CBA professor Fareena Sultan recently spoke of the worldwide reach of marketing campaigns into palm-sized devices such as cell phones and mp3 players, and the opportunities emerging for business and advertisers. Sultan is an associate professor and the Robert Morrison fellow in the College of Business Administration.

Addressing recent symposium on mobile marketing at Northeastern University, Sultan, event co-chair, discussed ways mobile marketing is eclipsing traditional advertising — findings she and colleague Andrew Rohm, assistant professor of marketing, have made in four years of study.

“Statistics clearly show that half of the world population is now connected through a mobile phone and that technology is developing rapidly,” Sultan said, noting, “Other global brands such as Nike, Coca Cola, Volvo and many others have already engaged in mobile marketing.”

People are just more attached to their mobile devices than other electronic devices that could serve as advertising platforms, Sultan explained during the Marketing Science Institute’s conference. The event was co-sponsored by the College of Business Administration.

“The mobile phone is a device that is unique in that consumer attachment to it is unprecedented,” she said. “The unique attachment to this device means that the marketers have to have something of value that the consumer wants in order to reach them at this personal level.”

The point of the symposium was to help marketing and advertising professionals find ways of providing value-added services to consumers in such a way that a consumer would welcome the reach into their handheld, private domain.

Said Sultan, “Mobile marketing is a new marketing paradigm. If used effectively, it can enhance brand awareness and spark positive attitudes toward the brand.”