Wearable Computers: Blessing or Curse of modern marketing

A device which brings your ad directly in front of your possible costumer’s eyes.

Sounds perfect right? And it´s not even that far away. Wearable computers are just around the corner. Apple will launch their watch next year. Of course this is not a guarantee that it will succeed, but in the last few years Apple showed that they often had the right feeling to bring new technologies into the market at the right time. So maybe next year a big step will be made in the age of wearable computers. A new device which sounds perfect for many marketing actions. 

Just right in time to think about the possibilities, the changes and the dangers the new technology may will bring.

Possibilities: 

First of all you now have the opportunity to mix up two types of advertising. You are now able to bring you personalized, exactly right timed online ad into the real world. That’s a huge step if you think how offline advertising works right now:

How many of the billboards you see every day are really important for you? How many sendings, that you may not even open, do you find in your mailbox every day? Quit a lot usually. 

With this new technology you are now able to bring personalized, data based information to your costumer while he seats in the bus or waits for his train. Yes you can do it already by sending your newsletter, hoping your client open it with the smartphone right in time. But now he wears the computer. And the step to interact with it is a lot smaller. 

And that’s not even the end. A lot more new technology is coming, for example Beacons. Yes it will take some time until this will work, but Beacons in combination with wearables will change our view to advertising forever. Because if you know you are able get the information to your costumer and you know where he is, you are able to give him a whole new level of information services. Maybe a little bit like this scene in Minority Report: 

Changes: 

Maybe the biggest changes you, as a marketer, have to work through is to handle a lot of data. A lot more than now. And you have to work them in real time. 

But first of all you need the data. This will be the fundament for your whole new way in marketing. Probably you will need a CRM strategy (if you don´t have one already). You can´t work without data on this new level, so you have make sure you have the data when the new technology starts to become the new normal. So you better start thinking about how to get to this information now.

But after you collected the data there will be the much more important aspect: Turn your big data into smart data. The main challenge is to get the information out of the data you need right now to give your costumer a perfect experience. Maybe you will be forced to work together with companies that made a specialization to big data. And maybe this will cost you a lot of money. You just have to keep one thing in mind: This is a completely new way. Also think in a new way!

Dangers: 

This might be the most important point. You are able to reach your costumer any time everywhere. But does your costumer really want to be snowed under with advertising everywhere? No! No one wants to have a watch, glasses or a smartphone full of spam. And you have to respect the costumers choice, because if you don´t do it you will lose your costumers trust and maybe the costumer itself. Let´s think about a costumer walking down a shopping center and passing 20 shops on his way. And even if 50% of them send a message to the poor guy just as he walks by their stores, telling them to get some discounts if he enters the shop right now. He will find 10 massages at the end of the shopping center filling up his devices. Way to many du have any positive effect to the possible client. So you have to think about 3 questions:

1. What kind of information do you want to give to your costumer?

2. When do you want do give any information to your costumer? 

3. And how often do you want to give this information to your costumer?

You have to develop a strategy, based on these 3 questions, stats and innovative ideas from your team and you just have to test if it works. Of course there is some time until this will be our daily business. And of course there will be some best practices until it will be that, but you can’t start early enough thinking about all the possibilities and the way that you may want to go.

At the end every company has to find their own way with their own principals, but everyone should keep in mind, that only a happy costumer will stay your costumer.

Monday Quote: "Have no fear of perfection - you´ll never reach it" - Salvador Dali

Yes it´s monday. And probably their is this one project on your to do list which you chicken out of for a few weeks. But why don´t you do it today? And why don´t you do it better than the minimum? You can´t get close enough to perfection. So do your best and show everyone you can handle even the bad projects. Show it to your boss. Show it to your co-workers. And show it to you self. Show everyone that you are a special kind of marketer. Even on mondays. 

eTailment Summit & Expo a place to go?

I’m standing right in the middle of an old aeroplane hangar. Green painted steel pillars carry the extremely high and heavy roof. Pale light shines through the big yellowed windows at the end of this hall. The air is hot and dry. And there in the middle of this gigantic hall stands a real candy bomber.

The candy bomber in the networking area.

Yes I arrived at one of the biggest eCommerce business congresses in Germany: The eTailment Summit & Expo 2.014. A congress where you can also hear a lot about eCommerce, marketing, startups, big data and much more. 

But let´s start at the beginning:

I won two tickets for this big event and started to take a closer look. After I checked everything it seemed like everything would be perfect. The timetable sounded great, the event area was one of the coolest in europe and at least one ticket should cost 1300 €. So I went to Berlin, my bag full loaded with expectations. 

After a long, uncomfortable trip to Berlin I arrived at Tempelhof, an old airport which is an event area now. Big trade shows like the Bread & Butter take place here every year. A real impressive place for every event. I couldn't wait to get inside, so I speeded up really massive without even noticing. For one moment I forgot everything around me. I nearly even forgot my girlfriend, who traveled with me.

Fortunately I didn’t forget her completely and we entered the expo together. The expo itself was not very special. Of course all the big players where there, but at the whole expo there was no real eye-catcher with new or innovative ideas. So we went to the next hall pretty fast. The hall where the summit took place. I found myself in front of a huge stage with three big monitors on it and really had to say the location was awesome. It seemed like the organizers know what they did, and they did it good.

But after these first extremely stunning impressions I started to listen to some talks, presentations and discussions. Unfortunately I have to say, the high level of the location couldn’t took higher by the speakers. That wouldn´t have been a problem, if they would have been able to even hold this level. But they weren’t. 

I heard a lot of talks about the future of eCommerce, Community & Content, Mulitchannel, Online Marketing und many more. But after all this talks I have to say there was nothing new. I don´t think the talks were bad. They are just as old as the topics itself. Every “new” idea someone talked about, was an idea which is in discussion for at least one year now. Of course you will not find brand new ideas on every congress you are a part of, but it´s frustrating to see guys selling their “new” ideas and everyone in the audience (who read something about the market the last year) know exactly what the speaker wanted to say. 

On the other hand some of the best practice talks on the startup and the best practice stage were really interesting. Of course you are not able to find completely new ideas here. But some of these talks really showed how things could get down practical, without unreal expectations and fancy technology thoughts.

The lesson is clear: The eTailment Summit & Expo is a good place to building up a network with very important people and it`s definitely a good chance to get an overview about the whole eCommerce scene.  But if you want to get the newest ideas and inspirations this business congress might not be the place where you should go.

Monday Quote: „Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.“ - Steve Jobs

„Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.“ - Steve Jobs

We work in a very stressful job. And sometimes our daily business is full of numbers, meetings and budget plans. So it´s just normal you do somethings like you always did. Or you read a best practice article, mix it up with your own ideas and just do it like that. And there is nothing wrong about doing it like that. But we should never forget, that we work in one of the most creative jobs on earth. And sometimes creativity strikes against every best practice. Maybe all of us should thing a little bit more for our selves and bring good ideas to reality instand of working in the „business as usual“ - mode. Be the one your colleges follow, not the follower.