Multi-Year Plans and Scaled Up Mobile Investments

Forrester is out with key mobile trends, and whether you are a Fortune 50 marketer with a large budget or a small or medium sized business trying to find promotional money, the list is a must-read.

The industry analyst firm’s trends for 2013 center on multiyear plans and scaled-up investments.

“Mobile’s dynamics of immediacy and ubiquity will challenge the notion that mobile is immature,” Forrester said in a report http://blogs.forrester.com/thomas_husson/13-02-14-2013_mobile_trends_for_mark.... “Innovators will overcome any concerns about maturity to make big, strategic investments in mobile to pull ahead of their competitors. Differentiating with mobile will require marketers to develop the multiyear visions required to drive real change in their business and their approach to implementing mobile services.”

Forrester wisely calls upon marketers and business owners to address two separate use cases for phones and tablets – tablets are used more in home and for longer periods than phones that are mainly used to find things around the mobile device owner.

As to which one to turn to first, Forrester says, “tablets will be the biggest short-term disruptors.”

Also, Forrester predicts more in-house mobile expertise and brands and other businesses looking to “engage a senior executive capable of taking the lead on mobile. Build a staffing plan based on your long term strategy.”

Forrester does not give a timeline for this change to happen, but it does say that the testing days are in the past.

“Mobile on the cheap is over,” the report says. “Implementing the complex technology to make the most of mobile opportunities requires a new vision of how to interact with customers, significant changes in culture and competencies across business and IT, and more investment.”

While there is little new here, it is an important report given Forrester’s vast understanding of the industry and the insights it gleaned from its relationships with brands and agencies.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program  http://Goo.gl/t3fgW, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.