Building a Mobile App Is Not a Mobile Strategy
by Jason Gurwin originally published in the Harvard Business Review
Everyone wants their own mobile application. In the last year, I have heard this consistently. In fact, mobile analytics firm Distimo claims 91 of the top 100 brands have their own mobile app (up from 51 just 18 months ago).
On the surface this sounds great, right? I can use my big brand name to get people to install my application, and then I can market to them via the palm of their hand whenever I want. If you’re a big brand, I have no doubt you will get a ton of downloads. But downloads are a vanity metric; they don’t measure success.
Most brands treat their mobile applications as an advertisement. No one wants to download an ad. I’ve seen it with grocery stores through my experience building a mobile grocery coupon company, Pushpins. They often underinvest in mobile and choose a form-fitted application — a cookie cutter white label that gets the job done but isn’t a great solution for their consumers — to quickly get their brand in the hands of shoppers. Then they think it’s enough.
Building a mobile strategy is more than just having your own application. It means working with third-party mobile apps, mobile ad networks, and using offline marketing to drive further use in mobile.
Here are four things to remember as you consider a mobile strategy — and some reasons why you should expand your mobile strategy past just your mobile app…
