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average, and he knew SMS was something that merited investigation
because of the way the Moosejaw staff was embracing
the technology.
“The Moosejaw staff is really a good representation of our customer
base” he says. “We would look around and see people who
were sitting right next to each other texting each other instead of
talking or e-mailing, so we knew we had to get on board.
“If we did not see the Moosejaw staff embracing texting that
way, I find it unlikely that we would have gone down this road
as early as we did,” he continues.
The fact that Moosejaw served a younger demographic also
influences the spirit and motivation of its SMS campaigns.
“Instead of sending out a coupon, which definitely would
help our short-term sales push and ROI, the Rock, Paper or
Scissors message was more about fun and entertainment,” says
Wolfe. “Hopefully, when the people who participate or see that
we are doing this need to buy something, they will buy it from
us instead of from someone else.”
The point is success using SMS largely depends on intimate
knowledge of a specific customer base and an understanding of
the type of messages that will represent value for them.
“One thing Moosejaw has done so well is they have really
taken to heart the necessity that every message must add
value,” says Kelley.
It’s not all fun and games, of course. The way Kelley sees the
market, there are two groups that need to be considered: those
that are lifestyle-driven and those interested in applications.
Those two groups, for the most part, can be divided as above or
below the age of 40.
For those below the age of 40, mobile messaging primarily is
about staying socially interactive and connected; it’s an element
of their always-on lifestyle.
“But when you go to a barbeque, meet a 50-year-old and ask
him, ‘Oh, do you text?’ he says, ‘What the …?’” is the typical
answer, explains Kelley.
However a much more positive response can be expected if that
same 50-year-old is asked: The next time you book a flight, wouldn’t
you like to be notified on your cell phone if the flight is delayed?
“That is not text anymore,” says Kelley, “that is an application.”
Parents of pre-teens, teens and twenty-somethings might be
an exception to this segmentation, as research suggests these
parents have a solid familiarity of SMS, particularly among
mothers, because it allows them to keep track of their children
in a way most children prefer and appreciate.
Basically, parents can obtain a status report without friends
knowing that, “Mom is calling.”
INTEGRATION
Retailers, meanwhile, will appreciate that text messaging
solutions integrate easily into existing IT infrastructure and store
processes, much as they do with consumer devices, says Kelley.
Business solutions tend to be Web-based and typically run on standard
PC-server systems, so no special expertise is required and no
new equipment must be purchased to get in the game, he says.
US Demographic Profile of Visitors to Apple iPhone
Website for the Four Weeks Ending June 23, 2007
Age
Traffic share
18-24 32.22%
25-34 21.45%
35-44 22.05%
45-54 15.35%
55+ 8.92%
Income
Traffic share
< $30,000 20.83%
$30,000 - $59,999 27.47%
$60,000 - $99,999 27.02%
$100,000 - $149,999 13.18%
> $150,000 11.50%
Gender
Traffic share
Male 51.51%
Female 48.49%
Source: Hitwise
As far as ongoing management of the solution, Wolfe says
the folks at MESSAGEbuzz “have made it very easy.”
For a retailer that needs to pinch pennies, basic messaging
elements and a shared short code can be put into place
for $3,000 to $5,000 a year. Short codes are the five or six
digit telephone numbers that also are used to address SMS
messages. It’s the code or number by which customers will
text a store. Sharing short codes significantly lowers cost,
but also lost is some security, personalization, branding
and flexibility.
A fully dedicated short code, such as Moosejaw’s THEJAW
(843529), backed by a fully managed messaging suite, can run
around $30,000 a year.
Otherwise, retailers should expect initially to expend some
amount of resources, says Kelley, on “getting the word out.”
“A retailer is going to have to promote it in the store, online
and possibly create text call back with existing advertising. Interest
those individuals in multiple ways,” he says.
And that’s exactly what text messaging has become. It’s
just one of the multiple ways that customers now want to be
touched. By no means will SMS kill e-mail, just as e-mail didn’t
kill direct mail, and the Internet didn’t kill the catalog business,
and there still is a place for the radio star.
On the other hand, the world is going wireless, and SMSbased
texting is just the crest of a coming wave of mobile
marketing platforms. Waiting in the very near future are
voice capabilities over SMS, multimedia messaging and
SMS pushing mobile Web sessions, and it’s highly likely
that your operation will have a mobile website presence
sooner than you think.
It didn’t take long for the wireline Internet to go from an
imposing threat to an element of everyday business, with more
than a few contestants cast aside along the way. Wireless data,
it appears, will take even less time.
26 | InsideOutdoor | Summer 2007