Mobile marketing is defined as marketing via a mobile device.This medium though still in its infancy in Nigeria but it is indicating a great, promising and rewarding future.

Rate of adoption is still slow because the Brand owners and agencies do not yet fully understand this medium and they cannot trust it entirely like the traditional marketing with its imperfections. Mobile is targeted with clear ROI statements because of its measurability through the interactions of the consumers mobiles phones and the application platform.

The mega brands are yet to fully exploit this channel but the little efforts they are channeling is significant enough to take a deeper dive. Coca cola Nigeria is currently running a mobile marketing campaign which is giving away 500 Million Nigeria naira worth of mobile phone airtime in the Refresh and recharge promo. This is an sms based mobile marketing which is changing consumers perception and consumption across the length and breath of Nigeria.

The ease of use of the sms creates a new opportunities for marketers and the introduction of the incentive elements make it’s a strong compelling reasons for millions to participate.

Consumer adoption of Mobile marketing in Nigeria, though not yet measurable but figures from independent and non commercial sites like the BBC reported that Nigerians accounts for 61 percent of its international traffic to it wap site. More than 50 million sms are sent daily across all the networks in Nigeria, availability of wap and gprs in most cities and towns and lastly, the critical mass are acquiring high end phones which is a necessary factor for mobile marketing success. High mobile penetrations also strongly favour the mobile over internet and other forms of marketing.

Apart from well planned campaigns like that of coca cola which is national in nature and incentivized, many consumers said sms campaigns had no significant influence in their purchasing habits because they did not receive the message as at when needed and sometimes the received marketing sms has nothing to do with their purchasing habits. A gentleman told me that He has been receiving promotional sms for flight discount even when He has never flew a plane and cannot even afford to. Poor targeting and unreliable database.

In order to make mobile marketing effective, there is need to fully explore the human angle and clearly understand the local environments. Reports has shown that consumers in Nigeria will opt-in for incentive based mobile marketing where freebies like airtime, ringtones, discounts and others are offered. Fast moving consumer goods are more trusted in such regards.

Across all consumers what seems to be important for them to engage a mobile campaign is in this order, Incentive, usefulness, relevance and ease of usage.

Nigerian consumers has usually High risk perception for wap and Bluetooth marketing from unknown sources and Brands. This means a new product from a new company will be making a mistake by launching their product via these mediums but a trusted Brand will be a great hit.

Emmanuel@gomobileng.com
Mobile marketing specialist