Tap: Unlocking the Mobile Economy

by Anindya Ghose

Overview

How the smartphone can become a personal concierge (not a stalker) in the mobile marketing revolution of smarter companies, value-seeking consumers, and curated offers.

Consumers create a data trail by tapping their phones; businesses can tap into this trail to harness the power of the more than three trillion dollar mobile economy. According to Anindya Ghose, a global authority on the mobile economy, this two-way exchange can benefit both customers and businesses. In Tap, Ghose welcomes us to the mobile economy of smartphones, smarter companies, and value-seeking consumers.

Drawing on his extensive research in the United States, Europe, and Asia, and on a variety of real-world examples from companies including Alibaba, China Mobile, Coke, Facebook, SK Telecom, Telefónica, and Travelocity, Ghose describes some intriguingly contradictory consumer behavior: people seek spontaneity, but they are predictable; they find advertising annoying, but they fear missing out; they value their privacy, but they increasingly use personal data as currency. When mobile advertising is done well, Ghose argues, the smartphone plays the role of a personal concierge—a butler, not a stalker.

Ghose identifies nine forces that shape consumer behavior, including time, crowdedness, trajectory, and weather, and he examines these how these forces operate, separately and in combination. With Tap, he highlights the true influence mobile wields over shoppers, the behavioral and economic motivations behind that influence, and the lucrative opportunities it represents. In a world of artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, wearable technologies, smart homes, and the Internet of Things, the future of the mobile economy seems limitless.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262536059
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	09/11/2018
Series:	The MIT Press
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Anindya Ghose is the Heinz Riehl Chair Professor of Business at New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business, where he holds a joint appointment in the Information, Operations and Management Science, and Marketing Departments. In 2014, Poets & Quants named him as a “Top 40 Under 40 Professor.” In 2017, Thinkers50 identified him among the 30 management thinkers most likely to shape the future of how organizations are managed and led. His opinion pieces and research have been featured on the BBC, CNBC, MSNBC, NPR, NBC, and in The Economist, the New York Times, WIRED, Time, the Financial Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He is also an avid high altitude mountaineer and has climbed extensively in multiple continents.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 1

I Human Behavior and the Mobile Phone Journey So Far

1 Mobile Phones: A Truly Transformative Technology 17

2 What the Smartphone Has Changed 25

3 Striking a Balance 33

II The Forces Shaping the Mobile Economy

4 Context: What's Going On? 47

5 Location: Why Geography Matters 59

6 Time: It's On Your Side 79

7 Saliency: Can You See Me Now? 95

8 Crowdedness: Why Scarcity of Space Matters 107

9 Trajectory: Watch Where You're Walking 119

10 Social Dynamics: You Are Who You're With 135

11 Weather: Creating the Perfect Storm 147

12 Tech Mix: Solving Wanamaker's Riddle 159

III Next-Generation Technology Forces

13 The Growing Intimacy between Us and Our Devices 181

14 The Next-Generation Technologies 183

Epilogue 195

Notes 205

Index 227

What People are Saying About This

Hal Varian

The smartphone is a truly transformative technology. This book is required reading for anyone who wants to understand how mobile technology is changing our businesses, our economy, and our lives.

Greg Stuart

Tap is the most comprehensive book I've seen on mobile's business transformational power and its unique ability to get closer to customers.

Endorsement

Tap is the most comprehensive book I've seen on mobile's business transformational power and its unique ability to get closer to customers.

—Greg Stuart, CEO, Mobile Marketing Association; coauthor of What Sticks: Why Most Advertising Fails and How to Guarantee Yours Succeeds

From the Publisher

The smartphone is a truly transformative technology. This book is required reading for anyone who wants to understand how mobile technology is changing our businesses, our economy, and our lives.

—Hal Varian, Chief Economist, Google

With succinct writing and great authority, Anindya Ghose delivers a tour de force on the mobile economy. Ghose draws on his vast experience as a researcher, consultant, and speaker as he unravels the nine key factors that determine users' mobile experiences and the four human contradictions that can vex the 'Tappers.' The delicate trade-off between privacy and commercial opportunity is handled adroitly; consumer or marketer, you need this book on your shelf (or phone)!

—David R. Bell, Xinmei Zhang and Yongge Dai Professor, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; author of Location Is (Still) Everything: The Surprising Influence of the Real World on How We Search, Shop, and Sell in the Virtual One

The mobile economy has already unlocked trillions of dollars in value, but we're still in the early days of this revolution. Ghose draws on his path breaking research and compelling case examples to provide the definitive guide to the emerging opportunities and challenges. Required reading.

—Erik Brynjolfsson, Professor, MIT, and Director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy; coauthor of The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies

Tap is the most comprehensive book I've seen on mobile's business transformational power and its unique ability to get closer to customers.

—Greg Stuart, CEO, Mobile Marketing Association; coauthor of What Sticks: Why Most Advertising Fails and How to Guarantee Yours Succeeds

Erik Brynjolfsson

The mobile economy has already unlocked trillions of dollars in value, but we're still in the early days of this revolution. Ghose draws on his path breaking research and compelling case examples to provide the definitive guide to the emerging opportunities and challenges. Required reading.

David R. Bell

With succinct writing and great authority, Anindya Ghose delivers a tour de force on the mobile economy. Ghose draws on his vast experience as a researcher, consultant, and speaker as he unravels the nine key factors that determine users' mobile experiences and the four human contradictions that can vex the 'Tappers.' The delicate trade-off between privacy and commercial opportunity is handled adroitly; consumer or marketer, you need this book on your shelf (or phone)!