Audience:
Public; Nationwide; International

Challenge:
In June 2002, Kyocera Wireless Corp. announced the Kyocera 7135 smartphone, uniting a CDMA wireless phone with a top-of-the-line Palm OS PDA and a built-in MP3 player. As a mobile phone manufacturer, whose primary customers were wireless carriers, Kyocera had never marketed their phone directly to consumers before. But even before its release, the 7135 smartphone was causing a stir and developing a following of consumers clamoring to purchase the product. This intense response to the Kyocera 7135, revealed an opportunity for Kyocera to:

• Build relationships directly with consumers
• Sustain demand for phones, accessories and software applications within this important user group

Solution:
BlueHornet met the challenge by developing an email marketing strategy to talk to this “unofficial fan club” of potential smartphone customers. The process included the following:

• Creating an online registration form on Kyocera’s website that enticed users with the question “Want to be the first to find out about this device?”
• Creating a registration form that followed the smartphone brand template, providing the same look and feel as other Kyocera smartphone-marketing materials

Results:
By leveraging BlueHornet’s systems and technologies, Kyocera built a database of potential smartphone buyers that received product launch bulletins informing them the phone was available. The registration results were staggeringly successful. Over a five month period, more than 61,000 potential smartphone customers opted-in to the emails. At their peak, Kyocera received more than 1,000 registrations a day. BlueHornet systems have allowed Kyocera to measure results throughout the campaign, and track the success of different messages, while continuing to expand the Kyocera smartphone user database.

Testimonial:
"We've found that email marketing is a great medium for us. Because of our success with this strategy and with BlueHornet, we've decided to expand our email marketing efforts and plan similar campaigns for every new phone," said Lisa Lammens, business development manager for the Kyocera 7135 smartphone. "We've also decided to do monthly newsblasts about product enhancements to make the experience even better for our users. BlueHornet is really easy to work with, and they are great with last minute challenges. Their staff is excellent with follow up, answering questions, and offering technical help. And they've been responsive to me all the time, even outside of normal business hours."
--- Lisa Lammens
Business Development Manager