Haddonfield Mobile Marketing Guru Pitches Smartphone

Ken Lacy says a technology revolution has already started, and it’s headed for Haddonfield and a smartphone near you.  

Lacy, 70, a former investment banker and corporate financier, is now a partner in an SMS marketing company, called 77we, LLC.  

Patch met with Lacy to talk about the boom-presence of QR codes in local papers, retail ads, on consumer goods, and even on Internet websites and television ads. Even though the codes, an acronym for “quick response,” are popping up everywhere, they seem just semi-understood by the masses.

For example, a fortysomething professional, who wished to remain anonymous, said that even though she works in a field that generally embraces technology, she still hadn’t successfully scanned a QR code with her phone.

“I just keep taking pictures of them,” she said. “They never take me to anything.”

Lacy said that to a degree, it’s true. “For users from the ages of 15 to 35, handling the smartphone is instinctive.”

For people outside the age gap or the smartphone user category, not so much. In that case, Lacy is an anomaly. Why his interest and adaptability?

As a business person, Lacy sees the technology as pure potential. He cites impressive statistics that suggest many more Americans will soon stop "taking pictures" of QR codes with their phones and start downloading applications to read the different messages and incentives QR codes offer in their embedded warped-looking yin-yang matrix squares.

“Sales of Internet-enabled phones that can operate live links—iPhones, Android phones, Blackberry phones—have been increasing consistently over the past couple of years," Lacy explained. "It is estimated that 450 million of these phones will be sold in the world by the end of this year, and that’s up from 300 million total.”

Lacy added that 35 percent of Americans own a smartphone, or as Lacy describes the gadgets, “A powerful computer in a small package.” It is only a matter of time, he projected, that smartphone users will catch on to the connections that can be made through social media, SMS marketing and purchasing power.

He and his business partner, Monday Osagie, who is a native of West Africa, have been working as 77we for about the last two years. They have accounts in the local marketplace.

According to Lacy, Lenny Vermaat and Leonard Realtors use SMS technology, as does the Musclemaker Grill franchise. 77we has donated services to nonprofit efforts like Breastfest, and sponsored events like First Night Haddonfield 2011.

"We started investigating SMS techonology last year. We put it in force for the spring market," Gary Vermaat of Lenny Vermaat and Leonard said. 

Having been in the Haddonfield market as Lenny Vermaaat and Leonard since 1978 with real estate roots that reach back into the 1950s, Vermaat sees an increase in the use of the technology already.

"We're seeing a heavier use now than when we first started. ... We believe that the consumers that are out there now are smartphone users and are interested in instantaneous information. The consumers coming up in the 20-, 30- and 40-year-old range are a lot more demanding about accessing information quickly. This allows us to give them quick information."

While smartphone technology is another tool to communicate with customers, Vermaat said, "You can't throw out all the other stuff." Approaches like voicemail and print are still ways to reach and satisfy other customers' needs, he added.

Lacy laid out some brief details to make it easier for people still not up to speed to catch up, and possibly benefit from the up and coming technology at their fingertips:

For one, he defined SMS codes as short message service codes that originate from a smartphone, like text messages do. He noted that the television show American Idol uses SMS codes and vanity keywords to get viewers to vote for their favorites by texting IDOL to a short code.

Short codes are short number lists that lead a texter to a prompt where the texter decides to opt in or out of what is being offered or polled. Around town, people might see short codes on the tops of real estate signs.

Users can’t access QR codes using a smartphone unless they have downloaded an application from the virtual marketplace that is specific to their phone. 77we likes "i-nigma" for Android, but search "QR code apps" from your phone and pick one for yourself.

Once you have downloaded a QR reading code to your phone, you simply open the app and scan the code in the little red viewing box that should come up on your screen.

And then there are caveats. For all those technology paranoids out there, what about people who don’t want to be on marketing lists or records, but just want to keep up with technology and get some information?

Lacy said the short codes and much of the media marketing freeway is actually federally regulated. While a QR code may take you to a website, it should not collect information about you without your approval to proceed for more information. (Note: There is no surgeon general stamp on this approval, but simply a stopping place that asks for your permission to proceed once you read a QR code.)

“Users can always text STOP to opt out,” Lacy explained.

“Haddonfield users are ‘slow adapters’ to the technology, but not different than the Delaware Valley,” Lacy opined. He predicted that soon the region will be ready for all that smartphone technology has to offer for businesses, as well as consumers.

“This is less obtrusive and gives a person a choice and often an incentive to engage with a retailer,” he said with regard to SMS marketing versus traditional marketing strategies like coupons and sales.

77we offers a variety of contracts for small to middle market companies. Interested? You could visit the website or, better yet, scan the QR code with your phone to learn more.