Mobile devices like the iPhone and G1 are letting consumers take advantage of the growing number of high-speed networks, an opportunity that e-commerce retailers are recognizing as users are increasingly using websites for shopping from mobile devices. Some people are even using their mobile devices as their primary online browser.
Any retailer looking to the growing mobile audience for new revenue should deliver shopping sites that are mobile friendly. This means paring back content – or re-organizing it – so that users can access relevant items more easily.
While wireless devices have come a long way, their screen size limits what can be displayed and still be read by the average user. Features such as panning and zooming can only compensate so much for the smaller real estate available on handhelds.
Most websites are still using cascading stylesheets (CSS) optimized for personal computers. Designing and embedding CSS specifically for mobile users will help ensure that the user experience on handheld devices is high quality. The CSS Mobile Profile 2.0 developed by the W3C (the standard-setting World Wide Web Consortium) is now available, giving retailers a widely supported standard to follow.
Other common shopping features, such as large tables of product images and Flash animation, also need to be rethought. Just a decade ago, many websites were built successfully without these features. As screen resolutions and bandwidth grew, these were added to create richer online experiences. Handheld devices may not support all of these technologies, so the emphasis should be placed on simplicity, clarity and speed. And make sure that commonly accessed features, such as viewing the shopping cart are readily reachable.
While the technical aspects of mobile are important to consider, retailers must also focus on marketing fundamentals, such as understanding the needs of this changing audience. Research and analysis on what users want and how they want to interact with your site are critical. One quick tip: use the mobile device itself to gather research information, rather than relying solely on traditional research channels.
Retailers that can use messaging, web content, e-mail, and social networking in an integrated fashion, centered on the handheld device, let users engage with their brands. A basic practice: rather than just asking for e-mail addresses on your sites, permit users to give you addresses for text messages as well, and let them know about special mobile content.
One last piece of advice: do not let mobile marketing become a new outlet for spam. Mobile devices give unprecedented access to retail customers; respecting your customers’ time will lead to longer, two-way relationships.
David King is CEO of Fulcrum, a leader in advanced analytics, technology and multichannel program solutions for marketing.
I recently had the distinct pleasure of attending the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Wow! It was simply incredible to hear a legend like Paul McCartney and dance the night away to The Killers and MSTRKRFT.
Coachella was nothing like my experience at a Radiohead concert last May where weather complications prohibited the use of technology, forcing my friends and I to wonder aimlessly in the pouring rain sans cell phones. Coachella’s weather was perfect. Not only were we able to use our cell phones, Coachella was also completely up to speed in its use of social media. From an official Coachella iPhone application to a live Twitter feed, concert-goers were always in the know with updates and information. I even recently added Coachella as a fan page to my Facebook profile.
Corporate sponsors were also very visible to concert-goers. “Meet me at the Heineken beer tent,†became a popular phrase during the three-day extravaganza. Coachella will be forever ingrained in my head along with visions of sunshine, palm trees, mountains and the Naked Wizard? Yes, probably the most talked about event from the concert had nothing to do with musical acts. Now a viral sensation, the Naked Wizard definitely gives credence to Andy Warhol’s insightful prediction many years ago that everyone in the future would be famous for 15 minutes. I’m hoping my 15 minutes are dramatically different than the Naked Wizard’s.
Coachella aside, another recent event was the perfect move for a brand trying to connect with consumers via music.
This T-Mobile-sponsored affair is reminiscent of when Ferris Bueller sang “Twist and Shout†through the streets of downtown Chicago, except this is real life. As the media landscape continues to change and evolve, brands would be smart to follow the lead of Heineken, T-Mobile and others that incorporate themselves into consumers’ everyday lives in unique and engrossing ways.
Media buyers and marketers are looking at mobile TV to increase sales for clients.
Mobile TV is being viewed as a way of expanding brand and presents a unique opportunity when it comes to direct-response sales lead generation.
Traditional direct-mail marketers reveal that their response with print mailing has dropped to less than 0.1 percent. That means 99.9 percent of your client audience is not responding to the direct-mail piece you spent money on.
What makes mobile TV so attractive to advertisers? The emergence of mobile TV as a mobile medium also comes with some impressive applications. For instance, if you are seeing a Lexus commercial on your mobile iPhone while watching a local news program, you could potentially touch a Lexus icon on your phone screen to be connected to a live Lexus sales representative.
The real-time factor. Mobile TV provides the unique value of real-time marketing to consumers. Studies show they spend more when transactions are completed quickly before they have a chance to rationalize a purchase.
Even with all of these big changes underway, television is still a big layer in the media game. TV ads will continue to have loyal buyers.
Do you agree?
Peter Koeppel is a Wharton MBA and president of Koeppel Direct, a full-service media buying agency based in Dallas.
In my last blog post, I cited a factoid regarding 17 million iPhones having been sold to date. In fact, Apple’s App Store is downloading and/or selling approximately 3 million applications every day. Of course, this is America, and where would be without over-reactive pendulum swings? Some are asking if the App Store paradigm is the wave of the future and if the mobile web is dead? The answer, of course, is a resounding NO.
The App Store is not the future- it’s the present, and only with respect to the iPhone. The appeal of the iPhone is the App Store. To Apple’s credit, they were really smart when the copied their iPod and iTunes template when they launched the iPhone. Further, they were downright brilliant when they made each and every hardware component on that phone i.e. the microphone, speaker, screen, camera and GPS chip available to the developer community via open APIs and a well thought iPhone software development kit. Layer on Apple’s typically brilliant marketing and voila: two years later we have 17 million phones, tens of thousands of apps and another Apple success story.
Ok, so now let’s put this in context. First, while 17 million iPhones have been sold worldwide, there are more than 2 billion non-iPhones out there. Second, let’s be real, the App Store is a walled garden and walls are always salacious targets in the same way that buttons compel pushing. Think AOL… So, as we all think about developing our mobile applications, know that it is imperative to develop a WAP application first and foremost. I would of course, encourage the development of an iPhone app too as iPhone users are rabid consumers of applications and the mobile web. Also, cell phone manufacturers, take note: Start defining standards across your line of handsets. Publish APIs and SDKs that allow developers to write apps and/or mobile web applications. And watch the mobile web tsunami explode!
First, I’m honored that ERA asked me to blog about the mobile commerce space in advance of the upcoming eRetailer Summit. I promise to keep my blogs short. I will do my best to keep them pithy and relevant.
I know we have all heard so much about the mobile channel over the last few years. There has been a lot of hype. There have been several false starts. But, I can tell you in all honesty that mobile is here, now. A lot of research will be published over the next months that detail how important multichannel marketing has become in terms of customer retention, conversion rates and ROI. Best-of-breed retailers all have multichannel strategies in place and are myopically focused on how to expand the scope and efficacy of that strategy. Mobile has become a critical component of such a strategy.
I thought I might offers some great statistics, each released over the last few weeks, that can help as you think about your mobile strategy and allocation of marketing budgets. In these extraordinary times, cost/benefit analyses are a must. Every dollar spent will be scrutinized for ROI and necessity. Still, there seems to be little doubt that mobile has arrived in a big way. Retailers who do not incorporate a mobile solution as part of their multichannel strategy do so at their own peril.
• Mobile is a trillion dollar business! Some context here… automobiles are a half trillion business, IT is a half billion dollar business, TV and radio combined, half a billion, advertising, half a billion
I could go on for a long time like this, but I hope we all get the picture.
You can meet with David Gould of mShopper live at the eRetailer Summit’s Solution Zone on Sunday, March 1, from 12:00 p.m.—3:00 p.m. Register here!
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has released the results of its Annual Global Mobile Attitude and Usage Study, conducted with research partner Synovate.
The study’s key findings for the United States include:
—Mobile phone usage is fully integrated into Americans’ day-to-day lives and transcends traditional voice uses.
—Three-quarters report some level of mobile phone usage and roughly half feel mobile phones are highly important to daily life.
—Use of text messaging and mobile web services (80 percent & 20 percent overall) indicates consumers’ willingness to consider their mobile devices as more than traveling telephones.
—Mobile web usage has increased for the third year in a row. One-in-five reports using mobile web services and usage is highest among 18-24 year olds (37 percent report using mobile web to some degree).
—The most common mobile web activities are browsing the Internet, mobile search and visiting weather and news sites.
—Interest in mobile marketing is similar to that noted in 2007; roughly one-quarter overall are interested in the concept and are somewhat/very likely to opt-in to mobile marketing opportunities.
—Mobile couponing presents the best opportunity for mobile marketers. Additionally, consumers express moderate interest in ringtone, wallpaper and game downloads, and receiving information about new products and services.
—African Americans and English-dominant Hispanics represent a strong base of mobile usage. Compared to Caucasians, consumers in these segments report heavier mobile usage for both voice and text messaging functions.
For more information on the study or the MMA, click here.
Mobile devices like the iPhone and G1 are letting consumers take advantage of the growing number of high-speed networks, an opportunity that e-commerce retailers are recognizing as users are increasingly using websites for shopping from mobile devices. Some people are even using their mobile devices as their primary online browser.
I recently had the distinct pleasure of attending the 
Corporate sponsors were also very visible to concert-goers. “Meet me at the Heineken beer tent,†became a popular phrase during the three-day extravaganza. Coachella will be forever ingrained in my head along with visions of sunshine, palm trees, mountains and 
Media buyers and marketers are looking at mobile TV to increase sales for clients.
In my 
First, I’m honored that 
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has released the results of its Annual Global Mobile Attitude and Usage Study, conducted with research partner Synovate.
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