The Product Pulse

Consumer Goods Growth & Innovation Forum Review -- Part 2 of 3

The 2010 Consumer Goods Growth and Innovation Forum did a great job selecting its panel of presenters, especially in light of their theme of New Product Resurgence: Bringing Back the Consumer and Driving Growth. They found a winner when they invited Michael Becker from the Mobile Marketing Association to present. Becker has a wealth of knowledge on all things mobile, especially as it relates to using mobile technology for marketing purposes. Just check out his latest book: Mobile Marketing for Dummies.

Becker presented a session at the Forum titled Reaching the Consumer through Mobile Marketing, covering new and innovative ways consumer goods brands can use mobile marketing to engage existing and potential consumers around new product ideas. He gave oodles of amazing examples from around the world on how manufacturers and retailers are using mobile technology to drive revenue and secure extreme brand loyalty.

Here are a few of the most progressive and forward-thinking case studies on mobile marketing that Becker cited:

• The retail electronics giant, Best Buy, is employing mobile marketing in a big way to interact with consumers online and in the store. Shoppers can text a product number to receive more detailed information and product specifications than could ever fit on a store shelf, and can then compare products without ever having to talk to a salesperson. Additionally, they can download the iPhone Best Buy app to see weekly deals and make purchases, thus driving incremental online sales.
• Ringtones have become such a personal expression of individuality but can also communicate a message or promote a brand. In an effort to encourage the use of condoms in India, a mobile phone ringtone campaign was combined with television, audio, and online ads to advertise safe sex practices as being "a smart choice."
• Calvin Klein Jeans did something quite clever with one of their most recent billboard advertisements in both NYC and LA: instead of plastering a delicious, black and white photo of a saucy, young model up on the billboard, they put up a QR (quick response) code titled GET IT UNCENSORED. The amazing thing about the billboard -- Calvin Klein's target audience (young, attractive,  tech savvy, hip, twenty-somethings) knew EXACTLY what to do with the QR code. Once passersby accessed the video, they could then share the QR code with their friends on Facebook and Twitter. Talk about a product going viral! And as a bonus to all of this, Calvin Klein got useful statistics on their consumers.

Having a strong web presence and being active on social media sites simply isn't enough anymore, especially if your target consumer is a member of the Attention or Social Age, succeeding those geezers in the Information Age. Mobile marketing is viral, global, and is only going to grow over the coming years.

Becker's recommendation to the CGT Forum attendees was to "mobile-enhance" traditional marketing methods, focusing on ways to integrate mobile rather than focus on mobile marketing by itself. So to that, I say:

Part 1: Move Over P&G and J&J: Now There's Something a Little More “Quirky” in the Mix