If you Google ‘photos of men in the 1900s’, it is guaranteed that the majority of men featured would proudly be wearing hats. Indeed, back then wearing a hat was just as important as wearing trousers. Starting in the late 1960s however, hat makers in the United States realised that their sales had started dropping drastically. So why did hats go out of fashion?

Are mobile apps destined to a death like the hat industry?

“There’s no room for my hat”

It turns out the decline of hats had nothing to do with the hat industry at all, but the new industries that were taking off around them. It was very simple. People stopped wearing hats because they didn’t need to go out as much. They called each other instead. And when they did go out, the headroom in their cars wasn’t high enough to keep their hats on, so they didn’t bring hats with them anymore. As adoption rates for direct phone lines, the telegram and the personal car increased, men stopped needing hats and so they stopped buying them. By the time hat manufacturers realised that there was a definite relation between the sale of hats and the new communication media, a lot of hat making companies went out of business.

So why did hats go out of fashion?

Fast forward to early 2015 and we can see the same thing starting to happen in the mobile app industry. Despite there being a predicted 2.5 billion smartphone users by the close of the year, and there being an app for everything, brand engagement via mobile apps is still confusingly low. We suspect that brands still don’t quite understand how to use the mobile channel to full effect, and commissioned a piece of consumer research to see why:

Will Mobile Apps Face the Same Fate?

of 25-34 year olds believe that touch input is on the way out and

will be replaced by more intuitive interactions such as voice,

motion or other new innovation

48%

53%of customers use apps that provide useful information

(i.e. travel apps such as national rail enquiries)

of customers generally avoid/are suspicious about big brand

apps as they see them as just a one-way marketing tool

54%

57%of customers between 55-64 use apps to keep

themselves up to date with news 62%

71%of customers believe that the majority of

apps today do not engage they merely market and push content and ads

of customers believe that mobile apps have reached market saturation and something new is needed

61%of customers between 16-24 use apps for entertainment purposes

47%of customers delete all or most apps after using them just once

The Key Stats:

Most marketers are still trying to interact with mobile consumers the way they once did with desktop consumers – which is akin to selling hats to those guys sitting in the offices around their desk phones and fax machines. In the last decade, the whole fabric of communication has changed. Consumption is not primarily happening in ‘free time’, but throughout the day due to the portable, ‘always on’ nature of mobile phones. Add location into the mix and what you consume and why you consume it is going to be very different when you’re sitting at home around a desktop computer than when you’re travelling from work to drinks with a mobile phone.

Now add device inter-operability and the Internet of Things into the same mix and what you are now getting is an even more complex picture. Gone are the days when free time meant spending a few minutes trying to connect on dial-up and then clicking on blinking banner ads on Yahoo.com. Now, as soon as you get home, interacting with your smartphone could mean watching something on your 32-inch television, turning on your shower or glancing at the data collected by your wearable device.

Where is it All Going Wrong?

Why has mobile engagement become so bland? Possibly because marketers don’t fully understand the main reason why users are looking at their screens in the first place. Getting the mobile mindset is crucial here: customers want quick, simple, relevant and elegant. Mobile real estate is scarce. Attention span is short. Battery life is precious. One tap or one scroll: that is what real mobility is about.

At the same time, don’t forget that our mobile phones are the most intimate devices we own and through which most personal communications happen. If you are thinking generic, above the line marketing communications, do not think mobile. Just because your brand advertising has established your tone of voice it doesn’t mean that your users will regard your brand the same way on the mobile channel.

Why still operate a “push” strategy in a “pull” environment? Why spend precious marketing dollars to get your users onboard never to see any activity from them again? As the most engaging interactions on mobile are between people and people, think about your brand personality on mobile as you do about your personal brand. Think Richard Branson communicating 24/7 with Virgin customers on social media. Your mobile brand is as memorable and captivating as your intelligence, your sense of humour or your quirkiness.

In a Nutshell...What Can Brands Do?

Next time you revisit your mobile strategy or build another app, ask yourself these questions:

Ask difficult questions

We are happy to have this conversation with you. To arrange a meeting or read the full report, please get in touch with us at: diana@ampersandmobile.com

“Is there a ‘mobile’ reason for your app to exist?”

“Can I start and maintain a conversation with my users

on mobile?”

“Am I giving them something of value,

something they could not get otherwise?”

“With little headspace to spare and so much brand noise around, how

do I make you care?”