With mobile’s meteoric rise over the past few years, many marketers are having trouble reaching and connecting with audiences in a meaningful way through traditional marketing avenues. In a recent report from Mobile Commerce Daily, they detail that consumers classified as “Millennials” are particularly available to communication via mobile marketing and are highly willing to engage with brands via mobile devices and mobile applications.
“Unless brands evolve, they run the risk of becoming less relevant to consumers who are using mobile devices,” Kimber Johnson, the Managing Director of Vanity Point, states. “Marketers who are not engaging consumers where their time and attention is are placing brands at a significant disadvantage.”
Data from NetBase and Edison Research shows that among Millennials it is important “to be the first to know about a new product.” Mobile gives marketers a medium featuring immediacy that other mediums can’t touch. An active mobile-first approach by retailers in their marketing could be a strong tool for reaching Millennials not only now and but also in the future as the Millennials age.
“Nearly one-quarter of Millennials say they are willing to pay a higher price to be the first to have a new product,” said Gretchen Hoffman, vice president of marketing at NetBase.
In the very near future, many of the devices and appliances around homes and offices will be connected via a wireless network and the Internet. Businesses can expect an explosion in the number of intelligent devices and smart applications connected to the Internet. This Internet of Things will create additional information that allows supply chains access to deliver goods and services in exciting new ways they could have only imagined in the past.
Gartner, Inc. recently forecasted a 30X increase in Internet-connected physical devices by 2020 and these devices will significantly alter supply chain information.
The Internet of Things is predicted to reach 26 billion installed units by the year 2020 and its impact may reach further than you think. According to Michael Burkett, managing vice president at Gartner, “Some IoT devices are more mature, such as commercial telematics now used in trucking fleets to improve logistics efficiency, some, such as smart fabrics that use sensors within clothing and industrial fabrics to monitor human health or manufacturing processes, are just emerging.”
As businesses see these capabilities become more common, supply chains will be able to deliver to customers more efficiently. This efficiency will happen when many more smart devices than today are communicating to a network that then creates the appropriate response.
“Smart delivery of goods and services based on the needs communicated through the Internet of Things is the next wave of mobile business and smart applications,” says Kimber Johnson, Managing Director of Vanity Point, “Investment in this area is expected to yield sizable returns.”
In MEF’s report on mobile money it details how the worldwide growth in mobile payments adoption is strongly influencing consumer attitudes toward mCommerce in a positive manner. MEF’s report goes on to put the spotlight on the importance of mobile money users to the overall mCommerce market as mobile money users are 26% more likely to make purchases via mobile application or mobile web sites on mobile devices.
The report continues on to detail how mobile money users are more likely to make higher-value purchases via mobile devices.
Increasingly markets are seeing a rise in consumers who prefer not to use cash for purchases. Just as markets saw the rise of consumers who made payments via credit or debit cards, markets are now seeing growth in mobile money users and cash use is on the decline.
“With the growth of mCommerce,” says Kimber Johnson, Managing Director, Vanity Point, “we are seeing proactive businesses setting themselves apart from their competition by offering an additional level of convenience with mobile payment options.”