Marketing research on Mobile apps: past, present and future

Area of Science:

• Marketing Research
• Digital Marketing
• Customer Relationship Management

Background:

• Mobile apps are integral to modern business strategies.
• Understanding app impact on customer experience and value is crucial.
• Existing research needs synthesis to guide future marketing efforts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide an integrative review of mobile app marketing research.
• To clarify and expand knowledge on how apps shape customer experiences and value.
• To develop a unified framework integrating key marketing concepts related to apps.

Main Methods:

• Integrative literature review.
• Bibliographic analysis of 471 studies.
• Synthesis of diverse conceptual bases into a unified framework.

Main Results:

• Apps significantly influence customer experiences and value creation across customer journeys.
• A unified framework is proposed, integrating customer experience, journey, value, orientation, and competitive advantage.
• Distinction made between 'apps' (brand extensions) and 'for apps' (app-as-brand) strategies.

Conclusions:

• The synthesized framework advances scientific marketing research on mobile apps.
• Facilitates future app marketing developments and academic-industry collaboration.
• Highlights the strategic role of apps in achieving competitive advantage.