Mobile Experience

People have experiences... devices have interfaces

Two review articles -- Wireless Business Forecast (Vol.3; Issue 3) and MediaPost.com -- illustrate the reality of the long-tail digital media market.  While there may be a diversity of tastes and opinions with respect to content appeal, there is one thing on which all reviewers agree -- the consumer experience must dramatically improve to catalyze the mobile digital media market. 

Most reviewers however, seem to think of the individual as a user of a device. While I agree that user interface elements are very important -- e.g. search ease and accuracy; content structure and packaging; the intuitiveness and appropriateness of the device-user interface -- these are merely the tip of the iceberg when one thinks from the perspective of the individual's holistic experience.  It's the experience for the person in the context of their on-the-run life that seldom gets reviewed. 

Experience is the key to opening the walled garden

Restrictions rarely lead to revenue, particularly in an early consumer choice-centric environment.  This same truth will likely apply to the walled gardens of the mobile operators. 

The Third Screen blog, "Are Ads the Key to the Walled Garden", proposes that ad-funded services may open walled gardens to others, thereby providing a better mobile experience to the consumer.  Enabling consumer choice is indeed the key for unlocking any proprietary mentality, particularly in a consumer-controlled world.  Advertiser funding and sponsorship will also probably stimulate uptake and growth for some period of time, for some group of individuals.  But will it unlock value?  What has yet to be proven is how to sustain continuous profitable relationships between consumers, advertisers and digital content service providers, particularly when the initial novelty of getting free content and services in exchange for viewing ads wears off. 

Reach Out and Serve Someone

In an anything, anytime, anywhere environment, consumers can have access to almost anything they seek, for the price they want, made available for them when they want it.  Ubiquitous choice has become the ultimate competitive challenge for every traditional retailer of products or services. 

If the scenario described in Gifts & Decorative Accessories is anywhere near real, retail is going to change dramatically.  In this article, a shopper in a store sees the desired product on the shelf, and at the decision moment, brings out her mobile phone instead of her credit card.  She snaps a photo of the barcode with her camera phone, scans it and sends it to a retail service such as Amazon.com or Shopping.com.  What comes back to her mobile screen is detailed product information, reviews, and a list of competing retailers within 2-3 miles of the shopper's location, with maps and directions, and maybe even more incentives to buy. 

High Value - Low Complexity Mobile Marketing

Why does mobile marketing need to be so complex?  It's a question I have pondered numerous times, and so it was with great relief I found that I wasn't alone when reading The Mobile Marketing Maelstrom. 

It is true that marketing campaigns delivered through an individual's mobile device must be careful not to violate permissions and security, but this should be the consideration for any marketing campaign using any medium, channel or touchpoint.  What is interesting from this article's discussion of different research studies (Enpocket, Forrester, WhitePages.com) is that if the focus of the campaign or ad is relevant to the individual's activity, then it is usually allowed, and in some cases, gratefully accepted.