Our Chinese Mobile Consumers Are An Attractive But Unique Audience report showed how marketers in China are facing the most promising — yet most complex — mobile market in the world. To help marketers overcome mobile challenges in China, we’ve recently published a follow-up report, Drive Effective Mobile Marketing In China.

Mobile is changing the daily life of Chinese consumers; the phone-addicted population (ditouzu) is growing fast. With high adoption and usage of mobile devices, consumers in China are experiencing the mobile mind shift: the expectation that they can get what they want in their immediate context and moments of need. However, marketers in China are not keeping up with consumers. Why? They aren’t thinking about mobile strategically:

  • They hold false assumptions on how to reach Chinese mobile consumers. Most marketers in China still think in a traditional way: They assume that consumers in tier one cities are the most active mobile Internet users; that Chinese mobile users can actually use the mobile Internet on the go; and that a city-tiered approach in mobile marketing will be successful.
  • Their mobile marketing strategies are still experimental. Although many marketers in China have tested mobile, only few have incorporated it as a consistent marketing channel. Marketers only spend a very small portion of their ad budgets on mobile.

After talking with marketers in China, we found that most of them are still uncertain about how to craft an effective mobile marketing strategy. If you’re among them, use the POST framework; it will be an effective tool for crafting your approach.

  • People: Understand your audiences’ complicated mobile behavior. Forrester created the Mobile Mind Shift Index to measure mobile engagement, and one of the key components is the Mobile Intensity Score, which measures how immersed people are in their mobile lifestyle. We’ve identified four segments of users on the mobile intensity scale: Disconnected (the least sophisticated mobile users), Unshifted, Transitional, and Shifted (the most sophisticated). Consumers in metropolitan China are Transitional but not Shifted.
  • Objectives: Determine the relationship you want to have with your customers. Marketers need to remember the extremely intimate nature of mobile devices as they define their mobile marketing objectives. Based on different levels of customer engagement, we’ve identified four main objectives for interacting with consumers via the mobile channel: acquaintanceship, friendship, camaraderie, and commitment.
  • Strategy: Use immediacy, simplicity, and context. Ask the tough questions about reach, roadblocks, and budget. Most importantly, keep the three mobile fundamentals in mind while creating your strategy.
  • Technology: Choose technologies that enhance the consumer relationship you want. As a final step, choose technologies and tactics that best meet your needs. Different technologies are better suited to different mobile marketing objectives.

To get a better sense of how to use the POST method to develop your mobile marketing strategy in China and treat mobile marketing as a part of integrated marketing efforts, please read the full report.