Archive for October, 2009

Holiday Shopping Season gets boost from Mobile & Social in 2009

A recent study published by Deloitte shows that 17% of adult shoppers say they will use social media in some aspect of their holiday shopping, and 19% will rely on their mobile phones. That means if you’re checking your list, you are likely being aided by through social and mobile media.

The survey — part of Deloitte’s 24th Annual Holiday Survey, a poll of more than 10,000 adults in the U.S — says that of the nearly 1 in 5 plan to use social media sites. Of that group, 60% say they will do so to find sales, discounts, and coupons; 53% intend to use sites like MySpace and Facebook to research gift ideas, and 52% say they will check the wish lists of friends and family.

While young people certainly have greater amounts of social-media savvy than more grizzled consumers (52% of those in the 18-29 group will use social media to shop), interest is relatively strong among other age groups. In the 30 to 44 age bracket, 33% will use social media as a shopping tool, and in the 45 to 60 age group, 10% plan to do so.

Also revealed in this study is that of the shoppers who plan to use their smartphones, 55% say they rely on their devices for a mobile store locator, 45% to research lowest prices, 40% to find general product information, 32% to get mobile coupons and 31% to find reviews. And this year, 25% of consumers say they will also use their phone to make a digital purchase.

The Deloitte study also found strong interest in shopping online, with 22% of respondents vowing to shop primarily via the Web, and 44% planning to use coupons they find on the Internet. It also found plenty of evidence that consumers love the luxury of shopping through multiple channels. About 78% say they have made an in-store purchase after viewing the product at a store’s Web site, for example, and 65% have done the reverse — seen an item in-store, then gone home, done some more research and purchased it online.

These trends will play out as retailer rush to distribute and promote their iPhone Apps geared toward gift buying and to move customers toward signup of offers and specials throughout the holiday through us of proximity marketing and mobile alerts. The reality is that mcommerce is here.And QWASI helps get you there.

QWASI takes retail mobile.
Get started today. Call us toll-free @ 877-747-9274

October 30, 2009 in Blog   |   No Comments

Google Analytics adds Mobile Analytics to Reporting

According to Google’s blog, Google Analytics will now include reporting for mobile Websites and mobile apps with a new soon-to-be-released server-side code-snippet in the coming weeks.  This will allow Google Analytics to track traffic to your mobile website from all web-enabled devices, whether or not the device runs JavaScript.  The release is reported to support PHP, Perl, JSP and ASPX-based sites, and will be in addition to allowing users to track visits to their regular website coming from high-end, Javascript enabled phones.

In addition to expanded mobile reporting, Apple’s iPhone and Android mobile application developers can now track how users engage with apps. For Android devices, usage can be tied back to ad campaigns: from ad to marketplace to download to engagement. In the future, Google promises the ability to see breakout data on mobile devices and carriers in the new “mobile reports” area of the Visitors section.

While it has taken some time for this to be introduced, it certainly is a welcomed improvement. The ability to include Mobile Analytics to further help break out ROI and Campaign Response Rates will allow marketers to see the value of delivering converts through mobile communication and applications. Mobile publishers and advertisers using this solution will be thrilled to have these new Mobile Analytic tools at their finger tips.

QWASI offers advanced mobile analytics and mobile reporting so clients can have a complete view of the mobile ecosystem and their customers. Contact QWASI today for more information @ 877-747-9274.

October 22, 2009 in Blog   |   No Comments

Mobile social networking Exploding according to Forrester

Everyday, the number of people accessing social network from their cell phone grows as people find it more convenient to stay connected to their friends and acquaintances while on the go. Forrester Research reports this in a new report called “Why Mobile Could Reinvent Social Computing.”

Forrester claims that the number of people regularly accessing social networks on their mobile phones has doubled in the past six months. The percentage of mobile subscribers in the US accessing social networks from their mobile phones at least once a month has jumped from 5 percent in early 2009 to 10 percent last quarter.

“If mobile experiences are convenient, consumers will use them.” said Julie Ask, San Francisco-based vice president/principal analyst at Forrester Research. “In mobile, convenient mobile experiences will have context, that is, leverage location or past usage, be simple and be such that consumers value immediacy of the information or service,” she said.

The Forrester report argues that mobile phones hold the key to unlocking the full potential of social technologies, because the digital social experience is fragmented. People have separate identities in each social network they visit.
Facebook nets 1M mobile app downloads weekly over

However, in the future, universal social IDs will enable a portable identity that will empower consumers. And that is when the mobile phone will become the hub of social computing activities—the glue that holds the social graph together.

The always-on handset connected to the mobile Web is what frees social from the chains of the PC and thrusts it into the real world, according to Forrester.

The ubiquitous experience that mobile creates when it links together online and offline communication and touchpoints will further be realized by consumers when they are able to have a seamless, easy and convenient experience.

A methodology at QWASI used to evaluate customer connections and communication touchpoints is called Synchrosy. This approach allows QWASI to evaluate the customer experience in light of existing forms of communication and reveals new methods to connecting customers to communications and community. Contact QWASI today to learn more about Synchrosy when creating your Mobile Strategy.

October 21, 2009 in Blog   |   No Comments

Apple sells 7.4M iPhones. Posts best quarter ever

Welcome back Steve Jobs. It was with great anticipation today we waited to hear the report from Apple. According to Apple, the company shipped 7.4 million iPhones in its fiscal fourth quarter, the most it has ever sold, besting the 6.9 million it shipped in the quarter following the launch of the iPhone 3G last year. The iPhone figures pushed it to a new record: helping Apple post it’s most profitable quarter ever.

WHAT’S HOT
Apple’s iPhone shipments include its 3G device, launched last year with AT&T for $99 and the new 3GS iPhone introduced July and priced from $199. Apple said it sold over 1 million units of the iPhone 3GS, which added video and MMS capabilities, in its first weekend of availability.

Further, Apple executives indicated that the company struggled to meet demand throughout the quarter, implying the company could have sold more iPhones than it reported, had it been able to meet a demanding consumers’ smartphone appetite.

“I would have liked to have had more, honestly, because we were still short in some countries at quarter end. As I indicated, it was early October before we were able to get supply and demand balanced in some countries,” said Apple executive Timothy Cook in the company’s conference call with analysts, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha.

FINANCIAL DATE
The company had a net profit of $1.67 billion, up 47 percent from the $1.14 billion profit it had in the year-ago quarter. The smartphone and computer maker also booked $9.87 billion in revenue, up 25 percent from $7.9 billion in the year-ago quarter. Apple’s gross margin was 36.6 percent, up from 34.7 percent in the same period last year.

And research firms appear to be backing up that claim. According to market research outfit According to researcher iSuppli, the iPhone is “dramatically outperforming” the overall smartphone market. The firm said worldwide smartphone unit shipments are set to rise by 11.6 percent this year over the previous year, while shipments of Apple’s iPhones are set to soar by 37 percent during the same period.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs noted that “We’ve got a very strong lineup for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010.”

Finally, Apple execs had some choice words for competitors scrambling to cash in on smartphones such as Pre maker Palm, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, Windows Mobile vendor Microsoft and Google via its Android platform. “Frankly I think that people are really just trying to catch up with the first iPhone that was announced two years ago, and we’ve long since moved beyond that,” Cook boasted.

In addition, last month Apple announced that it sold over 2 Billion iPhone Apps.

October 20, 2009 in Blog   |   No Comments

Jiffy Lube: Mobile Marketing Campaign beats out Online

Part of a Series: Mobile Campaigns Live Up to HYPE

As seen on Mobile Marketer.
A Jiffy Lube mobile advertising initiative that was part of a larger multichannel campaign achieved a 0.2 percent response rate, outperforming its Web counterpart.

Jiffy Lube tested this program in Los Angeles, California using a geo-targeted mobile ad campaign offering coupons for oil changes. The program launched in March where twenty-eight percent of respondents texted in their ZIP code to receive a list of oil-change stores closest to them. More than 200 coupons were redeemed at Los Angeles stores, which equates to around 10 percent of original respondents.

According to the company release, “The strategy was to reach the 18-24-year-old demographic group by advertising on text messages being sent to existing mobile content subscribers. The goal was to evaluate the mobile channel, and gauge the interest of the audience in engaging with the brand over a mobile device.”
A similar campaign was advertised online to compare the opt-in and response rates between the mobile and wired Web channels, she said. Jiffy Lube agency Kovel/Fuller declined to disclose the online metrics in the case study first posted on MarketingProfs.com.

The 20-percent-off messaging generated more text-in responses overall. However, the coupon for $7 off resulted in more coupon redemptions. The text message ad copy was appended to user-requested text message content with messages such as “20 percent off Jiffy Lube Oil Change! Reply JIFFY” or “Save $7 on a Jiffy Lube Oil Change! Reply JL.”

Customers who replied to the ad received a text message with a coupon code for redemption, and an invitation to find their nearest Jiffy Lube location by replying via text message with their ZIP code.
Jiffy Lube wanted to find a new way to reach consumers ages 18-24, a demographic likely to ignore the company’s television, newspaper and Yellow Pages ads.

Further building the case for mobile, the company chose to conduct its test in the Los Angeles metro area, where residents—especially Jiffy Lube’s target demographic—spend a lot of time on the road.
Mobile offered a means for connecting with these hard-to-reach individuals even while they were out and about.

The companies learned a few lessons from this campaign including:
• To win over the attention of a hard-to-reach market, first figure out how you can best work your way into their existing day-to-day routines.
• Test multiple mobile offers and messages to determine the optimal approach for attracting your audience and driving conversions.
• Refresh mobile ads regularly to optimize performance.
• Try advertising SMS campaigns via mobile advertising. You may generate a higher response rate because all user activity is performed using the same channel and device

Activate a Multi-Channel Mobile Campaign today.
Contact QWASI: Call 877-747-9274.

October 15, 2009 in Blog   |   No Comments