Look before you jump

Perhaps no scenario has been more closely tied to mobile marketing than the story about customers walking by a Starbucks only to be pinged on their cellphones with an SMS coupon for 20% off a Raspberry Mocha Frappuccino. Over the years, this scenario has been criticized for a number of reasons-too many pings would be irritating, the opt-in process could be complicated, and people would have to manage their opt-in preferences.
But I got a completely different message when talking to John Hadl, CEO of Brand in Hand. Hadl is also a strategic adviser to Procter & Gamble’s mobile marketing group. (You may have heard of Proctor & Gamble. They make a few products sold in grocery stores. The company’s Web site says Proctor & Gamble products touch people 3 billion times a day!)
Hadl said coupons are probably the mobile application least likely to take off. What? (Personally, this is a tragedy for me since I don’t clip newspaper coupons because I am lazy, but I think saving text-message coupons on my phone would be bearable.)
But Hadl said retailers dislike coupons because they lose money taking the time to ring up coupons. So no store is going to want to count your 15 coupons at the counter. (This actually helps explain why coupons have not evolved; retailers don’t want to make it easy for customers to use them!)
However, at the same conference I heard about a successful marketing campaign offering vouchers for discounts on dog food, so it seems the jury is still out on which campaigns companies will embrace.
But the wireless industry often makes the mistake of thinking that just because something can be done, it should be done. It would behoove industry to look beyond its boundaries to see how the brands themselves want to use wireless before they decide what neat application to develop.