Big Brands Still Won't Use Mobile

Source: 160characters.org

"Large brands say that consumer trust, cost and lack of customer data are the main barriers to the widespread adoption of mobile messaging despite evidence of its effectiveness". Most of the UK’s largest businesses are still reluctant to use mobile messaging as a customer communications tool despite significant evidence of success for the medium in both marketing and customer relationship management.
This notion came to light at a recent round-table forum led by mobile solutions provider Wireless Information Network (WIN), which brought together several of the UK’s largest consumer brands - including Barclays, Egg, BAA and Air Miles - mobile networks and regulators to discuss the barriers to businesses adopting mobile as a tool for communicating with consumers.

The discussion found that consumer-focussed companies still do not generally consider mobile as a mainstream channel of communication with existing and potential customers, and therefore most are simply not utilising it at all or piloting its use on a very small scale. This is despite several well publicised case studies from the likes of the AA, BT and '118 118' where mobile has been used to great effect. For example the AA, which adopted SMS messaging to provide real-time alerts to customers awaiting roadside assistance has cut its call centre costs by some £30,000 per month, whilst improving customer service levels considerably.

Trust
The main reasons cited for the reluctance of businesses to use mobile messaging are consumer trust, cost and the availability of good sized databases of mobile numbers.

When it comes to consumer trust, the feeling from businesses is that consumers fear their mobile becoming like an email Inbox which is constantly bombarded by ‘spam’, and therefore do not want to expose themselves by giving businesses to permission to communicate with them via text.

Cost
On the subject of cost, it is felt that SMS hasn’t yet justified itself enough to merit the investment in setting up and running a mobile marketing campaign or CRM system, therefore brands are sitting back waiting for either the costs to come down or the evidence of return to go up.

Numbers
Finally, when it comes to the availability of customer data, brands seem to be stuck in a ‘quantity not quality’ mentality more akin to the postal ‘junk mail’ approach where target databases contain hundreds of thousands of records, and therefore don’t regard a well defined 30,000 strong opt-in database of mobile numbers as big enough to run an effective mobile marketing campaign.

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Ben King, Marketing Manager of WIN said that “Mobile still has some way to go as a B2C tool, but many of these barriers are overstated and can be overcome. Consumer trust is an issue, but trust can be gained through responsible, relevant and creative communications and regulations put in place by the mobile industry over the last 2 years have ensured that examples of SMS spam have been limited.

We believe that businesses need to develop a mobile relationship over time with a consumer based on giving them something useful and appropriate. With regards cost, there are inevitably set up costs to any kind of marketing or CRM campaign, but mobile seems to suffer constant comparisons with email. These comparisons must stop. SMS is a unique channel that enables timely information to be delivered to the vast majority of the adult population, wherever they are, and whatever they are doing. It deserves to be considered in its own right. Text remains an extremely cost effective and convenient method of communication, particularly compared to voice or post.”

“On the subject of numbers, the most successful implementation of mobile marketing in the UK has not involved the purchase of large 3rd party databases. The beauty of opt-in text databases is that while they might be relatively small, the profiling is so accurate that the message can be tailored to be relevant. Sending a relevant communication to a few thousand people via will always drive a significantly higher return than sending an inaccurately targeted piece of junk mail to hundreds of thousands.”

King concludes that “There is a definite trend among UK consumers demanding that businesses become more customer-centric and consider them as an individual. SMS is an ideal technology to facilitate such a personal relationship. Businesses need to look beyond these barriers and really focus on how mobile can work as part of their overall communications strategy. Mobile messaging reduces costs, improves relationships and increases response rates and where it has been deployed effectively, businesses have achieved significant competitive advantage. - surely it’s a ‘no-brainer’.”