Strategies / Vol. 5, No. 2, 2013 / GfK MIR
Brand Communication with Branded Smartphone Apps: First Insights on Possibilities and Limits Managerial Summary by GfK MIR
keywords
Branded Apps, Mobile Marketing, Online Advertising
The omnipresence of smartphones and new habits of media consumption cannot be overlooked by advertisers. Among more traditional mobile initiatives, such as conventional advertising and text-message campaigns, branded apps represent a new possibility for enhancing brand images and service satisfaction. Branded apps prominently display brand identity, often via the name of the app and the appearance of a brand logo or icon, throughout the user experience. Procter & Gamble Co. offers, for instance, a Pampers app with helpful information for parents and entertainment for babies. BMW and other car manufacturers provide mobile car configurators to visualize certain car models in 3-D. Compared with other forms of advertising, branded apps are welcomed as “useful.” Therefore, they can be considered as “pull” rather than
“push” advertising. Product tips and tricks, how-tos and DIY information help consumers learn to more effectively use a product or to better integrate it into their lives. Advertisers need no opt-in permission because consumers download the apps on their own initiative. They assume that the high level of engagement associated with users’ experiences in interacting with mobile phone apps is likely to make the advertising messages conveyed by those apps highly persuasive. App users tend to process brand-related information more deeply and for a longer time than, for example, watchers of a television ad. As a result, advertisers expect consumer affinity for a brand to gradually expand.
App interaction strengthens connection with a brand /// An experiment conducted by Australian and American researchers confirmed that app interaction consistently improved brand attitude, purchase intention and involvement in the respective product category. More than 200 participants were exposed to eight different branded apps –Target, Kraft, Gap, Lancôme, Gillette, BMW, Best Buy, Weber – offered on the iTunes App Store. In a laboratory setting, the participants interacted with each app for as long as they were interested and answered questions on the brands in focus before and after exposure. The apps represented various product categories and were either primarily informative or experiential. Figure 1 compares the results of the surveys before and after participants’ interaction with the apps and shows the increased interest in the brand.
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