Around the world, carriers are looking to boost wireless data sales to offset razor-thin profit margins from voice services. And they’re getting a lot of help.
NMS Communications last week launched a framework that allows carriers to manage subscriber relations, track information from wireless data transactions and execute targeted marketing strategies. The mobile technology company unveiled Mobile Place, which is designed to allow operators to leverage mobile entertainment content and service delivery platforms to offer a better user experience. NMS hopes carriers use the product to bundle themed wireless data offerings-like ring backs, ringtones and wallpaper-and create a more user-friendly shopping experience.
The idea, according to NMS Vice President and General Manager for Network Solutions Brian Demers, is to help carriers track how their customers use voice and data services, both in terms of market segment and individual usage. Instead of encouraging a one-time content purchase, NMS hopes to create a “shopping environment” where users are lured with similar content based on individual tastes and buying patterns. A user who pays to download a ringtone from Jay-Z, for instance, could be invited to package the music with images of the hip-hop artist and music from similar acts.
“The outcome of a techno-centric approach has been the creation of `application silos’ within an operator’s network” where user profiles and billing information are effectively sequestered, Demers said. “It has created a phenomenon where the operators can’t really leverage (services) they have.
“Fundamentally, the user experience is broken. It’s not good for the operator, and not good for the user.”
As the U.S. wireless market nears the saturation point, the marketing strategies of carriers are evolving. Instead of focusing on luring new customers, carriers are striving to hold on to existing subscribers-and push data services to those users.
“What’s significant is the fact that there’s a major transition happening in the industry from a business standpoint,” said Nahid Giga, director of marketing for Amdocs, a billing and CRM provider for telecommunications firms. “It’s moving from a factory-direct model to a retail model, where carriers have the ability to provide a wide selection of content and different types of brands.”
And it’s that “wide selection”-an ever-expanding assortment of content offerings from text-messaging services to live video content-that presents such a challenge for operators. Just a few years ago, carriers had little to manage but voice services. Today’s carriers must act as a television service, music provider, video game vendor and video-messaging service in addition to being a traditional telephone company.
“What we’re seeing a demand for is good customer data on which to segment the market, giving providers that data in a format where they can actually do something with it,” said John Coldicutt, global product marketing manager for Amdocs. “Using a provider’s data and bringing in data from external parties, wherever you can get that from, really helps put that picture together.”
Like NMS and Amdocs, other CRM providers and marketing firms are beginning to work with carriers to understand the wireless data market. Some content providers have been tracking usage levels and trends of their wares for more than a year.
In-Fusio, a French publisher of community-oriented mobile games, tracks how long each gaming session takes, what time of day games are being played, and the carrier and type of phone a player is using.
“All of our competitors, for example, used to say that people were playing during meetings or while they were waiting for a bus,” said Gilles Raymond, In-Fusio’s chief executive officer. “We knew that people were not playing for a short period of time, but for 22 minutes” per session. Also, because most gamers were playing at night, Raymond determined they probably weren’t on-the-go but at home.
By combining this marketing data with carrier information, In-Fusio can get a better picture of who’s playing what types of games in terms of demographics including location, age and sex.
But efforts like In-Fusio’s do little to help carriers understand the market on a broader scale. While a game distributor may know what kind of user a certain title may appeal to, that information is unlikely to help sell other types of data. And carriers that fail to successfully market data services will lose customers to those that do, warned Mary Ann O’Loughlin, president of consultancy Ovum North America.
“I think the carriers do need to provide a lot more sophisticated market segmentation,” explained O’Loughlin. “These (efforts) will help reduce churn enormously. The more a person uses their phone, the less likely there are to move (service providers).”
Whether carriers embrace third-party efforts to tap the market or go it alone, insiders agree the industry is just beginning to understand what form the market for wireless data will take.
“Certainly, over time, (marketing efforts) will get sharper and more targeted,” said Jeff Hallock, vice president of product marketing and strategy for Sprint PCS. “We’re moving through a phase of adoption that’s really important.”
