企业应如何用App打造品牌形象

    过去，公司会在节日提供一些小礼品来取悦老顾客，招徕新顾客。他们会送出带有公司标志的冰箱贴、日历、以及圣诞装饰等。

    但如今，那些成熟老道的公司正尝试用一些新手段赢得消费者的信赖，并与他们建立情感联系。我们把它们称作“亲善应用”。与那些用来提升销量和推销打折商品的应用不同，亲善应用旨在提供实用或其他能帮助用户决策的信息。这样做并不是为了促进产品或服务销售这么简单，而是为了建立信赖和联系，从而最终获得经济上的成功。

    Sea Tow Service International就是一个很好的例子，这家位于纽约州绍斯霍尔德的公司，为美国、加勒比海和欧洲的船员提供紧急拖曳和救援服务。他们的免费应用Sea Tow会提供当地潮汐表、详细的海洋天气预报、GPS坐标、航行方位和速度等船员定位所需的信息。

    传统的营销人员也许会认为，从某种意义上说Sea Tow提供的信息会减少事故（因此也就减少了Sea Tow收到的呼救数），这会妨碍公司本身的业务。然而，感受到这份友善的船员当面临紧急状况时，可能就会倾向于呼叫Sea Tow，而不是它的竞争对手Tow Boat US。

    为了进一步研究这个概念，我们与利宝互助保险集团和骏河银行两家公司合作，创建了两个亲善应用并测试它们的效果。

    这款利宝互助应用面向正在搬家的人群。该应用拥有一个数字“保险箱”，可以让用户用文字和照片记录自己的贵重物品；还有一个清单工具，可供用户记录箱子中的物品。

    尽管利宝互助提供汽车、房屋和个人财产保险，却并不提供搬迁保险。那么为何公司会有兴趣做一款帮人搬迁的应用呢？它的目标是通过这款亲善应用建立信赖，提高品牌形象、关注度，增强顾客的购买意愿。在应用的最后一个页面，用户可以联系利宝互助，获得更多关于该公司产品的信息，包括家庭保险、人寿保险和意外保险。所以尽管它属于亲善应用，却能建立用户和公司员工的联系，从而提高公司的商誉。

    2010年，该应用经过了面向750名顾客的综合市场调研。总体来说，调查对象认为利宝互助的搬迁应用很有意义、很可靠，与他们的生活密切相关。这种良好的用户体验使得人们对该公司的态度有了正向的转变，他们觉得负责和值得信赖是该公司的品牌特质。利宝互助在信用评分、可信度和品牌信心上都有了显著提升。

    我们的第二个应用是为位于日本静冈市的骏河银行（Suruga Bank）创建的。这个应用名为Dream Mover，可以帮助日本顾客选择要购买或租赁的新房，并帮助他们弄清不同情况下涉及的财务问题。该应用能根据用户的地址和预算要求，显示一系列备选房屋，并给出大小、布局、是否便于搭乘公共交通工具等细节。此外，为了帮助用户筛选可能的居住地，Dream Mover还扮演了预算规划顾问的角色，为用户提供个人贷款和抵押信息以及其他具有针对性的建议。

    为了解Dream Mover的影响力，我们随机选择了1,500名受访者，发现那些用过这款应用的人对骏河银行的关注度、信赖度和正面印象都有提升。尤其要指出的是，骏河银行在“坦率、诚实和透明”等公司特色和提供“可靠的建议或信息，是一个你可以信赖的品牌”等选项的评分都有了显著提高。

    我们的两项研究证明，亲善应用可以加强人们对公司品牌的认知、关注和偏好，并由此提升公司营收。使用利宝互助应用的用户明显对利宝互助更有好感，更倾向于在保险服务中选择它而不是其他竞争者。此外，用户对品牌的信赖感也有所增强。在骏河银行的案例中，用户对该公司的关注度同样有显著提升。而与利宝互助的案例一样，用户对骏河银行的信赖感也增强了。

    这些亲善应用可以让顾客认为该品牌关心他们感兴趣的东西，并因此成为促进营收增长的强大力量。（财富中文网）

    本文作者是麻省理工斯隆管理学院的营销学教授。本文改编自《斯隆管理评论》2014年冬季号文章《支持亲善应用的理由》。

    译者：严匡正

    In the past, companies sought to please old customers and entice new ones by offering small holiday gifts. They gave away refrigerator magnets, calendars, and Christmas ornaments emblazoned with the company logo.

    But in today’s geo-encoded, app-enabled world, sophisticated companies are trying something new to build trust and relationships with customers. We call them ‘benevolent apps.’ Unlike some apps that are designed to generate sales and promote special deals, benevolent apps are created to offer useful information or otherwise help with decision-making. The idea is not simply to sell products or services, but instead to build trust and relationships that eventually will lead to economic success.

    One good example comes from Sea Tow Service International, a company located in Southold, New York. Sea Tow offers emergency towing and rescue services for boaters in the United States, the Caribbean and Europe. The free Sea Tow app supports boaters’ navigation needs by offering information about local tide tables, detailed marine weather forecasts, GPS coordinates and bearing and speed.

    A traditional marketer might argue that to the extent that Sea Tow furnishes information that can reduce accidents (thereby reducing Sea Tow calls), it is undercutting its own business. A boater, however, might be favorably disposed toward calling Sea Tow instead of its competitor, Tow Boat US, if faced with an emergency.

    To further study this concept, we worked with two companies—Liberty Mutual and Suruga Bank—to create two benevolent apps and then test the results.

    The Liberty Mutual app was aimed at people who were in the process of moving. The app included a digital “safe,” where they could record with text and photos their valuable-items and an inventory tool where they could record the contents of their boxes.

    Although Liberty Mutual offers auto, homeowners and personal property insurance, it does not offer moving insurance. So why did the company find the idea of creating an app to help people move appealing? Their goal was to build trust through benevolence and to improve brand image, consideration and purchase intent. On the final screen of the app, users could contact Liberty Mutual for more information on the products they offer including home, life and accident insurance. So although the app was benevolent, it had a mechanism for capturing goodwill by linking users to the company’s agents.

    The app was tested in 2010 in a comprehensive market research study of 750 consumers. Overall, respondents viewed the Liberty Mutual moving app as meaningful, believable and relevant. The favorable user experience led to positive attitude changes toward Liberty Mutual, which considers responsibility and trust to be among its key brand attributes. The company saw a significant increase in its trust rating, believability and confidence attributes.

    The second app we created was for Suruga Bank, a bank based in Shizuoka, Japan. Called, Dream Mover, it helped Japanese consumers choose new homes to purchase or rent and assisted them in understanding the financial implications of different decisions. Based on the user’s location and budget criteria, the app presented a set of home choices with details such as size, layout and proximity to public transportation. In addition to helping users screen potential places to live, the app acted as a budget-planning advisor, providing information on personal loans and mortgages as well as providing targeted advice.

    To assess the impact of Dream Mover, we surveyed 1,500 randomly selected respondents and found that among those who used the app, there was a measured increase in awareness, trust and positive consideration of Suruga Bank. Specifically, the bank’s ratings were significantly improved for characteristics such as being “open, honest and transparent” and offering “believable advice or information and a brand you can trust.”

    Our two studies show that benevolent mobile apps can positively impact a company’s brand perception, consideration and preference and therefore improve the bottom line. People using the Liberty Mutual app became significantly more inclined to prefer Liberty Mutual and switch to it for insurance versus competitors. Additionally, the brand attributes related to trust increased. In the Suruga Bank study, consideration of Suruga also rose significantly. As with the Liberty Mutual study, brand attributes related to trust rose significantly.

    These are powerful forces that can lead to increased revenue from consumers who perceive that the brand has their interests in mind.

    Glen L. Urban is a marketing professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. This article is adapted from The Case for Benevolent Apps, Sloan Management Review, Winter 2014.