Modern Insider – Online Marketing Blog

Admittedly I’m a bit late to the game having just moved from a Samsung Blackjack to the iphone but then again, with over 1.75 million iphones sold in Q4 of last year, there are a lot of people who are late to the game and a lot more coming along. In any event there’s no doubt that the iphone revolution and really the smartphone revolution is here, heck you could even say it’s already behind us. There’s more than 14 million iphones on the market and tens of millions of other super smartphones out there (super smartphones being new age phones that combine email and other smartphone features with advanced web browsing, multimedia and other computer like features), yet so many businesses seem to continue marching on like consumers aren’t able to access a world of data right in front of them. It’s time for that to stop.

Admittedly I’m a bit late to the game having just moved from a Samsung Blackjack to the iphone but then again, with over 1.75 million iphones sold in Q4 of last year, there are a lot of people who are late to the game and a lot more coming along. In any event there’s no doubt that the iphone revolution and really the smartphone revolution is here, heck you could even say it’s already behind us. There’s more than 14 million iphones on the market and tens of millions of other super smartphones out there (super smartphones being new age phones that combine email and other smartphone features with advanced web browsing, multimedia and other computer like features), yet so many businesses seem to continue marching on like consumers aren’t able to access a world of data right in front of them. It’s time for that to stop.
Case #1 – Last fall I made a trip out to the Big Island of Hawaii to enjoy a few days away from the buzz and grind. After being approached for a few timeshare / vacation property pitches I succumb and decided to hear the pitch in exchange for a nice meal for two at the Hilton. The pitch went like most upscale vacation property pitches do; friendly talking, a nice tour and then a whirlwind of numbers that are made to seem impressive and a huge push for a close. In the end I told the sales agent and his manager that I’d never buy something like that on the spot and held to it after “an amazing offer” was made. I said I’d call if I was interested, they could have cared less. A minute later I knew why.
Out of curiosity I looked up property resale rates on my phone as I walked out and sure enough it was a joke. Costs ranged from 40-60% of the “amazing deal” rates and just about every property was on the block, including the brand new one I looked at. While I was interested and seriously considered the offer during the conversation my feeling after doing 30 seconds of research was anything but positive. The sales agents, the nice, “honest seeming” people I had just talked to were completely trying to pull a quick one and I was able to figure it out within seconds using my phone. 10 years ago I understand the timeshare market did great because there was no comparing and very little reselling, 5 years ago the internet changed the entire market with “used” properties and 6 months ago a phone stopped me from considering the offer altogether because of information.
Case #2 – We’ve all been here and done this one… you walk into a retail store looking for a product that costs more than few bucks and as soon as you find it, you walk out to check another store and another and another until you find the right deal. The internet has of course made deal hunting easier but companies still bank on you walking in, seeing the bright lights, the awesome product display and a sales associate offering you what feels like a killer deal to close the sale. With no internet in front of you it’s easy to get caught up in the moment… but now there is internet in the store, now you can compare on the fly. Today when doing something as simple as looking at cases for my new iphone I had immediate access to get the full range of options, to know the prices at other stores and to find out which product people liked best. The result, I walked right out of the Apple store and Frys and found the product I wanted elsewhere and that was for a $20 item, you don’t have to be selling to tech geeks to assume someone looking at a $2,000 bed or a $1,5000 plasma tv would do the same.
And if the ability to search wasn’t enough, a few of the comparison shopping sites have built apps to make the process even easier. Buzzillions (the company that owns PowerReviews) has a top 10 app that’s absolutely free which lets you search through millions of reviews on their network. A quick seconds of typing and you can get Amazon style feedback on just about any major product. Other companies are offering the same functionality for checking prices, finding store locations, even getting discounts sent right to a phone.
So 2 very different examples but the same story and a simple point. The world has changed and while 50% of consumers may not have smartphones today, tens of millions have the very best and tens more have something with at least basic web abilities. Even those that don’t can reach out and passively ask a dozen friends for price checks and opinions at the touch of a few keys. The world has changed and businesses that try to sell products under the guise of a hard sale or a can’t resist offer are going to find a customer that knows the real story. I’ve watched sales people cringe as someone pulled out a phone to review their claim and I’ve watched customers walk off disgusted as they discover a lie.
As a retailer you’re in a tough position, price is comparable, information is available and consumers have infinite choice for almost every decision. This doesn’t mean you have to offer the bottom of the basement deal to win the sale but it does mean acting transparently and selling your actual value. Apple sells millions of laptops for far more than a Dell or HP costs not because they’re 50 times better technically but because of the experience, the product quality and the buzz and truth about their quality of service. Zappos sells a product that people said would never sell well online and they do it to the tunes of millions of dollars a month all without discounts or super bottom prices. Sure they have a good deal but they also have remarkable service and a guarantee they are known for. Those items and not their end of the day price is what makes them a winner.
As a retailer, service business, travel agency or any other offline entity it’s time for you to step up and offer the same level of service that you tell the world you offer. Anything less isn’t going to cut it.
I wrote about mobile several months back and even asked the LinkedIn community what they were doing to address it. The response I got was often a shrug, a dismissal as if the mobile world wasn’t really that big. You may not have 5,000,000 pageviews to your mobile site but I don’t have to view 50 pages to get the info I need nor do I even have to visit your site. Applications tell me what your price is, others tell me about your quality and even more tell me about your product. So as At&t, Verizon, Sprint and the other cell companies put more and more devices in the hands of consumers will you step up and offer the technology solutions to market to these individuals and the service to get them to convert or will you wonder why they walk out the door.