The mobile channel is maturing rapidly, mobile marketing will be the next big push, and it brings the consumer closer to the product. Many brands started their mobile marketing platform in 2008 for brand awareness generation, prospecting and lead generation, acquisition, loyalty management, and customer care, some of them even spent at least one-quarter of their marketing budgets on mobile marketing activities.

There following is a SWOT analysis of mobile marketing for the coming future.

Strengths

• Most personal marketing channel available on the marketing, is one to one market
• Measurable for ROI purposes
• Completely permission-based, with opt-in required for marketing txt messages
• Most powerful loyalty marketing tool, we can offer customer a mobile coupon at anytime
• Booming in the sales of Smartphone with Internet capability

Weaknesses

• Perception problem, most of the brands not familiar with this new media platform
• User experience with the Internet on mobile not ideal – knowledge of users, screen size, keypad and network speeds
• Lack of standards across platforms and carriers
• Uncontrollable, highly depends on major carriers (eg, AT&T, Verizon, Wireless, T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel in US)
• Inadequate outreach to advertising agencies and media buyers

Opportunities

• Provide more channels other than store, online, TV, radio, print and billboards
• Mobile has database marketing. Marketers must have mobile loyalty program to complement both online and offline marketing campaign
• More SMS text marketing offers and alerts to opted-in consumers in database. Make the short code common
• More quality content on mobile as many publishers launch mobile editions. More room for targeted ads
• Mobile marketing jumpstarts mobile commerce sales

Threats

• Mobile is treated as experimental budget
• Mobile marketing service providers hibernate, cut marketing outreach to world -- and then complain why they are ignored in media-buying decisions
• Carriers increase commercial SMS delivery fees to opted-in subscribers. Will kill legitimate SMS marketing
• Legislation to enforce consumer protection on privacy, security, unsolicited messages, location-based ads, misleading advertising and children
• Ad agencies think mobile marketing is too complicated, thus delaying inclusion in multichannel marketing campaigns

You might be interested in below slides, which share you more information about the trend of mobile business in 2009.

Mobile Marketing Trends 2009

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We have shared many successful cases on mobile marketing in the past few weeks. It seems that this new form of advertising channel is much targeted and innovative than traditional form of advertising. However, in reality, not all mobile marketing campaigns can achieve the result as marketers hoped for.

Today I would like to share a case of a oil change company, Jiffy Lube, which specialized in offering vehicle maintenance services. It launched a mobile coupon campaign recently. It had an unfavorable result at last.


The Campaign
The retailed was convinced by a local radio station to conduct a SMS-based coupon campaign where listerners were urged, at the end of the Jiffy Lube commercials, to use their mobile phone to text word “JIFFY” to a 5-digit number. Participants can receive mobile coupons for various Jiffy Lube discounts and services, e.g. Oil changes, wiper blades, tire rotations and filter. They were also given a chance to sign-up for future offers.


The Result
The campaign ran for the last two quarters of 2008, and garnered nearly 175 SMS messages per week- resulting in over 4,500 responses overall for the campaign. However, the problem is that, out of those 4,500 respondents, Jiffy Lube only saw about 30 digital coupons actually redeemed. Is it a bit odd? Even the General Manager of Jiffy Lube of Ames, Iowa, Mr. Andrew Storjohann said “Even the free oil changes didn't get redeemed, which I thought was very strange," said Storjohann. "Over the entire two-quarter period (when about 4,500 people responded by sending text messages seeking coupons) we got back only 30 coupons. We got very poor redemption and the question is, Why? What am I supposed to do, pay you to come?”

The Problem
So what's the problem here? One of that maybe the duration of the coupons. The coupon only last for 30 days. However, people usually get their oil charged every 2 months or more. So people will not interested in this if they just charged their oil.

Secondly, time maybe another possible problem. As it was winter in Iowa while the campaign was launched. The demand for oil charge may decreased.

Another possible reason for the failure of the campaign may due to the culture of people using coupons. Mobile marketing is still very new and people still not get accustomed to mobile coupon.


For more information, you can visit the offical website of Jiffy Lube:
http://www.jiffylube.com/

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Facebook
Facebook for iPhone makes it easy to stay connected and share information with friends. Use your iPhone to start a conversation with Facbook Chat, check your friens’s latest photos and status updates, look up a phone number, or upload your own mobile photos to Facebook while on the go. The latest version is support for iPhone 3.0, and English, French, German and Italian, and not only compatible with iPhone and also support Ipod Touch and it is a freeware, and you can download it from itune store.

Openrice
Using the Openrice application on your iPhone or iPod Touch, you can search the restaurant detail in location nearby you, because it can used with Google map and GPS, and it can show testimonial which from the consumer who consumed those restaurant, the function of this mobile version similar to the PC version, and it only have English version and requires iPhone OS 2.2 or later and it is Freeware, you can download it from itune store.

For more detail, you can visit http://www.openrice.com/


My Comment:
Nowadays many PC application has a mobile version iPhone or iPod Touch, it can let the user use it easily by iPhone, not Only on PC, so the mobile version can let the user use it every time everywhere, in the future, those application can attached the advertisement in the mobile device, and get the practice of the user, and Open rice and Facebook can send personalized advertisement the those user, but there have not many advertisement element in the application now, so it may be a future development for advertising in mobile marketing. Openrice and facebook is only support iPhone or Ipod touch now, so for gain more market share, it need support Window mobile OS or other OS for mobile device.

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