This week it’s Helens turn to take the reigns and lead us through the book she was tasked with reading by author Chuck Martin, ‘Mobile influence, the new power of the consumer’. Take it away Helen…
Driven by the mass adoption of smart phones and tablets, this book identifies the six specific stages in the timeline of the sales process that marketers must target effectively in order to reach the mobile buyer. Informative and detailed, Chuck consistently delivered the six stages in a knowledgeable and professional manner, but without boring me! The book doesn’t drift at all from its topic and everything was easy to soak up.
This phase in which anyone shopping on mobile is doing their research, this is often before they even consider visiting a store. Mobile is a push rather than a pull medium so for example marketers shouldn’t push a message such as a TV advert, the information/messages about their product must be positioned according to the users time frame, mind-set, and location. The timing of a purchase no longer takes place at only one time or location and the understanding/awareness of this must be considered when approaching the digital elements of a marketing campaign.
This stage refers to the consumer on their way to a store location or running errands. Now that location based capabilities are available marketers can capitalise on this, an example is using a smartphones location and speed to send highly targeted/relevant messages who have opted in to receive valuable offers. Consumers will see a value in this sort of activity which will incentivise them to leave their location turned on in their various different applications. There is potential for us to test this through email marketing campaigns or clients who may have applications ensuring we are targeting them as efficiently as possible.
This occurs at the actual store location. In the earlier days of the internet stores were seen as a detriment since online-only retailers could sell to consumers with fewer associated costs. Some retailers are missing an opportunity to identify and interact with the mobile shopper while they are in store but there are others who are leveraging the ability to interact. As an agency with clients in various different industries I think there are lots of opportunities for us considering by 2016 (now) 17-21% of retail purchases will have been influenced by mobile and 58% of smartphone users use their phones for in store shopping.
This is when consumers are near the actual product they are considering purchasing and allows for a proximity marketing opportunity where marketers can use various technologies to interact in real time with customers. An example of this could be a number of customers could be walking past a particular product and receive real-time offers such as a discount. Once a number of those products have been sold and based on inventory and price tracking, the offers could be discounted as the next group of customers walk by. This is a great solution at a time where consumers are scanning products with their smartphones and provided with on-the-spot price comparisons.
This stage provides the marketer one final chance to sway the buyer. As businesses adopt more mobile self-checkout options and mobile capabilities are embedded into a POS systems, offers and counteroffers can be presented to consumers during the actual buying and checkout process. A good example of this is the Tesco London airport food shopping example, where in short a virtual store was set up in the departures area so those waiting to board the aircraft could organise the food shop for when they returned and would mean avoiding a trip to their local Tesco once they were home. This point makes me wonder whether there is a chance to reevaluate where these opportunities might exist for some of our existing clients?
This occurs after the purchase point, in this phase customers exchange photos, videos and information about their recent purchase via their mobile devices soliciting and receiving feedback. This presents another challenge for marketers to become part of the conversation at this stage. I think there is an opportunity for us to consider our strategy towards the after sale sharing as this is an area which generates an awareness and would be a low cost initiative too.
Fancy reading the book? Find it here.
