Friday, March 14, 2014
By CallFire,

Mobile technology has afforded businesses the chance to develop an intimate understanding of both extant and potential customers. It’s possible to collate information ranging from the big questions – age, sex, location – down to consumerist minutiae like preferred pizza crust or plane seat.

It all comes down to the ubiquity of the smartphone, and the sophisticated technologies it can support. Globally, there are five times as many mobile phones as PCs – and though the majority of these are not smartphones, it seems likelier that people in the developing world will eventually upgrade to a smartphone than a desktop computer.

The growth of 4G networks is helping commercial enterprise develop content-rich, two-way street relationships with the masses. In this climate, it’s all too easy to send too much information, too many special offers – something that can alienate people rather than draw them in. This is where ‘contextual awareness’ comes in. The concept is an umbrella for all sorts of consumer behavior: what people buy, what they read, where they like to go and when, who they hang out with online - any data collected on an individual that can help marketers triangulate their strategy to achieve maximum effects could be regarded as creating contextual awareness. The bottom line is this: know your customer’s habits, and you know your customer.

A key driver of contextual awareness is the recent improvement in geotargeting technology. Geofencing is helping businesses deliver location-appropriate messages – and special offers – at the times people need them (and only at those times). It’s not just about selling products – banks have used the same information to counteract fraud, by verifying that a person’s mobile device is at a location when a purchase is made. If it’s not, a follow-up text or call can be made to urge the individual to check the veracity of a transaction. In some cases, financial services are even allowing users to make payments using their smartphone.

Syniverse is using contextual awareness for precisely that reason. They’ve teamed up with MasterCard to bring customers a ‘suite of mobile and payment services’ that promise to bring peace of mind to users traveling abroad. They’ve made it possible for users to make or check transactions from anywhere in the world, greatly reducing the hassles associated with having payments declined due to ‘unusual’ locations.

Mobile devices are uniquely placed to harness contextual awareness. More than any other electronic device, smartphones are, typically, single-owner objects. Plus, most people carry them with them all the time. Throw into the mix Facebook, GPS, broadcast technology and the unstoppable human compulsion to share information about themselves with others, and you have a potent brew, a marketer’s elixir made out of personal data, willingly given. The more immediate and personalized we demand our mobile interactions to be, the more contextual awareness will play a role in the future of mobile marketing.