Useful mobile application examples include E*Trade’s mobile app that allows customers to securely trade stocks from their Blackberry, Smartphone or iphone. In certain cases of mobile app development, these are added value services that customers purchase – such as Verizon’s VZ Navigator that helps customers locate businesses using their mobile phones and retrieve directions to the location of choice (similar to the Google maps app).

But wait . . . I am not saying that everyone should run out to develop a mobile app. You also need to consider the usage rates.

For example, a recent study Compete Smartphone Intelligence survey shows that for social applications, 73% of Blackberry owners have downloaded 5 or fewer applications; in contrast, 72% of iPhone owners have downloaded 10 or more applications. And the usage rates are likely much lower. So, make sure that you are developing your mobile apps for the right browser user, as well as providing a reason for them to use the application.

Don’t rush into mobile marketing unless it fits your strategy. If you are considering the development of a mobile app or mobile marketing plan, here are some basic guidelines to consider:

1. Research and review your target audience’s mobile use and access to see which browsers are used the most, if any.

2. Provide a mobile-friendly website, or at least a page on your site, to give the audience the option of learning more about your company or to direct a call to action. Please make sure that if you direct the audience to a form, that the form works!

3. Make sure that the mobile marketing you are considering is relevant to your brand.

4.  Most of all, make sure that the user is actively involved in the decision to accept and interact with you and your marketing on their mobile phones – don’t become an annoyance to them or cost them money without their consent or request.

Also keep in mind that you don’t have to develop some complicated mobile app with all sorts of bells and whistles. You can implement something simple, such as a targeted mobile search engine marketing campaign – but make sure that you not only have at least some mobile friendly pages to direct the users to, but that these pages contain relevant content to what your mobile search ads are marketing.

Let’s review a couple mobile marketing application examples, that although are still being tested, have been useful for reaching customers and helping to turn mobile advertising into sales or developing relationships.

Mobile Marketing Application #1: Cellfire Mobile Coupons
In case you aren’t the target audience, you may not have heard of this, but if you register for a Cellfire account, free to the user of course, that allows you to access coupons from your mobile phone. And,  c search for retailers near you. JCPenny is one of the larger retailers just recently trying scannable mobile coupons and is ll over the media news pubs, but may more have been using this marketing platform – Sears, Hollywood Video, 1-800-FLOWERS to name a few.

The results of these efforts are not known, but it will be something to watch with coupon redemption climbing to 23% redemption so far for the first 6 months of 2009 as reported by the New York Times.

Mobile Marketing Application #2: CellSpin Mobile blogging
Basically, this allows us to constantly blog about everything that we are doing – wherever and whenever we want. CellSpin lets you easily post video, voice, photo or texts to all of the top social networks – Facebook, MysSpace, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr Picasa. WordPress, Blogger, and on and on. It is a great app for those that are constantly logging into their various Facebook and Twitter accounts, since this allows you to post to multiple sites with a simple and quick app.

From a marketing standpoint, this is great for marketers that want to have this access to their site – integrating this application to the company website and being able to post important information any time. Plus, you can set up a Clog (a Community Blog) that allows any member to post videos, or other information that is applicable to your blog request or topic – and of course can do so from their mobile phone.

We have a long way to go in learning and testing mobile marketing, but hopefully the coming year will bring about some exciting new tactics that are both useful and follow appropriate marketing practices.

Its been several weeks since the Globe submitted its offer to the NY Times, and in that time it seems the media storm has subsided…for now.

Once able to out-bill all of the TV stations in the Boston DMA – The Globe is now jeered as a dying medium, a dinosaur, and an old rag. The fact is the Globe owes $20 million in concessions and is losing about $1 million dollars a week.

Thanks to the local media, industry press and newswires, everyone seems to have an opinion about its fate.  It seems each person has a different point of view but only two things are certain:

1. The Globe will be here tomorrow, it will find new and innovative ways to keep its place in this uncertain media landscape.  TV stations have not been without their own drama – the ratings competition is pretty fierce.  And radio stations are feeling the impact of the transition to monthly people meter ratings.

2. Readership of the print edition will continue to decline.  Shutting the Globe down tomorrow would be a tragedy but the alternative doesn’t look any better.  If the NY Times decides to keep the print edition it will be a matter of time before they are faced with the same economic challenges.

So what should the Globe do if they want to keep their place in today’s media?

Here’s an idea:  Get more people to read your content online and discover innovative ways to generate advertising dollars.

Sure, the print edition will be missed.  But like anything else in life we learn to embrace something new and move on.

According to Wikipedia online: Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. 

Starbucks is looking to utilize the power of social media by hosting an online photography scavenger hunt. The goal of the contest is to have Twitterers photograph posters from the most recent US outdoor campaign and post them online. The prize? Starbucks Gold Cards.

Click here to see Starbucks’ page on twitter: twitter.com/starbucks 

The idea for the Starbucks photo contest came from watching what people already do on Facebook and Twitter, said Chris Bruzzo, vice president for brand, content and online at Starbucks. Each year, people race to post the first photos of Starbucks shops decorated in red for the holidays.There will also be a related YouTube channel, where Starbucks coffee experts will talk up the importance of quality in their beans and coffee.

The Twitter photo contest is a part of a fresh marketing campaign launched this month in United States newspapers and magazines. The campaign is described by Starbucks as the biggest marketing effort it has undertaken.

Quality is key. Print ads will be text-heavy, impressing upon viewers the importance of quality rather than cheap alternatives, such as their direct competitors McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts. Phrases on the posters take a dig at the competition, including “We think making coffee is an art form. They think it’s a new revenue stream.”

The Texican Whopper, according to Burger King, is “inspired by the land where a man ‘ain’t afraid to sink his teeth into something hot and spicy.”

The burger consists of a flame-grilled Whopper topped with taco-coated chili con carne, spicy jalapenos, onion, lettuce and Canjun mayonnaise.

The television commercial described the new Texican Whopper as “the taste of Texas with a little spicy Mexican.” Literally depicted by a tall Texan cowboy living with a vertically challenged Mexican wrestler, named “Just a Little Bit.”

To view the commercial on youtube click here.

Mexico’s ambassador to Spain wrote a letter to Burger King regarding the inappropriate way the Mexican flag is displayed in the  advertising campaign, as well as the improperly used stereotypical image of Mexicans.

Burger King has apologized for the advertisement and stated they have “made the decision to revise the Texican Whopper advertising creative out of respect for the Mexican culture and its people.”

There are strict rules about the use of the Mexican flag.

For those without a subscription, the full article is posted below:

Are Community Bankers Being Too Humble?
Debating Marketing Challenges For Banks During Megabanks’ Financial Woes

By Laura Schreier

Community bankers and credit unions are currently congratulating themselves about stealing away depositors from wounded megabanks like Citigroup. But with so many depositors ripe for the plucking, some consultants wonder why aren’t we seeing more marketing campaigns aimed to draw those dissatisfied customers in?

Peter Harvey, head of Hingham-based marketing association Intellidyn, said community banks – largely safe and financially healthy, compared to their giant rivals – are mostly sitting on their hands when they should be shouting from the rooftops.

“Bankers are not very good marketers,” he said. “When an opportunity comes like this, where there is this need in the marketplace for people to secure their assets – you’d think you’d see a lot more marketing activity out there.”

A few institutions have jumped into marketing themselves as the stable alternative to beleaguered giant banks. HarborOne Credit Union, for example, recently announced an extension of an advertising campaign that touts the company as community-focused and stable.

The HarborOne campaign originally launched in mid-January, and included newspaper print ads, TV and online ads, including radio spots using a tongue-in-cheek jingle called “My Money Lies Over the Ocean,” that parodies the folk song “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.”

It’s perhaps too early to give definitive evidence that the HarborOne campaign has drawn in more depositors, but spokesman Jim Rice said new checking account openings were up 28 percent during January and February, as compared to the last two months of 2008.

Not So Reticent To Jump Ship?

Rarely, if ever, are depositors willing to switch banks, Harvey said; usually, they’re only willing to do it when they move long distances.

But now, with so many enormous banking institutions in trouble, depositors are ready to make the switch, and Harvey said community banks should be there to nudge them along.

“It is an opportunity that has not been here in 40-plus years, and may not be here for another 40-plus years,” he said.

Susan Nelson, head of marketing for HarborOne and president of the New England Financial Marketers Association, said her organization plans to make the issue part of the agenda for its next convention.

While HarborOne’s $100,000 campaign is going well, she said: “I’m not sure what’s going on with other banks, but it is an opportunity that they could be missing out on.”

North Shore Bank is a few months into its own ad campaign, and marketing senior vice president Christopher Pesce said customer response has been overwhelmingly positive – existing customers like being reassured, and new customers have been coming in the door. North Shore and HarborOne are the only institutions that he knows of with such marketing campaigns, and he doesn’t understand why more haven’t leapt at the opportunity in front of them.

Carol Kaplan of the American Bankers’ Association disagreed with Harvey’s assertion, saying banks around the country have been working to get the word out about their stability.

The ABA has even distributed generic marketing materials that individual banks can plug their name into and distribute; basically, they send the message that “insert bank name here” has been your neighbor for many years and we’ll be here well into the future, she said.

National analyst Mary Beth Sullivan, managing partner with Washington, D.C.-based consultant Capital Performance Group, said the advertisements are out there, with many community banks playing up their safety in a time of turmoil. Much of their activity has been in reassuring current customers, but some are reaching out to non-depositors in the hopes of drawing them in, too.

And of course, now is not a time when bankers – or anybody, really – wants to be spending money.

“Let’s face it, the industry is in cost-containment code, but the messages, I think, are absolutely out there,” she said.