I can do that?
(Originally published on infoSync) I can be categorized as a geek, or as a technology addict, never reading a manual, out of stupidity or knowledge, always using devices to their almost maximum ability, always on the lookout for the latest gadget (send me one if you have one ;). In short, I am not the general public.
The general public is often clueless as to what their phone can really do for them and most of the times they were never told when they first bought the phone. I can change my ringtone? I can group my callers and assign different ringtones for different groups? I can send what messages? That weird beep is when I get one of those messages? I can surf WAP pages? What are WAP pages? I can just say somebody’s name and the phone dials that person? I can send someone else a ringtone? I have a calendar in here? I can synchronize the calendar with Outlook on my computer? Questions on top of questions — on top of questions.
Mobile phones are not only phones anymore, but are increasingly becoming versatile multimedia devices that can do a lot of different things. If carriers want to improve their ARPU (Average Revenue per User), then they really need to tell all of their customers what they can really do with their phones. Another group of companies that could be doing that are the mobile device manufacturers, possibly through things like Club Nokia. Actually, the latter scenario might be the best one as it would further help companies like Nokia to set themselves appart from the industry. If they managed their customer relations well through Club Nokia, give them the right push in the right direction and get them to use advanced features like sending ring tones, then they would help carriers to make more money through Nokia users than other phone users (such as Siemens, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and soforth). This makes for an important sales pitch when pushing a new phone in the distribution chain. Vodafone wants a high ARPU and if Nokia users bring higher ARPU than Siemens users then they will increase the reductions on Nokia phones to entice users to use such systems.
The exact same thing can of course apply for other companies, and as an example, Siemens is building up a service similar to Club Nokia for Siemens users. Meanwhile, a German carrier called T-Mobile is building up a system called Happy Digits where people will be able to get Happy Digits (aka points) for using their phones. All that these companies really need is a big database of mobile phone users containing their interests, their level of knowledge and what phone model they are using.
But what could they really do with it? How would they be able to make users use these systems? There are really lots of possibilities. Newsletters would be one. Why is Siemens not contacting me every month about cool things in relation to my current phone — which might even entice me to use some new features? They could for example send me 3 free ring tones and an explanation on how the system works to get more ringtones from their pages. my-siemens.com actually has a place to download ring tones, and they just need to tell me (or rather the general public) that it’s there, let me try it out, let me use it, show me the ropes. This makes me as their customer happy, drives up revenue from that site in the long run and makes the carrier happy as their users use this system more frequently. In this case they probably don’t contact me because they don’t know me. But the point remains, and there are other options as well.
Run advertisements across the Internet or on TV advertising features. Send SMS messages with special items. Here would be an example: “Use the “Send ringtone” feature on Club Nokia once within this month and win a brand new VW Beetle. You can find the usage explanation by clicking going to …” If you have 500.000 users there and only 50.000 do what they are asked for, that results in each user spending about 2 EUR per ring tone — which makes it very likely to get some hooked on the service and a lot of others interested, and have the VW Beetle well paid for. Alternatively, they could say that you need to go to 2000 points in some WAP game by Friday to take part in a drawing for a Playstation 2 with 3 games. The idea basket is bottomless.
Some companies have already begun moving in that direction — for example, I saw several Motorola ads at the Heathrow in London advertising that you can have MasterCard on your phone, whereas Nokia recently ran the Nokia Game to get people to see the multimedia side of things. Siemens is currently running ads all over the place, hammering it into peoples heads that the new C45 can be customized to reflect a user’s personality with ringtones, covers and more.
I also remember that T-Mobile, then still T-D1, used to mail me some sort of informational brochure with each account statement telling me about things like handset sales or the answer machine service in the network. What I’m talking about, however, is more about how to use your mobile phone. That thing in your hand. I am also not talking about corporate marketing mailing but a way to engage customers to think about it, to talk about it, to try it out because it is something that they think they would like to use — not because it is advertised in 20 colors with big buzz words.
If you give it some thought, you’re more than likely to notice that the first steps towards what I am describing are already being taken. The problem is that it isn’t going far enough yet — not by far — or we would not be in the current situation. There’s still a lot of work that has to be done in regard of telling mobile phone users about the capabilities of their devices and the services available to them, and as they say, you can’t make money without spending money. Spending money is something that a lot of companies with huge debt are not willing to do at this time, though.
The thing is that getting in touch with users will become even more important in the future, when companies begin releasing phones where the software can be upgraded, which in turn will require manufacturers to really keep in contact with their customers. If a new software upgrade will enable a lot of new features in the phone, then manufacturers need to tell users about all of the new features. The device or phone essentially stays the same, the only difference is that its features change. If you think this is confusing now, just wait a few years and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
Speaking of new features, have you begun thinking of all the possibilities that will appear once MMS shows up in our mobile phones? I have, but more on that next time.