Archive for October, 2009

(Note, at the conclusion of this post is some additional context provided after this initially appeared)

This question came to mind today as I read an October 30, 2009 post on MobileMarketingWatch.com titled “Apple Hits 100k Apps, Does Quantity Matter?”  As the number of applications available for the iPhone passes the 100k barrier, the question of quantity versus quality logically arises.  Particularly in light of its popularity as an advertising and marketing platform.  Is the iPhone somehow less attractive to marketers if their message has to compete with 99,999 others?

I agree with the author’s point that many consumers are drawn to the iPhone due to the sheer number and diversity of apps available – like the ad slogan says, “There’s an app for that.”  With respect to advertisers and marketers, the challenge is ensuring a targeted, high quality application is the goal, along with making it patently clear to consumers that the app is available.  The most successful applications today follow this formula, which is why the iPhone should remain a popular choice for the mobile marketer, particularly for reaching its typical user demographic.

The emergence of Android as an alternative this year and into next seems to pose a threat to Apple’s dominance in mobile applications, assuming that it achieves parity or better.  The post points out, however, that:

“The question remains if Android Apps, which there will be fewer of, at least at first, will be of any higher quality than the Apple apps.  According to AndAppStore, there are 259 apps available for Android including ‘aBubblePop,’ so let’s just say the quality competition, if Android hopes to win it, has yet hit its prime.”

I’d like to suggest that the number or quality of applications may be irrelevant, particularly to marketers.  Applications as a segment may continue to be dominated by Apple into 2010 and beyond simply because of the marketing might Apple brings to the game.  The iPhone business blends the niche, maniacal loyalty of Apple’s traditional computer business with the volume market dominance in MP3 music players.  Overlay Apple’s powerful promotional and branding engine, a single app store and a loyal and growing consumer-base, and Android has an uphill battle to say the least.

I sense already that Android will become a great platform for the mobile web, but not so much applications, due simply to the lack of a strong consumer friendly marketing message, and a single, very easy to use app store.  I’m not confident that a diverse market of carrier App stores will be as appealing as Apple’s.  Marketers should note this as they look to take advantage of Android in their marketing plans.

(Additional Context Note: My colleague John Wood, upon reading this post, brought to my attention that Google is in fact hosting its own large scale App Store at http://www.android.com/market/, and that the number of apps for Android today is closer to 10,000, not the 259 as quoted in the MobileMarketingWatch.com post.  In spite of this, I think Apple’s super consumer friendly approach is going to be a tough nut to crack, but if anyone can do it, it’s going to have to be Google).

In light of this news today on MobileMarketer.com, it was serendipitous that this morning I also received images from Reuters’ display in New York City’s Times Square of our recent announcement of creating an iPhone application for Newser.

The article is about an iPhone application designed to promote Toyota’s new Prius as part of a broader product launch intended to take the third generation vehicle mainstream beyond its initial customer base.   Although the app is interesting, I thought the details surrounding the mobile customer experience and target customer were equally so.

The connection to Times Square is a concession to the power of targeting the “out and about” consumer, but in this instance there’s a linkage between application users and the message:

“Using the application, people were able to draw on the Reuters Times Square digital billboard Oct.26-28.”

But why an iPhone as opposed to another platform or none at all?  Although I am sure Toyota considered the platform’s demographics, the company also had data to support an iPhone application as opposed to other platforms; more than 60 percent of traffic to the company’s WAP (mobile optimized) website comes from iPhone users.

The WAP site itself is a centerpiece of the iPhone application’s promotional effort, which also includes interactive print magazine advertisements and the company’s Prius Facebook fan page.

Marketers planning product launches and other marketing programs who have the similar luxury of analyzing mobile web traffic and their sources would be wise to do the same to make more informed decisions when targeting the mobile customer experience.

Today I ran across this opinion article on DMNews.com about the high probability of growth in mobile commerce via traditional online stores taking their presences to the mobile channel (and along with it, presumably expectations around selling a lot of products).

Given the escalating adoption of devices capable of providing a decent mobile web experience, the argument at first makes sense.  Yet, a lot of research tends to support mobile commerce for certain types of products not usually associated with large e-commerce stores (such as those of big retailers).   To me it’s a question of relevance given the active, on-the-go nature of a consumer.  The fact a rich mobile web may be a ways off is another consideration.

Ordering a pizza or burrito via mobile device, even choosing topings or ingredients, is today a great mobile commerce application.  It seems though that for purchasing items of greater value — considered purchases – a more thoughtful process is required which means consumers will tend to use a desktop PC — or some combination of online and in-store activity.

I think mobile commerce around considered purchases will be most effective when it’s part of a strategy focused on the mobile customer experience.  Many businesses are taking this approach successfully today and if I’m right, it suggests you won’t soon see full on e-commerce sites as stand-alone profit and loss centers anytime soon.

Among many advantages mobile has over email as a marketing method is that from its inception it has been an opt-in channel.  Spam is not the issue it was historically for email and is not likely to be in the future.  It is so important that the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) publishes guidelines for marketers designed to ensure the channel remains one free of spam and ultimately a highly effective marketing channel.  Yet, what are guidelines without consequences to breaking the rules?  I pondered this question after stumbling upon a third party marketing data provider.

For relatively little money, this service offers access to nearly 25 million mobile phone subscribers who supposedly have opted into text message communications.  Not only that, but the list can be acquired based on useful segmentation variables such as age, marital status, occupation and many others.  When coming across this, along with assurances of compliance with Direct Marketing Association standards and examples of widespread use, I thought, “this could be the holy grail” for the mobile marketer interested in achieving the broad reach promised by text message ubiquity.

My friend at the MMA, Brooke (Locke) Morse, brought me back to Earth.  According to her, anyone who purchases and uses such lists are free to do so but risk penalties at the carrier level.  What this means practically speaking is that if a marketer wishes to use such lists with a mobile marketing services provider, they need to find one willing to itself risk penalties which could essentially put it out of business.  Or, figure out how to go direct through carriers themselves, which simply isn’t practical for most organizations.  In the event a list like this is used, it takes just one unhappy recipient to send an email to csca@ctia.org and raise a red flag.

All is not black and white, however.  Marketers who follow the “letter of the law” and develop their own opted in list of mobile subscribers could immediately append their initial data with segmentation variables available in third party lists to begin creating more relevant and personalized interactions.  The mobile phone number acts as a key between the two sources.  Marketers may find they obtain such data over time but this represents a fast path to realizing benefits associated with building a Mobile Customer Data Asset.

Chief marketers familiar with text messaging as a real time alternative to talking with someone on a mobile phone may not fully grasp the power of these interactions as part of their broader charter.  At first glance, text messaging — or technically Short Message Service (SMS) — is a gimmick used by television talent shows to collect votes or a registration tactic advertised on store signs or billboards.  At best, it is like email, another avenue to broadcast messages and calls to action, except worse because you are limited to sending and receiving only 160 characters.

In practice, SMS can power highly effective customer relationship and development strategies.  The key is working with firms which have developed technology around SMS that masks the complexity of initiating mobile interactions (or Dialogues).  Firms that address this properly will:

• Advise you that mobile marketing best practices, as prescribed by the Mobile Marketing Association, dictate your initial foray into mobile requires creation of a new class of customers – your mobile subscribers.  It is not sufficient to possess or buy customer or prospect mobile phone numbers without also having their expressed consent to communicate with them via text messaging.  Marketers are free to do so but at their own peril, as mobile device users have come to expect this opt in step and are likely to punish those who do not.

• What this means is that you must create a mobile marketing strategy in line with your overall customer retention and acquisition plans.  Engagement with the mobile audience requires thoughtful, relevant and ongoing communications so that your business, product or brand remains top of mind.   Without such a programmatic approach, you risk wasting the effort.  Thoughtful providers may prescribe a trial to determine what works/does not, but as part of a longer term plan for leveraging mobile strategically.

• This step can take many forms, but some businesses will drive opt in email contacts to a web form where they are incented to opt into mobile communications.  Others may advertise a new loyalty program in traditional media like billboard, signage or print that encourages an opt in text message interaction.  And remember, you can embed pointers to mobile websites or even application downloads in text messages, so you need to think more holistically about what actions you hope to drive based on your objectives.

• To do so requires use of something called a short code, which is simply a short form (more easily entered without errors) phone number that people use to send and receive text message communications.  Good providers will mask the complexity of obtaining short codes, and successful firms already possess multiple “shared” codes which can be used by any business almost immediately.  These numbers are able to be shared by different businesses because text communications are segmented by keyword — the phrase that people send via short code to a text message marketing system.  This is cost and time effective, but many businesses are moving toward obtaining a “dedicated” short code which aligns with their brand, and is then placed everywhere customers engage the business.  Providers should be able to help you obtain these vanity numbers without exposing the details around acquiring them.  Today this process can take up to a couple of months (it is NOT instantaneous like domain name registration), so if mobile is even remotely on your radar for 2010 and branding your short code may be important, securing it now via a knowledgeable provider may make sense.

• With a baseline group of customers and prospects interested in receiving messages, now you have the opportunity to call them to action, based on your marketing objectives.  To do this most intelligently — like you would with any other marketing channel — you want to segment your audience based on what you know about them, but also what you would like to know about them and how you want them to act.

• Providers with flexible solutions allow you to append opt in subscriber data with internal and third party data to create groupings of customers and prospects for targeting with relevant messages – for example, unique offers tiered by expected lifetime value, geographic segments for regional promotions, and many others.

• Good providers will also advise you to take the opportunity to learn more about your prospects and customers within the mobile channel.  Stitching data capture requirements into marketing programs is an effective approach to gaining valuable insights into consumers who are willing to engage in mobile interactions.  It’s like adding a mobile attribute to your existing customer understanding, but it is a multidimensional view inclusive of demographic, attitudinal and transactional data all collected as part of mobile interactions.

• Providers should also alleviate any concerns over limited reach given the diverse carrier networks which provide access to mobile device users.   The good ones work with third parties, or aggregators, that in turn offer turnkey access to virtually all mobile phone users.  There is no need to work with these third parties yourselves; providers should have these integrations pre-built in their offerings.

• Speaking of “offerings,” text message interactions have become highly sophisticated thanks to the creation of “mobile campaign management” platforms.  Like similar technologies used to develop web, email, snail mail, call center, or point of sale marketing programs, these dedicated systems should provide a variety of methods for taking an interaction idea, and rolling it out to the mobile channel.  Better providers make this easy to do, and the majority are offered as a service (Software-as-a-Service) so there is no software or hardware to buy.

Time is winding down on 2009, and all signs point to mobile as a key channel to drive business across many industries in 2010.  Marketing leaders should seize on this new opportunity to help their businesses compete more effectively for scarce consumer dollars by partnering with the right provider.

For the past decade pundits and casual observers alike have been asked the question: “is this the year of mobile?”  Or stated more clearly, “will mobile as a business, commerce and marketing channel become a really big industry this year?”  Based on the rapid adoption of Google’s Android platform by device makers and carriers alike, 2010 may be the start of a significantly new phase of the mobile marketplace.

Two days ago, The New York Times ran an article titled, “Big Cellphone Makers Shifting to Android System.”  By offering a free, open source, rich platform — unlike Microsoft — and that features capabilities similar to that of the iPhone, Google is doing more than either Apple or Microsoft to accelerate the promise of mobile.  If both scale and capabilities are key to a large potential market, Android seems to be satisfying both requirements.  Consider:

“Twelve Android handsets have been announced this year, with dozens more expected next year. Motorola has dropped Windows Mobile from its line entirely in a switch to Android. HTC, a major cellphone maker, expects half its phones sold this year to run Android. Dell is using Android for its entry into the cellphone market.”

“All four of the largest carriers in the United States have now agreed to offer Android phones.” – even AT&T, home of the iPhone.

“Android is ramping with more manufacturers and more price points. It is going to have a pretty significant impact.”

“Android is free, while Windows Mobile costs manufacturers $15 to $25 a phone.”

“Android has attracted far more applications for consumers in the first year than Windows Mobile has in a decade.”

The article raises the specter of failure, however, given the general lackluster response to the initial three Android devices available.  Still, the marketing and commerce possibilities today will pale in comparison to those available once a majority of consumers replace today’s devices with those supporting a rich end user experience like Android offers.

Marketers with an eye on iPhone applications now should look to partners with diverse capabilities so that application requirements, work flow concepts and user experience plans can be re-purposed for creating versions for Android and other rapidly improving platforms such as Blackberry.

Offering greater reach than any one Smartphone and providing more content than an SMS text message interaction can ever hope to, the mobile web is an appealing component of the mobile customer experience.  Success on the mobile web is a function of developing sites for its unique form factor as well as considering how targeted customers will consume the content – often in tandem with text messaging, as in linking from the message to a browser, or in similar fashion between an application and web-accessed data.

Having been in meetings with businesses considering iPhone development projects, I can say not all view the mobile web this way.  Without a well researched understanding of how a customer would interact with the mobile web and derive value from such interactions, many businesses have been offering mobile versions for some time simply because it makes sense (be wherever possible customers might want to find you, convert your site to size correctly on a small screen).  Next, they are looking at Smartphone apps, iPhone in particular, as “must have” novelties to be pursued quickly via re-packaging existing small form web content into an application “container.”  Smart business people are choosing these short sighted paths.  How could this be?

Today I came across two different articles that help explain the situation.  One, titled “The sad state of the mobile Web gets even sadder,” from an InfoWorld blogger, describes how ill-suited the mobile web today is for application developers – especially those using tools such as Adobe Flash, which  recently has been positioned as a rich app development platform to run within mobile browsers.  It goes without saying (but I will anyway), that this means the mobile web for now is a viable content delivery platform alone, to complement other mobile interaction strategies – it cannot practically be otherwise.   So the mobile web has a valuable place within the mobile customer experience, but as basis or reason for developing a Smartphone application it is not.

The other post, from the TechFlash blog, “Microsoft’s Ballmer: The Internet is not designed for the iPhone,” quotes Microsoft’s Steve Balmer answering the question of whether mobile phones could supplant PCs as the technology of choice for mobile consumers:

“Let’s face it, the Internet was designed for the PC.  The Intrnet is not designed for the iPhone…That’s why they’ve got 75,000 applications — they’re all trying to make the Internet look decent on the iPhone.”

Of course his answer is colored by Microsoft’s position, or lack thereof, within the Smartphone space, but it also illustrates how many businesses are incorrectly viewing the mobile web versus applications.

Without widely adopted best practices for navigating the mobile customer experience based on business objectives, too many marketers are taking siloed approaches to mobile.  No, the internet was not designed for the iPhone, but it can provide a conduit to real-time data for an application designed for the unique form factor of a handset and intended to help a consumer perform some task or make a better decision.  The internet was also not designed for the mobile web, but likewise web content can be a powerful contributor to mobile interaction strategies.  Some businesses are doing it right, like Newser, and others would be wise to follow their lead.

Today MobileMarketer.com covered the news of our recent work building an iPhone version of Newser, an online news resource featuring a rich visual presentation.  The company had previously launched versions for the mobile web but these failed to replicate the desktop user experience so loved by their readers.

Read between the lines, and you realize that like many content-based web businesses, Newser is ad supported.  So anything it can do to provide an attractive platform for serving ad messages to a highly engaged audience drives revenue.

Relative to the mobile web, Newser on the iPhone immediately is a more effective ad platform – users are engaged on a level very different from a mobile website with its load times, page to page navigation, scrolling and general user interface themes that are shared among content websites.

Applications also encompass a great deal of logic stored locally on a mobile device so a user generally perceives a swifter, friendlier experience.  As the mobile web gets better, that many change, yet remember that even with broadband internet now nearly ubiquitous, there is still a healthy market for well designed desktop applications.

Pages views of a mobile web presence can outpace application downloads, but the value of ads served in a native Smartphone application should be generally higher given greater user engagement.  Businesses looking to expand their footprints to the mobile channel, but especially those in content businesses, need to remember this distinction and seek partners like Interactive Mediums that can help best take advantage of native device capabilities.

We recently blogged about a paper from email provider ExactTarget regarding its view on the mobile channel.   Curious to see what other email providers might offer, today I checked out YesMail.  They too offer a white paper about email and mobile marketing, which I found quite good.

Many of the paper’s conclusions are consistent with views we have blogged about, but I was curious if and how YesMail offers mobile capabilities, if at all.  Searching, I came across this October 19, 2009 announcement that I think was missed by the mobile marketing press.  In it, YesMail announces additional capabilities to its Enterprise edition service encompassing both mobile email and SMS messaging.

For SMS, they have partnered with VeriSign as an aggregator to offer single point messaging access across many network carriers – not unlike other SMS text messaging marketing providers.  Not clear was how actual campaigns are created, deployed, and measured, and even their website provides sparse details.  It’s as if there’s a gap between prescriptions in their white paper and their new mobile capabilities.

It appears that like other email providers, text messaging is being viewed as a complement or alternative message delivery medium to email, designed to ensure email marketers don’t look elsewhere when the topic of mobile comes up within their organizations.  Wise marketers, be they aligned to email or not, would be well served by looking at the mobile customer experience to guide their initial forays into mobile.

Given how we have talked about “direct branding” as an application of mobile marketing for CPG marketers, this article on the Digital CPG Blog a couple days ago stood out.  Apparently, direct to consumer selling by non-CPG manufacturers is the fastest growing online retail category.

Titled “Mattel Goes Direct to Consumer Online,” the post describes how Mattel, the U.S.’ largest toy manufacturer, is selling its products direct to consumers via a new ecommerce web presence.  Although ½ of its revenue derives from just three large retailers, Mattel is able to do this apparently without disrupting traditional sales channel relationships.

The author posits why the CPG industry doesn’t also adopt the approach, given a similar dependency on a small universe of distribution channels.  I suggest one reason is that traditional CPG products remain the domain of the in-person shopping experience facilitated by real stores, as opposed to the web.

For that reason, direct customer relationships can be established and developed by CPG marketers today using mobile marketing techniques applied to programs such as loyalty, product trial and couponing.  Mapping your marketing strategy to the mobile channel is a good first step.