SMS, The Holidays & The Economy

As the holiday season approaches and retailers await recession-strapped consumers, please consider SMS:

Brands and retailers should leverage SMS for the holidays to push private sales, holiday-themed merchandise via coupons, wish lists, mobile commerce-enabled sites and special store hours during this busy time of year.

Approximately 72 percent of American adult consumers send and receive text messages, according to Pew Internet Project. Virtually everyone is text messaging, making it a convenient way for retailers and brands to communicate with consumers.

It would appear that consumers want their mobile coupons to come in the form of text messages:

Read more analysis @ Mobile Marketer.

Read more about SMS marketing for retail @ Club Texting.

Want to learn more about SMS coupons? Read our Mobile Couponing guide.

Nieman Marcus Offers Another Way To Purchase Designer Goods: Via The Mobile Web

Nieman Marcus  Group Inc. has created a mobile shopping site which allows customers to browse and purchase items via their mobile devices. All customers have to do is visit Nieman Marcuse's website through their mobile phones and from there they can purchase anything from designer handbags to couture dresses. Everything available on their website is available on their mobile site. In addition to purchasing items, customers can also manage their accounts, track orders and check store locations. Gerard Barnes, president and chief executive officer at Neiman Marcus estimates that the company will be completely mobile by fall.

“We are hoping to increase traffic to our site as well as sales,” said Ginger Reeder, vice president of corporate communications at Neiman Marcus Group."The mobile site targets our traditional online customer who wants quick and easy access to new product right away and a younger customer who perhaps has more experience with mcommerce. We created the mobile site to enable our customers to shop at Neiman Marcus with ease, anywhere they may be.We know that they purchase [expensive items] from our Web site, so this merely gives them another way to access the site,” Ms. Reeder added.

To read the entire article, click here.

To learn more about mobile marketing for retail, visit Club Texting.

 

 

 

 

Glamour Magazine’s New Application Allows Readers To Access The Magazine Anywhere They Are.

Glamour magazine has recently launched a new iPhone, iPod and iPad application to allow readers access to their favorite blogs anywhere they are! This free application allows customers to read up on their favorite articles and save their favorite fashion items in one place. It even provides information about where and how to buy that item!

“We think that this is the right time for this product. We want our readers to be able to enjoy Glamour content however they want — in print, on the Web or with the use of this app.” said Ben Berentson the online managing director at Glamour, New York.

To read the entire article, click here.

To find out more ways to use mobile marketing for magazines, click here.

Mobile Marketing Is Sure To Boom This Upcoming Holiday Season

2009's holiday season was the largest mobile ad season to date. However, early indicators show that 2010 will blow 2009 away in this department. Experts predict that companies will spend more money than ever on mobile marketing campaigns this upcoming holiday season. More people than ever before will be searching for coupons and deals via their smart phones, and companies will be sure to deliver.

“Brands and marketers that do not include mobile in their holiday marketing plans this year will miss out on a growing number of consumers who will be considering products via their mobile devices, especially those with advanced smartphones who search and browse products and brands,” said Neil Strother, Kirkland,WA-based practice director at ABI Research.

To read the entire article, click here.

To learn more about mobile marketing, visit Club Texting.

Retailers Left Confused By Mobile Advancements

With a large percentage of the world texting away on their cell phones, one would think that major retailers would use this to their advantage but according to recent studies retailers are baffled by the cell phone. To help retailers, the National Retail Federation recently published a 176-page guide about the advantages of using cell phones as a marketing device:

"A new study from Forrester Research, Shop.org and the National Retail Federation (NRF) found that 62% of retailers surveyed either have not begun planning a mobile marketing strategy or are still in early stages of development"

To get more facts from this recent study follow this link: http://www.instoremarketer.org/article/61142

Want to learn more about mobile marketing for retail? Visit Club Texting

Best Buy Bulks Up Mobile Marketing Efforts

Mobile Marketing Watch reports that Best Buy is ramping up their mobile marketing programs:

According to sources at the company, Best Buy is putting the wheels in motion on a spruced up mobile website, more aggressive and targeted SMS texting campaigns, and mobile application updates to help capture a larger share of the mobile community’s attention.

It was just late last year that Best Buy introduced its mobile site and a corresponding iPhone application.

Best Buy’s chief marketing officer, Barry Judge, told the Wall Street Journal last month that his company “wants to use mobile to make standard ads more interactive. A print ad or billboard, for instance, might give consumers an address they could text-message for more information.”

Read more @ Mobile Marketing Watch

Read about Club Texting's text message marketing solutions for retail.

For Small Businesses, "Go Mobile Now Or Regret It Later"

Mobile Marketer has an interesting case study up about a small shoe store, and the wider implications of its successful mobile marketing campaign:

Dave Sheehan is a salesman for Shirise Shoe Salon with around 1,500 customers on his list. At one point, he’d have to spend 30 hours on the phone contacting each of these shoe-loving ladies to inform them of a sale, but not anymore.
...
With 1,500 customers, if he were to spend a minute on the phone with each, he’d cross 50 customers off the list every hour. At that rate, it would take him 30 hours to contact each customer, excluding breaks for eating, drinking or going to the restroom.

Instead, he asked his customers if they’d like to be a part of an exclusive club to receive text messages about upcoming sales, and to his surprise, 1,500 said yes.

Dave the Shoe Guy claims that as a direct result from his SMS implementation with only 1,500 customers, his sales have doubled from $650,000 to $1.3 million a year in the span of a mere two years.

Go Mobile Now Or Regret It Later indeed.

Read more @ Mobile Marketer
Learn about SMS mobile marketing for retail @ Club Texting

Retail giant H&M runs multifaceted mobile marketing campaign

We hear H&M just launched a full-fledged mobile campaign in their hometown of Amsterdam:

Swedish clothing company H&M launched a mobile marketing campaign on its home turf to promote its latest collection.

The campaign includes SMS coupons, mobile banner ads placed on major carrier portals and media sites including Tele2, Telenor and TV4, and a mobile site with click-through slideshows and animated GIF images of the retailer’s latest garments. For the campaign, H&M tapped mobile marketing agency Mobiento and its sister company Adiento, an ad network, which use mobile ad network MADS’ technology platform.

Read more at Mobile Marketer.

Jack-in-the-Box Offers SMS Coupon

MobileVerbs has launched mobile marketing program Jack-in-the-Box restaurants. The restaurant guests can provide their feedback and redeem coupons via their cell phones.

Jack's guests follow 'call to action' instructions on table tents and send a SMS message to the MobileVerbs service. The mobile service delivers a series of survey questions to guests' cell phones. Once the guests complete the survey in couple of minutes, they are provided with a secure mobile coupon on their cell phones.

Click here for the full story.

Nike scores an iPhone app

According to Mobile Marketer, Nike has just launched a new mobile app for the iPhone called Nike Goal.

Nike has launched a mobile application leveraging its sponsorship of Italian soccer and further ingratiating the sportswear giant with the game’s fans.

Called Nike Goal, the iPhone application is an extension of the company’s Nikefootball.com site. The app targets Italians who love soccer as well as Nike as a brand.

“The purpose of the application is to provide a free service to Italian football [soccer] fans who want to stay connected to the game and the teams and players they support,” said Martina Zavagno, digital marketing and ecommerce manager at Nike Italy.