What do you think of when I say “mobile?” What about “mobile marketing?”
That’s the problem. We think of mobile as a device. Whether an iPhone or an Android or even some sort of tablet, these things come to mind and we’ve conditioned ourselves to think of mobile as a type of object.
But to really understand mobile and mobile marketing, you have to detach that definition of mobile. Wad it up and throw it out of your brain. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
Now … let’s start over.
Mobile is not an object. It is a circumstance.
It’s not a thing because it can be multiple things all at once. It’s not a place because it moves with him or her. It’s not a time because it always exists.
Mobile is a state of being at any given moment. And that means to think about mobile and mobile marketing, you have to think of reaching the consumer at any given moment in whatever situation they find themselves. Mobile is a phone, but also a tablet, but also a Netflix channel, but also an X-box channel, but also digital signage, but also digital signage on a bus that moves throughout the city, but also shareable messages, but also wearable devices, but also data delivered to the Internet of things … and so on and so on.
The best advice for marketers when it comes to mobile is the best advice to all of us when it comes to connection … get your head out of your phone.
What does mobile mean to you? The comments, as always, are yours.