It was in 1960 that well-known marketer E. Jerome McCarthy proposed the four Ps concept of marketing (product, price, place and promotion) which is now used in most marketing courses and reference books. The four Ps were followed by the five Ps (adding “people” to the other four) and the three Cs developed by business and corporate strategist Kenichi Ohmae. Whatever model you opt for, making the right choice of marketing approach is always the critical first step behind any successful marketing initiative.

The more dynamic and competitive the industry, the greater the marketing challenges, and the mobile industry, without any doubt, poses some of the most complex business challenges for marketing professionals.

As we stand at the threshold of the twenty-first century’s second decade, it is interesting to reflect on how mobile operators’ marketing strategies have evolved, especially in red hot markets like India. In the early nineties, operators started with aggressive investments in network deployment and brand building. Brand ambassadors, mostly popular Bollywood stars and cricket heroes, were all over billboards, TV commercials and print magazines endorsing operators’ products and services. Later, as the competition intensified, we witnessed a shift of strategy from mass media campaigns to tariff wars.

Change of emphasis – from signups to wallet share
The mobile industry has been changing rapidly ever since, with huge prepaid subscriber bases, products with extremely short lifecycles, rural inclusion, stringent regulatory controls and so on. Today, subscriber value maximisation (or a greater wallet share) is the key focus of any operator. Naturally, maximising the value of each subscriber calls for a different marketing approach to signing up millions of new ones.

To reach their huge subscriber bases, especially in the prepaid and rural segments, operators need a direct and real-time channel. Also, most of the operators’ products (like ringtones, for example) have short lifecycles which cannot be pushed through traditional channels. It is in this context that mobile marketing is growing in significance. In India, total mobile subscriptions stand now close to a staggering 500 million, arguably one of the largest marketing media available for operators.

Mobile marketing’s global growth
Mobile marketing is on the rise, not just in India, but across the globe. A report from Swedish analyst firm Berg Insight predicts that the global mobile marketing and advertising market’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 43 percent means it will reach a value of €8.7 billion by 2014 - around 11.7 % of the total digital advertising market. T-Mobile in Europe recently announced plans to increase its digital marketing spend to 40 percent of its total marketing budget.

The numbers look impressive but, as a marketer myself, I will be little cautious here. As every marketer will tell you – the plan is only as good as its execution. Despite all the hype, early (and intrusive) SMS campaigns not only failed to generate desired returns, but resulted in spiralling concerns over spam and resulting damage to brands.

So the question is: what does the optimal mobile marketing campaign look like - how can marketers unlock mobile’s potential as a direct, conversational marketing channel?

Three Cs redefined
Looking at the relative success rates of different mobile campaigns attempted by operators, I am tempted to redefine the traditional 3C-based marketing approach. For operators, the three Cs that will drive the success of marketing programmes will be customer centricity, contextual offers, and conversational marketing.

Customer-centric:
Every marketing campaign should be customer data-driven. According to a McKinsey report, micro-targeted campaigns based on customer’s demographic data like age or sex as well as on his interests and preferences, can increase an operator’s top line by 3 to 5 percent.

Contextual:
Contextual campaigns based on real-time customer needs and actions such as location information, transaction data, credit balance, browsing details and so on can increase the relevance of campaigns, leading to higher conversion rates.

Conversational:
Traditional product push campaigns do not work in the new context. The key to the operator’s success is in nurturing a long-term relationship with the customer through direct, real-time and permission based customer engagement programs. Conversational marketing programs like mobile couponing are becoming increasingly popular among the subscribers as well.

The bottom line is that the 3Cs – traditionally customer analysis, company analysis and competitor analysis, are already being redefined by operators looking for the right recipe for mobile marketing. We are on the threshold of an exciting new decade for marketers.