Mobile Search Interview: PepperJam

By: Joe Whyte
2007-05-29
(http://www.searchnewz.com)

Todays mobile search interview is with Kris Jones of Pepper Jam. Pepperjam is on the Inc. 500 list and Kris has great insight into mobile search.

Kris is the first in our interview series. We have a large number of interviewees so make sure you get to stay up on all of the mobile search information that is going to be happening at Hybridsem.com

Joe: What kind of phone do you have?

Kris: Palm Treo 650

Joe: When you are performing mobile search what do you normally search for?

Kris: recipes

Joe: Do you see any of your clients looking for any type of mobile search optimization?

Kris: yes.

Joe: For the clients that do look for mobile search optimization what sets your approach apart from your competitors?

Kris: Since mobile search is a new and emerging market we are willing to test different options without requiring the client to make a huge financial commitment. For instance, we’ll play with things like Google’s Mobile Search option, as well as more detailed, high-level mobile opportunities like m3text.com.

Joe: In your opinion, how can mobile search help the smaller companies.

Kris: Mobile search is new and is not mainstream. Therefore, much like Google Adwords in the early days, mobile search allows smaller companies to compete, inexpensively, with much larger companies. Also, most Fortune 500 and 1000 companies that we work tend to be about 6-12 months behind (by the time that get to us) with some of the more mainstream marketing opportunities, such as affiliate marketing.

Joe: What opportunities do you see for American companies to utilize mobile foreign search?

Kris: Not entirely sure how big that market is. In general, I see mobile search working very well for companies who geo-target. Therefore, if the business has a model that depends on geography and can tailor their business distribution and fulfillment around geography (american / Foreign), the opportunity appears huge.

Joe: How would you implement a foreign mobile search campaign and measure success?

Kris: Don’t have too much experience here, but guess would be that it has more to do with distribution and fulfillment than implementation of the actual campaign. Success depends on the vendor and what the business is trying to measure in terms of ROI.

Joe: What are some of the hurdles you see mobile search facing today and what will it take to overcome these hurdles?

Kris: The biggest hurdle is the technology behind efficiently performing an e-commerce transaction via the cell phone without talking with a customer service / sales rep. Also, people are not used to receiving unsolicited text messages and may find the existing cell phone to be anti-commerce. Mobile vendors need to somehow get above the "looks-like-spam" standard and provide a service to the cell phone user - for instance, getting weekly product recommendations from your favorite online social media bookmark website or suggested ringtones from the Billboard Hot 100 will work well.