Canadian Retailer - Summer 2015 - 31

of mobile moms between the ages of 25-54 with kids at
home under the age of 18 own a mobile device; 83% of
men between the ages of 25-54 own one, too. And 90% of
18-29 year-olds own either a smartphone or a tablet.
With that as context, one of the most pronounced impacts of this, explains Jed Schneiderman, co-founder of
Tapped Mobile, is the fact that the mobile devices give
consumers the power to inform and educate themselves
and to seek entertainment and a plethora of ways to connect with friends and family. And like RCC's
LeBlanc, he warns that each mobile device
needs to be treated and approached differently when communicating with their
audiences.
"The devices themselves are actually
different," he explains. "Phones have
smaller screens and what we've found
is that consumers across moms, men
and Millennials are using them for
more functional tasks-email, texting, instant messaging, looking
up driving directions, restaurant
information. Search has become
almost ubiquitous on the phone.
Conversely, tablets are mainly used
at home in what we call the lean
back environment. Consumption
on tablets looks quite different. It's
more about news and video content
than anything else."
He points out that consumers
are more apt to look up product information and shop on a tablet. The
differences between the devices
mean that marketers need to recalibrate how they leverage them.
"One big implication is that the
world can now be viewed as having
three different screens-the phone, the tablet and the
desktop. One could also argue now the connected television. All of these screens need to be seen as different
environments. And marketers need to understand that
they need to provide the consumer with contextually relevant content and messages on these different devices."
the new rules

As Schneiderman points out, there is a long list of
new rules for marketers as a result of the mobile explosion. But he highlights three that can be leveraged to
enhance any retail marketing approach.
"Make it easy and frictionless. The reason people use
mobile devices is to make their lives easier. Marketers
need to leverage mobile as a tool to nudge consumer behaviour and understand that mobile doesn't need to solve
everything. It's not going to supplant face-to-face comwww.retailcouncil.org/cdnretailer

munication. But if mobile can help make things easier for
the consumer, that's where the biggest wins can be made."
He also says that mobile has got to be leverage so retailers are seen. He cites Google's recent changes that
involve prioritizing sites in searches that are optimized
for mobile and refers to the company's recent announcement that it gets more traffic from mobile devices than
it does from desktops.
"What this means for marketers," he explains, "is that
with these smaller screens they need to be ensure that
they're more easily discoverable on the phone.
There's less real estate, which means if you're
buying paid ads or you're monitoring your organic search results or building out pages, you
have to keep in mind that people are on the go
and will want to find you very quickly. If you
can be found, you're invisible to consumers
across a device where they're now spending
more and more time."
And the third rule for marketers, according to Schneiderman, is to ensure critical
information is provided for the customer.
"People are very busy and they're
stressed. And they're looking for brands
that make their lives easier. Now more so
than ever, brands need to understand consumers in their need states and give them the key
information they need while they're on their phone. Information has to be contextually relevant."
the future of mobile

The two big mobile ideas for the future, says Schneiderman, are around personalization and the path to
purchase. He explains that the smartphone is the most
personal device that a consumer owns. It's where they
store all of their contacts, email messages and instant
messaging messages that they've sent, and it serves as
their camera, too, housing all of their photos. It's also
where all of their apps are. He suggests that because the
smartphone has become the place where people personalize and organize, it presents massive opportunities for
marketers to personalize their communication to consumers, developing deeper engagement.
"More often emails are being opened on mobile devices. If you know who the customer is and what categories they shop, the ability to provide a personal mobile-friendly email is going to build loyalty. And, given
the plethora of information that mobile sends back
to marketers, it represents a great way for retailers to
understand where their consumer is along the shopping
journey. Combining personalization with the leveraging
of mobile tools to better understand your customer is a
game-changer-it can help retailers build loyalty and
make more money. And that's what marketers and business are ultimately trying to do."

Summer 2015 | canadian REtailER

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Canadian Retailer - Summer 2015

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