Mobile Advertising and Mobile Commerce

Acting as a contracted strategist for Starbucks or McDonald’s, summarize its

COMPANION TO THE WEEK 5 COMPREHENSIVE STUDY GUIDE | PREPARED AS A SELF-CONTAINED WRITING

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Discussion Forum 2, “Mobile Advertising and Mobile Commerce,” is the second of Week 5’s two graded discussions. It is tagged to Weekly Learning Outcome 3 and to Course Learning Outcomes 4 and 5, and it is anchored to Chapter 15 of Green and Keegan, with Chapter 9 revisited. Where Discussion 1 examined the promotion mix in general, Discussion 2 narrows to the digital frontier of it: the smartphone as a channel both for delivering advertising and for conducting transactions. The forum puts you in a consultant’s seat — you have a contract with a named company to strategize and enhance its mobile activities — and asks for a four-part deliverable that runs from audit to strategy to risk assessment to a market-entry judgment. This guide takes the prompt apart, supplies the Chapter 15 and 9 vocabulary the prompt rewards, helps you choose between the two permitted companies, works each directive, and ends with a complete sample post and a plan for the peer replies. The Prompt, Restated Your initial post is due on Day 3 (Thursday), runs 250 words, and must accomplish four things. Read them as a checklist — a strong post visibly delivers all four.

• Directive 1 — Summarize current activity. Summarize the current mobile advertising and mobile commerce activities being used by your contract company.
• Directive 2 — Formulate a new strategy. Formulate a new mobile strategy for your contract company built around the use of GPS and mobile payment.
• Directive 3 — Two rollout challenges. Select two implementation challenges that would arise if your proposal is accepted to roll out globally.
• Directive 4 — Licensing versus investment. Evaluate how the company deciding to enter a new market via licensing versus investment would impact the new mobile strategy you are proposing.

The post should be 250 words and must cite the textbook and any other sources used, with APA intext citations and a reference list. The guided response then requires substantive replies of at least 100 words to at least two classmates — specifically, to peers who chose the other company.

you can pick the one you can write about most concretely. The forum names three competencies it intends to practice — mobile advertising, strategic implementation, and marketing strategy. They map onto the directives: mobile advertising frames Directives 1 and 2, marketing strategy is the strategy itself in Directive 2, and strategic implementation is the rollout-challenge analysis of Directives 3 and 4. If your draft does not surface all three, it is undercooked.

Chapter 15, “Global Marketing and the Digital Revolution,” is the chapter behind this forum. Its argument is that a sequence of innovations — broadband, the smartphone, cloud computing, social platforms, data analytics, and now AI — has reshaped how marketing reaches and transacts with customers, creating a global electronic marketplace. The smartphone is the device at the center of that shift. The prompt’s own definition is the starting point: mobile advertising and mobile commerce “are terms that describe the use of cell phones as channels for delivering advertising messages and conducting product and service transactions.” Two distinct activities sit inside that sentence. Mobile advertising delivers the message to the phone — in-app ads, mobile search, push notifications, location-triggered offers. Mobile commerce, or m-commerce, conducts the transaction on the phone — ordering, paying, and managing loyalty without a counter or a cash register. What makes the phone different from any earlier channel is two capabilities the prompt singles out. The first is location: GPS tells the marketer where the customer is, in real time, so an offer can be triggered by proximity to a store. The second is payment: the phone’s mobile wallet lets the customer pay in seconds, so the gap between seeing an offer and completing a purchase collapses. Directive 2 asks you to build a strategy around exactly these two capabilities — which is the prompt telling you where the analytical action is.

message (advertising) to a frictionless mobile payment (commerce). A post that treats “mobile” as one undifferentiated thing reads as thinner than the prompt rewards.

The grade on this discussion rewards precise vocabulary from two chapters — the digital terms of Chapter 15 and the market-entry terms of Chapter 9. This section defines each and states the job it does in your post. 3.1 Mobile and Digital Terms (Chapter 15) Mobile advertising is the delivery of advertising messages through cell phones as a channel. Mobile commerce (m-commerce) is conducting product and service transactions through cell phones. Location-based marketing uses GPS to detect a customer’s position and deliver a relevant, proximity-triggered offer; geofencing is the specific technique of drawing a virtual boundary around a place — a store, a campus — so that crossing it triggers a message. A mobile wallet stores payment credentials on the phone so a purchase completes with a tap. Personalization uses the customer’s data — purchase history, location, preferences — to tailor the offer to the individual. 3.2 Market-Entry Terms (Chapter 9) Licensing is a market-entry mode in which a firm grants a local partner the right to use its brand, system, or intellectual property in exchange for a royalty or fee. It is low-cost and low-risk, but it surrenders control: the licensee runs the local operation. A franchise is a structured form of licensing common in food retail, in which the franchisee operates under the franchisor’s brand and system. Investment entry means committing capital to an owned operation — a wholly owned subsidiary, a joint venture, or an acquisition. It is high-cost and high-risk, but it gives the firm control over operations, data, and the customer relationship.

Transactions The transaction half of Directives 1 and 2. Mobile commerce conducted through cell phones. GPS-triggered offers The GPS pillar of the new strategy in Directive 2. Location-based marketing based on the customer’s position. Payment credentials The payment pillar of the new strategy in Directive 2. Mobile wallet stored on the phone for tap-to-pay. Granting a local One side of the Directive 4 comparison. Licensing partner brand/system rights for a fee — low control. Owned operation — The other side of the Directive 4 comparison. Investment entry subsidiary, joint venture, acquisition — high control.

Directive 1 asks you to summarize the mobile advertising and mobile commerce activities your contract company already uses. This is the audit step — you cannot propose a credible new strategy without first showing what is already in place. The prompt tells you to do some research and check what is already available; a brief, accurate summary based on the company’s publicfacing mobile program is what the directive wants. Both permitted companies run mature mobile programs, and both organize them around a branded app tied to a loyalty program. Audit along these dimensions:

• The branded app. Both Starbucks and McDonald’s operate a consumer mobile app that is the hub of the program — ordering, loyalty, offers, and payment in one place.
• Mobile ordering and pickup. Order-ahead functionality lets a customer place and pay for an order on the phone and collect it without queuing — a core m-commerce capability for both brands.
• A loyalty / rewards program. App-based rewards (stars, points, or similar) tie repeat purchases to the customer’s profile and generate the data that powers personalization.
• Mobile payment. Both apps support payment — through a stored balance, a linked card, or an integrated mobile wallet — so the transaction completes on the phone.
• Targeted offers and mobile advertising. Personalized deals and promotions delivered through the app and through mobile channels, increasingly tailored to the individual customer. K EEP THE SUMMARY TIGHT AND ACCURATE Directive 1 is the setup, not the centerpiece — the strategy in Directive 2 carries more weight. Spend roughly a quarter of the post here. Describe the company’s mobile program at the level of capability (“an app-based loyalty program with mobile order-ahead and in-app payment”) rather than chasing precise figures you cannot verify. If you cite a specific feature or statistic, attach a credible source and confirm it; do not present an estimate as a fact.

Directive 2 is the centerpiece of the post. It asks you to formulate a new mobile strategy — not to restate what the company already does — built specifically around two capabilities: GPS and mobile payment. The directive names those two on purpose: they are the pillars your proposal must stand on. Pillar 1 — The GPS Capability GPS lets the company act on where the customer is. The strategic move is location-based marketing: geofence the area around each store so that when an enrolled customer enters it, the app delivers a timely, relevant, personalized offer — a discount on the customer’s usual order, a reminder that a favorite item is available, a nudge during a slow daypart. The value is relevance and timing: the message reaches a customer who is physically able to act on it within minutes. Pillar 2 — The Mobile Payment Capability Mobile payment lets the company close the loop the GPS offer opens. Once the customer is drawn in, an integrated mobile wallet lets them order and pay in seconds, with no queue and no card. The strategic point is friction: every step removed between the offer and the completed purchase raises conversion. Payment data also feeds back into the loyalty profile, sharpening the next personalized offer. Joining the Two Into One Strategy The strategy is strongest when the two pillars connect into a single loop: GPS detects proximity → a personalized offer is delivered → the customer orders ahead in the app → mobile payment completes the purchase instantly → the transaction enriches the loyalty profile → the next offer is sharper. That closed loop — location, message, order, payment, data — is a genuine strategy, not a feature list, and it is what the directive rewards.

visits). Name the mechanism, the benefit, and the payoff, and the directive is genuinely answered.

Directive 3 asks you to select two implementation challenges that would arise if your proposal were accepted and rolled out globally. The word “globally” is the key — these are challenges that come specifically from taking the strategy across borders. Choose two from the candidates below and develop each in two or three sentences.

Mobile wallets, dominant payment apps, and banking access differ by Payment infrastructure variation market. A payment design built around the home market’s wallet may not work where a different system — or cash — dominates, forcing local adaptation of the payment layer. Smartphone penetration, network quality, and GPS reliability vary by Technology and smartphone access country. A strategy that assumes universal high-end devices and fast data will underperform in markets where that assumption fails. Offers, app interfaces, and the very acceptability of location-triggered Cultural and language adaptation marketing differ across cultures; a tactic that feels helpful in one market feels intrusive in another. Established local rivals and the entry mode chosen (see Directive 4) Local competition and partner control affect whether the company can execute a unified mobile strategy or must defer to a local operator’s systems. The two strongest choices for most posts are data privacy regulation and payment infrastructure variation, because both attack the proposal’s own two pillars directly: privacy law threatens the GPS pillar, and payment-system fragmentation threatens the mobile-payment pillar. Choosing those two lets the directive connect cleanly back to Directive 2 rather than reading as a detour.

Directive 4 is the directive that separates an average post from a strong one, because it asks for a judgment that links two chapters. It asks you to evaluate how the company entering a new market by licensing versus by investment would impact the mobile strategy you proposed. This is why Week 5 revisits Chapter 9. The analytical key is a single word: control. A GPS-and-payment mobile strategy depends on three things the company must control directly — a unified app, a consistent payment system, and integrated customer data. The two entry modes give very different amounts of that control.

High control. A wholly owned subsidiary lets the company impose its app, its Investment payment integration, and its data architecture directly, so the integrated mobile strategy can be executed as designed — at the cost of higher capital outlay and higher market risk. The judgment to state plainly: the mobile strategy proposed in Directive 2 — an integrated, datadriven loop — is far easier to execute under an investment entry, because it requires control that licensing does not provide. Under licensing, the company would have to either accept a fragmented, partner-dependent version of the strategy or invest heavily in contracts and standards to push the licensee toward consistency. That is an evaluation, not a description — and WLO 3 and the rubric reward exactly that.

stores in many markets, giving it more direct control — a contrast you can use.

Starbucks or McDonald’s The prompt allows exactly two companies. Both are excellent choices; pick the one whose mobile program you can describe most concretely and confidently.

McDonald’s A large app with mobile ordering, deals, and loyalty rewards, plus delivery integration. Its heavy reliance on franchising makes Directive 4’s control problem concrete and company-specific — a strong analytical angle. Either company supports every directive. The deciding question is simply which company you can audit accurately in Directive 1 and reason about confidently in Directive 4. The Sources The prompt requires you to cite the textbook and any other sources used. The framework spine is Green & Keegan (2020) — Chapter 15 for the mobile and digital concepts, Chapter 9 for licensing and investment. For the current-activity summary in Directive 1, a credible source on the company’s mobile program — a business-press article or the company’s own investor or newsroom material — supports the factual claims; cite it and confirm it. Attach each citation to the specific claim it supports.

Two hundred fifty words for four directives is a very tight budget. Spend it deliberately. The plan below allocates words across five moves so that all four directives are visibly satisfied. Treat the budget as real — if a paragraph runs long, cut.

• Move 1 — Opening and Directive 1 (~65 words). One sentence naming your company and your consultant role. Then a tight summary of its current mobile advertising and mobile commerce activity — app, ordering, loyalty, payment.
• Move 2 — Directive 2 (~85 words). The new strategy: geofenced, personalized GPS offers connected to one-tap mobile payment, joined into a closed loop. The centerpiece — give it the most words.
• Move 3 — Directive 3 (~50 words). Two global rollout challenges — data privacy regulation and payment-infrastructure variation — each in a sentence or two.
• Move 4 — Directive 4 (~50 words). The licensing-versus-investment judgment, built on control: the integrated strategy needs investment-level control; licensing fragments it.
• Move 5 — References. The textbook plus any company source, in APA. The reference list does not count toward the 250-word body.

Mechanics That Protect the Grade

• Academic voice. Third person; no contractions; measured, supported claims — even though you write as a “consultant.”
• Cite as you go. Attribute Chapter 15 and 9 theory to the textbook; attach company facts to a credible source.

• Word count. Aim for 250; a working range of roughly 240–275 is safe.
• APA. In-text citations and a reference list. Use the UAGC Writing Center’s APA Style resource if needed.

The post below is a model, not a submission. It is provided so you can see how the four directives fit inside roughly 250 words. It uses Starbucks; rewrite it in your own voice, choose your own company, confirm every citation, and adjust the references to the sources you actually use. Submitting it verbatim would be an academic-integrity violation and is easy for an instructor to detect.

A Location-and-Payment Mobile Strategy for Starbucks

As a contracted strategist for Starbucks, I first audited its current mobile program. Starbucks operates a branded app that integrates mobile order-ahead, an app-based rewards program, targeted personalized offers, and a stored-value mobile wallet, so customers order, pay, and earn loyalty without queuing — combining mobile advertising and mobile commerce in a single channel (Green & Keegan, 2020). The proposed new strategy builds deliberately on GPS and mobile payment. The company would geofence the area around each store: when an enrolled customer crosses that virtual boundary, the app delivers a personalized, time-sensitive offer tied to the customer’s usual order. An integrated mobile wallet then lets the customer order and pay in one tap, and each transaction enriches the loyalty profile that sharpens the next offer. Location detects the moment, payment closes it, and customer data continuously improves the loop. Two challenges would arise in a global rollout. Data privacy regulation varies by country, and location tracking that is lawful in one market may require explicit consent or be sharply restricted in another. Payment infrastructure also differs; a wallet built for the home market may not function where a different payment system, or cash, dominates. The market-entry mode would shape the strategy decisively. An integrated GPS-and-payment loop requires direct control of the app, the payment system, and customer data. Investment entry through an owned subsidiary provides that control; licensing would leave the local partner running the operation, fragmenting the strategy and interrupting the data flow back to the company (Green & Keegan, 2020).

The guided response requires substantive replies of at least 100 words to at least two classmates. The prompt is specific: respond to peers who chose a different company from your own, provide constructive feedback on their proposed strategy and on their licensing-versus-investment discussion, and provide examples to support your position. A reply that only praises the post will not earn the points. A Four-Step Reply That Earns the Points

• Pick the other company. The prompt requires it — if you wrote about Starbucks, reply to a McDonald’s post, and vice versa. This is a checkable instruction; honor it.
• Critique the strategy constructively. Comment on the peer’s GPS-and-payment proposal — a strength to affirm, and one concrete improvement or gap, such as a privacy safeguard or a personalization refinement.
• Engage their entry-mode analysis. The prompt explicitly asks you to give feedback on their licensing-versus-investment discussion. Add a point about control, or about the franchising reality if they chose McDonald’s. Provide an example.
• End with a real question. A genuine question keeps the thread alive and invites the dialogue the rubric’s engagement criterion rewards. T IMING The initial post is due Day 3 (Thursday); the peer replies are due Day 7 (Monday). The prompt encourages posting replies earlier in the week. If the initial-post window has closed, the replies are the part of this discussion still open — and a substantive, cross-company reply can still earn its full share of the points.

• Restating the directive as the strategy. “Use GPS and mobile payments” is not a strategy. Name a mechanism, a benefit, and a payoff.
• Skipping the current-activity audit. Directive 1 is required — you cannot propose a credible new strategy without summarizing what already exists.
• Picking generic rollout challenges. “Globally” means cross-border challenges — privacy law, payment fragmentation — not generic project risks.
• Describing licensing and investment instead of judging. Directive 4 asks how the entry mode impacts the strategy. Lead with control; reach a conclusion.

• Merging mobile advertising and mobile commerce. One is communication, the other is transaction. Keep them distinct.
• Replying to the same company. The guided response requires replies to peers who chose the other company.
• Citation drift. Company facts and figures with no source. APA in-text citation, or it did not happen.

250 words, due Day 3 (Thursday). Four directives. Cite the textbook and Initial post supporting sources. APA in-text and references. At least two, 100+ words each, due Day 7 (Monday) — to peers who chose the Peer replies other company. Starbucks or McDonald’s. Pick the one you can audit and reason about most Company choice concretely. Green & Keegan (2020), Chapter 15; review Chapter 9. Required reading Mobile advertising; strategic implementation; marketing strategy. Competencies Summarize current mobile advertising and mobile commerce — app, order- Directive 1 ahead, loyalty, payment. New strategy on GPS + mobile payment — geofenced personalized offers Directive 2 redeemed by one-tap payment, joined into a loop. Two global rollout challenges — data privacy regulation and payment- Directive 3 infrastructure variation are the strongest. Licensing vs. investment — the integrated strategy needs investment-level Directive 4 control; licensing fragments it. Companion document to the BUS 622 Week 5 Comprehensive Study Guide. Prepared as a self-contained writing resource for Week 5, Discussion Forum 2. Confirm all company facts and citation details against credible sources and the UAGC Library before submission.