Does Your Brand Need an iPhone App?

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Many companies with a Twitter account and a Facebook fan page are already looking for “the next big thing.” As a result, we’re getting a lot of interest from communications teams in learning more about building iPhone applications. Here’s our take on one of the best selling mobile devices from a comms perspective:

Simply having a Twitter account or Facebook fan page does not constitute engagement.
If your brand is just beginning its first foray into social media, then it makes more sense to build your community on whatever social networking platform you’ve chosen before investing the time and money to develop a smartphone application. 

The iPhone demographic constitutes only a fraction of the global smartphone marketplace.
That means you should begin by determining the company’s audience for this application. If the audience is global, then it might make more sense to explore the new Ovi store from Nokia and if it’s predominantly a corporate audience, the Blackberry app store might be more appropriate.

The most successful branded iPhone applications from companies enable more�
interaction with customers.�
This might include improvements in customer service, the ability to interact with the brand in�
a new way or a mobile experience that strengthens a brand’s connection to the end user. Our favorite applications illustrate this point:

The FedEx Mobile for iPhone application allows users to access up-to-date shipment tracking information via a very easy to use interface. Not only that, users can find the nearest FedEx location, creating shipping labels and get rate quotes. The company’s app facilitates a mobile experience that makes it easy for people to conduct business with the company no matter their location.

The Amazon mobile application does more than let you access their content on the go. It also has a feature that lets you take a picture of something, for example a computer, and send it to Amazon, which will then conduct a search and send me price comparisons from a number of online retailers.

Consider this alternative
The biggest obstacle for many brands with iPhone application development is the cost. A less expensive alternative is to create a mobile version of your Web site optimzed for viewing on the iPhone, such as these sites from The New Yorker or Nike.

Conclusion
While an iPhone application is an exciting way to demonstrate your brand’s commitment to new social communications platforms, it’s important to consider the size and demographic of the audience. For the majority of business users, a Blackberry is still the most popular smartphone option. If your brand does build an iPhone app, make sure it fills a void in the marketplace or enables a more interactive experience with your brand. Otherwise, you may find that the time and expense fail to meet your communications goals.

For further reading, check out this e-book titled, “Secrets of iPhone App Marketing: How To Get Your App Noticed & Increase Your Sales.”