THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Botha Lebepe
CEO: Tsoko Information Technology

 South African mobile network operators and value-added service (VAS) providers have spent a decade and a half building physical infrastructure and gaining market share. Their campaigns have been so effective that there are now more mobile phones in South Africa than there are people, and one seldom hears of anyone being out of cellphone signal range anymore.

One forecast, by the Wireless Federation, has indicated that South Africa’s subscriber base will increase from 49 million (102% of the population) in 2008 to 55.3 million (111.9% of the population) in 2010. Emerging market statistics are almost as impressive. A recent survey of 34 emerging nations by Tariff Consultancy predicted that mobile penetration in the developing world is likely to grow from 46% in 2008 to 95% by 2013.

With this in mind, mobile marketing is potentially a powerful marketing tool – especially when marketers want to reach highly segmented target groups. The databases and usage patterns available to South African mobile operators are a veritable treasure trove of consumer intelligence. Unfortunately, up to now, this market intelligence has been under-utilised. Mobile communication as a whole is immediate and intimate.

This applies to voice and data communication in the personal and commercial spheres. For most traditional marketing channels, there has always been a trade-off between the reach of a channel and its richness (the depth of information it can carry, and the extent to which that information is personalised).

Never before has a channel with such broad reach been able to provide the amount of richness (personalisation and relevant detail through effective segmentation) that the mobile channel can.

The immediacy of mobile marketing is a boon to marketers who want to know for certain that consumers will see their messages, and want to orchestrate the timing of a message to fit in with other, perhaps more traditional, marketing efforts. The intimacy of the medium is potentially either a pinnacle or a pitfall; its intimacy will evoke a strong emotional response from the cellphone user, one way or the other. The cellphone has become a highly personalised object – an expression of personal taste, style and culture. From the consumer’s perspective, “You’d better be giving me something I am interested in if you’re going to get this close to me!”

The richness of customer data means that, in theory, highly relevant promotional materials should be sent to end users any time a mobile marketing machine gets fired up.

For example, a female student who buys airtime regularly is likely to be excited by a big sale at one of her favourite clothing chains. However, a middle-aged male farmer is likely to be highly irritated by the same message – often to the point of a written complaint and passing the word to his fellow consumers. For better or worse, mobile marketing is very effective – so make sure you know what you’re doing before you send out mass SMS or MMS-based marketing messages. For all the good you could do, you could also cause irreparable damage to your brand.

The pressure on businesses to leverage more revenue from less budget is high. Marketing teams are under pressure to provide measurable returns for marketing spend. The relative cost-efficiency of mobile marketing when compared with other, traditional media, makes it a truly viable option to reach target markets and to help keep the wolves from the door during tough times. However, the enthusiasm for the channel must be tempered with a wise approach, and a willingness to spend that little bit extra to make sure your messages get to the right people.