The MUST Mix Strategy for branded mobile applications.

Summary Mobile apps development has brought challenges and opportunities for companies to market their brands and products through a new channel. This research identifies the strategies which should be considered by companies in branded apps design. We illustrate five business objectives: communication, customer relationship management, sales, product innovation and marketing research. A M-U-S-T Mix method is proposed to specify how mobile features (M), use of brand mention elements (U), social features (S) and type of applications elements (T) should be used to develop branded apps. The types of branded apps are classified as tool-centric, game-centric, social-centric, m-commerce-centric and design-centric apps. Extensive examples of branded apps are given to illustrate the best practice of these strategies.