The mobile phone company Blackberry, whose brand became top line news during the recent London and inner city riots, suffered a major failure this week when its messaging service collapsed leaving many customers with no email, no internet browsing, and no BBM browsing of any sort for 4 days.

The actual problem was pretty serious by any standard and occurred in the server centre in Slough. The back-up (fall-over) system didn’t work as planned and the fall-out affected a large proportion of their 70 million smartphone customers.

Down for a day is just about acceptable. Down for 4 days without an adequate explanation is not, especially if you deliberately keep your customers in the dark.

What has turned an issue into a marketing disaster for Blackberry has been the refusal of RIM (Research in Motion, the Canadian company who own Blackberry) to put out anything other than terse messages saying everything will be okay - soon!

Their first message, 36 hours after problems started appearing, read: “Some users in EMEA are experiencing problems and we are investigating”.

Not exactly helpful for customers whose main communication system has just died.

And what is EMEA anyway?  Actually it stands for Europe, the Middle East and Africa - although the most up to date news suggests that the backlog of messages is now seriously comprising Blackberry phones in the USA and South America.

RIM seem to be adopting that well known corporate strategy “keep control of the news by telling them nothing”.

If they hoped they could ride out the storm then the growing clammer from irate customers and high profile news stories (not controlled by RIM) have seriously undermined their loyal customer base.

How well they respond and in particular - how well they manage any compensation programme will define how quickly the Blackberry brand recovers from this disaster.

The failure couldn’t have happened at a worse time for RIM who is losing out to rivals, particularly the iPhone. Many corporate clients are already switching to Apple (no saints themselves), who are making a concerted effort to improve its support for secure business email systems.

The key to damage limitation is regular and truthful communication with customers and journalists.

This is the best way to manage and control the news flow. Consumers may not be happy but they know technology fails sometimes - it’s how a company deals with its customers immediate concerns that determines the long term impact of a brand failure.

Is this failure a big deal?  If you are a Blackberry user then it is. For businesses this failing is seriously disruptive. For Blackberry’s growing teenage base, it is a calamity of end of days proportions.

Will customers vote with their feet? Time will tell but you can be assured Apple will be rubbing their hands with glee.

Giving your customers a voice is central to building a brand in today’s online market.

You would have thought Blackberry might have understood this.

Source: Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC Technology, 12th October 2011.

For 70% of executives under 40, a mobile is their primary communication tool.50% prefer using the mobile web for business purchases rather than a phone.

Everywhere you go you see how the mobile phone is influencing our lives from constant advertising messaging to QR scanning for coupons and information dissemination.

Yet the use of mobiles in the B2B market has been relatively slow compared to its B2C counterpart, as an extra source of traffic and revenue generation.

Hear this: Mobile works equally well for B2B as for B2C! But your approach will be different.

Before you dive straight into mobile marketing in your marketing mix, consider these points:

 1. Mobile responses - Most text messages are read within 15 minutes with recipients responding within 60 minutes. Any mobile marketing campaign must be area specific; time sensitive; and incentive based. This is particularly important when engaged in point of sale advertising.

2. The mobile website - create a website solely for mobile usage. It will be far simpler than your website but design it to exploit the typical functions of the mobile - such as phone, camera, video, and text messaging.

3. Mobile users are mobile - so make messages simple with a clear “to do” action. Don’t bury them in slow loading attachments. Keep contact short.

4. Mobiles are personal - mobile phones are “always on” but unlike PCs, are not shared. This makes any message you send to a B2B customer/client much more personal and therefore impactful. But like any marketing, avoid the hard sell and don’t become a nuisance. The key is being subtle while gauging what they want to hear and how often they want to hear about it.

5. A mobile is not a PC - it does a few things very well. There’s no printer, no mouse and far less bandwidth. Anything you communicate to clients that involves extensive typing or lengthy downloading is a no-no.

6. Mobile marketing generates traffic - because mobiles are so ubiquitous and mobile users are quite used to promotional prompts and offers, you can get a whole new form of traffic that will help you understand your audience better and the markets they work in.

7. The mobile web is not generic - as opposed to the Windows based PC world. Content that reads clearly on one mobile may be changed on another. Any mobile web content should be optimised on the most common mobile platforms to ensure clarity.

8. Mobile embraces social media - Facebook, Twitter, blogs all help to reinforce your brand opening up a multitude of marketing channels.

Mobiles will continue their unstoppable dominance and as they evolve will replace the PC as the main way we communicate our brands and products to customers and clients alike.

Mobile marketing does not stand alone and integrates perfectly with web, search and social media to create a multiplier effect on your sales.

If you wish to explore how mobile marketing can help create visibility, traffic, brand engagement and sales, then email me at sem@e-xanthos.co.uk or call 08450740068.

Source: Jeanne Hopkins, B2B  Mobile Marketing mistakes  HubSpot, 07/09/2011

It is estimated that around 33% of mobile phone users own a smartphone, an uptake that is increasing rapidly year on year, which should represent a golden opportunity for companies looking at new ways to get closer to their customers.

When Smartphone users access their mobile browsers 82% of the time against 19% for their feature phone-owning counter parts, then m-commerce seems to be a must.

Lower cost per click rates

Added to this, the average cost per click through mobile is 60% less than for desktop cost per clicks, possibly because there is a lot less competition for clicks on mobile.

But after this good news, everything starts top fall apart.

While mobile often generates a higher click through rates, the user experience collapses when it comes to buying online through the smaller mobile screen.

A poor user experience simply loses you money!

Companies invest £000s to achieve a great website selling experience for their desk top customers so why on earth do they still believe that this will work just as well fin the mobile world - because it sure wont!

The mobile user's experience is utypically one of a web-style display, accompanied by variable connection quality and a long or over complex checkout process which just causes friction, frustration and the early abandonment of the purchase.

9% Satisfaction Rate

A recent report from Econsultancy highlighted just how poor mobile users find the buying experience when compared to other shopping channels.

While 52% of respondents stated that higshops delivered a good experience (as against 6% a poor), only 9% of mobile users said they’d had a good experience while 46% rated it as poor.

This is not the users fault. This is not a hardware fault. It is invariably a marketing failing.

Marketing on the move

As more companies try their hand at mobile marketing, they should understand that mobile marketing is “on the move” marketing.

Prospects want to be targeted, excited and make the purchase “on the move”, not stuck for ages re-keying in information, unnecessary to the purchase.

Successful mobile displays will be minimal in style, with a message and design appropriate for the screen size, with a far simpler purchasing process. Companies like Net-a-Porter really understand their mobile market which is reflected in their success.

As m-commerce grows, the usability of mobile sites will become ever more important.

So don’t miss out on a booming market sector, just think about satisfying your customers!.

Source: Graham Charlton, Mobile: the worst channel for customer experience,  Econsultancy, 9th June 2011.