Press
Release
New research from Alcatel-Lucent
reveals teens want mobile phone operators to market directly
to them
End-user survey reveals a sophisticated, savvy
youth demographic aware of mobile shopping buying power
Paris, June 13, 2007 – In an on-going effort
to understand the user experience, Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris
and NYSE: ALU) today announced the most recent results from The Worldwide
Lab at Alcatel-Lucent, a program designed to understand the preferences
of teens and young adults from around the world. The latest results,
focused on how this important demographic is using music on their
phones, reveal a willingness to purchase mobile content and a desire
for a more streamlined, simplified mobile content shopping experience
that mirrors other channels.
Teens and young adults have grown up in the
Internet age where the brands and content they care about are presented
to them in a relevant and compelling way. They shop in person at
malls and electronically online, and in both settings, they are
used to having messages targeted at them and expect an integrated
shopping experience. “Teens
are incredibly active on the Web and will demand to be able to do
the same types of things on their mobile phones,” said Linda
Barrabee, Program Manager at Yankee Group. “This includes the
mobile content experience, from discovery to purchase.”
This expectation is strikingly different
from today’s mobile
experience described by members of the Lab as key program findings
reveal.
- The current mobile content shopping experience is challenging
for teens and young adults and inadequate when compared to similar
services at the mall or on the computer.
- A need to make the mobile experience intuitive,
easy and fun – much more aligned to the television and computer
experience and ensure that formats are compatible with all types
of mobile devices.
- Young mobile customers are used to having messages targeted at
them and expressed significant interest in receiving targeted ads
including unsubscribed, personalized advertising and awareness
campaigns that deliver relevant content to their mobile devices.
- Subscribers continue to be surprised at the lack of visible,
relevant brands on their mobiles. They want to be marketed to as
they are on the Internet, at the mall and on TV.
- All of the Lab members want special offers sent to them.
The Worldwide Lab at Alcatel-Lucent is focused on providing insight
into user behaviour that can be used to help its customers improve
the user experience across devices, while identifying new revenue
generating service opportunities. In this instance, the research
focused on mobile communications.
“Mobile operators are looking for the best way to offer mobile
content and create a compelling experience, and understanding what
mobile phone users want - particularly the target youth demographic
- is difficult. The Lab gives Alcatel-Lucent direct insight into
the behaviours and expectations of teens, who are not only enthusiastic
users of mobile phones but also the primary buyers of mobile content,” said
June Bower, Vice President of Consumer and Entertainment Marketing
for Alcatel-Lucent. “The findings of this research point us
to the real market opportunity. Teens are willing to receive special
offers and use their mobile phone to shop if it gives them information
about, and access to, the things they want.”
The Lab surveys and results also provide Alcatel-Lucent with critical
input to help direct product and feature development. The release
of this new end-user survey data coincides with the new release of
the Alcatel-Lucent 5965 Mobile Content Platform, a powerful software
solution that gives mobile operators the ability to offer a customized
mobile content shopping experience. The enhanced product includes
several feature enhancements that enable the delivery of content
and advertising to subscribers based on personal interests and behaviour,
including:
- subscriber data collection and integrated marketing to let operators
serve relevant content to users;
- shopping mall features that allow operators to create a shopping
experience that include on and off portal offerings; and
- subscriber data collection that tracks behavior on and off portal
to allow for relevant advertising to teens who want to be marketed
to.
About The Worldwide Lab at Alcatel-Lucent
The Worldwide Lab at Alcatel-Lucent is an innovative primary research
program focused on soliciting the end-user experiences and preferences
from the highly coveted teen and young adult market. Lab Members,
made up of users from around the world, range in age from pre-teen
to young adult and collectively, represent the youth subscriber
base of more than 20 operators and a variety of device manufacturers.
Members are given regular assignments and the results are used
to help Alcatel-Lucent develop products that respond to user needs
and help our customers design services that deliver increased revenue.
For more detail and to view Lab results visit: http://www.alcatel-lucentlab.com .
About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) provides solutions
that enable service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide,
to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users.
As a leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking,
IP technologies, applications, and services, Alcatel-Lucent offers
the end-to-end solutions that enable compelling communications
services for people at home, at work and on the move. With operations
in more than 130 countries, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with
global reach. The company has the most experienced global services
team in the industry, and one of the largest research, technology
and innovation organizations in the telecommunications industry.
Alcatel-Lucent achieved adjusted proforma revenues of Euro 18.3
billion in 2006 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices
located in Paris. [All figures exclude impact of activities transferred
to Thales]. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com
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