1) Case Study 1: NEC Builds Mobile into Media Planning, from Promotion to Purchase
2) Case Study 2: Using Credit Cards and Mobiles with JCB and "My Box"
3) Industry Report: Key Role for Mobile in Integrated Marketing:
4) Mobile Research: 42.6% of mobile users have never requested an auto insurance premium estimate online, but plan to in the future
5) Carrier Trend: Impact of Contactless Cards Built into Mobile Phones
6) Japan Cellular Subscriber Data

1)Case Study 1:Building Mobile into Media Planning, from Promotion to Purchase / NEC

Although mobiles are often used to draw customer participation in marketing campaigns, they can also be used effectively to distribute product information to customers and drive them to shops and make purchases. NEC recently used mobiles for the first time in their long-running "Bazaar" sales campaign. Making skillful use of its familiar animated characters, the campaign was targeted to raise customer awareness and lead users to make purchases of featured products.

NEC's "Bazaar" campaign was first launched in 1991. In this recent campaign, the goal was to promote sales of NEC's desktop PC equipped with "Sound Vu"functionality, which features screen clarity and audio so sharp that it appears almost real. The goal of the campaign was to use this feature to attract customers' attention and bring them to retail outlets.

The driving mechanism developed to attract attention was a "must-buy" gift competition, which awarded a fitness bike ("a machine that eradicates under-exercise") to some 500 customers buying the target product.

Media enlisted to carry the campaign included TV, radio, newspapers, magazine, outdoor, PC internet, and for the very first time, mobile Internet as well, thereby delivering the campaign to people in places that mass media advertising could not reach otherwise.

This time, Toku Numbers were used in combination with radio, with the 5-digit number being broadcast within NEC-sponsored programming. In the effort to attract customers to the campaign site, the program offered a detailed explanation of the campaign. This approach was used because of the perceived compatibility of radio and the mobile platform, which afforded a high likelihood that users would immediately access the site, as opposed to expecting users to take down a memo with the Toku Number, or to be triggered to make a purchase as the result of some printed information. Immediately following the broadcast, accesses to the campaign site increased by as much 250%-500%.

In addition, on mobile the campaign site, all interested users were allowed to download wallpapers of the classic "Bazaar" animal character line-up. The goal here was to remind users of the campaign and bring them to set up their wallpapers/screensavers or ringing tones using the campaign-themed content.

Generally, a certain amount of real impact is required to grab user attention and focus it on campaign information. To this end, the campaign made use of the visually rich and fluid motion capabilities offered by Flash animation and download/playback capability on NTT DoCoMo phones. There were far more Flash clip downloads than expected, partly due to the high-speed downloads offered by the DoCoMo 500i-series handset.

As a result of the campaign, nearly 100% of the mobile site visitors downloaded a campaign-themed wallpaper and a high number of visitors read the pages presenting information about the product. NEC was impressed that mobile proved so effective in bringing users to read carefully through their campaign message.

The outcome of this campaign brought NEC to recognize the potential of mobile for linking in with other media, for distribute product and campaign information, and for helping to trigger customer purchases.

2) Case Study 2: Using credit cards and mobiles with JCB's "My Box"

One of the major factors in the growth of mobile content services has been the availability of carrier-based billing. Making it possible for users to pay both content information fees and packet-data traffic charges via their monthly invoice has been a great convenience that has significantly helped drive increase in mobile content usage.

Both mobile phones and credit cards are items that consumers usually carry with them at all times. JCB has worked to take advantage of the marketing opportunities presented by the fact that these two items are always close at hand. The diversification of services and unifying of payment mechanisms made possible by the combining of credit cards and mobile phone are key areas being pursued by credit card companies.
Via its website called "DJ Square," JCB communicates with its membership in a wide variety of ways. DJ Square functions as a kind of information portal, offering news, weather, sports, TV programming data, ticket information. In comparison to the i-menu, which is a kind of massive portal site, DJ Square offers JCB card users a kind of focused information portal.

Previously, communication with card holders was carried mainly via billing inserts included as mailings to the customer. However, by building a mobile presence, JCB has managed to increase the opportunities it has to communicate with its customers. JCB's mobile site provides an additional contact point with the card holder and serves as a type of value-added service. In addition, it enabled immediate communication with customers.

The current service differs from JCB's previous mobile site in that it can utilize DoCoMo i-mode's "My Box" service. With i-mode "My Box," content providers are able to offer highly customized content to users, lending them increased flexibility in interacting with their customers.

Between November 2003 and March 2004, JCB carried out a promotional campaign to drive new card holder acquisition, to increase usage by existing members, and to raise awareness of the DJ Square site.

According to JCB, the more customers utilize the My Box service, the better DJ Square can serve as a communication channel with card members that increases the ways they can use their cards and mobiles together.

3) Industry Report: Mobile's Key Role in Integrated Marketing: Reaching 70 Million Consumers with product information, raising awareness, and triggering purchases

One of the new methods behind mobile marketing focuses on examining the time, place, and occasions ("TPO") in which people consume or shop. One technique is to draw a line from the TPO to the marketing goal (purchase action), and then to increase the number of instances that can be trigger that very purchase action. Within this context, a variety of different media are being used, and the linkage between these media is very important. Mobile is proving crucial in supplying this sort of cross-media linkage.
In Japan, mobile has become a medium utilized by some 70 million people. Not only is mobile pervasive, but it also reaches consumers in a variety situations where conventional media cannot, such as when they go outdoors, as well as in many places where users are closer to the places where they buy and consume products. In addition, we also find repeated successful examples of the "recency effect" in the mobile context. Mass media that can effectively deliver promotions and alerts according to the best customer TPO become the most successful and established.
Mobile phones have attracted increasing attention as a personal medium that remains with individual consumers 24 hours per day. Mobiles link consumers to scenarios in which they encounter other media, giving rise to the habit of customizing their mobiles, triggering memories of advertisements via screensavers/waiting screens and ringing tones. Mobiles also enable users to save competition entries or product information as "screen memos" in their phones. This has in turn increased the number of successful viral marketing campaigns.
Integrated thinking about consumers that extends from the notification to the purchase event became established in the US in the late 1990s. Since that time, with the rise of the Internet, there have been numerous changes to the ways consumers encounter media as well as to their purchase habits. The diffusion of the Internet has led to many transitions in integrated marketing as well.
Mobile is not regarded not only as a delivery platform, but has also been identified as a linkage medium that connects cross platform both with mass media as well as POS/stores. Mobile also helps lead the consumer to the purchase event. The spread and establishment of this new integrated marketing method utilizing mobile marks one of the most important trends in the Japanese marketing world of the past year.

4) Mobile Research: 42.6% of mobile users have never requested an auto insurance premium estimate online, but plan to in the future

In Japan today, a wide variety of marketing surveys are conducted directly from participant's mobile phones. These surveys can prove extremely valuable in collecting otherwise inaccessible information about new consumer markets. The survey featured below focuses on the ways that users go about collecting information to purchase auto insurance.

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Result of 103th Survey November 26, 2003

Respondents: 23,411 i-mode users
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The following is a survey conducted to study the usage habits of i-mode users with regard to collecting information on automobile insurance via their phones. It was conducted by the Internet-based research service INFO PLANT Co., LTD (Head office: Tokyo, Japan). Survey data was collected via the "Tokusuru Menu (*) " on i-mode based on valid responses from 23,411 i-mode users over the age of 18 between November 3 and November 10, 2003.

* The Tokusuru Menu is an original service developed by D2C, accessible by selecting item no. 4 from the i-menu of NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service portal. It carries beneficial information such as campaign information.

<Survey Results Summary>
Sources of Information on Auto Insurance
(1) The dealership where the car was bought"
(2) "Car maker's representative office"
(3) "TV"

With regard to where they obtained information about auto insurance, the majority of respondents said they got it from the dealership where they purchased their car (32.4%), while 18.5% got it from the car maker's representative office," 17.4% got the information from TV, and 14.7% from pamphlets. In terms of gender, men were more than about twice as likely to seek information from the Internet/i-mode. Women were more likely to seek the information from the dealership where they bought their car.
In terms of age, as age rises, so does the number of both men and women who seek their desired information from the auto maker's representative office, while the portion of men who get their information from the newspaper also rises. By contrast, as age increases, the number of men seeking information from i-mode/Internet or from the original dealership also decreased. Finally, among the portion that got their information from television, men and women aged 18-29 were more numerous than other age groups. (Table 1)

<Key Points in Signing up for Auto Insurance>
1)Amount and conditions of compensation
2)Handling of accidents and support system
3)Cost of insurance premium

In signing up for a policy, the most important factors were in order of results "Conditions and level of compensation" (77.6%), the company's handling of accidents and support system (63.1%),cost of the insurance fee was(53.3%),and reliability and rating of the insurance company(40.4%)By gender, more men than women emphasized the importance of a low insurance premium, while a larger proportion of women looked at the cost of the premium.
Looking at the results by both age and gender, as age goes up, there is an increase in the number of men and women looking at the handling of accidents and support systems, and there is also and increase in the number of women who emphasize ease of registration/processing. By contrast, there is also a decrease in the portion of men and women favoring low premiums. (Table 2)

<42.6% of mobile users have never requested an auto insurance estimate online, but plan to in the future>
With regard to requesting an auto insurance estimate online, 11% stated that they had already done so and planned to do so in the future, while 3.7% said they had in the past but did not plan to in the future. 42.6% had requested an estimate online, but planned to later on, and 42.7% said they had never done so and did not plan to in the future. In terms of gender, more men than women said they had already and planned to do so in the future. Looking at age and gender, more men in their 30s and 40s said they had done so in the past but and planned to in the future, with nearly twice as many men in their 40s giving this response than women in the same age group.(Table 3)

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<Survey Description>
Questions:
(1) What is your main source of information for selecting auto insurance? (Choose 1)(Multiple)
(2) What are the most important criteria for you in selecting auto insurance?(Choose up to 3)
(3) Have you ever requested a premium estimate or applied online for insurance? (Choose 1)

Survey method: open survey, using Tokusuru Menu on i-mode site.
Survey period: November 3 to 11, 2003 (one week)
No. of valid responses: 23,411
Rate of valid response by gender: male 37.3%, female 62.7%
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Q1) What is your main source of information for selecting auto insurance? (multiple choice)
<Data 1> By Gender/Age

2) What are the most important criteria for you in selecting auto insurance?(Choose up to 3)
<Data 2> By gender and age

3) Have you ever requested a premium estimate or applied online for insurance? (Choose 1)

<Data 3> By gender and age

** Questions and Interviews for this survey**********
INFO PLANT CO., LTD.
Email:info@info-plant.com
TEL :+81-3-3367-1967, FAX :+81-3-3367-1961
**********************************************************

5) Carrier Trend: Impact of Contactless Cards Built into Mobile Phones

In Japan, contactless IC cards are becoming increasingly popular with their deployment by numerous companies, including Japan Rail East with its "Suica" card, and the Edy card (provided by Bit Wallet) being used in the am/pm convenience store chain.
In the mobile arena, NTT DoCoMo has announced it will introduce phones with built-in contactless IC FeliCa chips (Sony-developed technology that is the same as that in JR East' s Suica).
Meanwhile, KDDI and Vodafone have also announced they will release phones that incorporate contactless IC technology. Building these chips into mobile phones is raising expectations for the growth of mobile commerce, which reached 170 billion yen in Japan in FY 2003, showing growth of 170% over the previous year, according to a report published by Impress. The number of potential payment methods has grown to include credit card, cash-on-delivery, convenience store POS payment, and electronic money, but there is not as of yet a de facto standard payment method apart from operator billing.
Electronic money services that utilize FeliCa will enable debit or charging operations via mobile phone that will be concluded in real-time, and because they will be able to handle micro-payments, this system has great potential as an influential payment method for mobile commerce.
In the marketing field, contactless technology will also expand the potential of the
mobile phone as a tool to enable greater linkage functions. At present, consumers are
able to achieve some linkage with other media though various means, such as
inputting codes, sending email from their phone, etc. However, with contactless
technology in the phone, users will be able to transfer or save information to their
phone just by passing it before a reader, thereby accessing campaign sites and so on.
The impact of contactless technology on the mobile industry is expected to grow considerably throughout the course of 2004.

6) Japan Cellular Subscriber Data

Here is the latest Japan cellular subscriber data for your reference.
Please go to: Latest News

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