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Thursday, November 24, 2005

Welcome Message for Roamer - SPAM?

Coming home to Indianapolis for Thanksgiving my plane first touched down in Chicago. As I cleared immigration and customs I switched on my mobile phone where I was greeted with an immediate Welcome message from Cingular/AT&T. In the trade this is called a "Welcome Message for Roamer". For the techies in the crowd you can read more about how the messaging systems discover that I've arrived.

Welcome Message for Roamer is considered by most legislation - both US and EU - to be considered a network service message and thus not SPAM. Further, in that you are using these networks to place and receive calls one could argue that you have an existing business relationship with the mobile network operator and thus an implied consent exists.

As these messages are considered to be related to the service and not marketing - there is no way to Opt-Out or to request not to receive the messages - (try though I might!)

A marketing opportunity?

According to the recent Global Roaming Report from Informa Telecoms there were 210,000,000 GSM roamers in 2004 and they forecast that number will soar to 850,000,00 by 2010 (but since when has a forecast ever not suggested that numbers will soar?!). Marketers, having seen this report, are now looking at way to capitalize on this unique group of traveling mobile consumers.

In order to maintain the "service" classification of the messages, mobile network operators are unlikely to try to extend the content of these messages to include marketing messages for third party brands or services - but what about another way?

Valuable Network Information

Mobile network operators can provide more than simple transit for voice and data - they can be more than a dumb pipe. Contained in the network are other valuable elements including location, presence and availability. And one example of this is the information regarding a consumer who is roaming.

What if a marketer or content provider could be alerted when a consumer was roaming? The consumer could be identified as simply being off their home network meaning that services should be suspended until they return. Or, the consumers roaming location could be made available so that tailored services could be made available to the traveler while roaming. In either case this adds significant value to the service.

With roaming information a mobile marketing or mobile content service can come closer to the guidelines of offering content that is Timely, Relevant, Valuable and Requested (TRVR™). And the value of the information is such that mobile network operators can extend the business model to achieve new revenue streams from this presence and availability information.

No SPAM for Thanksgiving!

There are great ways to enhance mobile marketing and mobile content services to avoid the consumer perception of SPAM. This is one suggestion. Would love to hear your thoughts and any ideas that you might have.

Until next time - Happy Thanksgiving and remember

If you send SPAM for Thanksgiving - that makes YOU the turkey!

posted by Troy Norcross at 5:00 PM  

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A few words about why we're here

Since consumers first started to use SMS marketers have had the idea of text message marekting or marketing sms - also known as mobile marketing. And since that time marketing sms messages have grown and changed and new technology like bluetooth marketing, marketing bluetooth style to phones in close proximity to an advertisers.

And since the e-mail spam scourge took over the media, people have worried that there will be mobile phone spam. Spam is just another way of saying that advertisers send unsolicited text message marketing, marketing sms, bluetooth marketing or any other form of mobile marketing - it's mobile phone spam. There are even guides on how to spam phone s.

Consumer Preference is about permission based marketing, permission marketing solution. If, as an advertiser you can execute permission based marketing campaigns then you can certainly find ways to benefit from mobile marketing. And permission starts with understanding the consumer marketing preference. If you can understand consumer marketing preference, then you can execute permission based marketing. And permission marketing is not mobile phone spam.

There are many mobile marketing company listings that can be found on the Internet - and most mobile marketing company websites will tell you how they focus on permission marketing. Make sure that the one you partner with does more than tell you about it on the website. Opt-in marketing starts with your traditional marketing soliciting for permission.

Yes - Mobile marketing starts with traditional marketing - print, web, radio, television - all of the old standards. Because before you can send the first message to a consumer, you must obtain their permission... and that means that you understand consumer marketing prefernce.

Please enjoy reading consumer-preference.com - and if you feel that there is a point I'm making you'd like to share - then put a link to it from your own site. And always feel free to leave comments!

Troy Norcross

 

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