Mobile App Marketing

In the fall of 2013 we will finish the simplified iPhone Smart Move app and will build a series of Android apps to meet the requirement of the Android phone suppliers. We plan on a sample size of 1,500 movers in Japan in the winter of 2013. We will conduct the field study, analyze the results and examine the marketing implications for Suruga in the spring of 2014. Measures will include familiarity, consideration, brand ratings, preference and probability of purchase. The change of these measures due to exposure to the app or advertising will be recorded. The spending implications of implementing the app will be researched. In addition to the Smart Move research, in spring 2014 we will begin a “story telling” project which will combine new media with the classic power of storytelling in a new app Suruga can use to generate new business. The initial idea would be for consumers to share stories with each other about moving (or mortgages) in an effort to provide convincing information that Suruga is a trusted supplier of loans and should be high on the consideration list. The design will include the app features and a prototype to test feasibility of storytelling by consumers in the social media world.