by Marius du Plessis | Jul 8, 2016 |
Immediate gratification has to be one of the most outstanding features of the world we live in today. In centuries – or even decades – past practically every call to action was by necessity followed by a significant amount of preparation. Imagine the act of making what is today a simple cup of coffee in 1780. The decision to drink coffee was not followed by the flip of a switch and the consumption of the beverage within a minute or two. It was followed by the making of a fire to boil the water needed in the preparation of coffee, and plenty of steps after that. You had to really be convinced in 1816 that you wanted coffee. Today, you might say that consumer consumption is a lot more frivolous. Not only have technological advances made access to desired goods and services so much easier, leading to much more rapid consumption after the decision is made, other recent modern developments such as consumer protection legislation have virtually eliminated the purchase risk for consumers. So the point of another lengthy introduction on this blog is that modern mobile marketers really don’t know how fortunate they are to be interacting with consumers in 2016 that have the means to make immediate consumption decisions, followed by very rapid consumption of what’s been purchased. However, to take full advantage of the immediate action by consumers that is now possible thanks to mobile and other technology, marketers need to keep a few things top of mind. The first is what marketing textbooks, business gurus and your own common sense has been telling you all...
by Marius du Plessis | Jun 11, 2016 |
Some readers of this blog would have seen the series of fairly new Telkom television adverts. It basically shows a bunch of young people being amazed by the lack of technological savvy displayed by some older people when it comes to online awareness. The kids all laugh when an old guy asks “don’t you go to the mall anymore?”. The implication is that your future customers are all shopping online. The company’s use of the medium of television is ironic, of course, but that fact clearly escaped their marketing department. The Telkom ads are pretty good, I must say. They’re rare entertaining gems in a very predictable TV ad world. However, one wonders whether the conclusion is a bit overdone – are all the kids really not going to the mall anymore? Of course they are. A visit to any mall around South Africa will reveal an assortment of top-end hoodies and entry-level cellphones en masse. What’s interesting is that in many cases what got the kids to the mall with its brick and mortar retailers is mobile marketing – proving, once again, that traditional marketing and mobile marketing really do complement each other very nicely. Brands should worry less about the split between traditional and mobile and focus instead of their overall bottom lines. What got me thinking about all of this was an article this week about a very clued-up someone called Mary Meeker from a certain venture capital fund called Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. She had conducted an ‘exhaustive study’ on Internet trends and presented the findings at a conference in Silicon Valley – findings...
by anton | May 27, 2016 |
Forbes Magazine, that illustrious periodical known to make appearances in boardrooms and rap songs, just this week wrote about mobile marketing. It presented some excellent advice to consider when embarking on a mobile marketing campaign. Let’s take a look at two key points highlighted by the magazine. The first mentioned a fairly new phrase recently coined by Google: ‘micro-moments’. Forbes says we’re seeing users turn to their mobile devices for quick, in-the-moment advice, help or information. Essentially, instead of sitting down to research a topic or issue in depth, they’re more likely to take immediate action, and to expect instantaneous answers. Google terms these rapid, mobile-driven queries ‘micro-moments’. Users want an accurate, bite-sized piece of information in that moment. No graphs, chart or other data-heavy overkill information. It’s great that Google has come up with a special turn of phrase for this phenomenon. However, here at InTarget it’s just called keeping it simple. Secondly, Forbes mentioned the importance of using QR codes to streamline the user experience. QR (or Quick Response) codes are a type of barcode that can be read by smartphone users who have downloaded a QR code reader. We believe QR codes are still a neglected – although growing – element of mobile marketing today. Forbes confirmed that they really do help provide relevant info as quickly and seamlessly as possible to mobile users. One of the most popular uses of QR codes among consumers is for comparison-shopping. This is when a smartphone is used to scan an item’s QR code to compare prices. Having a QR code for product comparisons means being present for those...
