Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Cell phones and Marketing


Cell phones are now being used for advertising. When one sends or receives a please call me from any network a little advert is sent with sms. This creates awareness for the product being advertised and reaches many people because cell phone users often send and receive please call me’s. Advertising is also being used when one accesses the internet from their mobile phone. It is the same concept that is being used for webpage’s, business’s pay for the space that they occupy. Cell phone networks also use cell phones to advertise for their business. For example when I go on the Vodafone live website I see banners that are being displayed. It is advertising new cell phones or new contracts or any other promotion that Vodafone has. It is the same with MTN, Vodacom, Cell C and Virgin Mobile.
There are also many mobile websites where one can download ring tones, Wall papers, pictures and so on, these websites charge people for their downloads . there are also advertisements on television that tell people that if they phone a certain number they can download for free but there is always a catch and most people do not read the fine print and therefore they get scammed. People can also use their cell phones to send sms’s for competitions that are advertised and for voting on shows such as Idols. Then your cell phone number goes into a data base and is sold to other organisations for marketing purposes, then you are bombarded with useless information that most people just delete. Cell phones have had a major impact on marketing and advertising and it is on the increase.
Simone L Abraham

2 comments:

Faye Hicks said...

Sms Adverts. A pet hate of mine. It's annoying when you hear the beep of your message tone and you smile, excited almost to see who your message is from, a friend far away, a beloved boyfriend, a caring sister? NO. WRONG. An advert from Crowded House or strangely enough the Victoria Country Club, how did they get my number?

I often receive sms's from strange companies and organisations. And I think it is really unethical and just not right for our details to be sold to them from these databases. We should have a choice in the mattter.

The advertising of cell phones is huge, it is one advert I can always guarantee on seeing. We do seem to be flooded with their adverts, not entirely a good thing.

However, good on the companies for using sms's to adveritse, it is the most direct way to reach the consumer, and they are likely to read if not the whole message, part of it. So they will know who sent it.

Varishma Hariparsad said...

I agree cellphone advertising has become a popular method of marketing. Is it really effective in advertisng a company's product becuase most people delete these sms's. Majority of people are too busy to read the advert at the bottom of a please call me and are more interested in the person that pleased called them. I am one of those people.However,cellphone advertising is a good way of marketing a company's product.
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