The Changing Dynamics of Mobile Marketing

The mobile phone and its ubiquitous nature are the catalysts for many business opportunities today. One such business trend is mobile marketing. Technology advancements have sprung up new marketing communication channels like email, SMS and MMS; of which mobile marketing has really caught up. The mobile marketing channel was less in India-only 3-5% of the marketing budget was allocated to digital and less that 1% to mobile. But with the mobile phone gaining high reach in India, and due to CRM-like segmentation features and two-way engagement, the m-marketing game has picked up. Though m-marketing invades people's privacy and generates negative consumer reaction, it's still witnessing growth.

Says Sharat Satyanarayana, co-founder and director, marketing and services, Lakshmi Access Communications Systems (LACS), “The mobile market segment has definitely started opening up, however, 2 factors are preventing proper growth. First, lack of bandwidth (the operational launch of 3G might actually be the catalyst for this industry to boom) and secondly, non-standard phones invading the Indian market (with the overload of Chinese import mobile phones, it might not be easy for advertisers, aggregators or campaign service providers to ensure guaranteed quality and last mile delivery of mobile marketing content). At the moment mobile marketing seems restricted to SMS only, which is not very effective, as there isn't a proper feedback mechanism in terms of reach and acceptability. People are wary of SMS marketing, and it already seems to be considered as spam.”

According to Suresh Narasimha, founder and CEO, TeliBrahma, “The mobile marketing segment is evolving from 2 dimensions-Taking a share from the digital budget by enhancing the value from digital marketing efforts of brands, and taking a share from traditional budget. We see this as a huge growth area and an opportunity where mobile can become larger than digital. Technologies like Augmented Reality are making it happen.”

Mobile-optimized Location-based applications by incorporating location sharing to customer feeds and geo-location features have greater impact. Some mobile advertising companies send customers offers on their phones when they are near the store of a particular brand. At the higher end, the privileges, royalties and innovative services of location-based mobile phone services attract a lot of Indian members. Suresh Narasimha says, “I think mobile marketing has impacted consumers and brands alike. For consumers, unfortunately, there is more annoyance than the real value. But I think this is going to change as brands get serious about how to use mobile. For the brands there has been real results. 

Brands now feel their traditional media can be measured and engaged. Brands now feel brand communication to loyal consumer base can be made more effective. I think impact of mobile marketing would be felt lot more in 2011 by all parties concerned including traditional media, agencies and online agencies. I see most of them getting smarter and embracing the mobile phone to complement their offerings.”