Thursday, April 14, 2011

how mobile marketing allows iPhone users to stalk the king... of burgers

In today’s world, everyone’s online. Most major brands have their own websites set up; however, traditional website layouts don’t always translate well when accessed by smart phones. Phone screens are too small, and in order for an brand to save their website content, they must also create a separate mobile site. Mobile web pages have become a major mobile marketing strategies.  Mobile websites are a major mobile marketing strategy because they allow brand to seem accessible to consumers and convey a distinct personality.


Burger King’s mobile page is a great example of how a company can really brand themselves through their mobile web.  Their iPhone website is interactive, informative, relevant to its audience, and distinct to their image
.

Instead of creating a traditional webpage, Burger King looked at their target market, the things that made their brand unique, and at the technology they had available to them. With that in mind, they created the King’s Phone. The King’s phone is the designed as if you are looking inside the restaurant’s mascot, The King’s personal iPhone. The webpage provides visitors with the usual corporate information, as well as the ability to look at the King’s text messages, personal photos, videos, planner, previous restaurants visited, and be able to call a contact from the phone book.  




The Kings’s Phone is developed strictly for iPhone formats. This is application uses CSS technology, which senses what king of devise is being used to access the server and then delivers the content in the appropriate format. When I logged onto BK.com on my blackberry, it took me to some lame mobile website that had minimal content; however, when I logged onto BK.com on my roommates iPhone, I was transported to what appeared to be the King’s personal cell. 

The BK mobile page’s main purpose is to make users actually feel as if they have stumbled inside the King’s iPhone. This was strategically done to grasp the interest of the brand’s target audience. Burger King targets adults aged 18 to 34. This is the generation that fostered the facebook stalking epidemic and favors reality shows over scripted sitcoms. This demographic clearly has a strong fascination with knowing a little too much about the lives of real people. In particular, they love hearing about the scandalous life of the rich and famous. The snoopy and celebrity crazed mindset of the target was clearly considered when developing this mobile site. The mobile site allows the users to do their favorite thing – anonymously look into the life of a notorious other. The site positions the King as the coolest celebrity out there. He has pictures of him  partying it up at the coolest events and gets calls and messages begging him to come hang out. It makes it seem like everyone wants to be his friend, and visitor gets to snoop in on all of this.

the king's top secret texts 
I believe Burger King’s mobile page is an extremely effective marketing tool. Not only does the page capture the markets interest, but it also complements the devise used to access it. One major selling feature of the iPhone is all the applications that can be accessed with the phone. The user of the phone clearly has a strong interest in applications, and BK is catering to that need. Burger King’s mobile site seems to be modeled after an app. It’s design and interactivity makes it feel more like an app then a webpage.


I believe that Burger King has successfully used their mobile site as a marketing tool by designing a site that complements the platform its being accessed on and provides content relevant to the to the interests of the intended target audience. Many others also agree.  The mobile page has gotten a lot of praise.  The mobile blog, “We Love Mobile”,  listed the page as part of the “Top 10 Most Beautiful iPhone Sites In The World (That We Didn’t Do)” mainly crediting the fresh take of the mobile page. The site also recently won  Global Mobile Marketing Award for “Best Use of Mobile Marketing in Branding in North America”.
the king of cool 

In conclusion, I would like to say that BK’s fresh take on a mobile webpage is a refreshing and entertaining way to engage audiences through mobile marketing. I loved it, the bloggers loved, and even the critics loved it!


Now excuse me, while I steal my roommates iPhone to go stalk the King some more…