I was catching up with some friends earlier this week, most of which work in some sort of marketing / digital / interactive capacity. During the course of dinner we noticed the array of mobile phones on the table and in particular the fact that 5 out of the 6 phones were iPhones.
The conversation moved onto how to engage consumers on the mobile platform (seriously, we have some crazy rock ‘n’ roll dinners) with half arguing that brands need to engage users through iPhone apps and others arguing that the market share of the iPhone was still too small for it to warrant such a large focus. My view, for what it was worth, was that the focus should be on non-iPhone but there is no reason why this can’t be supported through the iPhone.
Anyway, it struck me, looking at the array of iPhones on display, how important it is for us to remember that as marketers we aren’t our client’s target audience – and we shouldn’t lose sight of what is the norm for us and what is the norm for the general population. I’ve see it so often, and I do it myself, when marketers presume audiences behave in a certain way based on their own experiences.
It’s vital when preparing comms. plans whether it’s PR, advertising or marketing that throughout the planning stage we engage and understand the audience we are trying to reach. We’ve (H&K) recently hired a planner and she’s already had us monitoring tourists at the British Museum or shadowing grocery shoppers in supermarkets!
Understanding our clients’ audience’s mindsets and behaviours more deeply allows us to better engage with them and ultimately achieve cut through with our messages.
I love this idea from Stan Shroeder at Mashable!
Location-aware iPhone applications that show up on your device for download when you’re in a certain place.
Would provide a fantastic new channels for marketers! Imagine as you walk past the latest Audi advert and get an alert to download the Audi Game application. Or how about an app from Scoot available in bars which let you order a pick-up after one too many pints.
Take note Apple!
An Amazon insider has apparently let slip that an updated version of Amazon’s Kindle will be in stores before the end of the year.
Maybe my headline is a little harsh, Amazon did deem v1.0 a success (despite not actually releasing any sales figures), but it hardly set the world alight.
The rumours state that they plan on making it bigger and producing the model in a range of “appealing” colours. But, this doesn’t detract from the fact that consumers will be asked to carry around another gadget when the ones they have already are getting very close to achieving the same thing.
The iPhone has a e-book reader and a number of classics available for under a pound. And many other books are available from third parties in PDF form which can be read on your iPhone.
The one advantage Amazon does have is its range of content available, but is that enough for us to part with close to £300!
My guess is that this rumour is exactly that, a rumour. I should imagine Amazon will extend its MP3 iphone app with an e-book version and do what it has done very well for nearly 15 years – sell books!
Well all publicity is good publicity it would seem as Apple report record sales of its new 3G iPhone over the weekend. They shifted a massive 1m units in just 3 days compared with the 74 days it took for the original iPhone to hit six digits.
And despite the first-day nerves, consumers have been flocking to the App
Store to bolster their new toy with the latest and greatest widgets and
games. 10m widgets and games in fact. No doubt the PR-bods at Apple HQ will roll this figure out as much as possible as testament to the ease
of use of the iPhone and the App Store countering the negative press it
received over the weekend.
Various brands have been quick off the mark getting their foot in the App Store door, including Carling – one of our clients here at Hill & Knowlton – which launched its iPint and shot to the #1 spot in the Free Games category.
So as I mentioned earlier I wanted to touch on the recent iPhone 3G launch which many are dubbing iPocalypse. I’ve gone with iPhocalypse (see what I did there).
So Friday, the much hyped (rightly?) iPhone 3G hit UK shores and saw the inevitable queues outside O2 stores across the country. So far so good but remarkably Apple failed to deliver on the day, the problem was not so much stock (although they ran out within hours of stores opening) but the fact that those that did manage to get hold of them couldn’t activate them due to a glitch on the iPhone website. This has largely been fixed now and the iPhone 3G can now be seen attached to ears near you.
But what damage has this done to Apple and specifically the halo sitting above the iPhone?
Well the immediate affect is very little, the iPhone is still being hailed a revolution in communication and those that have one are reaching new levels of smugness. Those without (me included) having to deal with the inevitable
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jealousy. However longer term, Apple may feel the backlash. The new must-have gadget has launched in a much more competitive market than last year and competitors such as Samsung and HTC have much stronger products that can match and beat the iPhone in the functionality department. Already many consumers are questioning whether an iPhone is the right option for them and the bad publicity will do nothing to quell their concerns.
Apple has done the right thing by getting the problem fixed as quickly as possible and then addressing the PR fall-out, but competitors will now doubt see this as an opportunity to kick Apple while their down and ensure the way back up is as hard and as long as possible.
What a week for Apple and Google!
Fresh from Viacom-gate that put the search giant at the heart of a privacy storm, Google this week was lambasted by none other than the Daily Mail for planning to roll out its Street View service in the UK. This is the extension to the widely used Google Maps that allows users to view maps at street level. Google hasn’t admitted it plans to introduce Street View to the UK but vans with “Google” splashed across them carrying 20 external cameras driving around our major cities kind of gives the game away.
What’s interesting about this is the press reaction to Street View compared with when it launched Google Maps. That launch was vaulted as further online innovation – a step in the right direction, one that will benefit millions of people.
So what’s changed? Why hasn’t Google’s face blurring technology quelled any unrest around this forthcoming launch? Well for one the Viacom story has caused people to question just how anonymous they are online, soon our personal viewing habits (legal and illegal) will be picked over by a media giant. But also it shows how consumers are becoming much more aware of how far the Internet has come. Whereas a couple of years ago we welcomed any kind of unique service that further opened up the world from the comfort of our PCs, we have now become more intrigued by the motives behind online behemoths that have all but lost their “do no evil” charm.
And it’s no bad thing…
Whilst the lawyers shouldn’t get in the way of innovation, I do think it’s important that as consumers we engage in the discussions that services like Street View throw up. If nothing else it will make Google look at how it treats the personal data we freely hand over every day. More importantly however it allows us to have a direct influence on how the online world is shaped and how it affects our offline lives. The Internet and the www is becomming more and more integrated with every aspect of our lives and we shouldn’t rely on the Googles of the world to dictate how it changes the way we work, rest and play.
Whether Street View is good or bad (personally I have no problem with it), the debate will bring the best out of Google and will ultimately benefit the people that use it.
As for Apple…well I’ll get to the iPhone launch later!
