Check out the following post on Intertech’s blog…
What’s in a name? If we’re talking about some of the products on the list you’re about to read: some really bad ideas. While not all of History’s 15 Worst Named Tech Products failed because of their christening, they certainly didn’t help themselves out by choosing the names they did. From bad hygiene admissions to inadvertent racism, we proudly give you the worst of the worst.
Many people mistakenly believe that computers are what make the world go ’round – that we can’t do anything without them, and if they went away tomorrow, the world would slip into a cultural black hole. In reality, computers don’t make the world go ’round. Software does. And sometimes that software gets quite expensive. As you’re about to see, programs can cost anywhere from thousands to hundreds of thousands depending on the scope and specificity of purpose. Whenever possible, we’ve tried to slap an exact number on the product for you. At the very least, you’ll get an estimate.
Unfortunately, when you’re dealing with enterprise-type software, it’s impossible to find a hard number on the web. Quotes often vary depending on the circumstances. Still, if you left those types of software programs out of a list like this, it wouldn’t be an accurate representation. Our goal: to show just how valuable these 13 Crazy Expensive Software Products are to the companies and the people who use them. Here goes!
What do wineries, 911 call centers, and South Korea’s largest cell phone carrier have in common? Intertech’s team has built mobile applications for all of them.
In this final post in the series For Mobile Devices, Think Apps (not ads!), I’m sharing a few examples of what we’ve built for our customers.
A Media App for a Mobile Phone Carrier
Working the largest mobile phone company in South Korea, Intertech developed an interface for a service similar to iTunes or Spotify.
911 Call Centers
Intertech created a mobile application for 911 call centers for the reservation of channels on radio networks. Part of the solution was a “quick schedule” to reserve a channel immediately with one touch.
Multiple Mobiles for a Health Insurance Company
For an existing customer’s application, Intertech extended their platform with a mobile version of an application’s admin, client, and public portals.
Adding Attaboys to Facebook
Have you ever sent an “attaboy” (name changed to protect the client) on Facebook? If you have, you were using an application created by Intertech. This app integrates Facebook accounts allowing posting a thanks to someone’s wall or timeline.
Mobile, One Vine at a Time
If there ever was a project where we should have taken “in kind” payment…this was it! Built for iPads and iPhones, this Intertech created application helps vineyards manage field production.
If we could be of help on a mobile project or help your team spin-up on mobile app development, please let me know.
If you’ve been following my last few posts, you know I’m focusing on how to use mobile applications in innovative ways to reach customers. A good article by Sunil Gupta in the March 2013 issue of Harvard Business Review lays out five smart ways to create apps that enhance consumers’ lives and reinforce your brand in the process. See my previous post for the first two ideas. Today I delve into the remaining three: (1) provide social value, (2) offer incentives and (3) entertain.
According to Gupta,
Providing social value is solving Facebook’s challenge of how to make money without alienating users. He writes, “Facebook added its billionth user in October 2012; its app is one of the most used in the mobile world. Yet Facebook, like other social media companies, has struggled to monetize its user base through advertising. Marketers question the effectiveness of ads on social media sites because ads interrupt the user experience of connecting with friends. Activities that enhance connections among friends are a different matter.
Social gifting is a case in point. As Reid Hoffman, a cofounder of LinkedIn and a partner at the venture capital firm Greylock Partners, has observed, it draws on three hot trends: gift cards, social networking and mobile shopping. Consider two examples: Since its November 2011 launch, more than 300,000 people have used the Swedish startup Wrapp to give their Facebook friends promotional gift cards available from nearly 100 major retailers. (In all, more than 2.2 million cards have been sent.) And in September 2012, three months after acquiring the mobile social gifting company Karma, Facebook announced the rollout of features that let users send their friends gift cards for Starbucks coffee, Magnolia Bakery cupcakes and other goods.
(2) Offer incentives. Apps that give away mobile minutes, for instance, can entice customers. The basic concept is familiar: many firms use short-term promotions and other incentives to entice customers to buy their products or the “like” them on Facebook. To win a spot among the handful of apps on a consumer’s mobile phone, however, marketers need to come up with especially creative incentives.
Coca-Cola did so with a recent promotion in Brazil. In March 2012 the company began installing special devices in venues such as beachfront kiosks—bright red machines that look like soft drink dispensers and bear the Coke symbol and the phrase “Refil de Felicidade” (“Refill Happiness”). After downloading a mobile app, consumers—typically teenagers—can hold their phones up to one of these machines, which will “dispense” 20 megabytes of free data credits while an image of a Coke bottle being filled up appears on the screen.
The last strategy for using effectively using apps to expose customers to your brand is to:
(3) Entertain. Companies can capitalize on the popularity of mobile gaming by devising games focused on their brands. Recall that smartphone users spend more than 40 percent of their app time playing games, and that the figure for table users is even higher. This represents a huge opportunity for savvy marketers.
Red Bull is one company that has capitalized on the opportunity. Instead of creating an app focused on its brand, it devised several mobile gaming apps, including Red Bull Kart Fighter, Red Bull X-Fighters, and Red Bull Air Force. For an energy drink company, building games requires a new and very different set of capabilities, and it is more complicated than simply buying banner ads. But the effort is paying off. In all, the games have been downloaded about two million times to date, and whenever a customer hits “play,” he’s engaging with Red Bull.
Another plus: developers’ fees often are far lower than those of ad agencies. So apps are not only the most effective way to reach mobile consumers; they’re also more cost-efficient than many traditional ad campaigns.”
In my next and final post on this topic I’ll tell you about mobile apps Intertech has created and how they’re helping our customers in the business-to-business space.
“Although smartphones are ubiquitous, ‘mobile advertising’ can be a hollow phrase. People simply don’t like ads on their screens,” writes Sunil Gupta in the March 2013 issue of Harvard Business Review. Gupta lays out a convincing case for marketers to forget about ads and instead to focus on creating effective apps in an attempt to positively influence consumers. He says, and I agree, that consumers don’t perceive apps as intrusive advertising—they value them for their functionality.
Gupta recommends that effective apps do at least one of the following:
(1) Add convenience. Banking apps, for example, let people pay their bills online and most airlines have mobile apps that allow customers to check in and to monitor their flight status. Convenience adds exposure to a brand but they face three constraints. First, while they can strengthen relationships with existing customers, they aren’t very effective at acquiring new customers. Second, established brands with large customer bases have an inherent advantage in using these apps to drive retention and engagement; such apps aren’t a viable alternative for every company. Third, as more and more companies build convenience into their apps, they will find it hard to differentiate themselves on that basis.
(2) Offer unique value. Commuters can use an app to order groceries while waiting for their trains or buses. Another example: Nike has capitalized on mobile’s distinctive abilities with Nike+, an app (originally for iPods, now available for most smart phones) that works with a special chip in runners’ shoes to monitor speed, distance, and calories burned. Although the app itself is free, people must buy either a sensor-equipped Nike sneaker or a shoe-mounted sensor in order to use it. Nike credits the app with having driven growth of 30 percent in its running division as of 2012, and it has expanded Nike+ to include apps and accessories that track other activities, from playing basketball to sleeping. This cool app does not act or feel like a traditional marketing communication—and that’s exactly the point. Mobile users don’t want ads; they wan apps that deliver unique benefits.
Next time I’ll tell you how apps are being used to provide social value, offer incentives and even entertain—all in the name of marketing!