Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

If you went with "Idea 3", you could focus in by using Yelp, Foursquare and the like as case studies.

I like the third one as well, but I wasn't sure what my main focus should be on. Should I ask, how can localised product-based mobile applications increase the effectiveness and frequency of use of the app by the customer? Or should I simply focus on mobile apps in general?

That's a very interesting idea. I would like to focus on product-based apps though, if that woud work. For example, Mercedes-Benz, Rolex, Omega. and many other brands have apps. I could look at why these are successful and why they are not, like you stated.

I would need familiarized myself with Adwords but that sounds very interesting as well. So, I would use the knowledge that I gained from the research to start my own Adwords campagin, target the people who like what I created based on research, and then see if they like it.

Would this research my mostly qualititative?

When people buy a product, it is usually because they have based their decision on what they feel about it. They might not be conscious of this, it remains a fact. Look at what motivates someone to buy a Merc or a Rolex, see what goes with it - and why they don't buy a BMW or Longines.

Adwords is pretty simple - Perry Marshall and Howie Jacobson are both well known for Adwords and both have books. Read, digest and put into action and you will be in the top 10. Because everybody thinks it's so easy. Sure, and it's easy to lose money - so study their books carefully, act on them and you might even make a few dollars yourself whilst learning!!

Oh, and you'll learn a lot about mobile marketing too - which is becoming really big.

Good luck! M

As to the research being qualitative - that is why universities can't teach marketing properly. They can't deal with things that they have no evidence for. Just look at all the statistics that abound! All trying to grasp at things they can't nail to the floor.

Logic (= evidence based thinking) is just one tiny corner of the human's ability to think. Only, there's no evidence for it. Sure, there's no evidence for how you feel, that doesn't mean you can't feel it. All it means is that you can't use logic to define how you feel. You need a totally different way of thinking.

That's where you start getting headaches. Thinking outside the box isn't as easy as everybody says it is.

I know that people use various reasons for buying something, but I'm sure I want to focus simply on that. I want to tie mobile marketing into the equation. As you said in the your first post, look at why people like and dislike a certain application, using data and research. I was curious is to know if, rather than focus on all apps, it could simply be focused on product-based apps. Why people like product-based apps and why they don't, once again using data and research.

Those books sound interesting and I will check them out once this semester is completed. The AdWords aspect of the first post sounds really interesting because I would be creating a campaign based on people's responses, and then see how they like it.

So, in essence, I could focus my dissertation on this. What makes it successful and what makes in unsuccessful using research and metrics. Using metrics and information might provide some valuable insights into customer perceptions of apps. I could then be useful to create an AdWords campaign based on what we find, and target those people that like the campaign that we started, based on the research that we have gathered. If they like what we created, they should like a similar mobile app. Does this sound like it would be a valuable dissertation topic? I will admit, it seems complex.

I think I have decided to focus on privacy with mobile apps. Perhaps look at the factors that might influence somebody to share private data with businesses, and far they are willing to let the business in. How does this sound? If anybody has any tips or directions that I'm missing, please let me know.


Thank you,