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| Sunday, 7 December 2003 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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zMessenger service launched zMessenger (Pvt) Ltd which claims to be the world's second mobile SMS market research or better known as wireless market research company in the world, was officiallly launched recently. Sri Lankan based zMessenger was formed few months ago with an initial investment of Rs two million and was the second company after Sweden based Wireless Opinion, a company spokesman said. zMessenger has a SMS mobile phone data base of nearly 10,000 and have plans to go up to 25,000 before this year.The company has a target increase the database to one hundred thousand by next year, said its CEO Janaka Rupasinhge. He said this intelligent database, which includes details with all geographical and demographicle information of registered SMS users, can carry out proper market research work and advertising campaigns accurately. According to the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission the the country has more than one million mobile users. Those are operated through four service providers such as Celltel, Dialog, Mobitel and Hutchisson, out of which 40 per cent of them have the SMS facility. "Any mobile phone user with SMS facility can be registered with the company free of charge", Mr Rupasinghe said. At present Celltel,Dialog and Mobitel users with SMS facility can be registered with zMessenger. They can be registered themselves via the web ie www.zmessenger.lk. "Our company has the ability of carrying out an islandwide market research survey through SMS", he added. According to Rupasinghe that the company has alliance with UK based Mobile Marketing Association, which sets standards not only for market research but also advertising programs . Rupasinghe said the company recently completed a successful market research program for a leading Insurance company in the country. He said the company has a customer base of 25, most of them are from corporate sector educational institutes and many more, and expects to reach the one hundred mark before this year .It promotes this concept through personal selling ,web and field net work.The company charges Rs 7 for a each SMS message form the company. The company intends to reach South Asian countries in the future to launch this novel and innovative concept, Rupasinghe added. In the mean time Stassen Foods (SF) subsidiary of Stassen group launched the first interactive SMS advertising campaign for Happy Cow cheese. SF is the sole agent for Happy Cow cheese for Sri Lanka dominates 58 per cent of the market share,will advertise the product among 3000 selected mobile subscribers via SMS service, SF Director Foods Raja Mendis said. He said that marketing of SF's products to consumers through SMS,is a direct link to the target market, which is very customise and focus than the other media. The SF has invested Rs 25 000 for marketing and advertising the product via SMS together with zMessenger.It is believed to do a such campaign by Ceylon Cold Stores for their Elephant House brand. This weak long advertising campaign will be conducted as "I Love Happy Cow", said SF Brand Manger Gajan Maheson. (HS) |
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