Can smartphone spyware enhance business value?

French retailers have reportedly embraced the use of data gathering technology that seeks to connect the displays of smartphone content and the movement of the consumers. The applications are expected to gather data from consumers in much the same way that the cookies do for websites. This is where the activities of the smartphone user are recorded and used to improve on real time advertising in future. From the strategic management perspective, being informed about the customer is extremely important for effective targeting and improvement of the sales levels for the organisations. But this could come with privacy concerns as most consumers will not have consented to having every movement they make monitored and recorded by the brands.

One of the applications that could be used in this monitoring strategy is the use of motion-activated screens. Assuming that the typical consumer will carry their smartphones in their hands, the cameras on the devices can be used to observe the products picked from the shelves. Alternatively, the smartphones can be synched with the shelf arrangement in retail outlets to identify the counters in which consumers spend the most time. This information can be used to market to consumers in real time with messages being fine-tuned to correspond with the perceived tastes and preferences.

One of the techno-savvy companies that facilitate this is Retency. The start-up provides retailers with antennas that can identify the frequencies of smartphones used by customers visiting the retail outlets. The frequencies help to understand their preferences by identifying the shelves where they have spent most time. They use this information for enhanced direct marketing message design. The software is strategic and can be very helpful in increasing value for money spent in advertising.

Another application of the monitoring technologies is the synching of adverts with the purchasing decisions made by consumers. Software that functions like cookies monitor and collect data to determine how long it takes between the time a consumer views an advertisement on their smartphone to the time they make an actual purchase. This is especially most accurate for online purchases because it is easier to monitor activities undertaken via the smartphones. In implementing this monitoring approach, the strategic managers would be relying on the trend of online shopping among smartphone owners. The data can then be used to determine the effect of different advertising message as well as the characteristics of the swiftest responders for purposes of more effective target marketing.

But as strategic managers seek to exploit this important information, they have to deal with concerns over the privacy issues of those being monitored. Even where monitoring is being done by security agencies for purposes of enhanced security, people are still reluctant to give up on their right to privacy. It is expected that they will be less comfortable with brands doing the same as such monitoring will neither be a necessity nor a legally accepted approach. The growth of this monitoring technology is therefore expected to lead to demand for anti-spyware software which isolates and blocks any cookies designed to gather information from software and transmit it to other quarters.