by on May 13, 2013 Leave a Comment

Smartphone Shoppers are an Important Category

By Savannah McClelland

In case your company has not seriously considered the implications of mobile advertising and presence, a recent study conducted by Google suggests that frequent “smartphone shoppers” statistically purchase significantly more than their counterparts; more to the point, that more individuals are using their smartphones as part of the buying experience than was previously thought.

Retailers everywhere are aware of the “showrooming” phenomenon—consumers using brick-and-mortar businesses as a way to test out products that they will later go on to buy online. However, the report from Google suggests that this is not the only way in which shoppers use their phones in-store. The report was based on consumer surveys as well as on behavioral analytics; it found that 79% of the smartphone user population were what was termed “smartphone shoppers,” and used their devices as virtual shopping assistants as often as weekly or even more frequently. Primarily, the assistance comes in the form of pre-purchase research, obtaining product and store-related information.

Even more interesting, Google found that one-in-three individuals said that they turn to their devices for information in stores rather than asking employees. Additionally, the smartphone shoppers preferred using a store’s mobile site rather than a proprietary app; to some degree this makes sense. Unless the shopper has already installed the app on his or her phone, it would seem like an undue commitment to many to download an app for what might be a one-time transaction. However, accessing a mobile site requires no commitment from the shopper.

Perhaps the most profound finding of the study was that where smartphone shoppers are using their tech to do aggressive price-checking, those that used their smartphone the most frequently actually purchased a larger volume of products—and had higher average basket sizes as a result. For example, frequent smartphone shoppers had a 50% larger basket than standard smartphone shoppers in the category of health and beauty purchases; in electronics, the size increase was a smaller—but still respectable—34% larger among frequent smartphone users.

The results of Google’s study highlight the necessity for retailers to improve their mobile presence; while many companies large and small have been taking an experimental or halfhearted approach to mobile advertising—and even to their mobile sites—studies like Google’s show that the consumer target is increasingly on their phones—and if you as a company are not, they may go just as readily to your competitor who is.

Filed Under: Digital Marketing, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Marketing, Online Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,
by on April 10, 2013 Leave a Comment

Some Brands Going Mobile in New Ways

By Savannah McClelland

We have previously mentioned on this blog that the new direction that advertising is increasingly going is mobile; with the increasing rates of consumers accessing the internet via devices, it’s not at all surprising that advertisers would be looking for new ways to leverage this medium. Several brands have found a unique way of positioning their mobile advertising: real time, local ad buys based on the weather.

The capability comes from an agreement between Twitter and The Weather Channel (TWC); in an announcement last week, the two companies are coming together to offer Promoted Tweets based on TWC’s constantly-updating information. For example, Taco Bell plans to run mobile ads through May on The Weather Channel’s app, but only when the temperature exceeds 48 degrees in the target area. Eric Perko, associate media director for Taco Bell’s agency, said that the restaurant wanted to pay for mobile inventory only when the weather is suitable for consumers to go outside. Perko added, “This is a new tactic for us. For the right products, like food, it makes a ton of sense.”

Other companies edging to get in on the new functionality include Delta, Farmers, Goodyear, and most notably Ace Hardware, who is leading the charge. This past winter, Ace tested location-based mobile ads before and after snowstorms, based on items like shovels and de-icers. It now plans to buy mobile ads when the temperature is optimal for gardeners. Ace’s marketing director, Jeff Gooding, said, “We want to reach folks in real time and help them deal with the weather as it’s coming.”

Restaurants seem to benefit the most from this new method of positioning; real time advertising like this requires a strong ability to plan in short-term increments as opposed to long-term campaigns. Steven Young, marketing director at Seamless (a fully-digital food delivery service), explains the almost surgical level of precision required. “We balance capitalizing on weather changes that may be one-hour long versus those that could be a whole evening of rain,” he explained.

Mobile marketers will increasingly see incentives to capitalize on weather and other real time phenomena, according to Paul Gelb, head of strategy for MoPub. MoPub markets itself as the world’s largest mobile ad server. Gelb says, “We are just beginning to see the potential of these opportunities because we are now able to reach people in ways that we couldn’t before.”

 

Filed Under: Mobile Advertising, Mobile Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,
by on February 27, 2013 Leave a Comment

Smartphone Users Are App-Addicted

smartphone users

By Savannah McClelland

In a survey on mobile app behavior, 85% of those who responded said that they would rather go without water than their mobile apps; half of U.S. respondents said they would not be able to last four hours without apps.

Apigee, the API company, released the results of its 2013 Mobile App Behavior survey; the sample included 762 smartphone owners from across the United States, the U.K., Germany, France and Spain. Spain ranked as the most app-reliant country with 93% saying they can’t get through the day without apps. 18% of French respondents are unable to order dinner without using an app, and overall 82% said that there are critical apps they can’t go without.

Apps that were ranked as most critical included email at 57%, Facebook at 41%, and alarm clock apps at 31%. 72% of those who responded said that they use 10 apps per day, while 2% of those asked were brave enough to admit that they use 50 apps or more every day.

Around the world, 48% of those surveyed believe that they would be unable to check their e-mail without apps, in spite of the existence of PCs. One of the statistics was a bit troubling: on average, 53% of drivers surveyed admit to using apps while behind the wheel; 64% of German respondents alone use apps while driving.

In light of the recent studies which have demonstrated that mobile devices are increasingly becoming the primary device that people use to access the internet, released by Nielson and comScore, it looks as though mobile usage will only become more pronounced in coming years. These studies show that in some categories, including Maps, Weather, Music, and Social Networking, people are increasingly turning to their mobile devices instead of their PCS.

Filed Under: Mobile Advertising, Mobile Marketing, Online Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,
by on February 14, 2013 Leave a Comment

Valentine’s Day by the Numbers

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!  While today is no Black Friday or Cyber Monday, it is still a major retail and e-commerce event, and a boost for stores and shipping companies early in the calendar year.  With the help of the National Retail Federation, UPS , Ad Age and the American Express Spending & Saving Tracker survey, I’d like to present you with Valentine’s Day by the numbers.

U.S. consumers are expected to spend $18.6 billion overall on Valentine’s Day gifts.

Jewelry is the big-ticket item for gift givers.  $4.4 billion will be spent on diamonds, gold and silver.

$1.9 billion will be spent on flowers today.

$1.6 will be spent on candy; 51% of those surveyed give sweet treats to their loved ones.

Who would have thought- $1.5 billion will be spent on gift cards.

$815 million will be spent on the ones who love us unconditionally- our pets.

UPS will ship 95 million flowers for Valentine’s Day, with the bulk coming from Latin America on UPS temperature-controlled aircraft from Ecuador and Colombia (big rose-growing countries).

6,000,000 are expected to get engaged on February 14; that number is up from 4 million in 2012.

3,000 TONS of flowers will move through a massive refrigerated warehouse in Miami that UPS has set up to keep flowers fresh.

Can you guess what the average U.S. consumer plans to spend on candy, cards, gifts and more this year?  The answer is $130.97- up from $126.03 last year.

So how much is the average woman spending on today? About $88.78, which is less than half of what men are estimated to spend (an average of $175.61 on jewelry, flowers, and a romantic evening out).

40.7% of smartphone owners are estimated to have used their handhelds to shop for gifts.

26.3% of Valentine’s gifts are found online, up from 19.3% last year

29% of those surveyed said they’d post sweet nothings on Facebook.

Americans spend an average of $8.49 on friends for Valentine’s cards and gifts; they’ll shell out an average of $5.12 on colleagues.

7% of consumers who in a survey said they send their Valentine’s message via Twitter in 140 characters or less.

Filed Under: Mobile Advertising, Mobile Marketing, Online Marketing, Performance Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,
by on October 24, 2012 Leave a Comment

Holiday Shoppers Won’t Spend It All In One Place

As we come closer to the holiday shopping season, retailers are strategizing to bring in sales from multiple channels. This means another spot, such as online markets, where people won’t have to stand in long lines or camp outside just to beat the crowd for the best prices.

It is predicted that the online and in-store shopping experience will be almost identical with pricing, functionality, and promotions. Google calls it the first “nonline” holiday season. Google has found that 80% of consumers will research online before buying a product this season.  About 51% of shoppers will research online and then make purchases in stores, whereas only 17% will look in stores then make a purchase online. 32% will search online, go to that retail store to view the product and go back online to buy the product.

Since a lot of smartphone users also have tablets and such, shoppers will use various devices to make purchases. With the help of mobile devices, shoppers can compare prices, find a nearby store and look for special offers. 85% of people will search for a gift on one device and make the purchase on another. Last year, 62% of shoppers used a smartphone to research products while shopping in stores. When it is said and done, with all the devices being in use this holiday season, the majority will end up making purchases on a computer.

Many retailers like Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy are strategizing to prevent shoppers from going back online to make a purchase by matching prices with select online retailers. Target guarantees they will match the prices of Amazon.com, Walmart.com, Best Buy.com, Toysrus.com, Babiesrus.com and even the online prices of their own site.

This unification between online and in-store shopping will actually allow for higher consumer spending this holiday season. Last year, the holiday shoppers spent an average of $854 and this year shoppers are predicted to spend an average of $900 on holiday shopping. This increase will also be due to the fact that 46% of consumers plan to spend more time shopping around for gifts.

Consumers have been starting their holiday shopping earlier every year. This trend is starting to catch on with retailers and Google has discovered that mobile searches in its shopping category has reached a tipping point on Thanksgiving and shows low numbers after Black Friday. Wal-Mart is already planning to lower the price of the top 20 toys by then end of this month.

Some older folks are probably asking themselves whatever happened to those coupons you pick up in the middle of isles. Researching about products back in the day was going to stores and asking associates about it. Now we have YouTube videos, interactive advertising and special offers online that allows us to be so attracted to several digital channels. We can thank our technology for $54.5 billion that consumers are predicted to spend online this holiday, which is a quarter of all U.S. retail ecommerce sales this year.

Filed Under: Marketing Campaign, Marketing Strategy, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SMS Mobile Messaging Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
by on October 12, 2012 Leave a Comment

Apple’s Shares Drop After iPhone 5 Release

Despite the release of the iPhone 5 and the near release of the iPad mini, Apple’s market value has dropped 10 percent for three straight days.

Apple’s value fell below $640 billion on Monday and it continued to descend on Tuesday.  From its all-time high of over $700 billion, it dropped 10 percent below that and back at the level they were at before they released the iPhone 5.  They held a spot under $600 billion on Tuesday.  This is something we don’t expect from the number one company in the world.

They were also in the company of Amazon and Priceline, as those dropped as well.  They are still safe below $600 billion because the next highest valued company is Exxon Mobil and they are only at $426 billion.  Apple’s rival company, Microsoft, currently has a market value of about $250 billion.

Apple sold five million iPhone 5’s on its opening weekend.  It was the fastest selling phone of all time.  A few weeks later, Apple’s stock value fell 10 percent from its highest point in September.  Analysts expected Apple to sell double the amount of iPhones than they did.  It’s not that they didn’t want to sell more either, they just didn’t have anymore.

An unfortunate situation is happening at Apple that is only speculated.  Many claim that their lack of stock is due to a strike at their production company Foxconn.  Also, many iPhones that are being taken right out of the packages already have scratches and scuffmarks.

According to Bloomberg, Apple executives were quick to point fingers at Foxconn.  Foxconn, the Chinese company that produces and assembles the iPhone 5, got right on the job of improving quality control.  There is a rumor that there aren’t enough supplies to keep mass producing the product.  Also, Bloomberg claims that Foxconn has shut down some factories temporarily as a form of a strike.

After conflicts with Google about their map service and problems with the new iPhone, Apple definitely has to step up their game.  We don’t truthfully know what is happening at Foxconn, but we know Apple’s stock dropped for a few days for the first time in a long time.  It is something the world doesn’t expect from the number one company in the world.  Apple currently has delayed their invitations to see the new iPad Mini, which will push the release of it to a later date as well.

Filed Under: Mobile Advertising, Mobile Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,
by on October 8, 2012 Leave a Comment

iPad Mini: Less is more

The moment we thought every technological and mobile device was going to be the size of a desktop monitor, Apple announces that the iPad Mini will be revealed on October 17.

The smaller tablet has already been placed into production at the assembly partner Foxconn’s facility in Brazil.  The media and other guests will soon get invitations to see the unveiling of the device.  If everything goes through correctly, it will be revealed on the announced date and be released by the end of the month.

The iPad Mini will look the same as the iPad as far as the quality of the screen goes, but this iPad mini will be seven inches, which is almost three inches smaller than the iPad.  The device puts an emphasis on reading books, browsing the web, listening to music and watching movies because it will not have the same amount of power as the iPad. There will also be no access to GPS and the 3G network.   It will also probably have a half gigabyte of RAM and max out at 32GB.

This sounds like a big downfall from the iPad, but a lot of people don’t want to use all the features that the iPad possesses.  It will be more convenient to carry around and it will be offered for less than $300.  This is good for Apple because they would be able to compete with other successful and cheaper tablets.  Apple’s most expensive tablet runs at $829.

Even if it downgrades some features from the iPad, it will still be more advanced than the kindle and other tablets in its comparative price range.  The iPad Mini will come with iOS 6, which allows the device to have 200 new features.  It will have a longer lasting battery that will allow the device to last 11 to 12 hours.  The exclusive Siri and the retina display screen will still be present in this device, which is good enough to catch the attention of Apple tablet fanatics.

No matter what price or what features this iPad Mini will have, Apple always finds a way to reach out to those who want to keep up with technological and social trends.  We will see the long lines outside the apple stores and the people camping outside the malls.  Apple already has developed a reputation of having products that people will skip days of work to get.  It wouldn’t make sense to call the Kindle or Nexus rivals because the iPad 2 sold over three million in the first week.  Also iPad tablets are 70% of all tablets that have been bought in 2012.  There is no question that Apple will showcase its dominance with the release of the iPad Mini.

Filed Under: MMS Marketing, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Marketing, Online Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,
by on October 5, 2012 Leave a Comment

Bank of America: The Revolutionaries of Banking

By Matthew Chavez

Bank of America is revolutionizing the way we bank.  With BankAmeriDeals and their new idea of paying with a smartphone, Bank of America is epitomizing why they are the number one bank in America.

A few months ago, the largest consumer bank tested the waters with a program that offers its consumers online discounts based on how much they spend.  Now, they have provided U.S. consumers with 130 million deals. With BankAmeriDeals, customers having been getting deals from a variety of retail markets by online banking.

Bank of America works with a company called Cardlytics to cooperate in their transaction driven marketing.  Cardlytics analyzes a person’s shopping habits and creates deals according to where someone frequently shops. A lot of people might be skeptical about a third party keeping track of their transactions, but they don’t receive secure information, like bank account and social security numbers.  According to Bank of America, that doesn’t leave the bank. To keep track of these deals and offers, consumers can opt to receive text messages and emails.  The great thing about this deal is that there are no special signup fees or requirement to print out coupons.  All a customer has to do is go online and on the website and it lets you choose cash back deals at stores and restaurants.  The cash back will be automatically credited to an account for the following month.

To make it easier to shop with these deals, Bank of America is currently testing a technology that will enable customers to pay at a register by scanning an image with a smartphone.  55% of cell phone users have a smart phone and the number is still growing.  With this said, the “leaving my wallet at home” excuse will be an illegitimate reason for a man not paying for his date.  The phone will be the new wallet.  According to Gartner Group, the amount of mobile payments will exceed $171 billion.  If this technology were to really hit the market, the future that we saw with the Jetsons could actually be in our present world.

Bank of America is one of the world’s largest financial institutions.  The company currently serves 56 million consumers and has over 16,200 ATMs in the United States.  If Bank of America were to release the use of this digital wallet scheme, then other banks are definitely going to feel as if they need to keep up.  Since Bank of America serves over 30 million online users, it would turn heads of other consumers to bank with them.

 

Filed Under: Digital Advertising, Digital Marketing, Experiential Marketing, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Marketing, Online Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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