How the control of specific behavior matters

This is and has been a hot topic for quite a while now. Did you ever ask why every major platform is nowadays joining the messaging battle? Why did Facebook buy WhatsApp for $17 billion? Why does Google have 8 (and I said 8) messaging apps? Why IG just introduced video calls? Why Snapchat redesign the 1-to-1 messaging?

We can give a very basic answer, but the reality is that mobile consumer behavior is majorly disrupted by messaging. Think about it for 1 second. If you have your phone in your pocket and you are getting a notification from Facebook, you think “well ok, I’ll check it out later”, because we know that in terms of the level of importance that notification doesn’t create a sense of urgency. But, think again if you got a text from a person. A human being that you really care about. Wouldn’t that text be more important? Do you not have a sense of urgency to reply quite immediately?

Well, that behavior has led big organizations to purchase tiny startups for messaging integration. Simply put, because they want to be in control of a specific behavior: If you get a text, you will unlock your phone and while you are at it you can check other apps. And imagine that the more you access your phone the more times (statistically) you will check Facebook or Instagram or Google and the more “real estate” these platforms will have to serve you an ad. Scary ugh? But we are behaving exactly as tech companies wanted. Increase frequency to increase ads served.

What does this mean for us marketers?

When designing campaigns, user journeys that are mobile-led, we need to consider these types of integrations. CRM strategies are shifting to more meaningful 1-2-1 conversations and the whole idea is to create not just personalization, but personalization that makes sense for the user.