MOBILE SPOTLIGHT
DUO SOCIAL MOBILE + Dynamic Retail’s
BY NICOLE URSO REED
Exploring the value of social media within the direct response industry may evoke a bit of déjà vu for those who analyzed the value and importance of mobile advertisements just a few years ago. The mobile debate seemed almost irrelevant after the 2010 holiday
season when mobile shoppers used their smartphones to find local discounts, redeem
electronic coupons and scan bar codes to compare product prices at competing re-
tailers. Overall holiday sales increased 5. 7 percent to $462 billion, according to the
National Retail Federation (NRF), surpassing its forecast of 3. 3 percent. After a come-
back season, the NRF released an updated version of its “Mobile Blueprint,” a guide-
line for retailers entering the mobile space, to help them emulate mobile strategies
that worked so well in 2010.
“Five years ago, it might have been acceptable for
an associate to honor the prices on the store’s website
for a customer but not the prices on a competitor’s
website,” the NRF states in the report. “Today, cus-
tomers may not even set foot in a retailer’s store if
they are able to find what they need to purchase using
a mobile device.;Even if the customer enters the store,
the customer can easily use a mobile device to scan
the bar code of an item of interest, find and purchase
it at a lower price elsewhere, and leave the item sit-
ting on the store shelf.”
As retailers gear up for another holiday season,
many have found that integrating a mobile strategy
must also involve an exploration of social media.
“The optimum goal for retailers is to achieve a
singular brand experience for customers, regardless of
the technology used to interact with that brand,” the
report states. “This means that legacy channel-based
systems, business processes, and organizational silos
must continue to evolve.”
No Strings Attached
Mobile media users are nearing the majority in the
U.S., according to comScore’s “State of Mobile Advertising” report in June. At least 45. 7 percent — or
106.8 million people — use mobile media; 27. 2 percent use SMS but not mobile media, and 27. 1 percent
use voice only. Mobile media includes accessing rich
data, such as browsing the Web, using applications
and downloading or streaming video content.
As consumers continue to purchase smartphones
and tablets, such as Apple’s iPad and Android devices
like the Motorola Xoom, with unlimited data plans,
the use of social media escalates simultaneously.
comScore’s mobile advertising report states that users
who access social media through a mobile device al-
