The previous post about Bluetooth marketing was actually written in late march, and although the situation remains more or less the same in this sphere, I did know what I was talking about then. A month later our company finished internal testing stage of our new product – TeriZone – which was a significant step forward in development of Bluetooth marketing – both in terms of concept and in technological aspect. This initiative was supported by a number of permission-based marketing fighters, including Tim Trent who pays a great deal of attention to Bluetooth and mobile marketing trends, and Greg Harris, the head of Mobivity agency – he is also clearly focused on anti-spamming procedures in mobile marketing.

Thus, in May 2007 I wrote an article about TeriZone against the progress it was leading to. Here below is the article. Unfortunately, the lack of investments became a crucial obstacle for TeriMobile to fight logistics and customs issue, and we were forced to reduce our promotion budget to almost nothing, so we had to take a pause and refrain from introducing the service further to beta stage, although all the technicalities were settled in full.

Bluetooth Marketing Improved

In the previous article I mentioned a number of failures that Bluetooth communication agencies would have to focus on improving to make the new digital channel worth trying for the brands. Some of those issues have been successfully addressed to by the TeriZone system, so let’s see what has been improved so far.

1. Opt-in / Permission.

The projects that have been implemented for the brands so far would raise negative response mainly due to the lack of a clear-cut opt-in procedure. Many evangelists of permission-based marketing would name those projects as inconsistent with the idea of permission marketing, and even illegal for some countries, example being the UK.

With TeriZone the Bluetooth transmitters (including simple Bluetooth dongles reaching 10 to 30 metres, or more complex devices operating in the range of 200 metres, like our Wi-Streamer) are able to receive files from users’ phones, which turns a purely push communication model into the possibility of pulling customers into interaction. This becomes an important feature in terms of changing the opt-in procedure and make users actively request for communication during the first contact, or, if necessary, on any stage of communication. This concept has seen insiders, including the specialists of permission based marketing and mobile marketing, to accept the fact that Bluetooth communication can be non-intrusive and desired by the receiver.

2. Targeting / Personalization

One of the arguments that the opponents of Bluetooth marketing would justly point out was that the advertisers using Bluetooth would send out messages to all passers-by with no specific targeting at individuals. This method bears the danger of the advertisers being perceived as spammers delivering unsolicited messages with no value for certain users.

TeriZone concept is designed to maintain the preference database of the registered users, which enables the advertisers accessing the database to deliver fully personalized messages to the individual users. Since all the registered transmitters are networked, the users will be detected by the advertisers no matter where their previous contacts had taken place, and communication will be implemented according to the preferences. This method prevents annoyance of the users, who now have a chance to define how, when, where and with whom they wish to interact: the info is explicitly shared by the users rather than gathered with the help of various implicit signs (as possible interests of the people walking in a certain area). Thus, advertisers are able to pick a single individual from a crowd to address to him/her with a personalized message, rather than picking a crowd in a certain area (preferably, nearby the advertiser’s operations location) in hope of reaching as many targets as possible, and with no consideration of misuse.

3. Location Based Services And ROI

The personalized interaction between the advertisers and mobile users has certain implications on ROI in each project carried out. And considering the fact that the advertisers are able to deliver personalized information near the advertisers’ touchpoints, the response and conversion rates increase drastically.

4. Control

The TeriZone system connects all the registered devices into one comprehensive network. This facilitates the communication between brands and consumers: once registered to a delivery from a brand, the mobile user will be contacted not only at the same place, but at any location in the world where the advertiser has registered the transmitter.
Additionally, the networking feature gives the advertiser a chance to launch campaigns, track their flow, make amendments, and view statistics just sitting at an office desk.

5. Security

As I mentioned in the first article, the Bluetooth SIG group has been paying much attention to the security issue from the very start of the technology. It is now said that the majority of mobile devices are now protected from unauthorised intrusion, however the concerns of the users are still there. With TeriZone, the receivers will know when and where they may be contacted by the advertisers, and therefore, they reduce the risk of being intruded fraudulently by spammers or bluejackers.

6. New Business Model

The start of the TeriZone system has given way to the new business model in Bluetooth marketing. The two models existing in the market have been complemented by one more: depending on the duration of their campaigns the advertisers who have bought or rented the Bluetooth equipment can now choose to access the consumer preferences database to more efficiently target the users passing by. Thus, having once acquired the equipment, any small or medium business can periodically implement inexpensive location based campaigns targeting specific audience in the proximity area.

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