Take back Control! The Blog of TXT Circle

Mobile Universities

Theres a start up in the states that is making noise about how student like to save money.  No real mind blowers here.....read some of my posts for additional insight

Back for More

its been awhile between posts for me.  Slugging it out this summer as a lone founder in search of funding has been an adventure.

The goods news is the long search may soon be over.  TXT Circle has entered into discussions with another firm regarding a possible takeover.  More to come........

"o-m-g, i-n-b-d." - American Teenager 2007

My wife laughs when I call myself 'young and hip".  Truth be told I'm much older than my years (under 30) would indicate.

However, one thing I do understand about young people today is the need to stay in touch.  When I was a sophomore in high school I was among the first of friends to own a cell phone.  I used the relaxed credit risk policies of some wireless carriers at the time to secure a phone that was not prepaid.  Man, I used the hell of it.  I racked up a bill so big that it would have taken me years to pay it off with my allowance.

When I showed the bill to my Dad I remember him freaking out!  He paid it for me and I had to work it off that summer in the family swimming pool business. I learned my lesson and it was....

"Too Much Of A Good Thing Can Cost A Lot".  Text Messaging in the US and Canada is a great example of this.  Teens everywhere are adopting texting at a staggering rate, while at the same time racking up huge bills in the process.  Check out this article from the Washington Post.

Huge bills would be a deterrent to most adults when considering using a service but to teens the need to communicate wins out almost every time. 

The future right now!

The UK and Europe are light-years ahead of North America when it come to mobile phone usage and applications.

In keeping with that trend, a new network slated to launch in September will offer free calls and texts to users in exchange for receiving advertising.  The majority of ads will probably come in the form of text messages but there will also be some interactive campaigns.

The network, called  "Blyk" will target 16-24 year-olds after recent research that  found that the majority of users in this demographic are open to the ad-subsidized model.  Coke, L'Oreal Paris and others have already signed on to participate.  RedOrbit has some additional coverage here.

This announcement is significant as it will almost certainly have a destabilizing effect on the ultra-competitive European mobile market.   It also is an indication of where the market will lead here in North America.  In Canada particularly, we suffer from low penetration and high prices.  A new player that offered free access in exchange for ads would be able to grab a huge chunk of market share.

I guess we'll find out what the North American consumer finds acceptable in the next couple of years as more ad based services are launched.  Excuse me now, as I have to go write a business plan for an MVNO that serves up free text and calls for ads......

Texting all listeners in Radioland

Here's an interesting article from Reuters on a new mobile program from Clear Channel Communications.

The article makes mention of a streamed radio pilot program.  I'd like to point out that Clear Channel must have learned from the program the rule of KISS.

Some Validation

Awhile back I posted on Keeping it Simple and also about US Consumer preference when it comes to receiving mobile advertising.

This morning I read two posts that would seem to validate my points.  MoCoNews, is a popular blog that reports on Mobile content and issues from around the world and VentureBeat. 

Check out the comments on both posts for more of my thoughts.

Simplicity not laziness

My wife and I have never been busier than we are now with our two month old son taking up a lot of our attention.  We have cut back on a lot of activities that waste time.  For example, Grocery Shopping.

There's nothing more annoying than packing up your newborn to trundle around with a baby seat in your cart at the local zoo  Grocery store.  We decided to try Grocery Gateway.com instead.  This service is fantastic!  After building an online grocery list(including Diapers) and selecting the time for our delivery, fresh food showed up right on time.  No lines, No stress, no problem.  Its not that we're lazy.  We go out just as much as ever except now we're spending time on more productive things like buying baby safe toys at inflated prices.  Technology saved me time.

Another service that saves time and makes use of mobile technology is a new concierge service by Phillips Electronics that provides listings on restaurants and other services to users that send their inquiries by text message.  The NY Times carried an interesting article on the service.  You can read it here.  The program, designed to promote the "removal of clutter from peoples daily lives" is a another example of technology making things simpler for the consumer.

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

Final Post in Critical Questions

The last two posts have identified our target market as well as why they will want to be a part of TXT Circle.  This post will cover how we plan to make money.

The answer is of course, advertising.  All content broadcast to members of TXT Circle will be ads or ad supported.  The pricing model for TXT Circle will range from fixed ex: pay us a sum of money and get a set number of messages OR a per-message rate.

With the size of the mobile marketing industry expected to top $10 Billion by 2011, TXT Circle is poised to grab a significant share of this market.  I'm making a bold prediction that our sales will exceed $10 Million by 2009.

I hope you've enjoyed my investor pitch series:)  I have been saving a lot of mobile news and comment and look for some great posts soon.

Critical Questions Part III

Why will they want it? 

As I'm preparing to go out and seek the funds I need to grow my company, I felt that it would be prudent to address some vital questions.  I've outlined the "Who" TXT Circle will target in my previous post and now I will tackle the "Why".

I'd love to believe that I'm a visionary and that my idea to market products and services via text message is a unique one.  Fortunately for me this is not the case.  Text message marketing and advertising will soon be everywhere.  I can foresee a time, very soon, when there will be maybe a dozen real players in this space and even more brands trying to advertise with them.  These firms will attempt to solve a need that the brands have to reach consumers more efficiently.  At first, this new industry will be very effective but as the number of campaigns increase and the market becomes flooded another need will be created.  That will be the need of the consumer to have insulation against the storm.

TXT Circle will address this need and allow our members to take control over their mobile advertising experience.  The trend of consumers taking back control over the buying experience is well documented.   Sites such as Priceline.com, LendingTree.com, and others all allow the consumer to control how they are presented competing products. Priceline reported over 400M in profits last year.  LendingTree claims over 20 Million users since its launch.  TXT Circle will do the same thing in the mobile world.  Select what you want, tell us when you want it, use the power of the community to get more value.

Now all I need is William Shatner to be my spokesman. 

Critical Questions Cont..Who will we target?

TXT Circle will focus on the core demographic for Text Messaging (18-24).  This is a recent report on usage demographics for text messaging in the US.  As you can see, the majority of users are young people.  Marketers are already trying to figure out how to use the medium to get to the older users.  I have to wonder why?  Clearly its easier to target the young.  First because they already LOVE Text messaging (I just joined a facebook group called "I F@*&#king love to Text"  so I know this is true) and the size of this demographic is enormous!  Some experts claim the current generation of "millenials"  is as large or bigger than the "Baby Boomers" were at the same stage of development. That would put population numbers somewhere in the 75 million range. I think that's a great target audience.