The power of mobile marketing grew significantly in the last year.
In 2015, brands must leverage mobile further in order to achieve even higher levels of success and return on investment, and to
ultimately capture consumer attention. This is especially true for developing nations (locations such as Brazil, India and Africa) – home to the quickest growing, and therefore most promising
consumer segments. A recent Gfk forecast predicts that India will continue to display impressive growth in 2015 with a 16 percent increase in device sales.
With mobile adoption
increasing yearly, marketers will need to determine how best to reach consumers via their personal devices. In fact, according to Gartner, more than 50% of users in emerging markets will primarily use
a smartphone or tablet for all online activities within the next three years.
This widespread adoption of mobile devices across the globe will demand critical consumer-targeting strategies in
the year ahead. To achieve success (and profit), brands must strive to achieve the following:
Increased mobile advertising
In the year ahead, brands must make an effort to
conduct further messaging and consumer targeting via mobile and personal devices. As seen in 2014, Facebook’s global ad revs in the third quarter jumped 64% to nearly $3 billion, two-thirds of
which was from mobile.
Mobile ads are therefore especially useful for brands that are marketing to consumers in developing nations, especially as device adoption continues to grow at a rapid
pace.
Research firm GfK’s forecasts shows that seven of the top 10 smartphone markets in 2015 are all emerging markets; their growth by value has surpassed developed markets. While
Westerners generally react negatively to mobile advertising, failing to interact with such ads, in its 2014 “The Next Mobile Frontier Report,” Upstream found that 93% of Nigerians enjoy
receiving direct mobile advertisements to their devices. This serves as a lesson regarding most global markets — culturally, consumers respond differently to different marketing tactics. Mobile
marketers must take this into account when strategizing for 2015.
Focused localization efforts
In order for brands to successfully reach mobile users in the New Year, they must
increase localization efforts. If messaging does not cater to the local language or customs, it becomes difficult for brands to efficiently communicate with potential consumers, and therefore
impossible to effectively capture user attention. Upstream’s mobile report also found 20% of consumers in emerging markets, such as Brazil, are highly frustrated that mobile messaging is not
transcribed into their local language. In addition, 24% of survey respondents said they find it difficult to find relevant content.
For mobile marketers to succeed in 2015, they will
need to appeal to the individual countries they are working in.
In 2015, localization will not be limited to content alone. Localized payment solutions will partner with service providers in
an effort to become more accessible to consumers in the developing world. In countries such as Nigeria, many consumers use their mobile phone providers primarily for payment purposes because credit
cards are not feasible.
With more than 21% of consumers in developing countries unable to access credit or banking facilities, this is a major barrier to entry, and as a result, payment
services will need to transform their business model to reflect individual markets. By localizing payment methods as well as content, brands will be better able to effectively reach customers.