Indian telecom industry is at its boom adding about 15 million new mobile phone connections a month. Total telephone penetration stands at 43 %, and which is growing at fast pace. According to a report in 2008-09 rural India outplaced urban India in Mobile growth rate. Consumerism is increasing, and supply is more than demand. Consumers have a lot of options available, and marketers are trying hard to gain the consumers’ limited attention. Though traditional mediums like TV and Print are still in use, marketers are looking for innovative mediums.
Mobile phone marketing is one of such innovative medium. Marketing paradigm is changing from mass marketing to relationship marketing, thanks to emergence of high speed wireless networks, and increasing competition.
Various new aspects of technology like internet, music, videos, or games are linked to mobile phones, but still SMS is very popular because of ease in its process.
SMS is not an advertising tool but a promotional tool, and you can understand its wide spread use by the fact that several 100 million advertising SMS sent out every month in Europe alone. According to Nielsen Media, Vice president Campaign for Joseph Biden by Barack Obama reached 2.9 million people.
SMS as a promotional tool is used in different industries. Retail formats like Vishal, Shoppers stop use it for promotion of their sales, discount offers or other schemes. It is used mainly by service industry like Hotel industry; Banking and Financial services like ICICI; Discotheque; multiplexes like PVR, Fame cinemas; restaurants, bars, and cafes. Some of the professionals like doctors and dentists also use SMS for reminding their patients of the due dates.
SMS is even being used by the government and public authorities, by political parties, by police department as a promotional tool.
Popularity of SMS as a promotional tool is attributed to many reasons; firstly it is perfectly targeted and relevant and receives higher response rate than other methods of advertising; and according to a study 94% of recipients read their text messages. It is helpful not only for the marketers, but also for the customers as it is an interactive medium. There is a real time flow of information i.e. immediate delivery. It is personal, portable and controllable. It is a fastest and easiest method to reach to multiple recipients at a time. SMS creates a personalized, one to one relationship between brand and consumer. SMS has limited word capacity to hold, so brevity is very important.
Other advantages of the SMS marketing are its ubiquity and localization. It can also be referred as a form of viral marketing, because a recipient can spread the promotion either by forwarding the message or by word of mouth. Any individual would be having his social network, and he would share the promotion in his network if he liked.
SMS is even better than email, because email can be sometimes sent to spam, or junk folder, but SMS goes directly to the person. Moreover it is better than advertising phone call which can disturb the recipient and make him feel irritated.
The service of mass SMS is provided by many companies like Felix technologies, Exmmarketing etc., they provide the service of customizing the SMs according to the need of the marketer and sends to the database.
If done wrongly SMS marketing can have negative impacts too, it is also an intruding medium. To control its misuse The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IRB) and the Mobile Marketing Association have established guidelines for the use of the mobile channel for marketers, which are very much prevalent in the developed nations. In India too we have National Do Not Call Registry (NDNC registry) to curb Unsolicited Commercial Communication.
Other than SMS Bluetooth technology is also growing as a promotional tool but at a very slow pace. In game mobile marketing known as mobile advergaming, or ad-funded mobile game is also used as an advertisement tool, in which brand deliver promotional messages with in mobile games or sponsor entire games to drive customer engagement.
SMS marketing or marketing through mobile phones have been adopted in different industries, and with passage of time, it will grow further. I think this medium is though very good for maintaining or building the relationship with the old customer, but not so good to attract new customers. It can help in creating awareness about the product or service, but lesser chances to attract. The medium is moreover being used mostly in the service industry, and there is less scope of it in product industry. But as we know that there are elements of intangibility in product as well, it can help in this part.
Mobile marketing still has a long way to go to unleash its full potential in Indian market, and it is poised to grow.
