Successful Mobile Marketing

Mobile Apps and the Data Network Capacity Challenge

2011-06-23T10:28:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I was asked to sit on a panel of 'experts' (a grouping of which I'm loathe to include myself) at the Mobile Messaging & Value Added Services conference in London. The topic of discussion was around the issues of mobile data network capacity and the potential friction between apps developers and content providers and the networks.

It was a really interesting discussion, and the research I had to do led to some interesting revelations which I want to share with you. So here are my thoughts on what might happen to the mobile data networks as usage increases, who will see the benefit in terms of revenues and who will really drive the issues.

Exposing the Myth of Network Saturation
Firstly it is, currently, a myth that the network is struggling because of the rich, high volumes of data being streamed over them. In fact it's the signalling for handling data calls that is currently causing most concerns for operators. Over 80% of traffic on the mobile data networks (I'm talking 3G here) is for handling small, frequent call attempts. These are small transactions like iPhone notifications (100bn of these were generate in the last 12 months), co-ordinate look-up from mapping applications and such like. That said, as our usage patterns change the volume of rich data we wish to transmit over the network may increase. The debate on the panel yesterday was around whether this would actually happen. Will individuals really wish to stream the latest Disney film in real-time, over the 3G network whilst they're sat on a train? Probably not and they'll continue to download such rich media at home over wifi and fixed line broadband prior to their journey, storing it on the device for later viewing. It's probably new products such as the Apple iCloud that could eventually grow our hunger for rich media up- and down-loads as we dump everything into the cloud and it is then all pushed to our numerous devices...

Bypassing the Network Bottleneck
For now though, it's signalling that's the issue and the immediate concern. The problem here is that the RNC is a bottle-neck in the network. This isn't being helped by operators sharing infrastructure as it just increases the load on the carrier's RNC. It could help by installing new masts and cell sites, but this is difficult for planning and cost reasons. You can duplicate the number of RNCs to improve their call handling capacity, but again this is an expensive and not necessarily the final solution in any case. What is needed is bypassing the RNC for certain types of data. By breaking out of the network before we reach the RNC and into other IP networks to carry rich data, we can free up the RNCs to deal with the small, processor hungry data sessions such as notifications.

If we can push more data onto wifi, wimax or femtocells (especially metro-femtos) we can handle rich data much more efficiently.

Then we can make use of that brilliant network infrastructure the SMSC. Why not use SMS instead of data notifications where possible. There's plenty of capacity on the SMS network.

Breaking out, offloading or sideloading (whatever you prefer) is great but it needs intelligence in the network and on the device (or in the app software) to seamlessly seek out, connect with and transmit over suitable alternative data networks. Same for SMS, it needs apps developers not to be lazy and use notifications because the API is easy to access and to make some forward thinking decisions about what can be carried as an SMS.

Obviously the the other limitation of off loading is that the wifi/wimax infrastructure simply doesn't exist with sufficient ubiquitous coverage to make this effortless. Also, the charging mechanism are barriers to take up - who wants to pay for wifi in coffee shops when they're already paying a bucket of cash for fixed line broadband at home and 3G data plans on their mobiles? BT should be applauded for addressing this issue, shame they can't fix the network coverage at the same time...

The other major barrier for off loading to overcome is that of control. If the operators let valuable transactions leave their network before they get hold of them in the core, they lose control of how they're transmitted - over who's network but also they lose the chance to add handling fees on to the billions of transactions we expect to be generating over the next few years (mobile payments for example)... It's a numbers game and someone needs to take the bull by the horn and sort it out - the regulator perhaps...

Get Rid of Unnecessary Data Traffic
Whilst we're having a go at operators let's dig the knife in even more... How can an operator complain that their network is becoming full when they subsidise devices that consume huge amounts of data? You can't have that cake and eat it. What about this strategy of competing directly with the fixed line broadband providers. I'm not talking about O2 taking advantage of OFTEL's obsession with local loop unbundling and offering ADSL services in the home. I'm talking about 3G dongles that are advertised as an alternative to fixed line broadband as opposed to a useful way of getting your email when you're not near a wifi hotspot... Don't sell capacity that you don't have. If you've got plenty of wool but not much fabric, stick to the knitting and don't try to sew a jacket...

What Can Content Providers and Apps Developers Do?
I'm not going to push all the blame to the network operators. Us apps developers have a role to play because, like it or not, if the data network becomes congested and service levels decline or, heaven forbid, the networks try to exclude and discourage data usage through high cost data plans, then we won't be able to sell so many apps...

Apple are playing a dangerous but exciting game. They've decided to go it alone and make cloud technology the norm. The launch of iCloud and the fact that it's free is a nightmare scenario for operators worried about network capacity. Let's face it, they're not going to win a war against the might of Apple, especially with giants Google and Microsoft about to join in as well... Apple want to sell more of their devices (they're also targeting the 30% of households in Europe without computers) and they see the new LION OS, iOS5 and iCloud services being the drivers for these sales. The fact that these will be network hungry solutions doesn't worry them because they know the networks will fight each other to stock the next iPhone 5, the iPad 3 and so on... Network Operators will face a dilemma of selling the phones that people actually want, or selling the tat that they don't want and protecting their network... Apple will win...

One good piece of news for the operators coming out of the iCloud product launch announcement though was that there will be an API to allow apps developers to access and configure the intelligent routing capability of the iCloud - so timely downloads using wifi etc will be seamless to the user.. Hooray!

As apps developers we need to start thinking about network capacity. Same as for oil consumption, if we use it all up to fulfil our immediate desire to hare around in Ferraris at 180mph, in 20, 30 or 50 years time we'll be forced to drive Toyota Priuses whether we want to or not. Same for apps - ignore the future issue of capacity now and you'll be consuming your own arms...

To summarise. Mobile Data Capacity. It's more about signalling than rich data today, but rich data will become a problem as well. The network operators need to sacrifice some of their huge margins for the good of mobility. Maybe the regulator has a role to play as it did with BT and the fixed line broadband operators. We all need to get a piece of the pie.

I Must Have An App For That!!!

2011-03-04T07:51:00.002Z

You’d be forgiven for thinking that in this day and age of iPhone, iPads, Blackberrys and Galaxys, if you’re business doesn’t have a Smartphone app it’s somehow behind the curve. And you’d probably be correct as Smartphone apps become a necessary tool in your marketing armoury as web sites became several years ago.

Before plunging in and getting an app for your business though, it’s worth considering the pros and cons, pitfalls and challenges for producing “an app for that”. It’s also worthwhile speaking to experts who can help ensure your foray into the world of iOS and Android is a successful one.

First of all you need to think about what your app will do and what value it will add to your customers. With over 100,000 apps available for download on the Apple iTunes App Store alone, you need to be sure your app will stand out from the crowd and that your customers and prospective customers will actually bother to download it. Secondly, you should consider the actual benefits of an app and whether a properly stylised and designed mobile web site would better serve yours and your customers’ needs.

Getting your customers to download your app is only the first challenge. Once it’s on their device it is taking up valuable space that could be filled by games, music or video files, so it is equally important to ensure your app is dynamic enough that users want to keep using it.

So let’s assume you decide that an app is indeed the right way forward for you to communicate with your most mobile of customers, you then need to get the app designed and developed. This is where you need to bring in an expert to assist (if you need someone, let me know). You need professional designers who can work with you to understand your requirement and translate these into graphical user interface (GUI/UX) designs that make the most of unique Smartphone features such as the touch-screens. Good designers will also ensure that the user context is considered at all times – where are your users likely to use the app and what would they be doing. The content and workflows of your app need to be very different to a web-site that is being viewed from a static, sitting position on a 22” LCD screen. If you want to spec the app yourself the best, most practical yet simple advice I can give is to ask the 5 W's. Who, where, when, why, what. Leave the last of Kipling's five wise men, Mr How, for a later stage as it'll cloud or limit your creative thought process otherwise.

A good designer (such as Innovativo, WiSys or Mobivize) will follow a fairly rigid development process, such as the one below. The upside pyramid purposely reflects that the more effort you put in up front in the specification and design phases, the easier the latter stages of build and promote will be.

Once your app is built, the next challenge is getting it accepted by the app stores and promoting it to your customer base. What happens when, as they frequently do, Apple releases a new version of its iOS operating system and your app needs to be updated to remain compatible. Also, you will ignore user feedback (which the app stores make it so easy for users to submit) at your peril, so you will need some kind of process for taking this on board, digesting it and fixing bugs and adding new features in a controlled release programme. Again, there are people out there (ahem, I know someone quite good) who can manage all of this on your behalf, taking away the complexity and leaving you to focus on what yo do best, serving your customers.

If an app isn’t the thing for you, then there are several other ways to mobilize your business in including mobile web sites and SMS marketing.

So, if you think there should be an app for something you do, or want to do, your first port of call should be a professional apps development company with a focus on the design side but not until you're sure that an app is the best way forward.

www.innovativo.co.uk
www.mobivize.com
www.wisys.co.uk

Using SMS for Field Force Automation

2011-02-15T12:16:00.000Z

As often mentioned in my previous posts, SMS provides an excellent, low cost communications method where one or both parties are on the move or away from the office. It can be used in a number of business scenarios and one area I was recently asked to look at for BT was field force automation.

Many businesses, large or small, have employees who need to work, at least some of the time,, out in the field. Social workers, nurses, GPs, builders, plumbers, insurance claims inspectors, security guards, electricians and so on all spend large amounts of their working day away from headquarters. Communicating with these key workers when they're away from the desk or workshop can be crucial to the effective running of the business. Also, increasingly, keeping in touch is crucial for their safety, especially those who make site or home visits alone.

So why is SMS so perfect for communicating with these people. Simple. It's cheap, easy to set up and reliable. There's very few places these days where a mobile signal isn't strong enough to receive an SMS text message. The only technology it needs is a mobile phone, and even the low cost, basic models can receive SMS messages. This may seem pointless in today's world where no one bats an eye at a 14 year old playing with a £450 iPhone on the train, but out in the field, expensive, sensitive kit isn't always the best plan. Would you rather your roofer drop a £35 Nokia off the roof or an iPad? So it's crucial that any communication method you use works with cheap and cheerful mobiles - SMS does.

Also, SMS can be easily integrated into existing back end systems including some of the big field force management systems like SAP and Salesforce.com. Anyone or any system that has the ability to send an email can have this delivered as an SMS to a phone.

SMS can also allow two-way communication which allows lone workers, for example, to respond to a request about their well-being. The ability to check if the message was delivered to the handset adds another level of checking.

Businesses could overcome the need for field engineers to return to base at the end of the day or between jobs to submit time returns. They could simply do this using SMS, and the foreman could even respond with authorisation. Similarly, you could send the next job by SMS so your field force were utilising their time. OK - I hear you when you say most companies have sophisticated ruggedised kit that hooks up to massive field force management systems to do all of this. But what about the smaller companies with only a few field employees. SMS is compelling for these guys.

Android Kicks iPhone's Bum

2011-02-09T08:16:00.000Z

Interesting bit of news I found on the Internet... Android phones have outsold the iPhone in the US for the first time, in Q4 2010. Apparently, according to the survey, Apple sold 24.3% of the 63.2m smartphones sold, Google Android counted for 28.7%. RIM's share for its Blackberry device dropped to almost 7 percentage points to 31.6% but it is still market leader in the US.

As both Google and Apple shares continue to rise, it looks like Blackberry could soon slip back into third place so expect some form of competitive reaction from RIM in the form of offers and price reductions.

Google have targeted a much broader segment of the market, whereas Apple is more focused on the mid- to high-end of the market, so it is to be expected that Google is growing more quickly. Google is more widely distributed also, whereas Apple like to keep a strong hand on where and how (and dare I say at what price) the iPhone is sold.

What will be interesting is whether Apple deem this to require some kind of tactical reaction or whether they'll stick to their strategic marketing plan. With iPhone 5 around the corner and, as it's rumoured, is jam packed full of new features to blow our minds, maybe Apple will wait and see before tinkering with pricing strategies.

For now, as we wait and see, what is clear is that smartphones have bridged the gap between innovation and established technology. Soon we'll all have smartphones and mobile commerce will be a reality for all. I'm sticking with my prediction, by 2015 the only wallet you'll find will be in a museum.

The Revolution is Around the Corner (at Long Last)

2011-01-26T11:23:00.000Z

I've been banging on about mobile payments via this blog and in the ears of anyone who'll listen for years now. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a rumour I'd heard that the new iPhone 5 from Apple would include an NFC chip which could be used for "contactless" mobile transactions. Like the guy on the water slide in the Barclaycard advert, except instead of paying for his banana with yet another slab of plastic that needs to be kept in a wallet, Apple's plans are to allow the iPhone to replace the card. So a swipe of your iPhone or, according to an article on Bloomberg.com, your iPad and you can pay for a whole raft of things.

Think using your iPhone to get through the turnstiles on the London underground, swiping your iPhone to get through the turnstile at the football match or touching an Amazon poster with your phone to order the latest episode in the Call of Duty series.

Now those of you in the business will know this has been touted for some time but looked like it was never going to happen. Now that Apple have taken up the mantle I really believe we're on the cusp of a revolution. Cheques, cash and plastic will soon be a thing of the past. Apple has a habit of stimulating demand through great design and desirability and I think mobile payments will be no exception. Of course the others will then quickly follow Apples lead...

But it doesn't sound safe I hear the pessimists cry. Don't worry, because you'd be using a mobile instead of a plastic card, there will be a user interface. This opens up possibilities for PIN entry to confirm a transaction of higher value or maybe even face recognition, a quick retina scan or finger print reading.

Cashless is coming...

Starbucks Launches Mobile Payments

2011-01-20T07:49:00.000Z

It's all happening in the world of Mobile Marketing. Hot on the heels of several US supermarket chains launching location based mobile loyalty programs (see my previous blog entry), coffee giant Starbucks has launched a mobile payment services across it's 6,000+ US stores. The new service allows customers with smartphones (iPhone and Blackberry initially) to download an app that can be "charged" up with cash or loyalty credits and then used to make purchases in store. A counter-top scanner will read the barcode displayed on the phone's screen and instruct the EPOS till to deduct the value of the voucher from the transaction total. Starbucks hope this will eventually replace their pre-paid loyalty card system which has seen some $1.5bn worth of 'credits' loaded up on to them over the last year, a CAGR of 21%. One in five transactions in a US store is via the Starbucks card, with many people disliking having to carry yet another card, Starbucks could be on to a winner as 70% of their customer base have a smartphone.

Mobile marketing is going mainstream and we can all sit back and proudly say we were there at the beginning...

Location Based Mobile Marketing Becomes a Reality

2011-01-19T08:27:00.001Z

You either love the idea or you loathe it - location based social marketing (LBS Marketing). Depending on which side of the fence you sit, you're going to love or hate the latest trend in mobile marketing as LBS services become a reality, thanks to the plummeting costs and increasing power efficiencies of GPS chip sets. Most new devices include a GPS device these days which allows apps to accurately and quickly identify your location. Gone are the days where GSM triangulation was the only technique available which was not entirely accurate, relied on a strong mobile network signal and was subject to, arguably, extortionate per look-up charges by the mobile operators ("you do surprise" me I hear you ironically say).

Retailers in the US seem to be leading the way in the West (Korea and Japan have been doing this for years) with many large supermarket giants and restaurant chains combining mobile social networking with GPS positioning to attract increased foot fall to their bricks and mortar sites. Customers register with the store or restaurant via its Twitter account or Facebook fan page and when they arrive at an outlet they are delivered content tailored to their likes, the time of day and their current location. Maybe a synopsis of the new coffee bean blends offered at breakfast or a voucher for a free pre-dinner drink and so on. Potentially, supermarkets could know which aisle you're currently in and in what direction you're heading, perhaps pushing product information and offers relevant only to the store department you're in...

Some will see this service as intrusive, but providing retailers continue to adhere to the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) guidelines on mobile marketing, those not wishing to take part won't have to and will be able to opt-out at any time. Of course the real risk, which has always been the case for Mobile Marketing from simple SMS ad campaigns upwards, is that some retailers won't abide by the rules and SPAM could become a regular feature of our SMS and App Notifications in boxes on our smartphones. Email SPAM is a nuisance as every so often you have to wade through your Junk email folder and delete stuff you don't want. SPAM mobile marketing is a degree worse because the very nature of mobile is that it's with you all the time, wherever you are so SPAM becomes potentially intrusive. Also, no matter how advance touch screen technology becomes, sifting through pages of junk mail on your phone screen is never going to be as easy as on a computer monitor.

So, get ready for another step change in the mobile marketing industry. If any brand owners or marketers out there want to explore this, or any other mobile marketing opportunity in more detail, do drop me a line.

SMS Growth Set To Continue in 2011

2011-01-05T09:55:00.000Z

Who said SMS was yesterday's messaging technology? The "Simple Messaging Service" that was originally designed as a tool to allow network engineers to communicate has become the personal messaging tool of choice. Experts and analysts have been forecasting it's demise for years, firstly with MMS then email and instant messaging over the new "fast" GPRS and 3G networks and now notification messaging via Smartphones. The problem with this is that it still relies on affordable and ubiquitous, fast 3G network connections to really be effective. SMS works on 2, 2.5 and 3G so is available almost everywhere (even where there's insufficient signal strength to maintain a sufficiently audible voice call). More importantly, SMS costs are predictable. You can't really claim it is inexpensive as, character for character sending an SMS to the house next door is more expensive than sending the same message via satellite communications to the moon. The attraction of SMS however is that the cost is predictable. Either the SMS is included in tariff bundles or it's 10p. Simple, as our furry friend from the TV ads might say.

In fact, according to Total Telecom and ABI Research, the number of SMS to be sent in 2011 will beat the 7 trillion barrier for the first time. An increasing number of these will be sent in a business context rather than personal one-to-one messages. This is the most interesting trend for anyone offering messaging services in the mobile domain.

It's not all good news for SMS though as predictions are that pricing will continue to commodotise further reducing margins for carriers. However, anyone offering value added services that utilise SMS as the communications transport should see their efficiencies increase as a result of lower wholesale SMS pricing. My personal experience suggests that commodotisation isn't filtering down to the street level though and during 2010 I actually witnessed prices in certain countries (stand up the Netherlands, guilty as accused) increase prices significantly as SMS bypassed regulation that was squeezing network operator revenues elsewhere, such as voice services.

With researches claiming between 4.2bn and 6bn active mobiles worldwide, it's obvious that at some point growth is set to slow down - soon everyone will have one, maybe two devices. Of course individuals will continue to upgrade to newer models constantly, so the manufacturers will be happy, but from a messaging point of view the number of participating users is surely close to its maximum by now. Again, value added services is where growth for service providers will come from - messaging including SMS is just a capability to enable a range of innovative products and services.

I think with the trend for unlimited 3G access in decline and Wifi growth seemingly stalling, I think the old GSM originated technologies such as SMS have a very long and fruitful life yet to come.

Business to Adopt Smartphone Apps in 2011

2011-01-04T08:24:00.000Z

Happy New Year to everyone who takes the time to read my blogs on Mobile Marketing, and here's to an exciting and successful 2011 to you all...

My big predictions for this year isn't exactly earth-shattering, but they represent major milestones for the industry and for the way business in general will be conducted in the not so distant future.

The big one will be the rise of mobile smartphone apps in the workplace and in business scenarios. I'll come on to this in a minute. First of all my other two predictions are as follows, but you've probably read these a million times before in other articles. Firstly, mobile computing is getting all touchy-feely. The net book is living on dangerous ground as the highly portable and extremely usable tablet will replace it. iPads, Galaxys and others will start to dominate new sales of low to mid-range computing devices. I treated the family to a new iPad at Christmas and already it's a key part of our lives. Instant access to the internet and apps at the touch of a button no matter where you are around the home makes it an instant winner. Apple will continue to dominate with the new iPad 2 wiping away the opposition which, in my humble opinion, made a big mistake going for the smaller 7" screen. The iPad is much more useful as a laptop replacement than, say, the Galaxy. The addition of dual cameras for video conferencing and better speakers will keep Apple at the top of the pile. The new iPhone 5 (I predict it will be launched in the Autumn in the UK) will upset a lot of people who just got their iPhone 4s and signed up to two year operator contracts in order to spread the high cost of ownership. The addition of NFC is rumored and would be a welcome move if it's true.

My second prediction is the emergence of mobile vouchers in a big way. Brands and retailers will be falling over each other to offer alternatives to the expensive and ineffective paper coupons we've had to live with for decades. SMS still has a major role to play in this phenomenon as it will be used as a way of collating massive mobile number databases for use in targeted, personalized (and therefore high value to the consumer) mobile voucher campaigns. 2-way SMS applications such as competitions etc will encourage interaction from the consumer, revealing their mobile numbers to the marketers. The big challenge will be avoiding the issue that email marketing suffers from, SPAM.

Finally, back to my major prediction. The proliferation of mobile apps into the business scenario. With many firms still having to cut back on "luxury" spend and many therefore unlikely to arm its workers with expensive iPads or iPhones, the trend may rely on the ever increasing habit of ripping out the company provided SIM and putting it into a personally funded smart device. It's clear to anyone that the iPhone was the big news of 2010 and with a plethora of competitors offering similar devices it won't be long before Smartphone's are the most popular devices being shipped on a daily basis. Some figures: Nucleus predict that 27% of firms plan to replace laptops with iPads for mobile workers. ChangeWave Research conducted a survey of IT Buyers which found that 14% of companies planned to equip employees with tablets.

The demand will grow over the course of the year and the major enterprise software vendors are already jockeying for position with Sybase just releasing Afaria to allow IT Managers to have better control over mobile devices.

Business oriented apps will come in many forms but mainly from the enterprise software vendors such as SAP, Sybase, Salesforce.com, Arbor etc. They will also be developed for specific business scenarios either by in-house developers or via third party development houses.

The future is clear and it's definitely mobile.

What Will 2011 Mean for Mobile Marketing

2010-12-09T09:04:00.000Z

Well, another new year is almost upon us. Before I talk about what I and some of my peers in the industry think 2011 will bring for Mobile Marketing, I just want to briefly summarise 2010.

For me, 2010 was the coming of age for Mobile Marketing. I remember back in my BT days, as early as 2002, when we were developing strategies for mobile marketing based on advice from the soothsayers that are industry analysts who claimed mobile data and the services it enabled were the next big thing. It's taken the mobile marketing industry significantly longer to establish itself (short battery life, small unusable screens and GPRS reliability and cost being the main barriers), being limited mainly to SMS marketing and even then this was dominated by would be SPAMmers. However, I think Apple deserves a big pat on the back for taking the plunge and convincing the critical mass that touch-screens and apps were the thing to be doing on your mobile - "what?! You want to talk to someone with it!!!"... Not happy with this, Apple brought out the iPad which, for me, really merges the gap between using mobile apps at home and on the move. Since I got mine, the laptop hasn't been fired up. The iMac does the word processing and power and (giant) screen hungry tasks, the iPad does the casual browsing stuff. Who wants to wait for Windows to do its stuff before they can find out whether it's going to snow some more? And what a waste of space the keyboard is when you can have a touch-sensitive screen... Well done Apple for having the balls to launch the technology. Looking forward to Google, Samsung and the others making touchpads and smartphones affordable for the masses (and pushing Apple to continue enhancing the iPad and iPhone to keep the competition at bay). Finally, barcode marketing via mobile phones has finally started to emerge as a viable alternative to paper vouchers and coupons. Strangely it's not the technology that's advanced really, but the user acceptance that mobile vouchering is safe and convenient. Only downside for me was the false start that was Contactless transactions, using NFC technology. Barclaycard did its best trying to get us excited about the possibility, but the arguments about ownership amongst the banks, networks, device manufacturers and card issuers has stalled this advancement. Maybe we'll see a change in 2011 triggered by the intentions of Google who have included NFC technology in their latest Smartphone.

So, 2010 brought about the mobile revolution we've all been waiting for and I really believe 2011 will be a phenomenal year for anyone in the industry, particularly those of us passionate about mobile marketing.

I'm going to keep you in suspense a little longer and will reveal my thoughts on this closer to the New Year, but as a quick overview and introduction, here's what I think will be the biggies:

Smartphones will become relatively cheap making them the phone of choice and they'll be offered "free" as part of network contract bundles
The networks will continue to panic about GPRS and 3G network capacity with the situation being made worse by the continued growth in use of mobile apps on Smartphones and pads. Wifi will come to the rescue and companies like BT Openzone will be kicking themselves for being market leaders (remember, the followers are normally the ones that make the money)...
Mobile marketing will become the norm with barcode vouchers leading the way. There'll be some issues with spamming, similar to what we've now got with email marketing.
Every brand, every business will have a mobile app.
The snailmail (letters) logistics industry will start to see real impact on their bottom lines from mobile messaging substitution. However, they'll make up the shortfall from all those Smartphones and iPad deliveries they'll need to make!
Mobile payments will start to appear with the banks getting closely involved.
Location based services will be prolific and every mobile app will be location driven, delivering the right content in the right way depending on where you are and what you're likely to be doing at the time.
England will lose out on the rights to host the next World Tea Drinking Championships with the Maldives winning the rights to host the competition... Some things never change afterall.

Waitrose Jump on the Mobile Vouchers Bandwagon

2010-12-02T14:50:00.000Z

It would appear more and more retailers and brands are realising the massive benefits of marketing via the mobile channel. In particular, I've seen a strong surge in the number of sales prospects requesting, or at least expressing an interest in, mobile vouchers.

The latest big brand to jump aboard this express train is UK supermarket giant Waitrose, which is part of the John Lewis group. They will be placing QR Codes (see image for an example QR Code, QR means Quick Response) in their TV adverts over the festive period. Viewers can photograph the code whilst it is on screen (the pause button on your Sky+ box will come in handy here) using their iPhone. This will allow iPhone users to download Waitrose's Christmas app from iTunes free of charge.

Not sure why you'd want to do that, but apparently there are recipes on there from the famous celebrity chef's that are featured in Waitrose adverts, such as Delia Smith and Heston Bloomenthal (wasn't he the Swedish chef in the muppet show?).

I don't watch much TV so haven't had chance to capture the QR code yet and as such haven't played with the app. I can't, therefore say what else is included and whether Waitrose have been sensible and gone to the next level, allowing you to download voucher codes onto your iPhone, take them in to the store and get a massive discount on your turkey and chestnut stuffing...

None-the-less, this move by one of Britain's leading brands, a brand whose advertising and image others aspire to, brings mobile marketing further into the limelight... Which has to be good...

Mobile Payments - VISA Hits Back at Critics

2010-11-23T09:30:00.000Z

Last week I wrote about the ISIS partnership in the US - where the major mobile network operators are getting together to develop an NFC based mobile payments platform and service portfolio. A similar move is happening in parallel amongst the German operators.

Well, this was the latest move in a complex chess game between the mobile operators, the banks, card issuers such as VISA, Mastercard, Amex and Barclaycard an a number of independents such as BT. All want to control the secure element of the transaction so that they can consequently control how much each party gets in terms of transaction revenues, more importantly how much they get specifically... The operators want the secure element to be on the SIM card because they own that. The banks and issuers see this as a potential threat as, traditionally, the secure element has been on the credit/charge card. BT and other independents believe they can act as mediators and provide the control that's needed independently, together with a range of support services such as auditing and MIS - the role of Trusted Service Manager (TSM). Personally, I always believed TSM was the best way forward to ensure cross-compatibility across all mobile devices and cards, ending the practice of having to hoard different secure transaction devices (credit cards) in our wallets and avoiding only your O2 phone, for example, being able to undertake transactions in certain retail outlets that partnered with O2 to provide O2 NFC readers. The latest move by the US operators, weakens the TSM's role somewhat as, by getting their heads together they remove some of the uncertainty about compatibility. Not entirely, because it's not clear what you would do if visiting the US as a UK citizen, would your NFC mobile work for payments over there?

The card issuers and, to some degree the banks, are also impacted by the operator's latest stratagem. If the operators can sort out their conflicts and competitive streaks, then they can essentially establish the phone as a complete secure transaction device which could eventually replace the card. 4bn phones worldwide and only 1.6bn bank accounts speaks volumes on the potential of the phone as a secure device. Who wants a plastic card with a chip in it when you can simply put the chip in your phone and play games whilst queuing to pay at the checkout?

VISA are hitting back though as they sit with elbows on knees contemplating the chequered board, carefully analysing their next move. At the moment it appears their Queen is staying where it is and instead they're scoffing at the previous moves made by the operators. In a recent blog post. VISA hit back at critics who claim they are behind the technology curve. They point out the intricacies of the behind-the-scenes processing that needs to be undertaken to facilitate a simple NFC transaction such as paying for a colleague's lunch when they are caught a little short at the canteen checkout. I was recently at a conference where someone put up a network diagram slide of the systems involved in a simple credit card transaction. 3,000 different systems were impacted for each and every transaction, some of these systems have been around since valve computers hit the shelves. This is why the banks feel they are crucial, because they are the only ones who can understand the end to end process. I'd query this though, as although the back end is highly complex, the front-end isn't and if regulators force the banks and card issuers to open up their interfaces, then the operators might find they have a simple, one interface route into the spaghetti that the banks then have to manage. The pain without the gain perhaps? Or maybe the banks will simply charge a transaction fee to the operators, which starts to impact the attractiveness of the mobile payment transaction for the consumer. Paying £2.50 for lunch and then having to pay the mobile operator and the banks for handling it could be too hard to swallow for many.

My conclusion? I'm glad I've focused my own business on mobile marketing and not payments! Seriously though, there's still a long way to go before we can start to see mobile transactions replacing card and then cash. The parties have to come together for the good of the consumer, otherwise it will remain a niche service until the next technology comes along (I'm betting on telepathic payments!)...

Are Mobile Payments About to Become a Reality?

2010-11-19T13:46:00.000Z

With the announcement that US Carriers have formed an alliance to deliver Mobile Payments and a similar deal taking place in Germany, is cash finally entering it's death throes?

The news is that US carriers AT&T,T-Mobile and Verizon have joined forced to develop a nationwide mCommerce network that will utilise technologies such as NFC and Smartphone devices to allow payments to be made by swishing a mobile phone close to a payments receiver. Think of the Barclaycard ads where they guy flies down the waterslide on his daily commute home and pauses ever so briefly to pass his bit of plastic over a sensor to pay for a banana he had a sudden craving for. This is the same thing except you will wave your phone and not have to carry another bit of plastic around with you.

The benefit of phone over plastic in this case is the richer interface. The phone can act as a vessel in which to store financial information, such as the credentials for several credit cards or other payment methods. This means finally you don't need multiple cards in your wallet. In fact you don't need your wallet because in theory you'll be able to securely store your driving license and other ID's on your phone and it can be used for small cash payments from your current account or other pre-pay account.

For larger transactions, the phone could interact with the reader asking you to enter a PIN code on the phone's number pad as extra verification, or even maybe scanning your finger print or retina using the camera functionality... Star Trek eat your heart out.

Once the transaction is complete, the phone will allow you to manage your histories, view recent transactions, forward receipts to a wifi printer, move money between accounts etc.

You'll also be able to receive marketing messages and, more importantly, special offers and loyalty discounts, so without even thinking about it you'll be collecting loyalty points and redeeming discount vouchers...

The US solution, which has been termed Isis, will start to appear in "key geographic markets" (that means New York, LA and DC probably) in the next 18 months or so. Unsurprisingly, NFC innovator Barclaycard is expected to be the first issuer on the network followed by offers from other financial and / or retail institutions.

Any chance of a similar level of co-operation in the UK so we can finally take advantage of this great innovation that has been around for years already but despite it having the potential to radically enhance our daily lives has so far stayed firmly in the lab or, at best, on bits of plastic used to get us onto the Tube?

Mobile Apps and Business Improvement

2010-11-16T10:39:00.000Z

At the moment the majority of mobile apps are developed in house or purchased as non-configurable solutons from an App Store. However, this trend is changing as businesses integrate mobile apps into the very fabric of their operations, requiring more complex levels of integration.

Apps will also need to work across a mix of platforms and form factors (tablets and other evolving technologies in particular). As in the web the apps are likely to become browser-based rather than device resident.

The use cases will evolve to cover more functions within the business so the Smartphone will no longer be the toy for sales or the ruggedized device used by field engineers. Management, business travelers and knowledge workers will all latch on to the benefits of using powerful applications anywhere and at anytime.

This poses an interesting question about build or buy. Increased complexity and portability of apps could suggest professional, external development agencies will become more prevalent in projects. However, as deep integration with existing business systems and data becomes more important, one could argue that firms will want to develop in-house where they have the skills and knowledge about the underlying systems, processes and interfaces.

According to recent research by Forrester ("Mobile Applications Will Empower Enterprise Business Processes", D. Hamerman, Forrester Research, September 2010) 38% of firms still develop their own mobile apps in-house. 27% purchase them from an app store, 25% buy a customer app from an external developer. 24% use a mobile extension of an existing business application (such as SAP or Siebel).

I can see this changing significantly over time with fewer purchases of stock apps from Apps Stores and more external developers being used. The big software vendors will also increase their market share as they mobilize more of their apps and features.

Mobile App Design - The Biggest Mistake

2010-11-11T11:54:00.001Z

With a bamboozling number of mobile apps available on the iPhone and Android apps stores, it's no wonder that the majority of apps fail - they are never downloaded or rarely used.

So what's the biggest mistake you can make when starting to scope out your mobile app, what is it that will ultimately cause your app to fail?

Forget the user. That's the one mistake many make. You get lost in your idea, excitedly throw yourself into developing your baby and - it's so very easy to forget who will be using the app once it's live. Kipling wrote a great short poem ("I Keep Six Honest Serving Men") of which the opening lines could be referring to how he writes such perfect and engaging stories and are equally valid for anyone creating anything, including mobile apps. It goes something like this:

I keep six honest serving men

They taught me all I knew

Their names are What and Why and When

And How and Where and Who

In his excellent book, Tapworthy, Josh Clark uses the five W's that Kipling refers to in his checklist for any mobile app designer who wants to create something users will love and want to engage with.

Tapworthy, Josh Clark, O'Reilly, 2010 

Who, why, what, where and when
Five of Kiplings Honest Serving men are a valuable measure of how successful your app can be. The 'who' is the user or users, what will the app do for the user, why will the user want to use it and when and where will they use it.

Answering the Why question is easy for Clark, people use a mobile app when they're multitasking, when they are local or when they are bored. You can go beyond this though and drill down into what need the app fulfills and what value it adds to the users life. This could be as simple as keeping them entertained when on a long, tedious train journey or it could be as specific as "saving them money by avoiding missing submitting their tax return on time".

Remember the when and where because your app will need to suit the use case scenario. If your app is to be used at home, on the couch, you probably want to provide a rich experience with lots of features, interaction and information. The user will have time to browse and delve into the features and data of the app. If, however, they are in a busy railway station, laden with bags and desperate to get a train home, they'll want an app that is easy to read, quick to access the key information (e.g. the next train home) and can be operated with one hand (or no hands at all maybe!). The phone will be jerking around as they scuttle across the station forecourt so the icons and information on the screen should be clear and easy to read.

If you remember these questions and repeatedly ask them of yourself during the design of the app, you should end up with an app design that is useful to your target audience at the time and place they are most likely to want to use it. Too often designers focus on the What, even then basing it on what they want from the app and not what the user wants and needs. Then they will jump right in and introduce themselves to Kiplings sixth man - 'How'. How will the icons look, how will the algorithms work etc etc. The other Ws suddenly get forgotten and hence the developer forgets the point if the app in the first place and from then on it is doomed to fail.

The message is, the user is king for without users you have don't really have an app, you just have yet another entry in the iTunes store...

Mobile Marketing - What is It?

2010-11-10T09:10:00.000Z

Any company selling goods and services to consumers or other businesses should become savvy in the practice of Mobile Marketing. It’s one of many marketing channels that have been around for sometime, but until now it’s been in the shadows of the mainstream mass media channels such as TV, Direct Marketing and, more recently, Online Marketing. However, according to Gartner, the number of people using the Mobile Web to find content on the Internet will, in 2010, surpasses those using a web browser on a PC. There are already over 3 billion mobile phone users in the world and in increasingly more countries, penetration exceeds 100% (as some have more than one phone). The fact is, thanks to advancing technology and ever reducing mobile data network prices, the mobile as a channel has matured and any brand ignoring the marketing value of this channel will start to fall behind its more adventurous competitors. (Dushinski)

What is Mobile Marketing all about?
One thing is certain, Mobile Marketing is very different from the other seven mass media marketing channels. According to Kim Dushinski of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), mobile marketing is about connecting businesses to each of its customers through their mobile devices at the right time, at the right place and with the right message. More importantly mobile marketing “requires the customer’s explicit permission and/or active interaction”.
This last point is extremely important as the mobile device (and by that I mean phones, PDAs, MP3 players, reading tablets – any mobile device that can be hooked up to the internet) is a very personal tool. Any communication via a mobile device has to be specific to the individual and, more importantly, must be targeted at that individual adding value to them. This is why the MMA, other mobile marketing bodies, the mobile networks and, more increasingly the regulators and law makers, are trying to restrict unsolicited distribution of marketing information to mobiles (spamming as it is most commonly known). A mobile phone could be switched on and ready to receive marketing messages day and night, wherever the owner is and whatever they are doing, which could be working. As such, it is important that marketers don’t annoy their target audience with unwanted, badly timed messages. This is why personalisation of campaigns is so important. It’s important to understand what adds value to your audience and when they need that value.

Mobile Marketing is not Internet Marketing
A common mistake is to think of the Mobile Web as being the same as the Web you may access from a desktop or laptop PC. Mobile is a unique channel and presents a different set of opportunities and challenges if it is to become a successful marketing channel. First of all, it’s possibly the most widespread mass media channel in the world. There are far more mobile phones that there are PCs around the globe, and there are actually more mobile phones than televisions. We’ve already read that mobile is also unique because it’s always-on and follows the individual wherever they go and the other unique feature of mobile is that it has an in-built payment mechanism. It’s the only mass media marketing tool that can complete the purchasing transaction as well as initiate interest.

Another common mistake is to think of mobile marketing as simply running a campaign using SMS messaging. Again, this is a fallacy. There are many tools to help market via the mobile channel, including good old voice. There’s also mobile messaging (such as SMS or MMS), the Mobile Web, Social Networking, Mobile Email, Mobile Applications and Mobile TV. The opportunities for marketers are endless, but the trick is to know which approach will be most effective for your existing and target customers and then integrating mobile into your existing marketing mix, avoiding the perils and pitfalls and reaping maximum rewards.
The issues are numerous and potentially venomous if they bite. For example, the Australian government recently issued fines of $15m to bogus marketers spamming via SMS. The US government is also strict with large fines and prison sentences being handed out. The mobile operators themselves don’t take abuse of their network lightly and will quickly shut down anyone suspected of breaking or bending the stringent rules. Also, and not the least worrying consideration, is that should you get mobile marketing wrong you could turn off your target audience completely, damage the value of your brand and allow your competitors to move in. This is why it’s important to work with a specialist agency or consultant who understands the mobile marketing channel. Most traditional marketing agencies currently don’t specialise in Mobile Marketing, although there will be a trend during 2010 for these agencies to develop a mobile department, even if this is outsourced to a specialist agency. There are a few such as Sponge Group and our very own Innovativo Mobile who can offer good advice on how best to market via mobile.

Ten Tips for Developing a Mobile Marketing Campaign

Acknowledge that marketing to mobiles will be very different from marketing to the traditional mass media channels and plan your campaigns accordingly.
Know your target audience, what value you can provide to them at different times of the day depending on where they may be and what they might be doing. Don’t assume they all want to receive the same message. Work out how you can add value to their lives, and because mobile is an instant communication anywhere and at anytime, how to add value to their day, their shopping trip, their bus journey etc...
Don’t market with mobile if your audience don’t understand mobile or use the features it provides. Although most now know how to use SMS (57% of business users send or receive SMS every day) many still don’t know how to use the mobile web, then a mobile website isn’t going to be much use. Similarly, many don’t have the right mobile devices to make full use of the mobile web, or the right network data plans. Again, know your audience.
Track the results. There are so many options within the sphere of mobile marketing that you need to know if you’re using the right one. Is your message getting through via SMS or should you be thinking about offering voice as a backup? Are people clicking through to your mobile web site, should you use a mobile search engine or portal?
Only consider doing it yourself if mobile marketing is your primary route to market. There are a myriad of vendors providing each individual element required to implement a mobile campaign – SMS providers, mobile operators, web site designers, hosting companies, legal advisors, application developers etc. Use a company (such as Innovativo Mobile) who can stitch together all the different constituent parts and provide you with a one-stop-shop for mobile marketing.
Don’t assume your current traditional marketing agencies can effectively open up the mobile channel. Ensure they have the right level of specialism in house, or bring in a specialist partner yourself. Remember, sending a message by text is going to do more harm than good unless it's properly targeted and your audience desire to interact...
Don’t fall foul of the myriad of regulations and laws pertaining to mobile marketing. Get a specialist firm, agency or consultant to advise you.
Keep abreast of technology. Mobile technology from devices to network to applications is moving so quickly. It’s key you stay one step ahead of your competitors in maximising the potential of this new technology as it comes along, whilst avoiding those initiatives that are lame ducks. Get a specialist to advise you.
Build mobile into your existing marketing mix. Mobile will complement what you already do. It can deliver a more personalised element to follow up, for example, any brand awareness campaigns you’re undertaking with focussed special offers such as mobile vouchers.
Get ahead and stay ahead of your competitors. If you’re reading this and it has stimulated some thoughts around what your company could be doing to market via mobile, then it’s likely your competitors are too. Mobile marketing is still relatively new and fresh and few are properly exploiting its benefits. If you act now you’ll be seen as a pioneer and may be able to establish clear water between you and your challengers. If you delay acting, you’ll be playing catch up with the pioneers in your industry.

Acknowledgements:
Dushinski K, The Mobile Marketing Handbook, 2009, CyberAge Books
Mobile Marketing Association Website, www.globalmma.org
Innovativo Mobile, www.innovativo.co.uk
Sponge Marketing Group, www.spongegroup.com

The SMS Marketing Business Case

2010-11-09T16:20:00.000Z

I'm often asked whether marketing to the mobile channel using SMS is cheaper than traditional mailshot campaigns. To answer this we need to think about direct and indirect costs.

Considering direct costs, think about the costs of running a traditional mailshot campaign, that is stuffing printed leaflets through doors. Firstly you have to design the leaflet which can cost anything between £50-£5,000 depending on how innovative you want the graphic design to be, or how conformist it needs to be against branding values and guidelines or whether you want original artwork or re-use library images and layout templates. Then you have to print the leaflets incurring a printing cost and a logistics cost (getting the leaflets to the distributors from the print room). You then need to pay someone to physically post the leaflets through doors.

Then there are the indirect costs. Designing the leaflet will require hours of time from yourself and your colleagues to meet with the designers, review the layouts and then check the final designs. You then need someone to work with the printers, specify the paper quality, the ink quality, the size and quantity etc. They then need to receive, unpack and check the leaflets before they are then shipped to the delivery team.

Stats then tell us that only 1 in 30 leaflets posted through a door are actually read, the rest go straight into the recycling bin. And heaven forbid if you need to change the campaign message halfway through... You'd need to re-design then re-print then re-deliver all the leaflets.

SMS on the other hand costs around 4p per message. No other costs. OK, so the message is limited and there are no fancy graphics to attract attention etc (unless of course you texted a WAP link to a fancy web site). Although, the upside is that the SMS is personal. It's sent from you to one individual, not an entire household. Stats show that 45% of SMS marketing messages are actually read and more importantly 29% result in an action of some type taking place - ideally a purchase!!!

SMS doesn't use paper, so there are no costs to the environment. If you want to change your message you can do so at anytime, and most importantly you've got more chance of your recipient replying to the message...

So, why are you still marketing on paper?

Offshoring Apps Development - Can it Work?

2010-10-29T17:12:00.000+01:00

The benefits of off-shoring any kind of development are clear - lower costs. However, it's the potential drawbacks that turn many away from off-shoring apps development, the complexities of dealing with foreign cultures from afar, the lack of hands-on control, communicating with individuals for whom English isn't their first language and, regrettably, the risk of coming a cropper due to fraudsters.

It's a shame that these drawbacks exist though as apps development lends itself to off-shoring quite nicely. I think it can still work, and the low cost benefits can be realised, if it's managed in the right way. What's needed is a middle man, a company that is based in the UK and has a knowledge of UK industry, culture and language. They would deal with clients to gather requirements and draw up storyboards and requirement documents. The middle man would then suffer the pains of dealing with off shore development houses, delivering an end product to the UK based client. If UK clients knew they could deal with a UK based, English speaking designer then surely they wouldn't care where the software was actually written.

Of course, the middle man would add a layer of cost, but the total overall cost would still be attractive enough.

My Favourite iPhone Apps

2010-10-28T14:06:00.000+01:00

At a recent Mobile Marketing event I was asked by a journalist what apps I had on my own iPhone and which ones I find most useful. I must admit that when it comes to an app, I tend to only download those that I will use again and again. What we don't see enough of, outside of gaming apps, are free demo apps. Personally, I prefer to play around with an app and test to see if it adds value to my life before committing to buying it, even if it only costs a few quid. As such, a quick flick across my iPhone apps reveals the following that I would recommend to anyone:

Camera & Photo Editing
I was frustrated with the pre-loaded iPhone camera app so I now use an app called Camera+ from taptaptap.com. This provides, even on the 3GS, a 1.0x digital zoom and some nifty editing tools including photo cropping and enhancements. You can upload your photos to the popular Social Networking and Cloud storage sites as well.

Social Networking
I use IM+ for instant messaging and Twitter access, but find it a bit clunky. What I really want is an IM app that works properly in multi-task mode and notifies me of new messages as they pop in. Facebook is my social networking app of choice and I love the Places feature on it. I have LinkedIn's app but rarely use it as I don't find it user friendly and find I can rely on the laptop browser version of Linkedin for managing my account and contacts. I've yet to find a really useful Twitter app, so if anyone can recommend one...

Navigating
I use the TomTom W.Europe app for navigating in the car, but find this clunky when on foot. When walking I revert back to the built in Google map app which is much more sensitive for a slow moving pedestrian. TomTom is great though and rarely fails to find the best route.

International and Non-Bundled Calls
In my line of work I have to dial into many audio conferences or make international calls. I don't have a land line anymore and the tariff I'm locked into with Orange charges an astronomical amount for international calls or for calling 0870, 0845 and even 0800 numbers, which most of the audio bridge services use. Therefore I use Skype for iPhone to dial into these bridges as 0800 numbers are free and 0845 etc cheaper. International calls are also much less expensive via Skype and if you're attached to a wifi network with reasonable bandwidth then it works just fine.

Finding Hotels, Restaurants and Things to Do
I use TripAdvisor and Qype for this. I find the former more up to date and the reviews more useful. Last time I used Qype to find a Chinese restaurant in Stratford-upon-Avon, I visited four derelict buildings or clothes shops as most of the restaurant entries were no longer in existence... I also like TripAdvisor's links to social networking sites and also sites where you can make hotel reservations etc.

Leisure
The apps I use most have to be Guitar Tuner and Guitar Tabs, the latter from GuitarTabs.com. For gaming the only app I really re-use is Flight Control which is infuriatingly simple and yet addictive.

News & Sport
The BBC News app is the best free news app I've found so far with an intuitive interface and great video media links. I also use FT.com for business news and forex rates and Yahoo Stocks for share prices. For footy scores I use the Sky Sports app which seems to be the quickest and most frequently updated.

Shopping
Not really doing much of this from my iPhone at the moment but sometimes use Amazon's app and the eBay app is useful to keep tabs on auctions I'm bidding on. The Trainline app is great now you can buy tickets via the app as well as plan your journeys. Shame they can't make the trains work better!!! RedLaser is a brillian app that allows you to scan any product's barcode and get price comparisons via the web. Only problem with this is that I always forget I've got it when I could use it... I use the Tesco Clubcard app but really only as a way of displaying my barcode for scanning when in their petrol stations. The app I'm waiting for is a Quidco app so I can get my cashback when shopping on the move.

The Missing Killer App
I would really love an app that synchronizes my iPhone with my Outlook Tasks. Failing that a good Time Management app that can also synch with Outlook would be useful.

Hope you find some of my recommendations useful, let me know if you have any for me...

How to Monetize Smartphone Apps

2010-10-21T14:06:00.000+01:00

Considering that there are over 4.3bn mobile phones worldwide there's no doubt that there is a huge target market for anything that uses a mobile phone. For years service providers have been taking advantage of SMS marketing, ring-tone downloads and other simple services to monetize this market. The smartphone enables richer, more exciting applications and after a few years of stuttering, the market for Smartphones is starting to take off. Apple led the way with the iconic iPhone and the Android platform has moved us on to another level. Microsoft's Windows 7 for mobile brings the operating system giant back into the market and Nokia haven't given up with their Symbian based offerings. Of course, don't forget RIM and the Blackberry. This increase in competition together with rapidly advancing technology, better and cheaper mobile data networks, have helped Smartphone penetration to grow. There were some 41m Smartphones sold in Q3 of 2009.

Back to the apps. In 2009 there were 7bn apps doanloaded according Bitsmedia with 50bn downloads expected in 2012. By 2014 Chetan Sharma Consulting predict a Smartphone apps market worth $25bn per annum... Want some?

Before you get too excited remember that this is already a very congested and competitive market with around 30,000 registered developers providing apps via the Apple iTunes appstore. Of course not every developer wants to monetize their apps and many apps are free to use (about 75% of those on iTunes are free). This is because apps can be monetized in a number of ways and not just through payments for download. Apps can generate up-sell revenue opportunities for other core products, leading customers to web sites or increasing footfall in high street stores for example.

Revenue from Downloads
This is an attractive market as we've seen, but it's also a competitive market that is difficult to break into. There are killer apps out there but like all great inventions it's not that easy to generate the idea in the first place and even harder to develop and promote it to realise its potential. With over 170,000 apps on iTunes alone, your app can easily get lost in the crowd. Like the battle for rankings in Google, you need to know what you're doing to ensure your app is visible.

You also need to look beyond the iPhone and develop versions of your app for other Smartphone platforms. 79% of South-East Asian Smartphones are Symbian devices. Android is growing quickly and as stated Microsoft is back in the fray. Blackberry is popular amongst businesses. Building, supporting and promoting different versions of your app on different app stores is a costly and difficult trick to pull off.

That said, if you get all the aspects right, there's money to be made with some apps making $500,000 within days of publication on an app store and the Peppa Pig app (a collection of games and images based on a popular UK chidlren's TV programme) in the UK grossed £125,000 in its first week).

Other Ways to Monetize your App
Build in purchase opportunities for other products and services within your app. Maybe ring tone or backdrop downloads or even ordering products or services to be home delivered.

Advertising is starting to gain momentum, largely driven by Google Ads on the Android platform and iAds on the iPhone. You've probably notices banner adds appearing at the top of apps recently and this will continue to be the norm. As for ads on search engines and web sites, ads earn money per click.

Also subscription services provide opportunity to develop revenue. The ft.com app, for example, provides 10 free page views per month. You then have to subscribe to be able to view more financial news alerts.

Summary - What Makes a Good Monetized App?

The idea has to be new, fresh and fulfils a key need - differentiate from the competition
The GUI needs to be easy to use and take advantage of Smartphone benefits
Get the price right - make it free if you need to shift lots of them to generate up-sell revenue
Address all the important platforms and all the popular app stores and download sites
Market the product effectively
Keep your app up to date and provide customer support. Respond to reported bugs with rapid fixes. Check the opposition regularly and keep your app evolving to ensure it remains better.

How do I Create a Great Smartphone App?

2010-10-19T12:00:00.005+01:00

This one is easy to answer. You outsource it. I've recently been involved with a company called AppDragon who provide complete end to end solutions for brands wishing to create mobile apps for Smartphones.

It's by far the easiest way because, even if you do have someone in house who has a penchant for coding, there's far more involved if you want you app to be a success. Here's a pyramid diagram I've created that outlines the different stages of a successful app. Yes, it's upside down and that's to reflect the fact that the key elements are the upfront creative and design aspects. Get these right and the rest if a sausage factory...

Here's my pyramid.

The first layer is essential and you need a partner that is willing and able to listen to your aspirations, goals, ideals, needs, problems and issues and how your business currently operates and then build on your own ideas with creativity of their own.

Only if you get this stage right will your app be a success. I've seen apps developed for the sake of getting an app on an appstore and not only have they not delivered any value to end users and hence the brand owner, but they have even been detrimental (e.g. in one case took substituted lucrative revenues with a free of charge app). Care is required at this stage and a pedantic but innovative designer is the best to have if you can find one.

Design & create needs prototyping to be at its core. The client needs to be able to see how his or her ideas will look on paper, on the screen and essentially on a mobile phone. Workflows and use cases are also key, what happens if the user does X or Y. Does that mean he can't do Z or maybe it allows him to to A which we hadn't previously thought of... Iteration, iteration, iteration is the name of the game here until the concept is right.

Plan & build - the mechanical bit. Offshore it. It'll be cheaper and if, like my clients, your supplier provides UK based account and programme management as your primary contact, who cares which country the programmers are working in?

Testing - make sure your supply partner uses independent testers. Coders are notoriously proud of their own code (I know I was when I used to code) and often can't see or overlook minor bugs and issues. Get someone who doesn't know the structure of the code to pull it apart, stress test it, try and make it fail. There's nothing worse than a bug filled application to turn users off and ruin your brand reputation.

Now your app is ready to hit the big wide world and the app stores and download sites. Next time I'll blog about this part of the process and how to maximise use of your app and, if you're one of the 45% of app developers wanting to make money from an app, I'll show you how to start monetizing your app.

Monetizing Mobile Apps

2010-10-18T14:40:00.002+01:00

According to Bango, mobile apps downloads are predicted to reach 4 billion for 2010. This, they claim, will rise to 21 billion by 2013. This is based on a prediction of the number of Smartphones out there beating 390 million by 2013, growing at a rate of 20.9% year on year.

I don't think these are unlikely scenarios, judging by the current euphoria behind Smartphones and mobile apps.

I saw an opposite view the other day, can't recall who from, but their conclusions were negative about apps downloads, based on research that told them only 35% of Smartphone owners had downloaded an app in the previous month. Considering the purpose of an app (they're generally not a one use commodity) this doesn't surprise me. That said, using these pessimistic figures, if there are 390m smartphones in 2013, that's still 1.36bn downloads per annum. Bango claim 45% of developers plan to monetize their apps. According to iTunes the average app price is £2.19. Therefore, using these numbers the apps download market could be worth somewhere around £2.9bn by 2013 and because I used the "opposition's" pessimistic research, you could say that's bottom end.

So, there does appear to be money to be made from mobile apps, but how do you make it? Well that's a discussion for next time so make sure you follow me on Twitter.

How Can Bulk SMS Help Insurance Companies?

2010-10-08T10:08:00.003+01:00

I've recently done a fair amount of work in the finance and insurance sector, mainly with a couple of large insurance companies. Their products range from pensions and annuities to travel, home and car insurance and they contacted me because they were curious how SMS could help their businesses. Their main aim on first contact was to boost sales by using SMS to alert existing clients to new products and services, directing them to their website or call centre for more information. This works great and the flexibility of SMS means they can modify campaigns at a minute's notice, making special offers to keep in line with competitor offers or to react to events, such as excessively wet weather and the threat of flooding.

However, our conversations quickly moved on to other areas of their business where SMS could add value. Firstly we looked at reducing costs by removing the need for inbound calls into their call centres. For example, if a client makes an application for, say, a pension policy, keeping them updated on progress of their application by SMS is both cost effecient and personal. Customers like that and if they know that their application is being progressed they won't feel the need to call the call centre to find out. An inbound call can cost anything up to £200 to receive if you consider the cost of the technology, the cost of the actual 0800 call, the time of the call centre staff to take the call etc. It also avoids customers having to endure the infamous IVR - "press 1 to hear the next robot voice read out yet another options menu that you'll inevitably switch off during and therefore miss which option was the one you needed forcing you to listen to it all over again" etc. This solution works especially well for insurance claims where customers are far more anxious about how their claim is progressing. A daily update costs about 3 to 4p to send by SMS but gives valuable peace of mind to the customer.

Then we talked about SMS as a reminder service. Whether it's a scheduled interview regarding a pension or investment application, a special event such as ISA renewal dates, annuity maturity etc, then SMS works well here too. In the health sector I've worked with clients who have reduced missed clinic appointments by more than 30%. Imagine the cost savings from not having expensive professionals sitting in an office or on the end of a phone line waiting for a client who isn't going to turn up because they forgot the appointment or no longer needed it. Or imagine the power of reminding someone their ISA dates are due for expiry and they can reply to the SMS to receive a call back from an adviser free of charge... It's better than a letter or an email because when it's received your customer has his phone in his hand... It's so easy therefore to take immediate action rather than procrastinate and eventually forget the task as life's myriad of priorities take over.

Another client of mine did a campaign for a major bank who had a travel insurance arm. During the Volcanic Ash Cloud crisis they used SMS to re-assure their travel insurance customers that any delays due to the cloud would be honoured by their policies. Just imaging the loyalty points that would get an insurance company, to put travellers' minds at rest and allow them to better enjoy their enforced holiday extension knowing the costs would be covered. This could apply to any major event or cirsis. A terrorist attack, an air controller's strike, earthquake etc. Using some clever CRM integration would also allow messages to be personalized and targeted, only sending them to customers who are actually currently away in the countries affected or are about to travel there. It's all about doing something for your customers that your competitors aren't...

In the very near future, Mobile Apps will also be useful to Insurance companies. Imagine being able to submit an insurance claim at the scene of a car accident. You can take photos of the damage, the license plate of the other car etc and submit them at once. This will speed up the claims process for the client but also reduce costs for the insurance company as they have all the scene of the accident information immediately.

Mobile has exciting possibilities for the insurance sector.

Charity Donations Via SMS

2010-07-12T13:03:00.005+01:00

Following a recent deal I was involved in where a large well known UK charity are allowing donations to be made using SMS text messaging, I thought I'd blog on the topic. SMS texting is quite straightforward. An individual uses their mobile phone to send a text message to a short-code, usually with the name of the charity or other keyword as the message content thereby signifying which charity the donation is intended for (e.g. text OXFAM to 7177xx to donate £1 - note this wasn't my client, just an example!).

The concept is the same as premium rate texting services used to buy ringtones or other similar services. Basically, the mobile network receives the text message and bills the relevant amount (usually a fixed donation of £1, £3 or £5) to the mobile phone owner's phone bill. The network then takes its cut to cover its costs and a small profit, and the rest goes to the service provider who take their cut and costs (for managing the billing, deciphering the text messages, overseeing reclaim of gift aid etc) which leaves a net donation for the charity to receive. This is subject to Gift Aid so can be increased by up to 25% if the individual has registered for Gift Aid.

Until recently, the amount that the mobile operators would cream off the donation was the same as they'd take for commercial premium rate services. This could have been up to 60%, so a £5 donation would be worth less than £2 to the charity. With the voluntary code of practice the operators have now adopted, the share going to the charity is much higher and can be upwards of 90% of the donation. Considering that processing charitable donations always costs money (be it emptying collecting tins, accepting phone donations with possible credit card fees or selling clothes in second hand shops, the charity CEO's salary etc etc) then the net revenue that ends up in the charity's bank account is actually quite good for SMS donations, and it's improving as the lobbyists continue to squeeze better rates from the mobile operators.

The donation is now also net of VAT if it was given using one of the new special 77xxx charity short-codes.

So when should a charity use SMS texting. All the time is the simple answer, providing there is scope to promote the shortcode and keyword on campaign marketing materials. Short codes are easy to remember and as the mobile is always with you, it's easy to make a donation when you're experiencing downtime, on the bus or train, in a queue, watching a dull footy match etc. It's also something that can be acted upon instantly, so if you're at a bus stop and see a poster asking for donations, you can make one there and then whilst it's on your mind. Social networking is becoming more important as a vehicle for highlighting particular needs and campaigns and SMS messaging and social networking (as Jamie Oliver might say) are best buddies in this regard. It's easy to make a SMS donation and easy to remember how to do it. SMS donations are also successful in encouraging repeat donations. Managing the Gift Aid registrations can be a bit tricky as those donating have to register via a web site although there are some that offer registration via text messaging as well.

There are also fixed costs associated with setting up the shortcode and managing the billing and reconciliation aspects of the service. So you have to generate sufficient numbers of text donations to make this worthwhile. A typical three month campaign with a standard unit donation of £5 each, would need about 1,000 text donations to make it worthwhile. Some campaigns by the bigger charity events have generated in excess of 100,000 text donations and this is growing all the time.

So SMS messaging is a key way to encourage donations for charities. It suits the lifestyle of many contributors and is relatively quick and easy to set up and manage. And the key thing is the mobile operators are improving their rates and hence the net donations all the time.

How to Make Your Business Successful

2010-05-24T15:25:00.003+01:00

I owe an apology to everyone. I've been so busy lately with a new business venture that I'm trying to launch in the Mobile Marketing arena that I've made far too few posts over the last month or so. In fact, I owe you another apology because I haven't had time to write anything on the wonderful world of Mobile Commerce this week either. Instead, I wanted you to hear a story I was told that helps me put life into perspective when things get too busy and hectic.

A mobile commerce strategy consultant was taking a few days off near a small coastal Spanish village, where he came upon a fisherman............
The consultant complimented the fisherman on his catch, and was astonished to learn that it didn't take long for the fisherman to complete his daily work. The consultant then asked the fisherman what he did for the rest of his day.

'I sleep late', the fisherman replied, 'fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, stroll around the village with my friends, sip some wine, play a little guitar. I keep myself occupied, senor'.

The mCommerce expert scoffed. 'I have an MBA from the London School of Economics', he proudly exclaimed. "What you need to do is get up at the crack of dawn and spend more time fishing. With the extra proceeds buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from that boat, buy a few more boats. Then, instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would be able to sell direct to a processor via your iPhone. You'll be so successful that you could end up running your empire via mobile internet from an office in downtown Madrid'.

'But senor,' the fisherman asked, 'how long will all that take'.

'15 - 20 years of hard work perhaps', came the reply.

'And then what, senor ?'.

The worldly wise consultant laughed. 'Then, my friend, you'd do an IPO, sell stock in your company, and make millions'.

'Millions, senor. Then what ?'.

'Then', said the business guru, 'you'd retire. Move to an idyllic seaside village. You'd sleep in late, fish a little, play with your children, take a siesta with your wife, stroll around the village with your friends, sip some wine, play a little guitar'....

How SMS Could Help the New Government Reduce Public Sector Costs

2010-05-05T08:30:00.005+01:00

I've been working for some time now with a company that, in partnership with a large UK telco, develops and manages SMS middle ware applications for corporates and the public sector. One particular solution they offer in the Health sector allows SMS, Email and automated voice IVRs, to be used to remind patients about upcoming clinic or minor surgery appointments.

Over 15 Primary Care Trusts in the UK use this service from my client and recently I was told by one of them that since introducing the service 12 months ago, their "did not attend
" or DNA rates have dropped from 30% to less than 10%. It's difficult to put a fiscal benefit against these savings, but you can imagine the sunk cost that goes into running a clinic - the salary of the consultants and the nurses. Medicines and prescriptions that are prepared and never collected and have to be disposed of and the cost of re-arranging the missed appointment. Also, there are knock on effects as Consultants could have been attending other patients or undertaking other procedures while twiddling their thumbs waiting for patients not to show up.

Also, let's not forget the customer satisfaction benefits of being reminded you have an appointment and ensuring that the next time you need to attend a clinic the consultant's are available because they're not having to play catch up and attend to no shows from previous clinics before you.

Appointment reminders using SMS don't stop at health services. My client also has insurance companies and banks and a well known recruitment company who use SMS to send out reminders about interview appointments. Councils can use the service to remind people to attend various meetings, couriers can remind people that a package is due and needs signing for. Builders merchants can remind site supervisors that a consignment of wood is en route and that someone needs to be on site to receive and store it safely away.

So, when the politicians talk about necessary cuts in public spending, the mobile channel, and SMS in particular, offers a way of reducing those costs whilst also enhancing services to the public...

How to Build an Effective Web Presence

2010-04-28T13:25:00.001+01:00

According to a recent survey conducted by iCrossing, 84 percent of respondents said they expect sites they visit frequently to provide a dedicated mobile version.

In the UK there are over 76 million active mobile phones in circulation and 15% of those are used on a regular basis for surfing the internet.

The Mobile Web isn’t just the ability to access existing web sites from a mobile device. Successful mobile web sites go beyond replicating what’s available over the internet using a PC or laptop, it is a collection of mobile-friendly websites along with search engines optimised for mobile, mobile advertising and pay-per-click advertisements that are not only displayed specifically for mobiles but are also relevant to the situations that the user of a mobile might find themselves in. Think of the mobile web as “an ecosystem for mobile devices” [Dushinski [1]]

Dushinski also presents a nice little equation which summarizes what a successful mobile web presence is. I've adapted it a little but it goes something like this:

Hits + Action = Success

Hits represents the traffic coming to your site, the number of visits by unique users or the number of repeated visits by regular users. This traffic coming to your site is driven by marketing your site, either through the traditional marketing mix or from your existing web site. As in all cases, marketing your site and thereby encouraging hits is made much easier if your site adds value, and in this case that has to be value that is specific to a mobile scenario.

Action is the conversion of visitor hits into desired, quantifiable affects. This is where your visitor will actually undertake some form of transaction whilst visiting your site, be it the extraction of relevant information, making a purchase or using a service. It’s all good and well generating millions of hits on your site, if all the visitors do once their there is click off to some other unrelated website. If your mobile site provides value to the mobile user, then it is likely they will undertake some desired action whilst visiting, even if it is simply to read and digest information about your company or its products.

The real trick is not just to provide value, but to make it easy for someone using a mobile to identify where that value is located and access it easily considering the limitations, and unique advantages, presented by the mobile interface.

A new company called Mobivize provides complete end to end mobile marketing services including developing a mobile web presence as well as services to publicize your web site and also optimize its ranking in mobile search engines.

Mobivize addresses the different stages of mobile web site development including the key areas you need to address which are:

What services and content to include and how best to present it to a user with a mobile device. Of course there are different ways of doing this from miniaturization of your existing site, creation of a simple text based site specifically for mobile, Smartphone apps or fully customized web sites specifically designed for mobile.
Develop content that creates value to the mobile user. What will drive hits to your site, how will you get them to take your desired action once they are there. How do you make them bookmark your site and visit it again and again. Mobile brings a whole new set of criteria to consider when thinking about value add, including the location of the mobile user.
When they take the desired action, make sure it's a smooth and successful transaction, that fits perfectly with the mobile interface. It has to be quick and bandwidth friendly. Many mobile transactions take place when the user is in a hurry (quick check on train timetable, a price comparison etc).
Personalise your web site. Make sure it provides specific content and value that your users want, where they want it and in respect to what they are doing at that time.
Promote your website.

What's clear is that the Mobile Web is now with us, and we can expect a revolution even greater than the PC based web revolution of the naughties.

Reference: [1] Dushinski K, The Mobile Marketing Handbook, CyberAge, 2009

Don't Underestimate the Difference Between Mobile and PC Websites

2010-04-01T12:48:00.003+01:00

Once you have decided your company needs a mobile web presence, the default and incorrect decision is often to miniaturize your highly successful existing company website.

In most instances this is not good practice and here's why:

Mobile phones have smaller screens with different dimensions to a PC monitor display and generally poorer resolution and refresh rates. Even film makers don't just transpose a movie from the ultra-wide screen, very high definition cinema scope format to a smaller TV format, even though TV's are rapidly catching up on the cinema in these terms. We all remember the highly dissatisfying practices of the past where actors looked horizontally stretched or cut in half if they were to one side of the cinema scene... Don't just assume a web site will work on mobile by shrinking it to fit, even with the bigger better quality mobile displays of today.
Simply miniaturizing an existing site will lose the advantages of mobile such as personalization, always on, can be viewed anywhere and anytime and of course the benefits of a touch screen interface.
Don't just replicate the content of your main site. Think about the use cases in which the mobile will be used and when your site will be accessed by someone with a mobile. If you're a retailer, a mobile user is more likely to access your website to quickly gather information on a product to compare it to a competitors. They're less likely to want to spend time browsing around your site. Make the key information that mobile users may want, readily available and easy to find. Get rid of any content someone on the move is less likely to need.
Accordingly, think about the flow of the site, and how users will navigate around it differently when using a mobile. Ensure your design makes room for finger sized click able icons and supports other UI features of the popular phones (flick scrolling, dragging, resizing etc).
Think about search options and how these might differ on a mobile. Long lists of search results probably won't do on a smaller mobile screen, so ensure your search facilities are optimized for mobile too.
Ensure the website is dynamic. The always available nature of mobile means users may visit your mobile site more frequently. Ensure there's new exciting content (news, stock alerts, offers etc) available constantly to ensure they keep coming back when they're bored on the train for example.
Promote your site. Don't just leave your mobile site sitting as a hidden extra of your main website. Promote it. Get it on the mobile search engines. Put an app version on the various smartphone app stores. Run some campaigns, competitions, games. It's harder to scroll through reams of bookmarks on a mobile, so give your customers a good reason to keep your mobile website near the top of their bookmark lists.

Overall, remember mobile is unique as a channel and presents many more opportunities for your business to interact with your customers. Make the most of it and don't neglect your mobile web presence.

Mobile Financial Services 2010

2010-03-10T08:09:00.002Z

I was presenting at Informa's annual Mobile Financial Services event in London yesterday and stayed and listened to the other presentations for most of the day. There were some interesting snippets of information gleaned that I wanted to share with you here.

Firstly, the one mobile financial service that cropped up time and time again was International Mobile Remittances or International Money Transfer. Everyone seems to agree this is a very lucrative market though not without it's perils and pitfalls, especially on the recipient's side. Edgar Dunn claim there are over 96.1m migrant workers in the top 15 Euro economies alone, and that the total market value is around $97bn. One speaker from the Deutsche Bank presented research that said this was more than $300bn. For those of you new to this area, this proposition is about allowing migrant workers to send money from the developed economies back home in the developing world using their mobile phones. Credits are purchased with cash (or salaries are paid in the form of Mobile Wallet credits) and then SMS is used to instruct the service to transfer credits to another virtual wallet or bank account in the home country. These credits can then be exchanged for goods, services (e.g. electricity tokens), cash or mobile phone credits. The big problem is how you cost efficiently provide the credit exchange service at the recipient's end, across multiple countries where most of the population is un-banked (even in Poland 35% are unbanked, in many African and Asian nations it's closer to 90%). The answer may be a network of Agent's who could be grocery store owners, post offices or existing mobile phone shops who would accept Mobile Wallet credits and exchange them for cash or goods. The problem is how to build these Agency networks. Maybe there's an opportunity for an aspiring entrepreneur to develop an Agency network and sell access to it to all the Western service providers wanting to enter this market?

Some other of my personal observations from the event:

All the major telecoms players, mobile operators and banks seem to be investing in new products and services in this area (Mobile Financial Services in general, not just remittances).
Ecosystems in the mould of Trusted Service Manager environments seem to be prevalent. At some point the banks and operators need to come together to make these work.
There are many mobile wallet solutions being implemented for micro-payments, with Ping-Ping by Belgacom giving a good presentation at the event.
There is still concern about where the money is to be made. One take-away comment was that consumers "won't pay to pay", meaning if I buy something for £20 with cash today, I won't want to have to pay £22 for the same goods if I buy them with my mobile phone. Therefore, the merchant will have to pay so the merchants need convincing there's something it this for them - the reduction in cash handling costs for example.
There was a mixed opinion on NFC - contactless payments technologies. Some believed that NFC had had its opportunity and failed but no-one really could put a finger on why. Others thought that NFC was about to come into its own and Motorola demonstrated it's new iSIM solution where a small sticker containing the RFID chip is placed over the existing SIM card, thereby making every phone potentially an NFC device. What the MNO's will think about this is interesting, as they're desperately trying to own the secure element in mobile payments and therefore the revenue from transaction fees. iSIM effectively cuts them out of the equation. Maybe they'll call using iSIM or similar a breach of contract, but how do they police this? Deny any data traffic relevant to the service perhaps? The regulators might have something to say about that option... All interesting stuff.
Nokia, RIM, Motorola all stated their clear intent to enter this market in a big way which has to be encouraging for someone in this industry.
Gareth Lodge from the TowerGroup gave a good independent perspective from a bank's viewpoint. Their challenge is two-fold. Firstly they have to work out how to integrate yet another payments method into the "spaghetti" of the existing payments networks and systems. The other challenge is finding the investment cash. It was stated that possibly up to 75% of R&D funding went into supporting implementation of new regulation so there's clearly very little cash to enable new ventures and new payments systems. He ended though on a more positive note, agreeing that there were clear benefits for banks in this area and that various projects were addressing the complexities of the existing payments systems.

Overall an interesting event which re-iterated my previous musings on this subject, Mobile Commerce is a huge opportunity and we're on the edge of a major advance in this industry.

Mobile is the New Mass Media

2010-03-02T15:55:00.003Z

Whilst on the train from London the other day, I was skimming through the excellent Mobile Marketing Handbook written by Kim Dushinski.

The book proposes, quite rightly, that Mobile is the new mass-media (the 7th mass-media) and is by far the most exciting in terms of how rapidly it is becoming ubiquitous across the globe, in developed and developing countries.
The 6th mass-media, The Internet, brought us interactivity, the ability to undertake complex searches on a practically infinite pool of knowledge, to find information that was relevant to us and it was available to large swathes of world population. TV, radio and printed media have the edge on the Internet still when it comes to availability as computers are still relatively expensive and connectivity is by no means as cheap as the airwaves which are by and large free to access to grab TV or radio signals.

Mobile on the other hand has the same advantages as the Internet in terms of access to knowledge, but it also has the benefit of being available to the majority of the population. By 2013 forecasters predict that the entire world population will have access to mobile services in some shape or form. Even today, there are some 4bn mobile phones in circulation.

However, as Dushinski points out, mobile is not just about phones, it is about any device that can do what other mass media does but at anytime, in anyplace. Mobile brings an extra dimensions to the Internet as a mass media, through personalization. The mobile is a very personal and configurable media. Proximity is another aspect, the phone is generally very close to us at most times, whereas we generally have to go to a PC or other fixed device to access the none-mobile Internet. Yet another P is Payment (the additional three P's of Mobile Marketing?) as the mobile has the ability to become the payment mechanism for services (not just by entering credit card details as we would on a standard Internet service, but by actually being the secure, verifiable authentication element in a payment transaction).

"Over half the population of the planet have mobile phones, only 1.5bn have a TV.". A mobile phone is with you most of the time. The average TV is only viewed for 22 hours a week and the average newspaper read for only 20 minutes per day.

Fixed access to the Internet using PCs or Laptops (or even TVs) tells us that download speeds and predictable costs are key enablers. We aren’t going to watch video or download large files on mobile until costs are included in monthly subscriptions and download is quick and done in the background if not in real time. Mobile operators are slowly starting to address the cost issue and already flat rate packages make surfing the mobile web more predictable.

The fixed Internet also teaches us that security is a key issue and that consumers need to be protected and will be wary of buying on line or by mobile, even though using chip and pin in a store is just as risky and writing a cheque (which includes your bank details AND signature in the same place) is the riskiest form of transaction of all.

Another thing that makes mobile different from online is that it is always on and generally always carried on the person. So information has to be updated continuously whereas online it might be sufficient to update information daily, weekly or at best hourly. Response times have to be quick. It’s no good if a product comparison website takes ages to load up when you’re trying to check the price of an item when standing in the aisle of a shop on your lunch break… We’re more tolerant of delays online or of following wild goose chase searches on Google. Mobile searches must be accurate, quick and simple.

Attempts to create specific online payment methods have largely failed. Even most PayPal transactions still rely on the use of a debit or credit card at some point. Virtual wallets are still pretty much non-existent. The lesson here is that for mobile, initially it will be the same and payment will be via credit cards. Mobile web screen sizes and data entry systems (keyboards) make entering long digit credit card details cumbersome. Secure devices in the phone (SIM card or other chipsets) are needed to automate this process as much as possible.

The final lesson we can glean from the fixed Internet to ensure that mobile as a 7th Mass Media is as effective as it can be, is how quickly each successive mass media has integrated into our lives. The internet became ubiquitous very quickly, mobile as a channel will be even quicker.

Free Mobile Minutes are the Big Loyalty Driver

2010-02-26T08:00:00.004Z

I recently conducted a poll of managers and senior managers across a range of industries to find out which mobile-based method of loyalty reward appeals the most to consumers.

My objective was to find out whether there was real scope for free mobile top-up (free call minutes, free texts or free downloads) to be offered to consumers for each purchase they made in retail (or online) stores. The benefit of this approach for the retailer (the encouraging of loyalty apart) is that it's a scheme that easy and cost efficient to operate.

The findings from the survey were interesting. The base was 57 managers and senior managers.

57 said they would prefer free mobile top-up in the form of call minutes as a reward for brand or store loyalty above all other rewards proposed. Less than 1% said they'd prefer free text top ups (possibly because the value of a text is deemed quite low and most phone packages provide more than enough free texts anyway - maybe a question for the next survey).

14% said free mobile ring tones, games or wallpapers/themes would entice them to stay loyal.

Only 1% said they'd prefer a voucher giving them money off their next purchase. This could be so low because consumers are still relating to traditional paper vouchers which get filed in the kitchen cupboard and only see light of day when a spring clean takes place by which time they've expired. Mobile vouchers may change this perception, providing they're delivered to the phone in a timely and personalized manner (that is, they add value for the recipient in what tasks they are undertaking at the right time in the right place).

28% said their loyalty decisions are not influenced by any of the rewards proposed, which I personally expected to be higher in the demographic surveyed.

This was only a relatively small sample of a narrow demographic, but makes interesting reading none the less and concludes that there is scope to offer free mobile call minutes and downloads as purchase rewards.

If you think your customer loyalty could be increased by offering free mobile top-ups, please get in touch and I can pull together a proposal for you (visit the website).

If you want to use this mini-survey in your own business plans etc, please do so but please reference Innovativo in your report and remember that it's only a relatively small sample in a narrow demographic.

Opportunities for Mobile Financial Services

2010-02-19T10:47:00.006Z

I have just published a free to download White Paper that addresses the global market opportunity for Mobile Financial Services and presents a view on which regions represent the best opportunity for growth in both revenue and profitability. It also identifies some of the challenges and other factors that could affect regional growth for Mobile Financial Services.

The potential revenue and profitability from Mobile Financial Services depends on which business model wins the day, and which part of the value chain you are addressing. In some scenarios the Mobile Operators command a larger share of the overall revenues, in other scenarios financial institutions take the lion’s share. There are also other scenarios where a central co-coordinating function, the Trusted Service Manager or TSM, will make money.

My overall conclusion is that for service providers and application developers, the Cross-Border Mobile Remittances market offers the best opportunity, based on potential ROI and relative complexity of entering the market.

This will change over time though and micro-payments should become more lucrative.

Further details are available in my free to receive White Paper. Visit my website and click on link and I will send the free white paper to you...

Huge Increase in Mobile App Downloads

2010-01-26T15:52:00.002Z

The number of mobile apps being downloaded is soaring. The Apple iPhone store is expanding at a rapid pace and Mobango, which focuses on social mobile apps, says its store has seen a 500% increase in app downloads over the last 12 months - 23 million downloads in total.

The lower cost of mobile data services (many are now flat rate, albeit on a nigh impossible to implement fair use policy) and the more user friendly GUIs of the Apps Stores has made downloading mobile apps the latest craze. For me, the biggest potential stumbling block could be over saturation of app stores, with mobile users bemused by the myriad of different apps available to download. It's becoming increasingly difficult to search for an app that might be useful amongst the array of dross that's available.

On the Apple Store, Tom Tom still lead the way with the biggest value of downloads for their iPhone version of their navigator app. They found the way to make money from mobile apps, but charging £56 won't do for many less sophisticated apps. I've noticed the amount of advertising in free or low cost apps is increasing but so far it's fairly conspicuous and easily ignored. I think I even followed a link the other day, which strangely I have never ever done on the standard Internet...

Innovativo Director to Speak at Informa Mobile Event

2010-01-26T11:11:00.004Z

I'm pleased to say that I've been asked to present at the upcoming Informa Conference on Mobile Financial Services to be held at the Copthorne Tara Hotel in London on March 9th.

My presentation will focus on the market opportunity for Mobile Payments identifying why some countries offer better opportunities than others and what the major geographic trends are.

For registration details, please see and I hope to see you there for a chat over coffee.

I plan to first of all identify the different opportunities for different mobile payment propositions. For example, the market value of a particular region or country varies greatly depending on whether you're thinking of launching micro-payment solutions versus mobile remittances. The mobile phone is pretty much ubiquitous everywhere, including the developing world (where the number of phones outstrips even the number of televisions), but its only in the West and tiger economies where you're going to see any great number of sophisticated phones such as the iPhone or other smartphone. As such, the technologies that are fuelling the great opportunities in the developing world such as Africa will exploit SMS and will need to work on older, less functionally rich devices.

This is the conundrum for the global players in this space. Should they focus on the high ARPU pickings in the rich West, where implementation costs are higher and technical innovation is more of a gamble (who would have forecast the demise of HD-DVD so quickly and the emergence of a single standard in Blu-Ray) or should they go for the mass-market approach in Africa, Asia or South America? The latter brings its own problems from local nuances and laws that need to be negotiated. Local partnerships will be crucial in this space and a feeding frenzy of M&As and joint ventures are likely to dominate the headlines over the next months and years...

I'm looking forward to making this presentation. We all know there are opportunities out there and it will be good for me to do the research and drill down into the ones that make most sense... Of course, I'll share my findings on here, so watch this space.

See you on the 9th March?

How to Exploit the Mobile Marketing Channel Part 1

2010-01-18T09:08:00.002Z

What is Mobile Marketing all about?

One thing is certain, Mobile Marketing is very different from the other seven mass media marketing channels. According to Kim Dushinski of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), mobile marketing is about connecting businesses to each of its customers through their mobile devices at the right time, at the right place and with the right message. More importantly mobile marketing “requires the customer’s explicit permission and/or active interaction”.

This last point is extremely important as the mobile device (and by that I mean phones, PDAs, MP3 players, reading tablets – any mobile device that can be hooked up to the internet) is a very personal tool. Any communication via a mobile device has to be specific to the individual and, more importantly, must be targeted at that individual adding value to them. This is why the MMA, other mobile marketing bodies, the mobile networks and, more increasingly the regulators and law makers, are trying to restrict unsolicited distribution of marketing information to mobiles (spamming as it is most commonly known). A mobile phone could be switched on and ready to receive marketing messages day and night, wherever the owner is and whatever they are doing, which could be working. As such, it is important that marketers don’t annoy their target audience with unwanted, badly timed messages. This is why personalisation of campaigns is so important. It’s important to understand what adds value to your audience and when they need that value.

Mobile Marketing is not Internet Marketing

A common mistake is to think of the Mobile Web as being the same as the Web you may access from a desktop or laptop PC. Mobile is a unique channel and presents a different set of opportunities and challenges if it is to become a successful marketing channel. First of all, it’s possibly the most widespread mass media channel in the world. There are far more mobile phones that there are PCs around the globe, and there are actually more mobile phones than televisions. We’ve already read that mobile is also unique because it’s always-on and follows the individual wherever they go and the other unique feature of mobile is that it has an in-built payment mechanism. It’s the only mass media marketing tool that can complete the purchasing transaction as well as initiate interest.

Another common mistake is to think of mobile marketing as simply running a campaign using SMS messaging. Again, this is a fallacy. There are many tools to help market via the mobile channel, including good old voice. There’s also mobile messaging (such as SMS or MMS), the Mobile Web, Social Networking, Mobile Email, Mobile Applications and Mobile TV. The opportunities for marketers are endless, but the trick is to know which approach will be most effective for your existing and target customers and then integrating mobile into your existing marketing mix, avoiding the perils and pitfalls and reaping maximum rewards.

The issues are numerous and potentially venomous if they bite. For example, the Australian government recently issued fines of $15m to bogus marketers spamming via SMS. The US government is also strict with large fines and prison sentences being handed out. The mobile operators themselves don’t take abuse of their network lightly and will quickly shut down anyone suspected of breaking or bending the stringent rules. Also, and not the least worrying consideration, is that should you get mobile marketing wrong you could turn off your target audience completely, damage the value of your brand and allow your competitors to move in. This is why it’s important to work with a specialist agency or consultant who understands the mobile marketing channel. Most traditional marketing agencies currently don’t specialise in Mobile Marketing, although there will be a trend during 2010 for these agencies to develop a mobile department, even if this is outsourced to a specialist agency. There are a few such as Sponge Group and our very own Innovativo Mobile who can offer good advice on how best to market via mobile.

Ten Tips for Developing a Mobile Marketing Campaign

1. Acknowledge that marketing to mobiles will be very different from marketing to the traditional mass media channels and plan your campaigns accordingly.

2. Know your target audience, what value you can provide to them at different times of the day depending on where they may be and what they might be doing. Don’t assume they all want to receive the same message.

3. Don’t market with mobile if your audience don’t understand mobile or use the features it provides. Although most now know how to use SMS many still don’t know how to use the mobile web, then a mobile website isn’t going to be much use. Similarly, many don’t have the right mobile devices to make full use of the mobile web, or the right network data plans. Again, know your audience.

4. Track the results. There are so many options within the sphere of mobile marketing that you need to know if you’re using the right one. Is your message getting through via SMS or should you be thinking about offering voice as a backup? Are people clicking through to your mobile web site, should you use a mobile search engine or portal?

5. Only consider doing it yourself if mobile marketing is your primary route to market. There are a myriad of vendors providing each individual element required to implement a mobile campaign – SMS providers, mobile operators, web site designers, hosting companies, legal advisors, application developers etc. Use a company (such as Innovativo Mobile) who can stitch together all the different constituent parts and provide you with a one-stop-shop for mobile marketing.

6. Don’t assume your current traditional marketing agencies can effectively open up the mobile channel. Ensure they have the right level of specialism in house, or bring in a specialist partner yourself.

7. Don’t fall foul of the myriad of regulations and laws pertaining to mobile marketing. Get a specialist firm, agency or consultant to advise you.

8. Keep abreast of technology. Mobile technology from devices to network to applications is moving so quickly. It’s key you stay one step ahead of your competitors in maximising the potential of this new technology as it comes along, whilst avoiding those initiatives that are lame ducks. Get a specialist to advise you.

9. Build mobile into your existing marketing mix. Mobile will complement what you already do. It can deliver a more personalised element to follow up, for example, any brand awareness campaigns you’re undertaking with focussed special offers such as mobile vouchers.

10. Get ahead and stay ahead of your competitors. If you’re reading this and it has stimulated some thoughts around what your company could be doing to market via mobile, then it’s likely your competitors are too. Mobile marketing is still relatively new and fresh and few are properly exploiting its benefits. If you act now you’ll be seen as a pioneer and may be able to establish clear water between you and your challengers. If you delay acting, you’ll be playing catch up with the pioneers in your industry.

Acknowledgements:

Dushinski K, The Mobile Marketing Handbook, 2009, CyberAge Books

Mobile Marketing Association Website, www.globalmma.org

Innovativo Mobile, www.innovativo.co.uk

Sponge Marketing Group, www.spongegroup.com

Mobile Solutions Outlook is Bright for 2010

2010-01-14T08:17:00.002Z

In the midst of a recession when most companies are slashing investment in new technologies, they continued to fund projects to develop mobile solutions.

Forrester have just published a report that suggests that in this volatile global economic environment, firms are still excited about exploiting the mobile channel. Tom Peters advocates the need to innovate one's way out of a recession, and it looks like the innovation of choice is Mobile.

Enterprises are looking to mobile solutions as a way of cutting costs, improving productivity, enhancing business efficiencies and, most importantly, delivery real value that will attract new customers from competitors who fail to deliver what consumers are demanding.

A quote from the report highlights Forrester's rosy outlook - "We predict a more stable economic environment in 2010 and expect... ...programmes to drive [mobile] application development for 4th generation devices and long-term evolution networks". The report also predicts increased vendor and service provider focus on offering machine-to-machine solutions with the key adopter industries being healthcare, utilities and supply chain.

Another prediction is that individual workers will also start to bring personally selected and purchased mobile devices such as iPhones, Android Smart Phones etc into the workplace and firms will be forced to integrate these into business systems and processes.

My view is that this comes as no surprise to me, and as economies around the world gradually return to growth the picture becomes even brighter for those of us lucky enough to be involved in mobile.

Free Report - The Truth About the iPhone

2010-01-12T07:43:00.003Z

I came across this free, downloadable report that looks at the myths surrounding the iPhone and considers whether it is valid to call it the most revolutionary phone on the market.

The 100 page report is available here from the Strand website (you just need to provide a few details but there's a privacy opt out option to avoid spam):
http://www.strandreports.com/sw3926.asp

Personally, who cares if its not actually the most technological advanced bit of mobile equipment on the market. For me it's all about the "I want one" factor of the brand that has kick started a Smartphone market that had seriously faltered with poor efforts from the major phone manufacturers who were simply trying to mimic a PC but with a smaller screen and less processing power. At least Apple had the strength of brand to experiment with new approaches to user interaction and application downloading, even if allot of what they actually introduced wasn't original.

We have allot to thank Apple for as the Nokia's, Sony's and HTC's of this world have finally woken up to the potential behind the Smart Phone and we're seeing some excellent products hitting the streets as a result.

Enjoy the report and let me know what you think...

Mobile Payments Outlook

2010-01-06T10:43:00.003Z

First of all, welcome back and I hope you had a great Christmas and that the New Year will bring all you wish for.

In my first blog of 2010 I decided to focus on the market opportunity in the Mobile Payments space. One of my predictions for 2010 is that this area will grow and start to attract more than just the early adopters. Making payments on mobile devices will become a natural occurrence over the next 18 months, whether it's explicit or built into applications hosted on the device.

According to a paper written by Cap Gemini, there were only 30 million using their mobile devices to make payments at the end beginning of 2008. That represented about 1% of the mobile market, so only one in a hundred used their phones for making payments of any kind. During 2009 the mobile payments market has changed significantly with the emergence of significant usage in mainly the developing world. Safaricom and Vodafone made the most impact, from a headline perspective, with the successful launch of M-PESA in Kenya. M-PESA secured 5 million users, in Kenya alone, as of January 2009. £145m worth of transactions were handled in the first 15 months following launch, and, probably most amazingly, over 10% of Kenya's entire GDP flowed through the M-PESA system during 2009... No wonder the Kenyan banks are concerned about this new kid on the block... One downside to M-PESA though is that it uses a network of independent retailers to act as agents for collecting cash deposits and changing M-PESA phone credits into cash for withdrawal. Previously these agents have been enjoying 375% ROI on sales of pay-as-you-go mobile phone credits. M-PESA is now the main sale for these agents and it only delivers a paltry 94% ROI so you can foresee distribution issues for this type of mobile payments service. M-PESA is now available in the UK ( http://wirelessfederation.com/news/tag/m-pesa/ ) allowing cross border remittances to be made via a mobile device, although I think they've got their pricing wrong - too expensive to really eat into the traditional remittance providers', such as Western Union, market share.

For Mobile Payments in general, the analyst forecasts bring good tidings. Juniper are reckoning on the worldwide mobile payments industry being worth $22bn by 2011 with 204 million users. Sounds good, but when you consider there are about 4bn mobile devices in use around the globe, that means that only 5% of those with mobile devices are using them for mobile payments. Personally I think the numbers will be much higher, especially if you consider making payments for goods or services using a credit card via the mobile web also constitutes mobile payments.

It goes without saying that the biggest challenge for Mobile Payments will be security, or at least the perception of security. After all, how secure is a credit card? At least a mobile can be made more secure with the use of software to protect it and maybe finger print recognition etc.

Other challenges to take up will be the battle between the banks and the mobile operators on who owns the secure element of the transaction and therefore who can make claim to the transaction fees. If both end up charging fees I fear a transaction undertaken via the mobile will be too expensive to hit mass market status.

I think over the next few months we'll see more and more credit/debit card transactions undertaken over the mobile web - in the Western world, practically a direct replacement of making payments via the Internet now. This will then develop to an extent where the secure element will be on the mobile, so you can throw away your credit card and scan the mobile device at the chip and pin console in retail outlets, or make automated payments online. I still think micro payments, in the West, will take another two years or more to become common, but in the developing world where access to the Internet is limited and travelling distances from homes and places of work to banks are long and many don't even have bank accounts never mind credit cards, will continue to lead the way in terms of mobile payments growth.

The fact remains that anyone involved in Mobile Commerce, from marketing to payments, loyalty to ticketing, is going to have a very exciting 2010...

My Predictions for Mobile Commerce in 2010

2009-12-21T11:15:00.007Z

Here's my personal views on where I think the Mobile Commerce market will head in 2010...

Smartphones Will Make Up More than 30% of the Market

With the traditional manufacturers finally catching up with Apple and launching high-powered, low cost touch-screen Smartphones, I foresee a shift of power back to the consumer and a mini-price war erupting. Rumour has it that Vodafone have over 300,000 on its UK waiting list for the iPhone once it's allowed to start selling it in January. Nokia, Sony and HTC have all recently launched new smartphones along with powerful versions from the likes of Palm, Dell and Acer also hitting the streets. Currently sales of the iPhone represent about 5% of the UK market, around 15% in the US. This was before O2 lost it's monopoly on selling iPhones in the UK and with the likes of Tesco getting in on the act too, Apple should enjoy a massive surge in sales in 2010. But, Nokia and the other big manufacturers won't sit back and watch Apple gobble up the market. Expect lucrative offers from the Mobile Operators backed by daring subsidies from the device manufacturers. The price difference between a standard, boring old phone and a smart phone will become less prohibitive. By the end of the year, I predict 30% of phones will be Smartphones in some shape or form, and Apple will enjoy the lion's share. What does this mean for Mobile Commerce? Superior processing power and usable graphical interfaces will make undertaking transactions such as ticketing, loyalty, payments and others feasible, low cost 3G data packages will make it affordable. If only they'd sort out the cost of data roaming for us poor international businessmen and women...

NFC will Make Little Impact

Despite a raft of Smartphones hitting the market, I doubt many phones will be equipped with NFC chips. This is a shame as the chipsets aren't expensive to include in handsets and the benefits of contactless transactions are clear (especially if it means we can all get home from the office via an enormous water slide!)... Seriously, unless the likes of Apple, Nokia and the other giants include NFC chips in new phones, contactless won't take off. Sure, there'll be the smartcard version, but that only delivers a minuscule percent of the real benefits. Until we can undertake contactless transactions on our phones, the industry won't take off. Unfortunately, device manufacturers are focused on what makes their phones sell better than the competing, and right now that means higher resolution cameras, bigger storage and more processing power to support the surge in popularity of gaming and other apps. NFC will have to wait for its big break in 2011. One potentially market changing event I do predict in this space however, is that one or more of the large mobile operators will build NFC technology into their SIM cards.

Mobile Loyalty Will Emerge from the Shadows

Tesco will launch a mobile version of its Clubcard and the other major UK supermarket chains will catchup and launch a similar product (eventually - maybe in 2011!). Under the Tesco scheme (and please note this is my prediction, I have no inside information that suggest they're actually working on this at all - I just believe Tesco are the most pioneering of the supermarkets) you will use your mobile instead of the clubcard, have a Smarphone app installed that allows you to shop from your mobile (Ocado were the first with this) and the provision of location based product and offer information.

SMS Will Continue to Grow with M2M Driving Demand

Good old SMS will continue to grow in terms of the volume of SMS messages being sent. In 2009 businesses have finally spotted the potential cost savings and increased efficiencies that SMS based communication with stakeholders can bring and this will continue into 2010. Machine to Machine will be a major contributor to this growth with businesses increasingly concerned about the cost and security issues of always on data connections. As the mobile marketing industry continues to shine with its self-regulation approach, SMS marketing will become accepted by consumers and the volume of messages will soar. Advanced services such as location based marketing and SMS marketing linked to actual buying patterns (see Loyalty above) will also drive demand. SMS will also form the majority of the underlying messaging infrastructure that drives Mobile Payment, Remittances and Ticketing, further driving up volume. Quality rather than cost will become the prevalent buyer decision point, although overall I expect pricing for bulk SMS services to drop considerably. Businesses will start to reject the cheap and cheerful off-shore aggregators as some fall foul of Privacy Regulation and realise the only way to avoid expensive fines and loss of brand value is to use a quality, established aggregator.

MMS will Finally Lose the Battle Against SMS/WAP

Apps and better equipped browsers on larger screened Smartphones will finally see the end of the MMS vs WAP war. With cheaper data rates and unclear MMS pricing, people will use dedicated apps to store and forward photos and other media, rejecting the MMS interface completely. SMS will be used to forward WAP sites to consumers.

All the Major Airlines Will Have Some Form of Mobile Ticketing/Boarding

Lufthansa and Schipol Airport led the way in 2009, and others will follow in 2010. This will include some of the "no frills" airlines who will recognise another way to reduce costs (and perhaps introduce new charges for passengers not using mobile ticketing - as if they would!).

Services will include booking flights via mobile, receiving a ticket in the form of a barcode, checking in via the mobile, using the phone as a boarding card and receiving live flight information as you travel to and through the airport. As an aside, I also predict the end of restrictions on using mobiles in the air.

Early Adopters Will Be Using Mobile Ticketing on Trains

The train companies will follow the airlines' example and start allowing us to use our mobiles instead of crumpled bits of paper when we want to travel on the trains. It'll happen in Europe first (it's already happening in Asia) and then spread to the UK eventually, where our fragmented railway industry will make it difficult for a single standard solution across all networks.

Mobile Authentication Will Secure Online Banking

Two-factor authentication (one time passwords) will be used by the banks to secure online banking transactions. For example, if you want to log on to your bank's online portal to view your statement, you'll first of all have to request a one time password. This will then be sent to your registered mobile phone and once you've entered it it will then be unusable. It's not 100% failsafe, but it makes banking online much safer...

Whatever happens, Mobile Commerce remains the key industry to be involved in. Have a Happy and Very Prosperous New Year.

Mobile Apps To Be Big in 2010

2009-12-19T16:24:00.003Z

I was reading with interest, the predictions for 2010 from Strand Consult as posted on 160characters.org.

One particular prediction interested me more than the others and that was that 2010 will be the moment of truth for mobile value added services. They predict a great deal of focus on app stores, which in itself is pretty unremarkable as most in the industry would have forecast that one. However, they rightly predict that there will be a reality check during the year where app providers realise that they are not making enough money from mobile apps. The math isn't complicated, if you're selling an app for 60p, you would need to sell 456 of them every single day of the year to make £100k. I therefore think the small independents will start to get swallowed up by the big boys who can rely on economies of scale to maximise their profits, and large marketing budgets to ensure their app gets most focus. It's not all doom and gloom though as there's always a market for the "garage" app developer and the quirkiest apps will always do well and then be copied by the big boys.

The prediction that the OneAPI initiative will open up access for app developers to the intelligence in the mobile networks is interesting. This might allow the re-birth of location based services which are key for the next wave of Mobile Loyalty and Mobile Marketing services. I still think privacy rules aren't sufficient to protect the consumer in this space, and I can see OFCOM or others kicking up a stink at some point in the new year...

Strand also pick up on another conflict that I've mentioned on previous blogs, that is the war between the mobile operators and the banks for control of the mobile payments value chain. The banks in places like Kenya where a partnership between operators Safaricom and Vodafone have launched the M-Pesa service are already causing a fuss. Something like 18% of Kenya's GDP traverses the M-Pesa system and the service seriously undercuts the banks' own charges for money transfer by traditional means. The battle for control of the "secure element" will continue. Personally I'd like to see this in the device, i.e. a chip in the mobile phone, rather than on the SIM card as the latter would allow the operators to charge for transactions, making the costs prohibitive or making it not worthwhile for banks and other service providers to bother offering services via the mobile channel. Also, it will mean compatibility issues and the phone will never truly replace the wallet if you need a different SIM card for each bank account you have or each credit card you own or for every train company you travel on with your mobile ticket...

Whatever happens, it's clear that 2010 is going to be a big year for Mobile Commerce. I don't know about you but I'm looking forward to it...

This is my last post before Christmas, so I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers and followers a very Happy Festive Season. I won't wish for a prosperous new year though because my prediction is that anyone involved in Mobile Commerce is practically guaranteed so hope doesn't come into it...

Have a good one and I'll see you in January...

If You Only Look Backwards You'll Trip Over the Future

2009-12-14T12:45:00.004Z

I was recently reading through a back log of industry reports that were sitting at the bottom of my Outlook inbox and one in particular caught my eye. It was a refreshing piece of journalism in that it gave an alternative view to the mainstream that suggests Mobile Commerce is the next big thing. Instead, the author said providers should look at the Online Web industry for pointers to what might happen and suggested that straightforward web browsing was the only application that was going to work on a mobile. The rationale presented was that if you look back at the online industry, it never really took off the way we expected it too and therefore, the mobile commerce industry will be the same. According to the report, we won't want to use our mobiles to make payments, we won't want to use it as a ticket on the bus, tube or aeroplane and we certainly won't want to use it to look up product comparisons when we're in the aisle of our local Tesco...

My view is that it is very wrong to compare the mobile channel to the fixed Internet/online channel. For a start the main difference is that it's fixed. For example, who would have guessed we'd use our mobiles to write text messages to each other instead of calling each other? Who would have thought we'd discard our maps in favour of Satnav (which in affect is a mobile device even if you've got a dedicated Tom-Tom which doesn't have a SIM card). You simply can't compare the online world of the fixed Internet with that of a mobile. It's a completely different channel and if application developers focused purely on providing web pages then we'd miss some real benefits to be had from a mobile. At what point did the analysts, for example, buy into the fact that a bit of 3x2 plastic was going to start replacing cash and cheque transactions... Why can't the same transformation in consumer behaviour that kick started the credit card industry manifest itself in the mobile world. As for not comparing products in the aisle, back in 1999 I remember sitting in a Waterstones (or equivalent - it was along time ago) with a coffee, skimming a few books I might want to purchase. Did I buy them at Waterstones? No, I wrote down the title and bought them cheaper on Amazon when I got home. If I can do that in real time, then why wouldn't I? OK, I'm not going to check every sprout I buy in Waitrose for a cheaper online alternative, but if I'm spending £50+ on a product, I certainly would.

As for ticketing, it didn't take the airlines long to get its passengers to adapt to checking in online and printing out their own boarding passes (at their own expense in terms of time and ink by the way). Lufthansa and others are now pushing us to use mobile ticketing. The incentive is a swifter passage through check-in and boarding and real time information about your flight. The incentive for the airline is lower costs. Why wouldn't it work?

If we open our minds and can see real benefit from the mobile channel, then as consumers we will use it. Let's not close off opportunity before it even reaches us...

Has Mobile Ticketing Finally Landed?

2009-12-07T11:20:00.005Z

Lufthansa, the German flag carrying airline, have successfully launched a range of Mobile services. The suite of mobile applications includes booking, ticketing, a replacement for boarding cards as well as marketing and information services. After an aborted take-off, Lufthansa's mobile check-in service has established itself with an increase of 30% in airport check-ins using a mobile ticket. They're enjoying a surge of business customers who are now switching to Lufthansa from other airlines because of the increased convenience that mobile ticketing can bring.

Lufthansa's services, designed in collaboration with Clanmo, a mobile apps and website developer, has actually been around since 2005, but recent enhancements to the website and new mobile applications has seen a significant increase in take up of the services. A new iPhone application has made using the service intuitive and this is being ported to other touch-screen based mobile devices, proving my old adage that the growth of mobile apps is about usability - if it's clunky to use it negates any of the convenience benefits.

The applications allow you to book your flights via the mobile app or mobile web portal, select your seats on the plane, download your boarding pass to your phone, check in via the mobile or using your mobile ticket at the check-in desks, use your mobile as your boarding pass and manage your air miles account. Other airlines are also working on similar services with KLM being one.

So what might stall mobile ticketing in the airline industry? Security is a big concern, but is it any easier to abuse a ticketing, check-in and boarding system that uses a mobile device than one that uses paper, especially with the widespread adoption of online check-in anyway. In fact the mobile device could enhance the online check-in security by perhaps allowing two-factor authenticaiton (Chip & Pin) or more simplistically a photo of the passenger could be married to the boarding card for human or machine recognition matching.

Another potential challege is the scanning of devices. If barcodes are used then a simple hand-held scanner could be used, but not all scanners can read all phones, especially the older phones. Once NFC is ubiquitous (and I'm still predicting 2-3 years before we have sufficient numbers of NFC capable phones) then barcodes are defunct. That said, it wasn't all that long ago before there weren't sufficient numbers of people with fast internet connections and suitable printers to print online tickets/boarding passes.

With mobile cash and even mobile passports not too far away, I for one can't wait for the day I leave home heading for Stansted airport, in the dark at 4am in the morning. Though bleary eyed I can stumble down the drive and into my car safe in the knowledge that, providing I have my iPhone in my pocket I have everything I need to travel halfway around the world...

The Business Case for SMS Appointment Reminders

2009-11-30T10:40:00.004Z

I was chatting to my dentist the other day. Luckily it was in the comfy sofas of the local restaurant whilst waiting for a Chinese take-away to be rustled up, so wasn't one of those usually mumbled interactions you have whilst lying in the chair wondering what previously undiscovered nerve endings he might prod with his sharp instruments...

Once he'd established what I did for a living we got onto talking about how SMS Appointment Reminders would benefit the running of his surgery. He'd had a visit from the sales rep of a large UK telecoms operator (the one who thinks it might be a good idea for us all to talk) and they'd mentioned SMS appointment services. He'd dismissed it as a luxury item he didn't need after hearing that the annual cost was in excess of three grand. That's a lot of cash for a small business to fork out and after all, his current system of sending post card reminders seemed to work OK thank you very much, and it didn't cost him very much. At least that's what he imagined.

First thing on Monday morning I decided to take a closer look at a cost comparison of the two options - traditional post card via Royal Mail and high-tech SMS.

So, taking the size of his surgery as being fairly average with around 5,000 patients who regularly come in for oral overhaul, I made some assumptions:

70% of his patients have a regular check-up at least once a year, whilst the remaining 30% have six monthly checkups (so two a year). I then guessed that 30% of those attending a checkup need at least one more follow up appointment so that remedial work can be carried out (the unfortunate minority!). This gives us a total of 8,450 appointments per annum. The exact numbers aren't important as long as we compare like for like when looking at both the paper and SMS cases. The comparison will work equally for a smaller surgery with as few as 1,000 appointments a year.

A quick look on the websites of the Royal Mail website and a company offering personalised post card printing suggested that postcards cost 62p each to buy (if bought in bulk) and 2nd class stamps are 30p - so materials will cost 92p per postcard. If we estimate that it then takes 2 minutes per appointment to check the diary and write-out each postcard, and that it then takes 30 minutes, once a week, to stick stamps on all the cards, take them to post office and post them we can then derive the labour costs for sending post cards. If the receptionist does this task and she (or he) gets, say, £8.50 an hour, that means a total labour cost of £10,389 per annum to process 8,450 postcards (give or take 20% for margin of error, so £8,000 at best, £12,000 at worse).

Now if you compare this to the average cost of sending bulk SMS via a typical web based service, you're looking at total annual costs of about £3,100, including the one-off application setup fee, monthly application licence rental, the SMS charges and, importantly for the comparison, the receptionist's time to generate the batch upload file from the surgery's appointments system.

So we're looking at £10,398 per year for a post card appointment reminder system versus £3,110 for an SMS based alternative. That's a saving of about 70%, which represents a very valuable cost reduction for a small business in this climate...

So I've established that the business case works. What other advantages does the mobile channel bring. What about these if you're still not convinced:

Message delivery can be tracked so you can see whether the message was delivered.

Potential for 2 way interaction (confirmation that the appointment is still OK for the patient). May come in handy as proof that a reminder was accepted if you plan to charge penalties for "no shows".

Potential to communicate further with the patient ("Your xray results are ready. Please call us to discuss" etc).

Marketing opportunities ("Have you considered teeth whitening. We have a special discount offer").

More personal communication - text is now ubiquitous and you'll even receive the reminder if you're on Spain on holiday

Some would say that some of these activities (such as the X-Ray example) are better and cheaper to do by phone, but how many times do you call someone only to get their answerphone and it could be intrusive to call them on their mobile, especially if they are at work. SMS is much less intrusive and yet much more likely to be received promptly than a voice mail left on an answering machine in someone's home.

Of course this type of service isn't limited to dental practices. It works in any situation where you need to remind customers of appointments of any kind, or any date linked event for that matter. What about using it for reminding people about job interviews, restaurant bookings, tax return due dates, doctors surgeries, NHS appointments, court appearances etc etc.

For larger companies, it may be worth investing in integration with exisiting computerised diary systems so that SMS reminders are automatically generated, further decreasing the cost of the SMS option. In this case cost may be a little higher, but if your legacy systems use standard interfaces (APIs) then you'll probably find the cost pleasantly reasonable.

Why You Need Expert Advice Before Running a Mobile Marketing Campaign

2009-11-22T20:31:00.004Z

With more and more companies choosing the mobile medium as a way of reaching new and existing customers, the Australian Regulators have just demonstrated why it pays to plan a mobile marketing campaign properly. A court in Australia has just handed out US$17.75m in fines, and these didn't represent the maximum that the law allows them to impose...

The fines will be biting hard on the pockets of two companies and three individuals who infringed rules on spamming when running a mobile marketing scheme which generated about US$2m in revenue - so the fines really turn their business case on its head. The maximum fine that can be imposed is US$1m per day for how ever long the infringing campaign goes on. In this case, the infringement, according to the Australian Media & Communications Agency, was "particularly malicious and deceitful" but the rules on mobile marketing can be so complex and grey around the edges, and often differ from country to country. It is therefore easy to trip up and break the rules if you don't have professional expert advice at hand.

One easy thing to remember is that unsolicited messages are not acceptable in most countries, including the UK. Mobile marketing schemes have to be opted into in the UK and it is therefore important to keep audit trails so you can prove this was the case.

The advantages of Mobile Marketing are clear and very real, but so are the legal pitfalls for anyone falling foul of the rules... There are many consultants offering advice in this field (including myself) and a few days of consulting charges is a good investment when you consider the possible outcomes if you get it wrong...

Mobile Remittances - The Next Big Thing?

2009-11-17T12:54:00.007Z

There's something happening in the world of Mobile Commerce. Something that the analysts are getting extremely excited about, the mobile operators are starting to act upon and the banks are getting nervous about... International Mobile Remittances. That is, the ability to transfer money from person to person across international boundaries. But why all the fuss?

In a recent survey, some 76% of respondents said they would consider using a mobile device to make a payment to a friend, relation or business partner living overseas. Of all the possible mobile commerce applications presented this was the top with making micro payments and reporting fraud the next most popular answers (with a paltry 46% each).

If you then consider that between the UK and India some £5bn is transmitted each year. Juniper Research think that mobile will cater for about $300bn per year (so they're not really thinking big in terms of take-up). Consider all the countries around the world where migrant workers have settled and wish to send money home each month. The potential value of the small, but high volume money transfer market is astounding and I believe far greater than Juniper's estimate. So let's say $500bn is a more optimistic guess. Now assume the transaction fees are just a paltry 1% of the value of the transaction (one advantage of mobile remittances is it is low cost compared to using a bank or remittance agent such as Western Union who can charge anything up to 17%). The opportunity for any telecoms, banks or even billing specialists is clear...

Let's drill down to one particular success story. Vodafone made friends with Safaricom of Kenya and together they developed M-Pesa. The M is for Mobile and Pesa is Swahili for Money - so M-Pesa means Mobile Money. M-Pesa allows individuals to transfer money from person to person using nothing but their mobile phone. The service quickly exceeded all expectations delivering 30,000 new subscribers within a month of launch, 5m subscribers within 15 months and £145m worth of transactions in the first year. Today, payments made using M-Pesa accounts for 10% of Kenya's entire GDP. M-Pesa is now being launched elsewhere and it clearly emphasises the great opportunity for mobile remittances.

There are drawbacks of course. Not everyone is convinced about the security of the service, but it isn't any more risky that say a credit card transaction. Agents, who replace the banks by providing a facility to buy credits (turn cash into virtual mobile money that can then be fired across the ether) and then turn those credits back into cash (or equivalent value goods) for the recipient complain that M-Pesa is killing their main business. These Kenyan agents were earning ROIs in excess of 300% on selling mobile pay-as-you-go credits. On M-Pesa it's still a reasonable ROI but around 90%, nowhere near as lucrative. The problem is, M-Pesa is so popular they have little time to sell airtime, or anything else for that matter.

Over demand is a nice problem to have though - providing the transaction fees don't have to increase to appease the agents and their precious ROI - remember, mobile remittances are supposed to be cheap...

So how does it work. There's a relatively simple process for the user, which masks a very complex set of processes and legal agreements between various interested parties (banks etc).

Basically you register to use the service and are given a secure access PIN. You change your cash into credits (or if you have a bank account transfer them to your virtual mobile account). You can then use SMS messaging or a browser to request that money of a specified value is transferred to a mobile phone number. If the owner is not registered with the service they will receive a text message asking them to subscribe. Once they're aboard they can receive the money transfer in the form of virtual credits. These can then be redeemed at ATMs, agents (grocery stores, post offices etc) or even in banks. The complexities come in managing the notifications across international mobile networks, protecting against fraud and money laundering, risk management (credit checking etc), forex etc. M-Pesa and other solutions clearly demonstrate that these issues can be overcome and with a market opportunity like this one, expect a myriad of new entrants...

The 5 Ps of Mobile Marketing

2009-11-16T15:39:00.008Z

Those of you versed in the black art of consumer marketing will have no doubt come across the four P's of marketing, these being:

Product
Positioning
Place
Price

With the phenomenal growth in Mobile phone ubiquity (4 billion mobile phone contracts worldwide according to the ITU) comes a new and exciting opportunity to market to consumers anytime, anyplace and anywhere (cue Martini music and white-toothed Adonis ploughing down the slopes on skis dressed in 70's style all in one ski gear). With that opportunity comes an obligation to market to those consumers responsibly and in a non-intrusive way.

Academics studying social networking and mobile marketing have therefore come up with a new set of four P's for marketers wishing to exploit the fantastic opportunity that the mobile phone provides:

Privacy, Permission, Preference and Promotion. Hang on, there are more though. Other researchers think the new four Ps are slightly different. They claim, for instance, that Privacy and permission are just one P and that Personalisation (or Relevance but that doesn't start with a P) and Proximity should also be included.

Not being one for stopping the academics have different opinions, I've decided to sit rigidly on the fence and I've opted for all five distinct P's of Mobile Marketing. Privacy, Preference, Promotion, Personalisation and Proximity.

The 5 Ps of Mobile Marketing

Privacy and Permission relate to the obvious need to protect the consumer from unsolicited spamming. Being available to receive marketing messages at anytime could be a real nuisance, especially if there are hundreds of messages a day being bleeped up on your mobile screen twenty four hours a day. Therefore, it's important that mobile marketers respect privacy and only send messages that the consumer has "opted in" to receive.

Preference is all about ensuring mobile marketing campaigns are targeted towards the consumers individual needs, interests and preferences. Marketing via the mobile phone is such a personal experience that it would be pointless sending offers or campaign messages on, say, FHM magazine to those under the age of 16. It would also be pointless sending a digital voucher for a half price Sheffield Star newspaper to someone living in Ipswich. Understanding your target audience and gathering as much intelligence about their status, needs and interests (and those of their friends and contacts) is key in the mobile marketing world.

Once you understand the preferences of individual target consumers, you can then personalise the messages for them. This doesn't just include using clever "mail merge" techniques that the best SMS aggregators offer to ensure that the customer's name appears in an SMS text you send them. It means tailoring offers to your consumers, sending the right offers at the right time (suggest they pamper themselves with a discount Spa session on their birthday for example) to ensure maximum chance that they're (a) going to read the message and (b) act upon it not just discard it.

Proximity could be regarded as a further extension of personalisation or preference. Using technologies such as location based services to send offers and messages at the right time, when your target is in a particular geograpahic vicinity to where they can act upon your message. For example, retailers may have special offers to shift surplus stock or increase footfall on a particular day. There'd be no point sending offers to those not near enough the a participating retail outlet to take part. For example, imagine Tesco's store in Hemel Hempsted had a job lot of fresh caviar that was about to reach its sell by date. You could text an offer of 1/2 price caviar to anyone within a 5 mile radius of the store. Better still use the other Ps and ensure you target someone who is more likely to be interested in buying caviar... Arsenal FC used a similar approach. They were finding that the bars in their new Emirates stadium were not full on matchdays. Instead supporters preferred to drink in the pubs outside the ground where beer was generally cheaper. This not only meant the stadium bars were not making enough money, but supporters were arriving late, en masse for games causing congestion at the turnstiles. Arsenal's marketing agency solved the problem by targeting fans it knew would be at the game (the Preference and Personalisation Ps) based on the fact they were season ticket holders. Fans were offered 2 for 1 on drinks in the stadium bars. The beauty for Arsenal was that due to the flexibility of SMS, they needn't run the offer if the stadium bars were already doing good business. The campaign could have been improved by another P, the Proximity. Fans already sat in their seats would receive the same offer as those outside the ground. If getting fans into the ground early was the only aim, then they needn't waste the cost of an SMS targeting these fans. Location Based Services would have identified which fans were not in the stadium already.

Anyway, that's a brief overview of the 5 Ps of Mobile Marketing. It's just a taster as there are many underlying issues and considerations for each of these Ps, and I'm sure even more Ps will evolve over time. And let's not forget the original 4 Ps are still relevant for mobile marketing campaigns. So, is that 9 P's we have now?!

Thanks to Paul at Sybase 365 for prompting my thoughts about the Ps of Mobile Marketing.

Mobile Loyalty Cards - Why Not?

2009-11-06T10:50:00.008Z

Sorry for making two posts at the same time. I just wanted to tell you all about my recent experience with mobile loyalty cards.

Many of us have a store loyalty card, perhaps Tesco Clubcard, Boots Advantage Card or a Nectar card. How many times have you rolled up at the checkout to be asked if you've got your loyalty card and you either left it at home, the wife/husband has it, you lost it or you just can't be bothered to search through your wallet or purse for it. So you apologise politely as only the British do for something that's not actually our fault, and miss out on some loyalty points.

I bet at that point in time you had your mobile phone on you and knew exactly where it was. So wouldn't it be great if you could have just presented your phone to the cashier and she/he have swiped it. Why can't we put our loyalty cards on our phones? After all in their current plastic form they contain very little information, just an identifying unique customer number really...

Well, I was talking to some contacts at Mobilize Systems (http://www.mobilizesystems.com/) who have done just that. It was really quite simple. They took my Tesco Clubcard Membership number, used a simple app (you can get these for free from download sites) that creates a graphical barcode from any number, uploaded it to my phone and I suddenly had my Clubcard on my phone.

Ignore the funny white lines and blocks, I've blanked out my actual number for privacy.

I tried this out the other day in a local Tesco. At the checkout (providing it has a customer facing scanner) you wave your Clubcard under the laser beam of the scanner so instead of waving my card I stuck my mobile under it and heard the satisfying "beep" as my barcode was read and recognised.

This is just a simple example of mobilising every day transactions to make our lives simpler and move us closer towards a mobile commerce culture... I can't wait for the day that I can throw out my bulky wallet and free up my pockets for more important things, like my hands...

Try mobilizing your own Clubcard here: http://www.id2fone.com/clubcard/get.htm

Quick Update: It works with my Suffolk Library Card as well. No need to take my wallet and phone when I go there now... Life will be so uncomplicated and uncluttered soon!

Presentation to the BCS and IET at Norwich UEA

2009-11-06T10:40:00.004Z

On Tuesday 10th, I'm giving a presentation to members of the British Computer Society and Institute of Engineers at the UEA in Norwich.

I've tried to keep my talk at a high level as there's so much material to introduce. I'm keen to cover several aspects and opportunities of Mobile Commerce including Mobile Payments, Mobile Ticketing and Mobile CRM. My slides are available for download at the following website:

http://www.innovativo.co.uk/FreeStuff.htm

Although there's no narrative to accompany the slides in their online form, I do hope you'll still find them interesting. Some of the animations haven't worked in the online form (you'll need PDF reader to view them by the way) but you should still be able to get the gist. The slide most affected is the one about Bulky Wallets. The animated slide shows a whole raft of credit cards, store cards, loyalty cards, train tickets and cash flying out of the wallet and into the mobile phone. I think this is quite a poignant slide as once consumers can get their heads around the fact that a wallet or purse is just a repository for your cash, cards, tickets etc and that storing the same electrical information on a mobile is the same thing only more convenient and more secure, then Mobile Commerce will really start to take off...

Anyway, hope you enjoy the slides. Please use the comment button below or my website Contact Us page to provide your feedback on the slides or anything else...

Thanks to Sybase/Paybox, Sponge Group and Mobilize Systems for some of the images used in the Use Case slides... Buy their products!!!!

Mobile Micro-Payments - The End of Cash

2009-11-02T14:37:00.005Z

Researchers, analysts and mobile industry experts generally believe that the number of low-cost items available for purchase via a mobile phone will increase significantly over the next few years. Examples of low-cost items include goods and services available via download over faster, lower-cost mobile broadband connections. Downloads such as MP3 songs, videos, screensavers, and thanks largely to Apple's marketing efforts - mobile applications that do everything from recommend restaurants to providing chord patterns for budding guitarists and working out how to share a bar bill amongst friends. Downloads are small-ticket items costing anything from 25p to a few pounds. Credit cards don't offer a sensible way to pay for these items, because of the user interface (imagine typing those card details each time) or because of the cost of processing for the merchant - could easily wipe out any profits on low cost items.

You could of course pay for these items via your mobile bill, but the interface is again a little clumsy requiring sending and receiving of multiple SMS messages which act as instruments of financial charging. Also, the delay in getting the bill is not good from a cash flow perspective, either for the operator or the individual who could be surprised, at the end of the month, by a large bill for multiple downloads.

What's required is a payment network that is simple to use, convenient and secure. It should also be future proof so that when merchants start to accept scanning a mobile as an viable alternative to scanning a bit of unintelligent plastic (and why wouldn't they!?) then a mobile based micro-payments system could be used to make a whole raft of purchases, both online and in the real world. Who needs a pocket over burdened with the weight of old-fashioned coins anymore?

Now add to the equation the latest figures from the World Trade Organisation who claims there are now over 4 billion mobile phone services (note this refers to contracts in some shape or form not just handsets) worldwide - that's 2/3rds of the world's population - and you have a compelling argument for mobile based micro-payments.

The business model for micro-payment systems have been proven in the online world and these could easily transfer to mobile devices, with added benefits from ubiquity and physical presence at the point of sale. Use your mobile to buy a Coke from a vending machine, buy a parking ticket or give back that £2 bus fare your mate lent you last week because you're mobile battery was dead!!!

In the online world, making micro-payments from a PC, PS3, XBox via a DSL powered Internet link etc, has its issues. For example, items have to be packaged and shipped which for smaller value items can often cost more than the item itself. You can't take your laptop with you to the high street so the online micro-payment model is limited in the fixed Internet world. With mobile however you can make micro-payments for goods and services other than those that can be downloaded down the wire - real physical items.

The attraction of micro-payments via a mobile device is clear. Next time I'll talk about some of the pitfalls and solutions for micro-payments...

Increase Profitability - Mobilise the Sales Force

2009-10-21T15:53:00.003+01:00

Sorry for the lack of postings lately. I've been mountain biking in the Taurus Mountains of Turkey. I'm now home and refreshed and as I was talking to a sales rep in love with his Blackberry whilst on the plane I thought I'd blog about the mobile channel's role in the front line - sales.

Sales force automation isn’t a new phenomenon by any means and with the advent of RIM’s Blackberry handheld devices the filofax and briefcase full of samples is no longer the icon of the travelling salesman. Instead, no self respecting sales professional would be seen dead in public doing anything other than thumbing a little bit of 3x4 plastic. But other than providing sales professionals with instant, anywhere access to their email, what does sales force automation via the mobile channel actually provide?

By providing access to sophisticated business workflow processes and the complex data they utilise from a mobile device, means that the sales force are no longer on a perpetual dash between clients and the office or home office in order to register their findings from the last client meeting or to find out about the next. This delivers optimal efficiencies in the field allowing sales reps to focus on value-building tasks (i.e. meeting the client) instead of routine administration.

Being connected to head office by a mobile device means that the sales team can keep abreast of the latest information about their client, the product or their competitors wherever they are and whenever they need to. This isn’t something new of course, as we’ve had voice contact by mobile for years now. However, the latest mobile broadband network speeds and sophisticated user interfaces of today’s devices mean that access to rich, multimedia information is always at hand.

Business intelligence is shared instantly. By sharing information in this way, the whole sales and marketing operation can become adaptable to minute changes in the operating environment, reacting instantly to changing customer requirements and responding to leads before the competition even know that a customer need exists.

Other benefits include tracking and monitoring sales force performance in real time, hence improving overall customer satisfaction. If sales reps have access to product manuals, they can respond to difficult technical questions instantly, enhancing their reputation and standing with the customer.

The mobile device also allows, if properly implemented, orders to be taken and implementation to begin instantly. Imagine if when you took an order for a widget during a client meeting in one of their meeting rooms and by the time your client had returned to his desk he had an email confirming the delivery date for the order…

As mobile technologies become more sophisticated we can expect large product catalogues that can be projected onto whiteboards to help demonstration and selection, fuller integration with CRM systems providing a rich data mining opportunity, instant ordering and payment using the latest mPayment applications, etc.

Because large amounts of sensitive customer information is being handled out in the field, security is of paramount concern. Strong authentication systems for mobile devices, data encryption and remote device shutdown or erasing are examples of enhanced mobile security to prevent a disaster scenario.

Of course a badly implemented solution would be disastrous and technology should not be the main driver of change. Successful businesses know that efficient sales is a complete end to end process the full length of the supply chain and by mobilising the “last mile” the chain can be completed. However, mobile sales force automation is a new way of doing business and it would be wrong to try and steamroll new technology into existing processes, the solution needs to be a complete re-look at the end to end supply chain.

The upshot is that mobile sales force automation provides an excellent opportunity to reduce costs, speed up processes and enhance the customer experience. The bottom line is an increase in competitiveness and ultimately profitability.

How the Mobile Channel Can Enhance Loyalty

2009-10-05T14:02:00.005+01:00

Loyalty schemes have been around for a while now. We've all got, or at know someone who's got, a Tesco Clubcard, Nectar card or something similar. So how can the mobile channel improve on this type of loyalty scheme? I'll hopefully answer that for you in a second, but for first here's my definition of Mobile Loyalty so we're all on the same page...

Mobile Loyalty is the use of the mobile device (phone, pda, smartcard etc) to encourage loyalty to a particular brand, retail chain or group of like minded retailers. It's also a way of tracking shopping habits for use in future targeted marketing, product development and enhancing customer satisfaction. It includes the distribution and redemption of vouchers (such as BOGOF, discount or trial offers). Vouchers could take the form of a numerical code sent in a SMS text message, a digital voucher in the form of a graphical barcode or, in the not too distant future, an NFC tag (more on that later).

So why is mobile so much better than the card based loyalty schemes currently offered. Here's a list of, non exhaustive, reasons:

Paper based coupons have notoriously low redemption rates (1.5% being common, 5% being on the high side). Mobile Digital Vouchers tend to have much higher redemption rates with 20% being common and even as high as 75% was recorded in some trials.
Timeliness of campaigns. This could be behind the high redemption rates for mobile vouchers. Campaigns are quick to set up, modify or halt due to the easy distribution via SMS, WAP or MMS messaging. With paper coupons you had to decide the offer weeks, maybe months in advance to allow for design, printing and distribution of the voucher. By then the latest "trend" or "compelling event" may have passed or just happened slightly differently than anticipated. Your competitors may have countered your offer with their own campaign. With mobile vouchers, you can set up a campaign within hours actively monitor the success of the campaign and modify it (or pull it) to reflect the changing environment. So maybe your offer was too good and your product is rapidly disappearing off the shelves. You can instantly change the discount offered, for example, to limit or increase the demand. Maybe you have some perishable stock you want to move. You can quickly run a targeted campaign at the store level and stop the campaign as soon as the stock levels are back to a certain threshold.
Costs can be effectively monitored and managed. SMS is generally a much cheaper distribution method than paper. There are no printing costs, no design costs, no physical distribution and storage costs and no cost of materials (paper and ink). Ineffective campaigns can be stopped with little sunk costs - you can't "un-print" the paper coupons!
The green factor. By sending a voucher via SMS you are enhancing your carbon footprint. There are no trees to be felled, no lorries to ship paper here and there and no wastage. What currently happens to the 99% of paper coupons that aren't redeemed?
Upsell opportunity. Once customers have registered their mobile phone number with you, you have an extremely valuable channel in which to communicate with them. Analysts suggest that a mobile phone number is worth about £70 per number per annum to a retailer or brand owner. The validity of this claim is open for question, but as there are over 3bn mobile phones in circulation worldwide, I'll let you do the math...
Uses existing EPOS technologies. Barcode digital coupons can be read by existing hand held scanners like any other barcode. Alternatively, codes can be entered into the Chip & Pin machine or the Paypoint or similar top-up network used to redeem vouchers. NFC will allow contactless communication at the checkout in future - as per the Barclaycard advert, problem here is that there aren't enough phones with NFC chips in circulation (see my previous blog).
Viral Marketing. Vouchers can be easily forwarded between phones creating a powerful viral marketing channel. On the other hand, simple security measures in the application can limit vouchers to single use only if a viral approach is not desired.
Can be integrated into existing CRM systems to provide a wealth of consumer behaviour data.

These are just a few reasons why brand owners, retailers and marketeers should be seriously considering having a mobile channel for loyalty. For the consumer there are other perks including:

They get the offers they're most likely to need when they need them.
Less likely to forget they have the coupon if its on their phone and always with them (could even set a reminder!).
They can consolidate vouchers into a single voucher speeding up scan time at the checkout and negating the need to search through purses and wallets for multiple vouchers.
Rewards may include the much sought after Mobile Credits to give free calls, texts or downloads. In a small survey I did myself, 75% said they'd prefer mobile credit over any other type of reward!

This is by no means a complete list of benefits. There are many more advantages to making consumer loyalty schemes mobile. Visit my website or contact me if you need advice on how to be an innovator and exploit this new channel...

Will the iPhone Trigger a Mobile Commerce Boom?

2009-10-01T08:00:00.003+01:00

The success of Mobile Commerce will ultimately depend on a number of enabling factors. Firstly the wide-spread availability of cost effective handsets with sufficient technological capability to make undertaking transactions user friendly and, more importantly, secure. Second, the cost of using such handsets for undertaking transactions needs to be minimal, otherwise the plastic smart card remains the most attractive option. Thirdly, the consumer’s mindset needs to change to accept the mobile device as much more than just a communications tool. There are more but these are three of the most important.

Let’s start with the easy enabling factors to address, one and two. Market analysts suggest that Smartphones are about to go mainstream and will be the de facto mobile device within the next twelve months. For the purposes of this posting, let’s simplify the definition of a Smartphone to say it’s a mobile phone that has sufficient processing power, a user friendly graphical interface and large storage capabilities (probably boosted by the ability to insert SD memory cards similar to those you put into your digital camera). However, if you look on O2’s website you will quickly see that the Smartphone everyone really wants, the Apple iPhone, is pretty expensive and therefore has failed to become widespread, despite Apple’s marketing agents giving it their best shot. However, the exclusivity that O2 have on sales of the iPhone in the UK is about to expire and T-Mobile/Orange have already said they’ll add the iPhone to their handset portfolio and Vodafone are also planning to follow suit – I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t. This should mean a price war on iPhones which will see the price drop to a more affordable level for the mass market – I expect to see similar pricing to Nokia’s iPhone challenger the 5800, which is available free of charge, with free minutes and unlimited internet access for about £20 a month. The problem is, at the moment the market has swung back in the favour of the manufacturers. The networks wrestled consumer control away from the likes of Nokia and Motorola in the 90s by creative tariffs and heavy subsidisation of phones manufactured cheaply in the tiger economies. Now consumers are demanding both cheap calls and snazzy phones so the likes of Apple are finding more control of the market’s dynamics. However, think about it from the manufacturer's perspective. You have a limited development budget and you could increase the camera performance to 10 maga pixels or add an NFC chip that very few people would even know was there. Nokia aren’t the only ones launching new Smartphones, with Sony and the Asian phone manufacturers all launching models recently that outstrip the performance and processing power of the average £1,000 laptop from just three years ago. So I think the required devices for widespread Mobile Commerce will be widely available within the year and the mobile tariffs to match.

The more observant of you will notice I didn’t include a fourth enabler which is the retail outlets, the entertainment venues, airlines etc accepting mobile as a payment method or acceptable tool for accessing their services. This is because I think once factors one and two are in place the retailers will follow, led by the card service providers like VISA and Mastercard who will quickly realise that their point of sale terminals must support mobile devices. In reality something has to trigger commited interest from all three round about the same time, otherwise any boom will fail to materialise.

So that just leaves the third enabling factor – consumer behaviour. This is often the most difficult to affect and by far the most dangerous to predict. We accepted chip and pin because it was more or less forced upon us. I don’t think NFC (the method by which we will ultimately use out mobile phones to make payments in stores etc) will be forced upon the consumer, unless the retailer or card providers see some (fiscal) benefit from offering it. So it will be consumer demand that forces change. As consumers see benefit from not having to carry multiple cards around, or even have coins jangling annoyingly in their pockets, then the mobile phone will be accepted as a payments method. I think consumer demand will take a while to reach critical mass, my prediction is two years at least, and in the meantime I think we’ll see niche implementations on public transport, at the airport at sport and entertainment venues and in some of the more innovative retail stores. For the UK, the Olympics could be the biggest catalyst with London 2012 aspiring to a cashless and ticketless games.

For the real techies out there, I haven’t forgotten “standards” and these will be critical to successful ubiquitous mobile commerce. In my wildest dreams I don’t believe there will be a single accepted standard for mobile payments, but I do think standards will rationalise ensuring that it’s not too difficult for phone manufacturers to develop the necessary hardware (chips) and software to make their phones compatible with the most common standards.

It’s also going to be a huge challenge to get the consumer to trust the mobile phone. In affect you’d be loading it with all your secure credentials that are currently stored on the raft of plastic in your wallet. Online banking via your desktop and internet took a while to become accepted, but it’s now reached critical mass. Mobile banking won’t be far behind and many already use it in its simplest form for balance updates, payment alerts etc. And let us not forget how much “value” you are quite happy to put inside that flimsy bit of folded leather you call your wallet. Ask yourself now. Do you know where your wallet is and can you see and touch it? Now ask the same question of your mobile phone… Chances are your phone in your hand or right there beside you. Now which one do you think is safer for your valuable financial instruments?

How the Banks Could Reduce Online Banking Fraud Right Now

2009-09-20T20:53:00.010+01:00

Most of us bank on the Internet these days. It's so convenient when you want to check out your balance, transfer money or make payments. However, the banks continue to wrestle with the very real and very big threat from fraudsters obtaining their customers banking details and clearing out their accounts via the Internet.

In the world of Mobile Marketing there is one quick, simple and relatively low cost way of combating such fraud. Of course it isn't fool-proof and Internet fraudsters will always find a way around security systems whilst there's a valuable reward for them to do so. However, anything that's done to make the criminals' lives harder and our money safer has to be a step in the right direction.

So what's the solution? Well, by using SMS messaging and a secure random number generator the banks can build themselves what's called a two-factor authentication system. In single factor authentication systems you only need to provide one type of information to gain access to the service - usually this is something you know (remember or write down) and is often in the form of a username/password combination. The problem here is if someone gets hold of this information through identity theft or simple guesswork, then they have complete access to your account. However, if we introduce a second factor of authentication - something you posses - then it becomes stronger. Let's say that thing you posses is your mobile phone. These are valuable bits if kit and the phone numbers, mp3s and photos stored on them are priceless, and surveys constantly suggest that we value these even more than our wallets and cash. So you're more likely to look after you mobile phone. Also, if it does go missing one call to the mobile company and the phone can be disabled. So, why not use the mobile phone to authenticate when accessing an Internet banking site. Here's how it works in a nutshell, there are slight variations on how this can work but you should get the gist of it.

You access the Internet banking website and enter your usual account details or username/password (first factor of authentication).

If this is validated to be OK, instead of having direct access to you bank account, the application automatically sends and SMS to the mobile phone you registered with the service previously. This SMS contains a unique, random, encrypted 8 digit number that was generated for you the instant you logged on. When you receive this SMS you enter the code into the bank website and if it matches what the application thinks it generated for you you're in.

As soon as you're in the code becomes invalid and cannot be re-used. Next time you log in to Internet Banking you'll get another, new code. If for some reason you don't use the code right away - it will time expire. So there's no problem storing it on the phone. If someone stole your phone and knew what the code was, it still couldn't be used for any ill doings.

As mentioned, it's not fool-proof but it is effective and the costs are minimal - the cost of the secure authentication code generator and the sending of an SMS. Secure SMS can be used to make it even more robust, which can encrypt the code in case it's sent to the wrong phone number (but what would the owner of that phone do with it anyway unless they knew what it was for and which account it was in relation too and what the first factor authentication details for that account were?).

The solution could be extended to any site where a payment needed to be made against an account (PayPal etc) with one time codes being sent to validate any transaction necessary.

So the next time you fill in a feedback survey for your bank, mention this solution to them and, of course, send them to me if they want to buy one!

Mobile Commerce: What's Stopping You?

2009-09-14T11:07:00.004+01:00

Buying products and services on line via the web is common practice for most of us these days. Online shopping for goods in all shapes and sizes and a large range of costs, is second nature. We buy holidays, insurance, computer games, music, cars even houses on line so what's stopping mobile commerce emulating the great online shopping craze? After all, we generally have our mobiles with us at all times, so why not take advantage of the convenience of snapping up a bargain from eBay whilst standing at the bus stop, pick next year's holiday whilst on your tea-break or buy that sports car you've always wanted whilst spinning the exercise bike pedals at the gym.

One restriction that appears to be hindering growth of the mobile phone as a serious electronic shopping device is the screen size. Most of the current models' screens are too small to allow satisfactory product presentation. You can generally only have one browser window open at anytime, so comparing products and more importantly, pricing, isn't straightforward. If you're shopping for something where there are many variants of the same product, scrolling through lists of pictures to find the widget you're after isn't practical as its too slow and, in many cases, too expensive via a mobile phone.

From the eStore's point of view, the large number of different devices, networks and operating systems makes presenting content in a consistent manner a nightmare (maybe there's opportunity for a clever software boutique here?). How do you manage the customer experience when each customer sees what you're presenting to them differently?

Security is another issue as we've generally come to accept that providing you have a decent Internet Security application installed on your PC and you ignore spam emails asking for account details, you'll be OK when shopping online. Of course, this isn't really true and until we have advanced protection for online shopping like one-time passwords, chip & pin etc, we're actually still quite exposed (or at least the credit card company's are providing you use that to make the payment).

Mobile on the other hand hasn't even started to engender that perception for users of mobile commerce. In fact mobile has a bad name when it comes to security with constant horror tales of fraud, cloning and phone tapping rife in the popular press. This is a big issue for anyone involved in mobile commerce and especially mobile banking, payments and remittances. The technology is emerging and what's already out there isn't too bad (in fact in many cases it's better than what's available for Internet transactions) but it's the consumer's perception that is key.

So that's the challenges for mobile commerce, how will they be overcome? Well screen size is becoming less of an issue as new technology allows fairly reasonably sized screens without compromising cost or portability. It'll never be the same experience as sitting at home on your laptop with its glitzy 19" screen, but for many shopping applications a 4" screen is surprisingly suffice.

I've already said that security is improving all the time, and consumer perception will come round over time. After all, the Internet experience on a smart mobile will be practically the same as using Internet Explorer at home (that screen size issue being the exception still).

Mobile Commerce is already a huge industry and will continue to grow significantly. What's needed are some really useful and practical implementations so that the consumer's behaviours start to change. This will lead to a snowball affect with new apps and more service providers jumping on the bandwagon (excuse my overuse of analogies there please!).

I think small purchases that are currently made using cash will be the first big watershed. Let's face it, I'm not going to shop for a car on my mobile (although I may be happy closing the transaction on my phone) but I am happily going to replace all that heavy, jangly, dirty coinage that constantly falls out of my pockets with a single swipe of my mobile phone...

Contactless Payments - Should I Throw Way My Plastic

2009-09-11T09:10:00.004+01:00

I shall apologies in advance for a bit of a ramble in this week's post as it's based on an email conversation I've been having with a guy called Manju who got in touch via my Linkedin.com page. It's about contactless payments which utilises Near Field Communication (NFC) technologies. For those of you that aren't up to speed on NFC I'll explain what it is in a second (actually I've c&pd from Wikipedia). For those who know it inside and out you may want to skip a few paragraphs...

Essentially, NFC, is a short-range high frequency wireless communication technology which enables the exchange of data between devices over about a 10 centimetre (around 4 inches) distance (although my own tests suggests this is often more like 2 cms). The technology is a simple extension of the ISO/IEC 14443 proximity-card standard (as used in RFID) that combines the interface of a smartcard and a reader into a single device. One of the real advantages of NFC is that in certain deployments the reader can take its power from the wireless device meaning that the reader can be extremely small (postage stamp sized). This lends it to applications such as "smart posters" where a reader is placed behind an advertising poster allowing the consumer to "wave" their NFC device past the poster to initiate the transaction. For example, Amazon might want to adopt smart posters for advertising the latest book in railway stations. If you would like the book you wave your device (which could be a card or your mobile phone) past the poster, click "OK" on your device and the book is automatically ordered from the Amazon website for you. You could do it with MP3 music also. Select the music you want from the advertisement as you board the train, your device connects to the wifi hotspot in the station and whilst you're waiting for the train to depart the music is downloaded to your phone and you can listen to it as you travel... Of course this is a simplistic vision of how it would work and glosses over some of the security and authentication aspects, but you get the drift. For those of you with your feet firmly in the present, the Transport for London Oyster cards uses NFC-esque technology, albeit a proprietary standard.

Right, that's the science out of the way, what about the practicalities. Are we really going to see mass deployment of contactless payments in the UK? Probably not for a while. At the moment, contactless cards are as good as you get and the aforementioned Oyster is pretty much obligatory if you live or work in London. Although it was intended as a way of allowing pre-pay entry to the tube transport system, many retailers in and around London now accept Oyster for payment for goods and services. ATOC, the UK train companies body, are planning to roll out contactless ticketing across the numerous UK train franchises, and I've heard Oyster may be the solution they opt for. One potential problem on the trains is that each franchise may opt for its own contactless solution which won't necessarily be compatible with others. As many train companies share stations and ticket offices, imagine how many different readers you may need in each station and how confusing that could get for the traveller.

Another challenge for contactless payments is extending it to the retailers. We've all seen the Barclaycard ad where the guy leaves work on a water slide and buys a banana from the supermarket using his contactless Barclaycard on his way past the till. Great vision, but how many retailers of any size accept contactless cards, never mind contactless payments using a mobile phone. In the UK, retaillers are still recovering from the massive investment in the EPOS infrastructure, training and processes needed to introduce chip & pin authentication for traditional card payments. How likely are they to want to upgrade this technology to cater for NFC? Ironically some of the smaller retailers may be in a better position than the cash rich supermarket chains as they often lease their EPOS equipment and so are probably due an automatic upgrade in a few years anyway.

So what about contactless NFC phones? Will you get one of these the next time you renew your mobile tariff. I doubt it. At the moment there are very few models available and the ones that are are expensive, not subsidised and apart from the NFC chip are pretty much 2005's phones (and who wants a phone without a touch screen these days!!!). The manufacturers need to put chips in more, new models and the chips are extremely inexpensive (I was quoted 0.5 USD by one industry expert) so this should be feasible. However, it's chicken and egg. Until there is demand for contactless phones, why should they invest even half a dollar more? The mobile networks could fuel demand by starting to subsidised phones with NFC chips. However, they'll only want to do this on sexy models and if the manufacturers aren't building them...... So who will provide the catalyst for NFC phones. Personally I think it needs a partnership between a phone manufacturer, a large global mobile network operator, a card company such as VISA, and a major retail group to trigger the demand. In the UK, maybe the London Olympics will be the catalyst. London 2012 has an ambition to be contactless (ticketless and cashless).

I also think there's a cultural change starting to slowly happen. I believe it will start by the demise of cash. Who wants to carry a pocketful of pound coins around when you can make small cash payments using a card or even your phone? This will grow to the point where credit cards become contactless (Barclaycard are leading the way of course) and eventually cards will disappear altogether and we'll be living in a world of virtual wallets. After all your leather Gucci wallet is really just a repository for storing various instruments for your financial accounts (debit card for current account, credit card for credit account, ID card for access to your place of work etc). Mobile phones now have massive, secure storage capability and is effectively a repository. So why not store your account credentials in your phone rather than in a chip on a piece of plastic that's easy to lose, clone or steal... Think about it. How many times do you realise you've forgotten to take some cash out with you compared to the number of times you've forgotten your phone...

Again, sorry if this was a bit of a ramble (isn't that what blogs are by their very nature anyway). It's not an exhaustive discussion of the opportunities and challenges for contactless payments, but hopefully it's a little food for thought. Let me know what your views are via the comment button.

Is There Money to be Made from Money Transfer?

2009-09-07T08:26:00.002+01:00

Is there an opportunity to make money from the International Remittances Market? Well, according to the World Bank in 2007, the overall global market for international remittances was estimated to be $340bn, so the simple answer is a rapturous “yes”. The tiger economies and the developing world continue to be the most attractive. According to analysts Yankee, the value of remittances made by foreign workers residing in Malaysia alone totalled $4.3bn annually as at 2008. With an estimated 2.3m foreign workers plying their trade in the country, this works out at an average annual remittance value of roughly $1,800 per worker per annum, or $150 per month. If one was to charge just 5% commission per transaction ($7.50) that’s a potential addressable market value of $17.25m per annum for just a single country. If only 10% of those transferring money between individuals in different countries switched to doing this using their mobile phone, then that gives us an addressable market for Mobile International Remittances of $34bn – a small slice of that would be nice.
Data from the World Bank confirms that the biggest challenge (and opportunity) for anyone wishing to offer mobile remittance services is that large chunks of the addressable population do not have bank accounts. In Kenya for example, the World Bank states that only 10% of the population have bank accounts. In Pakistan it’s around 15% and in the Ukraine it’s less than 30%. These individuals are un-banked for various reasons, either their income or social status means they are unable to open an account, their rural locations may meant he nearest bank branch is a day’s commute away or maybe they simply don’t want an account or trust the banking industry (e.g. the illegal workers).
Addressing this huge part of the market is a great challenge because at the beginning and end of the transaction, cash is required and this has to somehow be physically deposited and withdrawn. In some countries, it may be possible for the service provider or network operator to gain a banking license and offer “virtual bank accounts” or eWallets. Here, the service provider provides an escrow account where cash can be electronically stored until the transfer takes place. In order to top-up their eWallet the individual could use the mobile top-up network (assuming this exists in each country) or agents. In certain examples post offices have accepted cash deposits which are credited to the virtual account, or even supermarkets. These virtual accounts are easier to setup and less risky than a standard bank account as there are no credit or other banking facilities associated with it – you aren’t allowed to go overdrawn. Of course legislation differs in each country but in most territories money laundering rules govern the need for proof of identity which still isolates at least one section of the great un-banked community.
So the market opportunity exists and is attractive enough to command our attention but why should the migrant worker switch to using their mobile to make payments? In many of the tiger economies, the percentage of migrant workers that are effectively illegal (or at least un registered) is significantly higher than we’d expect (or hope for) in the Western world. Referring back to Yankee’s look-see at Malaysia, their findings suggest that up to 30% of migrants working in the country are illegally there. It’s fair to assume that thanks to the relatively liberal rules around the acquisition of pay-as-you-go mobile phones, a large number of these workers will possess a phone or at least have access to a mobile phone via a friend or community leader. The telecoms infrastructure in Malaysia is relatively advanced, but in many developing world countries, especially in Africa, there isn’t a land-line infrastructure and mobile networks are the only method of communication. With so many illegal workers having access to ‘untraceable’ mobile phones’ using this device to make discreet payments to the folks back home represents an attractive proposition when obtaining a bank account is an impossibility. Consider also that there are over 3bn mobile phones in use around the world and that there are only 1.6bn bank accounts – back to Malaysia and only 10-20% of remittance transactions are undertaken via banks. The alternative therefore is to use “back-street” money transfer agencies who charge commissions of anything up to 30% of the transaction value.
More on International Remittances later in this blog series, but for now let’s be in agreement that there are some amazing opportunities to make money here but equally there are some mammoth challenges to overcome first.

Mobile Vouchers

2009-08-25T10:15:00.005+01:00

Anyone buying a soft drink during August may have noticed that amongst the vast range of brands and flavours available that Coca Cola have rebranded their "3rd tier" labels, that's Dr Pepper, Fanta and Sprite. You may have also noticed the following branding jumping out at you:

This is just one of many "digital voucher" campaigns that are hitting our shelves (and the press in the retail and mobile worlds). Coca Cola seem to be leading the way with trials in differnet countries including the one mentioned above in the UK.

Essentially, mobile digiital vouchers are simply a replacement for the traditional paper vouchers you use today, but are more cost efficient and much more effective. Vouchers come in many forms and generally give the consumer the ability to redeem them for money off purchases, free gifts or other benefits. Typically, they come in the form of barcodes or numerical codes and appear in newspapers, magazines, mailshots and, increasingly, on websites.

Accordingly, mobile vouchers are very similar, except that instead of having a paper voucher the voucher is received and held digitally on your mobile phone. This could be in the form of a graphic representation of a barcode or as a numerical code. The voucher is then redeemed at the point of sale as a paper voucher would be, by keying in the code on the point of sale terminal or scanning the barcode. More about the pros and cons of the two methods later, together with a glimpse into the future where Near Field Communications (NFC) technologies will enhance the redemption experience.

The problem with digital barcodes is that the flatbed type scanners which are popular in large supermarket stores cannot read a barcode displayed on a mobile. However, thanks to advanced high-resolution screen technology used on most mobile phones these days, the hand held scanners can quite readily read a barcode from a mobile phone screen. In the old days the poor, highly reflective quality of the screen prevented accurate reading of barcodes. Not the case any more. However, many digital voucher promotions still use an alpha-numeric code that is sent to the mobile via SMS and then keyed into the till at the retail point of sale. Effective and cheap, and requires no integration work, but can cause delays at the cash desk for large volume campaigns.

NFC is where it gets really sexy. A small chip in the mobile phone automatically connects and talks with a receiver chip in the point of sale device simply by waving the phone within a couple of centimetres from the reader. The beauty here is that the chip in the reader can take it's power from the transmitter and doesn't need its own battery or power supply. That means it can be tiny and truely portable - perhaps being embedded in a poster or display sign - but more on that in a later post...

So why bother with mobile vouchers, what's wrong with paper coupons, afterall we've been using them for years from world war two food ration books to Tesco Clubcard vouchers. Well, according to analysts (e.g. Frost & Sullivan and Gartner) the average redemption rates for paper vouchers are as low as 1.5% - that means for every 100,000 vouchers you go to the effort and cost of printing only 1,500 are used. Ignoring the fact that certain individuals may be redeeming more than one voucher, that means you're missing the opportunity to get the remaining 98,500 remaining consumers that received your voucher to sample your product. On the other hand, case studies for mobile vouchers show redemption rates as high as 30%, with 20% being fairly common and 5% being worse case. iMovo recently issued a press release that claimed a trial undertaken with Coca Cola (yes, them again!) had a redempton rate of 87%!!! Another benefit is that of cost. If managed properly a mobile voucher marketing campaign can incur lower costs. If you think about the direct and indirect costs behind a paper voucher campaign and then compare this to a mobile voucher campaing, you'll understand what I'm getting at. Both methods have certain costs that are the same, such as the actual cost of advertising your campaign - posters, newspaper ads, package design and printing etc. However, paper campaigns incur additional costs for the actual design and printing of the voucher itself. The cost of the paper that the voucher is printed on, the cost of handling the voucher once redeemed, manually sifting and counting them etc. A mobile voucher is simply sent electronically to a mobile phone and so incurs only one cost for distribution, the cost of an SMS or MMS message.

Another benefit is that of fraud, or a reduction in the risk of fraud. Paper vouchers can be copied relatively easily and there are several major examples of this type of fraud. If the technology is deployed correctly then a digital voucher can be practically fraud free. Real-time validation of vouchers at the time of redemption can block duplicate or suspect voucher codes and campaigns can be suspended easily, quickly and without large costs.

For the marketer or brand owner, another benefit is the amount of quality data that is available during and after a campaing. Data on redemption is available by individual (based on mobile phone number), product, retail store, time of day, day of week etc etc. If mined effectively this can be a very valuable commodity. Also, the captured mobile phone numbers can potentially be used for push marketing services although the regulation around this activity can be quite restritive (another post will cover this).

So digital mobile vouchers are starting to become a reality. We're likely to see more and more digital voucher campaigns over the coming months with more brand owners wanting to get in on the action. My company, Innovativo Limited, offers its own range of end to end solutions in this space bringing together a number of partners to ensure the complete supply chain can be delivered (see www.innovativo.co.uk for information).

Successful Mobile Marketing

2009-08-18T13:37:00.003+01:00

Welcome to my latest blog where I will discuss everything to do with exploiting the 3 billion mobiles that exist worldwide, in order to enhance your company's marketing campaigns. Over time, the blog will examine every aspect of marketing using the mobile medium from simple text messaging to the latest near-field communications technologies. All aspects of the marketing model will be addressed.

For the purposes of this blog, I'm going to define Mobile Commerce to consist of a number of sub capabilities, these being Mobile Marketing, Mobile Alerting and Mobile Transactions.

Mobile Marketing covers a multitude of services from the ability to offer free texting to consumers if they agree to have a small advert appended to each message they send to push advertising to mobile coupons (of which I'll explain more later). The blog will look at the benefits and pitfalls of creating a mobile marketing strategy including the commercial and regulatory considerations, technological challenges as well as how to design your campaigns to ensure you maximise the results.

Mobile Alerting is something that's increasingly creeping into our lives. It's the ability for organisations to communicate on a non-commercial basis with its stakeholders, be they customers, shareholders, employees, partners or whoever. Examples might include appointment reminders, server downtime notification, swine flu updates, share prices etc. Sometimes Mobile Alerting may overlap with Mobile Advertising, for example football scores may be sent to your mobile but often will include a subtle consumer promotion.

Mobile Transactions is the third and possibly most complex category of Mobile Commerce. It is where many experts believe the real growth in Mobile Commerce will come from. In essence any interaction between a mobile and server-side application, or between two or more mobiles, where some kind of trade transaction has occurred could be categorised as Mobile Transactions. Examples would include Mobile Ticketing, Mobile Payments, Mobile Banking Services, Mobile Remittances and even Mobile Coupons although I've chosen to include these in the Mobile Advertising category as it's a neater fit there.

I will be spending a large amount of time talking about Mobile Transactions and how the enabling technology is evolving and where the market opportunities may emerge.

So that's what this blog is going to be about. I hope you enjoy reading it over the coming weeks and months and that you gain value from it. If you have any suggestions for topics to be covered, or any comments on the content, please do not hesitate to email at info@innovativo.co.uk.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my current, previous or future employers or clients. I nor Innovativo Limited accept any liability for the accuracy of the information contained within. If you feel your rights have been affected by my blog in anyway, please do not hesitate to contact me at info.innovativo.co.uk and I will remove or correct any offending material.