Whether a shopper is using a BlackBerry or an iPhone, when a mobile user opens an Internet browser, the user is given 2 options at the top of the browser:

1. The ability to enter your URL
2. The ability to search using Google

It’s only natural to give your mobile users the same sort of options on your mobile site, and also make it very prominent.

Large Search Bar on Every Page

All of Branding Brand’s clients use the search bar feature on every page, prominently displayed at the top of each page, and displaying real time inventory results taken from the full site. Help users find and use the search bar by including the text SEARCH in the scroll bar and have it disappear when a user begins typing in a search term.

User-friendly Search Results

It is important to not only make the search bar clearly visible, but also to display search results in a clear way that allows for a quick scroll.

Current research is being done to measure the appropriate number of search results to display.

Our clients range from 16 – 99 results per page, with conversion remaining consistent with those using the search feature.

Mobile Commerce Users Have Urgency

The immediacy of Mobile Commerce requires visitors to perform specific tasks in an efficient manner. The less steps it takes for a shopper to make a purchase, the more likely they’ll complete it.

If someone wants to buy cherry flavored jelly beans on Jelly Belly’s website, they are likely to just search for “cherry,” add the item to the cart, and then check out. This is generally much faster than if the shopper has to figure out where the cherry flavored jelly beans are located on the site by browsing through categories, which involves more guess and check.

Building and designing an effective mobile site is much different than a typical e-commerce site. Usability, design, analytics and testing are critical to ensuring a smooth buying experience.

Please contact us for more information on turning your existing e-commerce website into a mobile commerce website that adds a new revenue stream and enhances your brand.

Joey Rahimi Joey is from Manhattan, NY but has been living in Pittsburgh for over 10 years now. He is a die hard Steelers and Knicks fan, and really loves PITT Basketball (Carnegie Mellon is D3). Want content written for your Brand that shows up #1 on Search Engines and brings you new customers? Contact us.

You found the perfect shade of lipstick, but you’ve run out. When you get to the store to get a replacement, you realize there are many similar shades in that brand. It’s been a few months since you purchased your go-to shade, so you can’t remember the exact shade name, and unfortunately, you didn’t bring your old lipstick with you. So you’re stuck guessing, and can’t test your success or failure until you get home and find that “red” shade is too pink.

This scenario is all-too familiar to many beauty shoppers.

Branding Brand, a mobile website vendor, launched Sephora’s smart-phone enabled m-commerce site, Sephora Mobile, on Wednesday, August 4, 2010, which has solved this problem as it suggests new products based on past purchases and retrieves e-commerce, m-commerce and store purchase history. This means, you can now use your smartphone to look up that past lipstick purchase and replace it in-store with confidence.

The mobile site, located at m.sephora.com, has special features that take being Sephora’s Beauty Insider experience to a new personalized and fun level, giving complete access to the loyalty program from a smartphone.

In addition, smartphone users can now:

• Quickly and easily make purchases with their credit card info safely stored
• Access lists of new products, product ratings and reviews
• Formulate and save a shopping list and gift registry
• Locate a nearby brick-and-mortar store using a smartphone’s GPS technology
• Learn about in-store, catalog and online events and promotions
• Enter Sephora’s Facebook page and functionalities, such as “liking” products on Facebook, which appears on the user’s Facebook wall and newfeeds of friends

With its clients increasingly accessing its e-commerce site from smartphones, the new m-commerce site was a natural progression. In fact, Forrester Research reported in February that more than half of Web shoppers own a Web-capable phone, and 14% of them have used the device to shop.

But Sephora Mobile is just the first step in the m-commerce strategy as Sephora anticipates releasing Sephora’s Beauty-to-Go, an iPhone-specific app, also usable on the iPod touch and iPad, in October. This app will include all of the current mobile site’s features with the additional features such as the ability to watch videos and scan a product’s bar code (using all types of technology, including QR codes) to add to an online wish list or look up product ratings.

Sephora chose Branding Brand as its mobile website vendor to build the Sephora m-commerce site as well as the upcoming Beauty-to-Go app. You can find press coverage of the mobile launch in Internet Retailer, Mobile Commerce Daily, Women’s Wear Daily, InStyle.com and eMarketer.

Is a mobile-optimized site for your brand? Consider this thought experiment presented by Bill Siwicki of Internet Retailer:

OK, you don’t have a mobile-optimized site, and 5% of your traffic is bouncing—bouncing to some other retailer that does have a mobile site that enables these shoppers to buy then and there. Let’s be conservative. Say your average ticket is $100, the industry average according to Forrester Research Inc. Say your conversion rate is 3%, the industry average according to Forrester. And your monthly unique visitors tally is 500,000—a modest number among Internet Retailer Top 500 e-retailers. 5% (the percent of traffic coming from mobile devices) of 500,000 is 25,000. 3% (the conversion rate) of 25,000 is 750. 100 (the average order value) times 750 is 75,000.

You’re losing $900,000 a year by not offering mobile device users an m-commerce site. And the percent of traffic from mobile devices is only going to increase—substantially.

The assumed conversion rate above may be a little aggressive, but even if you halve that, the result is still impressive, highlighting the potential of m-commerce.

So if you have an e-commerce site, don’t miss out on sales from the ever-growing mobile consumer market with your full website optimized specifically for the mobile platform. Contact us at Branding Brand: info@brandingbrand.com.

Kara Arnold Kara uses the store locator on her mobile to avoid Sephora stores to save her wallet. Want content written for your Brand that shows up #1 on Search Engines and brings you new customers? Contact us.

Mobile website vendor, Branding Brand, launched Steve Madden’s mobile commerce-enabled site on April 19, 2010. With more and more retailers jumping onto the m-commerce bandwagon, it may’ve seemed like the natural next step in progress.

But was it worth it?

“Mobile commerce has yet to prove it can net big sales,” said Andria Cheng of MarketWatch. Despite the negative headline, Cheng also reported that Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru predicts mobile sales could eventually grow to 10% of online retail as she added that it took a decade to see e-commerce’s impact in retail.

Mobile sites, on average, only generate 2.8% of retailers’ overall online site traffic with 2% of their online sales generated via the mobile devices, according to an annual state of online retailing study from National Retail Federation’s digital arm Shop.org, conducted by Forrester Research, which surveyed more than 100 retailers between March and June.

So what does this mean for Steve Madden?

First, consider the above-mentioned survey. If a mobile site is generating 2% of overall sales, but only 2.8% of overall online traffic, the conversion rate is impressive. Second, some of that mobile traffic may not lead to a mobile sale, but rather an in-store sale as many consumers use mobile sites as a guide for purchases rather than as the purchase platform. Consider this second point for sites that are not yet optimized by a mobile website vendor.

Before the mobile-optimized site was launched, Andrew Koven, President of eCommerce and Customer Experience, noticed a growing trend in Steve Madden’s mobile traffic in early 2009, according to a Forrester Research case study. Koven reported between 2000 and 3000 visits per day, and the site was even generating sales, despite the site’s not being optimized for mobile Web browsers. The conversion rates ranged from 0.25% to 0.5% of mobile traffic, a lower conversion than desktop site conversion, probably because the site wasn’t optimized, but also because the consumers were likely supplementing their in-store shopping experience with their mobile devices.

Shortly after the launch of Steve Madden’s mobile site, Koven said that the mobile-optimized site has experienced an average revenue per day that is 30% higher than when the site was not optimized for mobile.

What’s special about Steve Madden’s mobile site?

The content and products normally available on SteveMadden.com is available on the mobile site, presented in a way optimized for mobile devices. The mobile site also has innovations not found on the desktop site.

When looking for a third-party mobile website vendor to create the site, Koven told Forrester Research that he was disappointed by the variety of vendors that provided “chocolate or vanilla” solutions and couldn’t incorporate the elements he perceived as simple integrations, such as breadcrumbs and sizing charts.

Koven chose Branding Brand for its ability to provide the flexibilty he was looking for as well as its ability to integrate cutting-edge technologies, such as the Facebook Like button into product detail pages. Branding Brand’s mobile-social integration taps into Steve Madden’s customers’ natural behavior to share.

What’s great about the Facebook Like feature is its ability to virally spread content. When a user “likes” a product on the mobile site, the action is recorded on her wall and may appear on the newsfeeds of her friends.

In fact, the Facebook Like functionality increased mobile Web traffic in 24 hours after Branding Brand launched a promotion on Steve Madden’s Facebook Page that utilized this feature. The promotion, called the Steve Madden Showdown, offers a discount on one of two products battling for 1000 Likes first. For example, in the first Steve Madden Showdown, the bestselling Caryssa and Trinitie shoes battled. (Spoiler Alert: the shoe that reached 1000 likes first was Caryssa.)

A link to the mobile product detail page of each shoe was posted on the Facebook fan page, driving traffic from Facebook to the mobile site. Fans that clicked on the link were routed to the mobile site where they could Like and even buy the shoe if they wanted to.

The promotion creates excitement and empowers the voice of customers, all while spreading the word about the promotion.

So was pursuing m-commerce worth it for Steve Madden?

While the holiday season, the true test of m-commerce’s ability to drive sales, has yet to come, one thing is for certain: Steve Madden’s mobile-enabled site has made an impact.

Proving to be buzzworthy, Branding Brand’s mobile website and its mobile-social promotion for Steve Madden were covered in blogs.Forbes.com and Mobile Marketer. A case study was also conducted by Sucharita Mulpuru of Forrester Research.

And perhaps most importantly, having increased mobile sales since the mobile-enabled site was launched, Steve Madden has proven that it has improved the mobile, and likely in-store, shopping experience for its customers by choosing Branding Brand.

Interested in having your website optimized for mobile by Branding Brand? Contact this expert mobile website vendor at info@brandingbrand.com.

Kara Arnold Kara couldn’t decide between the Caryssa and Trinitie and voted for both! Shhh! Don’t tell. Want content written for your Brand that shows up #1 on Search Engines and brings you new customers? Contact us.

No problem, you can just recover it tomorrow. No harm done. But if you’re Apple employee Gray Powell and that lost iPhone is the not-yet-released iPhone 4G, you’re in big trouble.

• How One Man Shook Apple to the Core
• What’s New About the 4G
• Were Gizmodo’s Actions Right or Wrong?

It wasn’t just any phone—it was the not-yet-released iPhone 4G.

How One Man Shook Apple to the Core

For Apple Software Engineer, Powell, March 18, 2010 will forever be the night he lost the next iPhone. Powell graduated North Carolina State University in 2006 and later landed his dream job with Apple. His most recent project had him working on the iPhone Baseband Software (the program that enables the iPhone to make calls). Clearly, he knows his stuff.

On the night of March 18, Powell was out celebrating his 27th birthday at German beer garden Gourmet Haus Staudt in Redwood City, California. With him that night was the next generation of the iPhone which he was testing on the streets. To keep the prototype a secret, it was cleverly disguised as a boring, old 3GS iPhone…so 2009.

All around him, people were enjoying their night with drinking and good company. After some time, Powell decided the party was over and went home. Leaving the the infamous lost iPhone behind.

This is how the unnamed middle man recovered what he thought was a normal lost iPhone. While he waited to see if it’s owner would show, he began to play with it. He did not notice anything immediately special about the device. “I thought it was just an iPhone 3GS,” claims the middle man.

When Powell never appeared again, the middle man took it home and soon realized there was something different about this iPhone. He called Apple the next morning to tell them what he discovered. After wasted time and call transfers, he had no luck convincing Apple of what he had.

Unsure what to do, the man dropped the lost iPhone, for a mere $5000, in the lap of Gizmodo, a technology weblog about consumer electronics, who exposed the leaked device.

Gizmoto only had to fork over $5000 for the device.

What’s New About the 4G

Once the lost iPhone reached Gizmodo’s hands, they went to work checking if it was the real deal. Gizmodo determined this was the Holy Grail of iPhones, the 4G, and went to work documenting the new iPhone. There are many changes from past models as well as BRAND NEW FEATURES!

Updates from the 3G and 3GS

• Back is entirely flat and made of a different material (Gizmodo guesses glass, ceramic or shiny plastic)
• Aluminum border on outside
• Smaller screen, but higher resolution
• Squarer shape
• 16% larger battery (with smaller internal components to fit the bigger battery)
• 3 grams heavier

New features on the iPhone 4G

• Front-facing camera for video chats
• Improved back-camera with larger lens than before
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM (like in the iPad)
• Improved display and resolution
• Secondary mic on top
• Power, mute and new split volume buttons are all metallic

This 4G looks like a response to critics who called Motorola’s Droid from Verizon the answer to everything the iPhone couldn’t do. Looks like now there isn’t much the iPhone won’t be capable of.

Although it’s awesome and exciting to get a sneak peek at Apple’s newest innovation, a question lingers…

So many ethical questions…

Were Gizmodo’s Actions Right or Wrong?

If you’re wondering this, you’re not alone. Many ethical questions have been raised because of Gizmodo’s purchase of the lost iPhone and then exposure on their website.

Although Gizmodo paid for the phone, was this right?

And was it right to name to unfortunate engineer who lost it?

Steve Safran of the blog Lost Remote, posed these very questions to his readers and got a variety of responses. Some felt Gizmodo committed bribery and theft, while others saw it as a bargain deal for only $5000.

After reading the story and what’s at stake, what do you think? If you were Gizmodo or the unnamed middle man, would you have acted differently?

Update: Despite paying $5,000 for the lost iPhone, Gawker Media received no direct revenue from the millions of pageviews it received from publishing the scoop.

By Megan Ahern Megan Ahern thinks right or wrong, the 4G sounds like one sweet iPhone. Want content written for your Brand that shows up #1 on Search Engines and brings you new customers? Contact us.

In between the Super Bowl commercials for Budweiser and GoDaddy.com—Oh! and the actual Super Bowl, too—you may have noticed the banner that said, text “Haiti” to “90999″ to donate $10 to the American Red Cross in support of Haitian earthquake relief.

I did, and I remember thinking, Hmm… that’s different.

Different. Yes. This campaign raised an impressive $32 million dollars for Haiti. That might seem normal for a national campaign over the course of a year, but this campaign lasted just 1 month. This bold “mobile giving” move goes to show us the value of m-commerce, and not just for retail stores or other corporations but for nonprofits, too.

“… I remember thinking, Hmm… that’s different.”

Read on to learn more about:

• Mobile giving benefits
• An m-commerce increase
• Making the mobile move

Mobile giving benefits

We Americans with our soft, gentle and giving hearts are known for our philanthropic tendencies. Mobile giving makes this even easier. So put down your checkbook, Salvation Army jingle bells and Girl Scout cookies, it’s time to check out the benefits of mobile giving.

• It’s fast. The rapidness of the Red Cross campaign got aid to Haiti faster than ordinary campaigns or fund-raising (e.g. grants or small-scale benefits/drives). After a disaster of that magnitude, people need help right away, not in a few weeks, months or years.
• It’s green. How many envelopes, letters and checks (i.e. paper products) are used each year to raise funds or garner awareness about something? I don’t know the exact figure, but I know it’s a lot. Probably incalculable. If you care about a cause, you should also make it a point to care about a cause that directly affects us all: the environment. Mobile giving is practically paper-free.
• It’s easy. Sending a text message is really easy compared to making a phone call/being put on hold, searching the internet or filling out some kind of paper form. Not to mention sending a text is less risky (e.g. pretty anonymous, no person-to-person contact), so many people will feel more comfortable doing so.

“… they’re still going to have cookies somewhere in the deal, I’m sure.”

Another good thing that the American Red Cross did in their mobile giving campaign was to make the donation amount small and accessible to a broad audience. $10 is pretty affordable no matter your financial situation. Keep this in mind when creating your own campaign; a lot of people would see a major difference between $10 and $20, for example.

And don’t fret about the Girl Scout cookies. Even if the Scouts go mobile, they’re still going to have cookies somewhere in the deal, I’m sure.

An m-commerce increase

Mobile campaigns aren’t new and the American Red Cross isn’t the only organization to benefit from m-commerce. According to Millennial Media, consumers have increased their mobile and social media use during the last few months in light of mobile campaigns.

So you want to try m-commerce, but maybe you need a little inspiration?

Check out these examples of household name brands making a mobile statement:

• IKEA. After introducing the strange IKEA PS designs in 2009, IKEA created an “augmented reality” solution. That means they created an app that allows consumers to see what the IKEA PS furniture will look like in their home before they purchase and assemble it.
• Nike. Nike has created True City. This app maps out popular cities in Europe (e.g. Berlin, Paris, London), and it displays restaurants, museums, bars and also Nike locations. The information is generated by local insiders (and Nike lovers) who want to share their city’s secrets with fellow Nike advocates.
• BMW. Another huge American Red Cross-esque success story. BMW created an MMS campaign, which involved sending customized images of customers’ BMWs to their cell phones. The images featured specialized winter tires (necessary for German winters) to contrast with customers’ already purchased summer tires. This $60,000 campaign resulted in a $45 million profit and a 30% conversion rate.

That’s sort of a big deal.

“This $60,000 campaign resulted in a $45 million profit…”

Making the mobile move

If you’re looking for a new way to involve consumers, raise funding for a cause or make money for your business, try going mobile. As we’ve seen over the years, there are a lot of creative ways to do so. If stuffy, old BMW can do it, why can’t you?

Just be sure your campaign involves a call-to-action. Make it different, bold and unique. M-commerce is new enough that there’s still a lot of room to play and be creative. Make a move, but first learn about the campaigns that failed, so you don’t wind up on the same dead-end.

What’s your favorite mobile campaign to date? Share it below.

By Marlee Gallagher Want content written for your Brand that shows up #1 on Search Engines and brings you new customers? Contact us.

Critics of these new services, however, bring to attention the fact that “anyone” can now create a mobile app has negative consequences, such as flooding of app stores that obscures useful apps from established brands. This article will explore the debate over ease in creating mobile apps and how to decide if a 27-second app is right for your brand.

“What else can you do in 27 seconds? Maybe take out the trash…”

Read on:

• How AppMakr has Changed the Process of Creating Mobile Apps
• The Case Against Self-Service Mobile Creation
• Choosing Whether or Not to Create Your Own Mobile App

How AppMakr has Changed the Process of Creating Mobile Apps

According to AppMakr’s creator, PointAbout, the process of creating mobile apps typically takes 2-3 months and costs $50,000 to $150,000. Each company must invest a lot of time into making sure their app runs across many platforms. PointAbout maintains that this lofty investment is unnecessary, and that the company’s “write once, run anywhere” philosophy enables its clients to maximize the reach and return-on-investment of their app.

Basically, PointAbout has created a substantial, generic app that can be populated with any client’s:

• RSS Feeds from Blogs or Website Content
• YouTube videos
• iTunes Content
• Photos
• Tweets

Once filled with a client’s content and customized with their logo and color scheme, the generic app becomes a custom marketing tool.

“This generic app that can be populated with lots of content.”

The Case Against Self-Service Mobile Creation

Now that these services have boiled down the high costs of mobile app creation to less than $500, most small businesses, bloggers, or even Average Joes can afford to utilize the tool. However, some technology followers say that self-service mobile creation harms, instead of helps, the mobile world.

Critics cite 3 major concerns:

1. The iPhone App Store will be overrun with low-quality apps.

   AppMakr doesn’t guarantee that Apple will approve every app it generates, but the service does provide a set of detailed guidelines and tips. The proliferation of fast services like AppMakr makes some question the quality of the hundreds of apps that could possibly overrun the market, making it difficult for consumers to find what they want.

2. RSS Readers do the same thing, only better, by picking up RSS feeds and condensing them into one app.

   Mashable writer Christina Warren asks, “Why would I want to download that, even for free, when I can just…view it in a great RSS app…? How obsessed with a site do you need to be before you’ll clutter up your home screen with its logo? So, no offense to AppMakr, I just don’t see the appeal of the trend it’s riding.”

3. Counterfeit Mobile Apps challenge real brands.
   Some counterfeit apps are being used to scam consumers. Brands are essential to online trust, and users often feel secure downloading a branded mobile app because they assume that particular brand has endorsed the app. However, that’s not always true, and some scam artists have been taking advantage of that brand loyalty. Mobile app publisher Monseta has recently been flagged for improperly using brands—the company uses well-known brands like Barnes & Noble, eBay, and even Bank of America to lure people into downloading the apps to their phones. However, once downloaded, the app just runs ads that generate money for Monseta.

   Even worse, counterfeit apps could also enable phishing, spread viruses, or steal personal information. With an app branded with a well-known bank like Bank of America, it’s easy to see how consumers could be fooled.

“Before making the decision, you must consider your goals.”

Choosing Whether or Not to Create Your Own Mobile App

In light of the criticism of the growing ease of creating mobile apps, a question arises: should your brand take advantage of a service like AppMakr?

Reasons you might want to consider ignoring the critics:

• While the RSS app option is certainly more efficient for high volume readers, some consumers might only be interested in a few blogs or sites and would rather have direct access to an app for each site.
• Less tech savvy consumers might be daunted by the process of using an RSS app, and would instead prefer to be able to download individual apps.
• The format of a populated, generic app works well for some. For example, a media specialist with a blog and active flickr and YouTube accounts might wish to combine the three formats for a personal tool that promotes his or her expertise.

For Seth Godin, it was a perfect solution. A marketing guru and blogger, Godin has amassed a following of tens of thousands of marketing professionals. Godin himself is a recognizable brand that can draw users to download the app and read his short, insightful blog articles on the go.

Creating mobile apps is a now a snap; but as with any business tool, you must consider your target audience and goals, instead of others’ opinions, when making decisions on whether to utilize a new service or technology to market your brand.

Cassie Wallace Cassie Wallace uses Google Reader, but will still download Seth Godin’s app just for the forehead logo. Want content written for your Brand that shows up #1 on Search Engines and brings you new customers? Contact us.

While Google and Apple have partnered in the past on such projects as mobile applications and music purchasing. More recent projects, however, have pitted the two giants in a growing war within the mobile search market and others. The turf battle is escalating as Apple begins to squeeze its way into search and advertising and as Google gets into producing and marketing smart phones.

Read on to learn about 2 major areas of conflict in the Google-Apple mobile search market showdown:

• Mobile phone production
• Mobile search market

Google’s Nexus One vs. Apple’s iphone

Mobile phones

Apple was first to enter this market, debuting its iPhone on January 9, 2007. The iPhone came a whole 3 years before Google’s Nexus One. Apple continues to dominate the super-smart phone market. With more apps, more dedicated followers, and more storage space, the iPhone has a distinct competitive advantage.

However, according to an insider, “Apple and Google know the other is their primary enemy.” For this reason, Apple is attempting to keep Google from pressing into this market even further by removing Google as the default search provider on its iPhone.

But why does that even matter?

Default search

That same insider stated that “Microsoft is now a pawn” in the showdown between the two companies. Microsoft’s Bing search engine has seen far less success than Google search, but still stands to be made the default search engine on the iPhone.

To use Microsoft’s Bing, iPhone users currently must download a Bing app or go directly to Bing.com through their browser.

Adding Bing as the default search app would increase the visibility and usage of the less-than-popular search engine (which only holds 11% of the current mobile search market, compared to Google’s 86%). It’s also important to note that Google’s 86% stake in the mobile search market is partly due to the iPhone.

And the Microsoft-Apple collaboration may not even last long. Rumors are circulating that Apple is looking into developing its own search engine for both mobile and browser use, and that replacing Google with Bing is merely buying time. According to a source, given the growing importance of the mobile search market, “Apple isn’t going to outsource the future.”

If the switch to Bing takes place, Google search will take Bing’s place on the backburner in the mobile search market. In the short term, Bing’s gain is Google’s loss.

ipod’s default search app: Google or Bing?

However, long-term effects will probably be less drastic, as Bing seems to be just a temporary bargaining tool in the Apple vs. Google war. As for now, there is no clear winner in the showdown between the technology behemoths.

With Google’s brand equity, intense user loyalty and expansion into new arenas, it should be able to hold on to much of its market share and ultimately, be just fine without the iPhone.

Cassie Wallace Cassie Wallace maintains that Chuck Norris will win in the fight between Google and Apple. Want content written for your Brand that shows up #1 on Search Engines and brings you new customers? Contact us.

Window-shopping is an important part of consumer culture in the process of assessing the value of a business. Smartphone users can now utilize an innovative form of window-shopping due to the launch of Google’s new initiative to send window decals with QR codes to over 100,000 local businesses in the United States. Google QR codes will allow users to connect the physical world with the Web.

Google QR codes have the potential for both mobile users and mobile marketing. They possess the ability to enhance the consumer experience as well as add a new dimension to marketing campaigns and consumer-brand interaction.

Learn more:

• Understanding Google QR Codes
• Value of Google QR Codes for Storefronts
• Enhancing Marketing Strategies Through QR Codes

“Smartphone users now have a new form of window-shopping.”

Understanding Google QR Codes

The 100,000 local businesses that have been sent window decals with QR codes are the most searched for and sought after businesses on Google.com and Google maps. These businesses are called “Favorite Places on Google,” and they can be found in over 9,000 towns and cities in all 50 states.

The Quick Response or QR code on each window decal is a unique two-dimensional bar code that contains alphanumeric text and often features URLs that direct users to a site. Created in 1994 by the Japanese corporation Denso-Wave, QR codes have had a great deal of success in Japanese and European marketing campaigns.

To scan these QR codes, your phone must have a camera and an app that can read QR codes. With a mobile device such as an iPhone, Android, or Blackberry, you can scan the Google QR Codes featured on each window decal and be taken directly to that business’s “Place Page.

The iPhone offers a $1.99 Quick Mark app, but as of December 7th, Google is partnering with Quick Mark to offer the app for free for the first 40,000 downloads. Other QR code reader apps include Bee Tag and NeoReader.

In order for your businesses to qualify for the QR code window decals, you must claim your listing with Google’s local business center for free.

You cannot make a request that your business become a “Favorite Place.” The list was determined by the popularity of a business’ local business center listing; in other words, how many times Google users looked for more information about a business, such as directions and reviews.

If your business was not selected to receive a window decal, you can help to enhance your local business listing by adding photos and videos which will attract more users. Google plans to periodically send out new waves of decals to qualifying businesses.

“In order to qualify, you must claim your listing with Google’s local business center.”

The Value of Google QR Codes for Storefronts

The launch of Google QR code window decals is an effort to provide Google users with the best local business results and improve the consumer-business experience. However, this is not merely another storefront advertisement that urges passersby to enter a number for text message alerts. It is a far more direct marketing tool.

Google QR codes will allow users to go up to a storefront, and just by scanning the QR code, immediately:

• Find reviews
• Get a coupon if that business is offering one
• Star the business as a place they want to remember

Essentially, this will link people directly to relevant content and significantly shorten the navigation process.

The big push for the adoption of Google QR codes by local businesses will allow Google users to find the best local businesses, whether it’s a high-end boutique in LA, a hotel in New York City, a sports bar in Pittsburgh, or a coffee shop in Seattle.

“This will link people directly to relevant content and significantly shorten the navigation process.”

Enhancing Marketing Strategies Through QR Codes

Although your business may not qualify for a Google QR code window decal, businesses of any size or type can reap the benefits of QR code marketing.

You can easily generate QR codes for a variety of purposes and applications.

Some of the applications for QR codes include:

• Business cards
• Print advertisements
• Posters
• Websites
• TV advertisements
• Newspapers
• Magazines

Utilizing QR codes as a part of your business’ marketing strategy will allow consumers to connect with your business through the use of their mobile phone, which will in turn, drive traffic to your mobile site. Whenever a user scans a QR code, the user gains access to brand information, promotional contests and sales, contact information, and a multitude of other information.

QR codes are a valuable instrument for business branding by providing an easy way to reach vast audiences, boost sales, and create awareness.

Julia Cowher Julia isn’t a social networking narcissist but she is the fairest brander of them all. Want content written for your Brand that shows up #1 on Search Engines and brings you new customers? Contact us.

“… another batch of invites was extended.”

Everyone is talking about Google Wave right now. Even if with the initial 100,000 invitations and the additional invites recently given out, people are still pursuing Google Wave invites interested in checking out this new, exciting online tool.

Interested in learning more?

• About Google Wave
• Advantages vs. Disadvantages
• Google Wave on the I-Phone

About Google Wave

Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A “wave” can be both a conversation and a document that allows users to discuss and work collaboratively using formatted texts, photos, videos, maps, and much more.

A wave is also both shared and live:

• Any member can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content, and add participants at any time during the process. Playback allows anyone the capability to rewind a wave to see who said what and when they said it.
• With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have quicker conversations, see edits, and interact with extensions in real time.

There are a myriad of ways to use Google Wave from group projects and meeting notes to photo sharing and interactive games. As more and more people begin using Google Wave and becoming comfortable with it, there will be entirely new ways and benefits associated with this online tool.

“Google Wave lets you share meeting notes, photos, and games.”

Advantages vs. Disadvantages

There are some great advantages, but currently the list of disadvantages and usability problems outweighs the benefits of Google Wave.

Advantages:

• Innovative interface: the user interface is new, exciting, and innovative, but it is not unfamiliar because its layout is similar to the inbox of your mail application. Waves activate participants to contribute: the user interface encourages further contributions to the wave.
• Real-time collaboration: this tool enables you to actually see your friends, co-workers, family, and contacts type in and change content in real time.

Disadvantages

• Missing revisions with rollbacks: there is no revisioning system in place yet. If your wave is messed up, you have to fix it manually.
• No permanent hiding of replies yet: there is also no way to permanently hide replies.
• Not everyone is invited: currently Google Wave is not fit for real usage because too few people have an account.
• No notifications for updates of the waves: there are no means of monitoring waves. (This is one of Google Wave’s biggest weaknesses).
• Too slow for a real chat: Google Wave is too slow for a real chat still.
• Google accounts are required: a Google Account is required to participate in a wave which causes a potential disadvantage, especially when engaging with business clients.
• Confidential information can be accessed: once someone is invited to a wave, he/she he can access it forever. Therefore, if a discussion reveals information you don’t want to share with all participants, you have a problem.
• Waves lack readable URLs: waves have permanent URLs, but their readability is lacking.

While Google Wave offers an exciting, new technology, there are still plenty of disadvantages associated with it. Someday Google Wave is going to be amazing, but unfortunately for now it is still quite complex with several usability problems.

“Just go to wave.google.com on your Safari browser.”

Google Wave on the iPhone

Everyone may not have a Google Wave invite yet, but it already works on the iPhone.

Here are two ways to get Google Wave to work on your iPhone:

1. Go to wave.google.com in mobile Safari on your iPhone. From there, you are able to select different conversation waves and contacts, or just jump into a specific wave. (Note: It warns you that you are not using a browser supported during the preview, but if you continue to click through it, it works).
2. As with any Web page on the iPhone, you can save a bookmark on your home screen, and it creates a small icon which launches mobile Safari to that specific page. When you save the Wave bookmark to your Home screen though, you go to Wave, but without the Safari wrapper. In this way, it looks more like a regular application.

Although this is still new and there are probably a variety of issues yet to work out, it is obvious that the Google Wave team is working to make Wave available in mobile browsers.

Will you wave “hello” to Google Wave or dismiss it with a “goodbye?” Comment below.

Amanda Wilczynski Want content written for your Brand that shows up #1 on Search Engines and brings you new customers? Contact us.

Google, a company whose name is derived from the word “Googol,” which is a number with 100 zeroes following, like the way 1 million has 6 zeroes.

Now Google is branching out to another form of e-commerce: mobile. Mobile commerce hasn’t hit its peak yet, but it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere.

Mobile advertisers have begun expanding the market. Last year, advertisers spent $320 million on mobile ads. An estimated $416 million will be spent this year, and by 2016, spending is expected to reach $1.6 billion.

“Google is now branching out to mobile-commerce.”

Want to learn more about Google’s investment in mobile?

• AdMob
• Android
• AdWords

AdMob

Google is a multi-billion dollar company, and it just extended it’s foray into the mobile market by purchasing mobile advertiser AdMob in order to expand its reach into the mobile market.

The purchase is the third largest buy Google has made in its history, following only the purchases of DoubleClick and YouTube. What the acquisition of AdMob means for Google is that it intends to expand fully into the mobile market.

AdMob has created many mobile ads for big-name companies, including Coke and Ford. Their previous advertising from the company has come in both banner and text ads. Google has previously concentrated on—no surprise—search results.

Google is behind on the mobile advertising wave; competitors like Yahoo!, Microsoft, and AOL have all purchased mobile ad networks.

“Google is opening its wallet again.”

Android

This deal comes alongside the expansion of Google’s mobile phone, Android. Android is a mobile phone operating system that is already being predicted to revolutionize advertising. Advertisers believe using Android will allow ads to be focused on the individual, creating the most targeted campaign in history. AdMob has already created apps and ads for Android.

By using buyer information, they can send advertisements to your phone, creating a direct advertising link that will allow marketers to send you ads that are suited to your personal desires.

Android is being subsidized by Google, making the technology cheaper for customers.

AdWords

Anyone in the online marketing biz should know what Google AdWords is, otherwise there may be some problems.

But Google’s frolic into mobile isn’t nearly as young as it seems. Google rebuilt its AdWords program and created AdWords Mobile, a similar program designed to track mobile search results.

The program functions basically the same as AdWords, but there are some problems with it. The system relies on transcoding, which isn’t always compatible with low-end phones, especially ones not optimized for Web use. AdWords Mobile is not always able to recognize unoptimized mobile sites, which slows down bandwidth and results in lower-end devise rendering.

But making your website mobile-optimized is key to improving your ranking. Putting something to identify your site as optimized into your title, even something as simple as “mobile optimized” will make the Google searches for your campaign more effective.

But what does all this mean?

Google is here to stay, and because they are involving themselves heavily in the mobile business, mobile is probably here to stay as well. Google has invested millions of dollars on mobile technology, advertising, and development. If they, along with most all of their competitors, are creating mobile super-strengths, there is little hope those technologies are going away anytime soon.

By Jonathan Buczkowski Jon doesn’t have a mobile devise to test Google’s ad power, but his experience with Google tells him any problems won’t last long. Want content written for your Brand that shows up #1 on Search Engines and brings you new customers? Contact us.