In January, the College of Business Administration Northeastern University co-sponsored the Marketing Science Institute’s (MSI) Mobile Marketing Symposium that was held recently on December 4 and 5, 2008 in Boston. MSI is a non -profit organization that brings academe and industry together on marketing issues.
Prof. Fareena Sultan, Associate Prof. of Marketing and Robert Morrison Fellow at the CBA, Northeastern was co-chair of the symposium along with Prof Russell (Russ) Winer, Prof. at NYU and Executive Director of MSI. Dean Tom Moore of the CBA welcomed the participants and indicated that the CBA’s sponsorship of the symposium fits well with the strategic initiatives of the CBA that focuses on innovation and global issues.
Prof. Sultan and her colleague at Northeastern Prof. Andrew (Andy) Rohm have been conducting research related to the mobile platform for four years. Prof. Sultan states that “I thought that it was time to hold a conference that brings academe and industry together on issues related to Mobil Marketing. The US has been slow compared to Japan, Korea and Europe in adopting the mobile platform as well as mobile marketing initiatives. This device allows for communication features such as location specific messages as well as interactivity in a way that other media do not. Our research indicated that it was time to take a serious look at the platform which is far more personal to consumers than any other device and consumer attachment to mobile devices is unprecedented.”
Prof. Fareena Sultan, Associate Prof. of Marketing and Robert Morrison Fellow at the CBA, Northeastern was co-chair of the symposium along with Prof Russell (Russ) Winer, Prof. at NYU and Executive Director of MSI. Dean Tom Moore of the CBA welcomed the participants and indicated that the CBA’s sponsorship of the symposium fits well with the strategic initiatives of the CBA that focuses on innovation and global issues.
Prof. Sultan and her colleague at Northeastern Prof. Andrew (Andy) Rohm have been conducting research related to the mobile platform for four years. Prof. Sultan states that “I thought that it was time to hold a conference that brings academe and industry together on issues related to Mobil Marketing. The US has been slow compared to Japan, Korea and Europe in adopting the mobile platform as well as mobile marketing initiatives. This device allows for communication features such as location specific messages as well as interactivity in a way that other media do not. Our research indicated that it was time to take a serious look at the platform which is far more personal to consumers than any other device and consumer attachment to mobile devices is unprecedented.”
Prof. Sultan presented her research titled,
“Brand in the Hand: Global Research in Mobile Marketing”
Summary Points from Prof. Sultan’s talk:
“The mobile phone is a device that is unique in that consumer attachment to it is unprecedented. Not long ago, students in our Universities started walking around with their phones stuck to their ears, ignoring the world around them. If you ask these students what would happen if you lost your mobile phone, they make dramatic statements such as ‘it would feel like I my right hand was cut off’ or that ‘my best friend had died,’ or that ‘I had died!’ This attachment to mobile phones is what spurred my interest in studying mobile devices. As a marketing professor, I was curious how marketers could offer services to consumers through these devices that consumers are so attached to. The unprecedented attachment to this device means that the marketers have to have something of value that the consumer wants in order to reach them at this personal level.
Global brands such as adidas, Nike, Coca Cola, Volvo and many others have already engaged in mobile marketing. Clearly industry is ahead of academics in understanding this new medium. Statistics clearly show that half of the world population is now connected through a mobile phone and that technology is developing rapidly. Global brands have to think about not only the different cultures but also about the different, often incompatible, mobile standards and technologies around the globe.”
Mobile Marketing Research
One of the first research projects I worked on with Prof. Rohm involved Adidas in Amsterdam. We wrote a case study that focused on Adidas’s promotional activities around the Euro 2004 Football Championship. The challenge was how to reach consumers at the stadiums when there were many limitations about branded advertising. Mobile proved to be the successful answer. Other case studies were subsequently written focusing o the use of Mobile Marketing at the World Cup soccer championships. These cases are used in classes at Northeastern and other universities. The “Brand in the Hand" adidas case is a best seller at Ivey case publishing.
The Mobile Marketing Paradigm
he The mobile medium is different from other traditional mediums in two main ways: it is more location-specific and more interactive. In the US it is also purely permission-based marketing and not push marketing. This means that the consumer thinks, “If you can provide something of value, I would let you enter this private space of mine.”
Mobile marketing is a new marketing paradigm that if used effectively, can enhance brand awareness and positive attitudes towards the brand. For this reason, marketers need to understand what the emotional attachment to the device is, and how to provide value to the consumer in order to influence engagement and interaction with the brand. Privacy is a key issue when engaging in mobile marketing.
Our global research has shown that there are certain similarities between youth adoption of mobile marketing across developed and emerging economies. The most obvious similarity is usage characteristics. One clear difference is that users in emerging markets are more open to receiving promotional offers through their mobile phones than in the US.
Managerial Implications from Sultan and Rohm CBA NU research
-The medium is the message. If you are doing a mobile marketing promotion, it clearly says something about the innovativeness and “coolness” of your brand.
“Brand in the Hand: Global Research in Mobile Marketing”
Summary Points from Prof. Sultan’s talk:
“The mobile phone is a device that is unique in that consumer attachment to it is unprecedented. Not long ago, students in our Universities started walking around with their phones stuck to their ears, ignoring the world around them. If you ask these students what would happen if you lost your mobile phone, they make dramatic statements such as ‘it would feel like I my right hand was cut off’ or that ‘my best friend had died,’ or that ‘I had died!’ This attachment to mobile phones is what spurred my interest in studying mobile devices. As a marketing professor, I was curious how marketers could offer services to consumers through these devices that consumers are so attached to. The unprecedented attachment to this device means that the marketers have to have something of value that the consumer wants in order to reach them at this personal level.
Global brands such as adidas, Nike, Coca Cola, Volvo and many others have already engaged in mobile marketing. Clearly industry is ahead of academics in understanding this new medium. Statistics clearly show that half of the world population is now connected through a mobile phone and that technology is developing rapidly. Global brands have to think about not only the different cultures but also about the different, often incompatible, mobile standards and technologies around the globe.”
Mobile Marketing Research
One of the first research projects I worked on with Prof. Rohm involved Adidas in Amsterdam. We wrote a case study that focused on Adidas’s promotional activities around the Euro 2004 Football Championship. The challenge was how to reach consumers at the stadiums when there were many limitations about branded advertising. Mobile proved to be the successful answer. Other case studies were subsequently written focusing o the use of Mobile Marketing at the World Cup soccer championships. These cases are used in classes at Northeastern and other universities. The “Brand in the Hand" adidas case is a best seller at Ivey case publishing.
The Mobile Marketing Paradigm
he The mobile medium is different from other traditional mediums in two main ways: it is more location-specific and more interactive. In the US it is also purely permission-based marketing and not push marketing. This means that the consumer thinks, “If you can provide something of value, I would let you enter this private space of mine.”
Mobile marketing is a new marketing paradigm that if used effectively, can enhance brand awareness and positive attitudes towards the brand. For this reason, marketers need to understand what the emotional attachment to the device is, and how to provide value to the consumer in order to influence engagement and interaction with the brand. Privacy is a key issue when engaging in mobile marketing.
Our global research has shown that there are certain similarities between youth adoption of mobile marketing across developed and emerging economies. The most obvious similarity is usage characteristics. One clear difference is that users in emerging markets are more open to receiving promotional offers through their mobile phones than in the US.
Managerial Implications from Sultan and Rohm CBA NU research
-The medium is the message. If you are doing a mobile marketing promotion, it clearly says something about the innovativeness and “coolness” of your brand.
-Mangers should use universal appeals in mobile marketing such as sports and music, yet adapt for the local taste. Success in one market does not guarantee success in others.
-Mangers need to use cross-promotions in order to create awareness about mobile marketing campaigns and educate the consumer about what they can do with their mobile phones.
-Mangers need to recognize and respect privacy. Stress on trust-building through permission-based promotions. Control of the consumer-marketer interaction can be a significant driver for acceptance of mobile marketing promotions.
Other Summary Points from the MSI Symposium
-The mobile medium is seeing explosive growth that is projected to continue with about 30% CAGR. Innovations such as the iPhone and Google’s Android are heightening consumer interest and industry activity related to Mobile Marketing
-Marketers need to be cognizant of personal attachment of consumers to mobile phones. Consumer behavior and specifically the emotional attachment that people exhibit towards their mobile phones is a unique phenomenon to this medium
-It is of paramount importance to draw a model of the mobile ecosystem. This should include all players (networks, handset makers, marketers, users, etc) and the techno-economic interrelationships. An ecosystem model is vital for understanding where value is in the system and how business models affect the behavior of the players.
-Fragmentation is a major barrier to adoption of mobile technologies. Today carriers worldwide, and within a country follow different standards, and this coupled with over 300 different handset models and thousands of applications makes it extremely hard to standardize.
-The lack of understanding of the mobile consumer, coupled with the fragmentation of the industry prevents tapping the huge potential of mobile devices.
-Managers have to be very careful about privacy issues. However, the debate is shifting from a privacy debate to a question about the value proposition to the consumer. Furthermore, demographic segments such as Gen Y do not have a strong opinion about privacy.
-The industry needs to establish a common currency for mobile analytics. This has to do above all with media buying, similarly to what Google Analytics did for online advertising.
-Companies have to execute mobile campaigns globally. With over 3 billion sets around the world, companies have to run localized and personalized programs that are scalable globally and that address cultural and infrastructural differences. -However, for some companies a global mobile campaign can require up to 65 different mobile networks in tens of countries, which makes costs and implementation very complex and few advertisers are willing to experiment. Again, the demand is standardization of standards in order to achieve scale and thus facilitate adoption.
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