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A new issue of the International Journal of Mobile Marketing (IJMM) has been published, featuring the latest thinking on how the mobile channel can be used effectively for marketing. The award-winning IJMM collects insights and research from leading academics, students and industry professionals around the globe. The Mobile Marketing Association’s Academic Outreach Committee oversees the IMJJ’s publication in consultation with an Editorial Review Board made up of academic and industry professionals.

The Winter ’11 issue includes critical thinking on mobile marketing developments in specific countries, including India, Pakistan and South Korea. It also provides articles on different aspects of the interplay between mobile marketing and social media.

In addition, this issue features an analysis by Optism’s Mihai Vlad of the importance of transparency, straight talk and building trust in permission marketing approaches. Mihai’s article provides the academic underpinning for the ideas introduced in his recent Optism blog, “Thinking Human: Six Steps for Building a Successful Opt-In Mobile Marketing Strategy.”

Mihai’s article is the first offering in a new section within the journal called “Invited Commentary.” MobileGroove’s Peggy Salz has leveraged this development in the IJMM to introduce her own new series on “the best and brightest” in our industry. Her inaugural piece focuses on Mihai Vlad and his refreshing take on “how companies and brands can (and must) approach people to ensure a desired outcome for everyone involved.”

We highly recommend the International Journal of Mobile Marketing.

Not that long ago, people bought everything from local shops. Shop owners had personal relationships with their customers. They learned through conversations with these customers what types of products and services suited them. With mass marketing, this all changed. We gained a lot in efficiency and economies of scale, but sometimes we lost that all-important human relationship. Today, we can get up close and personal again by using a mobile marketing strategy that employs permission-based techniques.

Using permission-based mobile marketing strategies such as asking people for their permission first before engaging with them on their mobile phones, provides mobile operators, marketers and their brands unprecedented access to a potential customer’s attention and an opportunity to build their trust. As marketing guru Seth Godin has made clear, attention is a scarce resource in today’s world of mass marketing overload. To make the most of this unique opportunity, you need to recognize the very “human” nature of connecting via a mobile phone. And you need to demonstrate very quickly that what you are offering – your content – is worth paying attention to.

Here at Optism, we have developed six “best practices” to help you maximize the value of your permission-based, mobile marketing initiatives by thinking human to gain attention, build trust and  drive engagement from your audience. Read the rest of this entry »

Note: This blog post was written by Peggy Anne Salz and originally published in the Permission Marketing Briefing Room hosted by Optism on the MobileGroove website.

From brands and agencies to Millennials and veteran observers, I encourage each to give their take on the issues and opportunities around mobile — specifically permission-based mobile marketing. Today we take a step back and look at the Big Picture and examine the questions posed in an even bigger debate going on in the industry: what is the value chain? And, more importantly, what is the value of apps?

Who better to ask than Martin Wilson? Martin recently published a critical look at companies’ obsession with delivering iPhone apps (a condition he terms iSyndrome). In it he also urges companies to think through their decision carefully because an iPhone app doesn’t deliver the same value to every customer segment.

For a start, it ignores much of the youth demographic and fails to reach many regions across the globe for whom a simple feature-phone is the only phone. The reaction to his post and how comments via Twitter (and retweeted by mobile experts and influencers including Tomi Ahonen) was tremendous.

I caught up with Martin to ask him to update us on iSyndrome and discuss the wider implications for mobile marketers. In 2008 Martin founded Indigo 102, a leading independent consultancy built on a passion to drive the mobile internet environment. Martin has just come out of stealth mode with a new venture sharply focused on helping clients with branch networks publish content in a consistent, branded and managed manner across platforms to engage consumers. Read the rest of this entry »