Mobile Marketing: The Primary Way to Reach the Tween Market
Mobile marketing is the use of text messaging to send advertisements and marketing messages to a cell phone. A recent study by The Yankee Group reveals that in the age group 13 to 17, 50 percent have a cell phone. Within this same group, 20 percent of them consume media from their mobile phones.
Another study by the Kaiser Family Foundation backs up the results of the first study. The results of this study state that of the kids between the ages of eight and 18, 66 percent have a cell phone. For business owners and marketing managers, this means that there is a goldmine of business out there if they use mobile marketing to reach the pre-teen and teen market.
The struggle that these same business owners and marketing managers run into is whether advertising directly to this underage market is the right thing to do. Legally, anyone under 18 is able to opt-in to receiving items such a games, ring tones, videos or apps on their cell phone. Logistically, however, anyone with a cell phone has access to all of these media options.
This revelation, however, does not come with some trepidation. While mobile marketing is effective in reaching the intended audience, it is not legal or morally correct for companies to reach out to and allow underage buyers to buy from them. Since these teens are in possession of the cell phone, however, it is highly possible for them to make these purchase without their parents’ permission and even without a credit card.
So, then it gets business owners and company managers scratching their heads because they can technically reach the intended market with mobile marketing. Legally and morally, however, shouldn’t they be reaching out to the parents as the path to reach their kids? Then again, it is the kids that need to be aware of the product or service so that they can then convince their parents to buy it for them.
Television ads have been producing the same results for years. Companies produce television commercials that appeal to the kids with the toy, game or product. Then the kids nag their parents until the parents buy it for them.
Mobile marketing is a highly effective way to reach the pre-teen and teen market with your products, services, advertisements and marketing messages. To keep it on the right legal and moral side of the issue, however, it may be wise to reach the kids with the messaging but still make it a requirement to be an adult to make the final purchasing decision. Then, the matter of mobile marketing is no longer a legal or moral issue. Mobile marketing simply becomes one additional way to reach your intended market. Companies can extend their marketing and advertising budget from television and radio or even reallocated funds from these “older” venues into an effective way to reach their pre-teen and teen markets—mobile marketing.
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