Mobil and Loyalty

At the International CTIA convention an Express executive stressed that retailers need to use mobile to take their loyalty efforts to the next level.

I quote him:

“I can tell you our mobile site users are on our mobile site just as long as they’re on our Web site,” “And they’re on our app a little more than half as long.

“They’re very engaged – they have the phone in their hand and wherever they are, whatever they’re doing, when the thought to buy something comes, I want to sell it to them.”

It is all about loyalty!
When brands and retailers tie in loyalty to their mobile component, it becomes an incredible tool that lets them market one-to-one with their customer.

The name of the game is to:

1. Get hold of your marketing group. The more channels they use to connect with you the more money they’re going to spend.
2. The more engaged you have your customer in your brand, the more you’re going to build value that’s going to flow throughout your brand.
3. Your executive staff must get passed the view of a single channel.
   

What do you do with these people who are doing product comparisons?

When consumers began scanning products in-store, it created fear in the retail industry. It forces retailers to do that active process to find out what their competitor’s prices are and make sure they’re competitive.

Here is what to do:

1. Make the in-store experience seamless for customers.
2. Make sure that there are not a lot of steps that it will take for consumers to complete a transaction.
3. Make sure that the technology that they’re using reduces the amount of steps.
4. Encourage interaction with the products.
   

Also:

• Retailer applications and mobile sites enable consumers to make much more educated purchases.
• Mobile creates another opportunity for retailers to engage with people.

What not to do:

• Cut and paste from the Web site to the mobile site.
  

What to do:

• The customer knows what he wants, you have to give them the opportunity to purchase something in 60-seconds.
• Make elegant and simple solutions.
• Retailers have an opportunity to make a two-way conversation with customers and it all comes back to your brand and the user experience.

And a few points about bar codes:

• Currently, more companies are using mobile bar codes to drive consumers in-store.
• Mobile bar codes provided additional content for users – whether it’s a video they can watch to learn more about the product or a coupon that they receive when they scan it.

Think about it!

It used to be that consumers were empowered by a talk to the salesperson. Now you got 3 billion people on this planet with a camera phone and they can take a photo or scan a bar code and find out all kinds of relevant information about your product.