Mobile Advertising Vs Permission Marketing

I looked at my phone and saw an icon of an envelope blinking, indicating that someone had sent me a text message. I thought it was from a friend who wanted us to party but after reading it, i found out that it was from a local company promoting their product. Am sure you must have received a text or a call from a company promoting their products. Mobile advertising is a new marketing trend in which organizations use the cell phones as a medium to pass promotional information to their potential clients. Organizations buy bundles from of phone numbers from mobile service providers and use them to send text or make calls to persuade and convince the phone owners to make an immediate action towards their products. Mobile advertising is effective since it is fast and there is a guarantee that the text will be read or the call will be answered. However, it is so disturbing to receive texts and calls from unwanted persons. Here comes the idea of permission marketing. As an example, i got a text from a company promoting products that help in loosing weight. I found it so disturbing since am not in need of loosing weight, so i had to delete it immediately. For an organization to send texts to different people, it must be having the knowledge of the people in terms of their unique needs, tastes and preferences, so as to send the right message to the right person, something that many marketers ignore with the assumption that the information will trigger an immediate or a later action. These companies should get the permission from their recipients before sending them texts. In countries where advertising laws and regulations are strictly adhered to, it is enforceable at law to sue such companies. Therefore, organizations should consider their potential clients first before sending them unwanted texts, which will save them from spending much on consumers who ignore their messages. As Chris Harrison, a marketing maverick, puts it, "I have two mobile phones at present, on different networks. I must receive and ignore at least six promo messages a day". Also, it will save them the cost associated with lawsuits, if at all they are sued.