Down to Earth

MOBILE MARKETING IS ON THE WAY, AND IT WILL usher in a Golden Age. Soon we'll all be receiving rich-media ads over our Internet phones, being enticed by retailers with GPS capabilities to replace those worn jeans at 20% off, and watching TV — complete with ads — on our handsets.

Get real. Mobile marketing is indeed coming, but more slowly and more narrowly than many of its most zealous promoters are projecting. Not every cell phone in the United States can accept streaming video or reach the Internet, and heaven knows not every user wants to.

That's why some firms have turned to a more earthbound medium. Potash Bros. Supermarts, a small chain of upscale groceries around midtown Chicago, is using a mobile marketing/loyalty/payment platform from Boston-based MobileLime.

President Art Potash says the grocer's primary aim in rolling out the MobileLime system was to strengthen the loyalty bond among existing customers.