Mobile Messaging: Applications and Implications
Today’s mobile technologies offer more communication options and more consumer control–and more confusion. The proliferation of downloadable podcasts, mobile Internet, phones with photo capabilities, and MP3 devices opens up even more opportunities to grab a consumer’s attention. Mobile text sent via short message service (SMS) and video sent via multimedia service (MMS) can deliver broadcast-media-level impact with messages targeted to individuals. Text messaging, once thought of as a vehicle of “the young people,” is now a foundation of cell-phone culture just as instant messaging has become critical to communicating alongside e-mail.
While these choices are new and exciting, they also pose new challenges to multichannel marketers as we seek to discover
• which devices will consumers gravitate to over the next decade
• which particular devices will consumers be receptive to with regard to permission-based marketing messages
• whether customer information will be available to allow clear distinction among devices
• the best practices–and cautionary tales–for communicating directly to consumers via mobile technologies
• which devices and channels will provide an audience scale large enough to be meaningful to the marketing plan
• how these devices/channels will compare with other options when it comes to cost per order and average order value
• how easy or difficult it will be to follow a consumer as he carries out a shopping encounter across channels–for example, researching a product at a kiosk, receiving a promotion via SMS, making a purchase through a Website, or exchanging a product and making a repurchase (with an upsell) in a store
• how easily a consumer who falls out of the shopping encounter can be reclaimed
• and finally, what will marketers need to know to keep up.
With the protection of privacy a major concern across marketing channels, what are the implications for marketers jumping on the mobile technology bandwagon? And where should marketers focus their attention?
Mobile messaging solutions: Where do marketers fit in?
Gartner estimated wireless penetration to be about 67% at the end of 2005 in the United States, with the potential to reach 85% by the end of 2009. Forrester claims that of those who own cell phones, more than 80% of them use SMS.
While the U.S. still lags significantly behind Western Europe and some Asian economies in wireless penetration and SMS and MMS usage, we are beginning to see a critical mass that is capturing the attention of marketers. As more individuals choose wireless options as their sole means of communication, we can expect the temptation for marketers to use mobile channels to rise.
Messaging via SMS or MMS can be used in many of the same ways e-mail is used today. Consider how people vote for their favorite “American Idol” contestant or complete online surveys. Consumers are beginning to use mobile means to access flight times, movie times, restaurant locations, and more.
Today’s cell-phone culture includes the emergence of customized screen shots, ring tones, and ring-back tones. Marketers can leverage mobile customization, offering something brand related in return for a text-messaging opt-in or presenting a game with clues for which the answers are provided in-store. Retailers can use mobile messaging to inform opted-in customers that a new catalog is coming soon, with the new seasonal line now in stores. For consumers, the future may include viewing and buying merchandise in a way that is similar to today’s online transactions. Here marketers could offer similar incentives as they would with e-mail, such as free shipping, and through an arrangement with a carrier, item purchases could be directly invoiced to a customer’s phone bill.
Consider that some U.S. supermarkets are setting up opt-in, in-store mobile messaging that sends “deals of the day” aisle by aisle to customer mobile devices. And preference-driven global positioning systems will make a localized permission-based play. Imagine that while walking downtown Suzie Consumer receives a text message telling her that the leather coat she had been eying at the department store across the street has just been marked down. This is a powerful potential in one-to-one marketing.
Text messaging, gaming, voting, news, and advertising messages can be personalized with pictures, sounds, animation, and streaming video. The possibilities for multichannel marketing are seemingly as limitless as the imagination. But for today’s marketers, privacy and permission need to be of top concern.
Marketing implications: enthusiasm tempered
Privacy advocates have raised concerns regarding proper notice and consent to receive mobile messages. In the U.S., lawmakers are applying existing telecommunications and e-marketing law to govern mobile marketing. Regulations are changing the landscape of best practices around customer information collection, usage, and storage. It is critical to ask (and ask again) for customer opt-in. The regulations are specific and clear:
• Under the federal Can-Spam Act, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was authorized to create regulations governing wireless e-mail.
• Commercial e-mail may not be transmitted to wireless phones without a recipient’s “express prior authorization.” Such authorization may be written, oral, or electronic but must contain certain FCC-required disclosures and is not transferable among affiliates. (Best practice says all permissions should be logged with a time/date stamp.)
• Exceptions for “express prior authorization” exist for transactional e-mails sent to wireless devices, but marketers should nonetheless be cautious and may wish to gather prior permission here anyway.
E-mail to wireless devices No marketer may send a commercial message to a consumer’s wireless e-mail account unless it has been given explicit permission–either orally, on paper, or electronically–before the message is sent. This applies to wireless accounts, such as cellular phone provider accounts. The ban does not, however, include e-mail that consumers may choose to access from wireless devices. For example, if Suzie Consumer were to set up her desktop computer to forward all e-mails to her cell phone, those messages are not covered by this rule.
The rules cover only messages that are deemed commercial–a Can-Spam Act term that means that the main purpose is to advertise or promote a commercial product or service. The rules do not cover noncommercial messages, such as messages about candidates for public office. The rules also do not include “transactional messages” such as messages from a company about the status of an existing account that a consumer has with a company.
To obtain permission to send a wireless consumer a commercial message, a marketer must identify the name of the entity that will send the message as well as the name of the entity whose products or services will be advertised, if these are indeed different from the sender. Even after a consumer has given permission to a person or entity for commercial messages, he can stop receiving future commercial messages from that sender at any time by using an “opt out” e-mail address or Website given by the sender for that specific purpose. If a consumer gives a marketer permission to contact him with commercial messages through another method, such as by dialing a short code on a cell phone, the marketer must also give the consumer the opportunity to reject future messages by similar means.
Text messages to wireless devices According to a study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, Associated Press, and AOL, 18% of cell-phone users report getting text-message spam on their phones.
Text messages that are sent through what appears to be an e-mail address also must be in compliance with the aforementioned rules about wireless e-mail. Most types of text messages, however, are sent from one cell phone to another and are not covered by the Can-Spam Act. Here, other existing rules apply.
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the National Do-Not-Call (DNC) Registry already provide certain protections to wireless-phone subscribers. For example, no entity may use an automatic dialing machine to call a consumer’s wireless phone number–including to send a text message to that telephone number–unless the consumer has given prior express permission for the call. There is an exception for calls made for an emergency purpose, such as calls necessary to protect the health and safety of consumers. There also is a limited exception that allows cell-phone companies to contact their own subscribers.
If a consumer has registered his cell-phone number on the National DNC Registry (which many consumers do even though it is unnecessary, since outbound telemarketing to cell phones already is prohibited), no entity may make a telephone solicitation to that telephone number. Again, the only exception is if the cell-phone subscriber has given prior express permission for the solicitation. Further, if Suzie Consumer tells a company directly not to call again, even if she has a business relationship with the company the company is prohibited from calling with solicitations.
While privacy and permission have their regulatory requirements, marketers also need to be cognizant and cautious when designing and implementing a mobile marketing communication campaign for cultural reasons. Best practices remain a work in progress, and every aspect of a campaign needs to be tested.
With any new technology, consumer acceptance is far from a foregone conclusion. Frequency of messages, for example, is a critical concern and may vary from campaign to campaign based on context. How often a periodic opt-out message is sent to program participants is another area where the cultural rules of the road have yet to emerge. Use of mobile technology for testing “transaction related” messaging may be an efficient way to test the waters among consumers.
With mobile technology poised to become a significant player in every marketer’s advertising mix, marketers must respond with multichannel knowledge, tools, and expertise to make it all come together. As in other channels, success in mobile messaging begins with recognition for the rights and expectations of the consumer–and that means seeking permission and respecting consumers’ channel preferences.
Wendy Lynes is vertical practice leader, retail markets, for Harte-Hanks, a San Antonio, T-based provider of direct marketing services and shopper advertising opportunities. She can be reached at [email protected].
