The Case for ‘Benevolent’ Mobile Apps

Some companies’ smartphone apps focus on pushing product sales. However, “benevolent” apps that build trust by providing consumers with valuable information can improve users’ image of your brand — and increase their willingness to purchase your products.

Glen L. Urban and Fareena Sultan

WINTER 2015

In recent times, perhaps no other consumer electronic device has impacted consumers as much as mobile phones. Mobile devices are everywhere. In the United States, for example, 91% of adults used mobile phones in 2013, and nearly 40% lived in households that had a mobile phone but no landline phone.¹ Even among Americans above age 65, 77% reported having mobile phones.² The total number of unique individual mobile ...