While Acxiom's recent mobile marketing study is aimed at informing wireless providers about how customers select carriers, the information from the Little Rock, Ark.-based data solutions firm also gives mobile marketers insight into consumer behavior and demographics.
The hidden gem inside the inaugural Communications Consumer Dynamics Study, released during the DMA09 Conference & Exhibition in San Diego, is mobile marketers can learn, for instance, that a mobile customer with a high bill and a long-term contract favors smartphones and calling convenience, and mostly uses her cell phone for business purposes. Further, she tends to be part of an affluent family with school-age children and a preference for high-end services.
An additional information nugget included in the research is that smartphone users often have e-mail, an integrated personal digital assistant, a meeting planner, Web access, streaming video, music downloads and mobile television.
For most mobile marketers, these are useful things to know. At the same time, they're not
necessarily intuitive.
For instance, some of the findings are surprisingly specific. The study advises marketers to time offers to consumers with midpriced, monthly household cell bills with offers that coincide with seasonal events, like back-to-school (perhaps because this group tends to be college-aged people or middle-aged empty nesters who predominantly live in urban areas).
And households with the smallest bills and monthly contracts tend to be affluent, middle-aged consumers who are conservative and traditional.
But, yes, those with the lowest household bills, using prepaid phones, do represent low-income consumers.
For a copy of the study, visit www.acxiom.com/communications_
consumer_dynamics.
