“The phone is not even just a
phone anymore; it is a paradox. On the one hand it is very personal
and on the other it is very open and social.”
—Seb Chan, head of digital, social, and emerging technologies at
the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
Much research is being published
around technology and emotional engagement, specifically with
smartphones. For consumers, the smartphone is a ubiquitous
companion that provides a gateway to the digital universe. For
brands, it’s an opportunity to get closer to those consumers than
ever before by way of branded apps. However, the decision to invest
in a branded app should not be taken lightly. According to research
published by Deloitte in 2011, 80 percent of major consumer and
healthcare apps are downloaded fewer than 1,000 times.1
What, then, is the key to ensuring that your branded app is
successful? Obviously, it should be personalized and easy to use,
as well as work seamlessly across all devices. In addition, here
are five basic tips that can help your app not only get downloaded,
but be used time and again, building a stronger relationship with
your customers.
1. Find the insight
What do you hope to achieve with this app? What is your brand’s
overall strategy and how can an app contribute to it?
Say you’re a retailer looking to reposition yourself as
providing the most personalized shopper experience. Perhaps you
create an app that enables customers to book appointments with your
shopping assistants. If you’re a telecommunications brand targeting
a male audience, your app might deliver up-to-date sports news
while also giving away free tickets to sporting events.
Domino’s Pizza set out in 2009 to provide its customers with the
most reliable and efficient delivery service. In November of that
year it launched its iPhone app, designed and built in Australia,
enabling customers to order pizzas from the palm of their hand. Not
only that, but the incorporation of a live pizza tracker would also
guide them, step-by-step, through the pizza-making and delivery
process.2
The app went on to generate $2 million worth of sales in just 12
weeks and Domino’s posted a 39 percent net profit for the second
half of the year.3 To this
day, the Domino’s app is widely regarded as one of Australia’s most
successful branded apps.
2. Have a purpose
When consumers download a branded app onto their smartphones,
they’re inviting that brand into their personal space. Some brands,
by their nature, have a better chance of receiving such an
invitation. Just as in the physical world, the average consumer is
more likely to welcome a beer-branded item into his home than an
insurance-branded one. And when you do enter a consumer’s personal
space, you’re expected to behave as a guest—which means no overt
sales messages.
Bear in mind that using quick response (QR) codes merely to
provide information is a shift back to the one-way digital
communications of the early millennium and away from today’s
two-way digital conversations. But Tesco’s widely commended
Homeplus app in South Korea uses QR codes to great effect, creating
a virtual grocery store for commuters. With its relevant and
differentiated purpose, it helped Tesco’s online sales climb 130
percent within three months.4
Here in Australia, 7News commands a genuine point-of-difference
with the incorporation of a live Twitter feed in its app,
personalizing each story and bringing context to the reader.
Likewise, Foxtel’s unique TV Guide app allows customers to record
shows automatically—and it’s downloaded more frequently than any
other branded entertainment app in Australia’s App Store.
3. Be believable
According to Nielsen, the top categories of app downloads in the
United States in the second quarter of 2011 were games, weather,
and social networking.5 It’s
not surprising, therefore, that so many brands have gone down these
routes. But if you’re considering creating an app in one of these
categories, first ask yourself if this is a believable extension of
your brand. Hurley provides an excellent surf report app (for the
Australian market) that not only has a relevant purpose for its
target consumer, but is also appropriate to the brand.
Your app could also be an extension of the brand idea. On the
surface, Unilever’s Lynx Stream app looked like an ambitious
attempt to wrap social location features, such as sharing photos on
a night out, around a deodorant brand. It succeeded because it was
based on Lynx’s central brand essence of “the Lynx effect.” Just
like Red Bull and “extreme energy,” Nike and “winning,” and Dove
and “real beauty,” Lynx’s 25 years of helping guys get ahead in the
mating game gave them license to create an app based on going out
and socializing.
In Australia, Triple J has gone beyond its traditional radio app
by launching Triple J Unearthed, which shares playlists of
recommended artists who are not yet signed to a major label. Both
apps have five stars in Apple’s App Store because they do what
Triple J does best—bring new music to people who want to hear
it.
4. Start marketing
A branded app is not just a tool to market a brand; it is itself
a product that needs to be marketed, whether through a “free app a
day” or more traditional forms of advertising. According to
Nielsen, 45 percent of consumers discover branded mobile apps most
frequently from third-party websites and ads—be they online,
television, radio, or print.6
One proven marketing strategy for branded apps is sponsorship.
Citibank is promoting itself and its app through sponsorship of the
Good Food Guide (which is also available as an app). Heineken
successfully used its sponsorship of the 2011 Rugby World Cup in
New Zealand to advertise an app that lets you play along while
watching live games.
Which brings up another key point: Integrating your branded app
into other media channels allows for wider relevance as well as
seamless communications. Watching television no longer commands the
viewer’s undivided attention; a recent Deloitte survey showed that
nearly three-quarters of adults and teens are multitasking while
watching television. About 42 percent are surfing the web, 26
percent are sending instant or text messages, and another 30
percent are talking on the phone.7
5. Think about the future
The current digital relationship between consumers and brands
has few, if any, rules, and both sides are unsure how it will play
out in the long run. With the dramatic shift in communications
brought about by new technology, business leaders such as
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos sit in a unique
position whereby their decisions could have a dramatic effect on
determining future behavioral patterns.
With power comes great responsibility. Rich Karlgaard wrote last
year in Forbesmagazine that Steve Jobs was the Luke Skywalker of
American business, but he could easily have been the Darth Vadar. I
think that the majority of people would say that Apple products
have enhanced our ability to communicate with each other, but only
time will tell which of today’s innovations will have a positive
effect on society.
To this point, those who create apps have a responsibility to
society in that their creations facilitate certain behaviors or
lessons. Sadly, an app that enables a child to skip levels on a
game if they buy credit teaches them that cutting corners to get
ahead is okay as long as you pay for it. An app that enables
someone to pinpoint exactly where someone is in the world at any
given time has a significant influence on perceptions of privacy
norms.
Consequently, brands today find themselves with an array of new
ways to interact with consumers. While there are many opportunities
for short-term gratification, brands that consider the future
ramifications of their actions will ultimately benefit the
most.
1. “Killer apps? Appearance isn’t everything,” Deloitte MCS
Limited (2011),
deloitte.com/view/en_XB/xb/news/0b63f9b5440c0310VgnVCM2000001b56f00aRCRD.htm
(accessed 11 January 2012).
2. “Domino’s Leaps Ahead with Mobile Ordering,” Domino’s Pizza
Media Release (3 June 2011),
dominos.com.au/pdf/news/Dominos_launches_Mobile_Ordering_site_May_11_FINAL.pdf
(accessed 11 January 2012).
3. “Has Domino’s Pizza got Australia’s most successful business
iPhone app?” (18 February 2010), SmartCompany.com.au
smartcompany.com.au/Search.html?keyword=iPhone+App (accessed 11
January 2012).
4. “Tesco builds virtual shops for Korean commuters,” The
Telegraph (27 June 2011),
telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/8601147/Tesco-builds-virtual-shops-for-Korean-commuters.html
(accessed 11 January 2012).
5. “Play Before Work: Games Most Popular Mobile App Category in
U.S.,” The Nielsen Company (6 July 2011),
blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/games-most-popular-mobile-app-category/
(accessed 11 January 2012).
6. “You Have an App for That… Now What?” The Nielsen Company (22
June 2011),
blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/you-have-an-app-for-that-now-what/
(accessed 11 January 2012).
7. Deloitte’s “State of the Media Democracy” Survey: TV Industry
Embraces the Internet and Prospers,” Deloitte Development LLC (1
February 2011),
deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/press/Press-Releases/dc69d100b4ccd210VgnVCM2000001b56f00aRCRD.htm
(accessed 11 January 2012).
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