Optism™

Welcome to Optism’s first blog acting as curator for the Carnival of the Mobilists. In our dynamic industry, we’ve found that keeping abreast of what ecosystem members are saying is critical to staying on top. That’s why we published our Permission Marketing in the News blogs for almost two years! Now, we’re happy and honored to be a Carnival of the Mobilists host — and we’ve got a great collection of articles to suggest to you this week.

Our favorite comes from mobileweb company’s Martin Wilson. Martin shared his thoughts on responsive web design and why he believes it is falling far short of what people need. According to Martin, responsive web design is “a lazy way to approach mobile.” It focuses on delivering content that suits the size, platform and orientation of the device in use, rather than the needs of the mobile user. Because the content is PC oriented, it includes information that is not relevant in a mobile context and bulky graphics that bog down the mobile experience. Worse still, the information the user is most likely to be interested in, such as store locations, is often buried under pages of this unwanted stuff. Mobile, says Martin, can’t be an afterthought. It’s time for businesses to think about “mobile leading their online strategy.”

Other interesting posts from this week: Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, I discussed that the wrong questions were being asked about the development of the mobile wallet – namely, that that there was not enough industry focus on the needs of the consumer. This week, I focus on the privacy of the consumer and how much personal information a consumer is willing to give up for convenience.

The practice of gathering Big Data by marketers will impact the consumer on two fronts; their privacy and the ability for brands and businesses to deliver a better shopping experience for them. Marketers have always had data on consumers, except the amount of data was not as big and it was fairly anonymous. The data was more about an average person’s behavior over a specific period of time within a certain demographic. For the most part, marketers could blast advertising messages and expect fairly consistent results.

Now that has all changed.

The internet, social media and mobile have changed the equation. We are not passive customers anymore. We validate product claims on Yelp, Consumer Reports and Facebook. We pose questions to others and get almost immediate feedback. We make “individual” decisions that can’t always be predicted or calculated. We are opting-out of traditional marketing and opting-in to programs from brands and businesses that are asking us for our permission and respecting our privacy choices.

In an article last week in Marketingland entitled Give It Up For Mobile Data, Rachel Pasqua of Organic discussed the battle over “big data” between consumers and marketers. She starts off by making an excellent point about the Myth of the Average Consumer.

• “So I’m actually not the average consumer. But then neither are you. No one is. The average consumer is an urban myth– which makes the traditional tactics we use to target them semi-effective, at best. They didn’t coin the phrase “banner blindness” for nothing. I block out a good 95% of the ads I see because they are meaningless to me.”

Pasqua dismisses the concept of the average consumer because privacy comes down to the decisions each individual makes and each decision is different. Every second, a consumer is faced with the choice of whether to give up their privacy in exchange for information. There are three values; the consumer’s desire to protect his or her privacy, the value of the offer and the level of trust the consumer has of the business. If the value of the offer is greater than the value of privacy and the level of trust does not impact the offer then the transaction is completed. If not, no deal.

Pasqua says that Google Maps is good example of this. The service has completed millions of these “privacy” transactions, as the value of not getting lost is more valuable than the desire to keep your location secret from Google. Now that the consumer is aware of the privacy equation, he or she can decide what information to provide, changing us from average, passive consumer to active, aware consumers making individual decisions.

Mobile takes this even farther because it increases the number of privacy transactions we are faced with every day. The weather app wants to know where I am. The travel app wants to know if I want to monitor flights to a certain city. The clothing retailer wants keep my shirt size and my kids’ size.

Brands, businesses and mobile apps have a responsibility to inform the consumer about the data they are collecting and how they are using it. And provide this privacy information in a way that consumers can truly understand – not pages and pages of small print and complex language.

At Optism, we call this behavior Thinking Human and we have outlined best practices about how being transparent with consumers pays off in the end. By being clear about the ramifications of the privacy decisions one makes, it lessens the chance that the consumer could become disappointed by the experience. Additionally, giving the user some control over their profile and how their information is being used improves the experience and customer relationship. This thinking helps to build trust, increasing the likelihood of additional transactions and fosters loyalty which ideally leads to more business.

Take our Facebook poll, What information are you willing to give to a company for making your life more convenient?

Since our inception, everyone at Optism has been focused on providing more value for our customers with a special emphasis on creating a great experience for people through our mobile solutions.

To that end, while other companies have rolled-out mobile marketing solutions which were not opt-in, Optism has been promoting permission-based mobile marketing as the best way to deliver a long-term, deeper level of engagement with people. We achieve this by providing mobile audiences with the opportunity to opt-in into a mobile  advertising service and share their interests and preferences, thereby receiving only the content they value. We believe this was a win-win-win as the results speak for themselves.

We see a similar “lack of value” focus on the right questions to ask regarding the mobile wallet. The news for mobile wallet has been mostly focused on the technology, which merchants will sign up, who will be in charge, etc.

What about the mobile wallet user?

What do they want in the mobile wallet?

We believe that one person who is asking the right questions is Omar Green, the Mobile Strategic Initiatives Director at Intuit. Mr. Green gave a talk last week at the SXSW conference, entitled Creating a Mobile Wallet Worth Having and it was reviewed by Mark Henricks from American Express Open in article entitled, A Mobile Wallet That Does More Than Help You Spend Money. We highly recommend reading this article. Mr. Green summed the key mobile wallet question as thus, “The last thing most of us need is something to help us spend money faster. We need something to help us spend money better.”

How can we spend better using a mobile wallet? Mr. Green says that the mobile wallet should be more like your financial advisor rather than your mobile ATM. He said it should alert you when you try to buy something that is not within your financial budget. Or it could connect with all your credit cards and would recommend the best one to use to receive the most points.

While we agree with Mr. Green’s vision for the mobile wallet, we would expand its scope. It should be more about helping you save time, providing convenience and hopefully, simplifying your life rather than just storing your money. It should have everything from your typical take out order at the local restaurant, to facilitating faster hotel room check-ins, to getting m-tickets for the football game that can be read at the point of entry to a stadium. It should help you reach your financial goals as well as your personal, and any other goals.

Let’s change the mobile wallet conversation and keep asking the right questions.