Marketing 0

Creating a Direct Channel to Customer Premises
IoT penetrates customer homes, too. Everything from security
systems to home entertainment to household appliances is
connected to the Internet. The rise of smart homes provides a
channel for marketers to promote products and services directly to
where customers live. It helps marketing move ever closer to the
point of consumption.
One of the growing channels for marketers in customer homes is the
smart speakers such as Amazon Echo, Google Nest, and Apple
HomePod. Each is powered by intelligent voice assistants: Alexa,
Google Assistant, and Siri. These smart speakers essentially act as
voice-activated search engines, to which customers ask questions
and look for information. Like search engines, they will become more
intelligent as they learn more about their owners’ habits and
behaviors through numerous inquiries. Therefore, it potentially can
be a powerful contextual marketing channel.
Marketing on these smart speaker systems is still in the early stages
as direct advertising is not currently available on any of the
platforms. However, many workarounds are possible. For instance,
Amazon Echo allows users to train Alexa with specific skills to make
it more useful. Companies like P&G and Campbell's are publishing
skills related to their products. For the Tide brand, P&G created an
Alexa skill that answers hundreds of questions about laundry.
Campbell's released an Alexa skill that provides answers to recipe
inquiries. As customers ask these questions and get answers, brands
get increased awareness and higher intention-to-buy.
Most smart appliances also provide a screen space for promotion.
Samsung's Family Hub—a refrigerator with a touchscreen display—
allows shoppers to build a shopping list and order groceries directly
from the Instacart app. The smart fridge also enables customers to
request an Uber ride or order food from GrubHub. The intelligent
appliance ecosystem empowers marketers to be instantly available
with the right products and services the moment customers need
them the most.
More advanced utilization of connected devices at home is for 3D
printing. The technology is still in infancy because it is considered

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expensive and complicated. But companies are exploring ways to
bring it to mainstream usage. Hershey and 3D Systems introduced
CocoJet's 3D chocolate printer in 2014. With CocoJet, users can
print chocolate of various shapes and put a personalized message on
a chocolate bar. This sort of technology brings the point of
production closer to the point of consumption.
Although more popular in the business-to-customer (B2C),
contextual marketing is very much applicable in the business-to-
business (B2B) settings. Since B2B companies do not necessarily
have retail outlets, the IoT sensors are installed on their products at
customer premises. Heavy equipment manufacturers, for example,
can install sensors in the machinery that they sell to monitor
performance. The companies can then provide the contextual data to
their customers for preventive maintenance regularly and eventually
save costs.