Brand-consistent technology

In my previous entry, I mentioned that consumers are highly affected by endorsements from other consumers. Taking this into account and adding to it the contemporary lifestyles and the recent technological advancements, I want to write about an iPhone application built by MasterCard, which I find a very strong communication tool developed by the company. It is namely “the Priceless Picks iPhone Application” (http://www.priceless.com/). As Cheryl Guerin -SVP, global digital marketing at MasterCard Worldwide- puts it; “This is an evolution of the 'Priceless picks' promotion that has been on the Web site since 2006. Consumers love to see other consumers' opinions and that impacts the decisions that they've made, we've seen it on the Web for years and now we are seeing it more in mobile. This is about leveraging what consumers already love to do.”

The application uses GPS technology to provide on-site solutions to fulfill users’ social needs by providing local deals such as for shopping and dining. Users can share (read, write and also send what’s already written their friends via e-mail) personalized information about places they like or they come to think they might be interested in. The application also includes special offers from ShopLocal, a partner of MasterCard. So, as a whole, the application succeeds in combining user-generated content and partner-generated offers.

I think this application has the potential to, first, push MasterCard’s brand image to a higher level within the eyes of its target customers, by giving the impression of a brand that cares about improving the social lives of people; and even to increase the number of customers (since if it succeeds to be a new look at portable social lives, it surely will have a huge word-of-mouth support as well). The success will come from the combination of:

• what it offers to the users;
• how it offers (via leading-edge technology that also takes a share of today’s social marketing);
• a strong product name likely to have high awareness (“Priceless Picks”);
• brand-fit (as MasterCard’s promise is to enable its customers to have / to reach priceless experiences);
• other supporting communication activities, such as the television campaign that highlights the functions of the application.