It’s not often that I write proudly South African articles, although I definitely should. Because regardless of the perennial diatribe often spewed at the misfortunes of our politico, the poor performances of our national sports teams (bar the Springboks of course) and the crime rate that escalates quicker than the interest rate, ours is a country full of remarkable people doing remarkable things.

Usually, round about now one would expect lists of all the top jocks and sassy gals that perform wondrously in the online arena, so that is why I will revert to articulating my praise to a single platform.

The future of the internet lies in the vehicles society uses to access it. It is no surprise then that in South Africa, one of those vehicles are (will be) predominantly our mobile devices. Some sceptico (I love making up words) will of course differ vastly from me, but these are also the people I’ve called naive and ignorant in a previous post.

Evidence of this is the amount of people I know that access popular sites like Facebook via their mobile phones. You’ll find many people blog and twitter from their mobile phones too, some of these people leading professionals and high society role players.

In fact, you’ll find more people doing more things via their mobile phones these days, including the early adopters, one of which I call mom, than ever before. The reason for this is quite simple and it because South Africa boasts with 39 million active SIM card holders opposed to only about 5 million internet account holders.

That, according to Vodacom, is a 90% penetration rate which is astonishing.

In fact, so pertinent is mobile technology that Nokia, the mobile emperor of the world, has partnered with South African developed social video and image networking site, Zoopy.

Newsworthy? Well, maybe not so much, partly because the older generation probably doesn’t even know Zoopy. But considering that Nokia has also partnered with probably three of the biggest video and imaging platforms in internet history, Flickr, Youtube and Vox, I believe puts the achievements of Zoopy in perspective.

Heading back to the ignorants, what has this got to do with your business? Well, pretty much in fact. So influential is the youth market and early adopters, that it is safe to imply that they are the trend setters of internet productivity and commerce.

In other words, they are paving the way of the future in terms of communications, commerce and networking. The quicker we as marketers and businesses realise this, the better we will be able to align ourselves with our customers.

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.

Many businesses are content with advertising. It is the age old safeway of portraying your marketing message on various high profile media channels like magazines, print, online, outdoor and on the radio.

The effect of advertising has decreased dramatically though. Since its popularity has increased, so did the amount of advertising. It is now at a state where consumers pay little notice to advertising in any form, shape or size across all media platforms.

A previous post of mine, claiming that “Banner Ads are dead“, highlights click through rates dropping from a whopping 42% initially to a substantially less, yet industry accepted norm of 2%.

The result is that agencies charge and companies pay more money on advertising to drive home the message than ever before. Various tactics are executed in attempt to increase conversion rates.

This is highly evident with the launch of two separate advertising models from two media giants, Facebook / Microsoft and Google respectively. Their new models are still in its infancy and it is hard to speculate on the potential successes of either. Both are buoyant on the ability to hyper target audiences because of the demographical information that is available to them.

However, most businesses do not enjoy such luxury and are unwilling to experiment in uncharted territory.

Another teething problem is that information overload has caused the consumer to spend more time content driven and substantially less time deviating from their goal. One survey’s results show that consumers now have the tendency to subconsciously block advertising.

Richer advertising with more witty visual stimulation, shock value and exaggeration together with star studded commercials has caused the latest attempt at reviving the interest of consumers in advertising.

But how is that possible when it is documented that the average US citizen is exposed to 3800 marketing message daily?

Another brain teaser of course is that richer content and flashier advertising might spark a greater deal of interest, but the conversion rates are still lacking. Consumers acknowledge the effect of a brilliant billboard ad, cleverly crafted video commercial or colourful magazine advertorial, but since the advertising is pushed to the user, the pull effect is virtually non-existent.

So while it does wonders for brand awareness, a tremendous feat already these days mind you, it does very little for sales conversions, which is ultimately what ROI is measured on.

Instant gratification works similarly in a child than it does an adult. While the objective might differ, the principle remains the same. When a child witnesses an ice-cream truck their immediate inclination is the desire to have an ice-cream.

Adults have a greater sense of resistance and rationale, so businesses should focus on enabling the consumer to respond to advertising immediately.

I rate the Sony Bravia’s Like.no.other television commercial [as below] as one the most effective commercials ever to grace our television sets. I have never experienced the television set personally, but the commercial alone created the “want to have” feeling. However, as the commercial subsides into my mind’s folder structure, the need to purchase subsides as well.

If for instance, Sony added a mobile component to the commercial encouraging me to conveniently enquire about the picture quality or other features and have them send me some information via my mobile phone with the option to order via reply sms, I reckon they would’ve been one sale better off today.

Is it a pipe dream to soon witness all television, billboard, online, print and radio advertising to carry mobile messaging as convenience driven marketing techniques? I don’t think so.

When that happens though, the novelty will wear off, just like it did with traditional advertising.

Better to get it while it’s hot, they say.

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