WHAT IS MOBILE MARKETING?

Mobile Marketing involves communicating with the consumer via cellular (or mobile) device, either to send a simple marketing message, to introduce them to a new audience participationbased campaign or to allow them to visit a mobile website "Mobile Marketing is the use of the mobile medium as a communications and entertainment channel between a brand and an end-user" - Mobile Marketing Association

Mobile advertising, which is an area of mobile commerce, is a form of advertising that targets users of handheld wireless devices such as mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). In Comparison with traditional advertising, the main advantage of mobile advertising is that it can reach the target customers anywhere anytime. In order to promote the selling of products or services, all the activities required to communicate with the customers are transferred through mobile devices. Combining with the customers user profile and context situation, advertising companies can provide the target customers exactly the advertisement information they desire, not just spam them with advertisements they are not interested in. Although there are various definitions for the concept of mobile marketing, no commonly accepted

definition exists. Mobile marketing is broadly defined as the use of the mobile medium as a means of marketing communication or distribution of any kind of promotional or advertising messages to customer through wireless networks. More specific definition is the following: using interactive wireless media to provide customers with time and location sensitive, personalized information that promotes goods, services and ideas, thereby generating value for all stakeholders". In November 2009, the Mobile Marketing Association updated its definition of Mobile Marketing Mobile Marketing is a set of practices that enables

organizations to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network A recent survey showed that the majority of European mobile users (84%) are willing to receive marketing and promotional offers on their handsets, yet the marketing community is failing to capitalize on this due to misperception of consumer views. There is significant opportunity for growth in this sector, however advertising and marketing agencies are failing to promote the value of mobile marketing to clients as they wrongly believe consumers will reject this tool. In fact more than half of mobile subscribers are willing to embrace mobile promotions, when carefully targeted and for appropriate services.

When asked what type of services they would like to receive via SMS, over half of those surveyed (53%) said they would welcome text messages alerting them to special offers, e.g. from local bars and restaurants, a further 19% would like to hear about product or service promotions; 23% would like to be kept up to date with loyalty programs via text. While Coca-cola currently spends no more than 3% of its advertising budget on mobile marketing, it is expecting to spend up to 50% in 10 years time Marketing Week 08.12.05

mobile advertising will eventually grab 25% to 30% of the approximately $100 billion spent on branding in the U.S. each year - John Stratton, Chief Marketing Officer, Verizon Wireless

A BRIEF HISTORY OF MOBILE MARKETING:Marketing to mobile devices is widely believed to have started in the year 2000 with text message/SMS news services that were free but sponsored by advertising. This evolved into mass promotion of events and alerts with even recent claims of more than 100% response rate by Marc Hyatt of Txtlocal, thanks to the viral effects of users forwarding messages to others. SMS advertising, like forms of email marketing, can often be obtrusive and annoying, with the added inconvenience of costing users money based on their mobile services inbound SMS rates. As such, it remains more effective as a pull medium rather than a push one, such as a means for polling or voting for programs like American Idol or Dancing with the Stars. Mobile applications also began appearing in 2000 from Handmark. But apps didnt really become mainstream for inapplication advertising until Apples App Store for the iPhone arrived in 2008. Android, Blackberry, Symbian, along with the iPhone and iPad have advanced mobile web browsing to near mainstream use as the February Nielsen Mobile Report affirmed there are now over 72 million mobile web users in the United States.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY The primary objective of this research study is to gain an insight into the perception of mobile users, towards mobile advertising and their utility value in terms of impact on the purchase decision. Over the past few years, mobile marketing has generated an increasing interest among

academics and practitioners. While numerous studies have provided important insights into the mobile marketing, our understanding of this topic of growing interest and importance remains deficient. Therefore, the objective of this article is to provide a comprehensive framework intended to guide research efforts focusing on mobile media.

LITERATURE REVIEW:-

Through a literature review the following ten sources describing design aspects of Mobile Marketing have been gathered: Enpocket Insight's report Consumer preferences for SMS marketing in the UK [Enpocket, 2002], Permission-based Mobile Advertising [Barwise and Strong, 2002], M-Commerce at Helsana Insurance: Mobile Premium Calculator [Reichold et al., 2003], An Investigation and Conceptual Model of SMS Marketing [Dickinger et al., 2004], The Future of Wireless Advertising [Carat Interactive, 2002], The Transition from E- to M-Business Chances Enterprises 2004], and Challenges for

[Stanoevska-Slabeva, Mobile Permission

Marketing: Framing the Market Inquiry [Kavassalis et al., 2003], Mobile Direkt Marketing - Hype oder Hoffnung [Schehrer, 2003], Beitrag von Mobile Marketing zur Etablierung einer professionellen

Kundenbeziehung [Hafner, 2004], Wie kann man mit Mobile

Marketing Geld verdienen? [Andrist, 2003]. By analyzing the diverse arguments, the authors have decided to distinguish four categories of recommendations: strategy, technical, content and personal aspects. In the following section each of them will be explained in detail. Strategy aspects Make or buy? :- Maybe the first question every company considering the use of Mobile Marketing should answer is: Do we have the skills needed to introduce Mobile Marketing?

 Integration into the Marketing Mix:-The integration of Mobile Marketing into the overall marketing strategy is a crucial point which has to be considered from the very beginning. It can be an additional channel meant to extend the presence of a corporation. New skills for marketing teams :-Several authors point out that marketing teams have to acquire new skills. Kavassalis et al. implies that the special characteristics of Mobile Marketing require a complex management marketing strategy and that the competences for continuously acquiring broader permission are not trivial. Barwise and Strong believe that mobile is a very different medium for marketing people used to working with mass media, where providing repeated opportunities to see each advert is central to campaign planning. On the contrary in the case of Mobile Marketing content should not be repeated, as we will see later on. Technical aspects:- As the global strategy is in place, it is time to discuss the technical aspects of Mobile Marketing. Trusted source like operators;- Enpocket claims that SMS advertising is considered as acceptable when delivered by a trusted source. Consumers have the strongest relationship via their mobile phone with their carrier/operator. They trust the latter most strongly to control and deliver SMS marketing. Following this idea, one could argue that the mobile operators have a high potential of succeeding with their own campaigns. They also have a chance to make themselves useful when the customer really needs high quality services. For example: when a person wins a prize, he/she is happy that the messages got through without delays. Quality / Volume / Frequency:- According to Enpocket, the desired frequency of messaging is about 2-3 per week. However, users are happy to receive marketing messages at a higher frequency as long as the relevance to them is maintained. There is still a general fear that SMS marketing becomes comparable to e-mail marketing with high levels of unsolicited messaging at frequencies that irritate consumers.

Barwise and Strong also state that when the messages arrive too frequently, they might become irritant and trigger a "delete on receipt" reaction. One should also consider that

the device itself has a limit: the message memory. Another drawback of an increasing volume of messages is that fewer are read thoroughly, which might worsen the campaign results (even when a company did everything right). Employing a pull strategy (only requested messages) might be a hint if the company does not want the customer to feel irritated by huge amounts of SMS. However, a firm can not stop other organizations from sending messages to the customers, so this tactic solves the problem only partially. In brief a general recommendation for the companies willing to use Mobile Messaging Marketing is to send fewer but more relevant messages. Time transmission:- Another important aspect is the messages' time of transmission. The general framework given by Dickinger et al. is 9.00 to 19.30, for students not before noon. Time is also important with LBS and different quizzes, competitions or

couponing: clients should receive the message when in front of the shop and not half an hour later. No duplication:- Two authors highlight that a company should avoid sending a similar message twice to the same customer. Indeed as Barwise and Strong bring up, it is comparable to telling someone the same joke twice; a company attempts to build a personal relationship with the customer, therefore the conversation needs to be managed. This includes having enough creativity to bring new ideas at any time and an excellent database management to know which SMS has been sent when and to whom. The customer will, on the contrary; feel irritated if he does not have the sensation this relationship is unique. Technical limits:- Companies when launching this type of strategies should not forget to consider the practical limitations of SMS such as content restrictions (160 characters), small screens and low resolutions. Even though MMS technologies are likely to overcome this problem, this is important to mention once again that consumer penetration is still fairly low at the moment.

Other drawbacks of mobile technology are the limited memory capacity, as well as the periods when the device is turned off. These might cause that message arrives too late. At last batteries have a limited duration, which could also be a hindrance.

 Privacy aspects:- The central feature of this part is permission-based marketing. This means that companies have to ask for customers' permission mainly when considering push campaigns, where the initial message is sent through the mobile phone by the company to the user. This means having opt-in procedures instead of opt-out systems; this could for example be in the form of a simple registration process. Moreover this helps to demonstrate the seriousness of the company while making sure of avoiding the negative results of customers' fear of spam. Another element that should not be forgotten is the presence of clear opt-out procedures at any time; this means guiding the customer to show him how to use this procedure. Privacy concerns are a very important element that no company should put aside; indeed customers are afraid that as the email spam phenomenon, Mobile Marketing will be synonymous with mobile spam. Therefore in order to build brand loyalty and brand positive awareness, it is extremely valuable to take this issue into account. Mobile marketing as a discipline is still young. Mobile marketing is becoming a hot topic in the marketing community. 1. 33% of companies have a mobile marketing strategy.

2. 62% of marketers plan to have a mobile marketing strategy within the next 12 months.

3. 82% of companies plan to increase mobile marketing investment over the next 12 months.

A study done by Heinonen & Strandvik (2003) showed that mobile channels are perceived to be more personal than traditional and e mail channels. This creates high expectations for the relevance of marketing communication messages. A consumer expects messages to be personal and of high interest and this makes the disappointment greater when they get undesired messages. Mobile advertising may even step over the line of discretion and invade consumers privacy because of the personal nature of the mobile device. Li et al (2002) discusses how negative reactions like irritation arise through intrusion advertising. The channel influences consumer responsiveness to marketing communication by being perceived as either disturbing or acceptable (Abernethy 1991). If the consumer considers marketing communication via a channel as disturbing it may negatively affect the attention to and perception of the message. In contrast, the channel may also enhance the acceptance of the marketing communication if it is perceived as appropriate for the specific marketing communication. Also, some consumers may perceive the channels as neutral, i.e. it is neither disturbing nor accepted. Despite substantial marketing potential, research on mobile advertising and particularly through its most successful application, short message service (SMS) is still embryonic. In a comprehensive survey concerning consumers experiences of direct marketing channels in Finland it was found that consumers perceived direct marketing channels differently compared to each other. (Finnish Direct Marketing Association, 2002) The experiences of mail order, Internet and email experiences were more positive compared to other direct market channels such as telemarketing and door-to-door sales. 80 % of the respondents had positive experiences of mail order, 77% had positive experiences of Internet and email as marketing channels and the corresponding number for SMS and WAP was 65%. For telemarketing and door-to-door sales the number of positive consumers was down to 30% and 25% respectively. Concerning satisfaction with information received, there seemed to be differences between the channels. The study also indicated that consumers have considerable less experience of SMS messages compared to mail order, Internet and email.

The most influential model for comparing media is probably the ARF (Advertising Research Foundation) model first published in 1961 (Harvey 1997). This model was created as a response to the need in the advertising industry to compare different advertising media (Harvey 1997). The model contains six stages or hierarchical levels of advertising effects. The original model contained the following levels; vehicle distribution, vehicle exposure, advertising exposure, advertising perception, advertising communication and sales. The first two levels indicate measures of potential spread of the media among consumers and have been the most used factors in the marketing communication industry. Advertising exposure refers to the number of consumers exposed not to the media as such but to the particular commercial or ad. The fourth level, advertising perception is the first level to include a consumer reaction, i.e. the number of consumers noticing the advertising. The next level, advertising communication, could measure how many consumers in fact receive something of the content besides only noticing the communication. These two levels have been the least studied and understood in the advertising industry, which has focused on the two first levels and the last, sales that are easier to measure. As the model is considered to be a hierarchical model there is something of a black box in the knowledge of consumer response, which is one of the objectives of the current study. The direct marketer may record a pull or response rate in sales of, for example, 2 % compared to response rate of 8 % in another marketing campaign but have no information about the reason for the difference. The problem is accentuated on one hand when new media have evolved and on the other hand when customer relationships have come into focus instead of only campaign sales. Harvey (1997) argues that the advertising communication level needs more attention. In this model responsiveness would relate to the levels advertising perception and advertising communication, which have been the least studied aspects. In a new edition of the model the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) included new digital media and created eight hierarchical levels of media performance; vehicle distribution, vehicle exposure, advertising exposure, advertising attentiveness, advertising communication, advertising persuasion, advertising response and sales response (Informed 2001). The three first are essentially retained from the original model as well as the last level. In this model our responsiveness framework links to advertising attentiveness, communication and persuasion. According to the descriptions of the new model (Informed 2001) advertising attentiveness is considered to be a measure of the degree to which those exposed to the advertising are focused on it. Advertising communication refers to information retained by the consumer

after exposure to the message. Advertising persuasion measures shift in attitudes and/or intentions produced by the communication and advertising response is other consumer response than purchasing. This would for example, include click-through, lead generation, mail response and coupon redemption. Our responsiveness conceptualization closely relates to the attentiveness level but carries over to the communication and persuasion levels in the sense that we assume that they are closely related. As a consequence the study attempts to examine the relationship between marketing/ advertising efforts (through mobiles) and the consumers responsiveness in terms of impact on their purchase decisions. New media in the digital economy have created potentially powerful tools for direct and interactive marketing. Traditional marketing communication strategies have been based on the interruption logic (Godin 1999) where the consumer is forced to momentarily pay attention. Permission marketing was introduced as a new managerial approach in marketing communication. It has been argued that firms benefit from getting consumers permission to be contacted (Marinova, Murphy and Massey 2002). Permission from the consumer would resolve the difficulties to get access to the consumer. Permission is, however, not necessarily a guarantee that the consumer pays attention; it is only a door opener and gives an indication of the consumers potential interest areas.

We believe that by using the information retrieval and filtering capabilities of mobile agents and location information about the user, there exists a good opportunity for value-added services to be provided to the end-users. This also brings about a new way for cellular phone service providers to achieve competitive advantage by competing not only on the basis of price and packaging, but also on the basis of the set of value-added services that they provide to their clients. In order to overcome the input/output limitations brought about by mobile devices, the system should be free of users intervention. To that end, we propose to use mobile agents for provisioning context-aware advertisements to mobile users. Schilit and Theimer first introduced the concept of context-awareness in the project Active Map in which they took advantage of the location concept to define the context as people, object, and the changes that occur to them. Dey and Abowd stated that a system is context-aware if it uses context to provide relevant information and/or services to the user, where relevancy depends on users task. Krishnamurthy (2001) also proposes a conceptual framework for managing online advertising using the permission marketing approach. Permission marketing requires the

consumer to participate in the programme by giving the permission and the information for continuing the relationship. The interest in this participation arises from the balance of benefits (message relevance and monetary benefits) and costs (personal information, message processing costs, privacy costs) for consumers. One of the main challenges and opportunities for mobile advertising companies is to understand and respect the personal nature of the usage of mobile phones (Barwise & Strong 2002; Heinonen & Strandvik 2003; Barnes & Scornavacca 2004; Jelassi & Enders 2004). The key is to use interactive wireless media to provide customers with time- and locationsensitive, personalized information that promotes goods, services and ideas, thereby generating value for all stakeholders (Dickinger et al. 2004). The mobile advertising relevance can be influenced by the contextualization (Kenny and Marshall, 2000; Yuan & Tsao 2003) of advertising messages. Barwise & Strong (2002) take up the flexibility, and time-based nature but also the fact that the small screens restrict the length of the message. Barnes (2002) stresses the interactive nature of mobile advertising and the ability to use contextual information to target the messages to individual receivers, in other words to personalize the message. Location-aware advertising messages are creating five to ten times higher click-through rates compared to traditional internet advertising messages (Ververidis & Polyzos 2002).

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:Research Priorities In order to thoroughly study a topic, like mobile marketing, its important to define research boundaries, to establish a focus for everyone to work off of. Having a well defined list of research priorities will help with this. For instance, since 2000 the Marketing Science Institute has published research priorities based on Member Company input every two years to help focus research into marketing in general. MSIs 2006-2008 priorities are encapsulated by the theme The Connected Consumer. This is an appropriate theme for marketing in general, and quite applicable for guiding research into mobile marketing. For the practice of mobile marketing there are many detailed topics to consider. The following list of research themes and their subtopics seem to be the key areas of mobile marketing concern to marketers and practitioners alike, having been culled from articles, call-for-papers from the International Journal of Mobile Marketing and International Journal of Electronic Business and related sources:

1. Consumer Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Mobile Marketing a. How is mobile effecting consumer interaction? b. The role of incentives in consumer acceptance of mobile advertising. c. Customer profiling, personalization and targeting in mobile marketing. d. Mobile customer relationship management. 2. Legal, Privacy and Regulatory Issues, and Best Practices Guidelines a. Who owns the mobile customer relationship? b. CANSPAM and future regulations: Enabling or disabling? c. Opt-in or be left out: The minefield of permission-based mobile marketing. d. Issues surrounding privacy management within a mobile context. e. Analysis of future trends and impact of global, environmental, cultural, and political activities on mobile marketing. 3. Mobile Use and Context Across Different Mediums. a. Effectiveness of mobile marketing across various traditional media channels: Interactivity of mobileenhanced traditional media and pure mobile programs (Marriott 2006). b. Applications of multimedia within mobile marketing initiatives. c. mCommerce as it pertains to the marketing mix. d. Mobile marketing in the agency: Where does it fit in offline or digital departments? e. Use of the mobile channel for philanthropy and politics. The above set of themes and research topics can certainly be refined, but overall they paint a very good picture of the areas of mobile marketing that need further investigation.

Research Design:The research design chosen for the study is descriptive design. Researcher knows what they are going to advertise among people and what is there target population? From various records related to mobile users which are made available by the telecom companies regarding age, sex, place, income class, uses etc. The main issues that are to be considered before a company thinks of mobile marketing includes the following information:QUESTIONS What is the objective of the campaign? EXAMPLES Increase awareness? Call-to-action? Brand building? Set out beforehand your objective for the campaign. It will have a bearing on how it is designed and also giving you something on which to measure its success. Youth? Seniors? Businesses? People respond differently to what they see and read. Their prejudices and tastes will affect they way in which they respond to your communication.

Who is your target audience?

What is the strategy of the campaign? What is the duration of the campaign?

What type of message do you want use in the campaign?

Push? Pull? Dialogue? The strategic choices will affect the media choices as well as message choices. Pull and dialoguebased strategies will typically require more effort. One-shot action? Series of actions? The duration of the campaign will have an effect on the way it is designed. The traffic / customer response will slow down without frequent advertising actions. SMS? MMS? WAP push? JAVA document? Mobile Internet Ad? The type of message that you will use will affect the way in which they are designed. For instance, SMS message contains maximum 160 characters whereas MMS message 100 KB of audio, video images or rich text.

RELATED RESEARCH:(Following research is conduct for Investigating the Impact of Mobile Marketing in the Current Indian Scenario and Proposing CUSTOMERIZATION as a Solution by Dr. Shalini Nath Tripathi & Er. Monika Mittal)

The research design chosen for the study is conclusive (cross sectional descriptive design). A survey instrument was developed based on previous studies done on consumer perceptions of mobile advertising. Quota sampling (multi stage) has been employed with the questionnaires being sent to approximately 1000 respondents. However 660 questionnaires were found complete in all respects. The response rate was 66%. An attempt has been made to keep the sample fairly representative across the demographic variables by constructing quotas according to these factors e.g. age, gender, occupation, and level and purpose of mobile usage. Almost 54% of the respondents belonged to the age group of 20 to 30 years and approximately 30% of the respondents belonged to the age group of more than 30 years. 30% of the respondents were students, 27% were in service, 14% were housewives and 29% were in business. 59.7% were males and 40.3% were females. Almost 85% of the respondents rated their usage of mobile in the range of medium to high. 75% of the respondents used their mobiles primarily for personal communication. The area of our sampling is the city of Lucknow (mobile density in Lucknow is at par with the major cities in India). The time frame of the study was June 2007 to October 2007. Primary- stage sampling units were the mobile

users, while the secondary stage sampling units were markets, shopping malls, institutions and localities of Lucknow. In order to make the sample representative, sampling was performed in various market places, shopping malls, office complexes and some residential localities considering the desired quotas. A group of respondents were also chosen from

Lucknow Telephone Directory using systematic sampling scheme. The study used a likert scale of 1-5 to elicit response of mobile users. The statistical techniques used to analyze the data are factor analysis, discriminant analysis, perception maps and non-parametric two-independent samples test. Findings for the research:-

INFERENCES:Mobile is a compelling communication platform for marketers. However, marketers do face a lot of challenges. Now lets discuss a few advantages & disadvantages of mobile marketing: Advantages:

Communication is possible anytime, anywhere & is immediate Campaigns can be targeted towards highly specific target audience Campaigns are typically cost effective As the nature of this media is interactive and instant, there exists the potential for viral marketing. Consumer response is higher in mobiles, as compared to other media such as television and radio ads. The ability to targeting a broader and more relevant audience ROI can be easily quantified; usually delivering a high ROI with low marketing costs Mobile campaigns are mostly permission based

Disadvantages:

Easy accessibility from anywhere in the country can generate a lot of unwanted sales calls and messages Privacy has been an issue with mobile phones. Marketers should be aware of the privacy concerns that consumers have and must provide clear instructions to mobile subscribers for opting out of any communications. Navigation remains one of the biggest issues in mobile phones, not many phones have a large display, mouse or a QWERTY keypad. This makes it difficult for mobile users to navigate the mobile web. Standardization poses a problem to mobile marketers, as every phone model has a different sized screen, different operating systems and browsers. Marketers should optimize their ad creatives & webpages, so that they are compatible across a broad range of mobile phones.

Web Marketing and Mobile Marketing have a lot of similarities, but they also have a few differences. Some of these major differences between the web & mobile marketing are mentioned below: Web Marketing Mobile Marketing

1. Messages may not be delivered all the time 1. Messages can be sent and received instantly 2. This platform has fixed and portable multimedia capabilities 3. Marketers advertize in abundance 2. This platform always employs portable multimedia capabilities 3. Relatively novel and unexplored

4. Good for building relationships with huge 4. This form of marketing is good for building groups and individuals relationships with individuals 5. Payment systems are not standard 5. This has a built in payment system

7 Reasons to Use Mobile Marketing in Your Business 1. Large Mobile Ad Networks Acquired:- Late last year, Google acquired AdMob, one of the largest mobile advertising networks. While Apple responded a couple months later by acquiring Quattro Wireless. 2. Google Motto Mobile First:- Google CEO and Chairman of the Board Eric Schmidt recently heralded the mobile first in everything as the new rule at Google. 3. Click To Call:- Google Recently Re-Ignited their Click to Call Program for Google Advertisers, allowing advertisers to activate phone numbers in their ads on iPhones and mobile devices will full internet browsers. 4. Adoption Rate of Ever More Capable Smartphones:A recent report from the folks at Nielsen show the growth in adoption of smartphone devices. It is also worth noting, with each new Palm, Blackberry, Droid, or other smarphone released, their capabilities and power are growing significantly.

5. Expanding Buyer Activity by Device Owners:It would be nice to know if smartphone users are actually demonstrating buying behavior and to what degree, right? Good news, a report by eMarketer shows how Smartphone users are demonstrating buying activity, very insightful dont you think,?

6. Users Willingness to Spend by Device:- The same post by eMarketer shows buying behavior by device type. Imagine how targeting to the right device type(s) could positively impact your marketing efforts. 7. Adoption of Mobile Check-in Services:- Mobile services like Gowalla and Foursquare are quickly growing in popularity. In fact over a 10 day period Foursquare added 100K users. When Mobile check-in services mature and provide a way to serve ads, small businesses (and their marketing consultants) will be in a position to utilize them to drive more interest to local businesses.

FUTURE IMPLICATIONS & Market Oppurtunities:-

The Indian Cellular Market is entering a boom period after years of quasi-stagnation. Gartner estimates that by 2005, cellular subscribers in the country will number 30.9 million, up form 6.4 million at the end of March 2002. By then, India will be the fastest growing cellular market in Asia Pacific (in 2000, it was the Philippines and China) with 36 percent growth over the previous year. Mobile operators will provide an estimated 45 per cent of additional telephone connections during the year. Cellular susbcribers are expected to grow 80 per cent by the end of financial year 2003 to touch 1.15 crore, up from 64 lakh subscribers in fiscal 2002, according to an ICRA report on telecom industry. This would mean that cellular telephones would account for 20.5 per cent of the total telephone connections in India compared to 14.4 per cent last year. However, the cellular density would still remain a low 1.1 per cent comapred to the fixed teledensity of 4.3 per cent. However, the report points out that, growth in cellular telephony could vastly exceed these projections, if the system of calling party pays is implemented. Just for the record, new cellular connections comprised 34 per cent of all telephone connections last fiscal and 22 per cent during fiscal 2001.

Doing some more crystal ball gazing, the ICRA report points out that the cellular subscriber figure is expected to touch three crore by 2005. At the same time, the fixed line network is expected to expand to about six crore by 2005 from 3.84 crore lines by 2002.Revenue growth, however, will lag the growth in susbcriptions. Such is the massive demand for SMS globally that the GSM Association's, a wireless and cellphone organization envious forecast of 10 Billion messages a month by end 2000 was achieved during September - three months earlier than predicted. The Association has now revised its year-end forecast for December to 15 Billion messages per month. According to the GSM Association, text messages sent across the world hit a staggering 50 billion in Q1 this year. This represents an impressive rise. During the same period in 1999 there were only 3 billion text messages sent, Q1 2000 saw around 10 billion, and now there's five times that figure being sent across more than 500 million global GSM users. In India also, Mumbaites are also sending more than 28 Lakh SMS messages per day. SMS reached its peak on New Year's day (2000) when cell phone users were flooded with New Year greetings. The AirTel network in New Delhi handles around 6 Lakh SMS messages on an average. Just before the arrival of the New Year, the network handled more than 74,000 calls between 11 p.m. (31 Dec 2000) and 1 a.m. (1 Jan 2001). Essar Cellphone claims that it handled more than 9 Lakh SMS messages on that day. In Mumbai on New years day over 15 Lakh SMS Messages were sent between 10pm and 3am. On Valentines day 9 Lakh messages were sent. Over weekends, BPL and Orange witness traffic to the extent of eight Lakh messages daily, with the number peaking in the evening. Of an average traffics of 60 Lakh cellular calls a day, SMS accounts for 5 Lakh messages a day. 60,000 messages flow down the AirTel channel and another 65,000 gets processed through Spice Telecom. In short, it is rush hour for SMS traffic in Karnataka. In Manipal, SMS is believed to be doing roaring business as some 80 per cent of cellular users in the town are students. When AirTel launched SMS in April 2000, the initial average response was around 18,000 messages. Similarly, when Spice Telecom had carried out a study two months ago it was found that 37,000 SMS messages were received per day. The big jump has happened over the last couple of months. And emoticons - those symbols denoting emotions - have helped.

BPL Mobile which conducted a consumer research survey across its Kerala circle, found that 75 per cent of its total subscriber base used SMS as a frequent mode of communication. It was found that 35 per cent of the users were youngsters, and that 50 per cent of them used the facility for romance. BPL Mobile today clocks 7 lakh messages a day across all its circles. Shopping is moving to the mobile world, giving everybody with a mobile phone access to a realtime shopping experience, regardless of his or her location. But there's much more to mobile e-commerce than just on-line shopping. It presents a new way to compare deals; pick-up impulse purchases and reaches the consumer wherever they are making their buying decision, be that, in the local high street, on the bus, at a friend's home with a catalogue in hand. For operators and mobile portals advancing the boundaries of mobile internet services the search is on to create innovative new sources of revenue. Mobile Marketing and Advertising is the way to invest money today, and is projected as the optimum source of high growth revenue combined with high appeal to users. The current competitive business environment has lead to a growing demand for mobility, and for 24/7 access to information and services. Organizations which capitalize on this demand will be leaders in the Internet market of the future. IndusMobile is proven wireless solutions for business can gain your organization that competitive advantage.

1. THE MOBILE SITE WILL BECOME THE NEW WEBSITE:- Gartner predicts that in three years, more people will access the internet through their mobile phones than through their PCs. More than 50% of consumers are unlikely to return to your site if they have a poor mobile experience, and 40% would go to a competitors site instead. Most retailers are going to be better off focusing on a mobile website first instead of a Smartphone application. A mobile website is well-suited for mobile shopping, is typically less expensive to develop, and can reach more end users with one site than multiple applications. Gartner estimates that over 85% of handsets shipped globally in 2011 will include a mobile browser. With mobile web traffic having grown 500% in the last two years, having a mobile site is now a necessity.

2. SHOPPERS WILL INCREASINGLY FAVOUR TECHNOLOGY OVER HUMAN INTERACTION:- As mobile internet speeds catch up to consumer demand, it will be faster to scan a barcode or check a mobile website for product information than it will be to ask a shop owner . Beyond actually purchasing goods through mobile, studies show

that the most popular in-store mobile activities include competitive price shopping, checking inventory, shopping list/basket management, and getting directions to local retailers.

3. MOBILE COMMERCE WILL COME OF AGE:-Consumers are spending more than 5 hours a week on the mobile web and companies like Amazon and eBay are generating over $US 1billion in sales through its mobile channel. Reaching customers through traditional channels only is becoming increasingly difficult. Launching a mobile website offers a much higher return on investment than opening a new bricks-and-mortar store with overheads, staff costs and inventory. 4. MOBILE COUPONS TO BECOME MORE RELEVANT:-A quarter of shoppers believe that receiving specials and promotions such as coupons would be an important use for their mobile phone when shopping. The future of mobile marketing is all about one-toone communication and as retailers embrace this more personalised approach, mobile coupons will be viewed less as advertising material and more as a value add to their shopping experience. 5. SMS WILL GO BEYOND MARKETING:- The use of SMS as a mobile marketing tactic will proliferate further into customer service and customer lifecycle management as well. This is already evident with companies and organisations using SMS to remind customers in advance of appointments and banks advising customers when they reach their overdraft limits. 2ergos clients have also used text messaging to gather instant feedback through SMS surveys, as well as offering self-help menu trees that direct users to the information they need through a few simple SMS Q&As. SMS is often seen as being much less intrusive and more convenient than a phone call. 6. RETAILERS TO CAPITALISE ON MOBILE AT EVERY STAGE OF THE CUSTOMER LIFECYCLE:- Mobile can be strategically used to acquire new customers, service existing customers, drive repeat business and strengthen customer loyalty. Of course, retail marketers should not think of mobile marketing in a silo. It should be integrated with existing marketing strategies and campaigns.

7. SMARTPHONE APPS WILL ENABLE ENHANCED LOCATION AWARENESS:- By the end of 2011, over 75% of devices shipped in mature markets will include a GPS, and others will use Wi-Fi and cell ID systems to identify location.4 The widespread use of these location-aware handsets will enable retailers to reap the benefits of tracking and targeting customers based on their locations. More retailers will turn to platform-specific Smartphone apps to deliver enhanced experiences and push marketing communications such as coupons and offers that are based on the customers current location and personal preferences. 8. QR CODES TO MAKE OFFLINE MARKETING MOBILE:- Expect QR (Quick Response) Codes to play a big role in the future of retail, due to the inherent ability to serve up rich content to people on the go. The QR Code is a two-dimensional barcode (readable by QR scanners, mobile phones with cameras and Smartphones) connecting the physical world with digital content. The code can be encoded with a mobile URL, text or any other data or action. QR Codes will increasingly be placed in traditional print advertising, billboards, paper cups, T-shirts, receipts, signs, etc. With the snap of their camera-equipped phone, consumers will connect from an offline medium to a mobile or digital medium such as a mobile site, image or video clip. They can also be encoded to send a coupon or an SMS to your phone. 9. SMALL RETAILERS WILL BE ABLE TO DO MOBILE:- Cost-effective software as a service mobile marketing tools are coming to market and will bring mobile within reach for the small retailer. Features and programs such as location recognition services, m-commerce and SMS-based couponing will allow small retailers to compete head-tohead with their larger competitors for consumers loyalty and wallet. 10. MOST EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGNS WILL BE MULTI-CHANNEL:- The word is getting out that multi-channel shoppers tend to purchase more. Retailers must engage consumers with consistent, rich experiences across all channels to maintain and grow revenue. For marketers to most effectively discover the key insights into customer behavior they will need to take into account various elements including web and mobile analytics, customer relationship management, social networks tracking, and e-commerce platforms.

References:-

1. Investigating the Impact of Mobile Marketing in the Current Indian Scenario and Proposing CUSTOMERIZATION as a Solution. 2. http://www.indusmobile.com/marketopportunity.htm 3. http://searchengineland.com/how-to-get-started-with-mobile-marketing-41032 4. Google search engine for various other seacrhes.