S60 Open to new features

Yesterday I wrote about how people talk about brands everyday, online and off, and how the S60 Marketing team is looking for ways to amplify the conversations that are already taking place.

One way we to amplify word of mouth conversation is through blogs like this one and womworld.

Another way is through "offline" word of mouth. We're piloting a volunteer program for people interested in S60 software called "S60 Agents: New York". The idea is encourage current S60 device owners in the NY area to talk to their friends and families about the devices and software they use, and then find out from them what the reactions of our target audience "across the chasm" have to say about the software. The Agents are rewarded with marketing schwag and the most active and detail-oriented agents will be given application/hardware goodies. (We are working out the details, it is still in pilot phase). For those interested in the Word of Mouth marketing concept, there is a wealth of background information available here. I'm interested in comments and feedback from agents and non-agents on how to expand the program and make it more effective.

We've had good response from our fans in the New York area, many many people have signed on, and many have submitted excellent reports. I'll use this blog to post their reports from time to time. The first is from Judy:

On Sunday July 1st while my cousin graduation party, a bunch of us sat
around the back yard, someone just happened to call me so I excused myself
and whip out my phone to answer the call. I currently have an N80 and of
course I am drooling over the N95. So after I hung up a few of my other
cousins asked me about my phone. They noticed it was thicker than a regular
slider and that intrigued them, so I took the opportunity to talk to them
about all the cool features of the S60 OS. They seemed interested on the
phone, and where asking me what I like most about it. I told them I liked
everything but most importantly the stability and all the software choices
we had to choose from. I told them about the MP3 player, since they are all
young they were really excited about that and the fact that the phone
supports a 2GB card for music overload. Of course I told them that my love
for the S60 platform was so strong that I became an agent. They asked me
where the phone could be purchased and I told them about the Nokia
Manhattan store. Though some were just comaparing their phones to mine,
some seemed really interested in the phone and its platform.

Judy gives WoM'ing a good name. Thanks Judy!!

OK, so I mentioned that this blog would be mostly about marketing S60, but also might mention food. Today it is about both. I had a big breakfast in my hometown of Somerville, MA. I mention this because the barbecue place hosting the breakfast was broadcasting the Tour de France live, which was pretty cool because 1) I like watching sports on tv 2) it is rare to find a critical mass of people in the USA who like to watch European competitions and 3) it and made me feel more connected to my European colleagues and employer in Espoo.

So, there I was, watching the program, and I noticed one of the guys watching at the next table was carrying a Sony Ericsson phone. This is also pretty rare in the US, SE does not have a huge presence here. His buddy was carrying a Blackberry, and I overheard him talking about how he got this new mobile carry case that attached to the stem of his bicycle and let him occasionally take phone calls while on his bike. I looked up some stuff and found one here. Looks like this one is marketed as a "gel" or "powerbar" pack, but if it can fit a couple power bars, it can fit a Bberry. Or my N95 for that matter. And having a pack makes it alot easier to use GPS voice commands when I'm on my bike. I'll stop by the bike shop tonight to pick one up.

Anyway, one of the things I made a mental note of was that these two guys were talking about products. And one guy was making a recommendation about a product that he liked, and was telling him that it made his life easier, and was thus recommending that his friend buy one too. People do this kind of thing all the time, and that is the idea behind word of mouth marketing.

With the S60 Agents campaign, we're trying to harness the power of 1 to 1 communications, both to amplify the good things people are saying about S60 and to understand how everyday people are reacting to WoM actitity around our products. We've started recruiting, and many of our agents are already active in the NY area. I'll blog about some of the agents who've signed on, and some of the reports they've made, tomorrow.

So here's the thing: I wrote an "about this blog" piece, but I'm thinking maybe not too many people will bother to click on the "about" link to see what I'm doing here. So here's my description of what this blog is about:

Hello S60 fans, S60 enthusiasts and others just curious about what S60 is. My name is Daniel Shugrue and I work in S60 Marketing. This blog contains details from the frontlines of the Market Development team: What are consumers saying/feeling/complaining about S60? What are some of the things that *you* like/dislike about S60? What are some of the methods my marketing team is using to reach more consumers? What are some ways that *you* think the team can better reach more consumers? Please use this forum to share your S60 experiences, your thoughts on S60 marketing, and possibly also what you had for lunch.

So to start with, I had a seafood stew for lunch. It was leftover from last night (very good then and maybe even better just now. If that is possible). My wife is a big fan of 'Top Chef' and the whole family was very happy with the recipe.

Now, what do I mean by 'consumer marketing'? Well, up until February of this year, ALL of our S60 marketing efforts concentrated on B2B marketing. In other words, we focused our work on Operators, Enterprises, and S60 Licensees (Nokia, LG, Lenovo, and Samsung). That's one of the reasons that the vast majority of Nokia/Samsung/LG/Lenovo phone-owners don't know what S60 is.
As of February of this year, we built a small team of marketeers and Biz Dev people who are helping to educate our direct channels and consumers as to what S60 is. We work mostly with the Nokia Multimedia team, Enterprise team, and Mobile Phones division, as well as Samsung, LG and Lenovo to support them in marketing the S60-based phones they sell.

What do I mean by educating consumers as to what S60 is? I mean we are positioning S60 as a "feature brand" that supports our licensees' brands. S60, to mobile phones, is what Gore-Tex is to Columbia sportwear. An ingredient or feature that a fraction of consumers recognize and seek when looking at a new product. What does the feature brand stand for? "Open to New Features". In other words, mobile phones that are built using S60 can be customized using thousands of applications. Java/C++/Open C/Flash/Widgets or whatever. There are lots of apps (http://www.handango.com) out there that consumers can download and use to expand the capabilities of their phones.

So that's the larger purpose. Spread the word about S60. And the word is that S60 is Open to New Features.