Our last Assignment in Week 1 of Mobile Advertising and Design was to answer this question:

“In what ways do you feel that companies are using mobile technologies to target you regarding their products and services?”

A great article on this subject is in the New York Times.  Written by Stephanie Clifford, it was published on April 16, 2010 and is titled “Web Coupons Know Lots About You, and They Tell” [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/business/media/17coupon.html].

Companies who use mobile advertising target potential customers by:

• Geographical information contained in the phone
• Interests
• Specific Social Media Pages (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc) that can also bleed Sex (M/F), Age and other “private” information
• Search queries
• The customer’s IP Address

All of this is invisible to the customer.  It’s not ‘general’ information either.  These coupons can get eerily specific, virtually following you to bed where it knows what kind of sheets you have!

These merchandisers use a company called RevTraxx who has no privacy policy.  They get around the privacy policies of Google and can even trend your IP address – if you have a proclivity for downloading pizza coupons on Friday afternoons – you may soon find one already there!

In a worst case scenario, as the article points out, companies with this kind of personal information can offer you substandard products than they might offer another person; or the same product but at a higher price than the next person.

Privacy advocates are very much alarmed by this activity and the article quotes Ed Mierzwinski, the Consumer program Director for USPIRG as saying “There really have been no rules set up for this ecosystem”.  Now, USPIRG is asking the FTC to tighten up online advertising privacy rules.

The next topic we studied this week was Mobile Coupons.

In my previous post, I wrote about how JC Penney launched a mobile coupon campaign as a pilot project in Houston, Texas in September, 2009 that involved 16 of their metro stores.

Their customers had to sign up to receive the coupons, and once they did, they could redeem them at the point of sale for a discount without ever having to print them out.  This would avoid forgetting them at home and give the customer more control over their purchase.  In turn, it was a way for JC Penney to tie directly into the end-user experience.

The focus was on retaining customers, and building brand awareness, as well as acquisition of new customers.  JC Penney also wanted to see how the consumer would interact with the coupon and how it would actually work in the store for redemption.  These coupons would be exactly like coupons that would be sent to other consumers via direct mail.

JC Penney expected to reach a younger demographic who are more apt to be avid cell phone users.  Their target demographic would be female, 25 to 44 years old.

They were willing to invest in this trial to see if their redemption rate would be similar to the 10% to 20% that other brands were reporting.

“Do you feel that JC Penney will find success with their “mobile couponing” pilot project?

I was certain that it would be successful enough for them to continue a mobile coupon program, it’s just too easy for the customer since they carry their phone with them everywhere they go.

Further research indicates I was correct, an article published in the Plano Courier Star on February 4, 2010 reports that JC Penney will take advantage of the mobile advertising opportunities and modify their program to include all store locations.  Instead of the 2D scannable image they previously included in the mobile ad, the store clerks will manually enter the coupon code and use new “hot buttons” on the register.

Their provider, Cellfire, reports that “the average redemption rates for paper coupons is about 1%, while the average redemption for a mobile coupon is between 15% and 25%”.  They also reported that “during the five consecutive quarters beginning October 2008, consumer coupon use increased 16.7% and brands issued 367 billion coupons in 2009”.

Do you think “mobile couponing” is a fad or a sign of the times?

Mobile couponing is definitely a sign of the times.  I definitely believe it will be extremely successful.  Reports of success are everywhere.  One recent article titled “What a Girl Wants:  More Mobile Advertising”,  by Jolie O’Dell, cited these statistics for Mobile Advertising:

• 85% use the mobile Internet almost daily.
• 70% expect their mobile Internet usage to increase in the future.
• 84% have noticed mobile advertising, and 57% have clicked on mobile advertising.
• 67% are interested in receiving mobile coupons or vouchers.
• 93% are always on the lookout for bargains.
• 93% like being up-to-date with new technology.

Those are some pretty convincing numbers when it comes to deciding on whether to launch a mobile coupon program!

Additionally, 86% of these women stated they accessed Facebook, Twitter and similar sites with mobile advertising, and you have more than one way to launch your coupons!

More and more online coupon start-ups are popping up.  One I just found from my “hometown’’ in the Tampa Bay area of Florida called “Send Savings.com”  allows mobile users to sign up for coupons and discounts, determine how many times a week they want to receive the offers, and for each time they get one, a donation is made to their favorite charity.  They use text coupons.

Sources:

http://www.dmnews.com/jcpenney-takes-coupons-mobile/article/149790/

http://www.planostar.com/articles/2010/02/04/plano_star-courier/news/148.txt

http://mashable.com/2010/05/05/women-mobile-shopping/

https://sendsavings.com/signup/individual.php

Washington Post reports that Google filed a 65 page commentary with the FCC today.  In it, Google urges the FCC to reclassify broadband services as a Title II service.  In so doing, the FCC would have the ability to assure Net Neutrality.  Under Title I, it has not authority to require a neutral playing field, based on the recent Appeals Court decision in favor of Comcast.

Of course, Big Telcos responded with a legal brief of their own showing it would produce years of litigation and ultimately FCC failure.  However, if you look back, you will see this battle has been waged before – and won in favor of the consumer.  Thanks to lax oversight in recent years, the FCC got soft on regulation and the big Telcos and Cable Companies moved in fast to begin monopolizing and limiting consumer choices while raising prices.  What else do you expect them to do?

What IS net neutrality and why is it important to the Consumer?  I have explained it in the past, but here is a great video that visually explains the limitations against the consumer when Net Neutrality is not enforced:

Chris Harrison, a Graduate Student at Carnegie Mellon University thinks you should never have to touch your cell phone at all.  In fact, it shoould be the size of a matchbook with a full size keyboard.  That gives a whole new meaning to “hands-free calling”.

Chris is the Inventor of an amazing new prototype that turns a person’s hand and forearm into a keyboard and a screen.  It uses a pico-projector in the phone to turn your forearm into a full size keyboard.  Simply tap your arm to send a message instead of pulling out your phone!

The prototype is called “Sinkput” and he recently conducted a small sample test of it’s accuracy on 13 people that proved it is already 96% accurate.   However, that test was only using a total of 5 buttons.  Harrison says he has a way to go before he reaches the “Holy Grail”  of a full size keyboard being functional.

Read more about this amazing invention at:  CNN Labs