Rise of the Nomophobes
Nomophobes are glued to their phones, which presents challenges, but also many opportunities, for marketers.
Nomophobes are glued to their phones, which presents challenges, but also many opportunities, for marketers.
With global smartphone sales expected to grow by 13 percent from 2014 to 2015, according to a September 2014 report from Strategy Analytics, there will be nearly 2.5 billion global smartphone users in 2015. That’s a billion more users than 2014!
Asia-Pacific will be the key growth driver, driving greater than 50 percent of the global volumes in 2015. Although China and the United States will remain the largest smartphone sales countries through 2015, the U.S. is expected to be surpassed as the second largest market by India in 2019.
With increasing mobile penetration, mobile addiction is growing at an alarming rate. A “mobile addict” is defined as a user that launches apps more than 60 times a day. And, according to the Collins dictionary, a new word, “nomophobia,” has been coined to describe: “A state of stress caused by having no access to, or being unable to use one’s mobile phone.”
A 2013 study by IDC and Facebook revealed that four out of five smartphone users check their phones within the first 15 minutes of their day.
The survey also found that adults are now spending an average of 87 minutes communicating and using social media on their phones Monday through Thursday, and greater than 160 minutes Friday through Sunday!
Although concerning at a social level, these trends do offer an opportunity to marketers to engage these gadget addicts or nomophobes (“no-mobile-phone phobia”):
The nomophobe population is increasing rapidly. As we see from the above discussion, they have very specific needs and little patience. Engaging with them is going to be challenging for marketers since it will force us to rethink the marketing plan. However, organizations that crack the code will reap rich benefits. The big question is, how to do so?