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Research - 05.04.2016 - 00:00 

Mobile Marketing in Switzerland

Many Swiss companies have recognised the opportunities of marketing through smartphones. However, a study conducted by the University of St.Gallen and the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts also revealed that there is still a great deal of catching up to do when it comes to the individualisation of such advertising messages.

6 April 2016. Half of Swiss enterprises are already making intensive use of instruments of mobile marketing. This was revealed by a survey conducted by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) and the University of St.Gallen (HSG) among 127 firms in Switzerland. According to this study, 71 per cent of the enterprises use apps for mobile marketing, 66 per cent operate responsive websites, 60 per cent advertise in the internet and another 60 per cent use QR (“quick response”) codes to attract attention.

Finding your bearings in the online jungle

The authors of the study maintain, however, that in what is an online jungle, the firms make too little use of individualised contents that promise a specific benefit to smartphone users. Parents, for instance, find it helpful to know whether a restaurant is child-friendly, or travellers would like to know how they can reach a hotel by public transport.

Project co-leader Thomas Wozniak from HSLU criticises the firms’ indiscriminate approach to advertising: “The firms gear their messages and contents far too little to individual users, their locations and their behaviour.” Only 40 per cent of the companies interviewed differentiated between the various customer segments at all. According to information provided by HSLU, however, almost a third of all enterprises were discussing the use of marketing measures which provide addressees with specific added value at their instant location.

The significance of “responsive websites” is underpinned by a further survey result: the enterprises describe this instrument as the most important in mobile marketing, whereas apps tend to be ranked rather lower; for against the background that many apps whose development was costly are orphaned in the app store, at least some of the firms regard it as more sensible to use responsive websites to interact with their customers.

Apps with added value are in demand

“Apps need a specific added value to be appealing,” adds Katarina Stanoevska-Slabeva, an expert in digital communication at the University of St.Gallen. “And they must be used where their technology is in demand: for instance as decisive touchpoints in digital customer processes or in location-based marketing measures.” The latter are applications which pinpoint the user’s location and offer individual benefits on the basis of information pertaining to that particular location.

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