The convergence of mobility and media

The convergence of mobility and media
Mobile technology for the right reasons

Susanna Lewis (Ericsson ConsumerLab)
Jonas Selén (Ericsson ConsumerLab)
Jürgen Warnecke (SKIM Analytical durables&ict)

Mobile Media is considered as being one of the key drivers for the future success of the Telecom industry. Ericsson ConsumerLab and SKIM Analytical durables&ict have conducted a global study in order to add the consumer dimension in the design of Mobile Media offerings. This paper describes both the study and the outcomes.

This paper was presented at the Esomar Telecom Conference in Brussels and nominated for the John and Mary Goodyear Award for "Best International Research Paper 2004"


Introduction
The mobile phone as a media device for communication and other services is seen as an important driver for the success of new multimedia capable mobile networks. There are several reasons for this. One of the key reasons is of course the new stream of revenue potentially captured by both the operators / mobile service providers and the media industry by offering media content. Thus, mobile media can provide direct incremental revenues to their existing businesses via the new mobile channel.

However, the indirect effects of mobile media can be just as important. For the operators / mobile service providers, mobile media can lead to an indirect additional usage of existing communication services such as voice calls or SMS / text as a result of mobile media consumption. The possibilities for interactivity are almost endless. Just imagine the following: a consumer sees a pre-view video-clip from a new movie on the mobile phone and then calls friends to talk about the new movie or plans via the telephone for a group of friends to see the new movie together later that night. The possibilities of contacts triggered by the pre-view video-clip within the peer group can be enormous.

In addition, Mobile Media can provide excellent opportunities for one-to-one marketing, since specific media content can be directed to specific consumer in order to create a unique brand position.

The media industry can also benefit indirectly via the access to a new marketing, sales and distribution channel directly to consumers via the mobile device. The channel can be direct, without intermediaries, or in co-operation with, for instance, a service-provider. Thus, the new channel can also be used for other purposes than direct sales of content. Going back to the example above with the consumer viewing a video-clip from a new movie, the mobile device would rather be a marketing or promotion channel for the new movie than a direct source of revenue.

Altogether, at Ericsson we needed to provide a clearer vision and understanding of this new future landscape capturing the media landscape (so far mostly one-way communication) as well as the telecom world (so far mainly peer-to-peer communication). When the study was conducted these two worlds were two separate entities, each with their own business models and modus operandi. Presently, signs of co-operation between telecom and media are emerging. In addition, Ericsson needed to translate technologies such as multimedia streaming and downloading into consumer benefits and understand how these technologies can fit into people's everyday life. Uniting the media industry, the mobile service / provider community, and the mobile phone infrastructure technology manufacturers is crucial for the future success of mobile media. Technologies may vary; multimedia or single media, slide shows, streaming or downloading content: of overriding importance is content and consumer preferences. Who wants what, when and where?

Aim of the study
On behalf of Ericsson Consumer Lab, SKIM Analytical durables&ict has conducted a qualitative study to gain insight into the Mobility and Media concept.

The overall objectives of the study were:

1. To create a market and user benefit view on the product roadmap;
2. To add the consumer dimension in improving requirements for the Mobile Media service offering via assessing the interest for new Mobile Media services as well as the potential revenues;
3. To gain insights regarding who the most interested consumers are, thus validating current knowledge.

The underlying reason for the study was to attain a deeper understanding of consumer behaviour, needs and requirements. This should enable Ericsson to create appropriate and attractive product and service offerings around Mobile Media and thereby support its customers, the operators / service providers.
Naturally, we faced a number of issues to solve in order to create a picture of the future mobile media landscape. Some areas of issues were quite specific needs from, for instance, the R&D stakeholders or Product Management. However, the main focus was to explore the issue of which target groups to focus on and how to best communicate the mobile media service offering. Below some specific examples of the research questions/ issues can be found:

What is the "big picture" i.e. the competitive landscape for the different media offerings? How do consumers use and value different media channels today? (TV, internet, newspapers, radio, magazines, etc.)?

In the context of consuming media in a mobile phone, what is perceived as important and why? In other words, we needed to understand barriers and triggers for consumers potentially using their mobile device to access multimedia services. Moreover, we needed to understand what user segments will act as early adopters, and why. Youth? Professionals? Other? Which groups of applications / content is each segment particularly interested in? (Music, news clip, sport highlights, emergency instructions etc.).

Several other issues were of interest, such as the kind of content that is prefered by users: professional-production or amateur one, local or international. The prefered payment method was naturally of interest as well. In addition, we needed to understand the psychological drives and the social context of usage, such as when the users intend to use different services.

Finally we wanted to look into how the consumers perceive the technical quality of multimedia in a mobile context and the importance of quality compared to other factors.

The internal Ericsson stake holders
As can be understood by the scope of the project, several different parts of Ericsson, and thereby different stakeholders, were interested and involved in the project. The key stakeholder and owner of the project were Mobile Systems Strategic Marketing. Among others were R&D , Product Management and Sales.

A study into Mobile Media
"Technology itself is rather cold. But if you know how to use it, it will be intuitive and more human. And when you look at a product more as a person, instead of an object, and you actually start to interact with it as such, it starts to take on its own personality"

The study aimed at exploring what roles Mobile Media could perform in the life of the consumer. The main challenge was that we were dealing, in most cases, with completely new and future possibilities for which a frame of reference and a consumer pricing-framework was lacking. Extrapolating past behaviour was therefore not a feasible option.

We realised that three precautions had to be taken in order to ensure a market research study would provide meaningful results:

1. The sampling frame should be limited to consumers that are most likely to adopt the new products and services first.
2. All respondents needed to be informed regarding the new products and services by means of carefully developed stimuli material.
3. Appropriate methodologies that could deal with the challenge should be utilised.

The sampling frame
We decided that we should seek the opinions and views from the most advanced users of mobile services today. We assumed that, at this stage, this group would be most ready to understand the new products and services and the relevance they might have in the future. Thereby, this group could provide us with the early insights that we needed.

The first question that we needed to answer was where we should look for the most advanced users. From earlier research it was apparent that these early adopters were most likely to be found in urban areas in countries such as Japan, South Korea and the UK. A second decision criterion for sampling points was the importance of the market that they represented to the mobile industry.

In the end we decided that fieldwork should take place in:

UK: London
Germany: Ruhrgebiet (Cologne)
Italy: Milan
China: Shanghai
South Korea: Seoul
USA: Boston
Japan: Tokyo
Brazil: São Paulo

Selecting these cities was only the first step. We decided to look for the most advanced users of mobile telephony within these cities. Ericsson ConsumerLab's consumer segmentation model was used to identify and recruit these early adopters. The Ericsson Take Five segmentation model (please see appendix 1 for a full description) is a value / attitude based segmentation model that provides Ericsson with a global understanding of consumers and consumer segments, both from an information and telecom perspective. In addition, the Take Five model can be used both for strategic purposes as well as for tactical purposes. The model consists of 5 core segments, Pioneers, Materialists, Sociables, Achievers and Traditionalists.

Ultimately, we decided that we would interview two groups. Group number one consited of Professional Pioneers and Sociables' aged 25-45. The second group consisted of ‘Young Pioneers and Materialists' aged 15-24.

Informing the respondents
Even though we recruited the most advanced users of mobile telephony, we still needed to inform the respondents in detail with regard to the new services, as these had not been launched to the market yet. The quality of the stimuli material was therefore extremely important. It should not only show the respondent what the service and the underlying technology is about, it should also enable him / her to think and envision them as if these services were already in existence today!

A 7-minute movie entitled "Into the mobile future" was shown to all respondents. The purpose of the movie was to set the scene and help the respondents to envision the mobile future for them as if it had already happened. In the movie, various new mobile technologies were introduced. Rather than explaining them, the movie showed consumers and professionals using these services in their daily routines. To facilitate the respondents in ‘opening their mind' during the focus groups and in-depth interviews, a movie theatre atmosphere was created, whereby the lights were dimmed during the movie. Once the movie was completed and the lights were switched on again, the respondents were in the right frame of mind to discuss the mobile future.

The specific services that were studied were explained further by means of computer simulations (at the time of the survey, it was not possible to use actual prototypes of the handsets equiped for 3rd Generation services). So instead of simply telling respondents that they could, for instance, watch TV on the mobile, they could experiment with this themselves and experience how TV looks on the smaller screens of mobile phones.

All the interviewers were thoroughly briefed with regard to the services and equipped with FAQ files so that they could answer all questions of the respondents, even those of a technical nature (e.g. specific download speeds etc).

The methodologies used
From the outset is was clear that the consumer's frame of reference regarding the existing media environment should be the starting point, thus ensuring the relevance of ideas for services that would be derived from them. So, both the in-depth interviews and the focus groups started with a more or less straightforward discussion about media and media habits.

The tricky part came when we wanted to discuss the new mobile media. In a recent article in the Journal of Marketing Research, Steve Hoeffler (University of North Carolina) argues that research techniques forecast much less accurately for really new products (RNPs) than for incrementally new products (INPs). By definition, potential customers have limited knowledge about RNPs and therefore must construct preferences at the time of measurement. When preferences are constructed at the time of measurement they are relatively unstable and can easily be changed by small changes in the measurement procedure . The solution suggested by Hoeffler is to ask consumers to mentally simulate a scenario (or several) in which they are using the product. After preparing themselves this way, they are far more capable of providing the researcher with stable preferences.

We applied a similar approach in our study. In order to mentally prepare themselves for a personal evaluation, the respondents completed a number of projective exercises. All participants were still in the right frame of mind that followed the viewing of the movie "Into the mobile future" and were then informed with regard to a particular new mobile media service. Next, they were asked to envisage an archetypical user of the service. The respondents were handed sets of carefully selected images showing different artefacts (cars, trains, computers, etc), (social) environments (outdoors, living rooms), and especially people. With these aids, they created a collage that showed what type of man or woman would be most likely to use the service. In addition, the collages revealed where and when s/he would use them. These collages were then presented to the whole group by the participants themselves and served as input for discussion. It was the ensuing discussions that enabled us to establish the nuances that added ‘the human face' to the archetypical users created in the projective exercises.


Figure 1 Young early adopters from Shanghai (left) and London (right) presenting their ideas

Experience teaches us that it is impossible for most consumers to formulate specific wants with regard to really new products and services. However, if their creativity is stimulated well enough, they are able to identify and explain specific (latent) needs for the benefits the new products or services might deliver. Each person acts in a way to ultimately reach his or her goals. The actions taken, decisions made, and products bought all have the same purpose: to satisfy the deeper needs of the person taking the actions, in accordance with their personal motives and values.

The Means-End Chain theory (Gutman 1982) offered us a theoretical framework and a technique that could be applied here: laddering. Usually, laddering is only applied in one-on-one, in-depth interviews, as it is difficult (even awkward) for a respondent to share more emotional motives and needs in a group setting. However, the groups had no problem in expressing these motives and needs ‘on behalf of' the archetypical user that was created for each individual service. This enabled us to explore the relevance of the new services. Moreover, it provided us with a thorough understanding of why certain services would appeal to certain target groups and why others would not. After getting used to the laddering technique and with the respondents in a comfortable mood, they were also able to share their personal views, needs and motives in the focus groups.

The laddering approach offered us the essential hierarchical links between the new services, the enabled benefits and the consumer needs. Moreover, it enabled the participants to mentally explore the services further and to build on each other's ideas and fantasies. As a result, the new services truly came to life during the discussions.

The results

Current media behaviour
Early Adopters enjoy various kind of content (sports, news, amusement, relaxation, information) through various media channels. TV, newspaper and Internet are the most versatile channels as they offer the most diverse types of content. The younger Early Adopters are more focused on amusement and killing time and therefore use the channels predominantly for this type of content.


Figure 2 Current media use

TV is considered the superior channel for amusement, sports and news because of its multimedia qualities and the convenience of using it. Ultimately, it allows the user relaxation by means of escapism. The Internet is considered the superior channel for business / education purposes, general information and, according to the Professionals, for killing time. The convenience of the Internet, combined with its rich, fresh and varied information makes it the preferred channel. Young Early Adopters regard radio to be the best in providing content for killing time.

Mobile Future
Brazilian and Chinese Early Adopters are the most enthusiastic about the new applications, but consider them to be long-term future, or even impossible to be implemented in their countries. On the other hand, Japanese and South-Korean Early Adopters regard the new applications as reality (‘we have it already, this next step will be easy to make'). However, they are triggered by the enhanced quality of the new services.


Figure 3 The relevance of the mobile future

In the European countries (Italy, Germany and the UK), most Early Adopters have heard of some of the new services, and are moderately enthusiastic. Still, they recognise issues related to costs, quality and speed. In the USA, Early Adopters do not see themselves using the new services, mainly because in the USA the mobile phone is used for voice only. Either people are at work, in their car or at home, so there are not many situations where the new services might be relevant. At the time of the survey, none of the current mobile services (besides voice) were well known or used in the USA.

Mobile Media concept evaluation
The study revealed that Mobile Media concepts can be grouped into 4 distinct categories of media:

1. Amusement / Relaxation (for young pioneers and especially young materialists)
2. Info / Business / Education / News (for Professional Sociables and especially Professional Pioneers)
3. Sports (attracts both segments, a large majority of men)
4. Advertisements (especially for young Asians)

Ad 1. For Amusement: Mobile Media can complement Internet and compete with radio or magazines. It combines the interactive qualities of the Internet with the convenience and wide scope of information of the radio and magazines. The mobile phone does not provide long-term relaxation, as the TV does, but it enables people to relax during breaks, to be able to function better. Radio has two important benefits itself: no cost and you can do other things whilst listening to the radio.

Ad 2. For Information/news/work-school: Mobile Media can to a certain extent compete with all preferred media. It is as up-to-date and various as the Internet and as convenient as magazines (to carry it with you). Especially as many Professionals want to satisfy their need to be informed anytime and anywhere. One can be on the train, on lunch breaks, before a meeting starts, etc.

Ad 3. For sports, Mobile Media can complement and even compete with Internet, not with TV. The mobile phone can deliver concise, up-to-date information on sports like the Internet. The unique benefit is that it can deliver this any time, any place. When people want to experience the excitement of a game, they will use the TV. TV offers excellent sound and picture and allows you to share the experience with others, hence an opportunity for a gathering. In addition, no costs are perceived for TV.

Ad 4. Most Early Adopters reject mobile advertising. Only when mobile ads are intelligent, creative, non-intrusive and targeted they are likely to be accepted. The latter two characteristics are the most important. In Asia and in Brazil the acceptance of ads (in general) is much larger than in Europe and the USA. In these countries, advertisements are considered an important way to inform yourself rather than a nuisance.

Barriers and willingness to pay
Early Adopters associate the mobile services with Internet-based services. Internet defines the frame of reference! Downloading time should therefore be as fast as, or faster than Internet. Note, that the speed of Internet depends on local standards (e.g. most Brazilians use 56K dial-up connections whereas Koreans usually have broadband access). TV quality is what people want for moving images. Still some might settle for Internet quality. Quality demands mostly depend on content. So quality demands for sports clips or TV on the mobile phone are higher than the demands for news clips. Breakdowns are expected, but will impact willingness to use / spend. This especially holds true when paying for the service or when the user is emotionally involved in the information.

Reputable brands are preferred to provide the news service (e.g. CNN or local ‘A-brands'). No preferences exist regarding providers for the other services although major brands are expected to step in. The Early Adopters do not care which provider will deliver the services except in Brazil where doubts about the quality of certain providers are raised.

Early adopters are willing to spend on Mobile Media. It is important to realise that the early adopters are willing to spend in addition to the current spending on mobile telephony (no substitution). Thereby, Mobile Media can be considered an important new source of revenue for the industry. Japanese, Brazilians and British are willing to spend most, whereas Koreans, Americans and Germans are willing to spend the least. Flat fees (limited usage, or ideally unlimited usage) are generally preferred.

Overall relevance of Mobile Media
There is definitely a (latent) need for Mobile Media. The main benefit is that it offers content anytime and anywhere. Thereby, the mobile phone has the potential to become a very relevant media channel. Although Mobile Media is new, media is not. Expectations are shaped by the frame of reference the consumer currently has. Overall, mobile media are benchmarked against Internet based applications and one expects technical performance to be equal or better. Professionals regard Mobile Media as a means to make their life (and work) easier, young Early Adopters regard it as an entertaining, ‘fun' concept. People do not expect the Mobile Media to be free. They add their usage to the current spending. They are interested in a flat fee.

Epilogue: how were results used?
The results from this study have been used over a period of time in several different areas. As touched upon in the introduction and the subsequent sections of this paper, Ericsson needed to create a vision of a future mobile media landscape, thus merging the content aspect (the Media Industry), the delivery aspect (the operators) and the technology aspect (Ericsson itself). Simultaneously, we needed to address needs of several different stakeholders at Ericsson including Marketing, R&D, Product Marketing and Sales. Finally, one has to consider the added complexity caused by the fact that the concept of Mobile Media was (is) completely new for most consumers but also not fully defined by either the Media Industry or the operators / mobile service providers.

Internal Ericsson usage of the research findings
An overview of the main areas of usage from an organisational point of view and some concrete examples of usage from each area are demonstrated below.


Figure 4 The stakeholders involved in the project

First of all, one of the overall achievements of this market research project was that it facilitated for Strategic Marketing to put Mobile Media on the agenda at Ericsson. Thereby, the understanding of that Mobile Media is about delivering personalised media content to an individual consumer with a mobile device was further enhanced.

The means by which this was achieved was via production and distribution of written reports and presentation material to stakeholders and key management, supplemented with a number of internal presentations, workshops, seminars as well as internal broadcasting news shows and streamed intranet seminars. The plan for how, when and what to present to whom was prepared carefully (similar to any external PR/Marketing campaign) by the Strategic Marketing Program for Mobile Media in close collaboration with Ericsson ConsumerLab.

The audience and participants in the internal communication activities came from the different parts of Ericsson shown in figure 4. We needed to maximise both the hands-on use of the research findings as well as the impact of the key message(s) from the consumers. We therefore adapted and "tailor-made" the mode of communication. These ranged from intense in-depth workshops with a few participants to short telegram-style articles and video-clips aimed at internal mass-distribution. Moreover, we adapted (tailor made) the available information / results presented to each internal target group.

One example of the tailoring process discussed here, was the manner in which we used the results from the research to address R&D. For R&D we needed to corroborate lab analyses concerning acceptable levels of quality (images, sound etc) for the mobile media experience. The skilled engineers needed a forum that allowed for in-depth, understanding, questioning and discussions. On the other hand, to prepare materials and presentations for Sales and Sales Management we needed to be very concise in referring to potential business opportunities while still providing the overall vision and context in an interesting way.

In short, the results and experiences from this specific market research are used both for corroboration and validation of other studies and lab tests and to compare and benchmark with information from sources other than primary market research. Finally, findings were used to formulate hypotheses and to define the context for further quantitative market research in the area of Mobile Media.

External usage of research findings
The ultimate aim of our market research project was to enable Ericsson to create appropriate messages and attractive product and service offerings around Mobile Media. Thereby we were able to support our customers, the operators / mobile service providers, in order to address consumers with well-targeted offers. This meant that we also needed to address the Media Industry, other content providers and application providers. Because of this, research findings were also incorporated in Ericsson's external marketing and communication activities to promote Mobile Media. Thus, results were used to support events, trade shows, conferences white papers, promotion material, sales material, presentations and training of sales personnel. All in order to set the scene for Mobile Media and to ensure that Ericsson understands media and mobility and can provide the vision of a future market scenario.

Some final key learnings and observations.

Speaking as market researchers in general (aiming at both the MRO / Analyst Client side as well as the Agency side of market research), we need to change our mindsets if we are to prosper. We need to improve our skills to be pro-active, creative and communicative in the process of conducting market research.

Drive and push for market research projects to be conducted per se, also to analyse existing findings further and deeper, to probe and question the purposes and objectives in "ordered" research projects.

Dare to be creative when it comes to research approaches and methodologies, to be prepared to walk the extra mile when it comes to forcing stakeholders to further refine their questions, hypotheses or concepts, hence assuring that respondents can understand what we are asking them about.

Make the effort to communicate with non-market researchers in a clear way (clients as well as internal stakeholders) and respect the lack of in-depth expertise of market research.

Be open minded regarding the impact of local context/culture when performing and analysing global market research. Even though communication technology might be adopted across the world, the context of usage is still local for a clear majority of the users.

Most importantly, we as market researchers have to face the hardest challenge of all. We need to broaden our competencies and learn new skills to communicate our findings. We can learn from marketing, from PR and journalists. We need to plan the communication, package our findings and formulate our messages in interesting and compelling ways.

Mobile Media, is on its way, providing a new marketing and distribution channel for media content adapted to a mobile context!

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Zaltman, G.,
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Hoeffler, S.,
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The authors
Susanna Lewis, BSc (BA, Marketing), Senior Advisor, ConsumerLab Advisory Group, Telefon AB LM Ericsson

Jonas Selén, BSc (BA, Marketing), Senior Advisor, ConsumerLab Research and Consulting, Telefon AB LM Ericsson

Jürgen Warnecke M. Sc. (B.E.), Division Manager, SKIM Analytical durables&ict.

Susanna Lewis, BSc (BA, Marketing), Senior Advisor, ConsumerLab Advisory Group, Telefon AB LM Ericsson

Jonas Selén, BSc (BA, Marketing), Senior Advisor, ConsumerLab Research and Consulting, Telefon AB LM Ericsson

Jürgen Warnecke M. Sc. (B.E.), Division Manager, SKIM Analytical durables&ict.