The marketing profession aims to make efforts which helps in getting the product/service/company get noticed in the eyes of the target audience in a favourable way and so as to put the maximum impact in their minds about what the product stands for, that is, its brand equity, and to make sure that the product is remembered as the top-of-the-mind brand whenever that product category is mentioned. Its about letting the target audience know the brand personality of the product, its about promoting the product in the best and the most attractive way possible, it is about distributing the product in an effective manner, and it is about simply maintaining a healthy relationship with existing customers. This definition means that the marketer needs to be alert at all times to the unique ways in which they can market their product. They need to be all open for out-of-the-box ideas and let their creativity juices flow quite often. Getting stagnant and marketing just through orthodox channels of communication is unlikely to get the product noticed, unless and until the idea behind the advertisement is pure brilliance. And nowadays, brilliance is rare and goodness is common. Thus, it is a clever idea to chose a rare medium and put an impact on the target audience through that as it will always be remembered by the viewer. (Barnes, 2007) Secondly, the fact that it is important to be able to reach various types of target audience through a single channel of communication. If we take the example of television, there are numerous channels dedicated to different age groups and people with varying interests. Therefore, when a certain marketer wants to advertise to a target audience which consists of children, they buy airtime on a channel dedicated to kids, because they know that only children will watch it. But in the case of a mobile phone, there are no separate mobile channels. Every mobile phone is the same. And thus, the question often arises that is mobile marketing only for teenagers, the age group among whom the usage of mobile phones is the most popular. The answer to the question is no. Mobile marketing can be targeted at all age groups. This is because mobile phone is such a personal possession that all attempts to market a product through the mobile phone are personally seen by the owner themselves and this remains the case irrespective of the age of the owner. An instance of mobile marketing for non-teenagers is the mobile company Myxer.com, which serves music lovers aged above 34 via the mobile by sending them wallpapers, screensavers, games, ringtones etc. Therefore, it can be safely said that the baby boomers (born between 1946 and early 60s) as well as Generation Xers (1965 - 1980) can be easily reached via the mobile phone. (Bayne, 2007) Another relevance to the marketing profession is the advantage of knowing the fact that the marketing message has been received by the user, thanks to the notification alerts that can be received when a message has been sent. This notification message tells the marketer that his message has been received by the user's handset. Moreover, in many cases, the marketing message is very interactive in the sense that it might request the user to reply with various numbers for various options, thus the marketer even gets the response from the target audience on an immediate basis and ultimately also gets to know whether the response was favourable or unfavourable and what exactly was the response. (Haig, 2007) Lastly, in the marketing profession, sometimes it gets important to be able to reach a certain specific audience only rather than send the message to a huge mass. This convenience has been well provided by mobile marketing. The marketer knows exactly whom he is messaging when he does so, which helps him in allocating their budget efficiently. Aspects of Marketing Theory Applicable to Mobile Marketing Marketing theory consists of the four P's of marketing, which are the product, price, place and promotion. When we take each P individually, they contribute to the marketing mix, which is called an "offer" to the customer. (Crush, 2007) As the product is the focus of our attention in mobile marketing, let us throw some light on the subject. In the product, there are three parts, the core product, the actual product and the extended product. Using mobile marketing, a company can demonstrate all three aspects of their products in an interactive and multimedia way. If the messages are designed to be response oriented, then the company will also get to know what colour, size and packaging style of the product are more popular with the target audience, thus helping them in making their future manufacturing decisions. Moreover, it is a very good advertising medium for products which are unsought like encyclopaedias etc. But on another note, they can also be treated as spam by the user because the product is already unsought and if the customer is bombarded with advertising attempts of this product, then he is bound to get irritated at one point in time. Another factor which should be noted for the product component of the marketing mix is that mobile marketing is usually business-to-consumer and hardly it is business-to-business. This is because a business cannot have a single uniform mobile phone number. And thus, mobile marketing is usually aimed for individual consumer marketing, where the business has to sell to the end user, rather than to another business. Furthermore, when the product life cycle is studied, it can be said that mobile marketing is favourable for products which are in the introduction stage and need to make the transition to the growth stage. Marketing through the mobile will enhance their reputation and thus, help them make this move easily. If a company has a big product portfolio then they need not use mobile marketing for all their products, rather they can use it for their Question Marks (as in the BCG Matrix), which will help them in becoming Stars. Branding a product always helps as it gives the product its own unique position in the market, helps the product in realizing what USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is, and what is its brand equity. But brand building is the real challenge for marketers in the world of today's ever increasing competition. Thus direct marketing efforts like mobile marketing, where personal and direct communication with the customer helps build the brand image should be used. (Dushinski, 2008) If new product development is discussed, then product testing through market testing can be done via mobile marketing. If, suppose, the product is a new game, the customer can be sent the game on his mobile and asked to play it, requesting for a response on the game later. Thus, mobile marketing is an easy way of market testing for some products. In addition to that, the first stage in the new product adoption process is awareness, which can be very well given using mobile marketing. In terms of promotion, another component of the marketing mix, it can be said that mobile marketing is a sub component of direct marketing, which is not face-to-face, yet it is personal, one-to-one and interactive with the customer. (Paula, 2007) Marketing Profession Amending their Current Practice The marketing profession is an evolving profession. It continuously keeps on amending itself, bringing changes within its domain so as to suit the current times and match the level of sophistication of the customer. The only amendment that the marketing profession needs to bring is the incorporation of the idea of mobile marketing within their marketing budgets. It is a known fact that there is always a struggle between the finance and the marketing department because the marketing people have big ideas for marketing which requires high amount of resources, whereas, on the other hand, the finance people are bent upon restricting the budget of the marketing people as much as they can. Within this struggle for budget approval, another domain has to be squeezed by the marketers if they want to put the maximum impact on their target audience and not be left behind by other companies who are wholeheartedly accepting the concept of mobile marketing. (Crush, 2007) There are various ways, even within the domain of mobile marketing, in which the companies can now start communicating about their product. Companies can give away download items, which is really popular among people and consists of wallpapers, ringtones. These download items should be designed keeping in mind the tastes and likes of the target audience, which must've been studied during the product launch phase. Moreover, whenever the company has organized a public event, especially for its target audience, it should make a special web page for the event, a web page which will open on mobile phones only and then market that web page. Thus, the customers will be better able to know the details of the event and it will promote the goodwill of the company in facilitating the customer with such a handy way of being up-to-date about the company's event. Another way can be of building a mobile shop, where the customer can instantly order goods. (Dushinski, 2008) CONCLUSION In conclusion, it can be said that the future of mobile marketing is very bright. It is a very recent phenomenon and helps the company in very closely interacting with the audience, closer than any other medium can provide. Mobile marketing is seen as an alien concept among the marketers of today and they often get worried about harming the reputation of the company if they try to do mobile marketing. But if done intelligently, mobile marketing can have a very good impact. All the marketer needs to do is learn the fundamentals of mobile marketing, they need to be equipped with the fact that mobile cannot be used as a "push" marketing tool, rather it is a "pull" marketing tool, totally dependent on the consumer. And then a strategy needs to be developed, after which the necessary action should be taken. Mobile marketing is best used when integrated with other marketing tools and cannot be used in isolation and therefore, should be used very carefully. In time, mobile marketing might take quite a lot of space on the marketer's budget, which is a proof of the importance this new medium carries. References 1. Salter, Ben (2007) Mobile Marketing: Achieving Competitive Advantage through Wireless Technology. Published by: Butterworth-Heinemann 2. Haig, Matt (2007) Mobile Marketing: The Message Revolution. Published by:Kogan Page 3. Bayne, Kim (2007) Marketing Without Wires. Published by: John Wiley & Sons Inc. 4. Barnes, Stuart (2007) Unwired Business. Published by: IGI 5. Paula, Rejane (2007) Mobile Marketing: Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies and Case Studies. Published by: Rheinische Fachhochsch 6. Crush, Peter. (2007) The Little Book of Mobile Marketing. Published by: Haymarket Business Publications. 7. Hesselborn, Oliver. (2007) The Basic Book of Mobile Marketing: Secrets of Success. Published by: Ocean Seven Consulting 8. Dushinski, Kim (2008) 3 Steps to Get Started with Mobile Marketing. Retrieved July 28, 2008, Web site: www.mobilemarketingprofits.com 9. (2008) Your Daily Fix of Entrepreneurial Ideas. Retrieved July 28, 2008. Web sit: www.springwise.com 10. Goswami, Chris (2008) Target Practice. Retrieved July 28, 2008. Mobile Advertising. Website: www.mobilemarketingmagazine.co.uk Read More