Will Mobile Phones Replace In-Store Retail Salespeople?

Mobile phones have to be one of the best on the spot, at the moment, information retrieval resources of all time.  How many times have you seen disagreements settled immediately, courtesy of a quick iPhone web research query?  Well, it looks like some companies are ready to capitalize upon our penchant for instant research about things that interest us.

Let’s flash back to a recent industry panel where a senior Best Buy executive said “The right information at the point of impulse increases desired consumer’s behavior, sales, profits and customer satisfaction.”  That sure sounds like a description of one of Best Buy’s best in-store salespeople helping out customers standing next to the latest electronic gizmo in one of their stores. 

It isn’t. 

The conference was a mobile conference and the speaker was the senior manager of marketing and emerging capabilities at Best Buy.  She was talking about using mobile phones – not salespeople – as the information source at the point of impulse. I guess there is nothing like a little recession to make retailers think a little harder about how utilize our collective penchant for using our mobile phones for quick research projects and potentially saving some money in labor costs in the process.    

Here’s how it works:  Using the mobile phone, customers can request information about any product on demand in a Best Buy store with a call to action on a product fact tag in store. What a great idea for consumers (no more pesky sales people asking ‘how can I help you’) and what a great idea for Best Buy (cut a little payroll here and there as the idea takes hold – I know, I know, not one salesperson will be fired as a result of this technological advance which is solely dedicated to the betterment of our customers:)

The truth is that we are already moving more and more to a self-service environment, anyway.  Why not leverage the mobile phone to eliminate cost, bring down prices, reduce the frustration in trying to flag down elusive salespeople to ask questions, and give us another excuse to have fun looking up info on our mobiles?  It sure makes sense to me.

So, let’s take this one step further. 

What if retailers gave us the opportunity to engage in interactive texting?  Think of all the time we waste, and frustration we accumulate, in big box stores feeling like we always have to muscle in to get a little service.  Wouldn’t it have been a lot easier to just text in the question via mobile phone?  Then, get an answer and re-text our next question?

Why stop at electronics stores? What a great way for bookstores to compete with online retailers – just text in the title you are looking for and receive information on whether or not it is in-stock and where it can be found. 

And, how great would it be to have self service mobile Q&A on the new car lot?  I don’t really like all of the sales pressure from those pushy car salespeople and now I can avoid it once and for all.  For good measure, I could just text the offers and counteroffers back and forth and never have to talk to them in person!

The best application, though, would be in high end department and apparel stores.  After trying on the overpriced designer suit, I could text in the question “How does it look?” I guarantee the response will be the same as if I had asked an in-store salesperson (who could actually see me in the suit) the same question.

On second thought, text messaging just can’t replace the sincerity of those baby blue eyes telling me I how good I look, even if they don’t really mean it.

Ten Reasons Why Mobile Advertising Has Not Reached Its Potential

Reason #1    All Of Us

Group M released some statistics last month that projected mobile to comprise one half of 1% of total global advertising expenditures in 2009.  It is projected to be about .8% in 2010.  On the other hand, television advertising expenditures were projected to be about 38% of total global advertising expenditures in 2009 and 39% in 2010.

Compare that to a Samsung Mobile study earlier this month that was published in the Chicago Tribune that states that the average Chicago cell phone user spends three hours a day chatting or sending text, picture and video messages.  And to a March 2009 study by the Nielsen’s Council for Research intelligence that found that the average American spends just over five hours watching television per day.

Aren’t you just amazed by what a small percentage mobile advertising is of total worldwide advertising expenditures and what a large percentage of time we spend on mobile devices when compared to time spent on other media.  Why the difference? 

I suspect that one reason is because we as marketers spend a disproportionately large amount of time thinking about what we want to tell consumers and how we want to tell it, and a disproportionately small amount of time focusing on how they want to receive that information and the unique characteristics of the medium upon which it is received.  I also suspect that it is because we are afraid to try something new with this new medium of mobile.

In order to be successful with communicating brand, product and service information on mobile, we need to garner and act upon a better understanding of how people receive information, engage with that information and forge relationships specifically on the mobile phone.  And, then we need to change our way of marketing on mobile to take advantage of this new insight.

The mobile phone is a very personal, highly interactive, communication ecosystem.  We need to develop marketing and advertising that recognizes the uniqueness and manifestations of each of those terms.

Very Personal            63% of mobile phone users agreed with the statement that “My phone is very personal to me”.  Certainly very few consumers would ever agree with that statement if it referenced their television or their radio.  Marketers need to take the personal nature of the mobile phone into account when designing campaigns so that the consumer receives the message on the device in the same way they like to receive other messages in their personal space.

Highly Interactive      Most time spent on the mobile phone is while involved in an interactive activity whether it is communicating back and forth via voice and SMS, while playing with a game or interacting with an app.  Yet, today, most advertising on the mobile phone toady is still of the one-way broadcast variety via mobile banners or SMS.  Marketers need to take the ability to create interactivity to a whole new level in order to be more effective on the mobile phone.

Communication Ecosystem                    The mobile phone has developed, and is continually developing, behavioral mores and cultural norms that have very serious implications for marketers.  Violate one of those norms, and the consequences can be severe. 

Yet, marketers continue to treat the mobile phone as yet another screen to “repurpose content” or as a quick campaign add-on to “target a hard to reach audience”.  It will be the brands that focus on actively leveraging the behavioral use patterns of the mobile phone and their attendant cultural norms that will succeed.

I recall the old saying that “You’ll never get fired for buying IBM” which meant that people concerned about their jobs were less likely to get fired for taking the safe road.  And certainly, with today’s uncertain employment environment it is very tempting to continue to market on mobile with the tried and true SMS messaging as well as mobile banners and of course, race into the creation of in-app campaigns.  Clients (or employers), the reasoning goes, are less likely to fire you for doing the types of campaigns they are used to seeing with their competitors.

But while each of those types of campaigns can be successful in the right circumstances, are they going to be most successful on mobile with your brand and your message?  Perhaps your message could be more successfully received by embracing mobile’s new paradigm.  Perhaps by being open to the new possibilities available in mobile, your efforts will pave the way to allow the medium to garner its rightful percentage of global advertising rather than the de minimus amount it has today.

So here’s our challenge:  Be among the first to embrace the paradigm change of mobile, even if there is an associated cost or an associated risk.  Imagine if we were the first to embrace a new thought, a new marketing idea, a new advertising business model, or new hardware or software innovation – not because we followed the crowd, but because we understood that with the risk of being first to say yes, comes all of the rewards of being a new leader in our industry.

                           “The policy of being cautious is the greatest risk of all”   

                                                   — Jawaharial Nehru   

Ten Reasons Why Mobile Advertising Has Not Reached Its Potential

Reason # 3    Always With Me, Wherever I Go

A few years ago, I had dinner with a somewhat overweight friend and the conversation reverted to the rather tired topic of dieting. “I’m done with dieting,” he declared with a wry smile, “I don’t want to lose my belly, it’s my best friend – it’s always with me, wherever I go.”  I quickly took my mobile phone out of my pocket, pointed to it, and laughed,” If that is the criteria for a best friend, this is your new best friend!”

“It’s always with me, wherever I go”

That statement really summarizes an important aspect of the magic and uniqueness of the mobile phone.  We’ve discussed in this blog how the first part of that statement, “always with me”, has contributed to the highly personal nature of this interactive communication ecosystem.

Now, what about the second part, “wherever I go”?

The concept of being able to identify where people and their phones are located at any given time has augmented a whole industry of location based services (LBS).  A significant share of the discussion regarding mobile in the industry centers on the tradeoff between the consumer advantages of allowing their location to be known, with the offsetting privacy concerns that result.

I remember earlier LBS models were about creating the “killer app” for LBS. People spoke wistfully about how a national coffee shop would be able to find out that you were walking or driving nearby and could send you a coupon on your mobile phone for a discount so you could impulsively stop in.  Of course, it would all be via opt-in.

Now, it seems like there is an LBS capable add-on being developed for almost every application from photo sharing sites to social networking sites to a myriad of iPhone apps.  Of course, these are all opt-in too.

But is opt-in enough for location awareness? Particularly when it comes to advertising, marketing and commercial uses?

Double opt-in provides an adequate level of privacy and permission necessary for consumers to receive ongoing mobile messaging via email, text or voice.  But adding location awareness to messaging ramps the opt-in into a whole new level of privacy intrusion as it now involves the additional elements of location and time.  While I may love receiving messages from my favorite retail store, I may not want to receive the message at the moment I am rushing to an appointment, simply because of my location at that particular moment.

Perhaps advertisers and marketers need to consider giving up even more control as it pertains to advertising and marketing via LBS mobile messaging.  In particular, rather than broadcasting messages to opted-in users who are in a specific location, I would suggest narrow-casting messages to opted-in users in a specific location who would need to opt-in again for each and every new LBS generated message.  In essence – consumer generated narrowcasting.

This isn’t a new concept.  In fact, after opening the Yelp application on an iPhone, the consumer is directed to select a particular type of service (restaurant, gas station, etc) they want to find that is near their location. 

Let’s review that process… Each and every time, the user needs to make a decision to open the Yelp application.  Each and every time, the user also needs to make a decision to find out about a particular retail establishment or service. Yelp even goes one additional step further in also specifically asking for a consumer’s permission to use their location the first few times they use the service.  That’s a lot of opt-ins for each individual use, and yet Yelp is still quite popular on mobile.

Advertisers can choose to advertise on these types of applications.  Starbucks and Papa Johns announced recently that they were advertising on GeoVector Corp.’s World Surfer application which enables consumers to point their phones in a particular direction to search for retail establishments and other locations.

What a frightening prospect for advertisers and marketers!  We are not accustomed to allowing consumers to have so much control!  It was bad enough when Mobile Mandala suggested we move from broadcasting to narrowcasting on mobile. Now, this blog is suggesting that we move from narrowcasting to user-generated narrowcasting as it pertains to LBS generated messages. Why?

The mobile phone is a very personal device, unlike a billboard, a television or a PC.  Consumers can choose to drive past a billboard or walk away from their TVs and our PCs.  But they don’t want to choose to walk away from their mobile phone.

That’s why their mobile phone is always with them, wherever they go. 

And while consumers feel it is OK to narrowcast messages to their phones after they opt-in initially, it is not OK to use that phone (and that past opt-in) to find out where they are for the purpose of narrowcasting messages to them.  That is just too invasive.

The hard truth is that most consumers just don’t want you to physically find them.  They would much rather find you.