During my trip to India last summer, I discovered the pervasiveness of mobile marketing in that part of the world. My aunt’s cell phone was inundated with messages from the major brands to the local vegetable seller down the street who sent messages like “Fresh cauliflower today for 40 rupees per kilogram!”
Barwise & Strong (2002) and Waters (2010) acknowledge that text messaging and mobile marketing are cost-efficient, quick, reliable, enable mass reach, and are more developed in the Asian and European markets.
From a Small Family Business in Asia to a Large Franchise in Europe:
McDonalds (Europe) understands customer needs and has effectively leveraged mobile technologies to create mobile messages and offers to (1) attract customers to try their new M burger and (2) generate buzz and goodwill towards the brand.
(1)Using Mobile Technology to Launch New Product
McDonalds (France) rolled out the M Burger through the innovative use of mobile advertising. The fast food giant ran animated banner ads on the Microsoft advertising mobile media network to emphasize the premium ingredients used in the Burger and create awareness about it especially among 25 to 44 year-old men. The M Burger banners encouraged consumers to click to find out more about the new burger and the McDonalds' closest to them. The mobile advertising campaign delivered 1.3 million impressions and a 4.6 percent click-through rate.
(2)Using Mobile Technology to Create Buzz and Generate Goodwill
McDonalds (Italy) embarked on a text message holiday promotion where consumers could text Santa and receive a gift within seconds in the restaurant. The fast food giant printed unique codes on cups for consumers to send with a text message while in the restaurant. Every code would win for the first time and everyone was a winner. Prizes included personal photos with Santa to free mobile phones. This mass sweepstakes strategy produced a 25% response rate with more than 1.5 million participation in five weeks.
Both the local vegetable seller in India and McDonalds Corp in Europe effectively engaged consumers through text messages that were relevant, timely, succinct and captured their interest. I'd like to hear from you - What types of text messages from companies/marketers have appealed to you or have completely put you off? : )
My favorite shoe store (Inc. 5 in India) always sent a SMS when they had a new collection in store or reminded me of their annual sale. I appreciated their effort since they checked when I visited their store if I would want to continue receiving their messages. They seemed to understand the need to nurture good relations.
ReplyDeleteThe text-messages from Airtel to customers are mostly annoying and unsolicited.
Thanks for sharing Paromita. That's a good example. The key is for organizations to provide an easy text message 'opt-in' and 'opt-out' option and not to unnecessarily bombard customers with messages. : )
ReplyDeleteI really like these examples of mobile marketing, interesting to see how these campaigns are put into practice. Seems like the U.S. just might be really behind the curve!
ReplyDeleteThanks Rachel. And I feel the same. I think the US needs to play the catch up game real soon! There is certainly great potential for mobile marketing in the US market - organizations just need to be more pro-active in employing the text messaging medium to engage customers. : )
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