[MUSIC]. In earlier lessons, I mentioned how smart and mobile devices have profoundly impacted human lives, in general. In digital marketing, more specifically. According to Salesforce, 68% of the companies have integrated mobile marketing into their overall marketing strategy. And 71% of marketers believe mobile marketing is core to their business. In this lesson, I'll focus on three key questions, and we'll take a closer look at mobile marketing. First, we'll ask, what is mobile marketing? And second, what are the channels and key features of mobile marketing? And third, what are the advantages and limitations of mobile marketing? Let's begin with the basic concept of mobile marketing. As in the case of many emerging industries and practices, there is no clear and agreed upon definition to mark the boundaries of mobile marketing. But there is a definition that I think that captures the essence of this concept. According to Marketo, a leader in marketing animation software. Mobile marketing is a multi-channel, digital marketing strategy aimed at reaching a target audience on their smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices, via websites, email, SMS and MMS, social media, apps, and etc. The core objective of mobile marketing is to reach and engage target consumers on their mobile communication devices via multiple communication channels. Recent data show that smartphone adoption rate in the United States has reached near saturation to about 81% in the year of 2016. This means that a vast and majority of Americans now can be directly reached via mobile communication. More remarkably, on average, Americans now spent nearly three hours per day on their mobile devices. And 50% of the mobile phone users habitually grab and check their phone first thing in the morning before they do anything else. And one-third of the subscribers now only use their mobile devices to read emails. Taken together, these statistics clearly suggest that mobile media have become the most important channel to reach and engage consumers. Mobile devices have overtaken desktop computer to become the most dominant digital media platform in 2014, and have never looked back. Mobile ad spending in the US grew from $28 billion in 2015 to over $100 billion in 2016, and accounted for more than 50% of the total digital market. According to Emarketer's forecast model, mobile advertising spending will reach nearly $200 billion, and top 70% of the total market by the year of 2020. Meanwhile, mobile commerce transactions currently amount to about $1.5 trillion annually, and will reach $3.2 trillion by 2017. The evolution and growth of mobile technology are also incredible. Mobile communication has moved beyond the confines of mobile phones and tablet computers to smart accessories, such as watches, and other wearables. Marketers expect that two in five Internet users will use wearables by the year 2019. Mobile is certainly the future. With new technologies and marketing platform developing nearly every day in the mobile and digital world, how do we make sense of, and stay focused when facing such a rapidly changing landscape? Well behind the dazzling new looks and the various bells and whistles, comes with new mobile devices, functions and applications. There are some core features of mobile media as a multi-channel platform for various marketing communication that we should focus on. Let's take a look at them. One of the most significant features of mobile marketing is its omnipresence. It can take place anywhere at any time. Most smartphone owners have their phones within arm's reach at all times. And these gives marketers unprecedented access to the demographics they're trying to reach. Something that has never been done and never seen before with a traditional medium. Furthermore, users are doing more than just having their phones with them at all times. They're always is using them, as well. This proximity to the users, and their willingness to use particular devices allow advertisers to ensure that the messages that they're delivering are sending and being received directly by the consumers. And the technological nature of the medium allows these mobile devices to effectively gauge the effectiveness of the ads, as well. At the same time, smart mobile devices are not only communication devices, but also a data collection tool. By caring their phones on them at all times, smartphone users are providing marketers with behavioral insights that can help guide future tactics. Mobile communication also offers ubiquitous reach. Today, the number of mobile phones in used, in many countries are near or more than a size of their total populations. The smartphone penetration rate has reached 30% globally, and well above 50%, a most of the developed in emerging economies. According to a study conducted by Peer Research Center in 2015, nearly half of the survey respondents reported that their mobile phones were something they could never live without. Mobile communication provides marketers the ability to reach people all over the world, at all the time. As the tendency to rely on mobile technology continues to become a natural facet of human behavior, this broad and deep rich afforded by mobile technologies will only grow. Next, mobile messages received from a personal mobile device is more personal than from a computer on the desktop or other devices that are at our home. Because of the physical and psychological proximity between the users and the device. Users of mobile device tend to develop a deep and intimate connection with the technology and the device than they do with stationary computers. For example, my student and I recently conduct a series of lapse studies, and we found that mobile devices were more likely to be perceived by the users as a part of their psychological self. The participants in our study who used a mobile device to access information and solve problems felt smarter and more confident than their counterparts. Those other participants, who used desktop computers for completing the exact same task. And mobile devices are also becoming fashion accessories. Smart watches and personal fitness wristbands are just some of the examples of how smart and mobile devices can be used as fashion statements. Moreover, mobile phones are used for personal entertainment. Rather than using laptops and desktops, we use mobile computers to view televisions. And mobile apps makes it possible to have personal interaction on social media, as well. So as well as personal information being shared by brands, social media, and friends, the more human the technology is, the more personal it seems. Another key feature of mobile marketing is two-way communication. Interactive mobile communication devices offer marketers the opportunity to have a conversation with the target consumers through text messaging and branded apps. This provides a sense of immediacy that other marketing channels cannot offer. And finally, mobile marketing is location-based. Mobile devices provide geolocation data to the service providers, and then by extension, the marketers, as well. Consumer privacy and ethical concerns aside, which is something I'll talk about a little bit later. The geo targeting technologies allow marketers to deliver tailored messages to customers based on the location. And help them find product and service near by. According to the Peer Research Institute, 74% of adult smartphone users age 18 and older, said that they use their phones to get directions or other information based on their current location. Furthermore, by the very act of using this location based features, the customers feed even more data to the phone companies and marketers, which then lead to more opportunities for marketing and advertising, and creating this cycle.
