Written on Thursday, July 29, 2010
Well, it turns out it must have gone pretty well, because Starbucks are now moving to deploy the scheme on an even broader scale, according to
this article, that quotes
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announcing this week that the Seattle-based coffee chain would soon be expanding its
mobile payment program to more stores over the coming months.
"We know believe that offering mobile payment and mobile gifting capabilities will result in a more efficient in-store experience," said Schultz.
After entering in a Starbucks card number in the application, the Starbucks Card app displays a barcode which can then be shown at checkout in lieu of handing over a physical card to be swiped. The app also allows customers to check their card's balance, view transactions and reload the card with new funds.
Currently, the mobile payment aspect to the application works at 16 select stores in Cupertino, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, San Jose and Seattle where the feature has been in testing in addition to all Target locations in the U.S.
Based on the program's "early success" and user feedback which Schultz describes as "positive," the company is now committed to expanding the program in the months ahead. According to Schultz, not only does the mobile app make for a more efficient in-store experience for Starbucks customers, it will also provide the company with a significant competitive advantage and help further differentiate it from its competitors.
This service was launched nearly a year ago, in September, when Starbucks customers with iPhones could pay for their purchases via their mobile device using a special
Starbucks Card mobile application. The app was initially accepted at just 16 Seattle and Bay Area stores which were taking part in the pilot program. This was
later expanded to include 1,000 Target stores across the U.S.
I agree with the folks over at ReadWriteWeb who commented:
While we at ReadWriteWeb are certainly fans of mobile technology, it will be interesting to watch as this sort of mobile payment system takes hold outside of the very tech-savvy enclaves where it has been initially tested. Will mainstream users adopt this system in large numbers? Will it really be more efficient or will you be stuck in line behind folks fiddling with their phones? And where, by golly, is the Android version?
I'd also pointed out the need for more mobile platforms supported (such as J2ME, Symbian and Android) in my last article, and I am also certainly looking forward to the turnout of this mobile payments scheme.
It will be a major bet won for the whole mPayments sector, and from the looks of it so far, it's doing pretty well.
Posted in
iPhone,
mobile payments
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Written on Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Following on from last December's post for the
IKEA Mobile Bluetooth Marketing campaign, I have just come across more relevant news about the Swedish homeware retail giant, releasing its 2010 catalogue as an iPhone app.
As a big IKEA fan, I have been waiting for this ever since I got my iPhone, and was a bit disappointed this wasn't available at the time. There was only a spanish version of the catalogue, which was, however, limited, and only available in Spanish.
So a couple of days ago I came across
this post, reporting that not only has IKEA
released its 2010 catalogue as an iPhone app, but that there is also an augmented reality feature that allows you to overlay IKEA furniture in your own home space (through the use of the iPhone camera), so that you can have a better view of how it would fit (much like their previous mobile application). Here's more from the article:
Mobile marketing agency Mobile Dreams Factory has brought the 2010 IKEA catalogue to the iPhone with a unique augmented reality feature: Users can select a piece of furniture from the catalogue and place it anywhere inside the room around them, changing its size to fit the perspective by using the phone’s camera.
“Every year IKEA launches their printed catalogue,” said Alberto Benbunan, managing director of Mobile Dreams Factory, Madrid. “Last year, IKEA launched an iPhone app together with the press release of the printed catalogue.
“That increased the notoriety of IKEA and this specific press release,” he said. “The target demographic of the app is the same as IKEA’s in general—mainly women ages 25-44—but in the app we found that we all are fans of IKEA. Hundreds of thousands of applications were downloaded in Spain and across Europe.”
IKEA ramps up mobile initiatives
The IKEA application has been downloaded more than 200,000 times and in the first week of its release became the second most downloaded application in Apple’s App Store.
The mobile marketing campaign developed by the Spanish agency Mobile Dreams Factory to promote the application won the Golden Lion at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival for best advertising campaign on mobile devices.
Gartner estimates that mobile advertising and marketing could grow by 80 percent this year alone and might reach $10 billion.
IKEA realised a couple of years ago that it had to jump on board or miss the boat.
For summer 2008, IKEA launched a mobile loyalty program to build a database of consumers interested in receiving discounts from the home furnishings retailer. The text-to-enter loyalty program is a means for IKEA to start a dialogue with interested consumers. BCode powered the texted discounts (see story).
When IKEA Seattle launched a mobile loyalty program to build a database of people interested in receiving discounts, the home furnishing retailer never even imagined that 23,000 consumers would sign-up (see story).
IKEA also leverages the mobile platform to reach consumers via advertisements, contests, a customer-relationship management program, coupons and a WAP shopping site.
IKEA’s Seattle store has been running a monthly mobile contest giving opted-in consumers the chance to win a $500 IKEA gift card. The Seattle store also features a mobile club offering customers savings and special offers to encourage loyalty. The mobile site serves almost as a shopping assistant (see story).
Augmented reality
The IKEA iPhone application is free, and while there is no in-application payments mechanism in this version, the application is designed to increase retail sales. Consumers can use the augmented reality feature to try out the furniture before buying.
The application also serves as a branding tool that drives consumers into bricks-and-mortar retail stores.
“The hundreds of thousands of downloads of this app in only few months were thanks to word of mouth, blogs and media that echoed the story,” Mr. Benbunan said. “The unique augmented reality features of this application made it the number-one most downloaded app in many European countries,” he said.
I then saw the following presentation video about the iPhone app, that shows a live demo of how the app working.
Needless to say I was very excited and impressed after all this and immediately turned to iTunes to download the app. I found the "IKEA 2010 Catalogue", and though somewhat surprised the screenshots were different from the video, I proceeded to download.
I ended up, to cut a long story short, with a nice iPhone-specific version of the IKEA UK catalogue (see screenshot below). Which is nice. Really. I would have been really pleased with this, had I not seen this video. But no interactivity for me. No augmented reality. No quiz for my personal style. And thus, an overall :( feeling...
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| Screenshots from the IKEA 2010 UK catalogue, available here in Greece. No augmented reality... :( |
I can only presume the Interactive Catalogue is only available in Spain, and perhaps also some other European countries, but it is nowhere to be seen here in Greece. I hope it will be also available here soon... Please?
Posted in
iPhone,
mobile marketing
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Written on Monday, July 12, 2010
The following piece just shows how much ROI you can get from Mobile Marketing, when it's done right. For most print marketing campaigns response rates in the area of 10% are extraordinary. And that's why when you see a mobile marketing campaign bring a third of customers in-store, you should stop having second thoughts, and go with the trend.
Mobile marketing just has to be part of your cross-media marketing campaign if you are to expect any significant results from it. Just make sure you give consumers some value as well - if you go mobile and you go wrong, you've a lot to lose, just like you've a lot to gain if you do it right..
According to a May 2010 online survey conducted by Harris Interactive and commissioned by Placecast, consumer receptivity to opt-in mobile marketing is growing as is intent to visit stores. One-third of Americans who currently have signed up for mobile marketing alerts indicate that such services impact their decision to go into stores and 27% report that such programs have impacted their decision to buy products in physical retail locations.
Since the first survey on location-based mobile marketing and advertising in the Summer of 2009, overall consumer interest in such programs increased with 'somewhat interested' consumers growing by 2 percent to 28% of all cell phone owners. As in the first survey, interest is most pronounced among the youngest cell phone owners: 42% of those ages18 - 34 are at least somewhat interested. Interest grew 6 points to 40% among women ages 18 - 34 from the survey conducted in 2009. Interest levels between men and women are now about equal overall.
Food dominates demand overall; interest categories vary for men and women
Groceries (68%), national restaurant chains (64%) and fast food items (50%) took three of the top four most popular segments for those who are at least somewhat receptive to overall opt-in mobile marketing. Women skewed higher than men when it came to interest in offers/promotions for groceries and apparel, while men skewed higher in interest for electronics and sporting goods products.
Texting significantly more valued than app-based services
One data point across all cell phone owners is the importance of texting; considering texting more important than other activities on their mobile phones. An average of 40% of all cell phone owners say that texting is "extremely" or "very important" to them. Even with the buzz of services like Foursquare and Gowalla, only 7% of men showed the same level of interest in these types of social networks, and only 3% of women.
The survey also delved into consumer attitudes about using the location of their phones to trigger opt-in marketing messages. Thirty-seven percent of those who have opted to receive text alerts thought location-based texts could be useful, 29% thought they would be interesting and an equal percentage (24%) thought they could be more relevant and innovative.
"Our findings demonstrate that if done correctly and on an opt-in basis, location-based mobile marketing is resonating with consumers," says Placecast CEO Alistair Goodman. "I think now that more data is becoming available to retailers, more exciting and valuable programs will be created now that the technology and market receptivity is there."
Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive from May 17-19, 2010 among 2,046 U.S. adults ages 18+ of whom 1,710 own a cell phone and/or a Smartphone.
It would be really interesting to see similar results from other markets, as I have a strong feeling this will vary greatly especially when comparing western markets such as the U.S. and Europe and eastern ones, such as India and Indonesia, who are further ahead in the mobile marketing sector as a whole, and show a far greater interest in mobile applications.
If anyone has some info to share, feel free..
Posted in
mobile marketing,
mobile services,
sms marketing
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Written on Tuesday, July 06, 2010
A while back I'd come across an
mGovernment application called CitySourced, that seems to be setting a trend, as I've now come across a very similar iPhone application that allows citizens of Dutch city Eindhoven to report daily problems and civic issues, through their iPhone, directly to the local authorities. Here's more from the
article:Citizens of
Eindhoven can now report local issues by iPhone, using the
BuitenBeter app that was launched today. After spotting something that needs to be fixed, residents can use the app to take a picture, select an appropriate category and send their complaint directly through to the city council. A combination of GPS and maps lets users pinpoint the exact location of the problem, providing city workers with all the information they need to identify and resolve the problem.
The application covers a wide range of familiar nuisances, from broken sidewalks to loitering youth (who will hopefully respond favourably to having their picture taken by concerned citizens). Compared with lodging a complaint by phone or in writing, BuitenBeter creates a nearly frictionless experience and will no doubt prompt a wider group of people to become active reporters of issues that need the city's attention.
I really hope this trend catches on, because I believe this is one of the cases technology can help us with everyday issues and improve the quality of our lives.
I realize that just because reporting of the problem is made richer, more fun, easier, etc. we can't really expect problems to get solved any better than they were being before.
I mean a city already has some local authorities that handle such civic issues. How well these work is entirely up to the city council and has nothing to do with whether citizens report their problems through their iPhone or not. People already call-in, or in some cases even text their problems to a short code, so the authorities already have work to do and how efficiently they handle it is an entirely separate issue.
I am simply making the point that these type of mobile government applications encourage citizens to report even more of the problems they see around them every day, and would otherwise ignore. Reporting through the iPhone/Android/Windows Mobile app is much more fun, engaging, anonymous, asynchronous, rich and simple: just Point - Click - Describe - Send.
Posted in
iPhone,
mobile services
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