Strategy? What Wireless Marketing Strategy?
by Kim M. Bayne
M-CommerceTimes
March 22, 2001
Over the next few years thousands of users and businesses will make the transition to wireless. According to the Strategis Group, mobile device use among the U.S. population will reach sixty percent, up from its current two percent, by the year 2007. Nevertheless, are erstwhile Web marketers using a strategic compass to guide current wireless marketing plans? Or are marketers as lost as when the Web first flirted with commercialism?
For some marketers now in the wireless arena, it's just a matter of "I'm happy to be here." For others, there's a "first to market" claim at stake. For early adopter junkies, it's yet another digital frontier to conquer.
Reasons To Go Mobile
For Yvonne
Morabito, president and CEO of horoscope site AstrologyIS.com,
going wireless originally meant a simple extension of branding
and promotional activities, an approach favored by e-business
pioneers in the early days of the Web.
"Now, our strategy involves direct monetization of the content we distribute through wireless through the use of advertising and m-commerce capabilities," says Morabito. At present, AstrologyIS.com uses wireless marketing to promote sales of its physical products and subscriptions to full site memberships. In addition, wireless advertising network WindWire is in the process of signing paying advertisers for AstrologyIS.com's wireless channel.
While many businesses may be happy to find any eager partner with which to launch a mobile presence, Morabito is more selective. AstrologyIS.com promotes its wireless offerings through "top-tier, household name wireless partners" and through its own wired Web site.
Lunch Orders To Go
Creating a digital
advertising opportunity for Denver-based restaurants made
perfect sense to Drew Morris, president and founding owner of
OrdersUp.com, a dining alert service. Intimately familiar with
the rushed eating habits of business professionals, many of
whom relied heavily on PDAs, he launched a Web site in March
2000 and immediately sold advertising to Denver-area
restaurants. His wireless presence -- meant to deliver daily
restaurant specials and m-coupons to local wireless users --
was born nine months later.
Like AstrologyIS.com, OrdersUp.com found a friend in AvantGo to help build its wireless reach. Morris saw the wireless content market dawning and knew he had to make a first choice about platforms. PDAs appeared to be a logical step towards going wireless quickly. Delivering content to a phone would involve "speaking to wireless providers," observed Morris, comparing the need to establish relationships with wireless carriers to the relative ease in setting up a PDA channel with AvantGo.
Avoiding The Promotional Money
Pit
Beyond content delivery tactics, there are
considerations about how much to spend on promoting a wireless
presence. Technology investors may fear wireless marketers
could mindlessly throw money at lofty marketing programs as
their wired predecessors have done on the Web.
Not so, say most wireless marketers in the trenches. For example, OrdersUp.com leverages viral marketing techniques for its geo-specific promotional plans.
"We have a substantial referral program in our database," says Morris, highlighting the company's in-person sales activities and cross promotions among restaurants. Even companies with a large geographical presence aren't yet convinced that other media will add much to a company's wireless presence.
"Unless and until wireless becomes a greater revenue generator for us, we do not plan to spend large sums in marketing our wireless capabilities," says AstrologyIS.com's Morabito. Morabito achieves results through "more cost-effective marketing and distribution of our wireless offerings" based mainly on strategic partnerships with established wireless players.
Prime positioning with key carriers like AT&T Wireless Services, such as attaining featured spots on wireless content menus, affords AstrologyIS.com the time needed to plan its next strategic move before the wireless content market matures. As a result, AstrologyIS.com can highlight its content offerings to a larger audience while still generating revenue.
OrdersUp.com is in a unique position, having established a wireless presence early in its local market. That's not to say that national wireless content providers won't move in and create some fierce competition. Like many wireless enterprises, OrdersUp.com's strategy could benefit by adding more platforms and partnerships to its wireless marketing arsenal, a move it's currently contemplating.
As more enterprises go wireless, the strategic marketing bar will continue to rise. Judging from the emerging offerings of brand name players on major wireless portals like Sprint, Verizon and AT&T, it's not too soon to put together a strategic plan to get into the wireless marketing game.
Article COPYRIGHT 2001 M-CommerceTimes