The ways and means of achieving this can be as simple as a retail website, or as personal as the development of apps to bring your products and services to customers in as engaging a way as possible. It can be as simple as an active Twitter account, or as complex as location- and preference-based smart marketing. If you are a car manufacturer, then what work are you doing to integrate into in-car control systems, and are you ?
Perhaps you don't think this is relevant to your business. If so, think about these 10 notions:
I could go on and on, but 10 examples is probably enough to justify my argument: that whatever industry you happen to be in, you're well-advised to think how to deliver a mobile customer-facing strand to your business offer. You need to go to where your customers are, if you want to maximize your business.
What's important about these assertions is that it isn't enough to condemn mobile initiatives as nothing more than a small province for geeks. Even hardware supply and small grocer's shops could make moves to exploit this new age, think about:
All these things are possible.
What's set me thinking in this direction is a report published today by ABI Research, who point out that: "Mobile device semiconductors were one of the few bright spots in a chipset market that stalled in 2011. Revenue from chipsets designed for mobile devices increased by more than 20% to $35 billion, while the total semiconductor market limped out of 2011 with just 2% year-on-year growth."
Think laterally here. What should this strange statement tell a CFO in, say, an accountancy? Put simply, it says the future for computing is mobile. And, because the mobile industry is also about communication, then a company hoping to forge strong bonds with its customers -- no matter how niche the customer base might be -- should consider how to personalize its reputation with its people through development of pleasant-to-use mobile solutions.
Granted, R&D in app development may not have made the shopping list for budgetary spend in this year's round of departmental resource allocation bids. But given the ultra-fast evolution in this space, it might be a good idea to take a moment to ask yourself if, in one year's time, you and your business might wish that such development had taken place.
That's the secret, really. The world is change; everything changes every day. This means for much of our time the reality we inhabit is nothing more than a projection of our notions of the place we are in, based on our own data and experience. And, as such, every business owner might want to ensure their enterprise is as mutable, flexible and changeable as the place we're in. Is it not possible that voluntary mobile contact with your customers may enhance their perception of your business?
Dylan would say the answer's in the wind. Today the air is full of the mobile signal. Things are changing. Be ready.