As we discussed in a previous post, over the past 3 years we’ve experienced a true behavior change in the way U.S. consumers are using their mobile phones and native mobile applications have definitely been at the center of this transformation. With over 700,000 applications currently available in different app stores and over 15 billion downloads, it is safe to assume we’ve entered the mobile application mass adoption phase.
And where consumers are, every brand wants to be … but, while a large number of brands have been busy launching mobile applications, one important question remains to be fully answered: what makes a branded mobile application a success? Or, even better: what makes a branded mobile application a good investment?
For a while now, the generic metric “number of downloads” has been used as the standard way to quantify success and although there is no question you need to put your app on users’ phones first, that is just the beginning. After all, less than 5% of all apps, not just branded apps, are still in use 30 days after they were downloaded. In a nutshell, the number of downloads for a mobile app is nothing more than what the number of “Likes” is for a Facebook page: a measure of the engagement potential a brand has through a very specific communication channel.
Nevertheless, just by reading the definition of the word “potential:” “existing in possibility and capable of development into actuality,” it is hopefully obvious why the “number of downloads” shouldn’t be the most important data point used to build the business case behind any mobile application. Now, when it comes to marketing best practices, for any rule there is an exception. In this case, launching an iPhone application (not Blackberry, not Android, not Palm, just iPhone) in the first year of existence for the iPhone App Store (2008 – 2009) just as a pure awareness play, without any real quantitative measurements beyond the number of downloads, made sense for a number of brands. Actually, for these brands, the number of downloads was practically irrelevant beyond the associated bragging rights, because the key message was purely qualitative: “we’re cool, we have an iPhone app.” And when it was done right, it worked …
Fast forward to 2010 – 2011, the landscape is completely different and the consumer transformed. Consumers can’t be easily “wowed” anymore and they won’t think a brand is innovative just because it has an app. What does this mean for marketers and brands? An app has to have a very clear reason to exist in order to make sense for a consumer to use it more than once or twice and, equally important, for a brand to invest in it.
So, what’s a good business reason for a branded app? While different audiences would probably answer this question in very different ways, a 2010 Forrester study into the ROI of mobile did a great job consolidating potential drivers into three general categories of business benefits: increased revenue, lower costs and higher performance on consumer experience KPIs. By using this approach we were able to identify a number of mobile applications that accomplished at least one of these goals and retrospectively proved to be great investments for the respective brands. Of this list, we chose five apps we believe represent “best in class” examples: Starbucks, Target, Kraft Foods, Sherwin Williams and Nationwide Insurance.
Starbucks – Starbucks Card Mobile
What is it?
A virtual mobile payment card.
What makes it a great branded mobile app?
It addresses two major needs for Starbucks customers without any unnecessary additions:
- having their Starbucks card available anytime, anywhere
- being able to reload the card on the go
Consequently, over 3 million people are active users of the application.
What could make it even better?
Launching Android and Windows Phone versions of the app and moving all useful functionality from the “My Starbucks” app into the Mobile Card app. Launching multiple branded mobile applications rarely pays off. It can be confusing for the consumer and there’s a good chance it will dilute the company’s mobile message … or, as one of Starbucks’ customers put it: ”We want 1 app with complete functionality and we want it now.”
Target – Target Mobile
What is it?
A complete mobile commerce experience.
What makes it a great branded mobile app?
One of the best mobile commerce implementations and definitely a “best in class” cross channel integration. It supports the user in all phases of the purchase process, from discovery to action and it does it while integrating location awareness all the way down to product availability.
What could make it even better?
As a mobile commerce implementation, Target’s app is really well done. Expanding the native support to other platforms could be a way to grow the app’s reach, but for now that need is partially satisfied by the company’s mobile optimized website. The real opportunity for the brand is to redefine the in-store shopping experience through reality augmentation and social integration.
Kraft Foods – iFood Assistant
What is it?
A mobile cooking assistant.
What makes it a great branded mobile app?
In a nutshell … game changing. Kraft proved with this app that the impossible is possible: a branded mobile app promoting a brand’s products doesn’t have to be free to be a success. By producing the best mobile cooking assistant in the market, branded or unbranded, Kraft was able to non-intrusively market its products while directly generating an estimated revenue in the seven figures. Also, by making the app available for all major smartphone platforms in record time, Kraft secured its position as a leader in this space.
What could make it even better?
Make it free. On second thought, why kill a great revenue stream? While Kraft launched a light version of the app, the fully featured solution remains the central piece of their mobile strategy. Adding more dieting features and introducing a social gaming component would probably be the best way to evolve.
Sherwin Williams – ColorSnap
What is it?
A mobile paint color selector.
What makes it a great branded mobile app?
Simple and efficient. Before this app, being able to match a paint color to a real world color you were looking for was, at best, an extremely cumbersome process. Once the app was launched, the problem was solved for good. And for Sherwin Williams, launching this app was equivalent to hitting the marketing jackpot.
What could make it even better?
While the concept behind the app is genius and the match with the brand core business is perfect, the app in its current form is engaging users only in the initial part of the marketing funnel. Even more, while indirect metrics can be derived, no direct conversion rates can be determined for the app and consequently, quantifying business impact could be very difficult. The good news is both problems could be addressed simultaneously through cross channel integration strategies (e.g. mobile coupons).
Nationwide Insurance – Nationwide Mobile
What is it?
An accident mobile support tool.
What makes it a great branded mobile app?
By being the first insurance company to launch a mobile application in early 2009, Nationwide Insurance demonstrated that even companies doing business in highly regulated industries, such as financial services, could engage users through mobile apps outside their core services. The key was again the focus on a clear customer need: immediate support in the case of an accident. Furthermore, Nationwide’s marketing plan for launching the app, which included a dedicated TV ad, was undeniably a “best in class” example.
The concept was great, so within 9 months, all major insurance companies launched their own mobile applications.
What could make it even better?
Make it a mobile insurance card and work with authorities to accept it as a valid proof of insurance. While getting this done is definitely not an easy task, the opportunity for Nationwide to become again the trend setter in the insurance space is huge.
