National Do Not Call Registry

24 April 2007: The Government of India proposes a bill to introduce the 'National Do Not Call Registry' (NDNC) service in India - where consumers can register with their respective operators and will be listed in a Do-Not-Call registry where it would be illegal if any of the numbers receive a Telemarketing call or SMS or better known as UCC (Unsolicited Commercial Communication). The bill was passed in Q4 2007 and re-enforced by the means of Newspaper & TV Media that any such miscreant or UCC activity can cause the operator/telemarketer a fine of upto Rs.500, subsequently Rs.1000 and further cancellation of license. It was truly brilliant to offer consumers the comfort and peace of not receiving the pesky Loan, Mortgage, Credit Calls anymore But why was SMS included in this??? The only effective channel of Direct Marketing left in India is - SMS Marketing. If the Government has placed a 'blanket ban' on receiving any UCC, then it makes SMS also illegal, ineffective and will become inexistent soon.
Statistics say, Mobile Phone users (urban + rural) are increasing @ 8% a month and the NDNC registration is increasing @ 5% every month. Implies that sooner or later the rates will fluctuate and everybody will be registered with the NDNC. It is totally wise to do so but then what happens to the 'Mobile Phone being the ultimate gadget'? This idea has been harvesting since long in the minds of marketers that Mobile Marketing would have taken over all means since the mobile phone will be your Credit Card, Car Key, PDA/Organiser, Web Browser, GPS, etc; the one tool one would carry everywhere. As far as business is concerned, Mobile Marketer's only hope is the 'Alerts/Reminders' services like of Banks and Non - UCC services.
Although, there is one more viewpoint which is totally opposite this understanding - if Users are getting registered in the NDNC and the sole target, which needs to segmented further, is Non NDNC registered people - Mobile Marketers can SPAM them like crazy. If word gets out (which just might given by the number of readers of this blog) SMS Marketers will start taking Mobile Campaigns simply spamming anyone who is not on the list - which will further provoke people to get registered in this list.
Conclusively, there isn't a way out - SMS Marketing will soon die unless the Govt of India gives recognition to Portals, Handwritten documents or Forms where the mobile phone user has given permission to receive any such updates from the particular merchant. Given by the speed of functioning of the Indian Govt, mobile marketers would be selling mobile phones to survive by then!

Mobile Marketing in India takes a U-turn

Remember the likes of sms based advertising models where you register free to receive SMS's from 'advertisers' and earn money, etc; namely, m gingur, adcadmobi, etc... There seems to be another player in the market who is trying to make this loss-stricken idea into a beneficial one. The company '160by2' claims to give you the ability to register for free, earn money for receiving SMS's from their advertisers but the new marketing strategy that they have adopted is that users (like you and me) can use 80 characters to Send Free Messages to all mobile numbers India and the next 80 characters will contain an advert from one of the advertisers of 160by2 company.
Unfortunately, what the promoters have seemed to ignore is the reason why earlier business models like these failed - Ding Dong! MGingur and the likes, did mass marketing and advertising with a lot of ( I repeat a lot of ) word of mouth marketing which ended up approx 5 lac users being registered. The limitation of this model is that most advertisers (in India and the world) seek information of people or to target people who have reasonable disposable income and are willing to spend it. But the data collected in these campaigns or the people targetted by SMS marketing are of the nature who want to make money by collecting a few paise (smallest unit of the INR) would not be the kinds of to either have reasonable disposable income nor be willing to spend much. Nevertheless, this segment of people are quite good for targetting goods like Coke, Chocolates or items of not much monetary value. On the contrary, not many (or maybe not at all) of these type of companies would be interested in promoting their products by Direct marketing methods like SMS Marketing. Wake up and smell the coffee guys.

Spiderman is back: SMS is now SMS 2.0!

We have had 'SpiderMan Returns, Superman Returns, Superman Returns 2, Batman infinity... but now it's just me returning to help save the Earth. :)
After a lot of research, toil and ahem... hard-work, I have compiled some latest information on whats going on with the Mobile Marketing world:

SMS is now SMS 2.0 - where Content Aggregators, Bulk SMS Companies & Operators are providing Interactive Mobility Solutions or also known as Interactive Mobile Marketing. Here not only is the target a segmented Consumer but by using SMS Shortcodes, IVR & Outgoing Voice performing technology - there is a vast database collected of the consumer's taste, preferences, shopping-behaviour, etc.
It's quite simple; we have a few of the possibilities listed below:

• SMS Shortcode (5****): The consumer messages a Keyword For Eg. GLOBAL NAME to the Shortcode 5****. His name is received by the aggregator with his respective mobile number. Here he has intentionally or unintentionally given his name and number to be used for 'marketing' purposes by the company for it's various products. The keyword may be followed by some crucial information most marketers can use the gauge his buying behaviour and intentions - like Name, Age, City, Sex, Marital Status, etc.
• Voice/IVR Portal: The consumer messages a Keyword GLOBAL to a Shortcode 5**** and receives an automated call from an IVR-like Voice asking him, "If he has messaged for this information/purpose, Please press 1" - Here the company has successfully taken his permission to go ahead and capture data - better known as an Opted-in database or disclaimer for the company. Further, during the call made, using a basic feature of the phone called DTMF Tones the user browses Menu-after-menu and enters details like his Name, Age, City, Marital Status, Preference of products, situational questions, etc. The beauty of this model is that the user is willing to spend as much time on the portal since he has not made the outgoing call and is a free-to-attend obligation for him where a Typical Consumer does not hesitate in giving out information or discussing his preference over a product or service. The only part to worry of this campaign is that with enough people wanting to pass time somewhere may misuse the service unnecessarily and cause millions to the company conducting the campaign for which the operator continues billing them.

What is Driving M-Commerce

• Exponential growth of consumer interest and adoption of the Internet and e-commerce.
  
• Tremendous growth in mobile telephony; however, voice has become a commodity and will no longer fuel revenue growth for operators.
  
• Development of real-time transfer of data over 2.5G and 3G networks will enable faster data transmission and ‘always-on’ connectivity.
  
• The evolution of the handheld devices incorporating WAP and now GPRS.
  
• Mobile e—commerce market is worth $3.5 billion in 2000 and will grow to over $200 billion by 2005 (Ovum).
  
• Cost of entry into mobile e-commerce is low for most entrants; for example, a bank can implement a sophisticated m-banking solution in under six months for around $1 million.
  
• The unique features of the mobile device such as its compactness for convenience and personalized functions; subsequently, people have become quite attached to their devices.

Mobile vs PC part I

If you go to Mexico, the government is trying to stimulate Internet access through PC penetration. So, there are different models, but I think mobile is the cheap way in. And the take-up patterns have been very different. If you go to the UK, you start with newspapers, then magazines, radio, television, PCs to get to the Internet, and then you went to mobile. In China and India, mobile has leapfrogged PC.

Your Name, Mobile No.? Now for INR 0.60 only!

Its 0800 hrs and you walk up to your local coffee shop for a morning coffee and newspaper in a rush to reach office @ 9.
While you wait for the cashier making your invoice, you are approached by this 'chirpy' girl wearing a nice, crisp 'corporate' uniform and offers you a Form & pen and claims that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to win a Car, Laptop or an iPod. Without hesitation, you fill in your Name, Address, Mobile Number, D.O.B, Car make, model - maybe your spouse name or her D.O.B or maybe your interests in life.
Now, any sane person would forget about that form the moment you walk out of that coffee shop, obviously, not praying to win anything at all! What you do not realise is that you have just been valued at INR 0.60 to INR 10 - as per your credentials.

The activity explained is extensively done by Data Mining Agencies or Data Capturing units who only do these campigns for capturing data which can be sold to Merchants, Marketers, Web Marketers or Call Centres. I agree that some of you might even make it to that meagre 2GB FREE iPod someday but your details have just been sold across the globe to some merchant who might have common products w.r.t your interests your may approach you two days before your spouse's birthday - which is the most vulnerable time for any of us to buy anything.

Someone has rightly suggested that the world is round - if you stop giving out your data in places, people would not be able to approach you - in turn - you would not know of the new products & services in the market - of not for purchase then at least for comparision. It is better to keep your crucial details safe yet deliver only the required information which cannot be used for any wrong purpose such as a loan sanction or your credit card authorisation. On the other hand, if you do manage to gain the art of smartly gauging places and giving appropriate information - you just might find it the most handy tool ever possible as you get hands-on information on your mobile by the means of an SMS, MMS or service message without you even going to a merchant - whats more is that you can purchase it there and then. Technology in it's true essence - is when it is used to deliver what every consumer wants, and I guess that is what we aim to do eventually.

"I vouch for Voucher Marketing"

Vouchers have been there in the market since quit esome time now where one can get a "Buy 2 Get 1 Free"
in your favourite shoe store and a "50% off" at your nearest StarBucks. Life upgrades and they all do, it's now time for Mobile Vouchers or better known as "M-vouchers" which may function as good as a BarCode software.
It works on the principles of an SMS being sent by a Merchant to his client/prospect and it contains a code alon g with the offer give. When the customer turns up at the Merchant's outlet he may want to avail the discount/privilege and provides the Code which was sent to him at the end of the SMS.
The merchant types in the Code in his database of sent SMS's and finds that this Code was sent to "this" customer hence fool-proofing the possibility of redundancy or fraud with the voucher by miscreants.
Merchant gets the sale > Customer gets the Discount > And the Mobile Company gets its revenue. (along with more economic activities like cellphone battery or parking ticket or fuel to reach the merchant LOL).
One more important feature that our Marketer MB gets is the conversion rate of the SMS's sent and received and sales converted. So far the ighest conversion across the gloabe has been Mobile Marketing where a penny-worth of an SMS makes the sale of a shining new, Mercedes S-500 somewhere in Timbuktu.