[MUSIC] Powerful and intelligent mobile computers such as smartphones, touchscreen tablets and wearable devices. Not only allow consumers to communicate with one another, pay bills, shop, and remotely control devices in their homes and cars. But also constantly track user's whereabouts, health information, as well as sleeping and exercising activities. These devices have grown far beyond being just channels for communication. They are fixtures of modern human life. Mobile Marketing is a multi channel digital marketing strategy aimed at reaching a target audience on their smartphones, tablets and or other mobile devices via websites, email, short messaging services and multimedia messaging services, social media and mobile apps. The core objective of mobile marketing is to reach target consumers and engage them on their mobile communication devices via multiple channels. Recent data show that smartphone adoption rate in the United States has passed 80% in 2019. And it is expected to reach 85% in 2024. Globally more than 40% of the world's population uses a smartphone. Last year 61% of the US emails were opened on mobile devices and only 15% on the desktop computer. From the survey conducted by ad week in 2019, it is found that consumers spent over five hours a day on their smartphones. For brands and businesses such a rapid and broad based adoption of mobile computing technologies and communication provides unprecedented opportunities to reach and engage consumers. As well as grow their business for those who are bold, innovative and informed. Among all the digital marketing strategies, mobile marketing strategy is not only the hardest, but also the most exciting to envision, develop and manage. Mobile marketing is not limited to one single platform, one type of communication channel or one specific type of device. It involves a comprehensive system of considerations of mobile technologies, software applications, communication services, media platforms, and user activities. These factors interact with one another in different combinations and social contexts to create endless possibilities, as well as challenges for digital marketers. This may sound very daunting, but it's not. The key to developing an integrated mobile strategy is to recognize the many affordances that smart mobile devices would bring. Let me first explain what technological affordance is. The theory of affordance was developed by American psychologist J.J. Gibson, in the late 1970s. In his research on the interconnections between objects in the environment, human perception and their actions. Gibson made up the word affordance based on the verb afford, to capture the possibilities for an action that the environment offers to humans and animals. In essence, affordance is a property or feature of an object that presents a clue or a cue on what can be done with this object. For example, a hill has a slope and the slope offers the action possibilities of climbing or sliding. A rock is hard, so it can be used to hit something. The concept of affordance was later adopted by engineers and designers to improve the functionality of technological tools. All technological tools are created to perform one or more specific functions, but they can be used for other purposes. Only those who correctly recognize the affordances of a tool, as it was intended by its creator will use the tool correctly. So to improve the functionality of a tool, the creator must include perceptible cues about its intended use in its design. Technological affordance, are features embedded, in a piece of technology that is so obvious, and deeply ingrained, that they do not require any conscious processing. For example, a button is to be pushed. A knob is to be turned, and a wheel should roll. When a piece of technology is developed and widely used as intended, the users will accept its primary function as an affordance. This is both good news and bad news. The good news is that once an affordance is recognized and widely accepted so will the product itself. For example, Google built a powerful search engine for users to easily find information on Internet. It is so successful that the product Google has become interchangeable with its affordance Internet Search. But the bad news, however, is that once an affordance is deeply ingrained, it is hard to change. To the billions of users Google is just a search. And search just means Google. This is partially why Google has failed to build a successful social platform to compete with Facebook. And to expand the market share of its smartphone business against Apple and Samsung. Now that you have a basic understanding of technological affordance and how it may affect our actions, let's try to apply this concept to consumer behavior and marketing in exercise. In 1876, the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell. It completely changed human communication. In 1973, Motorola developed the first hand held mobile telephone, and the dawn of wireless communication has begun. Now can you please list the first three technological affordances of a mobile phone that comes to your mind. Also, I want you to think about what opportunities these affordances could bring to a marketer. Great. What did you have on your list? Was it easy or difficult for you to come up with some marketing solutions? Now let's try another exercise. In 1936, Alan Turing first presented the notion of universal machine capable of computing anything computable. In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple computers on April Fool's Day and rode out the Apple 1. The first computer with a single circuit board. In 1981, the first IMB prsonal computer, code named Acorn, was introduced. In 2007, Apple introduced its first generation of iPhone and brought many computer functions to a mobile device. The age of smartphone has them begun. Now please list the first three technological affordances of a smartphone that comes to your mind. And then I want you to think about what opportunities these affordances could bring to a marketer. Did you come up with the same list of affordances as you did in the first exercise? What did you learn, from the two exercises? This exercise was a simple experiment to illustrate how technological affordances can impact and limit our thinking about the use of technology. In the first excercise, I primed you to think about a mobile phone as a wireless communication device. You probably came up with marketing ideas such as text messaging, and location based marketing that leveraged on mobile and wireless and communication as being the technological affordances. In a second exercise, I led you to think about the smartphone as a personal computer. You likely followed this line of thinking to generate marketing strategies in that domain. In fact, a smartphone or any personal mobile computing device connected to the internet, can perform the functions of a telephone, a computer, an internet browser, a TV, a game console, a location tracker, an augmented reality and virtual reality display, and even a personal assistant. And this is what makes mobile marketing so challenging and exciting.
