Foursquare, We Have a Problem

I've been using Foursquare for a few months, mostly as a function of my job, to see its potential impact on my client's businesses.  For a while, I was only annoying my less socially-connected friends by my constant posts on Facebook about every time I went running in the morning on the local bike path, for which, I am the mayor, thank you very much.

Embarrassingly too much Tex-Mex

Then, in November, my mom and I went to dinner at ma peche in New York City, and while sitting at the bar, I received a buy-one-get-one-free deal for drinks.  Score!  Then, the week of Thanksgiving, American Express started with their small business deals, getting me money back when I spent at local businesses, here and there.  Very sweet!  Life was good.

The deals have waned, which makes me wonder if this is really enough to get me to check-in.  Even for me, it's a chore to whip out my smartphone every time, when one time out of 8000 gets me a deal, and my wife's stare is burning holes through the back of my head.  I'm not saying that the City of Dallas needs to celebrate my presence on the running trail every morning, but maybe once in a while, a small marching band would be appropriate.

Today, though, as we brought my wife's niece to the local, up-scale mall, I encountered a more serious Foursquare's challenge: connectivity.  There never is any at this mall.  That's why so many teenagers must hang out here, so their parents can't get a hold of them, and they have a valid excuse.  I was able to sneak a check-in for American Eagle Outfitters, but when I clicked on their deal, the Interwebs failed me.  Most other places, I could never check-in, even though I really wanted to and tried very hard, against my nature.  Most humans would never try the second time.

Clearly, malls are not on the rise, but this is not the only place that I have had Foursquare connectivity issues, sometimes not seemingly caused by connectivity issues.  The problem is not that this will not improve.  In fact, Foursquare might consider subsidizing fempto cells in some shopping areas and malls or encouraging some of the innovative schemes that exist to improve data network and spectral efficiency.

Anything to improve the experience, because most people's bozo bit is more sensitive than mine for new technology and services like this one.  Once it gets flipped, it's hard to reset.

When Mobile Stole Xmas

From the initial indicators, mobile is having a distinct impact this holiday shopping season.  With online sales growing almost 40% during Thanksgiving, mobile traffic almost tripled!  iPad and iPhone traffic alone accounted for 10.2% of Black Friday traffic, according to a report from IBM Coremetrics.  There are recommendations for apps to load to simplify or make holiday shopping better.  Holiday couch commerce is born.

The important point for most retailers and consumer package goods companies to realize is that mobile, even more than traditional PC, has an impact all the way through the consumer journey: from awareness through loyalty.   Sometimes the shopping experience might start with the PC web or tablet or even the mobile, if the consumer is on-the-go, but can be finished through any other channel, often in store.   For what can be controlled, it's important that the experience is holistic, and the consumer state is passed seamlessly from one channel to the next to continually crown the customer and make them feel special.

There's no one-sized-fits-all strategy for mobile, as many consumers start with web or mobile search and end in the store.  However each consumer uses mobile this holiday shopping season, one point is clear: consumers don't leave home without it.

Touch Me

No, we're not talking Penn State football today.  Is it too soon to joke about that?

We are doing many campaigns at work that integrate SMS or scanning of Quick Response (QR) codes that allow shoppers to engage more with retail or brands, while shopping.  Sometimes, it's additional information or comparisons.  Other times, its to get a quick link to something else, like an app download.  I do like this idea from J.C. Penney which effectively is a voice-card for holiday gifts that is recorded and activated through QR and your smartphone.  As I've said in the past, however, QR, as a technology has challenges that probably limit is shelf-life.

My good friend Loïc Hamon is Vice President of Marketing at InsideSecure, one of the world's largest providers of contact-less technologies, like Near Field Communication (NFC).  He rightfully looks at NFC not as a payment mechanism but more fundamentally as a new user experience, enabling the smartphone, in effect, to be a new form of mouse, or interactive device.  The NFC user experience is easier than QR: just tap to get more information, to take some action, to swap pictures or apps, or to pay.  They've been doing it in Japan for years with FeliCa, allowing people to tap their phone to get into the subway or make small payments at convenience stores.

At the heart of it, the use of the camera by QR or Augmented Reality (AR), while interesting for those apps, is a use for the camera that was not its original intent, so the user experience will always suffer and be more burdensome.  Unlock your phone, open an app, align a camera to an image...am I taking a picture or scanning something?  

I say, "just tap and go."

Free Beer

I live in Texas, and I’ve dreamed of improving my guitar skills, starting a band, and leaving the marketing and technology world behind.  I would name my band Free Beer.  We’d play Texas Rock, some Blues, and throw in an occasional Radiohead song to keep the audience on their toes.  You’d drive down the local Farm-to-Market road by Joe’s Roadhouse, and the sign would read, “Free Beer Tonight.”  Sure, we might need to find a new town to play in, every night, to make the marketing ploy effective, but, hey, Texas is a big place!

Jamming or constipated?

Yesterday, our excellent Marketing Director sent me a link to a new mobile app produced for Moosejaw outfitters, called Moosejaw Xray (Android, iPhone).  Download it.  It corresponds to their winter catalog, and it uses augmented reality to give shoppers a more risqué view of the models in their catalog, without all those puffy, winter outer garments. 

As the male of the species, I found the marketing ploy intriguing.  I must study this catalog, intently.  As a marketer, however, I wondered if their budget would have been better spent elsewhere.  Hey, I admit, I downloaded it and looked at their catalog.  I even tweeted about it, and now I am writing a blog entry, referencing their campaign.  It’s got sexy women in lingerie, for Pete’s sake, what am I supposed to do, ignore it?

The reality is, however, they don’t sell the under garments, from what I can tell, so the campaign is really about generating buzz and brand awareness.   I don’t know Moosejaw, but I’d guess that the campaign is in line with their brand, as well.  It’s probably not a bad idea, in the end, but I just wonder if they will need to find a new town to play in the next time.

Come see me and other industry leaders from Sam's Club, BBC America, The Daily, Ogilvy & Mather, Nutro, The Weather Channel, and Starcom Mediavest talk about tablets in marketing at ad:tech New York City this Thursday at 3:00PM Eastern and 4:30PM Eastern.  If you can't make it, tell a friend and live vicariously through them!

$5

I was walking into Whole Foods Market the other Sunday, and I saw a $5 in the parking lot.  I picked it up and looked around to see if it would recognize its previous owner, and, alas, it did not.  Nothing like finding a $5 bill to add some unexpected joy to the day.

Marketers can find that mobile can offer that same level of surprise, when treated with respect and a understanding of their customer.  No need to search farther than their pocket or pocketbook for the delight.  Not many retailers or brands have gotten to this point, yet, but it will come.  The more that they know the consumer holistically, across online, mobile and physical retail, the better.

To get to this point, however, the retailer or brand has to earn the trust of the customer to begin with.  This is nothing new.  The mobile or tablet or online channel are just that, channels, and equivalent to another physical store.   They offer specific capabilities and opportunities, but like any other channel, if the customer has a great experience, and it adds to the total customer equity.  If they have a bad experience, and it could affect the equity across all channels.

But, treat your peeps right, and what joy they will have when they find their own 5-dollar bill in their pocket.


Come see me and other industry leaders from Sam's Club, BBC America, The Daily, Ogilvy & Mather, Nutro, The Weather Channel, and Starcom Mediavest talk about tablets in marketing at ad:tech New York City next Thursday at 3:00PM Eastern and 4:30PM Eastern.  If you can't make it, I'll miss you, but tell a friend who can!

You, Sir, Experience

People always wax poetically about great user interface (UI), or look-and-feel.  User experience (UX) is a science, though, and I always appreciate the science behind everything.  Developing great UX is much more than just "look and feel", though, that sounds somewhat randy when I type it again and again.

It's no wonder I have no friends...

To the UX nerd, the depths of the science likely know no bound.  While Apple gets kudos for the simplicity of its design choices on the unibody MacBook Air or the iPhone 4, this excellent article today pokes at some of Apple's not so nice design choices and teaches us about skeuomorphic vs. metaphoric design choices.

In the case of application design, I believe that sometimes the most important decisions to affect the user experience are the features that are not included.  For example, Home Depot makes an extremely rich mobile application for the iPhone.  I'm not sure there is much you can not do on the app, but I wonder if there is much that you really won't do on a mobile app.  Removing that excess allows a focus on the features that have impact on their consumer's needs or their company's goals, all while freeing up valuable UI space for better creative treatments of what is most important.

In the world of mobile and mobile apps, beauty is indeed more than skin deep.

Innovation

On the longest and toughest days at work, it's things like Oink that can wake me up, get me pumped and remind me why I like my work and my job so much.  Innovation.  It's like a stiff drink after a long day.  It's like a unsolicited kiss on the cheek from your kids.  It's the $5 bill you find in the parking lot of the grocery store.  When it happens, it's a sure smile and new energy.

Thanks to @rfijoey for tipping me to this one yesterday.  I love the different perspective of this service.  Don't just get me to a location, help me navigate inside.  What is the place known for?  Still, like Yelp and Google, it's dependent on crowd sourcing opinions, and sometimes dog+world can give you good advice, but as has been shown through research, nothing replaces the opinion of a trusted friend or family member.  Bubs, for example, is my go-to for dining in New York City.  Should be yours, too, but she doesn't blog.

This idea of enhancing our typical web services to dig deeper, inside of the places, is not unique to Oink.  Applying electronic mapping inside of big box retailers, for example, could help consumers map their path to get in and out most efficiently.  The path data from their (opted-in) consumers could help the retailers organize their product placement.  It could help those same retailers make more contextually relevant recommendations for additional purchase, "you're going to need some jelly with that peanut butter and bread that you bought."

Specific innovations aside, it's always great to explore and see innovators in action.  Sometimes, its a hit, other times a miss.  Sometimes, it's one small step to something bigger.  And, remember, if you are not trying to disenfranchise your service, someone else is.

Gamey

The industry often talks about gamification in mobile apps.  Sometimes, it's done well, but often times, it's gamey.  I think its rare that someone wants to take their time out of other tasks to play a game, and if they do, they will likely play an actual game, with good game play and graphics.  I play Angry Birds and 9 Innings, ad nauseam.  I'm not sure big box retailer or their suppliers want the shopper's attention diverted, shooting imaginary fiends in the rafters, though.

However, consumer do respond to their score and how their actions affect a score.  The introduction of badges to services like Foursquare add a fun element to the check-in process.  Doesn't cost anything but engages the consumer more in the experience.  Just like the bounty that a company puts on sales, the care needs to be given on the targets, the prize, and the resultant bill.

There are even gamification movements in education to revamp the way we measure success.  Some theorize that current grading methods place caps on the levels students can achieve.  If Junior has already reached Level 12 of Chemistry Zombies, why should he be able to advance to Level 13.

It makes sense to me, as long as it doesn't mean my kids are playing Flight Control during study hall.

Have Content, Need Connection

At work, we work with retailers on how to apply digital and mobile to their marketing and to their business.  It's a ton of fun, even if that sentence just made you yawn.

In the case of mobile retail, consumers are using their phones more and more while they shop.  To price compare.  To look up more information.  To compare products.  To get coupons.  Actually, retailers have such a large opportunity here, that is largely untapped.  Maybe in a future post here or at The Rockfish Blog, I'll talk about how the current conceptual model being applied to m-commerce is incomplete, since it is based on a shopping basket and not the person pushing the basket.

Having said all of that, there's no good having lots of on-premise electronic content, if the signal in your building stinks and you don't offer free Wi-Fi that's been tuned to give great performance where you are trying to engage consumers via links, QR codes, SMS codes, and NFC taps.  Equally worse, if the content that does load is not optimized for mobile.

Never worth it to do something half-assed.