Mobile Makes Me…Think of Pie

Mobile’s a new enough channel that some sort of education/explanation is still usually required when introducing the marketing opportunities to internal, brand or agency partners.This is especially true when reviewing the right tactics to reach your target audience.

iPhone applications get most of the attention in marketing/technology circles. While the device’s market share is growing steadily, and handsets with similar capabilities are becoming more common among the average consumer, when a brand launches an iPhone app it gets lots of attention in the trade press but the majority of mobile consumers are left to either drool jealously or yawn (if they’re aware of the app at all).

It remains true that the vast majority of consumers have non-smartphones and the more widely used non-voice phone feature is text messaging (though some studies say the camera).

I could trot out stats to back this up but they aren’t hard to find. Okay…here’s a decent summary of US-specific stats.

Instead, I was thinking about a simple analogy to explain the difference.

Mobile is like pie.

Take a look at any dessert table and you have an assortment of tasty treats to choose from. Same with mobile where you have apps, advertising, internet, messaging, gaming, video, etc….

Think of apps, especially iPhone apps as that rich, creamy chocolate eclair (or cheesecake, keylime pie…). It’s a delight for your sense, offers the most intense flavour, but not everyone’s going to able to have it. For starters, they may watching their weight (just as consumer’s have to think about their wallets before getting a iPhone).If you have it at all, it will be a small portion….just like the audience reach for these devices currently.

On the other side of the spectrum is apple pie. Who doesn’t like apple pie? It’s simple, homey goodness that still gives you plenty of sweetness and won’t offend people’s taste buds or waistlines (unless you start dumping cream all over it). Apple pie is like SMS. Go ahead and have a bigger slice…and reach a bigger audience.

We can debate where mobile internet, advertising and so on fit into the continuum. But what’s important for me is that you need to find the right tactics to reach your target audience and device-specific programming may be right for you, but it could also be unneeded calories.

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