Google Wallet & Apple Passbook: A Brand’s Next Best Friends

Recently, the industry has seen a considerable amount of buzz surrounding mobile wallet applications such as Google Wallet and Apple’s Passbook. Defined as an effective mobile solution for providing customer loyalty rewards and savings, there’s no question as to why these apps are becoming more popular.

Even though consumers have expressed a desire for mobile offers, some brands and retailers have been slow on the uptake.

This column explores the loyalty and rewards features of each platform, their benefits and how they can be used to create a truly revolutionary customer experience when used as part of an integrated mobile campaign.

Why Use Wallet Apps?

Google Wallet and Passbook present a win-win situation for brands and their customers. Both provide benefits to customers such as ease of use and convenience, as they will no longer be burdened with remembering to clip and redeem coupons at the point of sale.

In addition, they will always have their coupons and loyalty cards on hand and ready to use with helpful reminders of expiration dates. The mobile wallet features are also beneficial to marketers as they allow for the ability to do the following:

• Combine mobile loyalty services with mobile coupons
• Create mobile opt-in lists
• Easily track and measure redemption
• Leverage location-based offers

There are 159.8 million smartphone owners in the US, and 91% of adults keep their phone within arm’s reach. As you might imagine, having a mobile coupon on hand 24/7 yields a higher redemption rate than other types of coupons. In fact, a BI Intelligence report revealed that the industry average of mobile coupon redemption is ten times higher than static and web coupons — this translates to huge potential for your brand.

How Do Wallet Apps Work?

Whether from another app, SMS, MMS or web browser, brands simply need to provide a customized link that enables their offer or loyalty card to be instantly downloaded into the Google Wallet or Passbook apps once a user has clicked on it. Then, let the savings begin!

Both are easy for brands to use and do not require an overly-complicated technical setup. With these apps, brands have an opportunity to leverage customer profile data, gaining insights and generating personalized offers.

The following table compares both apps’ capabilities:

Though both apps have location-based messaging features, Passbook currently has quite an edge over Google Wallet. With the latest iOS 7 release, retailers can now send more targeted Passbook offers to specific locations within a store via iBeacon (Bluetooth Low Energy Technology).

Let’s say that Sam’s favorite sports store is having a 25% off sale on golf clubs. Instead of sending a bevy of storewide coupons when he’s entering the store, Sam will receive the coupon as he peruses through the golf section of the store.

This is all made possible with the ability of the iOS 7 Passbook to work with iBeacons. If a retailer installs the beacon hub software within a store, smaller beacons would be placed throughout the store in different departments. The smaller beacons then transmit signals that can be received by enabled iPhone devices so customers will get relevant offers as they are browsing that department. At present, iBeacons can only work with Passbook.

Users must have a particular offer already saved in their Passbook in order to receive the location-specific notifications. Though Google Wallet currently does not offer the same Bluetooth capabilities as Passbook, Google is working to integrate other apps into Wallet such as Maps and Google+.

What Are The Best Strategies To Use With Wallet Apps?

While Passbook and Google Wallet are useful solutions for brands, to make them more effective, they should be included as an integral part of a high-level mobile strategy.

For example, mobile messaging has proven to be an effective tool for reaching customers with a 98% message open rate — so, why not fortify the mobile wallet strategy with messaging?

However, delivering SMS/MMS messages with clickable links to download store offers and rewards into the apps can lead to lower redemptions (one extra click) and reduced customer engagement for a retailer’s campaign.

This challenge can be avoided with the latest messaging platforms, such as Rich Media Messaging (RMM). RMM is an innovative technology that allows brands to deliver fully-optimized, end-user mobile experiences utilizing actual mobile phone technical capabilities via Intelligent Handset Detection (IHD).

With the RMM messaging platform, engaging and fully-optimized pictures, videos, binary content (such and Passbook offers) and long texts can be delivered to virtually any device that can properly handle the content.

Oftentimes, we see brands that are eager to deliver mobile wallet offers to customers via SMS when they are completely unaware of the type of devices their customers have and whether those devices can actually download the offer itself.

For example, sending an SMS with a Passbook offer to a Windows-based phone will degrade the brand’s reputation in the eyes of the customer. You can only imagine how extremely frustrated your customer will be when he or she is sent a Passbook offer for their favorite shoe retailer, but cannot store it on their mobile device or redeem it.

Unlike SMS, RMM’s IHD feature, allows marketers to identify the device type and its capabilities before delivering any mobile content. IHD eliminates customer frustration by only delivering the right content to the right mobile phone.

In addition to messaging, social sharing is also a great way to support your mobile wallet efforts. Including a call-to-action for a mobile wallet offer with the retailer’s social media messaging can help to expand their reach, as we all love to share content.

Sharing offers via social media can also help brands to garner more engagement with their audiences that will help to build more long-term relationships for additional offers in the future.

Along with mobile messaging and social media, traditional avenues should also be leveraged to promote mobile wallet offers and drive customers back to mobile devices. This includes: website; in-store signage, advertisements, email blasts and other brand communications.

It’s also key to remember that mobile messaging is a natural behavior for mobile consumers, and it is much easier to initiate a conversation via messaging than any other mobile touch point.

The Bottom Line

If used properly, Google Wallet and Passbook are effective solutions for brands, especially when it comes to driving engagement with customers. As these apps deliver a variety of loyalty rewards, coupons and other offers, they fulfill the rising mobile demands from consumers, which include location-based communications from brands while shopping.

While Passbook and Google Wallet can add value to a mobile campaign, it’s recommended that these efforts be integrated with all other touchpoints and aligned with the consumer’s mobile behavior.

With more features being integrated into Passbook and Google wallet, and more customers adopting the technology, it is only a matter of time before your brand should consider these mobile apps as part of the mobile tool kit.