NEW YORK – A Forrester Research analyst at the Mobile Marketing Association’s SM2 Innovation Summit outlined ways for marketers to create effective mobile moments to connect with customers and stay relevant in the increasingly competitive mobile space.

The analyst’s “Catering to your Consumers’ Mobile Moments” session offered charts and tips on how to emulate high-quality brands’ strategies and create smart partnerships with competitors. Forrester stressed the importance of understanding what it calls the Mobile Mind Shift:  consumers’ expectation that they can get what they want in their immediate context and moments of need.

“Brands and marketers need to realize that customers are looking for a high quality experience, and that all interactions they have with your brand are part of it,” said Jennifer Wise, analyst at Forrester Research, Cambridge, MA. “It’s more than a shift to time spent on mobile; this perpetual connectedness has led to a shift in customers’ thinking.”

Customer expectations

Forrester’s data revealed that when interacting with a brand, 62 percent of consumers expect a mobile-friendly Web site, 42 percent expect an accompanying mobile app and 23 percent anticipate a location-specific experience. In order to deliver on these expectations, brands must create mobile marketing moments.

The most imperative item to keep in mind when creating a mobile moment is to deliver a high value experience.

“Not all brands are high-touch, but all must strive to be,” Ms. Wise said. “If you’re not one of those brands, it is going to be harder to own that mobile moment for customers.”

Ms. Wise introduced a chart displaying the three types of mobile marketing moments: borrowed moments, loyalty moments and manufactured moments. Marketers should aim to focus on loyalty and manufactured moments.

While borrowed moments are optimal for driving discovery, loyalty moments arise when customers turn to mobile to interact with the brand and use mobile to deepen an established relationship. Manufactured moments create an opportunity for user engagement.

Learning from other brands
Brands should strive to be in the top percentage of marketers offering both frequent and high-quality experiences. To measure success, companies can establish appropriate benchmarks, look at Net Promoter scores or examine customer satisfaction surveys.

Forrester offered several examples of brands offering these types of experiences that others can learn from when trying to create relevant experiences for their consumers. Disney, a brand that is already highly-esteemed, introduced its MagicBand this year, which merges Web, mobile and wearable aspects.

The MagicBand can sync with park systems and make dinner reservations, track FastPass requests and can even be used as a hotel key. This benefits the consumer, but also gives valuable data to the brand, such as what hotels a customer frequents and which rides they prefer to go on.

Another example of a top mobile moment strategy came from Nike and its running companion app. While Nike is a high-quality brand, interactions may not be as frequent since shoes do not have to be purchased weekly.

The app, which was designed to intertwine with consumers’ daily lives, now has 17 million downloads.

Brands that find themselves labeled as lower quality with fewer interactions should redefine services and partnerships, and try to partner with digital disrupters or competitors. Financial services could look to apps such as Mint.com for partnership or sponsorship opportunities, while marketers in the travel or restaurant sectors could team up with the Mercedes-Benz concierge app to gain more exposure.

Thinking outside of the box can then help transform the brand into one associated with higher quality experiences and more interactions.

“People turn to their phones to get something done,” Ms. Wise said. “You have to offer utility, and the way to determine how you can offer that is to choose a strategy by looking at your company’s quality and frequency of experience.”

Final Take
Alex Samuely is an editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York