In response to Conor Hanlon's Blog; Will snail mail and traditional marketing be replaced by smart phone marketing?

Conor Hanlon presents the following questions. How do you think the economy plays a role in the e-marketing schemes? Even though direct mail costs more initially, the influence it has on the customers greatly outweighs that of e-marketing. How do you think the availability of smartphones plays a role in this marketing? When the economy begins to prosper again, will an increase in smartphone sales lead to a larger role in e-marketing? How do you think e-marketing will play out in the future as newer technology begins to come out? Also, do you think the direct mail approach should ever be abandoned?

I personally believe smart phones are a too tedious avenue for marketing. Most people tend to check their email and Facebook while they are on the go and for nothing else. This is only for means of communication. If they are to use their smart phones for something else it would because they are bored. If someone were to actually use their phone to look up products I would think they’d prefer an actual computer. Smart phones are on the small scale where there is not full range of motion on the keyboard, it is much slower in loading a page, and the page does not have the same set up. That is why web page searches are more tedious on the smart phone rather than a computer and text messaging is also an annoyance compared to instant messaging and email.

When the economy begins to prosper again cell phone technology will increase and better smart phones will begin to be produced. But if smart phones were to be used for marketing they would have to be much faster, bigger, and less annoying and tedious in order to work for marketing. In this cell phone companies and marketers have their work cut out for them. There is a lot of work that needs to be done in order to reach a mass audience in order to get the majority of people on board doing this form of e-marketing on a smart phone.

It is also obvious that direct snail mail marketing should not be abandoned based on the article we read. For example look at the elderly people, there is a great population of elderly people that choose not to use computers or do not understand them as well as choosing not to give computers a chance at all. This is a great target market that companies would be avoiding which would be unfortunate for the comapany in marketing nd also resulting in loss of sales because of not marketing in this way. It is also noted in the article about snail mail that people like the personal touch of mail as long as it’s not crafted like junk mail. If this is personally crafted with care this avenue of marketing will work. Also because of the advent of smart phones companies should also not abandon traditional e-marketing on computers. In this companies should think of new ways to e-market on normal computers when new fads, social networking trends develop, and other kinds of technology develope which would benefit from marketing. It is uncertain how things will produce in the future for marketing but traditional marketing on billboards, personal mailings, and traditional computers should not be given up.