Optism™

We start off with a look at how SMS continues to offer retailers an effective means to engage with their customers. As you’ll read in several other articles we’ve collected for this week’s Permission Marketing, some of us are even going to be able to pay for our holiday purchases using our trusty mobiles.

Mobile Marketer had advice for retailers on how to incorporate SMS into their mobile commerce activities this holiday season. Author Giselle Tsirulnik notes, “The personal nature of SMS makes it a great recommendation tool. Consumers trust their friends and family, and will likely open a text message with product information from a loved one.” Tim Miller of Sumotext in Arizona agrees, adding, “SMS is inherently viral because it’s inherently unobtrusive.” Companies like Gilt Groupe, Amazon, Best Buy and Target are taking advantage of this by including a feature on their mobile sites that lets people easily send product recommendations to friends.

According to Wilson Kerr of Unbound Commerce, SMS can also be combined with short codes to drive traffic to mcommerce sites. And SMS is an effective tool for encouraging people to sign up for loyalty programs. Kerr adds, “If a shopping cart is abandoned, SMS can be used to ping the customer who did not complete their transaction, to remind them that their cart is full and they forgot to check out.”

Benchmark Email published a newsletter from FrontlineSMS which showcases the power of SMS —particularly its application in emerging economies. The “FrontlineSMS in action” section of the newsletter includes examples that demonstrate how SMS is being used to help NGOs to deliver critical information to farmers in drought-distressed areas of the world. It’s also providing a voice to people who would otherwise have no way of being heard or of learning about matters that affect their daily lives. In the UK, SMS is used to bring art to people in a way that allows them to interact with the works “outside of the traditional space and time of art consumption.”

New technology alone is not enough to spur mobile payment,” we learn in a report from International Business Times. For Jefferies’ Jason Kupferberg, there were three key takeaways from a recent mobile payment conference:

1. “Simply replacing a card ‘swipe’ with a phone ‘wave’ is not a strong enough value proposition
2. To drive adoption of mobile payment, the industry needs to enhance the “overall shopping/buying experience”
3. It may take 3 to 5 years for mobile payment at points of sale to become mainstream

According to Kupferberg, the industry would do well to explore complementary strategies like “mobile-based permissive (i.e., opt-in) marketing, dynamic/location-based couponing, and shopping tools/services (price comparison, product info, user reviews, multi-channel capability) to enhance the consumer’s overall in-store shopping and buying experience.”

Speaking at the recent CTIA Enterprise & Applications 2011 conference, American Express’s Dan Schulman expressed similar sentiments. As reported by Jason Ankeny in FierceMobileContent, Schulman’s keynote address “outlined an m-commerce model encompassing retail transactions as well as mobile coupons, offers, loyalty programs and related marketing tools.” Schulman also believes, “merchants and marketers can leverage mobile devices to deliver and track more customized offers to consumers who opt in for in-store promotions.” As a “case in point,” Ankeny describes how Google Wallet has recently expanded its functionality. Google’s mobile wallet feature is available on Nexus S Android smartphones. It offers customers discounts and mobile coupons to a wide range of major retailers in the U.S. and is expanding to mobile ticketing with rail and bus transit purchases at select locations.

The privacy debate continues as we read in Jeff Gelles article on Philly.com: “Verizon, Verizon Wireless policy changes raise privacy issues.” According to Gelles, “changes in Verizon and Verizon Wireless’ data policies are stirring concern among privacy advocates and members of Congress.” It’s still a little unclear what exactly Verizon will be collecting and doing with people’s information. However, it does appear likely that they will be using an “opt out” approach rather than opt in. Their privacy policy – which “runs about 6,000 words” – is helping to keep their intentions obscure. That said, according to Gelles, the new policy “does appear to mark an about-face from a pledge made three years ago at a Senate hearing, when it joined AT&T in promising not to track customers’ Web behavior without explicit permission.

Our friends at the Mobile Marketing Association continue to support the industry with critical research and information, most recently with the publication of the “Mobile Location Based Services Marketing Whitepaper.” The paper “outlines various Location Based Marketing opportunities and LBS products, along with appropriate measures to ensure a positive end user experience.” It also LBS definitions and attributes, as well as some examples of LBM services currently in use.

And speaking of the MMA, why not plan to attend the MMA Forum in Los Angeles? This event wraps up the MMA’s 2011 roster of Forums and has a flavor unique to California. Plan to attend the pre-forum workshops, November 16 and settle in to enjoy the Forum on November 17. You can look forward to excellent presentations, workshops, and panel discussions. Optism’s Thomas Labarthe will be participating in a panel that considers the important question: “Rich media, personalization and targeting advertising: Are we adding value or complicating the experience?” and Mihai Vlad will speak about “Thinking Human: How to Optimize and Sustain Consumer Engagement.”

Will you be doing your holiday shopping on your mobile device? Will you be paying for your purchases that way too? Let us know. You can reach us on Twitter @Optism or join the conversation on our Facebook page.