Branded Utilities

While writing this blog post I came to the realization that I don’t use mobile branded utilities…at all. And then I came to the realization that I just barely use web-based utilities (if at all as well). I’m an avid smartphone user, I own a tablet, I’m on the internet every day, and I love my brands. Theoretically I should be the ideal target demographic for brand utilities, and yet, I use none. It makes sense to me why I don’t have any; I find them gimmicky and pointless. The apps clutter up my phone or they make me signup for something that I’ll login to once and forget about a week later. For any retail store questions, whether its location to store hours to whatever, I have Google to solve those questions for me. I don’t go to a single spot consistently enough to have an app that would be useful, and if I did go consistently enough to it, why would I need an app in the first place? I just find any ones relevant to me and my interests, pointless, but there are many examples out there of well created branded utilities, they just aren’t relevant to me, unfortunately.

The whole approach and idea of branded utilities makes sense; brands asking the question “what can we do for you?” and then fulfilling that insight with something functional and innovative. Amazon had the insight of informing consumers that items are cheaper on Amazon, then in the store. So they built an app around that idea. Virgin Atlantic makes it simpler to share a cab. With Olay you can get personal advice on the skin products that best suit you. All useful innovations and utilities, but still nothing relevant to myself, and nothing I will use.   

It’s hard for me to say what brands are missing an opportunity by not having a utility of their own, when I’m not using the ones that already exist. There are already so many ones out there, for banks and retail store chains that the room for possible innovation of these utilities is getting smaller. I feel like the areas that could really benefit from these types of utilities are the one sector that will take the longest to come out with one, the government. An app that lists all relevant information to your local neighborhood, whether its trash pickup days to whatever, this is a utility that could be useful. I could also say that OC Transpo could use an app that shows bus schedules and times and could have a map that uses your GPS to give you a real time update of where you are while riding the bus, but then I would have just described Google Maps.

I also believe that a lot of these brand utilities are straying from being utilities and are just becoming advertisements. A utility should help consumers and be innovative, without simply being an ad. It should also not just be providing the basic service that a consumer would expect from the brand, like providing store locations and hours.