The Mobile Marketing Revolution is More Than Promotion

I’ve been chatting with @matthewadavid for the past few days about the future of mobile apps, business use of the Internet, and what @jowyang calls “Social Business” (better than “social media, but still just a step toward where we are headed). Ever since we wrote about this in Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online  I’ve been seeking out these developers and pushing for the best marketing hooks.

imageMatthew has been getting a lot of attention for TheAppBuilder. You can now build an app that is ready to submit to app stores for iPhones, Android, iPad, and more in just a couple of minutes for free.

The apps are not the cutting edge stuff we hear about in the news, but add some function for anyone with a crowd of followers they want to send information to. We’ve been exploring just how far this meme will go. I brought up the problem of getting an app for every business, author and web site I use and then needing an app to keep track o them. Just how far can this sort of app growth go?

Matthew and I agreed that more functions will need to go into this type of technology and that there is a lot of growth available for businesses and vendors doing the simple starter apps before any limits there cause a problem.

On Twitter over the last couple of days, we discussed what the app to find the app would be, and some chimed in with ideas and companies. This will come soon enough.

The Dry Cleaning Problem

Any time I get talking or thinking about the future of mobile media, I remember the dry cleaner problem…

Let’s say I plan to go to an important meeting and the plane takes off on Wednesday morning at 6:00 Am. Getting ready for the trip, I decide I want my suit cleaned and take to my dry cleaner. He promises that he’ll have it ready for me on Tuesday afternoon, and reminds me that he closes at 5:00 PM.

If I get tied up with something on Tuesday after lunch, I can do several things. I can have someone else pick up the suit, squeeze the stop into my schedule, or hurry to get there at 5:01 and hope someone is still there. Or, I might just get so busy that I forget to do anything and wear something else.

If my dry cleaner is a good friend or I’m a steady customer, he can go the extra mile and watch to make sure I get my suit. He could deliver it to me, call my wife, or just stay open a few extra minutes. Doing any of these would require some communication between at least two parties.

In the past, that would me some phone tag, post it notes on my dashboard,, or interrupting another last minute meeting to get the suit handled. (not that big a deal, and I could delegate the whole thing, but I’m setting up the point)

Imagine a APP on my smart phone that would alert me with a sound, a reminder email, an SMS if I didn’t respond and finally a phone call to my assistant telling me I was forgetting the suit. Could be easy to code, and easy to sell as a must have for the executive with an important meeting.

And now for the problems.

1. The app would have to be told which communications method I prefer

2. The app would have to TURN OFF notifications for the next batch of dry cleaning.

I hold that #2 is where there is tons of room for innovation in the way we do business in the future. I don’t want to ever here from my dry cleaner for the normal batch of clothes, and frankly, I’d consider it a giant nuisance to have to install an app, accept updates and avoid the frequent pings about a sale on tuxedo cleanings.

I want my smart device to know that a reminder or task is vital and track me down.. then I want it to sit idle forever unless I have something like the suit incident come up again.

The value to me is small.

The value to the dry cleaner can be immense.

If a service business can make their best customer ecstatic about service, they will stick around, pay premium prices and tell others. The first dry cleaner to get a suit to me when I forget is going to be remembered like the Nordstrom that took back snow tires.

In the past the technology wouldn’t allow this sort of personalization. Presently, we have some limits. In the future, there will be many more opportunities for.

  • An App that hides apps until you search and then takes over to get it out of the archive.
  • Improved  language recognition. Imagine SIRI knowing all your apps
  • Coordination between apps so my wife picking up the dry cleaning take it out of my phone’ responsibilities
  • Master rules about locations, times and priorities that my system follows (unless I say I want something else. (don’t let me forget, but never interrupt a  meeting with Phil to tell me)

The future isn’t going to be about adding apps long. Right now, you can get a jump on the competition just by having a app Then we an put in all the hooks for smarter business, better customer experiences and new ways WOW our customers with fanatical customer service.

Thinking About Smart Cities

I’m starting to become a big fan of cities.

I used to feel that I didn’t live in a city, and thought of them as places build to house a lot of factory workers. I was in the suburbs, which I know see as part of cities, and thought downtown meant old and grimy. When someone suggest revitalizing, I’d laugh at what I thought was the futility of propping up the decay.

I was wrong.

I’ve been studying the best ideas for the future of mankind. Ideas about cities keep coming up and has caused me to rethink how important the fast growing cities (think China) are housing more and more people.

A City is the Center of Progress

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One of the great turning points in my understanding about cities was Paul Romer’s TED talk on Charter Cities. Romer showed how cities are not using up the land and resources, and actually have a tremendous ROI.

That made me face the feeling I had and learn that while I have always been a fan of progress, I needed to stop blaming cities for the world’s problems.

There is more of everything in cities. The density accentuates problems, but what is often not mentioned is the positive side of these density efficiencies

  • Higher wages
  • More patent applications
  • More arts and creativity

It’s leverage.

Ideas move faster in cities, there are more data points to prove out any hypothesis and of course, more buyers in whatever market you are targeting.

Let’s Think of Some Positive Ideas for Cities

You’ve heard that technology, networks and social media are revolutionizing business and life. Now let’s review what even faster innovation, commination and positive progress can be made

This video from Ericson is a great place to start. It’s the first in the series and got me thinking (and started on this post). Watch it below:

We’re Just Getting Started

I’ve rambled through just a few of the ideas that I’ve been thinking about. I didn’t scratch the surface of my real focus here.

Things are are going to continue to get better at a faster rate.

I’ll be sharing more soon. I hope you’ll leave a comment and tell me where I’m wrong, or how we might all profit from this accelerating trend. What else should we be looking at, and how will this affect us?

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There Is Plenty of Food. Why Are People Hungry?

It troubles me greatly to think that as you I discuss how over a billion people are hungry and have need for clean drinkable water, there will likely be another  child fall because of these basic nutrition problems.

Our modern world support billions of people and capacity grows by the day. And there are two facts staring us in the face:

  1. The world is covers mostly in water so we aren’t running out
  2. Our output in total calories of nutrition far exceeds the needs of 7 billion people.

Sometimes, it seems the best thing to do is to prosper, make a donation and hope you picked one that won’t squander most of the money. Frankly, when asked where someone should send a check to support clean drinking water, I’m never sure what to say.

This isn’t a funding problem.

Friday night, I’ve invited James Talmage Stevens, the best selling author in the preparedness industry on my Profitable Social Media radio show to talk about his education campaign to help families be prepared for any situation. His book Making the Best of Basics, has sold 770,000 copies and is now out in a new edition.

However, I know we’ll spend a lot of time on a passion we share, getting clean drinkable water for the billion plus people suffering right now. Listen to my show here

Looking For Better Explanations.. Better Ideas About Food

I spend an hour each evening reading and searching for new ideas like the one shown here. The following, Dan Barber: How I fell in love with a fish was one I just about passed on. I never eat fish! But OH, how glad I am that I watch this.

These Ideas Will Help You In Your Marketing

When I’m stuck on a problem, looking for a creative solution for my clients or wondering how I’ll work out a situation that seems insurmountable, I often think back to folks like Dan Barber.

If you’re like me, you’ll have a notepad out and several action items before you finish watching this short video.

I hope you will share your ideas with us.