Commentary
Brands Who Think We Can't Wait to View the World Through Their Silly Mobile Apps? Priceless
- by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, July 30, 2009
For the benefit of those consumer brands that weren't listening the first few hundred times this has been said, consumers do not wake up in the morning thanking the lord they live in a country where
they get to worship your brand and see life through its narrow self-serving lens. …
5 comments about "Brands Who Think We Can't Wait to View the World Through Their Silly Mobile Apps? Priceless ".
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Steve Smith is Editorial Director of Events for MediaPost
Patrick, I certainly agree with your point that iPhone isn't the only mobile platform that brands should be focused on, but one issue brands need to solve right now is that of connecting consumers to their products offline - especially since their traditional avenues of doing so are in the decline. The value of that on-the-go local consumer is extremely high and, considering the cost of mobile programming, is fairly inexpensive when compared to other mediums (and certainly more metrics driven).
A seriously great post Steve, "That only happens in the retro-fantasies of Don Draper and the households of top executives at many of these major brands." Love it! :)
I would suggest that a brands iPhone stratedgy is much better executed by aligning themselves with an existing app that suits their campaign objectives.
There are so many good apps out there now that are looking for monetisation through advertising, built by passionate people who have a vision and put their blood sweat and tears in them them rather than half hearted Ad Agency Dev "sweat shops".
Rather than creating their own somewhat lacking app, Mastercard should have simply approached Yelp and gotten them to create "Priceless" sponsored listings. It would have been cheaper, easier, quicker and delivered a ready audience looking for that "Priceless Experience"
http://twitter.com/antonymd
As with so many other products / services, it comes down to 1) adding value, 2) providing solution to a problem, and 3) not necessarily being too brand-centric. Sounds to me MC was on the right track, but took a detour -- and was beaten to market by another, more comprehensive offering.
I'm going to offer an alternative that many people agree with.
The Mobile Web ~
I'm at the stage where I'm bringing a new mobile e-coupon site to the market.
Its sites: www.GripOffs.mobi and www.GripOffs.com
It's a very simple concept, yet it's very sophisticated.
I'm very interested in feedback on my project and am taking the opportunity here because in another article by Max Kalehoff we we're talking about the importance of feedback.
Here's a summary of what the patent pending site represents:
It is an instant interactive dynamic software system comprised of a computer site and a mobile site serving as a central platform where businesses can upload full color advertisements complete with descriptions of any offers, click-to-call, web-links, or videos and commercials, featuring bar coded e-coupons.
Consumers (all of us) can access the mobile site on their (our) internet enabled mobile devices and redeem the mobile e-coupons at the point of purchase at the businesses for instant savings while earning loyalty points for use.
Advertisers see real-time results and can edit offers instantly.
The system is designed for local advertising to complete global campaigns.
While other mobile advertising sites are available, none offer a complete system of third party instant posting of ads, offers, and e-coupons with all of the features of links, click-call, videos, and with barcodes at one site, making real-time changes anytime, instantly, being able to be seen and redeemed by anyone with an internet enabled mobile device, locally to globally, while having instant analytics available to the advertiser.
With 70% of search touted as 'retail' and we're all about retail and search (I'd rather search for all of the restaurants offering deals on GripOffs then searching on google for the restaurants and just finding out where they are - no deals involved, just basic info), offering valuable deals such as two for one dinners at a local upscale restaurant, its intent is to have all of the local deals available at one site on your mobile (without downloading or waiting for something to be sent or having to go to each restaurant site in the area to see if they're offering deals on their site - probably have to print them out if they do) for use while you're on the go.
If you can literally double, or at the least save your money on most purchases, would there be any reason you wouldn't use a site like this (it's free to the users as it's completely advertiser supported)?
I can be reached at jim@gripoffs.com
I know that this can come across as a way to promote my site, but since we're talking about the significance of listening to feedback, I decided to see if I can get any significant feedback and the volume.
Will one person offer feedback on the site? Will 100?
One last point: In his article, Max, used 'feedback' as people use 'criitique' nowadays and it seems that they only have negative implications.
Let's keep in mind that there is positive feedback and negative feedback as there is 'constructive criticism'.
We all benefit from feedback if we see it for what it is:
Somebody is interested enough to offer the feedback, which is basically their interest in offering their ideas to make something better. That's a good thing.
No matter what the feedback, I think Max hit it on the head - 'the best outcome is provision of feedback . ." and we all need to realize it for the importance it plays in our businesses.
There are other alternatives than being one of thousands of apps!
@jim - You want feedback?
I guess people can get patents for anything these days huh?
I'm tired of people using the comments section for "comment spam" your post has little to nothing to do with the article in question and in my opinion should be removed.
Let me give you a tip Jim. You want to promote you product in the comments section? Then leave something thoughtful, insightful and relevant, showing your expertise in the space, your only reference in the comments to your business should be in your sign off, like so...
Antony McGregor Dey
CEO - QMCODES
http://twitter.com/antonymd