A moving definition
Editor's note: Ben Smithee is CEO of Spych Market Analytics, a Dallas research company.
You can hardly pick up a journal, read a blog or attend a conference without being bombarded by talk about how mobile research is the way of the future. In my opinion, I think most are being a little shortsighted.
Mobile research. Quick, what just came to mind when I mentioned that phrase? Did you think of surveys being pushed to smartphones? I believe most of us would, as that is what we as an industry have been characterizing as the crux of mobile research. I think it’s the wrong focus and I urge us to take our focus to a much more inclusive and valuable arena.
What exactly do I suggest we focus on? That’s a fair question and I’ll answer it in just a moment. First, I want to clarify that I am not saying there is anything wrong with smartphone surveys or with using the mobile phone as a channel for active research Q&A. I just feel like we do ourselves a grave injustice by not taking a moment to view how a larger vision of mobile research can benefit us as researchers, our clients and the overall consumer environment.
I spend a great deal of time studying the future consumer environments, which largely includes the Gen Y/Millennial consumer segment and technology. So, it’s fair to say I may have a skewed view on the subject but I challenge you to at least hear me out.
Now, back to the question of what I would consider to be a more appropriate focus for our efforts in mobile research. Apple is set to ship over 100 million Web-enabled devices in 2012. That was estimated before the announcement of the latest iPad, so it’s certain that that estimate has grown. Throw in an iPhone 5 announcement, maybe a new Apple TV monitor or even an Apple electric car and you have a compelling view of what should come to mind when someone mentions mobility as a means for marketing research. Rather than think of mobile as a synonym for smartphone, let’s characterize mobile as any Web-enabled device.
The phone has merely become an application on a mobile Web-enabled device and as a research channel, that device holds information that is extremely valuable and telling about a consumer’s lifestyle, habits and preferences. That device, paired with the rising penetration of tablets, brings forth a new era for researchers’ ability understand and learn about humans. The two smallest screens of the four-screen ecosystem (TV, PC/laptop, tablet and mobile phone) are the most important for researchers to understand. We have entered an era of second-screen media consumption, where content on the television or big screen will be largely supplemented and paired with second-screen content that is consumed via the mobile tablet and phone devices.
The day is coming when we see a message at the beginning of movies telling us to turn on our phones rather than turn them off. Though, do we ever really turn off our phones? Maybe it will be more of an encouragement to start an application or visit a mobile site. Regardless, the time is near.
Our focus in the mobile phone and tablet arena should be chiefly application-based. Whether it is Web-based applications or native applications is yet to be determined but the battle will largely be won or lost based on the success of HTML5. (That’s a whole different article!) These applications are the keys to shifting the marketing research paradigm from surveying and asking to passive observation and understanding. It’s when the two come together that the real magic happens and research begins to become integrated into life rather than tying to replicate or recall it.
New digital real estate
Another facet of applications we as researchers must take into consideration is the creation of new digital real estate that is becoming increasingly attractive for branded content and advertising. Brand-based applications are growing in availability and in value to the end user, which will continue to make them more attractive for new advertising platforms. Researchers must understand this new app-based world in order to provide the utmost value to clients seeking insights and understanding. In the past, we studied how and what makes people click; we now must optimize protocols for building trust and engagement with consumers who will let us peek into their mobile lives and observe their actions under the mission of understanding and the goal of optimizing a user experience that provides increased value.
The smartphone and tablet, though the primary tools in the new definition of mobile, are not the only players. When we talk about mobile, we should also include other Web-enabled environments, such as the automobile. Since May of last year, we have been observing and following the joint initiative of Salesforce.com and Toyota on the Toyota Friend project and find it absolutely fascinating how users are interacting with environments in a hyper-connective way. From the research viewpoint, we now move from just engaging consumers in an environment to being able to engage the environment itself for greater holistic understanding. Not only will consumers be able to share more and more accurate information with us but their environments will be of equal value to the researcher, as the consumer begins to rely on information from their environments more and more. For example, with the Toyota Friend initiative, Salesforce is working to socialize the driving and automobile environment, similar to what it has done in the working environment. In doing so, they are increasing the engagement and in a sense creating dialogue between car owners and their vehicles.
As this conversation and info-sharing becomes more and more rich, researchers who build relationships with these owners will be able to tap into an array of insights and consumer behaviors. Additionally, Toyota will be able to achieve real-time insights from all of its users and have the opportunity to continuously improve its services and user experience. Similar to social media data, the data sets will be extremely large so the boundaries between qual and quant will blur and researchers with technical, visual and analytical skills will be needed. This serves as an example of how mobile is much more inclusive and hints at how the future mobile research environment will be much more observational and passive, supplemented by surveying, rather than largely survey-based.
Three points of focus
In the new hyper-connected social ecosystem, three main points of focus will reign supreme: profile, location and commerce.
Profile will be the focus of all things mobile. Via passive research methods and survey-based supplements, clients and advertisers will be focused on capturing relevant and accurate profile information. The focus on influencer segments and audiences will take a front-row seat and the platforms and organizations that can provide the most information about a specific individual and their preferences will be the stars of the show. As the world of social media and mobile-based apps hit critical mass, the opportunity to fine-tune messages and points of engagement will pivot heavily on the ability to create relevance based on individual exposures.
The next important facet of the hyperconnected mobile world is location. While we have seen a greater focus on location in the past couple of years, we are going to see increasing value placed on this context. Targeted marketing and advertising will be redefined as location-based ads and brand messaging finally hit home. The interesting aspect of location is that it plays in both sides of mobility, the user and the environment. While users will become more comfortable sharing their location, they will also begin to digitally interact with specific locations in a richer format. Environments will be enhanced to provide individual experiences that are customized for each user, whether it is your automobile, a restaurant or the classroom. The movements and shifts taking place around location-based data are extremely important for researchers to follow and stay abreast of.
Finally, commerce will no longer be a soft, intangible facet of mobile and social media. We are already seeing mobile commerce take flight and new innovations like Polyvore and Fancy are beginning to directly link social and mobile to tangible commerce. The shift to mobile payments like Square and PayPal’s new mobile payment offerings provide users a whole new way to engage in transactions and the loop between buzz and dollars will finally be closed, helping organizations justify even larger spends in e-commerce, mobile and social efforts. As researchers, we must understand the nuances of commerce in a truly mobile world and be able to translate that understanding into key insights for our clients. The wallet will become social.
Exposure and understanding
So, where do you start in this flurry of technological change? The first step is exposure and understanding. We must not limit ourselves to a question-and-answer format when it comes to research and we must be open to viewing new technology as a source for vital information.
While we will see DIY tools reach critical mass and big data driving budget allocations, we must stay open-minded and realize how the consumer market is shifting. We must take a broader view of mobility and its value to the research industry and become more comfortable with observation and passive methods as paths to insights.
While surveys and discussion-based methods will not go away, they will take a different role in uncovering understanding and organizations will need partners who can easily modulate between both active and passive to provide holistic vantages. We are at a point where research can be more exciting than ever before and the ability to understand consumers will reach new levels of accuracy and intimacy. As they say, the questions have not changed. It’s the answers and the way in which we obtain them that have and will continue to evolve dramatically.