If Youth don't trust Mobile, is all this talk of Marketing Academic?

Youth Marketing + Trust is an interesting area of the mobile industry because it's so often overlooked. Last week I looked at the Blyk business model (focusing mainly on mobile advertising) and looked at the key challenges they faced:

Blyk face 2 challenges however. One is that SMS is generally distrusted (marketingwatch) and second that replicating the mobile advertising model requires providers to steer clear of internet analogies (see Amdocs analysis) and I'm not entirely convinced Blyk has got either right and there may be a touch of Meatball Sundae in the approach.

Why is trust important to mobile? Well, start with the basics: what's good for the consumer is good for the company. Can you argue with that (see this article - source)

Data from the Mobile Youth Report shows that 52% of youth trust their handset whereas only 27% trust their operator. Here are the video insights.

Data (from mobile marketing watch) also shows that youth distrust mobile advertising and SMS marketing. Where does that leave us?

Well, it seems something can be done. Here's a marketing presentation by mobileyouth on building trust with operators - in this instance Vodafone. One suggestion focuses on how brands can use simple metrics such as net promoter score and customer lifetime value to measure progress. Interesting.

Technorati Tags: trust, mobile youth, youth marketing, blyk, mobile advertising, business model