The Lunch Pail

Bryce Marshall, The Lunch Pail's resident mobile marketing expert and Knotice's Director of Strategic Services, recently responded to an interesting question about mobile websites and mobile apps. His answer was compelling enough to become good reading here on the Lunch Pail. If you have a question for Bryce about mobile marketing, please post it in the comments and he will answer it in a future post!

Here is the question posed by mobile marketing specialist Alexander Gregori followed by Bryce’s answer:

“I have long wondered why a company, any company, would choose a marketing tool that can only reach a fraction of its potential customers. Applications or “apps” are just such a marketing tool. Volkswagen America seems to be the first international heavyweight to have realized that they can reach almost everyone of the over 4 billion mobile phone owners worldwide with a mobisite (mobile websites) instead of an app.” In short – why do companies bother with mobile apps over a mobile website?

The follow are Bryce’s comments:

Primarily, apps and mobile web sites have different strengths and should be applied accordingly, as complements, not interchangeable replacements.

A mobile site should be optimized to provide essential content to the greatest number of consumers – valuable information like customer service/help, product information, finding locations, etc, with complete cross-browser, lowest-common denominator functionality in mind. Providing easy access to information, performing simple tasks, streamlining content, and ultra-basic navigation are all essentials when attempting to maximize reach. As it stands today, many mobile browsers are poor and do not provide a positive consumer experience for complex or multi-stage tasks, or where data/character entry is required.

There is a tipping point when it comes to directing consumers to a dedicated device app on an iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Palm, etc. An app can be used for:

• Complex tasks like a truly user-friendly experience for searching and buying airline tickets. Frequent flyers and business travelers love to have the same level of usability and speed in searching/booking that they expect on the website-proper, which is difficult to achieve today on a mobile site.
• Close engagement with a consumer on very focused elements of the brand experience. I know some of the folks who worked on the Nationwide Insurance app, which places heavy emphasis on allowing Nationwide customers (and non-customers) the ability to log all details of an accident, take photos of the scene, find the nearest repair shop, call a tow truck, call the police, and call their agent – all in a very usable experience. This is a perfect case study of delivering real interactive value, and focused on one specific but extremely valuable aspect of the overall business.

Mobile browsers today do not realistically allow Nationwide to accomplish all of these objectives – or anything remotely close to a positive consumer experience – with a mobile website. However, the browser technology is improving quickly, and possibly in 18 or 24 months this experience may be possible. While apps are used now to fill gaps and create engaging mobile experiences, a mobile website end-game is necessary to migrate this functionality over to the mobile Web in a few years’ time.

A quick strategic note: If any marketer is planning on developing apps, please plan on developing an iPhone, Blackberry, and Android app – at least! Nothing irritates non-iPhone users (like me) more than brands that only take the time to create an iPhone app. These brands are basically communicating to the majority of all smartphone users that they are not valued because they do not have an iPhone. iPhones represent approximately 20 percent of all smartphones in the U.S…. Blackberry represents approximately 50 percent. It is time to for marketers to think beyond the iPhone.

Remember, if you have a question for Bryce about mobile marketing, please post it in the comments and he will answer it in a future post.