Unique marketing proposition of Mobile

Durgesh Gupta - Televisionpoint.com | Mumbai
The next time you send an 'I am hungry' SMS to your friend, don't be surprised if you see an icon of the delicious McDonald's burger flashing on your mobile screen.

Or if you receive an SMS saying that your favourite neighbourhood apparel store has got some fresh stock on display or an SMS, which edifies that the most famous restaurant of the city has added some mouth-watering dishes to their menu, chances are that you have just been hit by a yet another marketing gimmick – just that this time the medium is your very own mobile phone.

What was once considered as a mere third screen, mobile handsets have emerged as a unique marketing proposition – an advertising tool to reach the target audience in a particular demographic more accurately. With 267 million mobile phones in India growing at the rate of 8.3 million phones per month, there is little doubt that companies are busy leveraging mobile marketing as a tool to promote their products and services.

Chaitanya Nallan, CEO, Gingersoft Media, believes that mobile marketing is nothing but a ubiquitous tool to market on the mobile phone. "As a medium, compared to the Internet, mobile is much more powerful. I can reach you wherever you are because mobile is with you all the time," he says.

Echoes Shishir Sharma, Director, Business and operations, Active Media Technology, "With the mobile phone being in virtually every hand, mobile marketing is the future of advertising. Companies have realised the reach of this medium and are using it to generate leads, giving loyalty rewards and free downloadable content."

A few mobile marketing companies follow the concept of permission-based messaging, whereby the customers register themselves with the advertiser pointing out their areas of interests; but for a majority, there is an absolute free run in the market. The marketer has no restrictions from TRAI either. All they have to ensure is that the customer is not listed on TRAI's Do-not-disturb list.

Figures reveal that the ad spends on mobile stood at around Rs 10 crore in 2007 marking an increase from Rs 5-6 crore in 2006. This proves to be more cost-effective when compared to Rs 200 crore spent on online advertising in 2007 – considering the fact that mobile has deeper penetration as compared to Internet. Where online advertising focuses on an interactive audience, mobile marketing has a wider audience base and is more effective in reaching the exact customer.

Jagdeep Kapoor, CMD, Samsika Marketing, avers, "Mobile marketing is cost effective because the message reaches the audience directly." Rajiv Hiranandani, CEO, Mobile2Win, states, "Clicks in this medium are around 5-8% and outperform the clicks in the Internet medium."

With new and unconventional forms of marketing germinating, the marketers too are not hesitant in experimenting with them. According to Sharma, every sector is in the trial stage. However he says, "financial sector is making good use of mobile marketing."

Adds Hiranandani, "Predominantly financial, FMCG, auto, travel and retail are more curious about mobile marketing." The balance is definitely tilting more towards the positives indicating that mobile marketing indeed has tremendous potential.

With a market size of around Rs 25-30 crore, the phenomena is expected to reach Rs.100 crore by March 2009. The industry has all the ingredients it takes to become a full-fledged medium in itself. However, don't make the mistake of assuming that it has the wherewithal to replace traditional mass media.

Agrees Harish Bijoor, Brand Analyst, "It's a small part of the entire multi-media & multi-model media delivery mechanisms that clutters our marketing lives."

However, Hiranandani differs, "The very fact that this medium offers access to a potential base of 300 million consumers including a huge youth audience, an uncluttered medium and an interactive marketing tool makes it the most effective marketing channel for the years to come."

Seconds Sharma, who feels that although "mobile marketing is in its initial phase in India but holds great potential and will definitely be a main stream medium for advertisers to reach their target audience."

Because of its wider reach and cost effectiveness, mobile marketing is picking up more with medium and small sized firms. Prophesies Bijoor, "SMEs love this model fundamentally because this medium is 1:1 centered and is cost efficient, the advertiser can decide how much to market, to whom to market and with what intensity to market. The control lever is with the marketer. More he uses, more he pays."

Companies like mGinger operate mainly out of two cities – Hyderabad & Bangalore, thereby providing impetus to the local players to leverage the advantages of this medium to reach their target audience. "Most of our clients are local businessmen & service providers," says Nallan.

Not only is mobile marketing an economical tool in the hands of marketers, but its effectiveness too can be evaluated very easily. Says Sharma, "Since all downloads and SMS replies are trackable, evaluating effectiveness is much better in mobile marketing compared to other conventional marketing methods."

Adds Hiranandani, "Mobile marketing has measurable parameters such as number of views into the brands WAP site, number of clicks on the brands WAP banner and number of games downloads of an advergame or a branded game."

Be that as it may, this form of marketing is still a relatively new concept and makes up for a relatively small portion of the clients' marketing spend. There are various speed-breakers, which are obscuring the path of marketers.

States Sharma, "As we move to richer content, GPRS connectivity is a challenge. Besides, there is no customer profiling available in the Indian market whereby an advertiser could use the medium more effectively while choosing the base to advertise."

Adds Nallan, "Main challenge is from spammers. Spam messages have a low price band and take away our business."

Spam or no spam, it is obvious that mobile marketing is indeed an effective tool in the hands of small, local players, who want to reach out to their target audience, without incurring heavy expenditures associated with traditional mass media.