Have you ever heard of B.J. Fogg? He is a pioneer in the field of “captology”, better known as the study of the persuasive power that computers have over humans. This concept may have sounded far-fetched back in 1993, but now it’s a reality we all know too well.
Mobile phones have long been used just to talk to other people. Mr. Fogg was ahead of his time when he predicted that they would become a powerful marketing tool that any business should consider utilising.
Now we talk, get informed, connect and purchase via our smartphones – exactly the prediction Fogg made. A Stanford news article from 2007 cites the following:
“Fogg, who directs the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab at the Center for the Study of Language and Information, says that in a decade, mobile phones and other portable devices like personal digital assistants (PDAs) will become a more important platform for persuasion than television is right now.”
A decade has passed, and it turns out he was right. Businesses have gone mobile and will continue to do so in the following years, because they have recognised that that way they can reach a much broader audience.
The advantage these mobile devices have is a practical one. Fogg said:
“It has to be a device you can carry with you without inconveniencing yourself; something like a laptop is portable, but not mobile. You can’t really carry your laptop with you anywhere, whereas a mobile phone you can put it in your pocket and forget it’s there.”
The best part about our relationship with smartphones is that it’s almost like a marriage.
We don’t go anywhere without them and rely on them to make our life easier. And the best part about marketing via smartphones is that we have no limitations regarding topics and audiences.
So, if your business has a mobile app, then it also has an efficient marketing tool ready to be utilised. The big players are already on board, and so should you.
The estimated number of apps downloaded in 2017 is nearly 197 billion, which means that apps aren’t going anywhere. But they are evolving, and so are mobile app trends.
