re: GSA on Carriers Marketing Focus (Lack Thereof)
The article below refers to a very interesting 111 page GSA study (jointly produced with Satama) that can be downloaded here:
gsacom.com
This GSA Q3 independent "Mobile Portals Survey" tracks US portals for the first time. The latest survey charts the evolution of WAP services in the United States, as well as monitoring the regular cross-section across Western Europe - 72 mobile portals are included in total, representing 18 countries.
The seven US Carriers (and portals) covered are:
AllTel Web Unwired
AT&T Wireless PocketNet
Cingular Wireless Window
Nextel Nextel Wireless
Sprint PCS Sprint PCS Wireless Web
Verizon MYVZW
Voice Stream Web Stream
>> Mobile Operators Lack Marketing Focus, Says Vendor Group
Ouida Taaffe
Total Telecom
19 September 2001
Mobile operators are not getting their message across to potential customers of mobile Internet services.
That was the conclusion of a meeting organized by vendors' group the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) prior to the opening of the Mobile Internet conference in Paris, Tuesday. Delegates argued that many operators need to apply more segmentation to their marketing if it is to be truly effective.
Xavier Blanc, of Helsinki-based Internet consultancy Satama Interactive, said the messages from operators were "extremely fuzzy" and that "the value proposition for the user is not clear."
Another participant noted that Swedish operator Telia, for example, had not been using much direct marketing to launch its GPRS services, though there had been significant media coverage of the service. A similar pattern has been noted by observers in the U.K., with some marketing specialists believing that mm02 (the new name for BT Wireless) is trying to place its brand as much through media coverage as through overt marketing.
A general consensus was that operators and vendors alike had been guilty of promoting technical achievements, rather than attractive services. Other delegates argued that operators need to become more accepting of partnerships if they are really to develop applications that customers will want to use.
Blanc was at the meeting to present the findings of the latest GSA study, jointly produced with Satama, into Mobile Portal WAP services.
The study aims to provide an up to date picture of the state of mobile portals, as well as some outline of the evolution of the portals. The study looked primarily at operator-owned portals in the U.S. and Western Europe.
However, the study did not examine the uptake of services, nor the rationale that operators had for providing specific offerings. It also did not try to pin down the level of investment involved in each of the portals examined.
Blanc said he expected real value for portals to develop from the interplay of applications, but that this has yet to develop, either in Europe, or in the U.S.
A main finding of the study was the lack of differentiation between the offerings in terms of the types of content and services they provided. Across the board, in both the U.S. and Western Europe, the focus was on news, particularly financial and sporting, and on search facilities. Entertainment, in the broadest sense of jokes, games, horoscopes, and so on, took the second position.
The U.S. portals, of which seven (covering 80% of the U.S. mobile subscriber base) were studied, appeared to mirror the level of development seen in Western Europe around one year ago. There was, for example, little chatting, messaging, betting, games, or auctioning.
The researchers said they did not track whether operators tried out certain services before deciding on what fitted, nor did they look at the effect of, or popularity of, "one-off", or short-term promotions. <<
And:
>> GSA's Global Mobile Dialogue Urges Operators To Focus On Users
September 19, 2001
GSA Press Release
GSA - the Global mobile Suppliers Association - held the latest in its Global Mobile Dialogues™ (GMD) in Paris yesterday, focusing on the theme "Succeed with Applications". The panellists and invited audience of industry analysts, media, and GSA members identified a number of market issues and concerns - particularly with regard to the future creation, branding, and marketing of mobile Internet services. With the first round of GPRS services about to go live in various countries, the GMD issued a wake-up call, encouraging the market to switch away from talking about technology and to concentrate on delivering consumer-oriented services.
Guest panellist Xavier Blanc, from Internet consultancy Satama Interactive, opened the proceedings by presenting the key findings from the GSA-sponsored Mobile Portals Survey, published quarterly. The latest survey charts the evolution of WAP services in the United States for the first time, as well as monitoring the regular cross-section across Western Europe - 72 mobile portals are included in total, representing 18 countries. The debate then opened up to encompass the breadth and scope of the current WAP-based services offered by Mobile Portals, as well as the implications presented by the imminent advent of GPRS.
The third GMD to be staged by GSA this year, the Paris debate highlighted the fact that the current service offerings follow very similar patterns. The bulk of independent and operator-owned mobile portals are predominantly offering the same mix of individually structured services, which tend to be WAP extensions of fixed Internet web sites.
The gulf between user expectations and the current industry offerings were clearly evident - users are not being clearly sold the benefits and value of GPRS. If consumers are to adopt 2.5 and ultimately 3G, it is essential that mobile devices fit simply, easily and effectively into their lives - with applications and services dictating the usage, rather than the technology. There are rare examples of innovative operator approaches - with the key to success necessitating a clear focus on creating market demand and ensuring that sufficient capacity is allocated to deliver the quality of service promised.
The GMD concluded with the observation that mobile portals provide an excellent benchmark from which to draw an understanding of what customers want in future. Operators have access to a wealth of data - about the services users are accessing, as well as when and how frequently. This is the basis for developing the future success of 3G - personalisation, and educating users about the desirability and usability of future services, based on a new service-based business strategy that will involve partnering and revenue sharing. <<
- Eric - |
