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Get Your Brand On: Marketing And Wearable Technology

marketing and wearable technology

Once reserved for fictional personas like RoboCop, Terminator or Inspector Gadget, in a few years wearable technology will be as popular as today’s smartphones. New gadgets like glasses, watches, pedometers, fitness trackers, and sleeping monitors will be everywhere.

These devices – projected to sell 100 million units by 2016 – will open up a whole new world of data gathering, branding, and storytelling possibilities for brands. Marketers will need to think laterally and adapt their content production process to cater to the wearable tech that matters to their buyer personas.

From market research, to content creation and distribution, it’ll be impossible to ignore wearable tech.

Granular market data

When doing market research, today’s marketers rely heavily on subjective responses, opinions and quick feedback. However, preconceived perceptions and judgements can make these exercises very unreliable. In the not so distant future, marketers will use wearable devices to measure direct reactions of participants and gather information. The understanding of people’s behaviors will be purer and far more granular.

“For example, an altimeter will inform when someone is in an elevator, flying in a plane, or climbing a mountain. Similarly, a health tracker will identify movement and stress levels, and an air meter will differentiate between indoor and outdoor spaces,” says tech expert Cezary Pietrzak. “In the end, brands will be able to understand context and drive a much more relevant message, which is better for both the advertiser and the consumer,” adds Pietrzak.

Ultra-personalized messaging

Counting on highly granular information about an audience enables marketers to cater their content more effectively. A fitness brand, for instance, could push notifications to people who work out. A record company would be able to address individuals who spend a lot of time in transit and therefore might enjoy music. And a pharma brand could target people with specific heart conditions, moving away from traditional ads on health magazines or websites that reach broader groups.

“Visual wear -such as Google Glass- provides an artificial layer of data while perceiving the real world around you,” says Robert Peck, a SunTrust analyst. While walking down the street, wearable devices can provide an augmented reality experience, one with data around landmarks, businesses, and other surroundings. Surely, there will be openings for brands and small businesses to overlay their message in front of people’s eyes and market to them on the go. “The whole world can become an infinite billboard space, tailored to everyone’s immediate needs.”

A few obstacles

There are, however, still significant hurdles to overcome, including the fact that users might not be very open to sharing such personal and intimate details about their lives. Marketers will need to figure out ways to entice them, such as providing rewards or educating users on the value of sharing anonymous device data.

Another obstacle could be the lack of applications built for these new products. The current two biggest players in the market, smartwatches and fitness wristbands, aren’t doing anything groundbreaking yet.

“Wearable tech is still in its infancy. Most wearable devices currently available don’t offer enough utility for most consumers to continue to wear them beyond the 'honeymoon phase' after their initial purchase. Much like cell phones in the early 90′s, which could only make calls and text, today’s wearables are really just single-function activity-trackers,” explains Andrew D’Souza, president at Bionym, developer of the Nymi. The device is a bracelet that uses someone’s unique electrocardiogram (ECG) to authenticate their identity through an embedded sensor.

“We’re working with developers on applications spanning retail, hospitality, travel, automotive, fitness and payments… Imagine if every bar was like Cheers, where they know your name and what you’re drinking as soon as you walk in, or your favorite retailer knows your size and what you’re shopping for without you asking – those are the types of experiences we hope to enable," Andrew continues. 

“Wearables in general are waiting for killer apps,” says Brian Cooley, editor at CNET.com. “Fitness bands and watches aren’t doing anything too unheard of. The trick will be to put something together so that there is a compelling reason to use them. While device makers are good at building these gadgets, helping them get to that next level of relevance is an opportunity for media companies and marketers.”

So far, there’s no clear winner running away with the wearable tech market, though many are really trying. Here’s a video with the coolest gadgets presented at the 2014 Consumer Electronic Show. There’s one for almost every part of the body:

“Wearable tech is not a niche play; it’s a broad industry-wide phenomenon that will impact everything,” says Michael Becker, a mobile marketing expert. “It’s critical for brands to realize that we’re at the first embryonic stage.”

Marketers can ignore this trend and keep sending people unwelcome messages with little or no context, but that will only secure them weak engagement. It’s better to embrace the potential of wearable technology marketing and the customer-centric approach it enables. In doing so, they’ll create more effective campaigns and build stronger relationships with customers.

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