State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan

Mobile services are fast becoming popular for a number of consumer-facing product and service companies. I came across a good post / reference for business strategists and marketers who want to justify a budget for mobile applications, services and campaigns. When it comes to Return on Investment, there are a few things which one should remember:

• Reasonable time frame for payback
• Count all major benefits
• Consider both hard costs and resources
• Factor in risks

Excerpt from the blog post follows.

Everyone is thinking about how best to engage with their customers on their cell phones. And, can you even do NEW customer acquisition with teenagers or young adults without a mobile option?

Many mobile initiatives start without a plan or a strategy. They start with:
“Our CMO was observing his teenage daughter use her cell phone ….”
“Our competitors have an iPhone application. My boss told me to get one for us.”

It’s not ideal to start a mobile strategy this way. Not such a bad way to begin the thought process at least. Once companies get started developing a mobile strategy, they soon begin to realize how much it could cost. Then they start asking questions like this,

“Is it even worth it given that only x% of our customer base is using mobile banking/travel/(fill in)?”
“Is anyone buying anything on their cell phone.”
“We didn’t budget for mobile for this year.”

First, for many consumer brands, products or services, they can’t afford NOT to be doing anything in mobile. That would be analogous to no Web presence in circa 1999. Secondly, consumers ARE making purchases on their cell phones. (See my 2010 predictions) Some companies are aready doing tens of thousands each day. Mobile will INFLUENCE many more purchases offline and online as well.

Revenue is just one benefit of mobile. Other benefits include cost savings as well as all of the benefits (e.g., increased customer satisfaction) derived from providing consumers with better or more convenient experiences. The “R” in the ROI of mobile will likely have many additive streams over time that sum up to one larger “R.”

On the flip side, there are many costs – software, message delivery, development, marketing, employee training, etc.