Make no mistake, mobile shopper marketing represents the future in DSM – and that future is now. On Valentine’s Day of 2012, a Mashable article predicted that there will be more smartphones than humans on the planet before year’s end. While this statistic seems dramatic, I’ll speak to you from personal experience as an example. I currently have a smartphone that I use for all my normal activities, while I have an older version of that same smartphone that I use as a digital remote and music player. It’s still a smartphone, even though I have altered it’s utility to serve a purpose other than making phone calls.
That brings up an important factor in how DMS and mobile shopper marketing work hand-in-hand (pun intended). People use their phones for much more than making a call – in fact, the ability to make a phone call is one of the least used features of a smartphone. Apps are big business on smartphones and some savvy brands are creating fully immersive applications that serve a real world purpose. Sending and receiving text messages is one of the most used functions on a smartphone and brands are now reaching their audience through opt-in text campaigns. Mobile video has seen dramatic advancement in market penetration as bandwidth and processor speeds have increased. Mobile shopping has flourished both in apps as well as by visiting retailer’s mobile friendly websites. eBay alone expects to surpass the $8 Billion mark in mobile sales by the end of 2012.
People carry their smartphones everywhere they go and even sleep with it in arm’s reach. Simply having a mobile strategy is not enough. Your brand needs to integrate that strategy with the overall (online and off) message to impact the shoppers at the time that they are making a purchasing decision. Don’t leave your mobile shopper marketing to chance. Please feel free to contact me now for details on how to effectively and efficiently influence your audience.