Academic Review

Craig Conrad, Western Illinois University
Michael Becker, iLoop Mobile

CPA, CFP, PCM, CPT, CeM. . . the list goes on and on, and on. They all have one thing in common and yes, it is the letter “C.” The “C” stands for Certified. Notice that the CMM is not yet on that distinguished list. So, the question of the day is: “Is the industry ready for the Certified Mobile Marketer?" We believe it is.

August 25, 2007

Academic Review:  Relationship Power Line Enhanced Transaction to Relationship Marketing Continuum and Insights into the Changing Practices of Marketing

Michael J. Becker, EVP Business Development, iLoop Mobile

Over the last quarter century there has been an undercurrent of activity that has affected the direction, role and practice of marketing. The practice of marketing is going through a metamorphosis.  Not a simple paradigm shift, i.e. a shift in marketing standards and norms, as many proclaim (Peppers & Rogers 1995; Bejou 1997; Brodie et al. 1997; Gronroos 1997; Zineldin 2000l Watson et al. 2005), but an Isoquantic shift (Myers 1998).  John Sculley, former CEO of Apple, coined the term Isoquantic shift to recognize the effect technology is having on business, it refers to “...a significant technological advancement that dramatically changes the way people do things and completely re-orients people’s concepts of how things are done” (Myers 1998, p11).  Marketing is certainly faced with an Isoquantic shift, one that will significantly change how the marketing function works and what will be expected of it.  This article provides an overview of the drivers behind this shift and introduces a conceptual model, the Relationship Power Line Enhanced Transaction to Relationship Marketing Continuum, which can be used as a framework to ground future discussions on how marketers can respond to their changing role within an increasingly more diverse market and points the appropriateness Mobile Marketing practices within this context.

The role of marketing is shifting.  Prior to what is commonly referred to as the dawn of the Information or Digital Age, i.e. before computers, databases, the Internet, mobile phones, etc., marketers were primarily responsible with helping companies promote and sell mass-market consumer goods to a broad, generally anonymous, audience (Dwyer et al 1987). In other words, they focused on Transaction Marketing, and their primary goals were to capture market share and generate as many discrete transactions as possible with as many people as possible.  However, since the dawn of the Information Age, things have changed and so has the practice of marketing.  Many interdependent catalysts can be singled out as being behind this change. For instance, globalization, reliance on services (e.g. services accounted for 67.8% of  U.S. GDP in 2006 (US Dept. of Sates 2007)), the hyperfragmentation of media channels and hypercompetition (Becker 2005), introduction and maturing of new technologies (Berry 1983; Berry 1995; Bejou 1997; Zineldin 2000; Brohman et al. 2003); and the increasing power consumers have within and over the commercial exchange process (Fournier 1997; Hagel III & Rayport 1997; Watson et al. 2005).  In addition to the above catalysts there is one more that must be called out; that is, the fact that consumer attention is becoming a scare resource.  Consumers are bombarded with advertising, messaging, choice, channels and more and their attention is limited (Parvatiyar & Sheth 1998; Mitchell 2001).  Getting through the market cacophony and into a consumer’s circle of awareness is becoming increasingly difficult.
 

Many marketers have responded to this difficulty by employing Relationship Marketing, a term coined by Leonard Berry in 1983, and a practice founded in the earlier works of Levitt (1960), Arndt (1979), Bagozzi (1974, 1978), Day and Wensley (1983), Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh (1987), Levitt (1983), and Mancneil (1978) who all emphasized the importance of a consumer centric focus to marketing practices and the fact that long-term buyer seller relationships are critical for firm longevity.  Bejou (1997) notes that customer relationships don’t, or should not, stop at the initial sale but rather continue on.
 

A significant body of literature has developed over the last 25 years around the topic of Relationship Marketing and a number of themes have emerged, including Service Marketing (Berry 1983; Berry 1995; Bejou 1997; Gummesson 2002); Database Marketing, Customer Relationship Management; One-to-One Marketing and Mass-customization (Peppers & Rogers 1995); Permissions Marketing (Godin 1999); Strategic Partnership Management; Customer Loyalty (Reichhel & Sasser 1990); Supplier Relationship Management; Internal Marketing (Gummesson 2002); and other generalized themes.  Out of all this work another theme, the understanding that the consumer is not the only relationship that marketers must manage, has also emerged. For instance, Morgan and Hunt (1994) identified 10 key constituents that marketers must form relationships with in order to achieve success and Gummesson (1987, 2002) identifies 30 key relationships that marketers must maintain and points out that firms need not only full-time markets but part-time markets as well, i.e. all customer facing employees are marketers in some fashion.

The different forms of marketing that are discussed above, i.e. Transaction and Relationship Marketing (in all its forms) are not mutually exclusive.  Rather, Transaction and Relationship Marketing form the two poles for the Transaction to Relationship Marketing Continuum (Jackson 1985; Gronroos 1990).  This continuum, however, is not continuous; rather it is interrupted by an Intent Barrier.  The Intent Barrier symbolizes the need for marketers to align their rhetoric and actions with their intent and if they do not they run the risk of either damaging a profitable future with their customers or wasting resources with customers that will never turn a profit (Jackson 1995; Fournier et al. 1998; Mitchell 2006).
 

The Transaction to Relationship Marketing model can be further enhanced with the Relationship Power Line™, a line that represents which party has the locus of power and control over the relationship—the marketer or the consumer.  Historically, with traditional Relationship Marketing, i.e. those practices referred to above (CRM, Database Marketing, One-to-One Marketing, etc.), the marketer has almost total control over the timing, content, and related factors that formulate the marketer to consumer relationship.  As noted, however, in recent years consumers are gaining more and more control over these factors and the consumer is gaining more control and power over the marketer to consumer relationship.  In fact, two new models have emerged to describe customer centric control rather then marketer centric control, Customer Managed Interaction (CMI) and Vendor Relationship Management (VRM). Watson (2005) defines CMI as “A Customer directed interaction with a firm in which the customer manages the content, mode, and timing of data exchange in order to meet the customer’s goals,” while VRM is defined as “the reciprocal of CRM or Customer Relationship Management. It provides customers with tools for engaging with vendors in ways that work for both parties” (Project VRM 2007).
 

The following figure provides a visual depiction of the discussion above, with the Transaction to Relationship Marketing Continuum depicted along the horizontal plane and the Relationship Power Line defined along the Vertical plane, and both interrupted by the Intent Barrier.

Figure 1: Power Line Enhanced Transaction to
Relationship Marketing Continuum
 

In addition, the figure above highlights additional variables, such as time, communication style, relationship type, and trust which significantly influence the various styles of marketing.

Conclusion
We are entering a new era of marketing, one where the traditional rules and models are losing their effectiveness and one where customers have awakened to their new found power and control.  It is not the purpose of this article to go into detail regarding the two new themes presented here, the Relationship Power Line or Intent Barrier, or to define CMI, VRM, and the various forms of marketing along the traditional Transaction to Relationship Marketing Continuum.  Rather, the intent here is to raise the awareness of the changing face of marketing.  As for the practice of Mobile Marketing within the framework describe here, much work needs to be done.  It is evident from academic research, stories in popular press, and industry case studies that Mobile Marketing, i.e. marketing through the Mobile Channel, can be used for numerous forms of marketing, and the unique and personal nature of the mobile phone brings to the forefront the issues of relationship control, trust, communications styles, and more.   The customer, our markets, and marketing are changing and marketers must take heed of this in order to thrive today and in the future.

About the author
Michael Becker’s is Executive Vice President of Business Development for iLoop Mobile, a leading mobile applications platform provider.  Michael is on the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) Board of Directors (2005, 2007), Chairs the MMA’s Academic Outreach Committee (2005~2007), and is a doctoral candidate of Business Administration at Golden Gate University. 

To provide feedback on this article, contact the authors at .[email protected]

This article is a synthesis of a larger unpublished paper by Becker on Customer Managed Interactions, Relationship Marketing, and Mobile. Contact Michael Becker at [email protected] if interested in receiving a copy of the complete piece.

REFERENCES
Arndt, J. (1979).  Toward a concept of domesticated markets.  Journal of Marketing, 43, 69-75.

Bagozzi, R. P. (1974).  Marketing as an organized behavior system of exchange.  Journal of Marketing.  77-81.

Bagozzi, R.P. (1978).  Marketing as exchange:  A theory of transactions in the marketplace.  American Behavior Scientists, 21, 535-555.

Becker, M. (2005, 11/NOv.). Effectiveness of Mobile Channel Additions and A Conceptual Model Detailing the Interaction of Influential Variables. Academic Review. Retrieved 081407, from http://www.iloopmobile.com/news/mb_research_111705.htm.

Bejou, D. (1997, Dec.). Relationship Marketing: Evolution, Present State, and Future. Psychology & Marketing (1986-1998), 14(18), 727.

Berry, L. (1995). Relationship Marketing of Services - Growing Interest, Emerging Prospective. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 24(4), 236-245.

Berry, L. L. (1983). Relationship Marketing (L. Berry & L. Shostack, Eds.) (Emerging Perspectives on Services Marketing, pp. 25-8). Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association.

Brodie, R., Coviello, N., Brookes, R., & Little, V. (1997). Towards a Paradigm Shift in Marketing? An Examination of Current Marketing Practices. Journal of Marketing Management, 13(5), 383-406.

Brohman, M. K., Watson, R., Piccoli, G., & Parasuraman, A. (2003, Jun.). Data Completeness: A Key to Effective Net-based Customer Service Systems. Communications of the ACM, 46(6), 47-51.

Day, A., & Wensley, R. (1983).  Marketing theory with a strategic orientation.  Journal of Marketing, 47, 79-89.

Dwyer, R., Schurr, P., & Oh, S. (1987, April). Developing Buyer-Seller Relationships. Journal of Marketing, 51(1), 11-27.

Fournier, S., Dobscha, S., & Mick, D., Glen. (1998, Jan.~Feb.). Preventing the Premature Death of Relationship Marketing. Harvard Business Review, 75, 43~51.

Godin, S. (1999). Permission Marketing. Simon & Schuster.

Gronroos, C. (1997). From marketing mix to relationship marketing--towards a paradigm shift in marketing. Management Decision, 35(3), 322.

Gummesson, E. (1987). The New Marketing--Developing Long-term Interactive Relationships." Long Range Planning, 20(4), 10~20.

Gummesson, E. (2002). Total Relationship Marketing (Second). London: Butterworth Heinemann.

Hagel III, J., & Rayport, J. (1997, Jan/Feb.). The Coming Battle for Customer Information. Harvard Business Review, 75(1), 53-65.

Jackson, B. (1985, Nov.~Dec.). Build customer relationships that last. Harvard Business Review.

Levitt, T. (1960, Jul/Aug). Marketing Myopia. Harvard Business Review, 38(4), 45-56.

Macneil, I.  (1978).  Contracts:   Adjustments of long-term comic relations under classical, neoclassical and relational contract law. Northwestern University Law Review, 72, 854-902

Mitchell, A. (2001, 07/07/06). Right Side Up. London: HarperCollins Business.

Mitchell, A., Henderson, I., & McKean, J. (2006, 07/07/06). A fundamental question. London: The Buyer Centric Commerce Forum.

Morgan, R. M., & Shelby, H. (1994, July). The Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing. Journal of Marketing, 58, 20~38.

Myers, J. (2998). Reconnecting with Customers. Encino, California: Spurge Inc.

Parasuraman, A. (2006, Nov-Dec.). Modeling Opportunities in Service Recovery and Customer-Managed Interactions. Marketing Science, 25(6), 590~593.

Parvatiyar, A., & Sheth, J. (1999, 28/Augsut). The Domain Conceptual Foundations of Relationship Marketing.

Peppers, D., & Rogers, M. (1995, Mar/Apr). A New Marketing Paradigm: Share of Customer, Not Market Share. Planning Review, 23(2), 14.

Project VRM. (2007, 15/8/2007). . Retrieved 15/8/2007, from Project VRM: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/projectvrm/Main_Page.

US Dept. of Sates. A Service Economy (U.S. Economy in Brief). Retrieved 08/25/07, from http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/economy-in-brief/page3.html.

Watson, R., Piccoli, G., Gabriele, K., & Parasuraman, A. (2005, June). Customer-Managed Interactions:  A new Paradigm for Firm-Customer Relationships. MIS Quarterly Executive, 46(2).

Zineldin, M. (2000). Beyond relationship marketing: Technologicalship marketing. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 18(1), 9~23.

Academic Review: Hispanic <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Mobile Telephony Trends
By Larry Upton
edioma, Inc.

Edited by,
Michael Becker
iLoop Mobile, Inc.

Hispanics account for approximately 15% of the US population, are the fastest growing ethnic minority, and in some border states (e.g., Texas) will represent a majority of the population by 2010. The Latino demographic, with over 42 million constituents, represents the third largest US consumer purchase block after White and African Americans. As a result, advertisers will spend a projected $6B in 2007 trying to reach this fast-growing segment (French, 2007).

On the whole, this same purchasing power extends to Hispanic Internet users. There were approximately 16.7 million Hispanic Internet users in 2006: that number should reach nearly 21 million by 2010 (eMarketer, 2006). Equally important, the number of Hispanic Internet users under the age of 35 is projected to grow to 12.1 million by 2010. As a comparison, the median age of the US population is expected to be 36 in 2010, while the Hispanic median age will be just over 27 with over one-third under the age of 18. As most online marketers know, it’s this 18-34 year old age bracket that spends the most on mobile content.

However, similar studies indicate that Hispanics, especially first generation immigrants and those who are Spanish dependent, access the Internet far less frequently than White, African Americans, or English-speaking Hispanics. In fact, findings from the Pew Group (Fox and Livingston, March 2007) indicate only 29% of Hispanic adults have home broadband connections, compared with 43% of White adults.  This difference is driven primarily by the fact that Latino internet users are less likely than non-Hispanic white internet users to have any kind of Internet connection at home (79%, compared to 92%).  Pew likewise found that 78% of Latinos who are English-dominant and 76% of bilingual Latinos use the Internet (compared with 32% of Spanish-dominant Hispanic adults), while 76% of U.S.-born Latinos go online, compared with 43% of those born outside the U.S. These statistics paint a compelling picture where mobile versus traditional Web access for the Hispanic population is concerned, and should serve as incentive for providers of both Spanish-language mobile content, as well as mobile advertisers looking to target the Latino population.

In fact, recent studies from Forrester Research and the Mobile Marketing Association show that the Hispanic market segment use the mobile phone more than other demographic groups (Young 2005; MMA 2006)  These insights were further supported by a January 2007 study commissioned by edioma, a provider of mobile language assistance solutions, and conducted by Galloway Research of San Antonio, Texas (http://www.gallowayresearch.com). The purpose of the research was to determine Spanish-dependent mobile phone user preferences and trends related to wireless carrier choice, data usage patterns, proclivity toward 3^rd party mobile application purchase, and interest in e-learning products.

During a six-week period commencing December 15, 2006 Galloway placed over 9,000 calls to mobile phone users throughout Dallas, Houston, El Paso, and the Rio Grande Valley. Galloway then narrowed down potential candidates and conducted over 225 interviews of 12-15 minutes each, posing 40 questions to each respondent. The research methodology employed resulted in a statistical sample accuracy of approximately 90%. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

The findings for this study should be of particular interest to both mobile content and mobile advertising providers:
·        32% of respondents use T-Mobile as their wireless carrier, followed by Cricket/Pocket/Metro PCS (21%), Sprint-Nextel at (27%), and Cingular (11%).

·          Over 75% subscribed to their wireless service on an annual basis, while 23% indicated they purchased minutes/data on a pre-paid basis. 

·          34% of those questioned access the Internet over traditional means at home or work, the majority of which (48%) surfed the Web less than 3 times per week.

·          Over 48% of persons interviewed were interested to receive more information on learning English over their mobile phone. 

·          Average price users were willing to pay for a mobile language instruction service was approximately $21.50 per month.

·          Over 73% of respondents indicated they would be willing to watch a 2-3 second advertisement on their mobile phone in exchange for free/discounted English lessons.

Although based on research conducted in a single market (Texas) these findings are indicative of national trends. According to a recent study by Yankee Group, Hispanics average 15% higher ARPU, 21.5% more minutes of use per month than the average user, and spend 35% more per month on data services than the average user (Amoroso, 2006). Based on such research, it appears that that low-cost or advertising-subsidized mobile language instruction services may offer consumers a unique means to not only improve their quality of life and access to information, but also represent a highly attractive medium for mobile advertising.

Unlike traditional content, language instruction programs (if properly designed) can offer valuable insight into the “back-end demographics” of a mobile customer. Statistics indicate that a consumer who downloads a situation-specific phrase kit, e.g., “On the Jobsite,” likely shares certain key personal demographics (e.g., 18-40 year old male) as others who download the same package. In addition, an advertiser may surmise from the language instruction path (base to secondary), what the end-user’s native language might be, while the mobile number itself and inherent GPS capability contained within most handsets lends into ascertaining current location and base market. Thus a properly developed language assistance program might provide the four “golden demographics” to a potential advertiser: gender, age, language, and location.

For more information on the edioma Galloway Research Hispanic Mobile Use Trend study, please email [email protected] or [email protected].

References:
eMarketer (April 13, 2006). 21 Million Hispanic Internet Users by 2010, as taken from http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1003927

Frenck, Moses (January 8, 2007). TNS Forecasts 5.4% Ad Spend Growth in Hispanic Media in 2007, as taken from http://www.marketingymedios.com/marketingymedios/noticias/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003528723

Fox, Susannah and Livingston, Gretchen (March 14, 2007). Latinos Online: Hispanics with lower levels of education and English proficiency remain largely disconnected from the Internet. www.pewhispanic.org – www.pewinternet.org

MMA Mobile Attitude & Usage Study (November 2006).  Mobile Marketing Association, Denver, CO.

Rockwell, Mark (January 11, 2007). Reaching Out to Hispanics. Amoroso, Marina (Yankee Group), as taken from

http://www.wirelessweek.com/article.aspx?id=92034&terms=

Young, Shawn (Oct. 2005). Telecommunications; Mobile Mavens: African-Americans and are the early adopters when it comes to wireless phone service.  Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Oct 24, 2005. pg. R.11

Academic Review: Customer Experience and Mobile Marketing
Jared Braiterman PhD, JaredResearch, and Michael Becker, EVP Business Development, iLoop Mobile, Inc.

In a very short period the mobile phone has rapidly become an essential communication channel used daily by billions around the world and it is poised to become a dominant channel for marketing as well. The use of the mobile phone as a marketing channel has already developed into a multi-billion dollar industry, yet mobile marketing today is still in its infancy. There is still much that needs to be done to enhance mobile marketing services, including the refinement of the user experience. Designing effective mobile marketing campaigns requires a renewed focus on customer experience. This academic review discusses how marketers, designers and technologists can benefit from a decade of experience in web design for personal computers, as well as early signs of a new wave of ubiquitous computing in which mobile phones will play a key role.

The mobile phone is the most ubiquitous communication channel on the planet, far surpassing fixed line telephones and internet connections. According to Ahonen & Moore (2007) there are 1.3 billion landline phones, 1.5 billion television sets, 1.4 billion credit cards, 850 million PC users, 1.1 billion internet users,1.5 billion email boxes used by 800 million people, and a whopping 2.7 billion mobile subscribers, two thirds of which (1.8 billion) are active text messaging users. The mobile phone is used for voice communications, messaging, information gathering, entertainment, shopping, commerce, and enables a wide range of other services. Ensuring user interactions on the phone are secure and error-free are both required elements for the success of an individual marketer's campaigns. These elements are also required for the future success and emergence of the mobile phone as a marketing and advertising platform. A platform that one day will not just complete but change the nature of traditional media channels like television, radio, outdoor, web and print.

Pertinent Areas of Research
There is a large body of knowledge, from a number of different disciplines in the past decades which can be leveraged for the creation of useful, usable and desirable digital services. These fields of knowledge include human factors (Salvenry 2006), software and web usability (Braiterman 2000, Kuniavsky 2003),  design anthropology (Holtzblatt and Beyer 1998, Ito 2005), cognitive psychology (Norman 1988), human computer interaction (Shneiderman 1998, Dix et al 1998), interaction and persuasive design (Rosenfield & Morville 1998, Fogg 2002), and ubiquitous computing (Weiser and Brown 1995, Norman 1998, Greenfield 2006).

The cornerstone of digital design work can be found in the early work of man to machine interfaces for the workplace. Ergonomics, a synonym for human factors, literally means the “study of work.” Beginning during the Industrial Revolution and accelerating during World War II, human factors focused on complex machinery and specialized users, long before the web and software became widespread in the workplace in the 1980s and 1990s. Human factors in the 1940s and 1950s focused on airplane cockpits where operator error could lead to catastrophic accidents (Meister 1999). Human factors pioneered the study of “human technology” for well trained operators and contributed to industrial design’s appreciation of human physical and mental limits.

Technology spread from specialized work to general work with the rise of software as a tool that all workers were expected to use.  With the changing user group, the field of human factors became less focused on preventing disaster and more focused on increasing productivity and reducing training time and costs (Salvenry 2006). Technology, both machine and software, rapidly become an essential tool for all workers. Incentives for businesses to focus on the human side of office technology include the cost of training, manuals and support services in the shift from analog to digital workplaces.

Learnings from these technology waves of human factors and usability research contributed to the development of spatial interfaces, cognitive models, information hierarchies, error prevention and new ways of measuring learning time and productivity.

Web 1.0 and Interactive Customer Experience
The rise of the internet as a mass phenomenon in the 1990s signaled a shift in technology from it primarily being used by workers in offices to also being used by consumers for entertainment, information gathering and leisure activities. And the reverse is also occurring now, where consumer technologies, such as personal digital assistants, Instant Messaging and text messaging, are now being brought into the workplace by consumers and changing the way work is performed. Technology has left the exclusive halls of the trained specialists and entered the realm of the general population, which is comprised of people of all ages, interests and backgrounds. Unlike enterprise machinery and software, web use has been largely voluntary, with no opportunity or expectation for web businesses to proactively train novice users. Many web users learn and experience the technology on their own. 

Lessons from web usability and customer experience include reducing barriers to entry, designing for intuitive and appealing interactions, clear and consistent navigation, ensuring that web commerce is trustworthy, and focusing on metrics such as traffic generation, conversions, and sales (Rosenfeld and Morville 1998, Kuniavsky 2003). Leading companies such as Amazon used qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the shopping experience and constantly iterate, improve, and personalize their services with the objective of improving sales and the bottom line. All these lessons are applicable to the mobile space.

Heuristic Guide for <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Mobile Marketing
The mobile phone is a new and unique medium. In addition to the far smaller screen size and processing power than a personal computer or television, mobile phones occupy a distinctly different place in consumers’ lives. One anthropologist describes the essential features of mobile phones as "personal, portable and everyday" (Ito 2005). Unlike other media or computers, the mobile phone is within reach for a large portion of every day, regardless of time or place.

Given this unique nature, when it comes to consumer experience design for the mobile channel, the following are some customer experience heuristics that apply to mobile marketing and ones that marketers should consider when developing their programs:

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1.       The customer is in control. Since all activity is voluntary, customer’s objectives, goals and emotions must be taken into account from the call to action, to the interaction on the handset and the results of user action. Industry best practice and regulations require mobile marketing to follow strict opt-in policies.

2.       Keep it simple. The interaction must be straight-forward and simple; for instance IDC notes that users only have an 8 to 10 second attention span with some mobile initiatives (IDC 2007). Moreover, a number of opt-in methods have been developed to streamline the interaction with mobile marketing initiatives, including short codes, IVR, QR Codes, the # method, as well as the ** method. A number of these various opt-in methods have been developed as a way to reduce the cognitive burden and ergonomic constraints of the ten key pad. For instance, in Japan, QR codes make mobile content available with a single click of the camera phone. Multiple steps only increase drop-off rates.

3.       Have clear use cases and user flows developed. It is critical to consider all the use cases, i.e. methods how and reasons why people will want to use your service. In addition, you should develop user flows for possible paths people may take while interacting with the service or marketing campaign. For instance, you must consider if the program is premium rate or standard rate (i.e. will the subscriber be charged for participation), which opt-in methods will be supported, is double opt-in required, how help requests and privacy inquires will be handled, in addition to the standard flow of your service, like a poll or vote. In the United States, in order to have your campaign approved by the mobile operators you must submit detailed use cases and user flows along with your commercial services application request. See figure 1 (click HERE) for an example user flow of a basic poll program via text messaging. 

4.       Make it persuasive. Since all activity is voluntary, make sure that the offer contains real value for the customer, whether it is downloading a favorite song, video or game, communicating with close friends or virtual communities, or accessing abundant computing from a mobile handset for local services, navigation or entertainment.

5.       Integrate into the users’ environment. It is not impossible to teach users about new interactions, but it is far easier to leverage existing practices and mental models. Most users will be using services designed by others during most of the day, so stick with conventions and standards when possible. 

6.       Continually iterate the user experience. Use qualitative research and quantitative metrics to constantly improve interactions and results. Web usability claims that small samples of users can identify 80% of usability problems (Nielsen 2000). Traffic, drop-off, and conversion rates can be monitored to see how small changes have large impacts.  Many mobile marketing technologies are well suited to help with meeting this goal, since they can be used to adjust mobile marketing initiative interaction sequences in real-time.

Ubiquitous Computing is on the horizon
It is important that we grasp and learn from today’s mobile marketing, since mobile marketing today is in its infancy and we can establish a solid foundation and best practices. We are not far off from the world being truly mobile in terms of complete mobile ubiquity, with many potential new services and complexities. Ubiquitous computing imagines a world in which computing will be truly mobile, abundant and everywhere, with sensors and displays embedded into everyday environments. Examples include RFID, open IP internet on mobile devices, biometric identification, smart furniture, EZ pass and FeliCa cards, metered parking spaces with sensors. In this new world, the mobile phone is not merely a device for voice and text communication and the mobile web, but also for interacting with increasingly intelligent environments. Early proponents of ubiquitous computing at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center advocated what they termed “calm technology” to integrate augmented reality without creating information overload and constant disruptions (Weiser and Brown 1995).

Text messaging as asynchronic communication, and other mobile marketing models in use today, gives an early indication of communication on the periphery of user attention. However, there is still much to learn. As the mobile phone becomes ever more capable, new modes of alerting, communicating and informing must also be developed and the user experience transformed beyond current input devices, output displays and overall capabilities. Customer experience in mobile environments must be studied and refined to take full advantage of this very powerful medium.

About the authors
Jared Braiterman is a Harvard and Stanford (PhD 1996) design anthropologist who leverages customer insight for product innovation and business strategy. In addition to consulting for start-ups and Fortune 500 companies, Jared also leads a multi-year ethnography called Mobile China focusing on mobile technology and youth trends in the world’s largest “thumb economy.” Learn more about Jared at www.jaredResearch.com.

Michael Becker is the Executive Vice President of Business Development for iLoop Mobile, a leading mobile applications platform provider. Michael is on the North American Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) Board of Directors, Chairs the MMA’s Academic Outreach Committee, and is a doctoral candidate of Business Administration at Golden Gate University. 

To provide feedback on this article contact the authors at [email protected].

References

Ahonen, Tomi, and Alan Moore 2007    
Putting 2.7 Billion in Context: Mobile Phone Users. Electronic document. http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2007/01/putting_27_bill.html.

Braiterman, Jared et al. 2000. Designing with Users in Internet Time. interactions. Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery's Human Computer Interaction society.

Dix, Alan et al. 1998. Human-Computer Interaction. Prentice Hall.

Fogg, BJ. 2002. Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do (Interactive Technologies). Morgan Kaufmann.

Greenfield, Adam. 2006. Everyware: The Dawning of Ubiquitous Computing. New Riders Publishing.

Holtzblatt, Karen and Hugh Beyer. 1998. Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems. Morgan Kauffman.

IDC Says Don't Underestimate Full Potential of Mobile Marketing. Electronic document 2007    
In: Fierce Mobile Content. http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/node/2941.

Ito, Mimi et al. 2005. Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life. MIT Press.

Kuniavsky, Mike. 2003. Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research.  Morgan Kaufmann.

Meister, David. 1999. The History of Human Factors and Ergonomics. Lawrence Erlbaum.

Nielsen, Jakob. 2000. Designing Web Usability. New Riders.

Norman, Donald. 1988. The Psychology of Everyday Things. Basic Books.

Norman, Donald. 1998. The Invisible Computer: Why Good Products Can Fail, the Personal Computer is So Complex, and Information Appliances are the Solution. MIT Press.

Rosenteld, Louis and Peter Morville. 1998. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web. O’Reilly.

Schneiderman, Ben. 1998. Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction. Addison Wesley.

Weiser, Mark and John Seely Brown, 1995. Designing Calm Technology. Xerox PARC December 21, 1995

http://sandbox.xerox.com/hypertext/weiser/calmtech/calmtech.htm

Xerox Palo Alto Research Center website about Ubiquitous Computing

http://sandbox.xerox.com/ubicomp/