Everyone wants to “delight” their customer. Everyone wants to produce something that excites people. Everyone, ultimately wants to sell more product. Beyond the standard spiel of differentiation, great content and user experience, what strategies should brand apps consider to make that happen?

Let’s start with what corporate apps should not do. This is not a vehicle for straight-up advertising. This is not a vehicle to dump your catalogue into, ahem… Zara and Ikea. Not only will this achieve as few downloads as possible, but may move viral (in the bad sense) resulting in vilification by the media, blogs and iPhone community alike. Basically doing the exact opposite of what you want; no impact, waste of money plus the potential bonus of brand smearing.

There are three primary strategies (and a lot of grey in-between) to consider for brand apps.

Another window. The app is a mobilized, abbreviated and device-optimized version of an online presence. Abbreviated. The objective is to leverage the 80/20 rule effectively, whereby the 20% mission critical features / services that 80% of folks actually use or like on the site are considered for the app. Mobilized. The results should be filtered thru the lens of mobile; the user is on the road and benefits from immediacy of interaction. What makes sense in the mobile context? Device-Optimized. The results should also harness the unique tools of the iPhone (location, camera, push notifications etc.) to add useful utility or entertainment to the application.

Upside:

create another touch point with the customer base

layer stickiness to their product or services and extends messaging

cultivate deeper engagement creating funnel for monetization outside the app world or direct revenue thru in-app transactions

Downside:

target audience is the existing customer base, not new customers. Even if you add useful features targeted for non-customers, “consumers are likely to skip over even the most function-rich branded apps simply because they’re branded, This is a problem when the brand is using the app as a new consumer acquisition tool.” Joe Russo, Porter Novelli’s global research director

as another window to the business there is nothing inherently mind-blowing about the proposition that will take your brand to a new place

immediate development & maintenance cost are fully borne as these apps are typically not monetized out-of-the-gate as paid apps or add supported

Bottom line: The app won’t set the world on fire; however if greater engagement with existing customer is important for your brand and you expect to funnel this into real-world monetization outside of the app store or provide in-app transactions then this strategy is for you.

Continued…