In the overview of this series we discussed at a very high level how a mobile marketing strategy can assist a consumer down the path to purchasing your product or service over your competitors. Here is a quick recap:
- Consumers are increasingly turning to their mobile devices to assist them in the consumer buying process.
- There are 6 stages in the consumer buying decision flow:
- Awareness: The recognition of a need, this is really an analysis of maslow’s hierarchy of needs in combination with marketing efforts.
- Consideration: The creation of an evoked set of alternatives. This is a mental short-list that the consumer creates based on internal and external influences.
- Preference: Based on the criteria that is most important to the consumer he/she will narrow down the list to a preferred brand.
- Purchase: This is where the consumer will actually buy a product or service
- Loyalty: After the purchase the buyer will enter into stages of post-purchase evaluation where they will re-evaluate the purchase they just made and file the experience away (in their minds) for future reference
- A complete mobile marketing strategy can assist in every stage of flow because of the proximity to a mobile device for the consumer and the marketing efforts a brand undertakes.
In this post we will dive a little deeper into the Awareness stage.
The Awareness stage is when a consumer recognizes that they are missing something that they want or need.
There are a lot of factors that influence this realization:
- Self-expression – Reflection of personal tastes
- Affiliation – Be a part of a group
- Independence – Stand out from the crowd
- Novelty – Be Awesome
How does this tie into a mobile marketing strategy?
When designing your mobile marketing strategy you need to consider QR codes as your first line of communication with your buyers. QR codes or Quick Response codes allow you to engage with a consumer in a specific and measurable manner.
Specific – QR codes can be placed anywhere and can have built-in context or some text around it to give it context. The power of the QR code is that it allows you to understand and track the intention of a buyer. So when they are in the Awareness stage you can grab their attention at the right time and place.
Measurable – If implemented correctly QR codes can help you track a lot of valuable data about your consumers. Things that can be tracked are:
- Number of QR scans
- Geo-location
- Date
- Type of mobile device (brand)
- Mobile operating system (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, etc)
- Other Custom Events that help track campaign performance
By reaching consumers at the Awareness stage through the use of QR codes brands have the unique ability to understand who, what and where they need to engage consumer so they will spend more money and always have that brand on top of mind.