Amongst the hype of the PR machine surrounding mobile applications and technology, NME/Blackberry have quietly launched a competition that could show some of the biggest businesses in the world how ‘mobile’ should be done. Working as a partnership, the competition gives the key demographic the chance to win a Blackberry handset, as well as tickets to an NME gig.

Now here is where it gets even more interesting! Although you can answer the question and submit your details online, you can also join the NME blackberry group on blackberry messenger to submit your answer. The Blackberry market share in the UK is already quite significant, and is no longer just the email enterprise phone for business executives. Facilitated by Blackberry messenger, the RIM brand is now becoming a real force in the 16-25 age range (a demographic shared by NME). So, what is to be learnt from this competition?

• Incentivised – Using prizes that the consumer WANT to win, NME and Blackberry are able to collect rich audience data
• Permission Granted - With all this data collected in mind, the question is still posed “Would you like to receive marketing…etc” in a clear format. So although being brands that their audience WANT to engage with, they still demonstrate respect for their consumers by asking their permission to continue the conversation
• Natural Environment – The BBM element is a stroke of genius for two reasons. The first being the ‘environment’. With its rise in prominence in the youth market, Blackberry messenger (or BBM as it is known in short) exploits the prolific nature of SMS but in an instant messenger format (similar to that championed in the late 90’s/early 00’s by MSN messenger on the desktop). Because youths are participating regularly in this environment, it seems right that a brand should enter this space (with permission)!
• Value Exchange - The Value exchange at face value here is obvious. Participants have the chance to win prizes that are relevant to their interests, and at the same time, NME/Blackberry suddenly have data to a very valuable target demographic. But the BBM element gives an EXTRA value add for NME/Blackberry. You see, by building a blackberry messenger group of NME fanatics, suddenly that is access to a massive group of opt-in consumers who own Blackberrys and love NME. You just cannot buy data that specific! And what is EVEN BETTER, is that BBM is free to use (on a data plan), so NME can deliver targeted, relevant marketing messages to opt-in consumers for a stupendously tiny cost!

Imagine if NME bring out a native Blackberry mobile application. Suddenly, rather than spend thousands trying to market it, they have the audience data ready and waiting to send to ONLY the people it is relevant too. Magic.

Purchases worth tens of thousands of pounds; in just a simple click via their mobile.

Along with Amazon (who have both an iPhone application and a mobile website), they make up 70% of m-commerce transactions worldwide. All this can be attributed to taking the consideration to prepare and design a dedicated mobile site, rather than optimising the desktop site, in order to leverage the existing web infrastructure, and have a process and user flow that is cohesive between the platforms. Of course this is supported by a seamless payment process and other factors, but the importance of usability should not be underestimated.

But what makes m-commerce such a viable solution and/or extension to current commerce activity?

• Convenience – Mobile creates the opportunity to shop without hitting the high street, and from the comfort of your sofa, the train or your walk in the park.
• Accessibility – Should you decide to do your walk in the park at 3am in the morning, you can rely on the fact that the m-commerce store will still be open!
• Ease of payment – Whether it’s an integrated account with your MNO (mobile network operator), or saved account details, it is relatively easy to pay for your goods too!
• Location aware – Should you not want the hassle of entering delivery details if not saved, there is the capacity to locate your local outlet and pick up your items yourself.

However, although the potential for m-commerce is clear, there remain several key challenges before it is adopted mainstream.
The main issue (at the moment anyway) is the iPhone obsession. Now I do not want this to turn into yet ANOTHER Carl Martin iPhone rant, because it certainly is not that (hell I am an iPhone owner for crying out loud!). However, businesses are employing the wrong mobile strategy and not even considering the mobile web first. iPhone users may be more comfortable with making transactions, have greater disposable income and have better functionality to facilitate the process, but more often than not, the target market is not predominantly using the handset.

A good example of looking at handset usage is Ticketmaster (US). After recognising a siginifcant amount of traffic arriving on their site via mobile, they built a dedicated mobile site (although significantly lacking in design!). After its continued success, it opted to develop a Blackberry application because it has the largest market share in the US (46% in 2008).

But returning to British shores, 17% of Britons are willing to buy products and services through their phones, according to a survey of 1,000 UK adults in 2008, and this will no doubt have improved since the app store age, yet I can assure you that 17% are not all iPhone users! Especially considering iPhone market share in the UK is only 4%.

If you want to engage with your regular customers and attract a new consumer base, you need to fundamentally understand not only the ways in which they currently interact with your brand, but their personal values and issues relating to mobile transactions. A lot of consumers continue to be intimidated by the mobile web, never mind making a purchase decision using it.

Although applications may provide the most personable and relatable experience, this can severely segment your consumer base and isolate those who wish to shop via mobile. The best advice you can ever be offered when looking into the m-commerce arena is to consider the following:

• Does it have a broad reach?
• Is it targeted to your demographic?
• Is it an engaging experience for the user?
• Is the transactional process smooth and easy to use?

Without these considerations, you are setting up for a fall. Take heed of the example of eBay and Amazon, and look into the mobile web before taking the application route. And if you are worried that a mobile website may not look as good as an application, or even work as well as an application, take a look at the Interflora website on your mobile device. You may be very pleasantly surprised! My final two hints:

• More often than not, people will try your mobile site first. If it isn’t available or is terrible, they will look to their app store. This is an indication of the way YOU should be thinking.
• Take a look at your main desktop sites web stats and take a look at who is visiting your site and via which mobile browser. This is a very basic level way of judging who is trying to access your site on the move.

Not quite.

You see, although HTML5 is demonstrating it can deliver a superb level of design and interactivity, especially with the recent Youtube mobile site, HTML5 relies heavily on the hardware and their respective browsers. You see, HTML5 will not just work on any mobile browser. Go run the HTML5 test on your mobile browser and see what happens. iPhone users using Safari will probably see quite a high score, however should they be using Opera Mini, they will not be pleased with the result.

Once again, this is another example of the mobile industry working at different speeds, and trying to oust each other. If you think developing an HTML5 mobile site is going to resolve the financial issues associated with developing cross platform mobile apps, you are very wrong. HTML5 is, without a shadow of a doubt, going to make the ‘WAP v APP’ argument a helluva lot more complicated, but in the mean time, don’t be blinded by the hype. When browser quality improves across the board, and network speeds and coverage improves, HTML5 will be a genuine consideration. In the mean time, its just a taste of whats to come.

WAP v APP rolls on…for now.

In fact, I can admit now (and I know one or two people who will pull me up on this) that I have been guilty of not thinking about value exchange before engaging in professional situations. And those people know I am sorry.  HOWEVER, asides from learning from my mistakes at a relatively early stage in my career, it has highlighted something which is in fact incredibly relevant to the marketing industry.

The words engagement, conversation, participation and social have been thrown around like some angry Gorillas and their faeces, but what the hell does it all mean?! My personal experiences and understanding always make me return to the concept of value exchange. In order for a citizen to accept and open communication with brands via a platform such as a mobile device, an understanding of the mutual expectations is vital.

Gimme some free stuff…please

Incentivisation is not a revolutionary new marketing technique, and it has a track record throughout the ages of driving conversions and catalysing consumer engagement. Always used to choose a cereal as a kid based on the best free toy? Buy your new TV based on the stockist that offers the best warranty? In offering an incentive, a brand can create what is often an ‘illusion’ of value with its consumer, but this works well in establishing an association with your brand and ‘adding value’. The consumer simply accepts that by buying your product, this is sufficient for an exchange of value. Obviously as a marketer, you will be more aware that alongside a healthy profit on the product, that you will have claimed valuable customer contact details for future sales leads.

Its more than free stuff

Sorry to disappoint, but although incentivisation creates a sense of unbalanced value exchange in favour of the customer, it is in fact very false. True value exchange is a much deeper concept, embedded within our understanding of the world and how we interact with it. The simple concept for brands and marketers to embrace is:

“Do not aim to deliver just the right message, but strive to evoke the correct response”

Consumer insight and market research can offer a remarkable level of understanding of your audience, but telling your audience what they want to hear is not the same as making an emotional connection and seeing a natural will to engage with your brand and its message. This emotional connection can manifest itself in an array of forms, but when the value exchange is optimised, the rewards for both parties will be evident.

Remember, its a telephone, not a megaphone!

Evoking the right response may not be immediate, but the value exchange does not have to be instantaneous. Establishing a relationship with a consumer involves highs and lows; iterations and reworks. When you demonstrate an agile philosophy towards communicating with your consumers, they will respect you a lot more for approaching them and trying to engage them in the environments that they not only already participate, but where you have asked their permission to join them.

My Definition of Value Exchange

So, what can we ‘define’ as value exchange? Well one thing to be clear on, is that peoples own definitions and understanding of value are quite disparate. What may seem a paltry exchange of value to one person, may be above and beyond expectations for another. Here are some things to consider:

• Respect - For me, demonstrating respect for your consumer can represent a significant amount of value. Respecting their personal space, data and preferences can establish or maintain an incredibly positive relationship. So ask their permission, don’t patronise them and treat them like human beings, and you just see what happens.
• Incentives - Although it may seem like I wrote off the idea of incentivisation earlier, giving your consumers that little bit more really does help. It does not however always have to be a free gift, or extended warranty. By listening carefully to what they want, marketers can match their expectations and go the extra mile, without breaking the bank. So make the incentive something the consumer actually wants, rather than something that makes the purchased product or communication that little bit more attractive.
• Involvement – Inviting citizens to contribute to or partake in an activity which is usually a closed space, can create an incredible amount of value in both parties favour. Creating the opportunity to submit suggestions on how to improve the business, or even ideas for the next marketing campaign can make the citizen feel like they are having a direct impact on the business (and this heavily ties in with the ‘respect’ bullet above). At the same time, the business has access to direct and honest information from the people that matter the most.
• Commitment before returns – As a business, you may need to accept that this year, you need to take a hit. By going the extra mile for your consumers (which could eat up a lot proportion of your marketing budget), it may make this year look a little less successful, but for long term stability and consumer satisfaction, it could be the break you need. Its all down to having the balls! Take the leap, or sit on the edge and wait for the cliff to give way? Consumer loyalty and trust is, in comparison, invaluable.

I hope this makes sense, as my mind notoriously sees things and inteprets them in ways that other find, quite frankly, plain stupid. I would love to hear what you think. What does value exchange mean to you? In your personal or business lives?

]]> http://mobsessed.co.uk/2010/07/exploring-value-exchange/feed/ 1 http://mobsessed.co.uk/2010/07/engaging-citizens-through-immersive-alternate-reality-epic-win/ http://mobsessed.co.uk/2010/07/engaging-citizens-through-immersive-alternate-reality-epic-win/#commentsTemplate Fri, 09 Jul 2010 10:04:00 +0000 Carl http://mobsessed.co.uk/?p=540 Not quite the big boom back into blogging I had hoped (that post is still under way…) but I saw this and had to share it with you all. A few years ago, before the iPhone and the big app movement, 20:20London did an amazing integrated campaign for the PSP game Gangs of London. Leveraging the multiple communications channels available through mobile, and exploiting a citizens natural craving for an alternate reality, they were able to completely immerse the average joe into a world that could only otherwise be found by playing the game by using SMS, recorded voice and some fancy image recognition technology.

Foursquare offers a more recent and relevant example of turning life into a game, but this latest concept takes the biscuit. Watch the video and get excited. I certainly did! If this isn’t an example of understanding a human beings inherent need for entertainment, anchored with incentivisation, to exploit what is a traditionally mundane activity, I don’t know what is!

‘Mobile is very much a part of our marketing priorities, and getting our brand associated with mobile is at the core to our strategy”

Visa Europe

Thanks for that Visa, but so what?

Well there are 1 billion PCs in the world today, 950 million of which are connected to the internet. There are 1.7 billion credit cards with spending power, which has in recent years made a dramatic shift to the online market place.

This is all redundant when you realise that there are 3.4 billion unique mobile users in the world today, with 29% of worldwide internet access made exclusively on these devices, whereas 25% is exclusively made on PC’s.

When people talk about mobile in terms of marketing, it’s often the same images that pop into their head. Spammy unsolicited SMS from your local gym telling you to make the most of their discount sign up fees? Or an iPhone application that imitates drinking a pint of lager?!

The fact of the matter is that mobile creates opportunities that many other media channels cannot. A world of rich, interactive, targeted, location aware content is waiting to be exploited, and despite the 1000s of mobile campaigns already launched, the market remains unsaturated.

Mobile creates a whole new level of engagement with its consumers, and can integrate seamlessly with other digital and even traditional media channels for the optimum effect.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the past 12 months has been dominated by the mobile application. The iPhone App Store has clocked up over 3 Billion application downloads since it’s unveiling, landing on one of 85 Million Apple iPhone and iPod Touch devices worldwide.

Mobile apps now allow you to do everything from decide who makes the tea, to start the engine of your car. The market is becoming littered with financial services apps that allow you to find your nearest ATM, cash a cheque and pay your bills.

Imagine placing this power in the hands of your consumers. A device that allows them to do everything they could do via a branch or call centre. It’s not just the money making power of mobile, it’s the money saving power too.

If the past year has taught us anything, it is that the financial climate is a fragile creature. The industry needs to not only look after its customers, but itself too.

Mobile creates the opportunity to streamline processes and as a result, reduce costs. Why should a customer waste 2 minutes of a call handler’s time checking a bank balance, when they could be checking their balance on a dedicated branded mobile application. And hell, at the same time they can pay those bills and transfer that cash into their savings account for Christmas.

All at the click of a button.

All completely secure.

Over the next year, the mobile industry is going to become even more furiously competitive, as Android continues to go from strength to strength, allowing developers to create the applications of their dreams, and the Apple iPhone strives to maintain its place as the King of Mobile and at the heart of marketers mobile plans.

PricewaterhouseCoopers forecasts the transaction value of mobile financial services will be around £6bn by 2012. Being part of it won’t take much, but getting it right won’t be easy. That’s why you need a supplier with a strong understanding of the technicalities and security issues that surround mobile development. And to top it off, an understanding of employing creativity to create a usable, valuable, secure and enjoyable experience for your customers.