Over Valentine's Day, Starbucks ran a promotion whereby customers who downloaded the Starbucks app could point their mobile phones' cameras at a promotional coffee cup and an animation would appear. This mobile augmented reality promotion saw sales and app downloads at the popular US coffee shop soar.
What Starbucks did, according to Daryn Smith, head of marketing for Africa at InMobi, is capitalise on the reality that, for most people, mobile phones have become a “constant companion”. What big brands like Starbucks need to do is figure out how to use this knowledge to their advantage.
Smith was speaking at a searchandising event last week, presented by InMobi, in collaboration with Decision Fuel.
The term searchandising refers to the concept of using a mobile device to augment the shopping experience.
In SA, many consumers are researching products and services using their mobile devices before going shopping, presenting a vast opportunity for retailers to convert sales before the shopper has even arrived at the retailer. In fact, 68% of respondents pre-search on their phones for restaurants and bars before going out, and refer to their phones while shopping for information such as product availability, price comparison, tracking expenses and custom-made shopping lists.
Mobile meets shopping
Aside from texting and talk time, the average mobile-savvy South African spends about 113 minutes each day browsing the Internet on their phones, and 72% of South Africans are primarily accessing the Internet using their mobile phones.
A recent survey conducted by InMobi found that mobile devices are steadily becoming more integrated into the shopping experience. Thirty-eight percent of respondents use their mobile phones to scan product bar codes and read more information about the product online, and 48% use their phones to conduct price comparisons.
According to the survey, some 36% of consumers use their phones to take pictures of products, which they then forward on to friends for a second opinion. Female youths are more likely to do so than any other demographic, the survey found.
Attract through advertising
Very few South African retailers offer mobile apps, but Smith says companies should think about developing apps and mobi sites to more effectively engage with consumers.
Although a high percentage of South Africans are accessing the Internet using their mobile phones, brands are only spending 1% of their advertising budgets on mobile advertising. Smith suggests that, through the use of an app and mobile advertising, retailers could even “steal” customers from competitors through promotions and mobile coupons.
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