Mobile Payments Today reported on a Finextra study of banks' mobile wallet plans. Regarding mobile payments, the study found that:
"81% of banks are looking to add value beyond the transaction, including providing relevant offers to consumers at the point of sale."
My take: Add value to whom?
To consumers? Really? You've got research that shows consumers want more offers thrown at them?
Does your research also show that consumers want to walk down a busy city street and have offers popping up on their mobile devices as they approach every friggin' store on the block?
Oh, I see…your research shows that consumers want "more relevant" offers.
Good luck with that. Relevance is a slippery notion. Many marketers suffer from delusions of relevance. Relevance can't be quantified or measured, it's highly subjective, and worse, it's a transient condition.
If the marketers who sell a particular product can't figure out what's relevant to a particular consumer, how is a banker supposed to figure it out?
Oh, I see…you say it's about providing relevant offers at the point of sale?
So when I'm at the register at Starbucks paying for my Venti Skinny Half-Caf Ristretto Macchiato-style Americano, you're going to hit me with an offer for a large coffee at Dunkin' Donuts? Or did you mean that you'll offer me a nickel off a muffin (right after the barista, who knows me cuz' I'm there 10 times a week, offers me the muffin he knows I always get)?
—————
If you thought that the financial crisis brought bankers to their senses, you were wrong. Turns out that many are still living in la-la-land. Delve fully into Ron Shevlin's take on what the real value proposition of mobile wallets should be.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.