Adapting Marketing to a Nomadic Generation

This is a paper I recently wrote for a marketing class I took; thought it was fitting for the blog. 

Comm Theory meets Marketing. Enjoy nerds!

Adapting Marketing to a Nomadic Generation

Mobile technology has changed the way humans interact; cellular devices have literally become the extension of man’s hand. Instantaneous information and constant media attainability has created an everything anywhere generation. Marketers have long struggled with exactly how to attain and maintain a nomadic generation’s attention. New technologies are adapting older forms of medium, i.e. print to web and notebook to webpage. Technology has created a constant stream of multimedia advertisements to keep young customers engaged through nomadic intractability, mobile sales promotions, and personalized encyclopedic data. 

Marshall McLuhan was named the patron Saint of Wired Magazine on the cover of a 1996 issue, a technological prophet: a Ph.D. from Cambridge and a best selling author.  His ideas were far before his time:

The next medium, whatever it is—it may be the extension of consciousness—will include television as its content, not as its environment, and will transform television into an art form. A computer as a research and communication instrument could enhance retrieval, obsolesce mass library organization, retrieve individual encyclopedic functions and flip into a private line to speedily tailored data of the sellable kind. (McLuhan, 1962)

McLuhan was known for his insightful ‘one liners’ the most famous of which is the idea that media is the “extension of man’s arm” (McLuhan, 1964). Today his prophecy is absolutely truth, cellular telephones, mobile computers and tablets are within reach at all times. Younger generations, i.e. Generation Y and Millennials, do not know a world without mobile devices. They are products of an entirely digital world. Unfortunately marketers are plagued with exactly how to communicate brand to younger skeptical audiences.

In true Darwinian style technology has had to adapt to suit individual needs and bridge generational gaps. The Android Marketplace and Apple’s App Store have lent themselves to new marketing devices, i.e. Twitter, Pintrest, Groupon, LivingSocial, and QR Readers, these applications take the place of notes, bridge the gaps between print and web, and create new sales promotions. All applications are accessible via smartphones, like Apple’s iPhone or other Android smartphones, or via online services, like the World Wide Web.

Nomadic Intractability

A Japanese developer for Toyota invented the two dimensional barcode in 1994 (Denso Wave Inc, 2000); “QR” is an abbreviation for “Quick Response” because it is intended to be decoded extremely quickly. The technology spread quickly in Japan and eventually found its way to Europe and the United States. In 2009 the technology was extremely new, so new in fact that many people didn’t know what the codes meant or why they appeared on print; by 2011 QR codes can be found just about anywhere. “In a post-Google advertising environment, QR codes [can] finally help solve the dilemma that has long plagued advertisers, the ‘50% of the advertising doesn’t work, but I don’t know which half’ problem” (Josefowicz, 2009).

QR codes hold customers accountable and accurately track the visibility of an advertisement, for example: Every code is individual, or specific, to the print it appears in; if a code is accessed from a print ad online polling devices can figure out where the ‘hit’ is coming from. Advertisers can easily determine the successfulness of an advertisement based on the number of ‘hits,’ or number of times a code is read, and the amount of profitability. In this way the consumer is directly interacting with marketing strategy and advertisement. Consumers are creating an adaptation of print marketing in which their mobile devices transform print to web within seconds. The combination of mobile devices, i.e. smartphones, and print advertising affords nomadic consumers new channels to access products or services and creates new communication between brand and consumer.

Mobile Sales Promotion

Mobile application stores, like Apple’s App Store and the Android Marketplace, are offering new methods of mobile coupon clipping. Applications like Groupon or LivingSocial take the place of printed coupons. Both Groupon and LivingSocial began as online venues, accessible on the World Wide Web via website. Increased popularity of mobile devices lead the two independent companies to create applications in which push notifications are send to subscribers for purchase; the applications are free however the services are not, they are however extremely discounted. Groupon and LivingSocial tackle two very important aspects of marketing: Sales and promotion, however they ingeniously connect sales and mobility. Once a discount is purchased it appears digitally on the mobile device or in an e-mail.

Personalized Encyclopedic Data: The Power of Tagging

Social networking sites have created pop-culture terms like “tagging” and “linking” but the implication of a tag or link is far greater that reiteration. More importantly a tag or link connects an individual to a product or service. Twitter, for example, uses a set of symbolic tagging mechanisms that have become commonplace in today’s culture. “#-tag” or “Hash-tagging” is visible on nearly every television program, this act encourages viewers to Tweet or post about the programming they are viewing. Tweeting, or “trending” is a new form of free advertising where the tagged phrase appears publically on a users “dashboard” or home page. Links and tags are public.

An emerging social network is an online application called Pintrest. It is an entirely visual web application that combines the short mobility of Twitter and the photo sharing technology of Flickr. Pintrest, however, takes online marketing one step further: It allows tagging, it tracks who is posting and what they are posting, and it archives data. New generations are extremely visual and Pintrest uses that fact to its advantage allowing only photos and 140 character explanations keeps things clean and short. The photos are embedded which allows Pintrest users to click and access the original content, i.e. recipes, products, services, hotels, artists, etc.

Finally, Pintrest has one thing that so few web applications have these days: Exclusivity. This website is only accessible by its users who are screened monthly; most people are granted access.  The “request” is simply a method of gauging how many users are using the application and assure the site is functioning properly. It is neither a paid subscription nor a exclusive club, however the “request” implies a hint of exclusivity that pulls users in.

 Conclusion

A character on NBC’s hit show 30 Rock recently joked, “Korea doesn’t know what an iPhone is…I told them it was a razor. Fortunately there’s an app for that” (Faye, 2011). Mobile adaptations have created a world dependent on technology. The Android Marketplace and Apple’s App Store have lent themselves to new marketing devices, which take place of older medium. In an attempt to communicate with an increasingly mobile society marketing and advertising have jumped on the proverbial bandwagon, creating applications like Groupon, LivingSocial, QR Reader, Twitter and Pintrest. The new applications open a communication between marketer and consumer in the hope to communicate new messages to a younger generation.