The new report from ConsumerLab is based on interviews with 30,000 people in 30 countries. The report indicates that it has become necessary for each player to segment the market in detail.
The telecom sectors current enormous technical offering makes it necessary for each player to segment the market in detail.
The people behind the study, How six driving forces affect the telecom industry, are Carl Hoffmeister, senior advisor at Ericsson ConsumerLab, and Remy Oudghiri, of the NOP World research company.
The 30,000 people interviewed were aged 15 to 70 and represent unique source material. The survey responses show, for example, how values, attitudes, behavior and human needs result in various types of consumption patterns.
Hoffmeister says: "Anyone who wants to know why and in what way consumers want to use telecom services must first understand their basic driving forces. This knowledge is invaluable for anyone who develops products and services.
"In this sense, the telecom sector is at a crossroads. With the current enormous technical offering, it has become necessary for each player to segment the market in detail. Voice telephony is universal, but the same can hardly be said about sports news or banking on a mobile."
Through the interview material, ConsumerLab has identified six major consumer driving forces, which include innovation, stimulation, social status, connectivity, social awareness and tradition.
Individualism or social awareness
Hoffmeister says the first three driving forces - innovation, stimulation and social status - are basically focused on individual needs as well as experience and entertainment. These are forces the industry really focuses on today.
The other three forces include more long-lasting benefits, which make people's daily life easier. People aged 50 or more are over-represented in this group and are more concerned by social issues, such as being in tune with nature, preserving the environment, protecting the family tradition, duty, social stability and justice.
Several of the driving forces discussed in the book, such as innovation, stimulation and connectivity, have distinctly youthful profiles. People younger than 25 are over-represented in these forces and have a growing effect on the rest of the market.
Hoffmeister says: "Young people are, without doubt, the ones willing to try new services and define new uses for mobile devices and services. Teenagers have created their own world with the help of mobile devices and the internet. It enables them to socialize and be accessible around the clock. The phone is much more than a phone; for them, it is a personal device that becomes part of their individual identity."
Hoffmeister mentions, for example, that many young people answered that if they forgot to bring the mobile when leaving home they would always turn back and fetch it. If it was their wallet they forgot, they would not be as keen to return.
Seniors bring demand
But the sizable baby-boom generation in Europe, North America and Japan is entering a mature phase. These seniors will be better educated, more active, healthier and wealthier that any previous generation.
"The telecom industry needs to recognize the opportunities in this market of new elderly," Hoffmeister says. "Many of them are demanding, affluent and accustomed to good services and they will drive development of new products and services, especially in the health and infocom areas."
The report shows that the impact of an aging population will affect some areas more then others. People older than 50 make up the largest group in North America, Western Europe, Central Europe and developed countries in Asia. The number of people younger then 15 or older than 65 is nearly equal in Western Europe.
