SMS- Superbly Messed Service !

Ads By: Slim Belts, Property, Insurance, Education courses, ETC

You have a New Message. 

TA-, TD-, TM-, AD- and many more ! There is certainly no one today whose inbox is not flooded with messages carrying these prefixes. This mode of reaching to customers is not restricted with any kind of boundaries. Anytime of the day or night, there could be a beep on mobile phone trying to educate us about latest Sauna belts, numerous real estate choices that have been made especially for us, various distance learning courses that would take our career to new peaks instantly, so many banks trying to make us healthy and wealthy. There is no escape to them, there is no end to them, but also there is no need of them. 

These bulk messages have become such constant source of irritation that a sight of standard format on phone screen and it is deleted even without reading beyond three alphabets. The new TRAI regulation has insisted to restrict the Sender ID for these messages to minimum 6 characters. Three character specify the SMS service provider and from where it has originated followed by a hyphen. So when we see AD-Something, it signifies that "Something" is using bulk SMS provider based at Delhi (D) which uses Airtel (A). Likewise TA means Tata Andhra Pradesh, TM means Tata Mumbai, BA means BSNL Andhra Pradesh and so on. Thus, these initial 3 characters act as caution that what follows this is just a bulk message and carries no personal significance. Though there exists an option of sending Do Not Disturb to 1909 and get rid of this bulk but somehow some options are just feel good factors and not solutions.

In around 3000-4000 Rupees a month, these companies try to reach out their customers through these messages and get their attention. They certainly gather the attention that they are clearly identified and deleted without any apprehension. Such kind of mobile marketing spoils the brand image and comes across as a cheap marketing stunt. If the purpose of these messages is to take attention then certainly it is a negative marketing which makes a consumer feel that how insignificant he has been considered to become part of a bulk list. These messages would be beneficial in cases when there is a need to inform about an event or activity that has temporary existence and thus requires immediate spread. Too much of anything indeed ruins the importance and now all messages starting with typical 3 characters have lost their viewers.

New Message with 3 characters in beginning are meant to be deleted.