Measuring Mobile Ads and Apps: What Are You Missing?

adotas.com

An Adotas Q&A with Oren Kaniel, Co-founder and CEO of AppsFlyer explores.
Q: What are the main measurement challenges that mobile marketers face today?
A: Within the last few years, the ability to effectively measure mobile advertising campaigns and marketing activities has come of age, and a number of the challenges that marketers face have been resolved. There’s the cross-device and cross-platform challenge of recognizing users as they move from their desktop to their smartphone to their tablet and maybe even to their TV. There’s also the ROI challenge of being able to track the revenue and complete lifetime value of app users so that marketers can attribute it to specific advertising sources. And then there’s the last-touch attribution challenge, where most attribution providers only credit the last advertising source that a consumer interacted with, leaving marketers in the dark on the impact that other sources might have had in influencing that consumer. That said, the mobile and digital space is obviously always rapidly evolving. And while we’ve developed technology that addresses many of these challenges, there’s always more to do.
Q: What are the primary metrics mobile and app marketers should be measuring?
A: At the end of the day, marketers want to know whether their campaigns had a positive ROI, so that’s probably the most important metric. And of course, the two metrics that go into calculating ROI are also very important: on the one hand you have ad cost, which can be represented as Cost Per Install or Cost Per Acquisition, and on the other hand you have lifetime value (or LTV) or even predicted LTV. Retention is also very important because it gives a good idea of how healthy your app is. Retention can be measured in terms of intervals such as Day 1 Retention, Day 7 Retention, Day 30 Retention, and so on, or it can be calculated as a percentage of your daily users in relation to monthly users (or DAU/MAU). And then there are all sorts of granular, vertical specific post-install events (such as “add to shopping cart” for m-commerce apps or “level cleared” for gaming apps) that must be tied back to the acquisition source in order to paint a clear picture of ROI.
Q: Why do you think many mobile marketers aren’t measuring the ROI of their campaigns?
A: In a lot of cases, they just don’t have the tools to connect in-app data to advertising and marketing data, so they can’t calculate ROI effectively. In other cases they don’t have an accurate sense of how much revenue users are bringing in. But the bottom line is that in this day and age, there’s no longer any excuse for not measuring ROI.
Q: More and more app developers are looking beyond their regional markets in an effort to go global. What advice do you have for taking a local app to a global level?
A: Our first bit of advice is to make sure you truly understand the new market you are breaking into. Get to know the major players in the ecosystem from an advertising and publishing perspective, and of course get to know your target audiences as well. Be sure to localize your app as much as possible by translating it into the local language at the very least and, if possible, updating it for cultural traits as well. Also be sure to update your app store description, marketing campaigns, and maybe even your app icon and screenshots. What works for one region might not necessarily work for another region, so it’s important to get to know local behaviors and preferences and cater to those as much as possible.
Q: What advice do you have for marketers when it comes to choosing which media sources to use in their campaigns?

A: The best advice we can give when it comes to choosing media sources is to measure every campaign very closely and pinpoint whichever sources work best. It comes down to marketers’ ability to test, measure and optimize campaigns effectively. Some sources might work well for certain campaigns but underperform for others, so it’s very important to continuously test sources for yourself and analyze the results very closely in order to optimize and scale your activities quickly. We also recommend that marketers break down their campaigns as much as possible, looking at it at the advertising level, publisher level, ad group level, and so on in order to get more specific insights.

Q: What about mobile ad fraud? How big a threat is it, and what can be done to combat it?
A: Fraud is a very real and growing threat to mobile advertising. There is an estimated loss of $1.3 billion annually in mobile fraud (compared to $3.2 billion in desktop fraud), according the IAB. We are still in the relatively nascent stages of the mobile and app advertising sector’s growth, and fraud is a concern that is holding buyers back from jumping in with both feet. As an industry, we have to do better at combating fraud through a combination of better technologies aimed at identifying and fighting it. We also need better agreements from the important players in the ecosystem — from advertisers and agencies to publishers and tech enablers — to collaboratively come up with best practices on how to prevent fraud from happening in the first place. We ourselves have been fighting fraud since 2013, when we started working with several of the industry’s largest advertisers. Our comprehensive fraud solutions utilize the industry’s largest mobile marketing database to deliver the tools and capabilities the modern marketer needs to actively prevent mobile fraud. While the liability of removing fraud from authentic traffic lies on the seller (the network), we believe it is our responsibility as an attribution analytics provider to help in protecting our advertising partners from fraud. In fact, we have removed networks from our platform because we believed they were intentionally delivering fraudulent installs. At the end of the day, everything we do comes back to ROI, and fraud must be deterred because fraudulent users don’t make real money transactions.
Q: Everyone knows last-click attribution model is flawed. What is the best way to make up for this?

A: At AppsFlyer we’ve been trying to move the industry to more of a multi-touch and view-thru attribution model that accounts for every ad source that contributed to a consumer’s decision to download and engage with an app, instead of just the last ad source that they clicked on. This gives advertisers a much more accurate sense of how effective each of their campaign sources is, and it will enable them to conduct more effective campaigns going forward. We launched multi-touch and view-thru attribution nearly a year ago, so the technology is in place. Now it’s just a matter of educating the industry that this is a superior way to measure campaigns. Even though it’s not quite so simplistic, multi-touch attribution is more nuanced and ultimately more accurate, so most marketers have come to embrace it.
Q: With engagement becoming more important than ever, are re-targeting and re-engagement efforts growing?
A: Absolutely. With user acquisition rates climbing and competition for consumer mindshare increasing steadily, more and more app marketers have shifted their focus to include more re-targeting and re-engagement campaigns. These marketers realize the value of qualified prospects and customers. It is much more cost-effective to market to consumers who have already demonstrated interest in your app than to continue casting a wide net in an effort to find more potential users. Re-targeting and re-engagement campaigns are also much easier now, since our clients already have all their data and segments with us and it is very easy for our clients to run re-engagement campaigns with all the major players like Facebook and Google, based on their data. In addition, our clients can use advanced features like Facebook’s “Lookalike” service based on that data.
Q: With marketing becoming more integrated across different channels and platforms, how do you see the measurement space taking shape in the next 3 – 5 years?
A: The marketing and ad space is in a state of extreme flux right now, and it’s important that measurement keeps up with it. For instance, it will be interesting to see how the Internet of Things, VR and other innovations affects marketers over the next few years, as I’m sure both will pose tremendous opportunities but also new challenges. Marketing will also continue to get more personalized and contextual, meaning that measurement tools will have to make sure they can track the effectiveness of increased pinpointed targeting and personalization. And of course, there’s always the unknown. As a provider of measurement tools, we are always making sure we’re ahead of or quickly responding to new technologies and new techniques that emerge. In other words, we want to measure everything that is measurable, in order to provide the primary set of data every marketer needs to have everyday.

Ignore ASO At Your Peril: How To Leverage App Store Optimization To Market Your App

forbes.com

After years of Cinderella stories about app-based startup successes, reality is encroaching.

As USA Today noted recently, there hasn’t been a runaway hit app like Uber or Snapchat for a few years. A glance at App Annie’s list of the top 20 apps from May 2015 to May 2016 shows no new entrants, apart from the occasional game which rises to the top for a few weeks before falling down the rankings. The apps with staying power have arrived and are here for the long haul.

But a change is planned. Apple is planning to launch paid search ads for apps. Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of marketing, told The Telegraph that the move will help app developers who haven’t been able to get much traction with traditional advertising. 

While it remains to be seen how paid search ads might help developers launch new apps, one tried-and-true method is app store optimization, or ASO.

How I Learned About ASO The Hard Way

There are some 4 million mobile apps in the major app stores. Getting one discovered is one of the biggest challenges facing app publishers today.

I learned this the hard way. In November 2013, my company launched a gay dating and social networking app. My team members and I poured our hearts into this startup only to bring it to the verge of collapse shortly after its release because of a common rookie mistake: We had submitted it to the app store and thought our job was done. It was only a matter of time before we’d be swimming in downloads – or so we thought.

You can guess what happened next: not much.

The situation was dire. We had almost no downloads and our user base was shrinking every day. The app didn’t have any working marketing channels and Facebook had just banned ads related to online dating services. It got to the point where we decided that if we couldn’t find a buyer within six months, we’d pull the plug.

Thankfully, we brought in an expert growth strategist who was quick to explain that we couldn’t rely on Apple to bring in users and had to focus on ASO. 

After years of Cinderella stories about app-based startup successes, reality is encroaching.

As USA Today noted recently, there hasn’t been a runaway hit app like Uber or Snapchat for a few years. A glance at App Annie’s list of the top 20 apps from May 2015 to May 2016 shows no new entrants, apart from the occasional game which rises to the top for a few weeks before falling down the rankings. The apps with staying power have arrived and are here for the long haul.

But a change is planned. Apple is planning to launch paid search ads for apps. Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of marketing, told The Telegraph that the move will help app developers who haven’t been able to get much traction with traditional advertising. 

While it remains to be seen how paid search ads might help developers launch new apps, one tried-and-true method is app store optimization, or ASO.

How I Learned About ASO The Hard Way

There are some 4 million mobile apps in the major app stores. Getting one discovered is one of the biggest challenges facing app publishers today.

I learned this the hard way. In November 2013, my company launched a gay dating and social networking app. My team members and I poured our hearts into this startup only to bring it to the verge of collapse shortly after its release because of a common rookie mistake: We had submitted it to the app store and thought our job was done. It was only a matter of time before we’d be swimming in downloads – or so we thought.

You can guess what happened next: not much.

The situation was dire. We had almost no downloads and our user base was shrinking every day. The app didn’t have any working marketing channels and Facebook had just banned ads related to online dating services. It got to the point where we decided that if we couldn’t find a buyer within six months, we’d pull the plug.

Thankfully, we brought in an expert growth strategist who was quick to explain that we couldn’t rely on Apple to bring in users and had to focus on ASO. 

ASO Is Only Part Of The Solution

Now, our app ranks No. 1 for the keywords “gay dating.” ASO has helped boost its organic downloads by about 300%. The app is poised to hit a $1 million annual run rate by the end of the year and is on track to pull in $10 million by 2018.

While ASO has undoubtedly played a large part in our app’s turnaround, it wasn’t the only factor. We credit a stellar customer support system which helps drive five-star reviews on the Apple App Store and Google Play. In addition to a Twitter campaign and paid acquisition, we also partnered with a YouTube star to create videos; the first one was viewed more than 400,000 times and led to more than 15,000 downloads, which drove the cost per download to less than $1.    

As our experience illustrates, there are many ways to resuscitate a failing app. But ASO should always be your first go-to solution. Once you’ve established a growing user base, then you can start exploring paid acquisition.

And keep in mind that while ASO is becoming a part of startups’ marketing strategies, the field is evolving. The landscape changes every few months. But, keep up with it and with any luck, you and your app will live happily ever after.

App strategy: The next stage of consumer loyalty

marketingtechnews.net

What does brand loyalty mean to you? Does it equate to money off vouchers, in-store credit and points accumulation, or should loyalty be rewarded with behavioral change that makes our lives easier, more meaningful and improves our wellbeing?

For anyone with a plastic brand loyalty card that’s always impossible to find in a bag or wallet when you’re called upon to present it at the check-out, loyalty may have lost its appeal and can often be associated with follow-up junk mail or offers you would never consider using as they haven’t been targeted specifically for you.

For brands fully embracing the mobile revolution however, apps are an opportunity to change the way we all think about loyalty by redefining the customer relationship and rewarding loyalty with more personalized experiences.

Take Starbucks for example. 'Mobile Order and Pay' allows Starbucks’ customers to order in advance via the app and pick up their food and beverage from the chosen location, thus eliminating waiting time.

The loyalty reward isn’t cheaper coffee or collect 20 stamps for a free latte. It’s removing the need to wait in line, which in turn improves not only the customer experience but also the brands’ operational efficiencies.

Coffee shops and loyalty apps

Recently, I had a truly terrible experience in a Starbucks at Chicago airport involving uncooked food. The app allowed me to report the incident and as a result, Starbucks customer services immediately reached out to me, refunded my expense, apologised and turned a bad experience into a positive.

When you think about loyalty as part of your mobile app strategy, don’t opt for simply moving the discount loyalty card schemes of old onto the mobile platform

Most of us would never return to a restaurant or retail outlet as a result of something like this occurring. The app however enabled Starbucks to maintain and build on its relationship with me as a customer and more often than not, this is what inspires brand loyalty.

As our world grows increasingly more depersonalized, we are constantly looking for more personalized experiences.

Harris + Hoole, a chain of artisan coffee shops has put personalization at the heart of its mobile loyalty strategy. Through the app, customers can check-in to a local Harris + Hoole, request their usual beverage or build their perfect tea, coffee or hot chocolate remotely.

Then, not only do they get an alert when it’s ready but the barista is able to address every customer by name without having to ask or scribble it on the side of the cup.

Hotels and other retailers

For hotel chains, rewarding regular stays and loyal app users may take the form of mobile check-ins, which alert you when your room is ready, transforms the app into your personal room key and avoids you having to queue-up at reception.

While major retailers may wish to use granular app data to reward customer profiles with truly relevant experiences.

This is what Harvey Nichols began doing in May 2015 when it launched its mobile app after discovering that 80% of its customers didn’t want another loyalty card.

Instead of offering the usual in-store discounts, Harvey Nichols focused on tailoring personalized experiences to user profiles. This allowed them to offer pedicures, blow-drys and other beauty treatments as well as dinner for two at London’s Oxo Tower or tickets to the Monaco Grand Prix for top spending customers.

The largest in-app experience loyalty scheme in the UK in terms of registered and active users is, of course O2 Priority. They’ve mastered the physiological aspect of how loyalty makes someone feel and as a result, an offer is redeemed every 12 seconds, with those app users much less likely to ever change their mobile network.

However, many brands aren’t able to offer money-can’t-buy experiences or incur the costs involved with changing all hotel door-locks to make them app compatible.

For these brands, sometimes just having a well-designed app that people actually want to use can have its own positive impact on customer loyalty.

EasyJet’s app for example has made it so easy to check-in, change allocated seats, add additional baggage and all the other functionality that you would associate with the airport experience.

If you simply have to target the price sensitive customer, then providing a seamless experience through an app’s functionality is certainly the way to go. It gets me choosing EasyJet for all my short-haul European travel.

So when you think about loyalty as part of your mobile app strategy, don’t opt for simply moving the discount loyalty card schemes of old onto the mobile platform.

That’s no longer what loyalty means. Think beyond the plastic to the customer experience and consider, what meaningful improvements to their daily lives can your app offer in exchange for their long-term loyalty?

What's Up With App Fatigue?

lightreading.com


Over time, pay-TV has gathered a plethora of channels that satisfy a varied set of customers. However, the conundrum proven through data has shown that any one individual household generally watches only about 20 of those channels. This has been the motivation behind the quest for small bundles. Cable and satellite TV providers are now exploring how to address the consumer's desires by developing apps, some of which allow for smaller channel bundles, that will run on commercial retail hardware.
Apps are the "channels" of next-generation television environments. Unfortunately, apps have a similar construct as channels. In a recent study, Forrester Research Inc. reported that consumers now spend 85% of their smartphone time engaged in apps, but spend the vast majority of that time -- 84% -- in just five apps, while other studies have reported abandonment rates as high as 90% for downloaded apps.
While building apps seems to be the solution of choice for content and service providers, the reality is that apps are generating more clutter and making it hard to find content of interest expediently. In an environment in which a) every content provider has their own app and b) the same content can be found on multiple services, apps are proving to be a barrier to ease of use, not a solution.
No wonder consumers are getting "app fatigue." Opening and closing apps in search of content has become as tedious as scrolling through the traditional grid guide. Looking for a specific episode of The Blacklist? Finding the episode you want to see might be a ten-minute process of searching through five or six different apps or services. We are right back where we started: Viewers are spending more time looking for what they want than watching the desired programming.

The problem will be compounded in an IoT world. App growth will continue as apps for home security, appliance and system controls and more will provide operations for automation. Got milk? Even in a high-tech app world, a good old-fashioned peek in the refrigerator may remain the fastest way to answer the question.
All of us have apps we use regularly: Facebook, preferred airlines and hotel chains, sports scores and your favorite trending game. But with seemingly every website prompting you to download its own app, there is a thicket of apps on most of our devices. What’s needed is a way to cut through those that remain to optimize their functionality.
Where pay-TV can differentiate itself is in helping customers find needles in haystacks. As the primary service provider in most households, the operator is positioned to consolidate content metadata, personal information and established subscriber preferences to streamline search, discovery and recommendations.
Using the set-top box as the gateway to the home, operators can deploy next-generation solutions that can contextualize viewers' TV experiences to deliver comprehensive views across multiple channels, SVOD apps and subscribers’ personal libraries.
In the same way, operators will be able to leverage WiFi-enabled next-generation STBs as hubs that collect data from connected devices in the home. Rather than sifting through a basket of apps for each controllable service, subscribers will be able to manage all of their home services on the television or from their handheld devices through a visual application that provides integration and access for a variety of services.
When Appl created the App Store eight years ago, there were 552 apps available for download. Since then, more than 2 million apps have become available for IOS alone and the total downloads have surpassed 130 billion. For cable, the secret to building more value is not by delivering more, but by helping subscribers find the cure as app fatigue sets in.

The moral mobile wallet: Striking the right balance with end users

mobilepaymentstoday.com

By Sirpa Nordlund, executive director, Mobey Forum
Even though studies are showing that an increasing number of users are giving the mobile wallet technology a try, only a few are reported to be using it on a continuous basis. Consumers say their top two reasons for not regularly using their mobile wallet are either that they forget to do so (the question of value) or that they are uncertain as to which merchants will accept the payment.
Value added services, 'VAS' for short, have been widely held as the enabling force that will drive mass market adoption of mobile payments and mobile wallets. It isn't hard to see why. After all, who doesn't like bagging a bargain?
As far back as 2010, Mobey Forum has been theorizing about VAS. What services would be the most attractive? What form would they take? How would they be integrated with the mobile wallet and, crucially, what role could they play in helping banks and other mobile payment service providers establish a point of difference in a contested and fragmented market?
Fast forward to 2016 and mobile wallets and their services are developing largely as anticipated: the user accumulates value, generated over time through repeat payments, which can be redeemed in a related form, usually at a time of the user's choosing.
But something is nagging me. Something that hasn't yet been discussed. 
As the years go by and NFC-enabled devices filter through to the mass market, the mobile payments user demographic is diversifying. What began with a select few affluent, financially astute and mobile tech-savvy early adopters, now encompasses those challenged by their finances, including those that struggle with credit-related problems, often due to rising living costs, unemployment or, notably, poor financial management.  And then, of course, there is everyone in between.
First of all, the words 'value added services': whose perspective do they reflect? Do they really mean what they should mean? To whom are they adding value? Who are they designed to serve? What should they achieve?
For those providing the payment service, the answers are fairly clear: More customers, more customer data. Increasingly targeted marketing and product development. More purchases. Increased revenue.
But on the other side, what's in it for the customer? The opportunity to obtain a discount, of course.
Perhaps we should be talking in terms of incentives, instead. What are the various types of incentives being deployed to encourage regular use of mobile wallets?
Firstly, there are financial incentives, which provide users with a cash-back deal when they use their mobile wallet for payment, instead of a plastic card or cash. Then, there are product or service incentives: Android Pay has introduced the Tap10-promotion, for example, which offers consumers a free song for every tap&pay transaction performed. Elsewhere, Chase offers consumers a free album download to users that enroll their cards with Apple Pay.
For me, however, a far more thrilling incentive a bank could offer would be to take a completely different look at the scene to the retailers. Instead of encouraging consumers to spend, spend, spend, they could instead incentivize them to save, save, save. After all, the freedom generated by increasing one's savings is arguably a far bigger incentive than a 'free lunch' triggered by the purchase of a certain number of goods or services. One could even foresee a situation where banks are giving their mobile wallet customers a saving incentive to help them fulfill their true dreams (and not just the dreams of retailers).
Getting customers to love their bank
There are already several fintechs offering money management services to consumers. Mobile wallet use and VAS could similarly be used to promote sound financial management, potentially to a wider audience. Then, at the same time, the bank would position themselves as being on the side of their customers, protecting them from frittering away their hard-earned money, and instead encouraging savings and investments via regular use of their banking app.
I'd like to see VAS providers follow this lead. Executed sensitively, I believe customers would respond favorably. Many banks already have reputational issues relating to trust, so is it wise to issue VAS that solely encourage customers to spend? It doesn't feel like the most effective way to win them over.
Perhaps VAS could be designed to reward savings deposits instead ('interest' for the mobile age). Maybe mobile money management services could be 'unlocked' within the wallet, just like in-app purchases, to reward daily balance checks or the regular viewing of transaction histories. Perhaps loyalty points could be gifted to those that successfully clear their credit card each month.
The mobile wallet is shaping up to be a hugely powerful customer interface. For banks with the creative vision to think a little differently, VAS could be a golden opportunity to demonstrate that they really are on the side of their customers.

What it takes to build a successful branded mobile app

marketingmagazine.co.uk

Starbucks: mobile app is a win-win for consumers and the brand

With app install ads having been introduced to both Google's Double-Click bid manager and Snapchat already so far this year, it's clear that the popularity of apps is on the rise, writes Shenda Loughnane, global strategy director at iProspect.

Apple announced that it passed the 100bn mark on app downloads via its App Store midway through last year. That means the App Store has seen roughly 14 times the amount of app downloads as there are people on the planet.

Developing apps is clearly top of mind for brands then, and a set trend for this rest of this year. The appetite is there, phone memory is increasing – but what actually makes for a successful branded app, and what is likely to see branded apps left downloaded, but largely unopened?

While consumers are indeed downloading more and more apps, branded apps in particular have to do three things.

Be personalised

Consumers are unlikely to download or use an app if it isn’t differentiated from the mobile browser experience. They’ll want to see curated suggestions on purchases, or location-based information that makes using the app worthwhile, for example.

Be adaptive

Consumer demands on apps are constantly changing, and new competitors enter the market constantly. Any branded app needs to move with the times, and follow the changing behaviour of a particular consumer in order to survive. Being open to integrations with new apps should be on the agenda, for example – so think about how Facebook Messenger is integrating with Uber, and how partnerships like this add value.

Be valuable

Branded apps need to add value, and do so consistently. The overall objective of developing them is to differentiate and elevate the position of the brand within the market. If the app is downloaded and used once by the majority of users because it’s got a poor value proposition or is a novelty, then it’s simply not worthwhile.

With this in mind, here’s a few branded apps that I think really work, and serve as good examples of how to ride the app zeitgeist – and avoid falling off.

Charmin – SitOrSquat

Spotting a gap in the market, Charmin helps you find public toilets when you’re on the go, and even lets users rate the bathrooms. Who would have thought that a toilet paper brand could develop an app that’s so relevant and useful?

Hilton – Hhonors

As a fairly frequent traveller, I really appreciate apps that make the whole process easier. Hilton’s Hhonors does that – you can check-in via the app, it acts as your door key, but you can also manage bookings and loyalty points. It’s an app that’s so entwined in the Hilton brand, while helping the hotel go above and beyond in terms of customer experience.

Nike – Nike+ Running

Nike was really ahead of the game in moving in on the ‘quantified self’ and understanding that its audience of fitness fanatics love tracking their progress, competing with their friends and publishing their success online. It’s created a whole culture of Nike fans that sits outside of just buying its sports gear. Although it does allow for logging trainers and prompts users to replace them frequently, so it has savvy commercial elements too.

Hotel Tonight

Hotel Tonight is a really useful app that allows hotel brands to advertise any remaining rooms for that evening at cheaper prices. Great for hotels looking to fill rooms, and for travellers looking for a deal at short notice. However, its positives also come with a side dollop of caution. Google is increasingly making app content searchable via the same process that it uses for sites – so in the case of Hotel Tonight, unless it offers something more in terms of content and utility, its app may become redundant.

Starbucks

Starbucks processes millions of mobile payments via its app every week. In fact, it saw around a fifth of its US transactions take place via its mobile app in Q4 2015, which has been downloaded by 11.1m Americans. It’s a resounding success because it speeds up orders (meaning you get your coffee quicker, and Starbucks can sell more coffee, faster) whilst offering a rewards scheme, that gives something back to the most loyal Starbucks fans. Win, win.

Driving change in times of organisational transformation

forbesindia.com

Refine or if needed redo the change management plan to eliminate the most critical friction points and then to reduce or eliminate the remaining friction elements (Shutterstock.com)

We often hear that “Change is the only constant” or during a business transformation, that “The key to success of this transformation will be effective change management”.
Given the degree of leadership focus we see on this topic, it’s unfortunate that most of the times this is just lip service, with neither the thought nor the investment of people and resources being put behind these statements.
The key is in understanding that CHANGE needs ADOPTION to sustain.  So you need a framework that drives adoption and interestingly applying key PRODUCT ADOPTION principles for change ADOPTION during transformation actually works.

1. End users adopt “Experiences” not service, product or initiative
If you study services or products that have been adopted rapidly it emerges that end users are attracted not only to the product but to the entire user experience. For example, Apple products provide a unique and seamless experience through the user interface and App ecosystem, allowing for much more pervasive adoption than competitors.
In the context of adopting change, the same logic of focusing on the “experience”, is key.  Change is tough, but if leaders focus on breaking down the problem and understanding what stakeholders will undergo as an experience, half the battle has been won.
This is easier said than done, but keeping it simple works well as an approach:
1. Deconstruct what the change means from each stakeholder’s perspective
2. Focus on how the stakeholders will typically experience the change
3. Once you have a clear tested hypothesis on elements to drive a great experience, build your change management plan accordingly
2.  Ease of use makes adoption go “viral”:
A product or change initiative that is easy and intuitive to use is more likely to get adopted very quickly and enjoy viral propagation.  For example, the App ecosystem of Apple is so easy to use, build on and consume that it has led to viral growth of apps being developed and consumers downloading and paying for them.
Applying this to managing change, the key is how easy you make adopting the change through process, phasing, incentives and tools.
So in the change adoption context:
1. Prioritize and phase the change plan to make it super easy for stakeholders to adopt the change
2. Test that plan with stakeholders to validate what would make it easy for them to adopt the contemplated change and to get their input on the change plan
3. Refine the plan and execution on scope, and phasing. Most importantly focus on the actual execution i.e. the tools, organizational support and communication
3.“Friction” in any form kills adoption:
Unwavering focus on reducing “Friction” in any form, towards change adoption is critical. This friction could come from the organization, customer, technology or human interface, sales & distribution, or organizational processes.
Imagine a product / service that is great, fulfills a critical unmet need, is easy to use but that has other “friction” issues, such as an App crashing frequently or being too slow.  In this situation, adoption of the product / service would suffer hugely, even if the first 2 conditions are met fully. In a nutshell, friction in any form kills adoption.
When it comes to change adoption, the same principle applies. Thus, focus on identifying ALL relevant friction issues preventing adoption
1.Classify these friction issues by their criticality into “critical nonstarters”, “key to sustainability” and others
2. Refine or if needed redo the change management plan to eliminate the most critical friction points and then to reduce or eliminate the remaining friction elements
As we applied this to our breadth of experience with managing change, this construct fits perfectly both in successful and unsuccessful change management initiatives. However, we also find that in successful change initiatives, this is usually intuitive and not implemented as a structured process. The risk with not formalizing it, is that it could lead to a change event failing if for instance a “critical nonstarter” was overlooked.
Every change event is unique and complex, but a structured and powerful framework outlined above, in conjunction with a robust change management process & resources, definitely ensures a higher change implementation success rate.