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856 WIRELESSMARKETINGor “unclear” product information to potential cus-
tomers.- Invasion of personal privacy—conducting telemarket-
ing activities too early in the morning or too late at
night, disclosing personal data to a third party for com-
mercial or fundraising purposes.
Consequently, the concept of permission marketing
should be encouraged and cultivated throughout the or-
ganization. In fact, companies need to set good practices
and an effective system to monitor these consumer issues.Consumer Protection
Wireless technologies have gone through a significant
development period; however, the legal protection for
m-commerce is still in its infancy. From an e-commerce
perspective, OECD’s (Organization for Economic Co-
operation and Development) Consumer Protection Guide-
lines for e-Consumers (December, 1999) has indicated
clearly about the possible consumer legal protection for
e-commerce. The guidelines attempt to draw government,
business bodies and consumer groups’ attention for devel-
oping national and global awareness of consumer protec-
tion laws.
An ITU report (2002a), published in September 2002,
proposed the creation of special legal protection for
mobile consumers for the following reasons (OECD’s
guidelines can be regarded as a foundation for the legal
protection of m-commerce):- Mobile devices are classified as high-speed terminals.
- Users of mobile devices are numerous and always have
limited usage experience. - Users usually have limited technical and legal knowl-
edge of m-commerce. - The display screen for display on mobile devices is
limited (it is difficult to display contract details). - Mobile devices have limited keypad functions (e.g.,
absence of “cancel” or “undo” keys) for making cor-
rections.
MARKETING MIX FOR WIRELESS
Product
Product Characteristics
Lamont (2001) suggested that marketers should make use
of brand name to differentiate themselves from their com-
petitors. He also has identified the following product or
service characteristics for wireless industry:
Effective mobile devices should have interactive and
instant features with unique content through wireless
Internet. This content should be created for a particular
mobile device (e.g., PDA or mobile phone).
SMS (the “killer application” for mobile phones), MMS
services, m-sports, m-commerce, m-entertainment, and
m-banking are expected to be the major value-added
services for mobile devices.
New products develop on mini handsets and handheld
mobile devices such as Web-based phones, WCDMA,
and GPRS (“always on connection”).New Product Attributes in M-commerce
Dynamic wireless technology has changed the ways that
people conducting their business, it also influences con-
sumers’ daily lives and their consumption behavior. The
following summary of new product attributes for the wire-
less products and services is adapted from Lamont (2001,
p. 48–49). Wireless devices can or soon will be able tofind a parking space for your car,
search for the best bargains for your family (e.g., where
to eat and shop),
transfer medical records to your physician,
permit mothers to breast-feed their babies on time and
at work,
scan inventory and close a sale,
download music recommended by your friends,
chat with your friends,
read your e-mail,
pay bills while you commute to the city,
transfer funds from your checking to your savings
account,
arrange travel and other services,
conduct banking services (e.g., enquiries, transfer pay-
ment),
watch entertainment programs (e.g., sports),
take photos, and
listen to the radio.Price
In the early days of widespread Internet use, an initial
pricing strategy for the fixed-lined Internet was charged
according to time spent online. Later, flat-rate schemes
or plans for different user groups were offered. Pricing
for mobile (or wireless) Internet use is expected to follow
the pattern of the fixed-line Internet (ITU, 2002a). Today
subscribers are charged according to their rate of con-
sumption (i.e., per minute) to browse the wireless Inter-
net. Unfortunately, the wireless industry is competitive,
and marketers cannot control their prices. Customers play
a more active role in influencing the pricing strategies of
wireless industry because of a high level of transparency
in the wireless business world.Pricing 3G
There are different types of services provided by 3G mo-
bile devices, such as data services and real-time Internet
game applications, so the billing system is more complex
than it was 2G devices. It is expected that different tariffs
will be adopted because some wireless services such as
e-mail can accept delay, but other services such as Inter-
net game applications cannot. As a result, managers need
to consider what happens if a real-time Internet game ap-
plication suffers from lower service quality because of net
congestion, for example. A billing system must be able
to solve this kind of problem automatically (Korhonen,
2001). Above all, Lamont (2001) indicated that customers
needed to be educated about the merits of the wireless
Internet (e.g., anytime, anywhere, voice and data com-
munications) to ensure that potential customers of 3G are