Question

1.Develop a presentation which describes mobile marketing in general and its advantages and disadvantages. ( Include examples of mobile marketing success stories and connect them to your chosen airline/aircraft manufacturer)

2. Will the FTC’s requirements regarding ads and endorsers make Twitter less effective as an advertising medium for the aviation industry

Answer 1

Mobile MarketingDo you remember a time when eMarketing was a “must do” for all marketers? Since it offered various benefits, it virtually changed our established methods of advertising. And if you weren’t doing it, well then, you were not a part of the cool group. Now, with the advancement of mobile devices offering accelerated connectivity, mobile marketing is far exceeding eMarketing these days. But, like most things, there are advantages and disadvantages to mobile marketing, as I will touch upon below.

Advantages:

Lower pricing : Mobile marketing has a much lower CPM (cost per thousand) than other traditional marketing channels.

Instantaneous results: We always carry our mobile phones. Like our wallet or keys, we never leave home without them. And, most of the time, our mobile phone is ON, which means, we receive the message at the very moment it is sent.

Easy to work with: Creative elements for mobile devices are simpler and less expensive, compared to the same for desktops or laptops. This medium also makes it easier to issue promotions and marketing incentive services to us, the users. We can keep this information handy until the time we need to use it. For example, we can download a coupon to our phone, and then show that coupon at checkout to receive the discount.

Convenient to use: Since the screen size of a mobile phone is small, it limits the scope of content that can be displayed. This makes it convenient for the creators of the content, who can keep it basic and simple. Also, simpler content will adapt itself better to the various mobile platforms.

Tracking response: User response can be tracked almost instantaneously. Mobile marketing is an effective way to collect user data. Databases that use phone numbers as unique IDs are more effective, since many people generally keep their phone numbers for a longer period of time, unlike their email addresses. This helps the mobile advertiser better understand and analyze user behavior.

Huge viral potential: Here you have the domino effect. Since mobile content can be easily shared among users, mobile marketing can have huge viral benefits. Users more than likely will share good information and offers with their friends and family, so companies get a lot more exposure with no extra effort.

Mass communication made easy: Since a lot more people own mobile phones than desktops or laptops, mobile marketing helps the marketer reach a far wider and diverse audience. Mobile marketing also gives the advantage of targeting capabilities. You can geo-target by sending location-specific messages to those using GPS and Bluetooth technology, or demographic targeting, so you can reach the right audience via age and gender information.

Microblogging benefits: Mobile users are increasingly using popular platforms like Twitter from their mobile phones.

Mobile payment: The latest mobile payment facility is very convenient for the users today. Here, users are offered a secure online payment environment, which works via advanced mobile Web systems. This means that the user does not need to cough up physical currency each time he wants to make a mobile purchase or pay a bill online.

Disadvantages:

Platforms too diverse: Mobile devices do not have any particular standard, as compared to PCs and laptops. Mobile phones come in many shapes and sizes, so screen size is never constant. Also, mobile platforms use different operating systems and browsers. Hence, creating one campaign for all of them can get difficult.

Privacy issues: This is always in question on any network or device. Savvy mobile marketers need to understand and respect the fact that users would like their privacy. So they should offer clear instructions for opting out of marketing communications should the user want to do that.

Navigation on a mobile phone: The mobile phone usually comes with a small screen and no mouse. This means that navigation on a mobile phone may get difficult for the user, even if it has a touch screen. In such a case, most ads may go untouched, as the user may find it too tedious to look in detail through each one of them.

As you can see, there seems to be more pros than cons when it comes to mobile marketing. So if you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon, you might want to rethink your marketing efforts and become part of the cool group – or you might just get left behind.