Michael Gable
Foundations of College Writing
Dr. Riley
February 18th, 2013
The Rise Of The Mobile Marketing
Over the past decade, the role of the World Wide Web has played a huge role in
the success of many businesses world wide. Online sales has had a very steady increase
as the years went on, and it gave businesses a great way to stay in contact with customers.
Businesses were indeed getting many more sales due to the ability of being able to
purchase online when ever the consumer had access to the internet. Businesses were also
given the ability to post advertisements for the company's business on the web. But there
is something new that is starting to have a positive effect on online sales, e-commerce,
more often and also even a better way to reach out to potential customers. This increase is
due to the rise of mobile devices. Many people have various mobile devices and are using
them quite often, due to the fact that they can access the internet where ever they may be.
Mobile devices help increase sales, and also to help increase customer relationships.
mobile marketing will help businesses world wide in a very positive and successful way.
To better understand the purpose of mobile marketing, people must clearly
understand what it means. Electronic commerce is a type of industry where buying and
selling of product or service is conducted over electronic systems such as the Internet and
other computer networks. A group of researchers, from different Universities in New
Zealand and Norwich, stated that "The convergence of mobile communications and
distributed networked computing has provided the foundation for the development of a
new channel of electronic business – mobile business" (Scornavacca & Barnes & Huff,
2006, p. 1). In simpler terms, electronic commerce now has evolved to a new stage that
people have been studying, which is m-commerce or mobile commerce. Two graduate
students who happen to be brothers, Sanjeet and Satwinder Singh (2012), go into more
detail on this term. "Mobile e-commerce or simply 'm-commerce' refers to e-commerce
transactions conducted through wireless; Internet enabled devices such as cellular phones
and personal digital assistants" (Singh, p.1). Many people have doubted that the world
would ever have the technology to produce such devices that would allow a person to be
able to access internet anywhere they were, but now that the technology is finally here, it
will only help businesses sell even more items online, and communicate better as a
whole. "M- Commerce is believed to be driving fundamental changes in the way business
is conducted in many industries, particularly in telecommunications, information
technology, media and financial services" (Singh, 2012, p. 1). Mobile commerce is
indeed making a positive effect in the business field, which is one of the main reasons
why many businesses are switching their focus to mobile marketing.
Internet sales have been on the rise, helping businesses succeed for a period of
time now. But m-commerce is making it even bigger. As reported by Claire Miller (2013)
from The New York Times, "Purchasing on mobile phones is beginning to make a dent in
e-commerce, comScore said, with mobile shopping accounting for 11 percent of ecommerce in the fourth quarter of 2012." (Miller). By people having phones that you can
access anything at anytime, it has drastically increased sales for businesses. "It is truly
accessible anytime and anywhere" (Singh, 2012, p. 1). People use to have to drive to a
store to purchase what they want with the risk that they may not even have it in stock, or
have access to a computer to go onto the internet and order an item. Now when people
hear of something that they may like, they have the ability to access it on their mobile
device and order right on the spot, whether it be in a car or just walking the street. Many
phones and or devices even have custom applications designed by a particular business or
company that allows you to purchase items easier and more often. A great example of
this would be Amazon. Amazon is one of the most visited sites out on the World Wide
Web today. It is strictly just a website to purchase items that you may desire to have.
Having such a simple way to purchase products in the palm of your hand has increased
online sales, thanks to all the different types of mobile devices available today.
Mobile devices not only help the sales of the company, but they can also help the
company or business in many other aspects. The authors of the book Go Mobile, Jamie
Turner and Jeanne Hopkins, made a prediction for 2013 that the primary way that people
will access the internet is by mobile browsers. "In other words, more than half the time
someone accesses the Internet, he or she will be doing it from a mobile phone. That has
huge implications for how your business needs to connect with prospects and customers"
(Hopkins & Turner, 2012, p. 3). By having these mobile devices it gives companies
many different ways to reach out to their potential customers. Companies are tending to
start investing in video advertisements. "The mobile audience is enormous, which leaves
a wide gap between the number of marketers targeting mobile users and the actual
number of people using mobile devices, like smart phones. This means that now is the
ideal time to test out a mobile marketing campaign for your business, to see how
effectively it can build your brand and sell your products" (Hopkins & Turner, 2012, p.
5). Many people are watching videos on their mobile devices. By spending the money to
place an advertisement before the actual video begins, it gives the company the ability to
reach out to many people who may have never heard about their product. Another way to
reach out to customers is to have a mobile friendly website. Supplying a website that
makes it easier to view on a mobile device will only aim to please the potential
customers. An even greater way to reach out to people is by mobile applications.
"Perhaps the fastest-growing aspect of mobile marketing is mobile applications"
(Hopkins & Turner, p. 2). Having an application, or better known as an app, for a
business or company will get the company more well known and only help to expand the
relationship with its current consumers. Mobile devices also make communication among
the work place much more efficient. The company will be able to be in contact with
anyone they need to be in contact with, such as potential investors or customers, at
anytime or place.
As technology keeps on advancing, online sales are very important to the success
of businesses. But to be able to continue these online sales, businesses must be able to
reach out to both present and potential customers. Mobile devices keep helping
businesses succeed in both these areas, due to the fact that they make it much easier for a
person to order an item whenever they wish, and at the same time it is also increasing the
relationship with the consumers. The market is always looking for new ways to reach out
to consumers and increase sales in the most efficient way possible, and right now that
happens to be the arrival of the mobile devices. But just like mobile devices being an
advancement from the desktop computer, people just have to sit back and wait until the
next big thing comes out that will take businesses to the next level of success.
References:
Barnes, S. J. & Huff, S. L. & Scornavacca, E. (2006). Mobile business research published
in 2000-2004: emergence, current status, and future opportunities.
Communications of the Association for Information Systems 17(28). Retrieved at
http://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol17/iss1/28.
Gillenson, M. L. and Stafford, T. F. (2003, December). Mobile commerce: what it is and
what it could be. Communications of the ACM. Retrieved at
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/960000/953483/p33stafford.pdf?ip=148.137.237.249&acc=ACTIVE%20SERVICE&CFID=2852870
22&CFTOKEN=53530298&__acm__=1362011748_718c6783cfe1538ec81222fe
b6ea4453.
Hopkins, J. & Turner, J. (2012, January 11). Go mobile. Retrieved at
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=EfJY81V0BpwC&oi=fnd&pg=PT
14&dq=mobile+devices+help+business&ots=XAuX4_tbyU&sig=DiR8R1B_sM
Ka4TWGH6kTlN66OVE#v=onepage&q&f=false
Miller, C. (2013, February 2013). Tech predictions for 2013: it’s all about mobile. New
York Times. Retrieved at http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/techpredictions-for-2013-its-all-about-mobile/?ref=technology.
Singh, S. and Singh, S. (2012, December 10). Is m-commerce changing the game of
marketing? Social Science Research Network. Retrieved at
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2187431.
Reflection:
When I write an academic paper I feel as if I do not sound like myself. This is
because an academic essay does not seem to have a very friendly or personal type of tone
to it. When I write for an academic purpose I am trying to write a paper that is proving
my point of view on the subject that I was researching, without making the paper have a
personal feel to it. I want it to feel more official and I believe I did a decent job at that.
But when I write for a nonacademic purpose I tend to make in more like myself because I
feel like I communicate differently with my friends than how I would with my professor
for example.
Dear, whoever it may concern:
I am writing this letter today to talk about the affect of mobile marketing in
business success today. Mobile marketing seems to have finally taken off in the business
world. This marketing technique seems to be having a very positive affect on the sales
and customer relations with many top businesses today and I feel as if that I want to try
and head my company into this direction.
To be able to see if this is worth it I was wondering if there was a possibility of
your foundation loaning money our way. We have done some research ourselves just in a
general sense but we can not conclude if it is worth it yet when technology is always
advancing. Our company would like to do a very in-depth study going into how much
exactly, if we switch over to mobile marketing, will help our business compete with our
other competitors. But also we would like to research if anything is on the rise in the near
future so that our company is much farther ahead than our competition.
Overall we believe that after this independent study we will have a very strong
idea on how successful our company will be able to compete in our market. If you choose
to give us this loan we expect be able to pay it back not too long after our research has
concluded. We are indeed a very reliable group of people and would love if your
foundation would be willing to do so, but if not, no hard feelings. Thank you for your
time, we really appreciate it!
Sincerely,
Michael Gable, CEO
Reflection:
The letter is much different than the way I wrote the essay part of this assignment.
The main difference is that the essay is trying to prove a point, in this example I am
trying to prove to the reader that mobile marketing has a very positive affect on how
businesses connect with their customers and the increase of sales. But when I was writing
the letter to the private foundation, I had to try and pitch this idea to them. It was showing
a more friendly side than the essay portion. It still was basically about how great mobile
marketing can make your business, but it was two totally different tones.