Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from the Incentive Targeting blog.
Fueled by the unprecedented power and portability of today's smartphones, we are seeing a rapid evolution of a number of major disciplines, one that can be called "The Great Convergence."
I recently discussed this convergence and its implications with Bob Phibbs, The Retail Doctor, at the Alert Technologies booth on the floor of the NRF conference in New York.
The key disciplines involved in this convergence have a convenient acronym: C.L.A.M.P. (Coupons, Loyalty, Analytics, Mobile Marketing and Payments). Alone, each one is a critical pillar of business-consumer interaction. Integrated, they will fundamentally change the nature of how we shop, how we are marketed to and how we engage with retailers. The best of breed in each area is rapidly emerging:
Coupons (and other deals):
To support coupons and deals, the mobile wallet of the future will depend on:
- Load-to-card deals — to enforce redemption limits, allow for personalization, enable true traceability, and eliminate paper clearing;
- Seamless redemption, with no action needed by the consumer to get their discount other than buying the promoted item.
Loyalty programs
In the context of the mobile wallet, loyalty means communications will be:
- Relevant to that consumer's preferences and tastes;
- Behaviorally targeted based on what the consumer actually buys and the way they have responded to marketing in the past.
Analytics
Retailers will need access to analytics that are:
- Shopper-centric, so that instead of focusing only on dollars and cases, the consistent unit of measure is the impact on shopper behavior;
- Closed-loop, so that each customer interaction can be traced all the way through to its true impact on the shopper's long-term buying behavior.
Mobile Marketing
The best mobile marketing in the future will be:
- Personalized (and not annoying!) to the recipient, based on every available piece of information about that individual's preferences and identity;
- Hyper-local and time-sensitive, so that the consumer sees relevant messages not just for where they are now, but for where they are likely to be.
Payment
The mobile payment of tomorrow will be:
- Speedy and cashless, requiring only a tap, photo-snap, or click-to-confirm;
- Secure, through the use of PINs, facial-recognition, or other authentication mechanisms to prevent a stolen cell-phone from becoming a bottomless ATM.
Now is the time for progressive retailers and brands to start experimenting with new tools and technologies, learning from small-scale tests and experiments, and building the expertise and understanding of the consumer that will serve as the foundation for larger projects down the road.