Reaching a high level of complexity and
adoption of mobile marketing like Japan’s in the short run is wishful thinking
but the West should definitely investigate what it can learn from the East. While not all success ingredients fit
together, surely some strategies can prove themselves quite transferable.
So let’s take a look at what made Japan the
poster child at mobile marketing. As much as I would want to understand
Japanese to see for myself, I can’t, but fortunately others do. Christopher
Billich from Infinita, a market intelligence and research company that acts as
a liaison between Japan and the world on mobile marketing know-how, has shared
his insights on the topic with mobithinking.
Out of his experience of the Japanese market,
a couple of lessons emerge for us, the laggard West:
1.
Infrastructure upgrades
In Japan the 3G network penetration is impressively high. This is a question of getting the
fundamentals right. Even before talking about value added services, telecoms
should get down to the basics. Factoring in collaboration with other carriers
and government support can prove to be a killer formula.
2.
Flat-rate data plans that rule
The rapid adoption of mobile internet usage is, in Christopher’s
opinion, due to Japan’s mobile operators’ flat-rate data plans. The idea is
simple and not a new one: we all know how hard it is to resist temptation to
over eat at an open buffet for example once you paid the flat price. Same goes
for data usage.
3.
Homogeneous handset base
In Japan the carriers have a special relationship with the
manufacturers in that they control what kind of devices appear on the market.
Marketers are then faced with little fragmentation. This point is a bit more
difficult to argue when it comes to the geographically fragmented Europe. Nevertheless,
this strategy can go well within countries that are quick at implementing
change and are hungry for gaining a national competitive edge.
4.
Mobile email over SMS or MMS
A consequence of a 3G wide coverage is the fact that considerably
more data can be transmitted, allowing for the advent of the mobile mail that,
in Japan, offers up to 10 000 characters, emoticons and attachment options.
Right from the start of the micro browsing, Japanese mobile carriers have
allowed for off-deck mobile sites that encouraged creation and sharing of non-proprietary sites
and content, otherwise known for as an ‘’open garden’’ approach. Open source and crowd
sourcing are the other two sister trends that telecoms should think of embracing. Keeping absolute control over their value chain means stagnation and the way to innovate implies giving up some of that control in favour for collaborations, scale and diversity of mobile services and revenue sharing agreements for instance.
6.
Attractive content revenue sharing
What
better way to encourage usability of devices and popularity of new software and services than rewarding the
content providers generously. In Japan, operators will only retain 10 % of the
revenue in stark comparison with up to 50% in some
cases in the West. An attractive revenue sharing scheme will quickly translate into economies of scale involving mobile services as products which in itself can propel the telecoms` subscriber base and popularity considerably.
7.
Telecom + private sector partnerships
Avoiding a dumb pipe fate has put telecoms on the burner as
internet and the ubiquity of connected devices increasingly shape new directions for today`s economy. Telecoms could fight back by looking for new business models. One
example is particularly encouraging: DoCoMo’s joint venture with McDonald’s over
a loyalty program that primarily involved redeeming coupons at the fast food chain while ensuring a swift and adequate user experience. ‘’Kazasu Coupon’’ program has since become the darling of those who eat at McD`s. You can also check out an interesting article on the idea of telecoms becoming somewhat like media companies here.
