Mobilized Marketing: How to Drive Sales, Engagement, and Loyalty Through Mobile Devices

Chapter 12

Build Me an iPhone App

iPhone mania stretched all the way to C-level suites across corporations worldwide. Marketers who rarely had access to chief executives were summoned to corner offices only to leave with a firm marching order—build us an iPhone app now.

The mandate was largely driven by naïve views that the introduction of an iPhone application would land a company space on the cover of the Wall Street Journal. That was proved to be a fallacy as Apple’s App Store grew to more than a half million apps and the mere activity of creating an application was for journalists anything but news.

But marketers intent on keeping their jobs charged their in-house and outside teams with app development even if it made no sense. More than one business traveled this unwise path despite the fact that their consumers or prospects were outside of the initial iPhone demographic—young, affluent, and early adopters of technology.

Hipcricket counseled clients to be more strategic, oftentimes to use text messaging for reach because this capability was available on well over 90 percent of handsets. In some cases, it was recommended that brands add on an app to deliver a richer brand experience. The downside was the app was rarely available in all carrier app stores and could be downloaded only by more robust devices.

Joy Liuzzo of InsightExpress (see Chapter 5) provided similar advice.

“When I first starting talking to brands and agencies back in 2007, my strategy was to educate, educate, ...