Saturday, January 30, 2010

NFC Marketing Strategies: What is the first killer app going to be?

Before we can seriously look at a vision state for NFC applications we need to get rapid consumer adoption in order to expand the terrestrial infrastructure and establish usage models.

The best way to do that is with a Killer App that can realistically be deployed in the near term. This will necessarily be driven user needs and behavior, not by technological capabilities

What is this Killer App?

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Here are a few thoughts worth discussing:

Marketing driven
- Driven by user needs and behavior, not by technological capabilities
- The primary value proposition is an already established user need, not necessarily related to NFC
- Simple and intuitive usage (both for users and the operator)

Governed by reciprocal relationships
- Low Set-up costs for end user
- The benefit has to be significantly greater than the effort

Technology infrastructure
- Start with a closed loop solution to enable rollout
- Piggyback on existing installation if open loop
- Application distribution via established channels

Revenue Model
The benefits of consequence for Brands sponsoring the app would be increased customer loyalty, deeper engagement, and positive perception of their brand. In return, the Brand would have to underwrite Solution Providers to develop and implement technology.

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The vision state for NFC will still be seamless device-to-device interconnectivity, but first there needs to be compelling consumer applications to establish the technology as a standard platform.


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Images under creative commons license. Apps icons by Andrew.