Indeed, mobility, in terms of telephonic-based communications, has become ubiquitous in everyday life—on a truly global scale.
What was once simply a means of sharing spoken words cell phones have evolved to become a traveling information submittal and retrieval device, entertainment center, educational resource, camera, video recorder, gaming palace, geo-locator, social messenger, plus a whole lot more.
And, with advancements accelerating at an almost exponential pace with respect to hand-held technology, it’s no wonder that savvy folk quickly realized potentiality within the realm of advertising.
By now, most of you—unless living in remote hermitage—have heard of and/or actively engage with text message-based advertising. While these campaigns certainly have their place in the overall “marketing mix,” such activity is considered “old school” by the 1s-and-0s promo techies.
Today, the buzz is Bluetooth marketing which is already widespread in Europe, yet just beginning to make its way to the states. Below are two scenarios depicting how both consumers and small business owners could benefit from Bluetooth marketing.
First scenario (consumer perspective): Suppose you are a busy sales exec, going from one meeting to the next via plane, and land at your third airport for the day. Things have been so hectic that your personal secretary could never keep pace with accommodating your travel itinerary. When landing, you are hungry; you have no hotel booked, and a rental car needs to be secured right away. While hustling to grab your bag from the conveyor belt, you spot an engaging kiosk that says it can satisfy all these needs—instantly, right from your cell phone. All you need to do is enable the Bluetooth function, if it is not “defaulted” already. Instantly, the required info appears on the screen of your hand-held and all arrangements are made through your phone’s Internet connect. These proximity advertisers—the restaurant, hotel and car rental agency—gained another paying customer.
Second scenario (small business owner perspective): Let’s say you have a bar and/or lounge that’s nearby or just a few clicks away from a major entertainment, sporting event and concert arena. You’ve tried plastering flyers on peoples’ car windshields in the parking lot, but it has not generated any tangible results. Worse, you’ve received calls from angry people complaining about your flyers stuck under their wiper blade. How can you get this fertile source of potential business into your place of business to part with hard-held greenbacks? One viable solution, employ proximity marketing. You’ve got a couple of willing cocktail servers working for you, why not sent them out to this nearby venue as proximity marketing “hotspots,” walking the parking areas before and/or after the events? Simply equip these ladies with a compact, “backpack-style” walking billboard along with a battery-powered mobile proximity device; let them stroll around, and see how many folks “ping” on their cell phones to receive information, directions, special, discount offerings, etc. you want to present. It’s simple, straightforward, and bottom-line business enhancing for sure.
Bluetooth marketing has the power to reach cell phone users, which in today’s world is about 80 percent of the population. The technology is a win-win for both businesses and consumers. Businesses have a new and unexplored marketing channel to reach out to potential clients and consumers have real time access to those services.
