By 2015, companies will generate 50% of Web sales via their social presence and mobile applications.

Gartner latest predictions include a projection for a large increase in sales via mobile and social networks.

www.gartner.com

Market Implications:

• E-commerce providers of all types are offering mobile e-commerce capabilities, such as SMS for couponing, improvements for mobile browser usage of their sites and mobile shopping applications. These vendors will vie for organizations’ mobile initiatives, and their success will be driven by how well they help mobile customers make purchases easily, and by tapping into their social network connections.

• Enterprises will be challenged with determining customer expectations for mobile and social capabilities. The organization will need to enable a useful customer experience that keeps the customer from “unfriending” the organization socially, “opting out” of SMS offers or deleting its mobile application.

Related Research:

• “User Survey Analysis: Evolution of Consumer Internet Preferences”

• “User Survey Analysis: Social Media Adoption Trends”

Q1. What would current on-line retailers need to do to keep up with this trend?

Q2. Why would consumers have a retailer or business as a social network 'friend'?

They Know Where You Are and What You Like

Mobile phones and other mobile devices have the ability to determine the geographical position of the device at any time. As well, this position can be sent to somebody else via the internet. If this 'somebody' else is an advertiser or marketer then interesting opportunities for marketing arise.

Smartphones could soon reveal a person's every move

February 21, 2011

The Age - Julian Lee

"The ability to combine a person's location at any given time with which websites or mobile applications they have visited on their smartphone's browser is opening a new world of possibilities for marketers. Within the next year, half the mobile phones in use will be smartphones such as Apple's iPhone or Samsung's Galaxy, embedded with technology that can pinpoint your position to within a metre."

The director of mobile advertising at Google, Michael Slinger, says: ''Location will be one of the cornerstones of mobile advertising. Merging local businesses with mobile [advertising] is very, very important for us.''

Q1. What are the privacy issues?

Q2. What value is geo-positioning to the consumer?

Q3. Describe one way a business could use geo-positioning for marketing.

The Future - According to Gartner

Gartner (www.gartner.com) is a global consulting and research organisation focussing on information technology and management. Periodically they publish a paper on what they analyse as major trends that will impact business. Here are some of their predictions:

Gartner Top End User Predictions for 2010: Coping with the New Balance of Power.

A. Internet marketing will be regulated by 2015, controlling more than $250 billion in Internet marketing spending worldwide.
Market Implications:

The potential backlash from consumers on Internet marketing cannot be underestimated. Eventually marketers WILL abuse the Internet channel and annoy customers enough to generate an outcry strong enough to push legislation regulating Internet marketing activity. Consequences will include:

• That companies focusing primarily on the Internet for marketing purposes could find themselves unable to market effectively to customers, putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage.
• Vendors that focus solely or predominately on producing Internet marketing could find themselves faced with a declining market, as companies shift marketing funds to other channels to compensate

B. By 2014, more than three billion of the world’s adult population will be able to transact electronically via mobile and Internet technology.

Market Implications:

Two trends are merging that will drastically alter the future of the world’s trading economy:

• The rapid rise of mobile and Internet technology adoption in emerging economies.
• Advances in mobile payment, commerce and banking.

Together they will open the way for a significant portion of the world’s adult population to transact electronically. For many of these newly enfranchised consumers from emerging economies, the ability to use short message service (SMS), e-mail or payment accounts will constitute their first and only access to the estimated $1 trillion global economy.

For global firms such as Coca Cola and Carrefour, it will provide electronic reach and the ability to transact with a significant majority of adults on the planet. For entities such as eBay, TaoBao or Craigslist, it will open a huge opportunity for consumer-to-consumer transactions.

For mobile operators, Internet companies and financial institutions, it will open vast new markets for the provision of transactional and funds transfer capabilities

C. By 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide.

According to Gartner estimates:

• The total number of PCs in use will reach 1.62 billion units in 2012, all of which are capable of Internet access, even if some are not connected.
• By 2012, the combined installed base of smartphones and browser-equipped enhanced phones will exceed 1.69 billion units. From 2012 onwards, this combined installed base will be greater than the installed base for PCs.

Nevertheless, most users in 2012 will use a PC as their primary Web access device and their phone as a secondary access device. However, as use of smartphones spreads globally, they will overtake the PC as the most common primary device for Web access sometime in 2015.

This shift means that many websites will need to be reformatted or rebuilt. Mobile device users

typically make many fewer “clicks” on a website than PC users, and websites not optimized for smaller screen formats will risk reduced customer interaction and fewer transactions.

• This market barrier will be of particularly concern to:
• Organizations in geographies where the PC is not as prevalent.
• Organizations with consumer-facing websites.
• Informational portals used by educational institutions and the government sector
• Online retailers, banks and financial service providers will be the most exposed to this risk

Q1. How can internet marketing be regulated?

Q2. Will the ability to transact electronically favour small businesses or large multi-nationals?

Q3. What are some of the problems in using mobile phones for on-line transaction?

Mobile Marketing

Marketing reach and targeting are being augmented by mobile marketing. Mobile marketing is connecting with consumers via mobile media. The technology allows reaching specified consumers via SMS, smartphones and bluetooth.

Q1. What is the potential for marketing using mobile technology?

Q2. How effective do you think it could be?

Q3. What limitations or drawbacks can you identify?

Techtarget has a dedicated web site:

searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com

A definition provided is:

- What is mobile marketing?

Mobile marketing is promotional activity designed for delivery to cell phones, smart phones and other handheld devices, usually as a component of a multi-channel campaign.

Some mobile marketing is similar to advertising delivered over other electronic channels such as text, graphic and voice messages. SMS messaging is currently the most common delivery channel for mobile marketing. Search engine marketing is the second-most common channel, followed by display-based campaigns.

The expanding capabilities of mobile devices also enable new types of interactive marketing. New mobile marketing channels include:

• location-based service (LBS), which involves detecting the area the user is connecting from (geolocation) and sending marketing messages for businesses in that area.
• augmented reality mobile campaigns, which overlay the user's phone display with location-specific information about businesses and products.
• 2D barcodes, which are barcodes that scan vertically as well as horizontally to include much more information. A mobile user can scan barcodes in the environment to access associated information.
• GPS messaging, which involves location-specific messages that the user picks up when he comes into range.

The Kelsey Group, a marketing research company, predicted that the mobile advertising industry would grow from to $3.1 billion in 2013, up from $160 million in 2008. The firm also predicts that mobile search marketing will account for 73% of mobile marketing by 2013, up from 24% in 2008, and that SMS-based campaigns would shrink to 9%, down from 63% in 2008. Display-based campaigns are expected to stay relatively steady, up to 18% from 13%.

Is the Music Industry Waking Up?

The music industry has a big problem with illegal downloads of digital music. CD sales are down and control of digital music via DRM does not appear to be working. However there are some signs of new business models emerging, with the Apple iTunes Store being a good example.

The latest news is that the four biggest music publishers are negotiating with major ISPs (Telstra, Optus etc) to deliver a subscription service for music downloads. The only catch is that the digital music will 'expire' if the subscription ends. Another development is to use advertising to pay for downloads that MySpace is believed to be launching.

Other developments are marketing strategies that are more diverse, using pre-release digital downloads for free, mobile phone ring tones, mobile phone promotions, on-line ads, concerts, appearances tied in with TV, radio.

For a good roundup read the article Telstra, Optus talk music downloads in MIS.

An interesting quote from the article:

"(the internet) ....gives a way to reach fans and get them involved and engaged"

Q1. What does Sony BMG mean when it sees itself transforming from a CD company to a multi revenue, multi -stream, multi-business company?
Q2. Which business model is more likely to succeed: free downloads with ads or a subscription service with unlimited downloads?
Q3. How does getting fans to be 'involved and engaged' help the bottom line?

The Kids Have IT!

Media and Communications in Australian Families 2007:
The Australian Media and Communications Authority released a major report of an in-depth study of children’s use of electronic media and the way parents mediate that use.

"The Media and Communications in Australian Families 2007 report surveyed a representative sample of 751 family households with children aged between 8 and 17 to gauge media use in the home, how young people divide their leisure time and how parents view their children’s use of media and communications technologies. The report also includes a review of academic research about the influences of media and communications activities on children."

"The report found that in relation to the families surveyed:

• Most families with children aged 8 to 17 have three or more televisions in their home and three or more mobile phones. Almost every family home has a computer (98 per cent) and DVD player (97 per cent).
• Nine-in-ten family homes with children have the internet, and 76 per cent of these homes have broadband compared to just seven per cent in 1995. More than three-quarters of family homes have a games console.
• Almost all parents with children aged 8 to 17 see the internet as beneficial for their children, mainly as providing learning or educational opportunities. Similarly, four-fifths of these parents see benefits in their child’s use of a mobile phone, particularly for safety and security.
• Families say electronic media and communications activities take up around half of young people's total discretionary time – a proportion that has not changed since 1995. Children themselves demonstrate a balanced attitude to the use of electronic media and communications. When given a preference, young people often prefer to do non-media activities and socialise with other people."

ACMA media release 148/2007

Media and Communications in Australian Families 2007

ACMA Presentation

Similar survey from USA
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/230/report_display.asp

Q1. Have we reached saturation point?
Q2. How does this affect consumer behaviour?
Q3. What are possible ethical issues?

Music 2.0??

Reading music in the digital realm

"The futures of the record industry and music education lie in the technologies, communities and value systems of the internet, writes Paul Draper | The Australian November 28, 2007

FROM MySpace to YouTube, Flickr and Last.FM, an online participatory culture is transforming value systems and creating new pathways for autonomous innovation. In this so-called Web 2.0 phenomenon, social networks continue to define the information society and redefine music career opportunities.

The idea of the record industry once conjured a picture of a Fordist production chain of artists, promoters, record company managers and sound engineers operating complex equipment in impressive recording studios.

In the 21st century, however, such workflow is increasingly devolved to independent musicians with portable digital systems, home recording studios and online networks. This includes composing, recording, filming, direct merchandising, concert tour promotions, engaging with fan bases and other communities of practice via resources such as blogs, podcasts, and digital music download stores.

Music 2.0 is the new digital musicianship and technological imagination for the 21st century."

1. Is 'cyberspace' the new toilet wall?

2. How is 'the romanticised '70s style, star-driven model of the record company' changing?

3. Why did 'Radiohead release their new album online with a donation value to be decided by their audiences'?

www29.griffith.edu.au/radioimersd

http://www.iorpheus.com/

Oh My God!!!!

She's gotta have it

The Age November 15, 2007

Katie Cincotta looks at why girl power is driving the gadget revolution.

Please read the full article by following the link in the title. Some excerpts:

"THERE'S a reason handbags are big enough to fit two kids, a dog and the kitchen sink. And it's not because Nicole Richie and her tanorexic cohorts prance about Hollywood with their expensive uber bags."

"International fashion labels Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and Gucci are only too happy to embrace the trend with the release of fashionista mobiles. Dolce & Gabbana hooked up with Motorola, Giorgio Armani with Samsung, Julien MacDonald with Sony Ericsson and Prada recently jumped into bed with LG to conceive the sophisticated new KE850 mobile."

"So it seems that the fairer sex is indeed going gaga for gadgets, happy to skip the season's cult shoes - Yves Saint Laurent's tortuous 15cm "Tribute" heels - in favour of gadgets that fit snugly in the palm.

Then again, if you're a true she-geek, you could buy the $730 killer heels (which should probably come with a free trip to the podiatrist), use your mobile to film yourself strutting in them to your iTunes, then post it on YouTube for the world to ogle.

Narcissism, after all, is the new black."

1. What is the change in consumer behaviour discussed here?

2. What is the relationship between product and content?

3. Is there really a difference between and male and female consumer behaviour in this domain?

The Mobile Web Is Here!!!!

Access to the internet has traditionally been through some sort of cable. Access via satellite is possible if you carry around a satellite dish! Wireless LANS now provide a wireless access within a short range to an internet modem or other wireless receiver that then connects via a cable. If you were clever enough you could connect a laptop to a mobile phone via a modem and use the mobile phone network for a slow and costly wireless internet access.

Recently true wireless, mobile internet access has become available via the mobile phone network that support high speed broadband. The major telecos provide a wireless adaptor that can plug into a laptop USB port and connect you at relatively high speed to the internet (at a higher cost than fixed line connection). One provider is :Telstra Bigpond

But wait there is more! The mobile phone can now connect directly to the internet and provide web browsing, email and most other internet services. This provided via the new 3G network.

A simple problem is that a mobile phone does not have the screen size or keyboard of laptop computer. This is a real marketing challenge!

Meg Tsiamis in her blog Dipping Into The Blogpond has provided a listing of web sites that are designed for mobile phone web browsing. Check out these two from her listing (remember that they are designed to appear in a mobile phone screen) :

http://mobile.tradingpost.com.au/
http://carsguide.mobi

1. How does the iPhone and similar devices attempt to overcome the design limitations?
2. What is the issue for SMEs to provide mobile internet access to their web sites?
3. What are the issues and impact on marketing using mobile internet?