$1 000 000 000 000. Say it like you mean it: “One trillion dollars.” The mobile industry is the world’s latest trillion dollar baby. What’s more profound is that it was achieved in slightly more than ten years.

How does it compare?

1. 1. Combined with radio, the broadcasting industry is still nowhere near a trillion dollar industry, only about half of that.
2. 2. Advertising is worth roughly half a trillion dollars, in very round terms.
3. 3. The IT industry? Another half trillion there.
4. 4. Air travel is also in the half trillion dollar range.

Does anything compare?

1. 1. Cars,
2. 2. the global food industry,
3. 3. and believe it or not, the global weapons industry are all trillion dollar businesses.
4. 4. Now add mobile to that list.

Where there’s money, there’s people. And where there’s people, there’s a target audience.

Back in 2001 when I got my first mobile phone, text messaging and calling was the only luxury we had. Mobile content was a pipe dream. However, on the 5th of December 2008, exactly 10 years prior, the first downloadable mobile content was launched, the ringtone. Unbeknown to the world population at large, a booming industry was born that day.

For anyone, any business in whatever shape or size not yet fully convinced that the future of digital marketing starts and ends with mobile, allow me to highlight some examples of this ridiculously growing industry (This is a long post, but you WILL be wow-ed, so bear with me):

• 1. The latest numbers reveal that the total number of unique mobile phone owners is now 3.05 billion (46% of the planet’s population do have a mobile phone, even after we remove the multiple subscriptions).

 

• 2. There are 1.4 billion TV sets in the world. But there are 2 billion mobile phones with a colour screen and at least 2.5G network connectivity, meaning they can display “streaming” ie live TV and video.

 

• 3. Of the four digital camera giants, only Canon and Nikon remain in the camera business, Konica and Minolta no longer exist in the camera market; and the world’s bestselling camera brand, since 2004, has been Nokia. (I have a phone with a 5 megapixel camera)

 

• 4. Music on mobile phones today, at the end of 2008, is passing the 11 billion dollar annual revenue level. When we bear in mind, that the total global music industry is only worth 30 billion dollars - it means that more than one in three dollars spent on music globally, is spent on the mobile phone.

 

• 5. 50 Cents with his smash hit, In da Club, in 2003 earned more as ringtone than all other music formats combined - and most annoyingly of course the Crazy Frog - to the tune of 500 million dollars of global sales of their ringtones and related services in 2005 – that’s one ringtone earning more than all of iTunes’ global sales that year.

 

• 6. A third of the mobile phone subscribers on the planet sends MMS picture messages - that is 1.3 billion people for those who are counting. Comparing that with 1.2 billion active users of email, and suddenly MMS is very interesting indeed. Worldwide, you can reach a larger audience if you put your content (or advertising) on an MMS picture message, than if you put it into email.

 

• 7. This year mobile social media passed $9 billion and next year will easily cross the 10 billion dollar level of annual revenues. From zero to 10 billion dollars in six years. Mobile social networking is by far the fastest-growing billion dollar industry ever. For comparison, the online internet side of social media is three times as old, and still hasn’t passed a billion dollars in total revenues - where most of that is advertising revenues. Mobile social networking sites are making oodles of cash, and many have already become profitable in this very short time.

 

• 8. In the past ten years, mobile content has turned into a global giant industry worth over 71 billion dollars of annual revenues. That is as big as all Hollywood box office revenues, plus all global music revenues, and all videogaming software revenues - put together. Hollywood and music are 100 year old industries. Videogaming is a 30 year old industry. But mobile has already grown bigger than all three, combined, in only ten years.

 

• 9. There are under 500 million newspapers sold daily. There are 900 million personal computers connected to the internet. There are 1.3 billion internet users. And 1.4 billion TV sets. But 1.5 billion people will receive ads on mobile phones this year. How many more will receive them next year?

I have a tip for you today. If you walk down the road and spot a public pay phone, take a picture of it, because, like in Finland, they’ll all be gone pretty soon.

My second tip is to get with the times and comprehend the superpowers of the mobile industry. The future of mankind’s commercial business models will rely on a piece of equipment you will rarely leave home without.

Thank you to Tomi Ahonen for his articles, content which I shamelessly copied and shortened for the convenience of my readers. If there are two articles you have to read before Christmas, it’s these two.

Cricket is a complicated game, or so we’re told. Many men will concur that the agony of having a wife or a girlfriend sit through a cricket match is almost worse than the fight on a weekend about why you simply cannot commit to any extramural activities with her.

Trying to explain the seemingly simple concept behind the three ways of scoring runs off the bat, the no balls, wide balls, bouncers, yorkers, off spinners, leg spinners, googlys, doosras, off cutters, leg cutters, seamers, inswingers, short of a length, full tosses, slower balls, out swingers and reverse swingers and…are you still paying attention honey? Of course, most of these deliveries also have some sort of variety.

You’ve not only lost her attention, you’ve also lost your patience and she lost her temper. I believe no cricket match can ever be fun with women in close vicinity. Until this past weekend, that is. I didn’t watch cricket though, I went camping. (Which I don’t enjoy doing, by the way)

While we were busy preparing our breakfast on one of those gas thingies with the black pan thingy, one of my friends dropped an egg. Quick as a flash I moved to my right and pulled off the most sensational catch of the day, much to the delight of the immediate crowd. (Mostly women of course)

Without skipping a beat, my friend remarked: “Catches win matches!”

And there it was. Cricket, one of the most complicated sports known to mankind, explained in its simplest form.

I’ll be very careful before I start comparing businesses to women for fear of either being labeled a chauvinist pig or worse, an idiot, but the resemblance between the general cricket knowledge of women and the average business’ knowledge of technology is rather apparent.

Business decision-makers ask for simplicity, marketers think the amount of technological jargon they use reflect their IQ’s, where in fact it achieves quite the opposite. A marketer worth his or her salt is one that comprehends the decision-maker’s understanding of technology, the objective of the marketing campaign and has the ability to employ the simplest method to achieve the optimum goal.

Mobile marketing can be a confusing nut to crack. Especially when digital marketing specialists and mobile communication gurus get there heads around an idea. You can almost bet your bottom dollar Bluetooth will come into play, a Mobi site for extended brand presence will be thrown into the equation, applications built around new models of phones, mobile social networking platforms and location based services are among the more popular terms used.

If you’re a key decision-maker, the one with the million dollar sign-off signature, and you understood the above paragraph, I’m happy to say that you’re one of the elite few. For the rest of you, think about mobile marketing as another way of chatting to potential clients.

You have a message; you have their numbers; send it to them. Rinse and repeat. Technology in marketing is confusing and scares a lot of people. However, with the new millennium came vast technological prodigies and they carry with them the power to change.

You as business decision-maker unfortunately have no option but to adapt or die. If you’re overwhelmed with the idea of mobile marketing, maybe it’s time to change your marketing agency.

This world of ours is full of extraordinary people, you know. It’s no coincidence that many of today’s masterminds behind successful internet and mobile businesses are child prodigies, more often than not worth more than both their parents combined.

Meet Carl Ocab. A meager 14 years old and brainchild, literally, of www.carlocab.com, make money online with a 13 year old.

He’s too young to smoke, too young to drink, but the 14 year old prodigy makes a fortune as a… blogger!

We’re often told that our lives would be much simpler, with fewer obstacles, stress and worries if we could just shift our mindsets and behaviour back to when we were kids. We had a carefree life, challenging personalities and had the confidence back then that is truly needed in today’s world to ensure success.

When we were kids, we hardly ever let opportunities pass us by, regardless of the risk and possibility of failure. That is what makes these kids more special. They have found their niche, their passion in a very early stage in life and had the tenacity to do something about it.

Our fear of failure, embarrassment and scrutiny restrict our natural will to apply our minds and bodies to new experiences. Similarly in business, our inclination to follow our gut feel is stifled by protocol, tedious processes, ignorant decision making and our aversion to taking risks.

I see this in practice virtually every day. Businesses are afraid to pay notice to the plea of their customers, however subtle or direct. They refuse to acknowledge the change in consumer behaviour, change in trends and change in preference because they have smothered their natural ability to listen.

They also mostly refuse to change protocol or communications because their Neanderthal approach of top down management is firmly embedded in their being. They believe that a paying customer is a happy customer.

They’re scared to let go of the control of their brand. They prefer to let their mission statement do the talking in a time where customers aren’t willing to listen to corporate thumb suck anymore.

The truth however is that they have probably lost control of their brand already. Today, if you don’t have your finger on the internet pulse, you’ll more than likely be missing critical discussions around your brand.

Stop putting your faith in professional spin doctors to publish crafty contributions from the CEO, industry jargon that confuses and perceivably influences the belief system of your customers where in fact all it is that your customers really want is a direct communication channel to someone that actually gives a sh*t.

The key ingredient to success is simple. It is the willingness to change that stubborn mind shift that is so damn hard. Furthermore, it is the fear of losing control that is having you sit idly while your adventurous competition walks away with the prom queen.

Carl has a simple approach to business: Almost everything nowadays is possible. You want to be invisible? There’s a coat for that. You want to change your colour from black to white? Ask Michael Jackson!

I would like to invite any business leader to prove to me that their clients aren’t the fortress of their existence. Ok, fair enough, it is a given.

We’ve all seen the HTC mobile ad of the wacky Martians bragging among themselves. These are your clients.

So you refer to your clients as Martians and sometimes something a bit stronger, right? I mean, hell, they are probably the most annoying, whiny bunch of (faceless) creatures to grace this galaxy.

If it’s not client service, it is faulty products. If it’s not pushed advertising, it is mass mailing. If it’s not delivery time frames it is inadequate content. Finally, if it’s not you then it must be someone else in your godforsaken company.

A little secret has never hurt anyone, so here goes. Just as life on earth is seemingly normal and the (business) people you communicate with understand your jargon, lingo or whatever you call your linguistic efforts at the office party, so too do Martians live in perfect harmony among themselves.

The problem lies at the odd opportunity where earthlings actually need to communicate with Martians that their message gets lost in translation. Previously, the empires on earth thought up a clever way to solve this problem. They would bombard the Martians with masses of communications in the hope that some would be able to translate and amplify the message to their fellows.

The only problem with this approach was that Martians never really appreciated the invasion of privacy or the infantile way in which earthlings communicated with them.

Subsequently, some clever earthlings with the ability to speak Martian orchestrated a way in which Martians’ voices were translated. Furthermore, they were given a vehicle with which they could perpetuate the message among their peers.

For the first time ever, earthlings struck a panic. There were too many messages, complaints, whinges and hate speech to keep up with. Attempts to silence the voices were greeted with more of the same.

The clever earthlings soon enough realised that the only way to aggregate these messages were to proliferate among the Martians in an attempt to live together in the same confinement. This was no easy feat considering both are from different planets.

Earthlings had to devise a complete new strategy. One with which they could speak and understand the language and converse in a manner which is understandable and acceptable to Martians.

In short, earthlings had to place themselves in the shoes of Martians and view their own strategies from an outsider perspective.

It worked. They realised that the most effective way to communicate with the mother ship was to engage in a channel that was open to them, accepted by Martians and appreciated with respect and privacy.

A personal channel that addresses specific, individual and relevant needs and desires. Moreover, a channel that is the preferred vehicle for communicating among themselves.

The annual study of of the impact of mobile and wireless technology in South African corporations and SME’s conducted by Arthur Goldstuck from World Wide Worx has been released.

A comprehensive piece on the results was published on the Bizcommunity website. I have analysed the piece and dotted down some key points for my readers.

Over 100 IT decision makers and 800 SME’s were interviewed for the study and some of the critical points are listed here together with my opinion on them:

1. Staff’s 3G usage in South African corporations has increased from 58% in 2006 to 82% in 2007

Wireless providers have cut the cost of 3G connections considerably during the first quarter of 2007.

2. WiFi access by staff has decreased from 74% to 66%

This is due to the cost of commercial hotspots at airports, coffee shops and others as well as the introduction of new high speed broadband technology, WiMax.

3. WiMAX, a high speed long-distance broadband technology is having an impact on the WiFi usage figures. 8% of corporations are using it, incidently the same percentage of drop in WiFi usage.

4. Wireless broadband usage in SME’s has increased from 16% in 2006 to 31% in 2007

Research of relevance on SME’s
1. SME usage for 3G: 31%, PDA: 23%, WiFi: 36% (but dropping)

The cost of wireless access at commercial hotspots is extortionate compared to the cost of wireless internet access.

2. Phone features usage:
SMS: 60%
3G cards: from 5% 2006 to 27% 2007
E-mail usage: from 0% 2006 to 27% 2007

3. Planning to use in future:
E-mail: 30%
SMS: 54%
Indecisive on Bluetooth, mobile phone as modem, Internet browsing and location based services (LBS)

Consumer Research
1. 32million mobile users (Some people believe figure to be closer to 40million) out of a population of 48million

2. Only 18% of mobile phones are older than 1 year

3. People love their phones and want a new phone within a year

4. Cellular technology awareness and usage has increased: driven by 3G and WAP

5. 12% have purchased new phone in 2007, increased from 7% in 2006

6. SMS banking still preferred

7. Spam irritation levels are fairly high

Early adopters will surely benefit a great deal from mCommerce (Mobile Commerce), but we should certainly also expect an influx of spam related features. The market will saturate in years to come where innovation will once again pave the way for change communications.

8. Account payments offers the most attractive service in future, followed by mini statements, once off payments and airtime purchases

In a previous post I have mentioned that the next generation mobile functionality will be fully commerced where service providers, retailers and other facilities will partner and deliver convenience driven purchasing options via mobile phones.

9. Mobile commerce is on its way

Goldstuck believes we have seen the tipping point in the use of mobile technology in SA in the past year. “Next year we will see more advanced use of applications.”

My summary

Mobile is growing at a rapid pace and my personal theory is that within the next couple of years mobile technology and usage will become the predominant force in marketing and communications.

Consumer mobile usage outweighs internet usage by almost 10/1, but in terms of business the internet is still enjoying the greatest popularity.

I’m positive that it will once again be the early adopters capitalising on this change that would reap the biggest rewards. As with all types of communications and marketing, the trend will reach a plato where conversion rates will drop and even out considerably.

Companies and customers are from different planets. The ways they “do business” differ so vastly that it is difficult for companies to keep up with consumer demands. The client is always right is an age old analogy, one that most strive to live by, but this is often much easier said than done.

The reason for this is that life on Mars is commercially driven. Emphasis is placed on business processes and protocol to ensure profitability.

The key to successful business lies is attraction, acquisition and retention. However, retention requires a handy amount of effort. More often than not, these efforts form part of the original transaction and the time consumed by these processes intrude in the next business cycle of attraction and acquisition and negatively impacts profits.

Hence client relations, communications, up selling and cross selling opportunities and consumer demands are less prioritised.

The problem resonates from the fact that life on Venus is emotionally driven. Most of the times purchasing behaviour resides on the consumers’ emotional front. Completing a transaction is similar to engaging in a relationship. Even the purchasing of products or groceries is an indication that the customer has made a conscious and emotional decision to engage with your brand.

While companies might not necessarily agree on this, it has been proven on many occasions.

A typical example of this is when a web development agency delivers a website to a client. These agencies will profess that in many cases, they are suddenly regarded as first line IT support as well. This is especially true when the service delivery was seamless and the client happy with the product.

Why does this happen? Customers find it hard to connect with businesses that understand that transactions reach further than just the exchange of money. When they do, they get clingy.

So for all the times that you curse these persistent clients, realise that they are the customers that value your work the most. They are what I refer to as brand evangelists.

They are the people that will ensure your brand is carried to their peers.

These customers need to be treated with the same value you derived from their transactions. Luckily, in the digital age, there is technology that assists you in your client relations management and simultaneously allows you the opportunity to cross sell and up sell.

Stay tuned for the follow up post on these opportunities.

Today’s post will skip the high end mobile stuff and stick to the basics. Without fancy value added services, consumer convenience, text and win competitions or mobile trading, I’m going address the traditionalists who prefers to use the conventional approach to business.

In small business, we have a scenario of business owners that prefer using traditional market oriented business mechanics and do not care for change. What has worked in the past, are still applicable today. Even their clients have no hang-ups or demands in terms of technological advances in their business demeanors.

Some of these include attorneys and law firms, doctors and dentists, real estate agents, vehicle mechanics and panel beaters among others. We’ve established that their clients have no need for technological value added services. They are comfortable dealing in a familiar fashion and still value age old face-to-face interaction.

Their mobile phone usage varies from making and receiving calls to sending and receiving the odd text message. Their internet usage is limited and only occasionally used for receiving the odd e-mail from family members. Fact: There are still CEO’s that have their e-mails printed by the PA’s and placed on the desk.

Personally though, demand has steered me into a position where technology is the vehicle of my thoughts. Not only in a professional capacity, but also my personal life is driven by the internet, mobile and relevant channels. Being a geek has never before enveloped such a wide section of the populace than it does now.

Demand is a strong word though, and from a technology point, not something that’s likely to be taken too seriously by the group of people in reference here.

I’ve broken down business into three typical cycles. From within these business lifecycles, which is applicable to any business, we need to understand how change influences our decision making.

The three main business lifecycles are: Attraction, acquisition and retention.

In the not too distant past, (client) attraction was simply not that much of a big deal. When we referred to brands we were talking about Coca Cola, Kirby and Volkswagen. It was unheard of to refer to your business as being a brand, not to mention creating awareness or buzz around it.

(Client) acquisition was based mostly on word of mouth and “door-to-door” sales pitches. Many movies still satirically portray these scenarios, often to illustrate typical American suburbia.

Client loyalty or retention was managed when people met at the grocery store, a quick pop-in at the office simply because they were in the vicinity or by a lack of any recognizable or closely located competitors. These clients were mostly lifelong loyalists. These days are epitomized by the videos featured below and will certainly evoke some reminiscence.

Many small businesses in South Africa still operate in a similar fashion. Attraction, acquisition and retention are merely business terms concocted by Harvard professors to complicate a seemingly simplistic business model.

What businesses need to keep in mind is that I refer to these categories as lifecycles. In other words, the process is cyclic and these loops repeat themselves continuously.

Consumer lifecycles come to an end due to a change or cease in demand pertaining to your product or service. They no longer have a desire or need for the product and the thus the acquisition cycle needs to reoccur.

With these new cycles client attraction, -acquisition and -retention become much more difficult as new generation consumers are drawn into them.

There are various new elements (or baggage) that is conjoined with the introduction of a new attraction lifecycle. These elements are collectively known as consumer demands.

Recommendations from peers, fickleness of customers, the brand affinity your business manage to facilitate with your target audience and the limited reach your brand has across media platforms are imminent threats to your previously undisturbed business model.

Floor crossing or brand hopping is a common occurrence today and more importantly is the manner in which consumers prefer to be engaged in. For some businesses this threat is real and present, while many people in business reading this may not be perturbed by any of this and within reason.

However, it is important that everyone acknowledges these trends and gauge their own consumer lifecycles to ensure that that their business model reflects the demands of their consumer.

Today, attorneys still run office with heaps of files and an endless amount of paperwork. In reality, you’ll find more and more attorneys like Paul Jacobson who has transformed his business model to accommodate an array of possible opportunities in whichever format or medium it presents itself.

Even though your consumer lifecycle does not consist of the emerging generation of consumers it is obvious, and important, to keep in mind that eventually it will.

It is crucial to have your adoption strategy in place.

Volkswagen South Africa Memories

Banned Volkswagen Ad – Indication of the measure of competition these days – challenging the boundaries