OPINION: When site-sized morsels offer sweet taste of Web success

<p>What have Japanese hay fever sufferers, stock market junkies, anglers, </p><p>and Hello Kitty fans all got in common? The answer, of course, is the </p><p>medium of their dreams: welcome to i-mode. From today's pollen count in </p><p>Yamagata Prefecture, to the latest movements on the Nikkei, to the </p><p>fishing conditions in the Tama River and the cheery "Ohayo Gozaimasu" of </p><p>the 6am wake-up call - there's no escaping the incredible range of new </p><p>consumer uses for the mobile phone, or the excitement it is </p><p>creating. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>With an installed base of over 13 million subscribers and 1.5 million </p><p>new users every month, it's no wonder the pundits are gasping; </p><p>especially when there's a growing scepticism about the alternative </p><p>technology protocol, WAP. But some questions now begin to form. Is the </p><p>Japanese m.tsunami a precursor to a communications revolution on a truly </p><p>oceanic scale? </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>And, where so much attention has been given to the consumer benefits, </p><p>there's a question for marketers and communicators: so what's in it for </p><p>us? Is this a new medium? Or a channel? Or what? </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The wireless Web, dominated by DoCoMo's i-mode, has turned Japan from </p><p>being yesterday's Internet laggard into today's vanguard. High quality </p><p>video and audio will soon be available. With the launch of </p><p>next-generation G3 services in the summer of 2002, the lead will be </p><p>quite definitive. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>So far, the whole phenomenon has been characterised by a uniquely </p><p>mass-market approach. The critical point here is to differentiate </p><p>between rich content, as a spur to adoption, and real usage. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>While there are over 20,000 alternative sites on DoCoMo, and many </p><p>receive very creditable hits, the weight of usage is towards email (over </p><p>75 per cent), followed by entertainment or very simple information, for </p><p>instance news or weather. The explosion of 'short mail', particularly </p><p>amongst younger subscribers, in turn accounts for the bulk of </p><p>e-mail. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Here, I believe some particularly Japanese cultural characteristics are </p><p>at play. In a society where interactions are formal and constrained, </p><p>m.friendship comes easy and cheap - even to the point of being carried </p><p>on between complete strangers. And in a commuting lifestyle where dead </p><p>time needs to be filled ("himatsubushi") the mobile Internet offers </p><p>relief. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Underlying all this is the fact that the Internet population in Japan </p><p>was relatively undeveloped: while the Internet has always been a </p><p>somewhat intimidating entity to the Japanese consumer, the mobile </p><p>Internet offers reassuringly simple pre-packaged access in site-sized </p><p>chunks. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>What the Japanese experience shows us is that the serious, sober </p><p>characterisation of the mobile Internet in so many market intelligence </p><p>reports as an improving, information-led, left-brain entity is a very </p><p>different world. If you want surging penetration, then fun, </p><p>old-fashioned fun, is the name of the game. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>This is a lesson for WAP in Europe and North America. Rather than </p><p>positioning itself as a gateway to the whole, wild world of the Web, it </p><p>should really be considering whether it is more fruitful to offer </p><p>edited, digestible packages of it. It goes against the grain of </p><p>'democratic' Internet thinking, but actually it is much better </p><p>marketing. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In the meantime, the looming reality in Asia is that in many markets, </p><p>the mobile phone will quite simply replace the computer as the source of </p><p>Internet access. Consider China: it is possible that there are 60 </p><p>million mobile phone users currently, compared to 12 million Internet </p><p>users. By the end of this year, most mobile phones sold in China will be </p><p>WAP-enabled. Companies such as Linktone are already offering telco </p><p>content which parallels that of DoCoMo. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Here is a big attraction to marketers: a new base of significant </p><p>critical mass, high spending and well profiled, with which to </p><p>communicate to their customers. But how? </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The early days of the mobile Internet have seen it much touted as an ad </p><p>medium. This is fraught with difficulty. Certainly, it is already being </p><p>sold as one in Japan - ValueClick Japan charges 100-120 yen per click </p><p>for ads on i-mode accessible websites, which in turn receive five to 10 </p><p>times more hits than regular Internet sites. So far so good. But, in its </p><p>own right, this is not yet a prime image building medium. Even when we </p><p>project ourselves forward to next year and being able to transmit full </p><p>commercials, the ability to replicate the depth of viewing that can be </p><p>experienced on a normal sized TV is very limited. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>That is why, rather than seeing it as just another medium for the same </p><p>material, it will be more attractive to think of it as a medium for </p><p>mini-branding. Rather like m&m's are to the Mars Bar, we will need to </p><p>design tailor-made brand nuggets which respond to the requirements of </p><p>the medium. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>A large part of the current issue is visual. How can one achieve graphic </p><p>honesty with the brand's look and feel when one is limited to aquarium </p><p>green and primitive type? Only 3G, and the larger screens which must in </p><p>time come with it, will open up the real opportunity. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The more strategically compelling case for m.marketing is customer </p><p>relationships. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>We have a new mechanism within CRM; the ability in a pervasive world not </p><p>just to gather more information about behaviour, but also to use this to </p><p>create time-sensitive and location-sensitive alerts. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The theory is self-evident. However, two notes of caution have to be </p><p>sounded. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>First, who owns the data? The telco or the advertiser? In the case of </p><p>Japan, it is very much DoCoMo - a fact which is likely to strangle at </p><p>birth the growth of a genuine CRM business in Japan. Ironically, </p><p>marketers may have to look to China where a less monopolistic approach </p><p>prevails to see a realisation of the truly big opportunity in Asia. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Secondly, what to do with it when you've got it? Quite simply, it will </p><p>overwhelm. Wireless operators tend not to have a simple view of each </p><p>customer's experience and behaviour across the organisation and the </p><p>different data systems. Brand owners still are very laggard in being </p><p>able to merge current on and off line data, and the existing limitations </p><p>of their capabilities will define their ability to use new data, in a </p><p>way which enables accurate and meaningful personalisation. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Nonetheless, it does offer marketers a golden gift, nothing less than </p><p>the re-invention of moments of truth. Since Sven Carlsson invented the </p><p>term for Scandinavian Airlines some 30 years ago, it has been a concept </p><p>in search of a technology. Now it has found it. The ability to send </p><p>messages - text, sound, visual - at critical points in time, or </p><p>alongside pervasive trigger points, is truly valuable for brands. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Already in Japan we are seeing the setting up of i-concierge </p><p>services. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>For instance, mypage offers PDA-like functionality and will mail you </p><p>your daily 'to do' list; primitive, maybe, but the shape of better </p><p>things to come. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>A critical moment of truth which has been notoriously difficult for </p><p>brands to influence is the point of purchase. In the old days, Point of </p><p>Sale was a marketing weapon, but retailer power killed it off: rest in </p><p>peace, the shelf wobbler. Now we have the ability to switch the balance </p><p>of power, to create branded in-store service. So imagine the ability to </p><p>talk to the brand owner directly, by direct calling to customer service </p><p>while actually considering the purchase. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Taken a step further, the customer will have a powerful tool in his hand </p><p>not just to exercise his or her purchase decision, but to monitor his or </p><p>her satisfaction. I think we will see "satisfaction banks", where </p><p>services can be self monitored, or compared on an on-going basis, and </p><p>ultimately linked to various pervasive transactions, at the time of the </p><p>transaction. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The big revolution of m.marketing, therefore, will be to help leverage </p><p>the brand in its channels. This is the arrival of new economy sales </p><p>promotion. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Once again, it has the theoretical potential to rebalance the </p><p>relationship between retailer and brand, because it will allow brand </p><p>marketers to drive customers into stores with offers rather more </p><p>directly than now. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Currently, though it is the retailers who show the early </p><p>experimentation. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>For instance, the entertainment brand Tsutaya in Japan targets its </p><p>200,000 strong membership club (of whom 40,000 came via i-mode) with </p><p>m.coupons to encourage extra usage, upgrades and so on. Offers can be </p><p>geographically triggered, drive the consumer into the store, and are </p><p>linked to broader rewards programmes. The critical thing about this sort </p><p>of application is not that it can be done, however, but how it is done. </p><p>It is the backend - the use of data and targeting - to ensure that </p><p>offers are directed to where they are profitable that will make this as </p><p>different as targeted sales promotion is from mass money off. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>This highlights the critical importance of the off-line brand. </p><p>m.marketing will be giving a new dimension to these rather than creating </p><p>just another cheap, discount, bargain basement zone rather such as has </p><p>been created in the banner space of the Internet. That would be a </p><p>desperate waste of the mobile medium. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In the past, a traditional TV advertisement appealed to the consumer at </p><p>leisure, and promoted general awareness. Now m.communication and </p><p>m.transactions can make specific offers close in time and space to the </p><p>purchase. So we can say, for brands, that the unique contribution of the </p><p>mobile Internet is that: </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- It condenses the gap and makes a link between creating desire and </p><p>stimulating a transaction </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- It will be a medium for convergence where it matters most </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>- It will be a highly powerful consumer activation tool </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In saying all this, let's not forget though that it needs to be used </p><p>creatively. The lesson of Asia so far is that wireless works best when </p><p>it is an involving pre-packaged entity - not as a mere gateway offering </p><p>access to the entire, untamed Internet. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>