Group Blog » Consumers

The future’s bright, the future’s m-commerce

GS Birmingham — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:46:46 +0000

Next year is set to be the year of truly mobile marketing. With smartphone penetration reaching 50%[1], and 52% of consumers already using their mobiles during the shopping process[2], it pays for your business to be mobile. Savvy shoppers are using their phones to research products or services, check the status of an order, locate a nearby store or look up additional information whilst out and about. This week, Golley Engage explores the rise of mobile shopper marketing, and how brands should, and shouldn’t, engage consumers on the move.

Research has shown that mobile commerce looks set to grow by 55%[3] over the next five years. Traditional e-commerce relies heavily on consumers having time on their hands to browse and an affinity to a particular website or brand, m-commerce is proving much more impulsive. If consumers see products they like for a reasonable price, they buy – there and then. In short mobile offers a great opportunity to connect with consumers on-the-go.

Source: Forrester Research

Just under half of the UK population now owns a smartphone, and Google’s mobile operating system Android is powering half – followed by RIM’s BlackBerry models with 22.5% and Apple’s iPhone at 18.5%. These smartphones are GPS enabled and offer brands the unique opportunity to connect to consumers through location-based targeting. By focusing your advertising spend within a small geographical area, targeting a specific audience profile, you can communicate with consumers in an extremely cost-effective manner.

Consumers are increasingly becoming reliant on their mobile devices, 90% of consumers in the UK have their mobile phone to hand while they are watching TV,[4] and a recent report by the Science Museum placed the mobile phone in tenth place on the list of things UK consumers could not live without – polling higher than central heating or painkillers. Whilst this confirms the mobile offers an incredible opportunity to reach huge audiences, brands need to exercise caution when engaging with consumers through their mobile devices. Consumers are much more likely to find commercial messages intrusive, and once they are turned off they are unlikely to switch back on.

Instead, m-commerce should aim to capitalise on existing opportunities to further engage the customer and should, above all else, place the consumer at the centre. Consumers are using mobile to seek out further information in store, so using existing technology such as QR codes and near field communication, retailers and major brands should look to solve consumer bug-bears. M-commerce offers retailers the opportunity to use advertising as a prompt to launch local store locators, or to fulfil an online order for a consumer who can’t find the right size in store. Savvy brands will be looking to do more than just advertise on handsets, they will instead need to target users with effective marketing campaigns whilst on the move. 2012 is not just the year of m-commerce, it is the year of cross platform, integrated, consumer-lead marketing.

[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/31/half-uk-population-owns-smartphone

[2] Source: Verdict Research/Barclays

[3] Source: Verdict Research/Barclays

[4] Source: O2

Lindsey Reaney
Account Manager, Golley Engage

Correcting Misbehaviour Without Smacking

cjones — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:19:02 +0000

Brands need to approach their customers in the same way that two adults approach each other in conversation, if brands are open in the tone and content with which they communicate, if they are clear what they expect from their customers and what they will get in return and if they are authentic in the channels they use and the messages they deliver, then the conversation will flow.

Brands and their agencies need to allow their customers to take the lead, challenge and interfere with the brand, products and services. The role of the agency is to act as a pathfinder and encourage the collaboration which leads to positive contributions from all interested parties in the shared passion around the brand.

Brands need to learn that consumers have sometimes more passion about a brand than they realize and this passion can be a brand’s biggest advocate or its biggest detractor depending on the way in which the brand has engaged and collaborated with them.

So brands need to embrace their customers’ misbehaviour, not ignore them!

To view Chris Lovell’s discussion on his Campaign Integration Essay 2009, ‘No need to smack’, please visit www.campaignlive.co.uk

Chris Lovell, Group CEO

Power to you!

cjones — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:00:10 +0000

This week Campaign ran the headline ‘Giffgaff encourages users to get involved with the brand’. It is a new mobile phone company which puts the customer at the centre of its business. The proposition is that as a customer, the more you give Giffgaff the more you will get back, they want advertising ideas, product developments, Apps and of course more customers recommended by existing customers. They claim that as a customer you could get 100% of your call for free if you give a lot to the company!

Marketing spin or reality, time will tell but one thing is for sure, whether you are the worlds largest corporation, or a new start up, putting your customer at the heart of your business and letting them collaborate with you, your brand and the way in which you do business with them is the only successful path in the future

How agencies and consultancies react and enable this process of collaboration between Brands and consumers is still a big question, one that many agency networks have not even thought of let alone started to solve……coming out of recession it will be interesting to see which agencies revert back to the old way of working and which take the brave new path.

Chris Lovell, Group CEO