Mobile marketing study: Swiss companies are still not focusing enough on individualized content
How important are mobile tools such as responsive websites, apps or QR codes in the marketing of Swiss companies? The Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the University St.Gallen surveyed 129 companies.
The study shows: Mobile marketing is already widespread and the responsive website is the most important tool. However, there is a need to catch up when it comes to the individualization of mobile marketing measures. The Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the University of St. Gallen wrote this in a press release on Tuesday.
Around 70 percent of the Swiss population own a smartphone and use it every day, and the trend is rising. This rapid spread and new mobile technologies allow companies to personalize communication, target marketing and handle business processes more efficiently: The app directs the father to a child-friendly restaurant and shows the customer in the store the way to the wine shelf - and at the same time makes a recommendation for the right cheese. The bill is also paid via smartphone. Mobile technologies are also giving rise to new communication channels such as WhatsApp and Snapchat, which enable a direct line to customers and other target groups.
We are talking here about mobile marketing, i.e. all measures taken by a company via the mobile channel. The spectrum ranges from pure advertising messages produced for mobile devices, QR codes and apps to shopping options in the web store. The Lucerne School of Business and the University of St.Gallen (HSG) investigated the importance of mobile marketing for Swiss companies. The research team surveyed 129 companies from various sectors.
Responsive website will be the most frequently used mobile marketing tool in future
The study makes it clear that many companies in Switzerland are already making good use of the opportunities offered by mobile marketing: More than half of the companies surveyed already show a high to medium intensity of use. This means that they are also achieving their marketing goals via the mobile channel and addressing their customers in a personalized way. Unsurprisingly, the pioneers are companies with a strong focus on communication and technology, followed by companies from the transportation, traffic, tourism and retail sectors. Companies mainly use mobile marketing to communicate with their customers, interact with them and disseminate information. They use the following mobile tools most frequently: apps (71 percent), a responsive website (66 percent), mobile advertising on the web (60 percent) and QR codes (60 percent). The popularity of responsive websites in particular is on the rise. A quarter of companies are planning to use this tool in the future. "This means that the responsive website will soon replace the app as the most frequently used mobile tool," says mobile expert and co-project manager Thomas Wozniak from Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
The importance of responsive websites is underpinned by another survey result: companies describe the tool as the most important in mobile marketing, while the app tends to be classified as significantly less central. In view of the fact that many expensively developed apps are orphaned in the app store and are hardly used, it seems to make more sense, at least for some companies, to interact with customers via responsive websites. "Apps need concrete added value to be well received," adds Katarina Stanoevska-Slabeva, an expert in digital communication at the University of St.Gallen. "And they need to be used where their technology is in demand: for example, as dedicated touchpoints in digital customer processes or for location-based marketing measures." Location-based marketing measures refer to applications that locate the device owner and offer individual benefits based on location information (e.g. how do I get to the hotel by public transport?).
The potential of individualization is far from exhausted
Speaking of individual benefits: The potential of the mobile channel is far from exhausted in this respect. "Companies are tailoring their messages and content far too little to individual users, their location and their behavior on the company's own website, for example," Wozniak explains. Only 40 percent of the companies surveyed differentiate between different customer segments in order to target them more specifically. "The majority seem to be treating mobile customers according to the 'watering can principle'," says Wozniak. However, companies are likely to abandon this strategy in the future. The study makes it clear that companies are concerned about the issue of individualization: Location-based marketing in particular has a great future from their perspective. Almost a third of companies are discussing a possible use.
What actually happens with the mobile channel is decided by the top management in more than 60 percent of companies, as the survey shows. This is despite the fact that companies only spend an average of 4.3 percent of their total marketing and communication budget on mobile marketing tools. Whether this proportion increases in the future will also depend on whether companies succeed in responding to the challenges. On the one hand, the companies surveyed are convinced that the current technological possibilities, broad customer acceptance and good measurability promote mobile marketing. On the other hand, data protection regulations and legal framework conditions have a restrictive effect. "Mobile marketing is caught between very different developments that need to be sensibly balanced by management," says co-project manager Dorothea Schaffner from Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. A summary of all the results can be found at Hslu.ch/project-mobile-marketing.
A toolbox is being developed
The "Mobile as an innovator in marketing and sales" project was launched in 2015 and aims to develop a toolbox that supports companies and agencies in using the mobile channel effectively in marketing and sales. The Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Institute of Communication and Marketing IKM and Institute of Tourism Economics ITW) and the University of St. Gallen are working together to achieve this. Project partners are the digital agency Aperto Switzerland,
Swisscom, Magazine zum Globus, Swiss Post and Raiffeisen Switzerland. The project is supported by the Swiss Federal Commission for Technology and Innovation CTI.
