Anurag Banerjee, APAC managing director of mobile-based market research firm Jana, shares a few insights on the prevailing trends in the mobile industry.
There is no doubt that mobile technologies are on the rise. From smartphones to tablets, 4G LTE connections to secure, enterprise-grade presence systems, mobile devices are increasingly becoming important in our daily lives. However, there is still a big disparity between emerging and developed markets here in Southeast Asia, with regard to accessing mobile networks and the Internet. Feature phones are still strong, and SMS is still a prevalent means of communicating, exchanging information and even marketing.
e27 had a few words with Anurag Banerjee, managing director for Asia Pacific at Jana, which is a global provider of mobile-based market research. Formerly named TxtEagle, Jana incentivizes consumers into taking action — which includes referrals, surveys, and the like — in exchange for prepaid credits and other rewards.
Growing mobile usage, growing engagement
According to Anurag, the mobile scene in emerging markets in the Asia Pacific region is very much different from their counterparts in the developing world. But one thing is certain: mobile is on the rise. In particular, mobile users are getting online to participate in social media discussions and engage in conversations where they can otherwise have no access.
“There have been many developments in the region that have the potential to be interesting to businesses. Besides the increase of mobile usage, I would say one interesting discovery is the high popularity of social media on mobile devices. In every country, results show social media to be the most common type of application used, winning out over games, music, weather, sports, ຂ່າວ, and banking applications. What businesses can take away from this finding is the importance and relevance of expanding their outreach and enabling conversation through social media platforms. B2C outreach is no longer a monologue; it has now truly become an open dialogue.”
In particular, mobile devices are a primary means of accessing the Internet, especially in developing economies, where smartphones or even feature phones are more accessible than desktop or notebook computers. Anurag calls this a “leapfrogging” of the desktop generation.
“The general mobile landscape in Asia Pacific’s emerging markets shows an increase in mobile penetration as consumers’ reliance on mobile devices escalates. According to our survey on mobile versus desktop usage, 78.81 percent of Indonesian, 45.93 percent Filipino, ແລະ 39.53 percent Vietnamese respondents prefer accessing the web via mobile. This preference is because mobile users are leapfrogging the desktop generation in the developed countries. When those surveyed were asked what the most important function was for their mobile phone, internet usage took the lead in almost every country. Mobile’s share of web traffic is expected to continue rising as more individuals move to mobile for their primary personal device and away from desktops. Over half of our survey respondents in Vietnam, ອິນໂດເນເຊຍ, and the Philippines access the internet via mobile to make purchases, with numbers projected to rise again next year. The implications this has for e-commerce are highly positive, as companies can expect to see growth in Asia Pacific’s emerging markets, which were previously left untapped.”
Instant feedback, instant rewards
Given the prevalence of mobile devices, Anurag says mobile-based research is very much relevant and businesses get good feedback and results from this activity.
“Our mobile market research provides insight into the growing numbers of mobile usage in emerging markets in Asia Pacific. This trend supports our focus as a company to provide access to consumers through mobile phones. Our mobile outreach includes producing market research data, closing the loop on promotions, and building customer loyalty. These services are based around our incentive programs which provide mobile airtime for consumers who respond to surveys or make purchases. The increasing mobile usage figures enable businesses to rely on their strategies directed at reaching consumers in the region. The beauty of mobile research is in the insurmountable quantity and rapidity of results. B2C interaction is being fundamentally reshaped through real-time interaction with consumers which allows companies to respond to their needs and influence their purchasing habits.”
Anurag says that one of Jana’s primary goals is directing advertising money into prepaid accounts. This is particularly important in Southeast Asia, and Asia in general, where prepaid accounts are generally more numerous — and accessible — to users. Besides, Anurag says it is easier to incentivize activities for prepaid users who get instant rewards in the form of airtime credits.
“Our primary goal is to redirect advertising dollars into prepaid airtime. Currently, US$117.2 billion is spent on traditional advertising. The majority of people in emerging markets are topping up their phones on a regular basis, as often as once a day in some parts of APAC. We connect these consumers with companies looking to distribute surveys and promotions. Jana provides a direct connection between companies and consumers. By redirecting a small portion of advertising dollars to mobile airtime top-ups, we effectively provide a notable raise to millions of people.”
Feature phones vs. smartphones
In our discussion, I noted the prevalence of feature phones in the region, even as smartphones have generally overtaken lower-end devices elsewhere. Anurag says this gives room for businesses and advertisers to be creative in the way the engage the customer. However, in this region, word-of-mouth has a great effect in marketing, which makes even SMS messages on feature phones an effective way to gain mindshare and get engagement.
“Despite my fondness of smartphones, feature phones still account for the vast majority of mobile phone users. Though sales of feature phones declined from 269.6 million units in 2011 to 263 million in 2012, according to IDC, they remain the major player in the mobile market space. Even though their growth rate has slowed, people are still buying feature phones, and will continue to do so as reliance on mobile devices continues to escalate. Our strategy is to understand each mobile user in Asia Pacific’s emerging markets so that we may engage with them in the most effective way. In India, ສໍາລັບຕົວຢ່າງ, where voice communication via feature phones is the primary way to communicate, we created engaging voice-based interactive models. In rural Vietnam, where SMS is the predominant form of communication, we have done second screen engagement through television and SMS, while collecting valuable data via feature phones. Most importantly however, we want to ensure that interactions on feature phones with basic browsers work and work well and we have mastered the consumer journey on browsers such as Opera.”
Will carriers lose revenue from OTT services?
As for carriers losing out in the instant messaging and online service battles, Anurag is confident that carriers will remain relevant, even as the likes of WeChat, LINE, Kakao Talk, WhatsApp and other messaging services incrasingly get mindshare and usage from users who would otherwise be sending SMS messages and making voice calls. The secret is in offering services that allow carriers to monetize data usage without costing an arm and a leg. This is perhaps one of the reasons why local carriers like Globe have partnered with the likes of Viber, which is traditionally seen as competition.
“In my opinion, network providers are not going to see a tremendous dip in revenue. They will likely figure out how to overcome this through well-articulated data packages, as consumers remain reliant on carriers. This potential shift in revenue can actually be monetized in a much more effective fashion than what people are giving carriers credit for. Engagement is moving away from voice and SMS and towards data for a large number of users. It is simply an alteration in the revenue stream. The assurance of the OTT space is the ongoing consumer journey. What’s to be seen is how WhatsApp and other applications are monetized. Their ad revenue or freemium model will need to be executed elegantly in order to keep users from looking elsewhere.”
What’s behind the clicks?
Lastly, Anurag shared a bit of insight into the mobile analytics business. He shared a few success stories, so far, which illustrate how businesses can be creative in the way they track engagement.
“In Indonesia, Groupe Danone, global producer of yogurt, sought to increase the value of their brand. Consumers in this emerging market were known for their local brand loyalty, so making the switch to Danone yogurt required a personal approach. Due to the country’s 93 percent mobile penetration rate and 91 percent pre-paid mobile subscription rate, Danone decided to leverage our airtime rewards platform, which incentivizes consumers to try products by offering mobile airtime in return. Danone boosted its multipack yogurt sales by 27 percent and created opportunities for re-engagement with customers.
“Another example is Unilever’s emerging market strategy in Vietnam. Beginning with a limited budget and a need for market research data, Jana structured a campaign that utilized Facebook, as social media use in the region is incredibly widespread. In doing so, Unilever’s ‘Social Media Focus Group’ of 20,000 Vietnamese consumers was established within 24 ຊົ່ວໂມງ, ແລະ 95 percent of the group accounted for their target audience of 15 to 30 year olds. With the survey conducted in this campaign, valuable insights were generated, a strong digital audience was built and mass brand awareness was produced with a US$0 promotion budget.”
According to Anurag, these campaigns enable businesses to “know the people behind the ‘clicks.’” As such they can “engage with them, recognize them, and reward them.” In closing, Anurag stresses that “when businesses fully understand a consumer, they are more adept at providing products and services to fit the needs of the user.”
Mobile technologies are surely here to stay, and for businesses, it’s a matter of using these communication channels effectively in determining customer sentiment and even engaging the user, in order to improve mindshare and get a pulse of the consumer. Even in emerging economies where smartphones are not yet as popular, and where not everyone has persistent data plans, basic feature phones can still do the trick.
Featured Image Credit: Jana
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