Tap: Unlocking The Mobile Economy

Namira (夏南)
1820192023
International Economics And Trade
MIS Book Report

Introduction

Tap: Unlocking the mobile economy is a book written by Anindya Ghose of the

Stern School of Business at New York University for MIT press and it dives

into the question of how to best utilize modern technology to market a

businesses product. Ghose describes a truly interesting phenomenon of

contradictory consumer wishes and behaviors, people crave spontaneity, but

they are predictable in their habits, they find advertising irritating, but they are

afraid of not being on top of all the new trends, they place great significance on

their privacy, but are willing to bargain away that data privacy with the correct

price.

Ghose takes examples from a whole host of sources, from companies such as
Alibaba, Facebook, China Mobile, Telefónica, Coke, and SK Telecom, deriving

from real-world research and empirical evidence, how a group of nine factors

drives into the heart of striking the right balance in the consumer's mind where

they are no longer just simply being sold to. In this book report, I’d like to

examine a couple of these factors, how much of a significance do I believe that

it places on consumer behavior, and to what extent do I agree or disagree with

Mr. Ghose's claims.

Crowdness - The Scarcity Of Space

This chapter looks at one of the nine important elements that influence purchase

decisions and make mobile marketing so effective: crowdedness. The aspect of

a crowd can be a confusing one, as you can ask yourself how is that relevant to

an effective mobile marketing campaign, but Ghose makes a clever distinction,

“Not all crowds are created equal”

How you may feel at a rock concert crowd or a jam-packed football game are

enjoyable crowds. They promote a sense of belonging and solidarity between

the masses of people. There are also crowds that are defined as unenjoyable.

Crowds that make consumers wish to retreat or flee, however, the option to

escape is presented in their smartphone devices. These situations can be on

busses, trains, waiting venues and they all present a unique possibility to tap

into the minds of these consumers at this particular state.

Consumers create an alternative reality with their smartphones to “avoid

unwelcomed interactions” and establish a space for themselves. Advertisers

have to be quick and smart enough to utilize the time between when a consumer

places themselves in this headspace and the hustle of their surroundings, to

create a necessary diversion away from the crowd itself. This can be proven to

be extremely effective as mobile messages and advertisements provide

temporary refuge to the overwhelming crowds at times and if used properly, can

be an amazing marketing tool.

I found this chapter to be very interesting as it made me question how I

personally reacted to such advertisements in these public places and how it

affected other patrons. The genius about such a strategy is how subtle the

marketing push is, on trains and busses, when a TV is installed, it serves a

purpose greater than to stifle boredom for commuters, by fully captivating their

attention spans, they are able to turn an everyday chore for most people, the

process of going to one place from another, into a fantastic marketing

opportunity. I agreed with Mr. Ghose on many of his assertions about

“crowding” and how corporations have used this tactic, but do have my

reservations on how useful this method can be. The aspect of personification

found in other methods is absent from Crowding as you cannot pinpoint exactly

the type of consumer you are catering to, simply taking a certain bus at a certain
time doesn’t provide a great deal of information to solely drive a big enough

marketing push.

However, if used in conjunction with other tools, it can be utilized to its fullest.

Social Dynamics: The Study Of How The Social Circles Effects Us

Right at the beginning of this chapter, Ghose asks an important question:

“There’s strength in numbers, but is there value in them?”, he asks if targeting a

consumer as an individual or as a specified targeted group is more beneficial for

the advertising company. How people react to ads can differ when they are

alone or when they are with a group of people (this ties with the previous point

of crowdedness), there is also an added consideration of how the personality of

each consumer has to be taken into consideration, even if they are in a group or

not. Studies have shown that people with high degrees of openness and low

neuroticism are more effective target demographics in mobile ads.

What I enjoyed about this chapter was how social sciences are being

implemented to better understand the consumer in this fast-paced mobile

economy, in my opinion, due to the absurd number of choices available, it

becomes harder for companies to understand how to best stand out from the sea

of other companies selling the same things, but with an effective ad campaign

and understanding their target audience, it becomes a lot easier.

Conclusion

I would highly rate this book on how concise and thought-provoking it was. To

be honest, I was not sure how I would be kept interested in a book about the

mobile economy but I am fairly surprised to say, he did a wonderful job at

breaking down many topics to be easily digestible, there was an added bonus of

all the evidence and experiments that were conducted to come to these

conclusions in the book. I was amazed at all the ways a company could subtly

sell you their products without you being conscious about it.

If I had one request, I wished he touched on the privacy aspect of mobile ads in

a whole separate chapter, as people are becoming data sensitive and with what

they are sharing with corporations, (maybe in an updated version he could

include the whole fiasco with Apple allowing users to dictate if the app is given

tracking rights, much to the dismay of big companies like Google who routinely

sell these data) it would be fascinating to read how he thinks this could affect

future marketing tools and mechanisms.