image from dsim

It is expected that there will be more smartphones than humans around the world in the coming years. Mobile phones have seen a great change in its journey since its introduction. It was then when people used mobile phones merely for calling and texting and it is now when people search, explore, share, shop apart from just connecting to the people through mobile phones. With an augmentation in the number of smartphone users in India, the mobile internet usage is constantly increasing, especially in the Tier II & Tier III cities. Mobile devices have now become the primary digital access point for many people in the country providing marketers with a plethora of opportunities and allowing them to reach even those consumers who were difficult to reach through traditional marketing. As per the estimations, mobile market in India is likely to grow to Rs 1, 000 crore by 2015 from Rs 125 crore.

Well! Talking about the numbers, let’s go through some figures that will amaze you for while.

• The current estimate of mobile internet users in India is 130 millions
• The expected number of mobile internet users in India by 2015 is 250 millions
• India with 861 millions mobile phones holds the second position in the world when it comes to total number of mobile phones. The first however is China.
• The percentage of Indian mobile users who now have smartphones is 10.

Wise marketers constantly review their brand’s target audience in order to make sure that they are moving in rhythm with the people they want to engage with. The same goes with mobile consumers as well. Marketers need to constantly reassess the behavior and attitude of mobile consumers to ensure that they are not lagging behind of their competitors.

We cannot deny the fact that one in four Indians is still illiterate but remarkably mobile marketing helps you reach even that part of the consumers who cannot read and are difficult to be engaged. Consumers can listen to the ads over their phones through IVR i.e. Interactive Voice Response. A number of companies especially Fast Moving Consumer Goods companies are making use of IVR to reach to even that part of audience who are difficult to be engaged.
Not just that, think about the tier-III cities and rural areas where it is no wonder if they have electricity for just a few hours a day. No matter whether they have televisions or computers or not, as even their presence will make no difference due the frequent power outage. However, mobile still turns on.

Moreover, talking about the behavior of mobile consumers, it remains unchanged as majority of mobile users spend almost 6 hours a day on their mobile internet doing multiple things that includes communicating with friends, searching, shopping, entertainment and so on. It bestows a range of opportunities in the mobile space that marketers can grasp and get benefitted with. If marketers really want to grasp these opportunities however, they should look to educational services.

Marketers these days are anyway realizing the power of mobile as a marketing medium and are including mobile marketing in their marketing strategy accordingly. Mobile has become an important channel for marketers to spread their brand message. However, they must keep all devices and operating systems in mind while planning their mobile communication as India is a very fragmented and heterogeneous market and so their target audience can be on all possible devices.

DSIM Team
DSIM Blog is created to help you to know all aspects of Digital Marketing ranging from basics of Digital Marketing to Advance Level Topics, Read our posts and feel free to reach our team for any queries.