Why Context-Aware Marketing is the Key to Mobile Success

So what's in it for consumers? There are clearly data privacy challenges that need to be addressed when looking at context-aware marketing. Every sensor in a consumer's smartphone can provide information about what's going on in their world, from compasses providing direction to altimeters establishing which floor of a building they're on.

Businesses simply can't help themselves to this kind of information — and nor should they want to. There's a much greater benefit to be had from a clear and prominent privacy policy with thorough opt-in policies. Couple that with better service or a discount and you'll find that customers are willing to share this information with you. Younger consumers almost expect it, with 61 percent saying that they're happy to swap information in return for a more personalized experience.

With the launch of Apple Pay, we'll start to see mobile payments in-store increase. The loop is then fully closed from mobile marketing to mobile in-store commerce — for certain Apple devices at least. While mobile marketing has traditionally been seen as the responsibility of the digital marketing department, payment via mobile alongside proximity marketing brings it squarely into the camp of brick-and-mortar retail divisions. It also presents a huge opportunity to combat showrooming. With almost 50 percent of people admitting to browsing in-store then purchasing online, anything retailers can do to keep the sale rather than risk losing it to a competitor becomes hugely worthwhile. Context-aware marketing via mobile is the best play for this scenario — i.e., messaging users when they're in the all-important purchasing mind-set.

The future of shopping rests on a few incontrovertible facts: social media is here to stay, the average consumer is mobile, increasingly local and probably female. Chief marketing officers need the technology that perfectly connects them with this developing demographic. An actual mobile strategy does this. With big data capabilities, it's now possible to collect, store, analyze and manipulate an unprecedented volume of data in fractional amounts of time. Match that with a relevant and real-time messaging platform and you can achieve true context-aware marketing, wherever the customer may be.