A Random Day With My Phone (Case Study)

It says 8:17 am.

Dammit, missed the alarm again.

When going to sleep at night, I have a habit of putting the phone on silent and being a Google Pixel lover, I’ve configured the bedtime mode so that there’s no incoming notification tone and sound. The only downside? Sometimes (especially during the winter) I tend to miss the alarm.

Today I had only one class at 3 pm, so naturally, I planned to take things slower than usual in the morning. Last night I binged a new show (Peacemaker) and had a little too many snacks. Today, my to-do list had grocery, visiting a nearby Canada Post outlet (this time it's Amazon), working on an assignment, and group study for an upcoming exam with my friends.

That’s it. A nice-slow-relaxed Tuesday.

A perfect start would be checking Instagram and scrolling through a bit.

Hah! Funny.

Shoot! I need to book an appointment with my doc. (Added this to my Google Calendar task list.)

He deserves this. The last game was a tough one with West Ham. Now that they have a break…chilling makes sense.

(I’m a huge Manchester United and CR7 fan. I track them on Insta on a regular basis).

Wow! They’re promoting Mata after a long time. Anyway, I need to check their new lineup. (Another task added to the Calendar).

Yeah, I’ve got this already (bought this exact model recently)...oh wait! I haven’t got the case yet. I need to buy one ASAP.

(Switching to Amazon app…)

Yeah, Spigen…I know this brand…their products are good…but wait…none of these cases have camera visor protection. What are they drinking?…that visor is the most important thing of this phone…WTH!!

I’ll go with that TOCOL one…(I care less about Amazon reviews lately…hard to find legit ones). Anyway…(ordered the TOCOL Pixel 6 case).

(Back to Instagram…)

Goddam! Another crypto ad... (Scroll)

Wow…Coursera got me again!

(Last night I was looking for free data analytics short courses on Google, to get a better idea about one of my courses this semester. Seems like I was caught on Coursera’s radar).

I’ll pass.

More crypto. Argh!!!

Report ads.

WOW! That’s a huge discount!! I should use the code for once (then cancel their subscription…muahahaha)

Dammit…I need to buy some grocery. Well, that’s enough for one #instamorning. Here we go…

(Then I had a quick breakfast and was about to get out…)

Let’s check out a new No Frills today…

(I used Google Maps to explore different No Frills options, their recent user reviews, offers, and distance from my place. Then I chose one.)

What is the fastest route to go there…

(To check the transit options, I used my favourite app Rocketman. It’s been pretty accurate lately and helping people like me in day-to-day life.)

What is this? A poll! Free money!! Sure…why not…

(Took that poll. It was a quick poll with one question! Basically, it’s a top-of-funnel content to lure people into their rewards program.)

I'll pass.

Oh shoot…forgot to check…what’s the weather today?

Why are they showing me Sephora ads? That’s weird. Also, why are they showing the same ad twice within the same screen? What (dumb) digital marketing strategy is this?! I need to ask Marty (my Omni Channel course professor) about this. Or maybe, I can Google it. Nah…I don’t have time for this…I’ll ask him.

(BTW, Meteored is my favourite free weather app. I tried many free weather apps on Android but nothing was as reliable and intuitive as this one. Kudos to the Meteored team.)

Let’s go.

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That’s a quick recap of a random Tuesday morning with my phone (I stopped calling them smartphones. Everything is smart now, nothing is dumb anymore). Throughout the rest of the day, I frequently used WhatsApp to stay connected with my network and communicate with my friends. Also, Spotify was my constant travelmate.

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One mobile friction moment…

When I was searching different No Frills options, Google Maps was showing me the distance and suggesting some routes. However, the TTC bus timing was not accurate. If it could show me the correct information then and there, I wouldn't need to use another app only for this purpose (Rocketman). I had to install and switch to another app to find this information. Google Maps suggests the best possible transit routes but in terms of public transport arrival times, it still falls short of apps like Rocketman.

I consider this as mobile friction because if I followed the timing on Google Maps and went to the bus stop, I would have to wait more than expected. That would suck!

From a marketer’s perspective…

Putting on my marketer hat: if I heard this story from one of my target customers, the first thing I would do is to make sure that instead of showing Sephora ads on Meteored or other apps, the user sees ads for Google Pixel accessories the day after they post something using that phone on social. I believe, we can get such information from their browsing and web activity data. Also, show them ads on their most used social app (in this case, Instagram), right after tech-related news.

The second thing, knowing their love for CR7 and ManU, we should encourage them to look for discounts/offers on related merchandise nearby. Amazon could be an excellent platform to show such ads (apparently, they frequently purchase from the Amazon app).

Also, HelloFresh ads should be more prominent and more visible for such customer groups. Just showing a one-timer discount might not be enough to retain these customers. As HelloFresh has a paywall structure in their acquisition program, a lot of potential customers might get turned off by seeing those one-off discounts.

Spotify could be another great platform to show them such offers (many people still use their free version regularly). Reminding them constantly what they might need (HelloFresh/New CR7 jersey at ManU store) would not hurt that much.

Now that we have access to their web/app behaviour data.

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[This post is part of an assignment for the Omni Channel Marketing course under B413 program at George Brown College. Currently, I'm enrolled to this program and having fun doing activities like this.]

Featured image: Google Pixel 6 from Google Store