Making Money With Your Phone: The Mobile Internet Marketing Revolution

Chapter 16 APP Marketing: One Entrance to Solve Everything (1)
6.1 APP Marketing Era: Simplify Everything
6.1.1 The sudden emergence of APP marketing
APP is the abbreviation of English Application, which refers to the third-party application program of smartphones. In 2012, the United States released a set of data about smartphones: Compared with 2011, the proportion of smartphones in the total number of mobile phones rose from 2012% to 38% in 50, and the users of Android and iOS systems rose from 3800 million to 8400 million. Correspondingly, the time spent by mobile phone users on APP and the Internet has increased from 73% to 81%, and the average number of APPs downloaded and used by users for a long time has increased from 32 to 41.Whether we have entered the APP era cannot be judged rashly, but with the development of smart phones, mobile APPs have gradually become a new channel for mobile Internet marketing communication. This is an indisputable fact.

Mobile APP marketing is so different from traditional marketing. It does not require overwhelming advertisements, nor does it require a large-scale sales force, but it can do things that traditional marketing cannot do.If an enterprise's APP has 100 million installed users, it means that the enterprise can conduct 100-hour brand promotion and advertising to 24 million potential consumers at the same time - in a way different from traditional advertising.For traditional marketers, this is simply a dream.At the same time, due to the rigid settings such as "get the location of the mobile phone" and "get the friend information in the address book" attached to the installation of many APPs, the company can also fully grasp the behavioral habits and social status of these 100 million users, accurate to their daily position changes.Such detailed user information, coupled with big data cloud computing, is of great guiding significance for the formulation of strategies such as corporate marketing priorities and methods.Furthermore, if your APP also has a payment function, the entire marketing process will be more perfect.

We have seen that from contacting customers to attracting customers to sticking customers, even managing customers, initiating promotions, and finally completing sales, the entire marketing process only needs the small port of APP.This kind of marketing ability is too tempting.No wonder Zhang Fulian, CEO of Baifenlian, said at the 2011 China Mobile Global Developers Conference: "APP is an active factor of the mobile Internet, a fresh blood of the mobile Internet industry, and a core element of mobile integrated marketing services. The mobile marketing plan of various mobile Internet advanced technologies and promotion means cannot do without the matchmaking of APP."

6.1.2 Case Study: APP Improves Quality of Life
Many companies are aware of the importance of APP marketing. In foreign countries, hundreds of well-known brands have already developed their own APPs and carried out corresponding promotion and operation.

21cake, a high-end cake brand under Twenty-one Food Co., Ltd., not only continues to provide consumers with visual and taste impacts, but also keeps pace with the times and launches its own APP, opening a new chapter in the marketing of the cake industry.

The development of the cake industry has gone through three main stages. The first is traditional store retail, which attracts customers to store consumption through leaflets, word of mouth, etc., followed by e-commerce, where customers place orders online and stores deliver goods to their door. The latest The biggest trend is the APP model, which allows customers to place orders anytime and anywhere through the APP and the mobile Internet, and enjoy delicious cakes.And 21cake is the representative brand of the third stage of cake industry development.

According to incomplete statistics, the scale of my country's mid-to-high-end cake market exceeds RMB 50 billion, and many tycoons have been coveting this big cake for a long time, and they are secretly making efforts. The reason why 21cake is able to lead the industry is because they have targeted the e-commerce path early on. 21cake has pioneered the model of "no shop, zero inventory, online sales, telephone ordering", and has accumulated a huge number of Internet customers.On this basis and then promote APP marketing, it will get twice the result with half the effort.

The 21cake APP provides customers with many practical functions, including: cake shopping, star product recommendation, online ordering, and interaction with the APP, etc.In the shopping guide link, 21cake APP provides three classification methods: 1. Choose according to your own taste or the taste of relatives and friends; 2. Search according to the food group, such as the elderly, children, etc.; Star Products.

In addition to these, customers can also write down important anniversaries through the 21cake APP, and also show off their happiness in the commemorative sun. For this reason, the 21cake APP provides the function of binding with Weibo.

The success of the 21cake APP is almost inevitable. Compared with traditional stores and e-commerce, the mobile advantage of the APP is obvious. The APP helps customers get rid of space constraints, allowing them to enjoy delicious cakes anytime and anywhere, thus greatly improving the consumption experience.

Of course, what 21cake is worth learning from is not only its creativity and vision, but also their high-quality supporting services.From customers placing an order on the APP to delivery to their door, 21cake can make full use of every hour.Usually, customers only need to wait for about 5 hours before they can taste the high-quality cakes delivered by 21cake.This time not only ensures that the needs of customers are met, but also fully maintains the taste of the cake.Many people commented on 21cake's delivery: "It's not too early or too late, it's delivered at the most delicious moment!"

6.2 Foundation, Model and Strategy of App Marketing
Since 2011, the wave caused by Apple in the world has made more and more companies realize the importance of mobile APP. The role of enterprise APP marketing for enterprises has received further attention, and more and more enterprises have participated in APP marketing in various forms. in the torrent.Technological changes have brought about major changes in business marketing models.

Generally speaking, APP marketing refers to marketing activities carried out through applications running on platforms such as special mobile phones, communities, and SNS. It is an important channel and a natural hub connecting online and offline.When an enterprise conducts APP marketing, only by accurately grasping user psychology, digging deep into user needs, and using various methods to resonate with users can it guide users to participate in their own marketing process to the greatest extent and achieve marketing goals.

6.2.1 What App Users Are Most Concerned About

The basis of APP marketing is of course mobile applications.We know that APP can be divided into game APP and application APP according to its content, and the latter includes tools, media, brands, and so on.Among these tens of thousands of apps, the life cycle of game and brand apps is the shortest: no matter how interesting "Angry Birds" is, no matter how masochistic flappy bird is, it only takes two months at most for you to get tired of it; The brand category is the APP category that users most want to delete.

Which of the common mobile applications are the most popular among users?According to the survey, social communication tools such as QQ, WeChat, and Weibo are the most popular, because their communication is convenient and timely, and less restricted by time and place.Second, system tools such as browsers and security software are also popular.Again, navigation maps, etc. are also favored by most users for their practicality.

APP creators certainly hope that their products will be favored by users for a long time, and the key is to change the theme of APP from brand promotion to providing practical functions.Users open a mobile app not for "playing" but for "using". Users will get tired of a game app after playing too much, and users of a functional app will continue to use it after using it smoothly.Focusing on the immediate needs of users is the core meaning of an APP to maintain its popularity.

6.2.2 Common Models of APP Marketing

Different APP categories are naturally suitable for different marketing models. Generally speaking, the most important marketing models are: advertising placement model, user participation model and shopping website transplantation model.

[-]. Ad placement mode

Ad placement is the most common mode in APP marketing. Advertisers advertise by embedding dynamic advertising links in functional and game apps. When users click on the links, they will see the introduction and sales pages of related products.This mode is easy to operate, and putting it on popular apps can allow the most people to have intuitive access to the company's products.However, due to the relative bluntness of this kind of implantation, its purchase conversion rate is not high.Think about it, we often see various advertisements popping up when we play mobile games and click pause, and sometimes we feel disturbed if we accidentally click the wrong button.

[-]. User Participation Mode

Enterprises publish applications that conform to their own brand positioning to the application store for mobile phone users to download. Users can obtain the practical functions they need from the application, and at the same time, they can intuitively understand the information of the brand.This model has a more obvious effect on improving corporate reputation and increasing user stickiness.Compared with the advertisement implantation mode, this mode is easier to be accepted by users.Because you meet the needs of users first, and then launch your own products in a timely manner.

This model requires companies to invest in the production of their own APP, which requires a large initial investment, but since it does not require later investment, the actual cost is comparable to that of continuously placing advertisements in other popular apps.The important thing is that the key to the success of this model is not investment, but in the design of APP content, creativity is more important than investment.

[-]. Shopping website transplant mode

This model is based on the shopping website on the Internet, which is a mobile APP of the shopping website. Users can browse the website through the APP anytime, anywhere, obtain product information, and simultaneously purchase and pay.Compared with the previous method of logging in to relevant shopping websites through mobile browsers and performing the same operations, this mode is faster and more convenient, with richer content and more pertinence. The disadvantage is that it is applicable to a single industry and does not have wide applicability.

6.2.3 Common Strategies of APP Marketing

[-]. Grasp the psychology of users and arouse resonance
The purchase behavior of users in the mobile Internet era is no longer simply accepting advertisements from enterprises, but proceeding from their own needs, conducting a comprehensive analysis of the required products, evaluating the purchasability, and finally deciding on their own purchase behavior.Therefore, only by resonating with consumers can companies have the opportunity to recommend their products to them.Therefore, when doing APP marketing, enterprises should pay attention to in-depth dialogue with consumers, fully understand the potential needs and psychological expectations of consumers, optimize their products according to these feedbacks, and adjust their publicity strategies.

Many companies will first consider "full function including brand" or "single function to display brand" when strategy APP marketing.In fact, this is not the most important thing. No matter which method is used, it is necessary to find the corresponding relationship between brand positioning, product selling points and consumers' psychological needs. Whether it is through big data or team planning, tap the potential of consumers. need.Then, combine it with elements that can capture the interests of the target audience, such as novelty hunting, sharing, health, sensibility, vanity, and so on.

[-]. Stimulate user participation and active interaction

In the era of mobile Internet, marketing can no longer blindly indoctrinate consumers with one-way concepts. User-oriented two-way or even multi-way interaction is the preferred strategy for APP marketing.Whoever can make full use of the fragmented APP usage time of consumers and maximize the intimate communication with users anytime, anywhere can achieve the purpose of shortening the distance with consumers in the interaction and seize the opportunity of APP marketing.

There are many ways to interact with users, the most important of which is to provide quality content.Today's consumers want to see something creative and informative.A survey shows that 70% of consumers prefer to learn about a company through an article rather than an advertisement.Of course, the content is not just text, but also practical services.

In order to promote its own air purifier, Philips made an APP called "Air Monitoring Station".Users can measure the indoor air quality based on this, and users who find that the air quality is not good will naturally pay attention to Philips air purifiers.

In this case, the company provided consumers with considerate services to test air quality, which actually stimulated consumers' purchasing needs virtually.This is the first move to treat providing content as marketing.

[-]. Combine various channels and combine new technologies

APP marketing is increasingly showing a trend of diversified development. Therefore, only by integrating other marketing methods and technical support to bring consumers a breakthrough user experience can the value of APP marketing be fully tapped.Enterprise APP marketing can choose to combine with traditional advertising, video marketing, store promotion or event marketing and other marketing methods to form a synergistic effect and maximize the marketing effect.At the same time, APP marketing must also combine various new technologies: the continuous emergence of new technologies such as location service (LBS), mobile phone identification, augmented reality (AR), and gravity sensing has given APP marketing more room for development.

The Ibutterfly APP turns various coupons into butterflies flying in every corner of the city, and users capture them with their mobile phone cameras.It will present different kinds of butterflies according to the characteristics of each region.This creative APP can help the service and catering industry to carry out effective publicity.And this APP perfectly combines APP, AR, and LBS, so that customers can not only get practical information, but also get a good game experience.

6.3 Early Bird: Early bird gets coffee

6.3.1 Experience the function first, then generate motivation

Today is an era where experience is king, and only by bringing the best service experience to users can we stand out from many brands.This requires enterprises to pay attention to service details, understand user habits, combine with products, and continuously create the most comfortable service experience for users.And when the user experience is combined with APP marketing, what kind of chemical reaction will it produce?

Starbucks, a world-renowned coffee chain company, is a representative of experiential marketing.With its unique experiential marketing methods, Starbucks has opened up a market that did not exist in the United States. Therefore, its market potential can be said to be unlimited.In the United States, coffee was originally just an ordinary drink, something that helps people swallow food better when eating breakfast or hamburgers. Generally, the price is very cheap, and you can buy a cup for a few cents.However, the appearance of Starbucks has changed people's impression of coffee in daily life. Starbucks has made American coffee consumption habits fashionable and high-quality, creating a new image of urban men and women holding a cup.Now, Starbucks signs can be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys of the United States. Every day, millions of Americans line up to buy a $4 cup of Starbucks coffee. The Starbucks culture has been deeply embedded in the daily life of Americans.In the popular Oprah talk show in the United States, in "The Simpsons", which has a record high ratings in the United States, and in the popular puzzle game show "Adventure"...you can see the shadow of Starbucks.

With the advent of the mobile Internet era, Starbucks has also brought its experiential marketing from offline to online.In addition to the layout on Weibo and WeChat, Starbucks has also developed an exclusive APP: Early Bird (early bird alarm clock).This is an alarm clock APP that is quite innovative and sincere at the same time.Just wake up at the time set by the alarm clock, hit the wake up button, and go to any nearby Starbucks coffee shop within an hour to get [-]% off the coffee.

Early Bird has successfully combined Starbucks coffee with the daily life of users, cleverly embedded the product into a certain living habit of the user, so that when the user buys Starbucks coffee, he does not feel that he has spent money, but has made a product. One thing, fulfilling a promise to myself.This kind of marketing is obviously much better than ordinary advertising placement.

We know that the purchasing behavior of consumers is uncertain and will be dominated by psychological factors such as their motivation, feeling, management and attitude, and with the development of the economy, psychological factors will play an increasingly important role in purchasing behavior.Humans obtain information through sensory organs, and then identify, analyze and select it through the brain. Such a complex process is sensation.Motivation is an internal driving force that motivates a person to move towards a certain goal.In the consumer market, buyers are influenced by multiple motives at any one time.Starbucks' Early Bird is providing users with a strong incentive to buy.Consumers do not regard the purchase of Starbucks products as a kind of consumption, but as a reward for getting up on time.In other words, compared with previous companies trying to recommend their own promotional plans to consumers, Starbucks did the opposite and let consumers take the initiative to go to the store to fight for discounts. This is a very special and memorable experience for consumers. consumption experience.

6.3.2 Expand the development space of experiential services

In fact, it is precisely because of the year-round focus on making consumers feel the most comfortable and unique consumption experience that Starbucks can come up with such a classic idea.In fact, long before the rise of the mobile Internet, Starbucks already knew how to consolidate the market and stabilize the brand by improving the consumer experience of users.

(End of this chapter)