Hunting The Pokémon Go Benefits To B2B

Last updated on August 3rd, 2016 at 08:51 am

Pokémon Go is moving consumers to businesses in droves. More than 10 million daily users are walking past business after business in pursuit of the 90s-era anime monsters featured in the game. Eventually, these consumers get hungry. Or bored. Or, more likely, they run out of battery life, and that’s good for nearby businesses. Businesses are already reporting an uptick as a result of this increased foot traffic. CNBC reports that GameStop has seen a 100 percent increase in their stores designated as PokeStops. The benefit for the business-to-consumer companies is clear, but what about business-to-business companies? Can B2B companies capitalize on an app that currently has more daily users than Twitter?

The answer is yes. Inevitably, this app will lose it’s novelty and widespread popularity. The immediacy of businesses capitalizing on the increased foot traffic is paramount. Perhaps the biggest issue is the ability for businesses to get repeat business from these Pokemon Go customers long after they’ve stopped playing the game. In other words, how can businesses get these customers to come back? There are a lot of B2B companies that can help with this problem, especially those in the big data sphere.

Not long ago, businesses would hope that a new customer would like their product or service well enough to return. That’s still true to a large degree, but assuming the product or service is solid, the customer needs more than a good experience to return. For most customers, that new business is “out of sight, out of mind.” If they never see or hear from that business again, the customer isn’t likely to make a return visit.

Now, businesses know better. They know how to get information from the customer to market to them. Many are already on board with big data by collecting various data points during a transaction. The real question is whether or not these businesses are able to make meaning (and profit) from the data they’ve collected. In other words, will any of the data collected from Pokemon Go users enable the business to make decisions to get the new customer to come back? There’s a lot of room in this space for B2B companies that can help these businesses make sense of their big data problems.

The next question is whether or not these businesses will be able to deploy something quickly enough. Installing infrastructure in-house takes time, money, and someone with the skills to be able to do it. Businesses looking to market to these Pokemon Go customers need something quick and flexible. They might consider Big-Data-as-a-Service (BDaaS) companies as a solution. Big-Data-as-a-Service companies offer management and analysis of big data in the cloud. This is a great option for smaller businesses who want to take advantage of the new customer base, but don’t have the time or resources to build on-site infrastructure. Bernard Marr of Forbes writes of Big-Data-as-a-Service for smaller operations: “Data analysis can and generally does bring positive change to any organization that takes it seriously, and this includes smaller scale operations which won’t have the expertise (or budget to develop that expertise) to do it themselves.” In short, businesses looking to take advantage of the increased customer base more permanently need the help of big data analysis companies. This is yet another example of how B2B companies can get in on the payoff coming as a result of Pokemon Go traffic.

Pokemon Go may not be around forever, but big data problems will be. Businesses should ready themselves with the technology to be able to make the most of whatever trend brings customers to their stores in the future. This is where the payoff for B2B companies can and will take place.