Another effective tool for marketers

Mahendra Gautama, Contributor, Jakarta

In the 1920s, when John Logie Baird first demonstrated television and video cassette, he was fully aware that his invention would have a great impact on both the media and entertainment world. What he probably did not realize was that one day television could be turned into a powerful medium for marketing.

Similarly, Vint Cerf and other pioneers of the Internet in the 1970s might not have realized that the e-mail they had created would soon be used as one of the effective and efficient marketing tools.

A study of voice and wireless commerce conducted by The Kelsey Group and ConStat Incorporated further confirmed that wireless phones would indeed join newspapers, radio and television as a sponsored delivery medium for information, shopping and entertainment services. Hence, Mobile marketing (M-marketing) was born.

M-marketing has been made possible by one of the sophisticated technologies in telecommunication: the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) along with its Short Message Service (SMS), which today are phenomenal successes in the telecommunications industry.

The SMS was the first medium used by major corporations for their M-marketing. The McDonald restaurant-chain, for example, used it in 2001 by introducing its McSMS program in Italy, England and Sweden. The result was impressive, as in just ten weeks McDonald acquired 220,000 new customers.

However, marketers soon became dissatisfied with SMS, as one of its shortcomings was the limited number of words that could be sent. So, it was not surprising that the arrival of General Packet Radio System (GPRS) was enthusiastically welcomed.

By using the GPRS technology users are constantly connected and only pay for the amount of data they send. GPRS, also known as 2.5 Generation, also enables much faster data transfer -- 115 kilobytes per second -- which is 10 times quicker than the conventional GSM.

The GPRS has certainly opened up newer horizons in M- marketing, as it has greatly improved the quality of messages from text only to picture messages, enhanced messages (text plus sound, pictures and various text formatting enhancements) as well as multimedia messaging (rich multiple media formats comprising video, audio plus text etc.).

The key technologies underlying these new applications and the newer innovative services that will emerge in the not-too-distant future are EMS (Enhanced Messaging System) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging System).

Naturally, compared with the conventional text message, the EMS and MMS technologies make the messages more emotional, interactive and measurable. The messages, next to building awareness, makes it possible for continued dialogue for customer retention. With the broader bandwidth of GPRS, it is also possible for marketers to apply a totally integrated marketing communications, which means consistency of advertising messages in all kinds of media, including those sent to their customers' mobile phones.

Realizing the potentials of GPRS in M-marketing, major manufacturers of cell phones have also enhanced their products with the entire up-to-date compatible features.

Apart from all the latest technology in telecommunications, all the GPRS, EMS and MMS will not mean much if marketers do not understand consumers' attitudes and behavior related to M- marketing.

A relevant survey conducted by Nokia in 2002, titled "M- marketing: An end-user perspective", revealed what goes on in the consumers' minds, called the 4 C's. These were: Choice -- to be able to decide whether or not to receive messages; Control -- to be able to bypass sales messages easily; Customization -- to be able to tailor the types of message received; and CQuid pro quo -- to get something beneficial in return, namely reduced prices for products and services offered.

So far, history has proven that marketing is behind the success of various communications and entertainment media, like radio, television and the Internet. Likewise, the emergence of GPRS, along with its highly enhanced messaging, offers tremendous opportunities for M-marketing.