Build Your Own App!

A couple of weeks ago, I had an idea for a mobile application, and thought I would research it to find out if I could get it done. While not really important, I would feel remiss if I were to neglect to mention what it was, it was a parking application for those of us who like convenience in the city. What I found was Appsbar.com, and I’ve been playing with it a little bit ever since. Truthfully, I think that this could open up things for another of my favorite technologies, QR Codes, for mobile advertising and marketing. However, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Back to Appsbar.com. First, Appsbar.com makes the claim that you can make an app in “3 easy steps!” Really, it’s a little more involved than that, but it does take you through a menu-style click and choose format from an Android or iOS icon, through to completion. First, you work out all of the details of functionality, then layout and content. I guess that is three steps, huh?!

Since all things requiring time and money must be seen through the lens of a “use case” (by the way, I just won the office buzzword bingo game with that one) then here are a couple that may make this worth your time to look into.

Retail Application
Businesses looking to get into the mobile game with little monetary commitment might find this very interesting. Think about embedding your monthly specials into an app that you can help consumers find in their mobile phone via QR Code printed on all traditional media advertisements. People love deals, and this application has a coupon feature which you can tease through other media: a person scans the code from a local newspaper or website, and voila you have traffic!

If you are promoting a certain brand personality, then you could use the application as a place to put content, like your commercials, radio spots or other content that you generate. It can be a fun way for consumers to engage with the brand and further portray the personality you’d like them to see.

Corporate Brand Teams
If I was a brand manager with a small campaign budget, then I would certainly have an employee put together a free Appsbar.com application that furthered the mission of our campaign, while potentially driving more traffic to our larger content sites.

I’ve also seen apps that take the surfer through product demos, so it could be a good way to introduce a product evolution or new brand to the masses. I’m not sure if Appsbar is that powerful, but as I play with it more I’ll be sure to give an update.

This lets me know that the automation and flexibility needed to create custom technology, data sets and even websites are here. The barriers are coming down in favor of convenience; I for one love it, but what do you think about taking more control of things once reserved for technophiles or specialists?