For On-the-Go Mobile Coupons, Consumer Customization is the Key

With the rise of location-based mobile services like Foursquare, Gowalla, and Loopt, more and more consumers are broadcasting where they are throughout the day. The emerging trend extends from checking-in at bars/restaurants to earn special badges to keeping your social network abreast of every detail of your life. As an ever greater number of people join these services and participate in increasingly vibrant mobile communities, advertisers will gain an enhanced ability to deliver targeted offers at the moment of truth (right when you pass in front of a retail store, restaurant, or cafe).

In a recent display of the company's On-the-Go mobile couponing capability, AT&T detailed a scenario in which a consumer would receive SMS offers from every retailer nearby. While some in the marketing community may claim that this is an amazing solution that all consumers would clamor for, I believe that such a proposition is quite dangerous if not handled with the utmost responsibility and care. Who would really want to receive an endless flow of mobile offers from every retailer in sight? I struggle to think that any person would find long-term value in that.



It can't be denied that location-based mobile applications and social networks create amazing opportunities for brands and retailers. Location awareness creates opportunities for just-in-time promotions and campaigns that leverage real-time consumer data. In the sphere of location-based mobile services, advertisers must always remember that WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY.

In ceding some of that responsibility to consumers themselves, its provides the greatest chance that everyone will emerge as winners. Consumers will receive relevant, targeted ads/offers they welcome, and advertisers will forger greater relationships with customers through flexible, efficient, and timely mobile campaigns. Once opted into a specific LBS (i.e. Foursquare), consumers must be given the ability to opt in and out of offers from specific advertisers and within specific verticals.

Instead of receiving a barrage of text offers and mobile coupons, as though opting into a mobile service meant releasing the dam to an entire mall's worth of promotions, a person must have the ability to create finite boundaries for what offers and information he chooses to receive. I envision a system in which a person can create a "mobile offer profile" that can be as specific and detailed as he wants (option to drill down to specific savings amounts, types of apparel, times of year, etc).

Within his "mobile offer profile," a consumer would also have the ability to create a virtual wallet to house all of his mobile coupons. Rather then being alerted of every offer via a text message, coupons could go directly to a person's virtual coupon wallet. He could search through the wallet via a web-based interface in which he would be able to segment offers by category, amount, location proximity, etc.

The key to achieving success with on-the-go mobile coupons is consumer customization.

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