International Digital Marketing

Back in 2010 I looked at the mobile market dynamics and OS market share statistics in the US and Europe, as all marketers talked about was Apple, iPhone apps and Apple’s products. In reality, was it all about Apple? Not really.

In those days Android had started eating slowly, but steadily iOS market share, and Symbian OS was still dominating Europe.  2010 seems like a long time ago – things have really changed.

Last year was full of lawsuits, clever advertising, product launches, failed mapping headlines, and a whole lot of drama between Google, Samsung and Apple. But … is it really all about Samsung and Apple?

Samsung vs. Apple – a clever PR stunt?

In 2012 Samsung established a very strong position as an Android developer fighting against Apple and received strong support from the Android community … and from a part of the media as well. But is this battle really that strong or did these two companies take advantage of the tension between Apple and Android fans to fuel the fire and get their names out there? Looking back at the big amount of Samsung vs. Apple law suits and the cocky “apology” to Samsung by Apple, it is possible. And if they did, it worked: for a month or two all media and people talked about was Samsung / Google vs. Apple. You had to make a stand – either you were Android fan or an Apple fanboy. It was all or nothing. All nicely timed with iPhone 5 launch as well as Galaxy launches.

Samsung became almost a symbol of fight against overly-confident Apple, but there are much more great Android developers out there including ASUS (creator of the highly successful Google Nexus 7 and Nexus 4), HTC, Sony, etc. But did anyone talked about them in Google vs. Apple battle? Not really.

So what is really happening behind the scenes?

Constantly changing mobile market dynamics

1.5 billion handsets were shipped in 2012, a 2% increase compared to 2011. 700 million of the handsets were Smartphones, yet even if the global smartphone shipments increased by 490,5 million units (43%), the saturation in Western Europe and North America impacted the slower growth.

Samsung, Apple and Nokia were named the top three vendors with Samsung shipping 30% of the handsets in 2012. Company’s Smartphone sales were mainly fueled by its record sales of the popular Galaxy models (396.5 million) yet the total handsets it sold were 400 million. Apple shipped 135.8 million iPhone units (19%) strengthening its position in North America, but the company failed to reach developing markets such as Africa as well as certain European countries. Meanwhile Nokia’s market share dropped in 2012, but the launch of Asha and Lumia 920 / 800 had a positive impact in Q4 2012 with 86.3 million units sold, in which smartphone accounted for 15.9 million units composed of 9.3 million Ashas, 4.4 million Lumias and 2.2 million Symbian smartphones. Chinese handset manufacturer ZTE settled for fourth place.

Mobile OS market share in 2012

According to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, Android has shown strong growth in Europe and Australia in 2012 and is holding now 61.1% of the EU5 and 55,8% of Australian market share. The growth has been significant in Britain, France and Spain in the EU5, but increase has been slow in Italy and its market share has decreased – surprisingly – in the USA. What comes to other markets, in Brazil Android increased its market share to 47.1% and in Mexico to  37.3%.

What comes to iOS, despite iPhone 5 and iPad mini launch, iOS market share in the EU5 has increased only 0.2%. The biggest growth in EU5 happened in Italy and France, yet the iOS market share decreased 1.7% in the UK and Spain. The US market share increased 6.3%, while Australian market share shrunk 3,4%.

In Europe Windows Phone’s market share has more than doubled to 5.4%. The strongest market in EU5 for Windows phone is Italy with 13.9% of the market share (11.1% increase from 2011) and Britain with 5.9% market share (up from 2.2% in 2011). However, the growth has been slower in other EU5 countries, Asia and the US. In Brazil the market share has jumped up to 12.2% and to 2.7% in Mexico.

Symbian OS, Bada and Blackberry’s RIM have suffered the market changes most in developed countries.

Mobile market in 2013

Apple seems to be struggling with a falling market share – and shares. The launch of the iPhone 5 in 2012 was a disappointment for many, and especially Apple’s infamous maps have created headlines. iPad mini launch was also the first time when Apple moved from innovator to a follower by comparing openly iPad mini with Google Nexus 7 in the official press conference. Is launching a new model so rarely Apple’s strategy to make the products more special? Or is there perhaps nothing new to publish?

Anyhow, Apple has still a very strong ecosystem and it has done a brilliant job on introducing Apple products in all aspects of user’s life from home stereos and in-car assets to music and apps. Once you have bought Apple related things during years it is very difficult to switch to another Smartphone / tablet. That being said, Apple has made “switching” to other OS a bit easier with the introduction of the new cable, which means the things you bought for your previous iPhone are not compatible with iPhone 5 or any other new model Apple launches.

There has also  been a lot of speculation whether Nokia made the right choice of choosing Windows phone OS instead of Android. Maybe it did. If Nokia would have picked Android as an OS, what would differentiate it from other Android developers in Samsung’s shadow? It will be fascinating to see whether Windows phone platform keeps growing strongly. Other interesting game changers to watch in 2013 are Blackberry 10, and Linux / Ubuntu based devices.

Android is going strong, but we might see a change from a role as a market challenger to a leadership defending OS. And the OS with the biggest market share tend to get challenged by the smaller OS – just what happened to Symbian and Apple. As mobile market is changing so rapidly, it could be possible that in two years time Apple has become a dinosaur, Android / Google the bad guy and Windows phone the new trendy platform … and the fighter of justice.

“It sees us”,

Samsung representative, Galaxy S III London Launch

Samsung’s new Galaxy S III is smart … very smart. The mobile manufacturer unveiled last week in London the highly expected addition to its Galaxy S family, after creating a lot of hype around its launch. Even if the launch event itself was not as impressive as Nokia’s Lumia’s, the new Smartphone makes iPhone look a bit “old school”. Maybe the iPhone5 launch is so delayed, because Apple needs to reinvent phone’s features after each Android launch to seem innovative? Who knows…

Very Smart Mobile Technology

Besides its big screen size and 720p resolution, Samsung Galaxy III is differentiating itself from the competition with eye tracking capabilities. The technology called Smart Stay allows the front facing camera to monitor your eyes and know when you are looking at it. This allows the mobile not to “sleep” from inactivity if you are watching a film or reading an e-book, for example.

Other interesting smart feature called Direct Call is well adapted for real life. For example, if you are sending a SMS to someone, but decide it is actually simpler to give him a call, you can move the phone next to your ear to make a phone call to that number. With the Beam sharing function, that combines NFC technology with Wi-Fi Direct, you are able to share movies and music with other phones by simply tapping them. You can also throw content to TVs, as well as make the TVs mirror what is on your Smartphone screen.

The mobile device uses ‘S Voice,’ an advanced natural language user interface, to listen and responds to your words. You are able to use it to command the phone with only your voice to snooze, play songs, turn the volume up or down, send text messages and emails, organise your schedules, or take a photo. It is to be seen whether it understands the Scottish accent better than iPhone’s Siri.

Samsung Galaxy S III Launching First in Europe

Samsung announced that it will launch the 3G version of the Galaxy S III end of this month, and 4G version is arriving later this summer. Surprisingly the manufacturer has decided to launch first in Europe on 29^th May, before launching in the North America in June. There has also been rumours that the phone would be launched before the USA also in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Interesting choice. One of the reasons might be the objective to strengthen Samsung presence in the other continents as it has a strong presence already in the USA.

According to IDC, the global sales for mobile devices (feature and Smartphones) increased 11.1% in 2011 compared with 2010 with Nokia leading with 27%, Samsung with 21.3%, Apple with 6%, and LG with 5.7% of the global mobile market share. The top device manufacturer by market penetration rather than sales is Nokia in Western Europe, Samsung in the US and Sharp in Japan.

What comes to only smartphones, according to IDC, also smartphone sales showed strong growth worldwide in 2011 the global sales growing 31.8% in 2011 compared with 2010, and Smartphones represented 31.8% of all handsets shipped. Samsung leads the way with 19.1% market share, Apple follows closely with 19%, Nokia is third with 15.7%, RIM with 10.9%, and HTC is fourth with 8.9%

Samsung Galaxy S III to conquer Europe?

It is an interesting phone with interesting features, but it does not seem world changing. It seems more like a refreshed version of their already successful model. However, as the company is planning pop-up stores across Europe to give customers the possibility to play with the Galaxy S III, I am hoping to see a stream of American tech tourists arriving to Europe to get it – just like we used to travel to the USA to get an iPhone.

And yes, I will be happy to go and play with the Galaxy S III as well.

We all want our brand to be attractive, exciting, trendy, sexy and … young. Our society adores youth, we want the young generation to buzz about us, brands and campaigns winning awards are aimed to youth. Facing declining sales, we cannot help hearing that we must rejuvenate, rejuvenate, rejuvenate…

However, many times there is a big conflict between the people we want to buy our brand and the people who actually buy it. Too many times the marketing and communication target is 20-30 years younger than the loyal consumers forming the grand majority of the database.

Cosmetic “brand” surgery?

Some brands tackle this by going through a long process of changing their brand image. More or less successfully. Ford experienced this problem in Spain with its upcoming launch of the new, young, trendy Ford Fiesta. In Spain this particular car model was perceived as a car for 40-50-year-old women, but few years before the launch, Ford Spain started creating a community especially for youth www.maskedummies.com. The booming trendy community changed slowly the image of Ford Fiesta and made the marketing message more believable in 2008. Another example of successful change of brand image is of course Old Spice.

But is it really so bad to be a brand for “old” people? What if the sales are declining, not because our brand is getting older and new generation does not buy it, but because we are ignoring the older generation who does?

Aging global population

With the declining fertility and improved health and longevity, the population aging has become the biggest demographic trend globally. In 2009 the global population of +60-year-old people reached 680 million, 11% of the world’s population. It has also been predicted that by 2030, the amount will increase to 20% in 55 countries.

By 2050, Europe will increase its elderly population from 40 million to 219 million, China will experience a growth of 30% from 109 million to 350 million and India will increase the number of elderly from 62 million to 240 million. Japan, with the largest percentage of +60 people, will increase the current amount from 27% to 44%.

While number of youth decreases across the planet and the number of older people increases, does it not make more sense to take advantage of the “older” brand image instead of investing resources and money to desperately rejuvenate the image? Older people are more loyal to the brand than the new multitasking and impatient generation. Besides – they have also more money and time to spend.

Aging Social Media and Blogosfare

Yes, but young people make more noise in the Internet you might say. Not true.

In January 2011, +55-year-olds represented 7% of the global Facebook users, however the amount of 45-54-year-old users reached 12% and the percentage of 35-44-year-old users increased to 18%. What comes to Twitter, +55-year-olds represented 9% of the global Twitter users, while 45-54-year-olds reached 17% and 35-44-year-olds 27%.

Meanwhile, the older generation is also getting more comfortable with blogging: 11% of the over 30-year-old adults blogged in 2010, compared with 7% in 2007. Also, during the last two years blogging by the 34-45 year-old Internet users has increased 6%  (up to 16%), 46-55-year-old bloggers saw an increase of 5%  (up to 11%), and even 65-73-year-olds blogged 2% more (up to 8%).

But how to reach the increasing older generation?

#1 Stay cool, but use more mature marketing message

Older generation wants to remain cool, but also see people and situations they can relate to – people little younger they are, well aging and sophisticated, such as Meryl Streep and George Clooney. What comes to the situations, if you know that 90% of the people in your cruise are +55, do not show images of young people and babies in your advertising – it pushes older generation away. Instead, show older generation having fun, flirting, enjoying life in a cool environment.

#2 Aim advertising for the right target

In advertising we are so youth focused, that we often forget that the hopes and dreams are different in each age group. They change as people get older, handling more relationships, family experiences, health, happy memories and personal fulfilment. If you are too young to know what your target group dreams about, ask them. They are happy to share their opinion.

#3 Listen and influence in consumer forums

Age makes us more wise and careful. Older people do a lot of investigation before spending their time and money. Older generation compares prices, goes to consumer forums and listens what people have to say in social media.

#4 Focus on emotional bond and quality

Older generation is more interested in quality and value for money than latest fashion. They do not like to be rushed into a decision, but have time to compare different options. However, older people are also more loyal and stay with brands they trust. If you success creating an emotional bond with older users, they do not hesitate to promote your brand to their friends and other users across the social media.

Old trends in young generation, new trends in older generation

To stay always ahead of the competition targeting older generation, it might be a good idea to remember that in the end young people are early adopters of the new technologies and communication channels and “old” people are slow to follow. It means that you can observe youth-focused brands while they try to exploit new trends and conquer new channels by trial and error, and once they become “hot” in your target age group you are well prepared to be “trendy”.

“As we look across markets, dramatic differences in mobile media consumption, brand adoption and user behavior become evident…For brands seeking to establish a multi-market presence, understanding usage dynamics across geographies is essential to implementing a successful global mobile marketing strategy.”

Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile

ComScore published in October 2010 a very interesting comparative report on mobile usage and behaviors in Japan, the United States and Europe. To find out how consumers interact with mobile media across these three markets, the study gives a detailed picture of the mobile content consumption, demographic comparisons and top social networking brands across markets.

There are considerable differences between the three: Japanese use mobile to access mobile media, U.S consumers use it for Social Networking and Europeans love texting.

Connected Media

In Japan more than 75% of the mobile owners use connected media (browsed, accessed applications or downloaded content), while only 43.7% are using it in the U.S. and 38.5% in Europe.

Japanese mobile users also show stronger preference of applications and browsers compared to mobile users in the U.S. and in Europe.

Messaging

What comes to the messaging, the biggest difference of user behavior between the markets is that 81.7% of the Europeans use text messages, while Japanese prefer sending emails. The American mobile users were more likely to use instant messaging services on their mobile than the other markets.

Social Media/Entertainment

While 21.3% of the American users use the mobile for Social networking/blogs, only 17% of the Japanese and 14.7% of the Europeans get connected & blogging through their mobile.

However, 63% of the Japanese like to capture photos and 22% watch TV/video on their mobile. Europeans capture videos more than other two and 24.2% of them is listening to music and 24.1% is playing mobile games.

Finance/Retail/Travel/Others

Quite few people accessed their bank accounts, the percentage staying under 10% in all markets, yet 16.1% of the Japanese accessed financial news or stock quotes through their mobile. Online retail and travel services were also low in all markets; most of the numbers not reaching even 7%.

Maps, traffic reports and weather are another story. 16% of the Americans and 15.7% of the Japanese access maps, 12.6% of the Japanese access traffic reports, and 34.1% of the Japanese and 22.3% of the Americans access weather forecasts through their mobile. In Europe these areas are not popular, the percentage varying from 5.9% to 13.7%.

Demographic Segment

The study measures also the mobile media consumption across the genders and age segments.  The usage rate is more balanced across age segments in Japan than in the U.S. and Europe.

* Index = % demographic segment / % demographic base*100

In Europe, 18-24 year olds are 54% more likely to access mobile media than an average mobile user, while persons aged 25-34 are 35% more likely to get connected.

In the U.S., 25-34 year olds are 44% more likely to use mobile media, while 18-24 year olds are 39% more likely to use it.

Another interesting fact was that females in the U.S. were 9% less likely than males to get involved with mobile media and European females were 16% less likely than males to use mobile media.

Top Mobile Social Media Brands

Across markets the top mobile social media brands were the same ones as the social media brands generally. Facebook leads the way in the U.S. and Europe and local social media brands ruled Japan with Mixi, Gree and Mobage Town. The Twitter fever in Japan raised the brand on 3^rd position in the market. In Europe considerable preference for Youtube might explain partly Europeans preference on video capturing.

Looking through the statistics from these three complex markets, I think Mark Donovan is right. To create a successful International mobile marketing strategy, it is essential to know how the consumers use their mobile in each of these markets. For example, SMS marketing and games might work in Europe, email or interactive marketing might be more effective in Japan and in the U.S. social media and blog marketing might be a success.

Everything depends of course of the target audience, which makes the demographics handy, and the relevant content/message/advertising. Good thing to remember here is also the emerge of the Smartphones, which change the user behaviour considerably allowing the mobile user access to different applications and faster connection among the other benefits. The high mobile media use in Japan makes sense since the market is more advanced than the others on this aspect, but I have a feeling that at same time next year the results could be very different in the U.S and Europe.

Great comparative snapshot of Japan, the U.S. and Europe anyhow!

Despite huge media coverage, the iPhone OS is actually not that popular it seems.

According to a recent study by Nielsen measuring the recent acquired Smartphones in the U.S, iPhone OS has experienced a decrease in popularity while Android OS is experiencing a steady growth.

This data combined with the ComScore study in July 2010 claiming that Blackberry owns 39.3% of the Smartphone market share in U.S. compared with 23.8% market share  iPhone has backs this up. Android OS follows the two with 17%, a number that is constantly increasing. Windows Mobile holds 11.8% of the market share, Palm 4.9% and Symbian (Nokia) only 3.2%.

What comes to Europe, it is a completely different story. The recent study by comScore reveals surprisingly that the five largest European Smartphone markets in Europe are still ruled by Nokia. A high 51.2% of Smartphone-owning respondents in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy have a Symbian OS by Nokia.

In UK and France, Symbian (Nokia) is the most popular Smartphone OS with 37.3% and 35.4% of the market share respectively. However, in both countries it is challenged by Apple’s iOS with more than 30% of the market share in France and almost 30% in UK.  In UK the third challenger is Blackberry with 16% and in France Windows Mobile with 13.8%.

In Germany Symbian (Nokia) has 51.6% of the total market share, compared with iPhone OS with 21.2% and Windows Mobile with 16%.

Surprisingly or not, the Symbian (Nokia) rules Italian and Spanish Smartphone market with a high 72.5% and 69.3% respectively. iPhone and Windows Mobile have a long way ahead in these two countries with their percentage remaining very close to 10%. And no, these two markets are not immature markets what comes to the Smartphone adoption.  They actually have the largest percentage of mobile users with a Smartphone in Europe – with 34.1% for Italy and 31.9% for Spain.

The UK, Germany and France have 28.5%, 20.3% and 19.3% Smartphone penetration respectively – while the US has 22.8%.

Now why is that?

One of the reasons could be that Smartphones such as iPhone are very expensive, or require at least £50 a month contract for two years, while Symbian phones are available at a reasonable cost to anyone who wants a Pay as you Go phone. One example is the Nokia 5230 that has sold more than 10 million handsets and has most of the features user wants from a Smartphone. It is classified in competence at the same level as the mid range Android devices and very close to the 3G and 3GS iPhones.

And why should I care?

Because if you want to get involved in mobile marketing, you need to know which mobiles your target audience is using for the simple reason that the mobile apps need to be developed with a specific operating system in mind.

If you want to reach the most of the market, but at the same time want to create buzz in press, you will not be able to choose between Apple and Android for app development in the U.S. nor between Symbian (Nokia) and Apple in Europe. For the best coverage you need to pick both and stay updated on the latest mobile trends and numbers. Press will love the iPhone app, the consumers the Symbian or Android app.

Now in 2011 everything has changed again with the new Nokia Microsoft partnership. Please find more information here.

A recent study surveying consumers buying behavior in China and the US revealed that word of mouth influences the final purchase decision more than advertisements. 48% of Chinese respondents declared worth of mouth to be their most important source of brand information compared with 43% of Americans, while only 39% in China and 45% in the US stated advertising via traditional or digital media to be their primary source. However, what comes to the final stage of the purchase process, among the 1800 adults in China and America who participated in the study conducted by Jack Morton Worldwide, only 32% in the US and 21% in China found it to be influential in the final stages.

In China, 52% of respondents felt that observing other people using a product influenced them the most yet in final purchase decision the importance raised up to 64%, compared with 30% in the US. Online research had higher impact for the Americans with 49% and promotion and sponsorship gathered 42% and the product reviews by experts resulted relevant as well.

Why the word of mouth plays such a big role in purchase decisions in China and the US? According to the study, the constant stream of new offerings available in China causes noticeable uncertainty among many Chinese consumers. Diversity, freedom of choice and the fact Chinese brands are competing now at the same level as foreign brands confuse people. Seeing people using a product that works and hearing positive opinions of the product reduces this uncertainty. These results added to the Trendstream study I referred to earlier, about consumers in the Asia Pacific region trusting and engaging with brands that communicate with them through social media, highlight considerably the importance of an engaging Social Media strategy in China.

In the US, the situation is quite similar what comes to the brand diversity and wide range of products. Especially before buying an expensive, relevant product, such as computer or car, consumers prefer listening other people’s opinions before making the purchase decision, and it includes their friends, experts, bloggers, and consumer opinion forums. Jack Morton Worldwide’s study recommends that the brand owners create “moments of dialogue” with their target audience to ensure that there is a long-term growth in the brand loyalty. These consumers could become their brand advocates. Indeed, instead of a one-way communication to the mass, more personal and two-way approach is preferable and more effective in the US market.

Is the U.S., the country we consider as home of gadgets, really so up-to-date in mobile innovation as we think? According to the recent report by the World Economic Forum and Instead, the French business school, Americans stay below 71 other countries in the mobile penetration.

“We have 3GS and better. We have smartphones. We have relative affluence and multiple computing devices in the home. In short, US Internet users are not typical of the entire globe of humanity. In mobile, our reliance on multiple devices and the latest ones as well, may be keeping us from adopting true innovative marketing and utility for mobile “, states John Bell in his blog “The Digital Influence Mapping Project”.

The Nordics have used the mobile tax paying systems already for years as well as micropayments through mobile to pay the groceries, transportation tickets, etc. However, also in countries where technology is hard to come by, mobile innovation thrives. The developing world has started innovating around mobile in ways that U.S. might ignore. A UN study declares that “In the developing world, the growth (…in mobile usage…)has been driven by the use of phones for mobile banking and health services”. For example, projects like PesaPa l and M-Pesa in Kenya allow people with no bank accounts but mobile subscriptions to do financial transactions with their phones, SMS can be used to send reminder messages to patient’s phones when they have a medical appointment or to give instructions how and when to take complicated medicine.

So what can we learn from this? If you’re looking for mobile solutions, don’t concentrate on U.S., but look around the world. The innovation in developing countries is mostly coming out of necessity, which makes Africa, India, central Asia, and other developing areas use mobile phones in very interesting ways.

Read more about mobile capabilities at The Digital Influence Mapping Project