S60 Open to new features

Listening to what consumers say "live", in the flesh, is a time-consuming but worthwhile task in the world of marketing. I keep an edited video from each of the "Evening with S60s" that I've been to in the US. In the video, each attendee is asked to tell me their name, where they are from, plus three things they like and three things they would improve about S60. Probably the most common answer to the “what do you like” question, among S60 enthusiasts, is the design of the UI. Words like "clean", "efficient", "easy-to-use" are most common. Many attendees also named "extensibility" or "ability to add new applications" or the "number of cool 3rd party apps available" as one of the things they liked. These comments were great to hear, a validation of some of the work we've done establishing S60's value proposition to consumers.
Some comments, however, gave me pause. For instance, a couple of the attendees said they like S60 because it "wasn't Windows Mobile". Now it’s nice to hear that we are preferred over a rival by our fans. However, it is not ideal as a brand/product to be defined by something you are not. When I asked why they liked to *not* be Windows Mobile, one attendee said he was a Mac user, and he liked to be different. Again, not ideal. Ultimately, here in S60 Marketing, we are not looking to be the kid-brother alternative to another brand. We want to achieve critical mass in the US (Just as we've done in Europe, Mainland China, and SE Asia), by delivering the best software platform available.
I remembered this Apple/S60 fan when I was re-reading Dave Balter's "Grapevine: The New Art of Word of Mouth Marketing" last night. Dave is the founder of BzzAgent in Boston as well as one of the founders of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. In “Grapevine”, Dave Balter writes about a Word of Mouth campaign and research study at a restaurant called Rock Bottom. The study revealed two somewhat counter-intuitive aspects of WoM marketing. First, the most active WoMers were the customers who were characterized as "light" as opposed to "heavy" loyals. In other words, the customers who came to Rock Bottom once a month were more likely to talk about the restaurant than those who came in every Tuesday/Friday night. Balter hypothesized two reasons for this: First, "heavy loyals" had in some cases already told all of their friends and family about Rock Bottom, and they didn't have anything more to share. Second, some of the heavy loyals had developed a sense of "ownership" of the brand, and thus didn't want to tell others about it.
I think of this second group of "heavy loyals" as the type of consumer in the US that wants to use S60 because S60 is different, and is seen as a kind of underdog in the world of US smartphone mobility. This is a loyal customer, and thus a good customer. We can target this type of customer with exclusive offers, direct mail, and new products. But we probably shouldn’t target him/her as an S60 Agent.
As Balter writes:

In any exclusive society, in order for there to be “insiders” there must be “outsiders”. The more “inside” you get, the less willing you are to open the door and invite others in. In fact, you’re more likely to shut the door and go entirely quiet. Why risk wrecking a good thing? Why threaten your own status? Why involve yourself with a marketing campaign designed by outsiders and intended to bring more outsider in?”

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Comments

I wish you'd bring S60 Agents to the Seattle area, but that's purely for selfish reasons. ;)

I'm not sure Light/Heavy has anything to do with how good an "Agent" they would be. Generally, your statements may be correct, but there are exceptions in both camps.

The US is a hard place to find S60 Loyalists, if only because finding an S60 phone is so hard. How many of our Smartphones are in the carrier channels right now? How many Smartphones do we have on the CDMA side, which accounts for over half the market in the US?

It's not an issue of preferring one over the other, it's that we're not even a potential choice for people who buy through carrier channels exclusively.

Posted by: PhoneBoy | August 18, 2007 02:41 AM

Thanks for your comments Phoneboy --

We're hoping to get Agents to Seattle in '08, stay tuned.

Regarding Light/Heavy loyalists, the Rock Bottom case study that light/medium loyalists were most likely to spread WoM on products. There are exceptions to the statistical norm. At any rate, based on the stats and the reports, we'll expand S60 Agent program beyond heavy loyalists (readers of this blog) in order to tap and reach as many consumers as possible.

The S60 platform is air-interface agnostic, as you probably know. So it's up to the S60 licensees (Nokia, LG, Lenovo, Samsung) to create devices for CDMA. Unfortunately not too much we can do in S60 platforms to get them to do that, especially since the CDMA market is shrinking, both in the US and globally. This makes less and less likely that a licensee will go the CDMA route.

Regarding carrier channels, I agree that the situation can be frustrating. But the situation for S60 is better with N75 at ATT) than it was a year ago when there no S60 phones in carrier channels. I also firmly believe that in order to compete successfully in the carrier channel, we need to be able to show the carriers that there is demand for S60-based devices. We do that through initiatives such as the Nseriies "Unlocked" campaign (http://www.nseries.com/nyc) and by finally allowing fans of S60 based devices to buy the full line of ES devices here in the US. http://www.usa.nokia.com)

Posted by: dshugrue | August 19, 2007 11:43 PM

I was also going to say "what about Nseries," but I realize that some of the Nseries devices would probably not be appropriate in the US (e.g. any of the devices that aren't quadband GSM).

Given everyone's RAZR obsession, I'd say the N76 would do real well in the US. ;)

Posted by: PhoneBoy | August 20, 2007 04:23 AM

I'd have to say i believe there is one element of the "heavy loyalist" that is not considered.

Those loyalists generally are the users who are most informed about the product and competing products as well.

These users tend to be "go-to" individuals for tech buying advice. I may not speak about S60 everyday on my own prompt as much as i am pulled into speaking about S60 as an answer to a problem or tech purchase dilemma being presented to me.

I think the point brought it in the study is valid, but the carry over into the tech world from a gastronomical world based on finite availability of seating, etc... may not be perfect ;-)

-Alex

Posted by: Alex Huf | September 29, 2007 09:50 PM

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