3 Big Companies That Dominate Mobile Marketing

When you think of Domino’s Pizza, you think of a huge pizza chain that maybe doesn’t have to work as hard as the local, and largely unknown pizzeria to stay in business. Think again, just a few years ago Domino’s nearly lost everything they had built over 50-years of making pizza.  According to Dennis Maloney, the head of multimedia marketing at Domino’s, “Technology is becoming a core part of our business; in order to win we had to enter this space.”

Domino’s was on the brink of extinction when a new marketing plan and digital tactics helped them climb their way back to the top. Big companies, just like small and medium-sized businesses, must keep up with the digital demands of customers in order to remain relevant. Domino’s, Starbucks, and Facebook are three vastly different companies that prove the importance of mobile.

Here we take a look at these 3 big companies, all who have managed to trump the competition by employing smart mobile marketing methods.

Domino’s Pizza

As a health-nut it’s rare that I order pizza, but when I do it’s usually from Dominoes. Not because I think Domino’s has the very best tasting pizza—although it is good, but because their mobile platform allows for the easiest transactions.

Most of the big pizza brands have offered websites with online ordering for a few years now. Yet, as we have discussed many times before on this blog, desktop marketing is far from mobile marketing. People don’t want to load up their laptop or desktop computer to order a pizza. Instead, you want to grab a cell phone, which is always somewhere nearby, and place a quick order. Domino’s has made it incredibly easy to do this.

Domino’s was on shaky ground a few years back. Between 2006 and 2008 sales were spiraling downwards and their image was rapidly loosing its luster, as complaints about the taste of their pizza kept pouring in. They could have handed in the towel, but instead they decided to reinvent themselves, in more ways than one.

With Pizza Hut and Papa John’s hot on their stuffed-crust heels they had to do something and fast. Domino’s went for a transparent approach; the company came out publicly admitting that their old recipe sucked, and that they had something better for everyone to try. Then they persuaded customers to actually try it by providing an app that makes ordering and tracking as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Their app is essentially a 3D pizza builder that allows you to visually create a pizza using your mobile device. You also have the one-click option to duplicate an order. Once your pizza order is complete you can use the real-time pizza tracker on your phone to know when your pizza is being prepped, put in the oven, and is ready—either for pick-up or delivery.

The easy to use pizza app saw awesome results from the get-go. As of 2013, 35% of Domino’s $2 billion dollar digital sales were coming directly from mobile, and over 6 million people had downloaded the mobile app.

Since then even more people have downloaded the app and an even larger percentage of Domino’s sales now come directly from their mobile platform—over 45% in fact!

I’m not going to tell you Domino’s pizza is healthy, or that they offer a substantial meal for you to feed your family, but that’s not what pizza is about. Pizza is ordered on the go, when you don’t have time to cook. Since pizza is coveted when eating needs to be fast and easy what better way to boost sales than to offer the quickest and easiest way to order it.

Dennis Maloney, the vice president of multimedia marketing for Domino’s says, “Marketing is really helping us reinvent what is a fifty-year old plus brand…. Technology is becoming a core part of our business; in order to win we had to enter this space. So what does this mean for us? We have to use technology to drive better experiences that drive better results.”

Facebook

Nearly 84% of Facebook’s daily traffic comes directly from mobile devices, not only because most people use their phone to access online content, but also because their mobile platform rocks. The company has spent a considerable amount of money and attention mobilizing Facebook so that it operates just as seamlessly on smartphones and tablets as it does on a desktop computer.

Facebook has had plenty of ups and downs since its original IPO on the American stock market. Largely because people have been very skeptical about the social networking site and how it will really stand up to the test of time. After all, prior to Facebook it was all about Myspace… and let’s be serious, what percentage of people still checks their Myspace account regularly?

Facebook continues to prove to its doubters that it has what it takes to keep up and remain relevant. Largely because Facebook has been doing an excellent job capturing mobile audiences, thus remaining popular and profitable in a highly competitive field.

According to the experts, few have been able to execute the mobile market as well as social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. More people using Facebook from their phone means the company is generating more money than ever in mobile ads. 69% of Facebook revenue, or $3.85 billion, was derived directly from mobile ads during the last quarter.

Facebook was once something you checked on your desktop computer, but now most people check Facebook via their mobile device. 890 million people access Facebook daily, and 84% of these people do so on their mobile device. Of the 1.39 billion people that check their Facebook monthly, an even higher 86% use their mobile device to do so. Could you imagine what would have happened to Facebook if they had not invested in going mobile? These numbers are continually meeting new records, proving that ignoring the shift to mobile is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.  (Reference)

Starbucks

Starbucks is yet another business that seems to own the competition almost effortlessly. No matter where you go you can easily find a Starbucks location on every other corner. Despite the rising price of a tall latte people can’t seem to live without Starbucks. In reality though, Starbucks does have a lot of competition, and there are a number of coffee shops ready to take over the industry.

Starbucks has fought to remain supreme in many ways, including a great mobile campaign. Long before the latest iPhone offered Apple Pay, Starbucks had their own app that allowed for fast mobile payments. You can pay for your beverages by simply having the cashier scan a barcode through the app on your phone. Just like Apple Pay, this form of payment is easy and means you can forget your entire wallet at home and still get your coffee fix.

The Starbucks app also synchs with the Rewards Program and keeps track of your points and free drinks. Most brands have a reward membership but few actually make customers feel rewarded. Since the Starbucks app keeps track of you free drinks as your points add up customers have more incentive to download and use it. Plus, the app also tells you the remaining balance on your Starbucks card, and allows you to easily reload your balance in seconds. (Read more on this here)

In 2012, Starbucks was awarded with the Mobile Marketer of the Year award for the second time in three years. Starbucks has been ahead of the pack in terms of mobile technology for several years now, helping them remain the leading coffee shop in many parts of the world. Today Starbucks continues to implement changes in their mobile platform, working to increase their market share via mobile marketing.

The Importance Of Mobile Marketing For Businesses Of All Sizes

Here we have discussed three different mega-companies that have used mobile marketing with outstanding results. No matter if your company is big, medium-size, or small, mobile marketing is incredibly important.

Mobile is huge and only getting bigger; it’s so important for your business to take advantage of the many opportunities mobile marketing offers. Companies that ignore the mobile marketing space may continue to rule supreme in the short term, but will soon be overrun by the competitor that gives the public what they are looking for: mobile accessibility.