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A recent report says that SMS (short message service) usage in India, particularly in the urban areas, has grown significantly in the past few years. Given below are some of the interesting points made in the report.
• According to TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India), an average Indian sends 29 text messages a month.
• Text messages in India are not just used for personal communication. People check their bank balances, book tickets for movies, check air ticket and train ticket status, pay their bills, and do lots more.
• The response rate for text message marketing in India is very impressive. One in every three urban Indians has responded to such marketing campaigns either by forwarding the messages to his friends or by calling the sender to get more details.
• A large number of people opt for SMS based value added services. The most popular value added services include business/finance news, stock market tips, astrological advice, spiritual quotes, news alerts, job alerts, and sports updates.
• More than 40% of urban Indians have received promotional offers via SMS. Nearly 12% of people who got such text messages have made a purchase based on the information given in the message.
• 30 to 45 year olds – people with a significant disposable income – are more likely to respond to text message marketing and make a purchase.
• Nearly 30% of urban Indians have participated in some kind of SMS based contests. As you can guess, males are more likely to take part in such contests than females.
While this report does not have any groundbreaking information, it does confirm the fact that mobile advertising, as an advertising medium, has a bright future in India. There are a few important reasons why I think so.
1. Data plans in India are quite cheap. Most operators charge only a very small amount for text messages. Incoming messages are never charged. So, it allows people to respond to promotional offers and other such stuff without worrying about a huge mobile bill at the end of the month.
2. In the past ten years or so, Indian economy has improved considerably and the purchasing power of the middle class – comprising nearly 300 million Indians - has increased as well. Hundreds of millions of people with disposable income – now that’s a dream for any marketer.
3. A number of mobile operators in India are beginning to focus on not just the urban areas, but the rural areas as well. This will increase the number of mobile users in India by an unbelievably huge extent. In other words, in a few years from now, there will be close to 700 million mobile users in India. It is going to be the dreamland of every mobile marketer in the world.
What do you think? I’m interested to hear your viewpoints.
For further reading, check out these posts.
Indian Mobile Advertising Market on a Roll
Is India the Fastest Growing Market for Mobile Advertising?
Mobile Advertising in India - A Closer Look
Tags: marketing campaigns, mobile advertising, SMS, stock market tips, telecom regulatory authority, telecom regulatory authority of india, text message marketing, text messages, urban indians, value added services
Technorati Tags: marketing campaigns, mobile advertising, SMS, stock market tips, telecom regulatory authority, telecom regulatory authority of india, text message marketing, text messages, urban indians, value added services
Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.
India has been the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world for quite some time now. There are already 250 million mobile phone users in India and the number gets increased by 6 million every month, thanks to new users. There are a few reasons behind this impressive growth.
1. Indian economy is on a roll and has had an impressive growth over the past few years. This has increased the purchasing power of the people significantly, especially that of the middle class people. As a result, the 30 million middle class people in India are the target customer segment for mobile companies now.
2. The price range of mobile phones is quite big. You can get low-end mobile phones in the $20 - $30 price range and at the same time you can get high-end mobile phones in the $600 - $800 price range. So, whether you belong to the super rich category, middle class, or lower middle class category, you can get a mobile phone which fits into your budget.
3. There are several major mobile operators in India and there is intense competition in the market. Almost all of them have slashed their call charges, text message charges, and offer a lot of value added services. What this means to the user is, not only can he get a handset at an affordable rate, but he can also afford to keep his phone charges within his budget every month. This has led to more and more people buying mobile phones.
Recent reports predict that India will have a whopping 500 million mobile users by 2010. This is the reason why mobile advertising is considered the next big thing in the Indian market.
Though mobile advertising by third party advertisers is yet to become popular, several mobile operators are already doing it successfully. Notable players like Bharti Airtel, BSNL, Tata Indicom, Reliance, and Vodafone regularly send text messages to their users regarding latest offers, new plans, and other issues.
That said, a few big players have already tried their hands on mobile advertising through third party advertisers and have had a good response. Recently, Hindustan Lever and Coca Cola launched mobile advertising campaigns promoting their products and have had good response rate so far. Since Indians are very active in using features like text message, MMS, and mobile internet, mobile advertisers have tons of choices to come up with personalized mobile advertising campaigns.
All in all, India will be a market to watch out for in the next few years as far as mobile advertising is concerned.
Tags: Airtel, BSNL, call charges, Coca Cola, customer segment, hindustan lever, impressive growth, indian economy, intense competition, message charges, MMS, Mobile advertisers, mobile advertising campaigns, mobile internet, mobile phone, mobile advertising, mobile companies, mobile operators, mobile phone market, mobile phone users, mobile users, phone charges, reliance, target customer, tata indicom, text message, third party advertisers, value added services, Vodafone
Technorati Tags: Airtel, BSNL, call charges, Coca Cola, customer segment, hindustan lever, impressive growth, indian economy, intense competition, message charges, MMS, Mobile advertisers, mobile advertising campaigns, mobile internet, mobile phone, mobile advertising, mobile companies, mobile operators, mobile phone market, mobile phone users, mobile users, phone charges, reliance, target customer, tata indicom, text message, third party advertisers, value added services, Vodafone
Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.
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