In the quiet of August, Apple
opened its three hundredth store in the retailing heart of London.
At twenty five thousand square foot, the Covent Garden outlet
presents a series of huge open spaces framed in glass and steel.
Inside, clean oak surfaces display Apples full range of devices.
There is seating for prolonged testing. Three hundred staff are on
hand to deliver personal advice and on the spot payment. In this
Apple Store – the best stocked in the world – the aim
is to get shoppers in front of the goods and ensure they leave with
a purchase under their arm.
The only in-store displays
are screens showing the same iPhones and MacBooks customers hold in
their hands. Other signage or advertising? Are there LCDs or PoS
materials offering third-party promotions? The huge footfall
passing through the doors certainly provides an additional revenue
opportunity. But advertising would detract from the serious
business of testing and buying the products on offer.
So if advertising cant find a
place in miles of retail space, what hope does it have on a
3.5-inch screen?
Many of the retail fundamentals of Apple Store are evident in
the design of the App Store. From launch, the UI has been stripped
down and easy to navigate. As time and usage has progressed, Apple
has worked on achieving a cleaner design, easier discovery and
highlighting information on the apps themselves.
But powerful incentives exist to distract the app shopper with
ads. Smartphone owners are a wealthy and influential target that
can be hard to reach through traditional media. Critical
information on their location, likes and purchase history are
available to the advertiser. Cant some of that data be used to the
benefit of partners?
Not without making advertising unobtrusive. At least, thats the
premise of in-app ads, which aim not to pull the user away from
what they were doing.
This is a fair concern. Apps trade on catering to a specific
task to be executed in seconds, often at a glance. In this context,
ten seconds of video can feel as painful as a four minute TV spot.
And that 3.5-inch screen, unlike the Apple Store, belongs to the
customer. What right does a deodorant vendor have to populate this
most personal of spaces?
Monetizing user data can and should hold a central role in every
storefronts plans. Consumers are unwilling to pay for most apps
unless they are highly targeted or useful. And additional offers
and information can be valuable if they take account of the users
context and present needs. A frustrated Angry Bird gamer stuck on a
level may welcome the chance to purchase a weapon that will squash
everything in sight. A push notification could prove instant
respite to a parent searching for a twenty-four hour pharmacy.
In the early days of online advertising, doubts were raised over
the ROI from formats based on print. That was before search came
along and drove the shift to digital. For the reasons above,
marketing will come to the mobile Internet. But the app storefront
owner, like any store manager, should think seriously before
placing obstacles between customers and the products they came to
buy.
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