Mobile Marketing

Brands have long had a symbiotic relationship with music, but as radio streaming via mobile devices continues to gain in popularity, some are finding opportunities beyond simple advertising as they look to cement relationships with millennials. Macy's last week launched its own radio station, mstyleradio, that will be available via the iHeartRadio mobile application and is intended to help the brand stay in touch with younger consumers throughout their day. The challenge Macy's will face is providing the kind of meaningful content that will make consumers want to listen in.

Dipping its toes in e-commerce, the personalized magazine app Flipboard yesterday launched a way for anyone to create catalogs on the service. The new feature is an extension of a move in March to allow users to create their own online magazines. To date, some 4.5 million magazines have been created, CEO Mike McCue said in an interview. Flipboard's user base has been booming this year, growing from 50 million registered users in March to 90 million today. The new catalog feature, which adds shopping to the app's range of content categories, is likely to be particularly popular with retailers.

Macy's continues its run as a leader in mobile by adapting a favored smartphone activity — sharing photos — for its signature annual holiday campaign. Through Dec. 7, consumers who post a photo or video of themselves mailing a letter to Santa from inside a Macy's store using the hashtag #MacysBelieve will have chance to be included in a Macy's television commercial. The mobile social strategy will help Macy's drive word-of-mouth for the campaign as well as foot traffic into its stores.

In this post-PC era, mobile is a business game changer. Enterprises acknowledge the need for mobile strategy, yet many of them are struggling to capitalize on the opportunities. Most enterprises need serious help in understanding and implementing mobile solutions. Existing processes are completely unsuited to meet the expectations of end-user consumers or consumerized IT end users. Here are four fallacies that consistently stifle enterprise mobile projects:

Call it a tool of engagement. The MyLowe's smartphone app is making relationship-building a do-it-yourself (DIY) project. And like many things DIY, this can be very advantageous. The app from the home improvement chain Lowe's enables customers to look up their own purchase history and DIY projects based on data through the 7 million-member MyLowe's program. Introduced as an online feature in 2011 and later expanded to mobile, the app has been empowering consumers to check their shopping behaviors long before Acxiom made headlines by enabling consumers to review their data collected by marketers.

Retailers continue to make changes to their stores based on the notion that, like Apple's sleek and busy retail locations, if they can just get customers to futz around with products in the store long enough, they'll eventually buy something right then and there, rather than buying it cheaper online. Target is the latest to give this idea a shot in its electronics department. The Minnesota-based retail chain is testing a minimalist redesign emphasizing interaction with products at a number of its stores, reports the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

There's no excuse for a poor mobile experience. Whether you're a retail brand, publishing company or developer of productivity apps, your mobile presence is one of the most important connection points you have with consumers. And yet so many companies go into mobile development without a clear sense of purpose. That lack of vision produces negative effects, namely unhappy customers, low conversion rates and limited growth opportunity. Here are five tips to help you avoid those pitfalls and create a mobile app experience that delivers strong business results:

Trendy retailer Urban Outfitters has been experimenting with technology in its stores for years, using its retail locations for additional fulfillment for online orders and rolling out mobile point-of-sale (POS) units last holiday season. Urban Outfitters e-commerce executive Holly Devine spoke with eMarketer's Christine Bittar about mobile retail tactics, online sales and trends in e-commerce.

Notice anything different about the Editor's Note in this issue? Perhaps you see a "Layar" logo and some text in the upper left-hand corner of this page, above my head? No, we're not rebranding. What Retail Online Integration is doing is providing you with our first-ever augmented reality (AR) issue. As such, throughout this issue there are interactive elements and links that can make this print magazine as alive as any website.

I came across an interesting report last week from marketing communications firm JWT called Retail Rebooted. The report focuses on key trends taking place within the retail industry today. I was most interested in the report’s "20-Plus Things to Watch in Retail" section, which offers a relatively quick rundown of developments in retail, from innovative business models to shifting consumer behaviors to the latest technology launches. In today’s blog post (part one of a two-part series), I’ll recap 10 of these 20-plus things, such as 3-D printing, alternative brand currencies, and click-and-collect shopping.