Nokia is better than Motorola, iPhone is ground-breaking, Android is going to change the OEM dynamics..
WML, XHTML, Bluetooth, Objective-C, Symbian, Android, iPhone... the list goes on and on and on. It was my life for over 10 years and it is still playing a major part in my career. But, I have moved on. Crossed over to the other side. I am one of the consumer now, at least from this blog point of view. I want to look at these technologies and see how it impacts my day to day life, how it simplifies my problems and how it enhances my lifestyle. I will give my two-cents around how they should help me. I hope my perspective engages you to contribute to the discussion.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Should CPG companies invest in mobile marketing initiatives?
I am positive that this is a widely discussed topic in a CPG company - should we reach our consumers on their mobile phone?
Retailers have it easy. They control the POS, and hence get a 360’ view of a consumer (in this situation, a shopper). But, in the case of CPG companies, how does reaching the consumers on their mobile phone benefit them?
Well, here is my two cents: CPG should absolutely invest in mobile marketing initiatives.
Here is why:
1. Smartphone sales is going to out sell feature phones by 2012
2. Mobile browsing is going to out-pace desktop browsing by 2013
The above two data points clearly shows that the consumers are becoming more familiar with consuming content on their mobile phone. This means that more and more people will the accessing information on their mobile phone, which includes all demography - stayhome moms, retired grand-parents, working professional, college/high-school kids.
Here is how it is relevant to CPG companies: It is important for CPG companies to capture the mind-share of a shopper when he/she is thinking about shopping. We know that 70% of the shoppers make their brand purchasing decisions before they walk into the retail store. Most shoppers, about 90% of them, do their research online (desktop/laptop) prior to shopping. In the coming years, shoppers will start to do their purchasing research on the go, on their mobile phones. It could be through a client app, location based information, mobile browsing or a combination of all. This spike in mobile marketing adoption will force marketers to re-visit their digital marketing spend and start looking at mobile as a primary channel of media consumption.
So, if you are a marketer at CPG company, start integrating mobile into your over all marketing plan. If you want some help in defining the success criteria for your mobile marketing initiatives, check out my next blog on “Mobile Marketing Measurements for CPG”.
I would always love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this.
If you found this perspective interesting, you can follow me on twitter @araman1. Please feel free to share this if you found it useful.
