| Good morning, Marketer, are you looking out for the needs of the customer? Enough with the apps already. On Friday we celebrated my spouse’s birthday by seeing the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie (a lot of fun, fantastic animation) at a deluxe theater where you can dine during the show. We bought the tickets online via Fandango. The theater required downloading an app to order food. A slight irritation, but OK. After downloading and setting up an account we discovered it only worked if you had purchased tickets via the app. Suffice to say we had dinner somewhere else following the movie. This is yet another case of an app designed to help the company, not the customer. Every brand in the world (it seems) now has an app. Consumers aren’t interested in them. Why? Because they offer little-to-no value for the user. Before you create an app or if you already have, please sit down and ask yourself if you would use it. Ask who it provides value for. Hint: Suggesting ways for the customer to give your company money means it helps you, not them. Constantine von Hoffman,
Managing Editor | 