Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Apple’s back-door assault on advertising



App icons are cute, harmless-looking creations. They rarely seem to imply “Push me to destroy your existing business model.” But Apple’s new Passbook app—a sort of electronic wallet for loyalty cards, coupons and deals—may be the innocuous piece of code that launched Apple’s assault on the ramparts of internet advertising. That’s because the convenience for iPhone and iPad users is matched on the back end by a product for small and medium-size businesses to run their own promotions and loyalty programs using the app.

The upshot for bigger businesses, both brick-and-mortar and online, is that Passbook is just another way to get their deals, coupons and cards used more frequently. Macy’s and other big retailers are on board. LivingSocial, the troubled daily deals site, is using it, too. But the real disruption comes when (and if) local businesses adopt it, or another platform, as a more integrated way to handle their marketing. It’s easy to see how LivingSocial could go from client to steamrolled competitor—with a device in your pocket 24/7 and an integrated system of applications in the cloud, Apple knows a lot about your preferences, habits and location. Adding the ability to create and show a coupon to a target customer seems easy by comparison.

No comments: