before filing a claim, says Eric Miller,
the firm’s senior vice president
of IT. However, mobile information systems were also an obvious
choice for an app aimed at insurance
adjusters evaluating the damage a
vehicle sustained in an accident. “It
would not be feasible for our agents
to take pictures of an auto axle with
a laptop,” but with an iPhone, it’s a
snap, says Rich Warnaka, director
of user experience at the $4 billion
company.
One of Gartner’s clients, a grocery
store chain, is evaluating how much
to invest in apps that target the
demographic segment of “
well-heeled people carrying iPhones,”
Clark reports. “Today, it’s about
15% of the addressable market, but
within two years, mobile applications will have an impact on advertising, marketing, final selection
and customer loyalty for the mainstream shopper.” That’s because the
upper 60% of consumers, in terms
of income, will have smartphones.
AARP, for example, has been
aggressively redefining itself as
an organization for anyone over
50, not just the truly elderly. That’s
why Sami Hassanyeh, head of
Continued from page 28
AARP’s 50-person digital strategy
group, has been pushing a mobile-first application-development
mind-set across the organization.
Driving this initiative is
Hassanyeh’s discovery, which he
made when checking out independent research, that a hefty
percentage of AARP’s core baby
boomer constituency is using
mobile devices to access the Web
and social media. Further, through
August 2011, AARP.org saw 11
times more page views from mobile
devices than it got in all of 2009.
“We have to go where the numbers
are going,” Hassanyeh says.
Tapping Into Social Media
That’s similar to the rationale that
companies are using to explain
their decisions to get involved in
social media. Clothing maker Levi
Strauss, for example, figured out a
way to generate revenue from the
4. 4 million customers that have
clicked its “like” button on Facebook
(see “Click an Icon to Buy an Icon,”
page 30).
Additionally, as more customers
use social media, companies naturally want to tap into it for valuable
feedback.
