Advanced Mobile Strategy: What is Mobile?
By Adam Kleinberg
This morning I was invited to speak on advanced mobile strategy at the Mobile Marketing Strategies Summit here in San Francisco.
The title of my conversation was Experience Design and Storytelling .
In my presentation, I talked about how storytelling could be used as a framework for articulating the customer journey to create mobile strategies that focus on customer insights, provide value and provoke action.
Here's a quote from my talk that the conference organizers posted on Instagram:
"Stories are systems for creating value. Storytelling gives us a methodology and template for expressing this value and shaping the user experience. We must understand the customer journey to pinpoint friction, then use our imaginations to tell stories that acknowledge this pain and instead create something magical."
One key factor that many brands are missing when it comes to mobile strategy is the importance of understanding how customers actually interact with technology. Most brands take an app-first approach when thinking about mobile. Often that reflects them putting their agenda ahead of their customers.
For instance, Virgin America does NOT have a mobile app—and their mobile check-in process is way better for it. I get an email that it's time to check in; I click and land on a webpage that already has my last name and reservation number populated in a form; I click again and get a boarding pass in an web page. With virtually every other airline, I have to download their app, open that app, go to my email, find my confirmation number, copy it, go back to the app, paste in the confirmation code, type in my last name, by then my batteries are dead and I have to go to the kiosk anyway....
You get the point. Instead of "one place" (i.e. an app) that has everything Virgin, they airline has crafted an experience that makes my life easier. And I deeply appreciate them for it.
Advancing your mobile strategy might actually mean taking a step back and asking, "am I doing what my customer wants or do I just have a case of Shiny Object Syndrome?"
I've just been invited to give a talk to a group of senior level PR leaders and business leaders at a private event here in San Francisco.
For about three years, I've been predicting to anyone who would listen that the final episode of Mad Men would surely end with Don Draper tossing himself from a balcony and resolving into the falling man from the opening title sequence.
In order to maintain competitive advantage, brands must create compelling experiences at every single touch point. And stories are a great way to do that.