Mobile marketing is a relatively new concept for U.S. consumers and marketers alike. So much so, that you may not really have a handle on how this burgeoning channel works or what it can add to your marketing mix.
And although
Alex Michael and
Ben Salter of U.K.-based new-media company Sprite Interactive are on the leading edge of this technology, their new book “Mobile Marketing” (Elsevier, $29.95) does not shy away from discussing the challenges, limitations and market confusion about the mobile channel. As they write in the preface, “There is so much hype about how mobile will do this or that, and how mobility changes traditional business models, but there is limited understanding of exactly what this means for companies and their bottom line.”
Aimed at the mobile marketing neophyte, this book focuses on the technical considerations of setting up a mobile program, including consumer billing, operating systems, application environments, protocols and payment models. But while you can get lost in the terminology and the overabundance of acronyms (an appendix will help you get up to speed on the lingo), as you read, it becomes clear that while this may be a new channel, it’s still based on the tried-and-true direct marketing principles of targeting, relevancy, permission and measurement.
Although it is written from a U.K. perspective, “Mobile Marketing” maintains an international focus, including an informative overview of the mobile markets in 28 countries, which makes it a good primer for marketers of any country.
—Tracy A. Gill
