With ProduktAPP, a 4brands Reply GmbH & Co. KG application, marketing staff at consumer goods manufacturers can prepare production information for consumers in a way that allows it to be accessed on the Web via product barcodes or straight off the shelf. A dialog with the consumer can be carried on via a cellphone, whenever and wherever the consumer wants.
Thanks to the Web, consumers are better informed today than ever before. The Internet is no longer accessed through a home computer, but also frequently by using mobile devices such as cellphones or iPhones. So the consumer, for example, can get information about a product while shopping at a supermarket. All they need for that is a cellphone or iPhone with a camera, the right application and a working Internet connection. The information that the consumers access includes product tests or side-by-side comparisons. The manufacturers of these applications decide themselves which contents of the products the user will be able to access. Nonetheless, there is frequently no reference to the manufacturer's product information. If consumer goods manufacturers want to supply users in retail stores with information users select themselves on their cellphone, they need their own application. This application has to fulfill various criteria: marketing departments of consumer goods manufacturers should be able to adapt the content as well as the corporate design themselves. The expenses of marketing department employees should be manageable at the same time which means no redundant data maintenance and excessive costs.
4brands Reply GmbH & Co. KG develops an application for consumer goods manufacturers' marketing departments that consumers can download from the Internet onto their cellphones or smartphones. If, for example, customers want information about a particular product at the supermarket, they start an app on their cellphone and scan in the barcode at the press of a button. After doing so, a query is sent to a cloud-hosted application developed by 4brands Reply. The cloud server can be leased from a provider which meets the requirements of the application. This application takes the query, searches for available information about the related product in the database and delivers information in HTML format back to the customer's mobile device.
The HTML Web pages can include any kind of information: formatted text, photos, adverts, or links to Web sites. The marketing department itself specifies what content is used and prepares this information while 4brands Reply provides support with the technological implementation of the product. The marketing department even comes up with the design of the application (colors used, etc.) in order to guarantee a consistent corporate design look and feel and consistent communication to consumers. If information from marketing department employees is transferred or edited in your system, the changes are automatically updated in the cloud-based application. This means end consumers have the very latest information while redundant data maintenance for the marketing department is eliminated. The prerequisite for successful scanning of the barcode is a cellphone or iPhone with camera. An Internet connection is required to transfer information. The barcodes can be in GTIN code format (Global Trade Item Number Codes, previously EAN codes) as well as QR codes (QR codes, two-dimensional codes).
We can develop an application for mobile end devices such as cellphones or iPhones in close consultation with you. You define the design and the contents while we take care of the technological implementation. Besides that we develop and host the application which automatically collects the data from your IT systems. This eliminates redundant data maintenance, the need for server capacity and thereby minimizes your costs.
With the 4brands Reply ProduktAPP you can use inexpensive, innovative technologies and be responsive to up-to-date information about your target customer behavior. You actively maintain a dialog with the consumer via cellphone and remain visible with your products whenever and wherever the consumer wants.