• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, August 15, 2013

Years ago, when most of us still wondered whether we really needed our phones to be especially “smart,” we tended to protect them defiantly from intrusive marketing and emphasized the “personal.” Anyone recall those earliest studies of consumers who found it inconceivable that people would dare put ads on their phones? Yeah, you get used to stuff…especially free stuff. And as people become more comfortable with devices as platforms for multiple activities, they are also beginning to warm up to marketing tactics as helpful that only a few years ago they rejected as invasive.

To wit, the permission-based mobile marketing alert was something that in 2009 only 26% of phone owners found at least somewhat interesting, according to the first Alert Shopper survey from Harris Interactive (commissioned by Placecast). Fast-forward to 2013, when 48% of those surveyed were now interested in getting mobile alerts regarding promotions, new product notices or sales from local merchants.

The Alert Shopper IV report is underwritten by Placecast, which offers geofenced alert solutions for marketers, so the survey naturally emphasizes consumer acceptance of these models. Among those who indicated an interest in getting geo-triggered alerts about nearby offers, consumers seemed to put a priority on making them easy to act on (89%), and that they help the user to be aware of a retail location they were unaware of before (87%). Eighty-three percent agreed that these alerts might encourage the consumer to try new things or even spark impulse buys (72%). Perhaps most promising for the geo-fenced approach to push offer, 78% felt they would be more relevant than more traditional kinds of coupons they find.

The association between mobile phones and access to local information has become solidified in consumers' minds, regardless of their willingness to have merchants reach out to them on their phones. Eighty-six percent say this kind of information is important to them.

Geo-triggered mobile alerts generally have impressed me in my use over the last year. The geo triggers in iOS and Passbook will associate specific coupons with a location where I might redeem them. It comes in handy when we are at the Mexican restaurant two doors down from Walgreens. It reminds me while I am there that I have a coupon for something I need. Likewise, the RetailMeNot app comes to life with a cash register "ker-ching" whenever I get near the local mall parking lot. And here too, the tap has already floated up the relevant offers. At least so far, fears of the model being abused have not come to pass, and I would have no problem if more of my installed store-related apps were enabled to ping me as I got close.

As long as consumers are sure at the outset that they control the kinds of communications coming in to them and from whom, I think many (not all)  people will start to see geofencing as more of a concierge function than an intrusion. There is a line between a stalker and a greeter, a creep and a valet.