Our phones are our gateway to the world. We customize our phones with cases that match our personality, backgrounds of our pets or favorite vacation memory, and fill our devices with apps and programs that enhance our overall mobile experience. Increasingly, brands are looking to enhance the consumer experience, as well as occupy precious real estate on our personalized devices. Having your app downloaded is one major hurdle, but the real struggle comes in maintaining staying power on a consumer’s device. This has caused brands to step up their games and develop apps that do more than offer promotional messages and connect on social media. A few brands have taken their mobile app experience to new levels, causing consumers to connect and engage in droves. I have selected 6 brands who who just get it right when it comes to creating a mobile app that has staying power on our devices.
Starbucks Mobile App
Whether it’s picking up a coffee on my way to work, getting together with friends, or camping out at one of their stores to get away from the office, Starbucks has become more than a java house, Starbucks has become a destination. We all know that Starbucks is on the bleeding edge when it comes to identifying ways for their consumers to further enhance their experience, but with the introduction of their mobile app, the Starbucks experience has improved. But this app provides much more than convenience.
The Starbucks mobile app acts as your personalized portal to everything Starbucks. Whether you want to use the app to locate the nearest Starbucks, pay for your latte, send eGift cards via email or social network, or view your transaction history, the Starbucks mobile app makes it easy for me to do whatever I want, all in one location.
Dunkin’ Donuts
Consumers love their coffee don’t they?? In a short period of time, Dunkin’ Donuts has emerged as a coffee destination, rivaling the aforementioned Starbucks for coffee royalty. With such a powerful and useful mobile app currently offered by Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts needed to develop a mobile app with not only similar features, but a unique selling proposition. Enter the Dunkin’ Donuts mobile app, where you can find a location, purchase gift cards, and pay for your coffee, just like the Starbucks app. But what makes the Dunkin’ Donuts app unique, is that you can receive mobile offers, customized to your current and favorite locations. These personalized offers could be just enough to cause you to choose Dunkin’ Donuts, over their arch nemesis Starbucks.
Wegman’s Supermarkets
Wait, a grocery store with a mobile app?? No stranger to putting the customer experience first, supermarket giant Wegman’s developed a mobile experience that allows consumers to create shopping lists, view their past purchases (because we always forget what brand of peas we bought), refill prescriptions, and the best feature, is access to the Wegman’s Shopper’s Club. Here you can access store news, recipes, and helpful videos. This means you can search for recipe ideas, then add those items to your shopping list, all in one location. Probably the best feature in the Wegman’s mobile app is that the app organizes your shopping list by aisle locations, thus making your shopping experience as quick and organized as possible.
Target
Probably one of the most used retailer apps on the market, the Target mobile app offers a bevy of useful features. Consumers are able to shop Target’s online inventory directly inside the app, view the weekly ads, create shopping lists, and manage their Target account. Additionally, the Target app allows you to refill prescriptions, view and edit registries, and share TargetLists (a Target wish-list) with friends and family. The Target mobile app also has some ‘standard’ features, such as, paying with gift cards, checking gift card balances, as well as buying and sending gift cards. Target uses their mobile app to enhance the in-store experience as well, with product information, ratings, and consumer reviews available for any product.
Domino’s Pizza
Pizza is one of the ultimate convenience foods. Often purchased as a ‘quick’ dinner and party treat, pizza chains everywhere are looking for easier ways for consumers to enjoy their products. Enter Domino’s mobile app, this helpful tool allows you to view their variety of pizza options, order your pizza online, pay for your order, and track your pizza’s delivery, all within one tool. This app is a go to for busy parents juggling soccer practice and trips to the mall.
Chipotle Mexican Grill
Any person who has been to a Chipotle around 5:00pm knows all too well how popular this Mexican eatery is. Most of the time, you are greeted with a line of hungry patrons, interested in one of Chipotle’s delicious Football-sized burritos. Chipotle looked to identify a way to enhance their in-store experience and make the process quicker for their patrons. They introduced the Chipotle mobile app, where consumers can find nutritional information, view the store menu, understand allergen information, but most of all, place their orders ahead of time and SKIP the line! No more waiting in the lengthy line.
Conclusion and Key Takeaways
Brands realize that space on a consumer’s smart phone is limited, and consumers select apps in which provide them with the most value. This requires brands to develop apps that serve as a consumer’s payment device, account manager, coupon portal, catalog, personal shopping assistant, and a store locator. Instead of bringing cash/credit card, shopping lists, clipped coupons, and loyalty cards while visiting a store or restaurant, there’s an app that provides it all and more. As for the companies, these apps provide useful tools to gain more information regarding consumer preferences, purchasing habits, and most importantly, allow you to continually stay in front of your consumers.