By Len Shneyder

A few days ago I called my landlord and told him my bathroom sink was clogged. The next day he sent our neighborhood handyman, Oscar, to replace a section of pipe and snake the drain.

As Oscar labored over the sink I noticed his Palm mobile phone strapped to his hip. He removed the pipe to show me something that resembled leftovers from a Freddy Krueger film, at which point I changed the subject and asked him, "Do you read email on your phone?"

I didn't know it then but the faucet was about to open. Oscar turned into a wealth of behavioral information, gushing with stories of the practicality of his mobile device.

Oscar said that he does use email, he's on the road all day and carrying a laptop isn't practical as he would have to stop to find wireless access which eats up precious time.

However, a smartphone allows Oscar to be connected and pick up jobs while on the road by email, phone and, occasionally, SMS.

Beyond email he raved about the camera on his Palm, saying that he had a portable and easy-to-use tool for documenting problems and taking pictures of parts to create a visual shopping list for when he goes to the hardware store.

I asked Oscar which of the phone's features influenced his decision on choosing his device. He said the phone's camera and AT&T's coverage were the main selling point.

Oscar is one example of how the blue-collar sector is adopting mobile technology.

What at one time was the privileged tool of the white-collar world is now not only affordable but practical and fast becoming a necessary business commodity in the blue-collared world.

Plumb easy
Marketers should take note of the manner in which Oscar is using something we have taken for granted: the phone's camera.

Besides providing teenagers with a wealth of digital images for their MySpace pages, Oscar has leveraged this mobile feature to streamline the bricks-and-mortar experience of shopping in a large warehouse environment.

Now let's take this a step further.

What if the marketers who run these one-stop building supply shops created a sleek lightweight mobile front-end so that a plumber on the street could enter in a part name or description, make a purchase online and then simply pick up the part from the store's customer service counter?

What kind of efficiency and customer loyalty would that engender?

In order to be successful in the mobile space, marketers have to determine the core competency of their Web site and how that functionality translates into a viable mobile presence.

The current trend of mobile Web site development features a few variations: 1) store locators 2) email capture (opt-in) 3) call back (support requests) 4) brochures and coupons and 5) WAP/functional microsites/mini-applications.

The latter of these offers the greatest customization and portable efficiency.

Mobile is a young technology that is more art than science. The truly creative individuals that can tap a need will create new marketplaces based on efficient processes and instant services from commercial to leveraging location-based technologies creating targeted advertisements and enticements.

Think outside the box, but inside the phone. There are unlimited possibilities to always being connected.

Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity, a deliverability services and consultancy provider in Phoenix. Reach him at