One of the most famous sayings in the marketing industry is attributed to John Wanamaker about a hundred years ago, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.“[1] The combination of mobile marketing and “intelligent checkout,” the ability to share increasing amounts of information at the point of sale, may finally answer that question.
Mobile marketing has come a long way from its beginnings. Originally powered by SMS messages, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) websites and slow 2-G networks, today mobile marketing is location-based and runs on mobile apps and lightning-fast 3 and 4G networks. It is now a key component of consumer brands’ strategies and one that is largely responsible for future growth and company valuation.
Still, the lack of proper infrastructure for tracking exactly who is redeeming which offers remains frustrating. Technologies such as NFC, QR codes or PIN codes do allow offers to be scanned at checkout directly from mobile phones, but to effectively track mobile promotions, offers and loyalty end-to-end from issuance to redemption and settlement, a strong back-end infrastructure has to be in place.
mWallet providers the world over think they have the answer by enabling consumers to download all offers, coupons and loyalty, store them securely in an app and just wave the phone to transmit them securely to the point of sale, thus completing an end-to-end sequence of digital issuance and redemption of mobile offers. But still, mWallet providers are barely scratching the surface in the complexities of connecting the issuance and acceptance sides of mobile offers, promotions and loyalty. The challenges include the myriad of offer types issued by brands and merchants, lack of infrastructure to track redemption, lack of campaign management systems and integration to merchant systems as well as between competing wallets and TSMs.
Today VeriFone announced our alliance with China Mobile and Bank of China marking the first deployment of VeriFone’s PAYMEDIA Mobile Marketing Platform (MMP), an end-to-end solution that enables merchants, brands and third parties to launch highly targeted campaigns to mobile wallet subscribers.
The VeriFone Mobile Marketing Platform (MMP) was designed to connect the two independent ecosystems of issuing and acceptance into one fully integrated environment with tangible benefits to each stakeholder. With it, MNOs and mWallet providers can launch mobile campaigns that will be distributed to wallet subscribers and applicable acceptance networks, ensuring seamless mobile wallet transactions at the merchant’s point of sale.
Visit us here for information about the announcement.
It’s interesting to see how far mobile marketing has come and where it’s going. I hope the small businesses that are not yet actively involved with mobile marketing will be soon. Glad to see that VeriFone is heavily involved with mobile as well.
Thanks! It’s a lot different trying to develop a single app or a single mobile POS solution versus developing a complete suite of solutions, along with developing partner relationships necessary to bring mobile mainstream.
Mobile marketing is really flourishing and its gonna become on of the key marketing solution in near future.
We agree. The technology is really still in its infancy from a use-case standpoint. I can’t imagine what it will be like in 10-15 years!