Five tips for connecting with a branded app
By Richard Swain, The Hub, March/April 2012
“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.
To continue, read
Five tips for connecting with a branded app on Landor.com.
Richard Swain is strategist at the Sydney office of Landor Associates.
This article was first published in the
Hub (March/April 2012).
hubmagazine.com1 “Killer apps? Appearance isn’t everything,” Deloitte MCS Limited (2011), deloitte.com/view/en_XB/xb/news/0b63f9b5440c0310VgnVCM2000001b56f00aRCRD.htm (accessed 11 January 2012).