Impact of Branded Apps on Consumers

The study confirms that using branded mobile phone apps increases a consumer’s general interest in product categories and improves the attitude they may have toward the sponsoring brand. The researchers also found that mobile apps which are informational in nature or utilitarian were more likely to engage users than those where the app focused on entertainment or gaming.

“The very personal nature of mobile phones, including the new smartphones, which are practically extensions of their owners, means that advertisers need to adopt new rules of conversation with mobile phone users,” said the research study, co-authored by Potter and four researchers at Murdoch University in Australia.

According to the researchers, retailers who develop apps overcome challenges being presented by dramatic shifts in television viewing and barriers to advertising on mobile devices. Using the app, consumers “talk to the brand, not the other way around,” and consumers feel comfortable controlling how much information they reveal when they customize the app.

“You have a more favorable attitude toward the brand that’s sponsoring the app when you go to think about where you shop,” he added.

The researchers used eight branded apps. Half of the brands were in product categories that predominantly target men and the other half, women. The four male-targeted brands were Best Buy, Gillette, BMW and Weber. The four female-targeted brands were Gap, Kraft, Lancôme and Target.

“We found through the physiology measures that when you have an app that provides people with information that it is something they internalize and personalize more than the external-based focus of the game-based app,” Potter said. “You’ve invited the brand into your life and onto your phone. If it’s an informational app, you’re inviting that brand even deeper in, because now you’re thinking about what’s in your life and apply it to the things that the apps are presenting you with. With the experiential app, things are still kept at a distance — you’re still experiencing it on your phone and not in your life.”

Apps that used an informational style were more effective at shifting purchase intention, compared to apps that used an experiential style, the paper added.

Examples of informational apps were the Kraft app, which provided useful tips about cooking and entertaining guests with their food products, and Target’s app, which allowed shoppers to see the week’s deals and clearance items and access product reviews by scanning bar codes. They were less affected by the Gap app, which enabled users to dress a virtual model, and BMW, which allowed users to configure a 3-D replica of one of its cars and take it for a virtual test drive.

Respondents were unaware of the differences in how they reacted to various apps. When asked, people told researchers there was no qualitative difference between the various apps.

Potter thinks that an important new strategy for many retailers will be to market their app as well as their product in order to reach new potential customers.

“Marketing their apps to consumers that aren’t a natural target can be a way of broadening the tent,” he said. “If you market apps to people who may have never heard of your product or who aren’t familiar with the product category, then our research shows that if you can get them to download the app then you may be able to introduce a whole new audience to your product.”