This paper examines mobile-based marketing as a component of integrated marketing communications (IMC), with a focus on location-based services and the challenges that have shaped their development. The analysis traces the industry's growth from early, ethically problematic tracking practices to more user-controlled, opt-in models enabled by advances in GPS accuracy and mobile operating systems. The paper discusses the legal and technological obstacles that slowed adoption, the cultural consequences of over-sharing, and why the shift toward reciprocal, trust-based relationships between brands and consumers represents the most significant transformation in mobile marketing strategy.
The paper demonstrates synthesis across multiple source types — academic journals, trade press, and mainstream business journalism — to build a single, coherent argument. Rather than summarizing each source separately, the writer integrates them to show how legal, technological, and ethical dimensions of mobile marketing are interconnected, which is a core skill in IMC analysis.
The paper opens with an industry overview and thesis, then devotes its body sections to the historical development of location-based services, the move away from unilateral communication, the social consequences of over-sharing, and the ethics of opt-in advertising. A brief conclusion reaffirms the central claim that user control is the defining force reshaping mobile marketing. The structure is logical and progresses from macro context to specific consumer-level implications.
Mobile-based marketing needs to be part of an integrated marketing communications (IMC) strategy, supported by ancillary systems, tactics, and programs designed to attract, sell, and serve targeted customers if it is to succeed. Of the many technology platforms that catalyze IMC growth, mobile-based marketing continues to accelerate well beyond all others, estimated to be valued at $23 billion as an industry in its own right (Valentino-DeVries & Steel, 2010). Despite this rapid projected growth, mobile-based marketing has continued to face formidable obstacles. For the last decade there have been lawsuits regarding the use of cookies and other advanced tracking technologies — including "Flash Cookies" used to recreate consumers' browsing sessions even after they have been deleted (Valentino-DeVries & Steel, 2010). These obstacles include legal impediments to growth as well as technological ones, such as the challenge of integrating disparate, often legacy systems to create scalable, secure mobile marketing platforms (Pelau & Zegreanu, 2010).
The intent of this analysis is to evaluate how location-based services have progressed over the last decade, and why their adoption and use will be different in 2014 and beyond. Targeting advertising based on a user's location is a volatile topic, yet the advent of opt-in and opt-out technologies first introduced several years ago (Pelau & Zegreanu, 2010) — and continually improved in mobile operating systems including Google's Android operating system — provides users with the freedom to choose whether they participate in location-based services. The central paradox of mobile marketing is that the greater the sophistication of the technology, the more trust must be cultivated with users.
Location-based services in the past relied on relatively inefficient approaches to triangulating a user's location, which made contextual intelligence nearly impossible to attain. This shortcoming often led to spam-like marketing techniques on the part of advertisers, who would literally carpet-bomb every user or prospective customer's cell phone they had the ability to reach (Valentino-DeVries & Steel, 2010). In the 2002 and 2003 timeframe, this practice of spamming across mobile channels — combined with the ethically questionable and often outright unethical use of cookies and tracking techniques — led to a flurry of lawsuits and eventually a call for U.S. Congressional action in this area (Valentino-DeVries & Steel, 2010). While mobile marketing had the potential to create unique, highly customized personal relationships with consumers, the technologies necessary for building a reciprocal rather than unilateral relationship were lacking (Pelau & Zegreanu, 2010).
The advent of opt-in and opt-out technologies, more precise GPS coordinates, the launch and eventual discontinuation of Google Latitude in late 2013, and the continual advances Apple and Google are making in providing contextual search capability on mobile devices have combined to create a sustainable, trusted foundation for mobile marketing growth. These factors are producing a more reciprocal relationship with users, giving them greater control over how they interact with and choose to participate in mobile and location-based advertising with companies and retailers they trust.
The thorough analysis of mobile technologies by Pelau and Zegreanu (2010) demonstrates how the foundational elements of mobile marketing have been continually improved from the standpoints of accuracy, cost, and performance. The lessons learned in this field are attributable to a shift in priorities — away from one-way, unilateral communication and the borderline or outright unethical practices of tracking users (Valentino-DeVries & Steel, 2010) — and toward a focus on collaborative, trusted experiences (The Economist, 2010). The progression of these technologies, taken together, is creating greater opportunities for users to take control over their conversations with brands. This represents the most significant difference in how mobile marketing is changing today.
The ability to control the flow of coupons, messages, and promotions makes all the difference. Being able to completely opt out from retailers and brands that hold no personal interest is exceptionally valuable. That level of user control is fundamentally reshaping mobile marketing and pushing marketers toward more respectful, personalized engagement strategies.
The paradox of mobile marketing remains: the more sophisticated the technology, the greater the level of trust that must be cultivated and maintained with users. As location-based services continue to advance, the brands and marketers that succeed will be those who prioritize user consent, transparency, and genuine value delivery over intrusive, unilateral communication.
Business: Follow me; location-based services on mobile phones. (2010, March 6). The Economist, 394, 85.
Pelau, C., & Zegreanu, P. (2010). Mobile marketing — the marketing for the next generation. Management & Marketing, 5(2), 101–116.
Valentino-DeVries, J., & Steel, E. (2010, September 20). 'Cookies' cause bitter backlash — spate of lawsuits shows user discomfort with latest innovations in online-tracking technology. Wall Street Journal.
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