According to new research from digital market research company InsightExpress, mobile consumers can be segmented into three distinct behavioural profiles: Mobile Pioneers, Mobile Wannabes and Mobile Traditionalists.
The Mobile Pioneer (15% of the market) is ahead of his peers in terms of mobile behaviour, and uses advanced features weekly such as the Internet, unique applications, and video. The majority of Mobile Pioneers are under 35 years old, one third of them have a Smartphone, and they skew male and single.
The Mobile Wannabe (25% of the market) has tried some advanced features and would like to use them more. Less than half are under 35, and only 5% own a Smartphone. The Mobile Traditionalists (60% of the market) are content to use their mobiles for phone calls and texting, and two thirds of them are over 35 years old.
Almost two thirds (62%) of mobile pioneers had sent a text message to someone in the same room, compared to 39% of Wannabes and 26% of Traditionalists. A healthy 57% of Pioneers had taken a picture of a product using their phone and sent it to someone to get an opinion, compared to 30% of Wannabes and 16% of Traditionalists.
While the Pioneers set the trends, the Wannabes popularize them, making these individuals particularly interesting to marketers. This group is potentially a barometer of future usage trends that will be adopted on a wider scale. For example, while 79% of Pioneers had taught someone else how to use their mobile phone features, Wannabes were not far behind with 65% having done so.
Staying ahead of the mobile curve can also be dangerous. Mobile Pioneers were most likely to have walked into something or someone while using their device, and most likely to have thrown their mobile phone at someone or something. Luckily, all three profiles stated that they had added ICE (In Case of Emergency) to their phones contact list (35% of Pioneers, 25% of Wannabes and 22% of Traditionalists).
InsightExpress says that advertisers should be interested in Pioneers and Wannabes because these groups are more likely to agree that most advertising is relevant to them; that products that are advertised are a lot better than ones that are not advertised at all; and that advertising keeps them up-to-date on products they would like to have
Knowing which type of mobile consumer you are contacting, or want to contact, is a big piece of the mobile marketing puzzle, says Joy Liuzzo, Director of Mobile Research at InsightExpress. The Wannabes are especially fascinating, since they are eager to learn about and use advanced features. With this research, we continue to drive the conversation about current usage profiles and where mobile behaviour is headed.
InsightExpress fielded an online survey to 1,516 mobile device owners age 18+ in January 2008. For the market research tecchies out there, the survey data has a margin of error of between 3-6%  assuming a 95%  confidence interval.