Robin Barnes
There's an article in the latest issue of Wired magazine in which Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail, argues that the web is dead (wired.co.uk). Not the internet but, specifically, the world wide web. Why? The simple answer is that the web, the world's publicly accessible websites, is being bypassed by the app phenomenon and the mobile internet. Brands love the fact that apps offer a controlled and consistent user experience, and they aren't left behind when the user leaves the home or office.
So the amazing rise of the app seems set to continue. And not just on your phone, either, so keep an eye out this Christmas for the new Android tablets and watch them become a living-room ever-present. Consumer brands will of course follow the market and we can expect to see more and more branded apps populate the stores of Apple, Google, Nokia et al for as long as app stores thrive (the app store model will have to change eventually, but that's another story).
So, the key question for me is what kind of app strategy these brands should be following. One app or many apps?
To take one of our clients as an example, Tesco currently has four apps on Apple's store: Groceries, Finder, ClubCard and Wine Finder. The benefit of this approach is that each app has been designed and built to fulfil a single purpose and as a result the user experience is much simpler, happier and productive. Any frustrating in-store mucking about with an app's internal navigation is avoided when, for example in the case of ClubCard app, it launches and fulfils its function with just one touch of your phone's screen.
The single-purpose app has another benefit too. The marketing of apps within app stores is surely a developing discipline, but it is clear that key elements such as icon design and app name will have significant influence over the uptake of branded mobile apps. Icons and names that reflect the purpose of the app‚ easier when it only has one — will make it easier for consumers to find what they want and, ultimately, convert to a transaction with the brand.
And yet, plenty of brands are taking another approach. Why clutter up the app store and confuse the consumer with more than one app? By taking a more Swiss Army knife approach to apps, brands can provide a single solution to all their customers' mobile needs. British Airways' second generation iPhone app, for example, provides for Check-in, time-table checking, mobile Boarding Passes, access to their Twitter feed as well as frequent flyer points balance checking. Everything you could want from BA, in one app. And, of course, they don't have to worry about managing and marketing a suite of apps in various stores ‚ they only need one and it's got a big BA logo on it. Simple.
So who is right? One app or many? Personally speaking, I'm a big fan of well designed single-purpose apps and I believe the various online stores will evolve to aid consumers who search for brands with multiple apps. But if only it were simple enough to say this way is right or wrong. It is, as ever, more complicated than that. For example, what works on a smartphone, like presenting your ClubCard at checkout, may not work so well on a tablet, though that app is available for both. And what about the hassle of managing the same app in different OS versions across multiple stores‚ surely that's got to change before we release multiple apps on even one store? It's clear that managing the size and extent of your brand's app portfolio is going to require as much thought as what goes behind each of those shiny little icons.