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A team of budding young marketers sat in
silence around a boardroom table. Waste paper baskets brimming, surrounded by
scatterings of post-it notes and mind maps – each idea too ambitious, or too
unrealistic to execute. Just how were they going to turn around this quarter’s revenue
decline? Already behind on this year’s projections, they needed a flurry of sales
from their engaged and loyal brand audience to turn things around.
But still.
Silence.
Another sheet of A3 was torn from the wall
and made its way across the floor like tumbleweed. It’s high noon and this
stand-off needs a victor. But who would make the first move? Aimless doodles
and etchings all pointed to the same thing…
They were out of ideas.
Clockwatching, demoralized and defeated,
they each looked past the meeting to next year’s budget, just how many of them
would be there then? When all seemed lost, a ray of light shone from the most
unlikely of sources; the summer intern.
“Why don’t we make an app?”
Heads rose like sunflowers and looked
upwards, hopeful – but still speechless. Darting glances were exchanged across
the table. Pens left mouths. Pages turned.
“Well, I mean… we could… I suppose…well
what I was thinking is…”
A senior team member ushered the intern
towards a whiteboard. The intern grasped a marker, and like Excalibur – drew
the one word on everyone’s mind…
‘App’
A term thwart with uncertainty, risk, treachery…and
potential. Despite the presence of over 3.8 million apps on the Google Play Store and a
further 2 million on the Apple App Store – leading many to believe that the
mobile app market is saturated – countless many businesses are continuing to
profit financially from the creation of a dedicated app.
The matter of saturation completely depends
on the industry. While it is true that gaming, health, fitness and
entertainment industries make up the clear majority of new app releases. That
isn’t to say there isn’t room to disrupt. In fact, a dedicated app has been the
source of success for countless many businesses, and the driving factor isn’t
always revenue. Organisations looking to improve engagement, drive awareness,
improve internal collaboration, or fulfil a previously unmet market need have
benefited greatly from the creation of an app.
And that’s the name of the game. Innovation.
What is it your app will set out to solve
or improve – and is it better than anything that currently exists?
Commercial
app development is perhaps one of the most interesting and emerging
requirements for businesses. With 75%
of the world’s population forecasted to own a mobile phone by 2020, it’s no
surprise as to why.
But where is this growth being seen, and
what apps are businesses creating to help end-users?
The ability to control the environmental
factors of one’s home interior has already become one of the most popular application
uses. Smart lighting, home thermostats, home cinema and stereo systems, smart
water and electric meters that can be updated and monitored from one’s mobile
have been adopted by the major players in each industry.
Similarly, applications that communicate
between health and fitness products and mobile phones; like heartrate trackers,
pacemakers and fertility tracking devices have each seen enormous uptake from customers
and brands alike. As our understanding of complex medical conditions grows, it
becomes increasingly important to track the impact of medicines and treatments
given to patients.
With elections and major economic uncertainty
on the horizon, businesses are unsurprisingly, cautious in their allocation of
budget. Nowhere is that clearer than within public sector services. As
austerity measures continue and NHS spending remains at its lowest for years – there
is an ever-greater focus on personnel and equipment, as this is where funds
will be reclaimed first. Dedicated apps that can perform the roles of doctors,
nurses and the equipment they use for a fraction of a cost – through the
creation of dedicated apps will become of critical importance to the health services.
So, before you consider throwing in the
towel, or pulling your marketing spend – consider that, an app might be the solution
you and your customers need.
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