A third of US shoppers store visits influenced by mobile marketing

UP TO a third of US shoppers who are signed up to mobile marketing alerts are strongly influenced to visit certain stores with 27 per cent saying it has influenced their buying decision.

The findings come from new research commissioned by Placecast and conducted by Harris Interactive. The survey - part of broader research entitled, “The Alert Shopper” – found that since their first location-based mobile marketing and advertising survey in Summer 2009, overall consumer interest had grown across all cell phone owners. However, most significant interest comes from younger cell phone users owners, with 42 per cent of those aged 18 to 34 at least somewhat interested. Texting is still considered more important than other activities on mobile phones, with an average of 40 per cent % of users saying that it is “extremely” or “very important” to them. Despite the current buzz around location based services like Foursquare and Gowalla, only 7 per cent of men, and 3 per cent of women showed the same level of interest in these types of social networks.

The survey also examined attitudes toward using the location of phones to prompt opt-in marketing messages. Thirty seven per cent of those who opted to receive text alerts thought location based texts could be useful, whilst 29 per cent thought they would be interesting, with 24 per cent thinking that they could be more relevant and innovative.

“Our findings demonstrate that if done correctly and on an opt-in basis, location-based mobile marketing is resonating with consumers,” says Placecast CEO Alistair Goodman. “I think now that more data is becoming available to retailers, more exciting and valuable programs will be created now that the technology and market receptivity is there.”

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