How are iPhones and Droids changing the way women shop? Plenty. A recent Ad Age study reveals that 1 out of 5 women today use a smart phone while they shop. Granted, much of the phone use can be put down to multitasking; for instance, a woman catches up with a friend while she waits in the check out line. But that is only a piece of it.
Women are more likely to use their phone to seek out opinions from friends and family than their male counterpart: 73% call family or friends to get their opinions vs. 59% for men. Which brings us to the camera function.
In another Ad Age survey women were much more likely to cite taking pictures and videos as the reason they chose a smart phone over functions like Internet access and email. Why? Well, one reason is the smart phone camera is being used in the shopping process. 40% of the women surveyed said they used the camera function to snap pictures of store merchandise for future reference or to send to a friend via Facebook or email for immediate feedback. This shift in shopping dynamics is being seen from Dallas to Daytona. Even 32% of men in the survey confessed of using their smart phone to take a photo and get a spouse or buddy’s input.
Advertising Agencies and their clients can use these insights to better understand how social media and networking is impacting brand purchases. Today’s brands need to look for ways to help customers tap into their social network at the point of purchase. We need to find ways to leverage this digital behavior to spread the word on sales and store locations. Finding smarter ways to tap into emergent behaviors and maximize brand loyalties is the one thing that both ad agencies and marketers can do better. If only there was an app for that!
