It's going to be Mobile for the Holidays

Ashley Haugen

I know you may cringe at the thought of the Holiday season so soon (the snow, the traffic, the mad shopping rush), but the truth is it will be here before you know it. This is especially true for all of you Black Friday shoppers. This season is expected to be very different, with the popularity of mobile, social and daily deals shaking things up in the marketing and commerce scene. Retailers need to be prepared for the amount of customer engagement their mobile sites will see this year.

Tablets and smartphones have become a convenient and preferred way to shop. According to a survey conducted by the National Retail Federation, more than 50 percent of smartphone and tablet owners will use their devices to make purchasing decisions this holiday season. This includes researching products and prices, purchasing and redeeming coupons. According Google, mobile searches have grown four times since 2010. Retailers and brands should take advantage of those statistics by making sure their mobile and tablet commerce-enabled sites are ready and able before November 25th. Below are a few tips to keep in mind whether you are just starting to create a mobile site, or already have one up and running.

Top Tips:

Thumbs Up

No longer does the infamous pointer finger have the limelight. Thumbs everywhere are taking center stage with the advent of tablets and smartphones. Make sure your mobile site has the “thumb factor.” Are the buttons big enough? Are they easily found and used by all fingers? Nothing is more frustrating than accidental clicks that lead you to the wrong page (and more load time). 

Local Does It

Did you know that 95 percent of smartphone users search for local information? Mobile is all about location. In fact the top three functions of mobile usage are to find stores, get directions, and compare prices and stock at nearby stores. Include information that helps people find and get to you.

Be Speedy

Mobile users are impatient. In fact, 60 percent of users expect a mobile site to load in three seconds or less. If not, they will try no more than two times to reload the page, in which case they will then leave (perhaps to a competing site, gah!). Clean and clear navigation, an un-cluttered format and minimal graphics will all help speed up load time.

Ashley Haugen is a Gustavus Adolphus College alumna. She has had Marketing experience working with such organizations as the LOFT Literary Center, the Gustavus Marketing Department and the OrdwayCenter for Performing Arts. She currently is a PR associate at Axiom Marketing Communications.

QR Codes: The mood ring of the new millennium?

Marc Sokol

Remember mood rings?  Put them on and supposedly they would reflect whatever mood you were feeling by the heat you generated.

While QR codes (or Quick Response two-dimensional bar codes that can be read by a smartphone-based code scanner) aren’t new, we are just beginning to see the range of application they can have in marketing and capturing customer experience.   Here is an interesting example.

Our local friends at Best Buy are currently experimenting with QR codes as a way to tap into attitudes.  Imagine walking by a poster with a simple choice – it’s a good day today or it’s not.  Whip out your smartphone, take a quick shot and in a moment you find out what percent of X people responded that way today.  Since there are other posters hanging around the building, you also find out which location has the highest percentage of ‘thumbs up’ ratings.

“So what?”, you may be thinking.  Here is ‘the what’….

1.     While there are many other ways to get the data, this one has novelty and may capture your attention, just because it is different.  

2.     By raising awareness of this application, you likely elevate recognition of QR codes in other sites and applications.  I start to take greater notice of QR codes in my environment, which I might have otherwise ignored.

3.     Most exciting for marketers is the potential buzz it can create inside retail settings.  Maybe I’m in Best Buy and I rate some product; when I see the average rating I also notice that another product has an outstanding high percentage of thumbs up ratings.  It’s in the store, so I walk over to see why.

A smartphone-based mood ring that can drive customer behavior?  Maybe someday, but for now, hats off to the folks at Best Buy for their spirit of innovation and experimentation.

Don’t judge technology by what it can’t do today until you first imagine what it might allow you to do tomorrow.

Where have you seen marketing innovation using QR codes? 

Marc Sokol is an organizational psychologist with an eye for how people and teams can be more effective, even in a dysfunctional company. He is part of M Squared Group, a data-driven marketing consultancy.   

The Location Campaign: New Initiatives in Mobile Marketing

Ashley Haugen

It was recently discovered that my old cell phone was consumed by a ravenous snow bank near my house. This, of course was found out after purchasing a brand new smart phone in the throes of my frustration and confusion. Even after finding my old cell (though battered and cold) still functioning, it was a lump of coal compared to the visions of bedazzlement and connectivity that my first ever smartphone offered.

I had notions of speed and success on my new phone as I texted, chatted, found directions, checked my Facebook and Twitter, responded asap to emails, and browsed the latest apps.

All from the palm of my hand-and isn’t that what we’ve wanted all along? The world at our fingertips?

Well soon enough we may be getting a lot more from that “world” than ever before. Mobile marketing is continuing to pick up speed as a lucrative and meaningful way of reaching consumers. A statistic from Borrell Associates Inc.’s Local Online Advertising Conference shows that while today mobile represents 15 percent of online advertising, by 2015 it will represent 64 percent of all digital ads. That is a huge growth that brands, retailers and publishers must be aware of-and ready for.

Mobile marketing is unique in that it provides customers with media that is both time and location sensitive, and highly personalized. According to Greg Stuart, the global CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association, “Mobile’s unique selling proposition is the fact that it is personal, pervasive, and leverages proximity.” These three things create incredible brand relevancy and convenience, and therefore a highly persuasive marketing campaign.

The allure of mobile marketing first and foremost lies in it’s personalized nature. Individuality is important to us, as well as our time. That is why this type of marketing can be very successful, as it is often consumer initiated and engages us in a conversation of action and awareness through our ongoing consent. Like Twitter accounts, Facebook friends and other networks, mobile marketing is consumer controlled. We have the very personal choice of letting a business into our everyday lives through the one device many of us carry at all times.

Even though I’m tickled pink by my new phone (quite literally, that’s the color of the case), you soon won’t need a smartphone to enjoy the fruits of mobile marketing initiatives. Now, wireless carrier AT&T is sending location-based mobile marketing messages to its wireless customers, eligible for any phone that receives text messaging.

This is the newest program to really capitalize on location as a form of personalization. AT&T announced this week that they are using a program called ShopAlerts for consenting consumers in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco. The ShopAlerts by Placecast and AT&T service is designed to provide consumers with offers, rewards and coupons based on their specific geographic location. The messages are delivered to shoppers who approach a participating retailer’s store or a store selling a brand that is enrolled in the program. This space is called a geo-fence, and AT&T customers can register to receive messages via SMS or online.

This is the first time geofencing has gone mainstream with a carrier in America.

Patrick Moorhead, senior vice president and group management director of mobile platforms at Interpublic Group’s Draftfcb Chicago noted that, “Adding the location trigger to our clients’ messages starts to get us towards this Holy Grail of relevancy and one-to-one communication that has long been the promise of mobile as a marketing channel.”  Location-based promotions can let marketers increase the relevance and worth of their messages, which are indispensable qualities for any marketing campaign. Geo-fencing mobile marketing is likely to catch on like wildfire, and in the meantime hopefully melt all this hungry snow. I’ll keep my coat pockets zipped until then...

Ashley Haugen is a Gustavus Adolphus College alumna. She has had Marketing experience working with such organizations as the LOFT Literary Center, the Gustavus Marketing Department and the Ordway Center for Performing Arts.