Mobile marketing strategies for B2C companies

Abstract

Mobile application ('apps') development is a recent pandemic phenomenon; companies that are not associated with mobile technologies are noticing it and want to develop their own mobile apps. However, these companies do not realize that they need to have a mobile strategy in place, just like their IT strategy. Mobile technology is a new paradigm for businesses. The mobile device is emerging as a powerful sales channel and marketing medium, which these businesses must strategize and plan for. Companies need to be equipped with a framework within which they can develop marketing initiatives through mobile technologies. The world is reaching a point where developing a viable mobile strategy is an imperative for small and large businesses to enable their long term growth and sustenance. Recently, the iPhone and its app store have created a vibe in industry with almost 1 billion mobile apps being downloaded from the iphone app store by July 2009. However, many marketers still doubt iPhone's reach to a larger, and, more importantly, a targeted audience. Also, there is increasing complexity with a variety of architectures, platforms and processes being adopted by each player, for example: iPhone App store, Blackberry App world, Palm's App Catalog, Microsoft's Windows Mobile Marketplace, Nokia's ovi, Google Android Market and more in the pipeline by various players in the market ecosystems, mainly device manufacturers-Samsung, LG, Motorola-as well as service providers - AT&T, T-Mobile and 02, to name a few. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the mobile application development framework and its implications for marketers, and try to answer some of the questions regarding mobile application development strategy. The author will attempt to address the lack of knowledge that companies have available today when deciding whether to develop mobile applications for marketing and how to choose which platform(s), and provide a reference document that companies can use in order to be successful.