Retailers as well as food and beverage operators need to look into incorporating mobile marketing into their overall marketing strategy to capitalise on the ever-increasing numbers of smart phone users in Singapore. They can use mobile marketing to reach out to new customers or to strengthen their existing customer base.

This was the gist of all the presentations at the Digital Concierge Industry Networking Session organised by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), which attracted some 100 industry participants. The focus of the event was on Mobile Rewards & Loyalty.

Kicking off the discussion was Ms Michelle Lim, Assistant Director, Finance, Tourism and Retail Services, IDA, who noted that smart phones have changed customer behaviour, such as their inclination to use coupons. About 8 per cent of smart phone users would use mobile coupons as these were stored in their mobile devices and could be easily retrieved, whereas only 1 per cent of people who received paper coupons would use them.

She quoted figures from Juniper Research projecting that mobile coupons will generate US$6 billion in global redemption values by 2014.

Companies must therefore have a coherent mobile strategy that will draw business into their traditional flagship stores and at the same time complement their online presence as the shopping experience was no longer just confined to physical shops.

For example, geospatial location-specific push technology can be used to help inform smart phone owners of discounts and coupons when they are in the vicinity of a particular store. With smart phones apps, merchants can also have access to better customer profiling and reach out to them more proactively.

Mr Ernest Chin, Manager, Digistore Solutions Pte Ltd, who is in charge of strategic business development for medical, healthcare and retail solutions, added that it is important for retailers to know the profile of smart phone owners.

The biggest concentration of smart phone users is in the 18 to 34 age bracket, with about two-thirds of this cohort owning a smart phone. The next category is the 35 to 44 age group, with over 53 per cent of this segment owning smart phones.

These age groups, said Mr Chin, are usually big spenders and have strong purchasing power. It would be a mistake for retailers to ignore the spending patterns of these target groups, he warned.

Another speaker at the networking event was Mr Rashad Budeiri, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mobile Media Creations, which develops mobile commerce solutions such as MOGi – a mobile app which combines mobile commerce, location-based services, mobile advertising and social networking features.

“Engaging customers through mobile marketing will reduce marketing expenses and lower customer acquisition costs,” said Mr Budeiri.

Using Starbucks in the United States as an example, Mr Budeiri spoke about how the coffee chain changed the whole concept of loyalty and reward programmes with its introduction of prepaid stored-value cards on mobile devices and linking loyalty rewards to the use of these prepaid cards. Customers, having paid for their drinks in advance, would return to Starbucks for their coffee, instead of going to a competitor’s outlet.

The company effectively doubled the number of members in six months after taking the programme mobile. By April 2013, Starbucks had 10 million active users on its loyalty programme. One million new users signed up during a two-week promotional stint.

An example nearer home would be KOI Café, said Ms Veann Woo, Business Development Manager of iAPPS. Its one-month mobile promotion drew 20,000 page views with over 1,000 mobile users redeeming the 50 cents voucher from KOI staff island-wide. These examples demonstrate the power of mobile marketing,

To ensure that mobile marketing strategies actually answer customer needs, companies must continually revisit the starting point of their core value proposition, said Ms Valerie Oon, UX Stormtrooper of 2359 Media.

Using the SGMalls app as an example, she said 2359 Media made changes to the app when evidence from analytics indicated that customers search for deals based on brands rather than malls.

“Such knowledge helps retailers frame their mobile strategy better,” she said. “For example, the changes to SGMalls resulted in a better user experience flow and delivered the core value in a more coherent way to users.”