Temple Terrace-based consumer and brand experience start-up M-ize has officially launched its new My Products mobile app, designed to enhance customers’ purchasing experience by connecting them to brands, family and friends via mobile and social networks.
Earlier this year, M-ize opened a 30-member development center in Hyderabad, India, and is now adding designers, software engineers, sales consultants, product managers, data architects and interns to grow their headquarters in Temple Terrace.
Kick-started in May 2012,
M-ize was founded by entrepreneur and
TiE Tampa Bay Charter Member Ashok Kartham after successfully developing a platform for 4CS, a service life-cycle management firm for high-end industrial products.
Kartham utilized the same life-cycle management concept, but custom-tailored it to the growing mobile and lifestyle needs of consumers. He created M-ize to focus on bringing smarter consumers together to connect them to products, community, advice and technical support by leveraging mobile, social, cloud and analytic technologies.
The new My Products app is a two-ended network where consumers can plug into any given brand’s products while being connected to trends, customer reviews and product information that is valuable to making significant purchasing decisions.
"The key is placing everything about products in a single, digestible format. We give you the big picture and also give you a more intimate picture by allowing you to ping your social network. It’s a more personalized picture," says CMO Bruce Burke.
The My Products app also connects consumers directly to a brand’s support, services and necessary accessories post-purchase.
The advantage for brands? Aggregation of customers during different stages of the purchasing process. The new app also integrates Smart Block for companies, where brands receive the benefit of utilizing the existing app platform while allowing them to customize their theme and share their tailored brand messaging to customers using the app.
"We currently have about one million products in the app. It’s the first generation of what will be a much larger community ecosystem that supports it," says Burke.
M-ize has already launched
Support Me, a consumer-end app giving customers access to product support from anywhere.
Both M-ize and key team members are socially and technologically invested in Tampa Bay as well as the firm’s growth and innovation.
Kartham recently invested in the new
Feathr app, designed to enhance networking connections at business events. Burke has been selected to receive
Google Glass, and plans to utilize key innovations, trends, and technologies to help enhance the consumer experience for M-ize app users.
"Sometimes things come together because people are actually communicating with each other," says Burke.
For information on hiring opportunities and unique business partnerships, visit
M-ize’s website.
Writer:
Kaye Brown
Source: Bruce Burke,
M-ize
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