By Roy Schwedelson

The M Economy. Just when we all thought it was safe to resume our traditional direct marketing careers a new initial threatens our karma. Like dot and @ and E, M is now on the horizon.

In each of the earlier interactive incarnations direct marketers waited on the sidelines, some say too long others say not long enough to jump into the marketplace. The understanding of what these electronic marketplaces meant to all of us came like a tidal wave that spread over the past five years.

The M Economy, which we will all be marketing in shortly, is what the pundits call wireless technology. The surprise is, unlike all the above 'new economies' this one has been around us for a very long time.

Cellphones and PDA's (personal data assistant) are not the only wireless technologies that make up the M (for mobile) economy. Soon GPS in automobiles, laptops unplugged in airport lounges and smartcards will all be part of the wireless explosion. All of them will be carrying messages urging the consumer or businessperson to take an action. That of course is where we come into the picture.

Targeting the message to the correct person, location and how the offer gets transmitted and presented will fall on the Direct/Interactive community. I also wouldn't want to forget the tracking of all those variables, that is direct marketing measurement.

How does all of this get done?
It has been happening for a very long time.
We will have to know where a person is. Second, how do we deliver the message? That too has been happening for quite a while.

Of course swiping a card in a grocery store will immediately cause a database to call into action a variety of exciting offers and they will be specific to the person who carries that card. By now this technology is old school, but it is considered M.

Remember going to Disneyland or Disneyworld, remember turning the radio to a certain local Disney station for key information as you enter the park? This is wireless (radio but wireless) and is the beginning of the M Economy.

Boaters know about GPS or Global Positioning Satellite technology that pinpoints a position on earth by longitude and latitude. Of course, it is now available in autos. Soon commercials will come over the screen as you pass a mall or auto dealer. This type of pinpointing will also be sent to the cellphone or PDA.

All of this has been around for a long time. Recently, some companies have started to experiment with targeting the M community without GPS. They've announced 'new' methods of placing where an individual is via the cellphone through a concept called triangulation. Basically, crisscrossing radio or phone signals to target a device.

Many of us will remember the old black and white movies depicting the valiant French resistance group, hidden in the attic of a farmhouse listening to the crackling short-wave radio with the 'announcements' from London. Outside the Nazis cruised closer and closer with several vehicles trying to locate the signal. Their methodology was triangulation. The heroes always escaped in time.

The M Economy is not new. The difference now is we are going to have to ask permission of individuals before we market to them through this medium. That may be the big lesson of the last five years.

The permission cannot be a casual thing. Consumers will not enjoy charges to their cellphone bills. Verification of Opt-in will become an industry unto itself. Databasing of this type of information will outmode all current privacy discussions and legislation. The very mobility of the technology may actually restrict how it may be used.

How we devise ways to get the population to Opt-In to the M, E or Dot marketplaces will be more important than the technology.