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.