Our love of brands is increasingly being fanned by mobile, or so research commissioned by mobile engagement company mGage has revealed.
The research, which was completed by Redshift Research, investigated how mobile has changed the way consumers engage and interact with retailers and retail brands.
According to the study, SMS is second choice only to email with more than a fifth (21%) of consumers naming SMS as their preferred communication channel with retailers / brands – second only to email.
Consumers also crave more interactions on mobile and tablet, with a quarter of consumers are keen to interact with retailers more regularly on mobile and tablet. And relationships have become more personal – 40% of respondents feel they have developed more personal relationships with retailers and brands.
Together, loyalty programmes, personalisation and apps key to long-term relationship with loyalty programmes having been key to the rise of personal relationships according to 62% of respondents. They also feel that personalisation and mobile apps are essential to these programmes.
Peter Cocks, Commercial Director at mGage comments: “There has been a lot of discussion around how to engage consumers at the right time and place with the right message. Whilst it is true that every channel has a role to play, our research has shown that, increasingly, mobile is the channel consumers want brands to reach out to them via.”
“The fact that SMS is the second preferred communication channel may surprise many, but it shouldn’t as mobile fits perfectly into our lives; we all check our texts every day and are increasingly open to brands getting in touch this way. As brands invest more in engaging via different messaging platforms, such as WeChat and WhatsApp, the relationship between consumers and retailers/brands will only strengthen.”
