The scene reminded me of a recent study of mothers and their use of technology.

The survey of 1,000 moms found that a quarter of them let their children interact with a mobile phone by time they’re two years old.

The study, conducted by The Parenting Group and BlogHer, Inc., found that by the age of four, 60 percent of children have used a computer, 32 percent have used a smartphone and 25 percent have used an iPod.

So based on that research, the scene we witnessed in Starbucks could be considered somewhat normal.

And in many cases, children are not using technology by themselves, with almost half of moms (45%) saying they watch YouTube videos together with their children.

It’s not just the children who are digitally interacting, since the study found that 71 percent of mothers can’t go more than a day without satisfying their Internet urges.

Interestingly, when handing a mobile phone over to a toddler it likely is a smartphone, since  the devices can host many apps targeted to children.

There are a wide range of free apps all the way from electronic coloring books, such as My Coloring Book, to those specifically for young children, such as Toddler Teasers Shapes.

Parents also have the opportunity to pay for apps to be creative, such as Kids Doodle Pro or other painting capabilities such as those in Kids Finger Paint.

And if the apps are not attention-holding, the parents may end up watching their high-priced smartphone being tossed into the air and onto the floor by a toddler wanting to see a parent scramble.

At a very young age, members of a generation will learn digital uses of a mobile phone outside of just talking on it. And the activity can be highly interactive rather than passive, such as watching TV.

Do you think parents should hand their phones over to their young ones to occupy them?  Would you?

Chuck Martin

Chuck Martin is a New York Times business bestselling author. He is CEO of Mobile Future Institute and Director of the Center for Media Research, MediaPost Communications. His latest book is The Third Screen: Marketing to Your Customers in a World Gone Mobile.

We selected the package and I pulled out my smartphone, opened one my barcode reader apps (in this case, ShopSavvy) and scanned the barcode. Sure enough, the same sox were available at Nordstrom at a lower price. Ten seconds.

We showed the sales clerk the lower price on the phone screen and asked her if they price-matched other stores. She didn’t know and needed to ask the manager. Five seconds.

The manager looked at the Nordstrom price on the phone and the price on his packaging and after a brief discussion said they’d match the price. Fifteen seconds.

The entire process, from time of scanning the product to receiving the discount was about 30 seconds. Not sure why, but the price difference of the Nike sox at Foot Locker vs. Nordstrom was about 30 percent.

So it took 30 seconds to receive a 30 percent discount. No cutting coupons, no elaborate searching, just a quick barcode scan and brief discussion with the manager.

We did have to make somewhat of an educational argument to show the manager the logic of matching the price, since were right there and ready to buy and that we could just as easily go to another store for a lower price.

While not an expensive transaction, it took only half a minute to receive a third off the price.

A few days earlier, we were at Best Buy to purchase a 27-inch Samsung monitor, which the store was selling for $400. A quick barcode scan showed that Amazon had the same monitor for $370. (The Walmart price was $429, so the Best Buy price seemed quite reasonable.)

Same process at Foot Locker: sales clerk has no idea if they can match the price, finds a manager, Amazon  price matched. That process took around a minute, to save $30 on the purchase. (That’s $1,800 an hour if you could do it every minute).

A few key points about barcode scanning at retail from our little shopping exercise:

• You may receive large percentage discounts on low-priced items.

• You may receive large dollar discounts on high-priced items.

• Most importantly, it is the consumer who will be re-training many sales clerks and managers at retail as they scan products on their smartphones and request discounts.

The value of scanning barcodes at retail is going to increase as more consumers become aware of the potential savings in real time.

Meanwhile, more and more companies that offer various products, service and rewards will introduce apps and various incentives for people to scan barcodes in stores.

This is behavioral change at the consumer, retail and provider level and it is huge.

The mobile revolution at retail is being led by the consumer and not necessarily by the retailers. This one is bottom up, one scan at a time.

And those shoppers who do not scan items can continue to pay full retail, to help subsidize those who do.

Do you scan?

Chuck Martin

Chuck Martin is a New York Times business bestselling author. He is CEO of Mobile Future Institute and Director of the Center for Media Research, MediaPost Communications. His latest book is The Third Screen: Marketing to Your Customers in a World Gone Mobile.

Money transfers via mobile devices are expected to hit $240 billion this year growing to $670 billion within four years, according to research from London-based Juniper Research.

Some of the drivers for the coming increase in mobile transactions are various forms of enabling technologies. One method is known as NFC (Near Field Communications) that allow payments essentially by swiping a phone near a device. About 20 countries are expected to launch NFC services with transactions worth $50 billion within the next two years, according to the Juniper study.

And that’s just one of several methods of mobile purchasing that will become routine. Consumers already order many items from their phones even while they shop at physical retail stores.

Movie tickets can be bought on the move from Fandango, smartphone owners can use the Starbucks app to pay for drinks from a code on their phone read by special readers at checkout and consumers can mobile buy at any time from retailers ranging from Amazon to Walgreens no matter where they are at the time.

Technologies that allow payments by swiping or bumping phones or even by plugging a small credit card reading device from Square into a smartphone turning it into an instant cash register are here.

But the technologies are just the enablement part of the picture, not the primary driver. What’s causing the mobile transactions market to move along is much more behavioral than technological.

It is simply easier and more practical to pay by phone than by other methods. No plastic to dig out of a wallet, no cash to count out, the phone is always within easy reach and already enough of a computer to do on-the-spot calculations and transactions.

Swiping or bumping a phone eliminates human interaction and totally empowers the individual conducting the buying with their phone. Check out when they want and payment when they want.

Three regions (North America, Western Europe and the Far East/China) are expected to account for three quarters of all global mobile payment transaction value within four years, Juniper found, meaning it will become very common for consumers in those markets.

The speed of adoption cannot be underestimated, since people already have mobile phones, with half in the U.S. soon to be smartphones. Many in countries outside the U.S. already pay by mobile phone.

The only issue is when mobile transactions hit critical mass. Will you pay by phone?

Chuck Martin

Chuck Martin is a New York Times business bestselling author. He is CEO of Mobile Future Institute and Director of the Center for Media Research, MediaPost Communications. His latest book is The Third Screen: Marketing to Your Customers in a World Gone Mobile.

More than 250 million people already access Facebook from their mobile phones and the company points out that the mobile users are twice as active as non-mobile users.

One of the facilitators of the move to more mobile activity is the increase in the number of smartphone owners, now estimated by Nielsen to be 37 percent of US mobile phone owners on the way to half by the end of the year.

And the increase in social interaction via mobile is substantial.

In 2010, 28 percent of social media users used a mobile phone to interact with social media, and that number increased to 40 percent this year, based on new research. That’s an increase from 54 million people last year to 80 million this year.

The findings are part of a large, multi-client study by a partnership between Knowledge Networks and The Center for Media Research at MediaPost Communications.

The on-going study found that the increase in social media usage via mobile is being driven by young adults and that mobile users tend to be much more active in and influenced by social media, which seem to be in line with the Facebook usage patterns.

Daily usage among social media mobile users increased from 43 percent in 2010 to 51 percent in 2011, while daily usage among non-mobile users stayed the same.

As might be expected, a majority (56%) of mobile social media users interact with social media outside their home, including before, while and after shopping. Hence, the expected mega-growth in location-based activities and marketing.

The implications of this socially-connected mobility are significant. It means businesses are going to have to pay much more attention to mobile consumers who are likely to be interacting with each other via social media while they look for products and services.

And this is a large wave, since the research shows that 84 percent of the U.S. population is now using some type of social media with more than a quarter (28%) reporting daily use. And much of this use is migrating to mobile.

For example, about a quarter of mobile social media users are comparing and checking prices  as well as checking reviews for brands, places or services. The challenge and opportunity for businesses is to effectively interact with these consumers both in the process and at the time of a sale, since that is when mobile consumers are using social media.

These latest trends in the social media aspects of the mobile revolution are yet one more indicator that businesses need to seriously get into the mobile game.

The rate of mobile adoption cannot be underestimated.

Chuck Martin

Chuck Martin is a New York Times business bestselling author. He is CEO of Mobile Future Institute and Director of the Center for Media Research, MediaPost Communications. His latest book is The Third Screen: Marketing to Your Customers in a World Gone Mobile.

Jet Blue, with great seats and video selections, wasn’t flying around the times I needed but noticed that Virgin America was.

Having taken Virgin Atlantic for some Boston-London flights in the past, I pondered whether Virgin America was the same, or as good as (or worse than) Virgin Atlantic.

So I turned to Twitter to ask the gang if they had any thoughts. This was my Tweet:

“Thinking of taking Virgin America Boston-San Fran, any thoughts? (Have flown Virgin Atlantic, but not America)”

I started to receive some insightful and helpful comments. And then the floodgates opened.

It turned out that Virgin America (@virginamerica) re-tweeted my initial tweet to its 215,000 Twitter followers. They re-tweeted it without comment, just a plain RT. I received tweets such as:

“@chuckmartin1 pink & blue lighting instead of harsh fluorescents, nice music, cushy seats, comic safety video, sets relaxed, upbeat mood 4 flight”

“You’ll never fly anything else after you take it. Superior airline. Flying @VirginAmerica tomorrow!”

“Virgin America is the *only* way to fly. You’ll be pleasantly surp’d. No, they don’t pay me to say that (wish they did) ”

After receiving a few of these I had to wonder if they were being sent by loyal employees of the airline. After the first 150 messages, I started to think otherwise. Here’s a small sample of the comments, as written and received:

“do it. VA rocks”

“virgin America is the best way to fly to SFO from BOS- great service”

“yes – best cross country flights possible. @VirginAmerica unquestionably better than any other airline”

@VirginAmerica I flew them a ton when going LAX > SFO a lot. Best domestic airline in US. Period.”

“Virgin America is my first choice in travel. Once you fly them, you’ll understand why.”

“absolutely loved my flight from DC to San Fran. Hassle free, comfortable and very enjoyable. Best flight experience ever!”

“we did BOS-SFO on Virgin America w/2 kids. Boston end, VA has 2 gates with own security line. 5 mins to get through, no probs”

The question is would you put your brand out there like that and take a chance on what your customers would say? Virgin America just passed along the query to its customer base and took the chance on how they would respond. Filter free, the brand tossed out the question and stepped aside.

There were only two negative comments, both stating they were based on a personal situation from the past. The rest were like those above.

Virgin America had total confidence in the power of its brand and trusted that its service is known and appreciated by its customers. They put their faith in their reputation and their service.

So if someone wanted to know about how good your products or services are, how confident would you be to pass the question along to your customers, basically telling the inquirer “ask them?”

After all the comments, I did book my coming flight on Virgin America. After thanking all for the feedback and saying I was taking their advice, I received the following tweet from Virgin America.  “@chuckmartin1 Look forward to having you onboard! Enjoy your #firsttime!”

Looking forward to seeing if their service matches the reputation.

Am guessing it will.

Chuck Martin

Chuck Martin is a New York Times business bestselling author. He is CEO of Mobile Future Institute and Director of the Center for Media Research, MediaPost Communications. His latest book is The Third Screen: Marketing to Your Customers in a World Gone Mobile.

With the AT&T and Placecast announced deal to provide special offers called ShopAlerts to consumers through their mobile phones when they’re near a participating store or brand, mobile marketing takes another step forward.

With initial presenting sponsors include HP, Kmart, JetBlue, SC Johnson, Kibbles ‘n Bits and Nature’s Recipe, the AT&T-Placecast venture will provide a large-scale, location-based marketing program.

This is a great step forward for the mobile industry overall, as more on-the-go consumers will be able to see first-hand some of the relevant value that can be provided based on location.

Placecast is hardly new at this, having been founded in 2005 in San Francisco and built on the premise that location is the defining characteristic of mobile. “We were hyper-focused on very scalable technology,” Placecast CEO Alistair Goodman recently told me. Their service is double opt-in and easy to opt out.

While Placecast is hardly new to location-based marketing, having served brands such as The North Face, Starbucks, and Chicos over the years, the scope of the combined service with AT&T will allow large-scale, national deployment.

“We are proud to take mobile marketing into the future with this unique offering that is being embraced by consumers and brands alike,” said Greg Castle, senior vice president of AT&T Advanced Ad Solutions.

AT&T and Placecast will create a geo-fence, a virtual perimeter around a retail location, event or geographic area to deliver location-specific messages.

A maximum of four messages a week will be sent to mobile consumers who opt-in to the program, which will start in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. AT&T told me that In the future, mobile customers will be able to login to their ShopAlerts AT&T account online to manage their preferences and settings so they could receive more or fewer than four offers a week.

The big opportunity here is for the mobile industry and brands to see what does and doesn’t work in location-based messaging. Messages can range from coupons based on proximity to stores or products, which we view as a short-term entry, to more valuable services, such as useful information based on time and distance.

For example, Jet Blue could send instant flight, arrival, gateor baggage claim information based on current location of a traveler at a given moment, before the traveler asks for it.

The key point of this type of location-based marketing is that it allows businesses to focus on what Placecast’s Goodman calls “relevant messages to consumers when they are in a mindset to make a purchase.”

This is yet one step closer to reaching and interacting with the customer with highly relevant information when and where it is most needed, a potential win-win for the mobile consumer and for the company providing the goods or services.

Chuck Martin

Chuck Martin is a New York Times business bestselling author, CEO of Mobile Future Institute and Director of the Center for Media Research, MediaPost Communications. He is former Vice President of IBM and co-Publisher and Editor in Chief of Social Media Marketing Magazine. His latest book, The Third Screen: Marketing to Your Customers in a World Gone Mobile, will be out in 2011.

Now that may not seem like such a big deal, with a brand the size of Sears, which has about 2,500 stores in the United States and Canada. But if you consider the magnitude of the power of people armed with smartphones and barcode readers, the impact can be profound.

For example, if only one person a day did what the couple I watched today, that is, scan a $200 item and leave the store to purchase it elsewhere, the overall gross revenue loss to Sears would be that $200.

Seemingly no big deal.

However, if that occurred once a day in each of Sears’ roughly 2,500 stores in the United States and Canada, that would be a loss of $500,000. Again, not significant compared to the overall Sears Holdings Corp. revenue of $44 billion.

But if one person a day did this in each of the 3,921 total stores of Sears Holdings, which include Sears and Kmart, that would add up to $784,200. If this happened each day of the 28 shopping days to Christmas, it would add up to $21,957,600. Again, $22 million is not a significant part of $44 billion.

So the impact of only one person per store using a smartphone to find a better deal elsewhere hypothetically could cost a very large retailer $22 million just during the holiday season. If this occurred almost every day, say for 360 days, just by one smartphone-armed person per store, the impact would be about $282 million gross revenue lost, if my math is correct.

What if 10 people a day used their smartphone, read a barcode on a $200 product at each Sears and Kmart and found it elsewhere for less and left the store? The lack of that gross revenue annualized would be $2.8 billion. And what if a person is scanning and price comparing more than one item? Will that shopper go back to the store that had the higher price?

The point is this will not be done by only one person per day. It will be done by thousands of people. Mobile will forever change retail.

Chuck Martin

Chuck Martin is a New York Times business bestselling author, Director of the Center for Media Research, MediaPost, in New York and former Vice President of IBM. He is the Co-Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Social Media Marketing Magazine. His latest book, The Third Screen: Marketing to Your Customers in a World Gone Mobile, will be out in 2011.

The new market is Mobile and it is about to change everything.

No longer will the customer be found tethered to a TV or PC screen, perfectly positioned to receive a marketer’s message on the marketer’s terms. The Mobile consumer is on the move, on location, and the marketer will have to find where their customers aggregate in this new digital landscape and how to interact with them by adding value.

It’s not the lean back of TV or the lean forward of the PC, but rather the lean very forward of Mobile. It’s up close and it’s personal. Mobile customers are doing a lot more than talking on their phones, based on the latest Pew Research Center study Mobile Access 2010:

• The majority (54%) have sent a photo or video
• More than a fifth (23%) have accessed a social networking site
• A fifth have watched a video
• Eleven percent have purchased a product
• Eleven percent have made a charitable donation

These Mobile activity indicators are barely the tip of the iceberg of what Mobile is doing to the marketing landscape. More than 13 million people accessed bank accounts through Mobile sites in one month and more than five million people are using banking apps, according to comScore. And that’s just one industry.

The size and scope of Mobile cannot be underestimated. By 2013, there will be roughly five billion mobile subscribers worldwide, according to noted research firm IDC. And global enterprises will be impacted in even more profound ways.

For example, nine out of 10 Mobile users in China text on their phones, based on research conducted by Sybase 365. In the U.S. market, they found only 13 percent use Mobile commerce and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. While that’s slightly higher than Canada, nearly half of those in China already use such systems.

In Japan, consumers are accustomed to swiping cell phones rather than credit cards for payment and in South Korea free Mobile TV has been around for five years and broadcasters there say almost 30 million people watch TV regularly from their phones.

Many of the large brands already have been experimenting with Mobile while many are taking a wait and see approach. In a Mobile marketing study we conducted at the Center for Media Research at MediaPost Communications, 41 percent of those not yet doing Mobile campaigns do not plan to in the foreseeable future. Another study by Acquity Group showed that only 12 percent of the top 500 retailers had sites optimized for Mobile phones.
The time for marketers to get into Mobile is now. It is the wave so you can be on it or under it.

• What is the overall Mobile strategy of the business?
• Where do your Mobil customers aggregate and what Mobile platforms do they use?
• What role does your CIO or IT department play in this? Are they onboard?
• Can your point of sale system or rewards program be integrated and maximized for your Mobile customers?
• How do you plan to deal with your customers on location?

And those are only some of the questions that need to be addressed.
Mobile marketing is not about providing coupons and discounts, it’s about determining how you will interact with your customers when and where they want and defining the future of your brand in the Mobile environment.

Chuck Martin

Chuck Martin is a New York Times business bestselling author and was the founding Publisher of Interactive Age, the first publication to launch in print and on the Web simultaneously. He is Director of the Center for Media Research, MediaPost, in New York and former Vice President of IBM’s publishing and advertising division. He is the Co-Publisher and Editor in Chief of Social Media Marketing Magazine. He is currently writing a soon-to-be published book on Mobile.