Dynamic Mobile

Mobile shopper marketing, no longer in its infancy, has reached a developmental stage in which "things are moving so fast" that efforts to keep up are like "painting a moving train," says Sandeep Bhanote, chief executive officer of Global Bay Mobile Technologies, South Plainfield, N.J.Risks are taken, mistakes are made, and lessons are learned. Mobile technology has been around long enough to provide two fundamental lessons about its use and effectiveness. One is that "cool" and "popular" do not equal "most likely to succeed." The other is to crawl before you walk."In approaching mobile strategically, we continue to fight a daily battle between harnessing clients' excitement and effectively managing their expectations as they relate to the latest shiny mobile offering," says Ben Kennedy, who directs the mobile group for the global promotional, retail and shopper marketing agency The Integer Group, Denver. "What started with Bluetooth in 2006 has progressed through the application obsession, currently bringing to play a QR code epidemic.""Leaning toward things that seem to be the most innovative is not always best for consumers," says Jason Rogers, an executive vice president with global agency Catapult Marketing, Westport, Conn. "In the case of QR codes, for example, they can work, but there are barriers" that make them a questionable choice for retail environments like grocery stores, where people want to get in and out as fast as possible. "Odds are," Rogers says, "most folks barely understand what a QR code is, let alone the value of using one."All That Glitters Is Not GoldThere has been what some have called a "stampede of brands onto the iPhone" via downloadable apps. A lot of "novelty apps" were created for the purpose of building awareness and creating a "coolness factor" for brands, especially lifestyle brands whose devotees are early adopters, says Bhanote.The stampede continued, with lots of "life of the party" types of apps garnering press coverage and, in some cases, successfully building brand awareness and equity. (Examples: The Coca-Cola Co. came out with a "Spin the Bottle" app, and Heineken introduced a "breathalyzer" so you could demonstrate to friends that their drinking was transforming them into, say, an exhibitionist or a stumbler.) But though marketers and consumers alike may initially be drawn to "buzz-worthy" uses of mobile technology – such as game-like apps and augmented reality – in the end, most consumers will look to mobile shopper marketing tools and initiatives to save time rather than kill it."Last year was the year of the app, and frankly, for some of the brands an app did not make sense," says Jennifer Mathissen, senior vice president of digital strategy for the marketing agency Ryan Partnership, Wilton, Conn. "Many branded apps try to accomplish too many user goals, or push out content that does not ultimately support shoppers' needs."The "cool" mobile shopper marketing initiatives aren't necessarily the ones that succeed. "Apps to me are disposable," says Matt McKenna, president, Red Fish Media, Miami Beach, Fla. Their novelty wears off, he says, and their popularity seldom persists.Simplify and StreamlineAt its best, mobile shopper marketing saves consumers time and money, reduces frustrations and helps clear barriers along the path the purchase without erecting new ones. Particularly in CPG channels, mobile shopper marketing in general, and apps in particular, should center on convenience and utility, and arise out of shopper insights. The programs that tend to provide value to the consumer and ROI to retailers or brand marketers are not particularly sexy.It's not about using augmented reality to make a swimsuit model greet beer drinkers in the liquor section, though that is certainly possible. Instead, "They address everyday needs, realities and inconveniences that shoppers have always dealt with and always will: list making, navigation and trusted, relevant recommendations," says Nathan Pettyjohn, CEO of St. Louis-based aisle411.Aisle411 helps shoppers locate items in the store down to the specific section of an aisle, provides them with product reviews and price comparisons, manages their shopping lists, and allows them to share experiences with friends via social media integration. Users receive reward points and mobile coupons for using the service. "Based on your shopping list, aisle411 can plot the most efficient route through the store, and then give you recommendations along the way based on where you are," Pettyjohn says.Aisle411 is driven by shopper insights (collected since 2008) such as:24% of retailers' revenue is lost due to customers not finding what they came to buy, according to a Wall Street Journal report.83% of shoppers have trouble finding what they are looking for, according to national consumer data from Bryles Research, Mokena, Ill., and 67% say they would leverage mobile technologies to navigate stores.43% of general market shoppers "always" rely on a shopping list while in the store, according to a survey conducted by The Integer Group and M/A/R/C Research, Irving, Texas.Aisle411 benefits retailers by capturing sales that might otherwise be lost, freeing sales associates to do other things besides helping shoppers find items, and building basket size through product recommendations and cross-selling. For example, based on purchases of chips and nuts, the software might deduce the shopper is throwing a party and recommend other items to round out the menu.Similar "shopping assistant" types of apps are linked to loyalty cards "that understand how I shop and give me offers that are meaningful to me based on my previous purchases," Rogers says, adding that Kroger, Meijer and Stop & Shop are using mobile to their best advantage, making "smart use of a data-driven platform to give value to customers." Branded apps like Kraft Foods' iFood Assistant make recipe and meal-planning suggestions, along with storing shopping lists and offering coupons.However, "If you talk to shoppers at the exact right moment in the exact right place, you don't necessarily need to incentivize them," says Pettyjohn, who points to aisle411's program with Coca-Cola to prove his point. For those who have pretzels on their shopping lists, aisle411's app suggests that a Coke product might go well with the salty snack, inducing them to make the purchase merely by suggestion, rather than with a dollar-off coupon sent at a less opportune time."There currently is no category-killer app available that offers the full suite of utilities needed to gain widespread adoption," Mathissen says. In order to win, she adds, a shopping app needs to be:integrated with coupons and offers, preferably via loyalty card;sharable and manageable across household members;able to tell shoppers where to find items in-store; andintegrated with recipes and product reviews.In the future, apps will "facilitate the transaction via mobile payment," Mathissen concludes.Shopping list apps can also drive switching and trial behavior as they deliver real-time, location-sensitive offers in-store.Turning Deliberators into Doers"Higher-involvement purchases are where mobile is delivering on its promise a lot more effectively," says Tyler Murray, digital practice lead for the shopper marketing agency Saatchi & Saatchi X, Springdale, Ark.This is particularly true where QR codes come into play. A survey from New York-based Accenture found that 73% of smartphone users prefer using their mobile device rather than interacting with a store employee for basic information. QR codes enable them to access product information and reviews, and select the right product without relying on sales staff. Shoppers' phones use a reader application to recognize the QR code and convert it to a small amount of data (the "payload"), most commonly a URL pointing to a mobile Web page.The Home Depot in March launched a QR code initiative with mobile bar code platform developer Scanbuy, New York, enabling shoppers to scan codes with their smartphone camera for product information such as how-to guides. Prior to that, Best Buy added QR codes to product fact tags in all of its U.S. retail stores.LG Electronics opted not to use QR codes with its "Discovery Zone," a store-within-a-store concept at Sears with a mobile component developed by Saatchi X. Instead, shelf signage directed shoppers to a wireless application protocol (WAP) site, which is a Web page that can be viewed on mobile phones, including feature phones that cannot access standard HTML pages. Unlike QR codes, WAP sites do not require a camera or a reader app and are therefore more widely and readily accessible.The mobile initiative was based on the insight that people in the market for a new home appliance generally have not purchased one in so long that the product features, and the language describing those features, would be unfamiliar and perhaps intimidating. The path to purchase is a "long cycle," starting with online research, Murray says. The mobile website enables consumers to continue and complete their research right in the store, rather than going home to deliberate. "It helps the shopper, and it helps retailers close the sale right then and there," Murray says.For high-consideration purchases, an in-store mobile component "can get consumers away from deliberating and into doing," he says, provided it "answers all their deliberation points. Are all their questions answered? Is the terminology explained? Can consumers see how this fits in with their lifestyle?"Consumers who aren't ready to purchase an appliance on the spot can email product specifications to themselves via the mobile site.Getting Started in Mobile MarketingThe starting point and cornerstone of any mobile strategy is usually a mobile website – either a mobile version of an existing site, adapted for a handset, or a dedicated mobile site designed to meet the needs of folks who are on the go. "The No. 1 thing I do with clients who are thinking about getting into mobile is at least get them mobile-friendly," says Sarah VanHeirseele, director of digital, Blue Chip Marketing, Northbrook, Ill.Mobile Web pages are specially formatted to be legible and easily navigable on mobile browsers. Images are kept to a minimum so pages load quickly, and Flash is eliminated because most mobile phones don't support it. Traditional websites can detect when someone is using a mobile device and automatically redirect the user to the mobile version."The intent of a mobile-optimized site is to scale down and simplify not only the visual design to be easily viewed and accessed by mobile phones but also to define the navigation and content accessible on that site to deliver on the needs of the user on the go," Rogers says. "Typically, this is less information than the full site," with mobile-friendly features like a store finder and a means of opting in to receive special offers and alerts via text.Other mobile marketing tactics in addition to mobile Web pages and apps include:"The way to drive revenue, response and customer engagement is through text," says McKenna, adding that text alerts and offers drive traffic to stores and form the basis of mobile loyalty clubs. Mobile marketing channels like SMS are the "connective tissue" between traditional retail and Internet commerce, says Michael Becker of the Mobile Marketing Association, New York.For example, a brand or retail website can invite visitors to send a text to receive an encoded game piece via a mobile device, which is then taken to a brick-and-mortar location where Red Fish Media's MobiDecoder reveals an offer redeemable in-store.Mobile marketing should integrate with other channels and tactics, including traditional in-store marketing, to form a cross-platform strategy. Despite all the preplanning being done by shoppers, "There's still quite a bit of brand switching in-store," Murray says. "That's why having good endcap displays and shelf messaging still matters. You can do all this work to get on the shopping list and then lose out" at the point of purchase.Location, Location, LocationProximity or location-based marketing platforms detect when consumers are within close range of a retail or brand presence, and therefore primed to buy, and then send relevant content such as coupons to their mobile devices. Some platforms use GPS, and others seek out Bluetooth-enabled phones within a certain range. RFID technology and handheld scanners can also be used to track shoppers in the store and provide them with offers based on their location and what they are buying.Applications like Shopkick reward consumers just for checking in at certain retailers and for scanning particular items in the store. Reward points can be redeemed for things like gift cards, song downloads or donations to charities.Whereas check-ins were once primarily social, consumers these days expect more than social badging or Foursquare's mayoral status for essentially broadcasting their whereabouts. When, for example, a check-in automatically appears in your Facebook status, "You're advertising or advocating the brand, and if you do that, you expect value in return" like a coupon or freebie, Rogers says.Smartphone GPS has an error radius, prompting Shopkick to develop a signaling device for retailers that verifies users are actually in the store before reward points are given. Aisle411 uses a retailer's inventory database and syncs it to proprietary mapping software using UPC location codes; that way, if products get moved around, the store map will automatically update.AT&T is testing "geo-fencing" around participating retailers in four cities that allows them to send messages to consumers in a defined geographic area. AT&T customers can opt into the ShopAlerts program to receive deals and promotions from nearby stores, or for products within those stores. Partners include Hewlett-Packard, Kmart and SC Johnson. [Editor's Note: Shopper Marketing will cover geo-fencing in a future issue.]"Over time, it's possible that location-based marketing may evolve to alert shoppers of any discount on a specific brand at a retailer nearby," Mathissen says, "but this would require such coordination across retailers that it's unlikely to be a near-term reality."Moving Forward"I see social and mobile connecting," says Mathissen, adding that people will use their online networks to guide and validate purchasing decisions. Product reviews will be sorted so that recommendations made by Facebook friends will rise to the top, she predicts.Augmented reality may find its footing in practical uses like helping shoppers locate items in a store by looking through their phone's camera screen for a flashing beacon.Mobile devices will morph into "digital wallets," eliminating the need to carry lists, coupons and currency, Mathissen says.McKenna agrees: "Mobile commerce is the next big piece in the mobile ecosystem," and SMS will be a major medium. "A retailer could reach out via text and say, 'Would you like this scarf to go with the sweater you bought last month,' and you'd just reply, 'Yes,'" and it's bought and paid for.Short messaging service (SMS), which sends text-based messages to mobile devices.Multimedia messaging service (MMS), which can include richer content such as video.Voice, accessible via a mobile phone's click-to-call functionality. (Kimberly-Clark's Huggies Pull-Ups ran a voice campaign involving the Disney princesses and other characters, offering potty training support to kids.)Proximity marketing, which uses GPS technology to deliver content and offers to mobile users in specific locations (near brick-and-mortar stores, for example).Branded content such as ringtones and videos.Email.

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