Apples + apps

New technology has always been a birth place for the marketing industry and the iPhone has been no different.

Now this certainly isn’t an advert for the iPhone. Far from it.

The iPhone is simply one of the latest mediums that has become available to the market.

Apps (as they are known) are a growing industry of their own and suddenly the chasm that has existed for centuries between geeks and the rest of us is rapidly being squeezed as they create some of the most desirable additions to this new technology.

The Apple Apps Store has seen incredible growth in the past few years and now boasts an amazing number of useful and not so useful apps.

An example of how these Apps have massive implications for business and their marketing push is ‘Domain’ – the centralised real estate site. They recently released an Apps that allows you to search for homes for sale or rent anywhere in Australia. So instead of going to their site and attempting to navigate it on your tiny screen, they have made a compact version that utilises the power of the iPhone framework.

An app like this meets many of the criteria that make up a great piece of marketing.

a) Branding – It brands the company. I mean their logo and name is right there on the screen! Then of course, the whole experience is fully branded. You can’t escape it.

b) Convenience – Anything that makes your customer’s life more convenient is going to be a winner. This takes out a number of steps in the process and makes life easier.

c) KISS – It’s simple and easy to use. No fuss. No brainer.

and

d) Accessibility – The app is always at your fingertips. You can use it anywhere…any time.

Another really great app that I came across was, one called ‘WhatTheFont’. As a mad keen fan of typography I had to download this one. It allows you to take a picture of a piece of text that you like the look of. It then searches the database for a font that matches and informs you of the name. Now here’s the clever part…it’s been developed by an online font store and you can go straight to their site and purchase the font. BRILLIANT!!!

My final favourite ( at the moment…) is ‘Shazam’. Music lovers the world over have downloaded this in mass. Have you ever heard a song on the radio and wondered “what’s the name of that song?” or “who sings that?”. Well Shazam is the answer. You simply launch the app and let it listen to the song. It matches that with its database and shows you the artist, song title, cover art and once again the clever part…offers you the opportunity to go to iTunes and download the track or the album.

It offers further convenience with being able to share the ‘tag’ with friends and saves them all for you so you can refer to them later.

It’s all clever marketing at the end of the day. It’s not a cheap form of marketing, as development can be costly, but it’s highly effective if you have something that people want. It’s all about making sure you have the right formula to begin with.

It’s not just a phone…it’s a new medium. So why not capitalise on its power?