Internet of Things :What is Born Digital ?

Continuing on the most hyped and talked subject of the Digital World, IoT “Internet of Things” is once again here with us. Thanks for the engaged & irresistible response on my previous blog “IoTbyAshutosh” & “Connected Intelligence” ,which pushed me to Research , Think and Build further on this fastest progressive world of “Internet of Things” 

In order to keep our conversation structured and to the point ….Let me address two key aspect on IoT where you shared most of the feedback.

1.       Is there any sense for marketers?

2.       How business will shape up – The start point for business.

And before we move forward, accept my apology on not able to share my mobile no. , request you to share your inputs/comments on the blog page or join me @AshutoshNow . Your inputs are the soul of my writingJ.

Okay, let’s not get sticky here and focus on our top two agenda of this blog, so let try to put facts together on the first part, as what is here for us as a marketers in the digital world of IOT.

Is there any sense for marketers?

Is the Internet of Things (IoT) about to make a lot more sense for marketers? The answer is yes, The veteran firms like Everything has just announced a major partnership with an apparel labels and tags manufacturer Avery Dennison to connect 10 billion products to the Web over the next three years, heralding a real shift in scale for the IoT.

Now the question is what is going to change compliment these two firs of different world and how IoT is connecting these two dots.

So if we refer to our discussion in the previous blog ““Turning Your Products into a Channel of Customer Engagement: The Untapped Potential of IoT for Business.” Yes this is the core of IoT and the devil to unleash the power of connected intelligence.

Most people’s initial thoughts when thinking about connecting products to the Internet are about connecting cars, washing machines, fridges, and so on. But the idea of a fridge that might re-order food for you is too abstract from a marketer’s point of view, and there are not that many fridges in the world.

What’s more applicable is the idea of connecting with a consumer through consumable products, such as the food and beverages you eat and drink, or the clothes you wear. There aren't that many electronic goods in the world, but when you look at connected consumables and include wearable, then that’s the stuff that will start impacting the marketer’s view of life because of the scale and volumes.

In fact we all are getting into the new generation of the products which is being called as “Born Digital”. These are items that are manufactured with software identities in the cloud. They use IoT data to drive personalised mobile experiences and services for customers, and more efficient supply chains for companies. This is a new era of smarter products with added software capabilities that are more intelligent, more interactive, and more valuable to consumers and brands.

For example, we can be learning about a product’s provenance, unlocking personalised loyalty rewards, or authenticating product identity for brand protection. Products can also guide consumers to the nearest recycling centres, and be scanned by recyclers to reveal their material composition for a more efficient recycling process.

And with this now we must learn as what types of customer engagement activities could work with connected consumables and wearables?

Okay so how it seems appearing is …..Instead of going into a store and seeing an advert on TV to buy jeans, people will be able to tap their jeans to say “I want another pair of these,” or “what's the latest fashion trends and looks that go with my jeans?” Or you could create a competition such as “if you and five of your Facebook friends ‘check in’ to your Levi's in the next hour, you could all win tickets to Big Boss live Episode with Salman Khan.”

How business will shape up – The start point for business?

While I have kept enough food for your thought and creativity on the marketing ideas in the first, now it’s imperative to think thru the second part as how it will impact the EBIT, Revenue and business model and what will be the start point for all these …

Wow thank for being with me till here it sound so exciting …. Okay so let get back to the business.

A smart product provides a mechanism for engaging directly with consumers through the item itself. It becomes a consumer engagement channel just like any other channel, but the big difference is that you know the consumer has your product in their hands. The significance of this can't be understated. Marketers usually communicate out into the wild and often have no idea if someone is a relevant consumer when encountering their messages. Also the actual usage pattern and maintenance frequency and so on …..

Currently we are tracking the user on social media post this, When you give a product its own unique

digital identity and data profile in the cloud—similar to us having our own Facebook profiles—you have the ability to track a product through its full lifecycle, from where and when it was built or made, the content of the product itself, where it was sold, how it was used, and how to dispose of it.

You would also pick up the geo-location as consumers interact with the product using smartphones, so relevant messages and applications can be adapted to an in-store purchasing behaviour, or post-purchase in the home you can provide hyper-personalised content and services.

For example, we've already done this with Coca-Cola, where content triggered by bottles and cans in European market changed content based on the time of day and the product location, combined with recent interaction history based on the user’s device. By delivering dynamic, “in-the-moment” personalisation, Coke created a compelling, memorable digital product experience.

And this whole thing leading to another question in my mind ... where are we at in terms of the speed of adoption for IoT-enabled products?

See, if you're connecting a car, the technology involved in that machine is highly sophisticated, and for appliances and electrical goods like a washing machine, you need to change the product itself to get the technology into it. But when you move into consumables and wearables with technologies like smart packaging and sensors that can piggyback on smartphone processing power and connectivity via Bluetooth or consumer scanning, the process can become much quicker.

Last year we were talking to brands about how interesting IoT is and discussing potential pilots; this year we had brands coming in wanting to run a pilot as a minimum, and we’re now already involved in projects with smart product rollout at a global scale.

And through our partnership with Avery Dennison, we are now connecting billions of individual items to the Web, so the Age of Smart Products really is happening now and at high scale.

The technology itself ranges from fully connected embedded controllers and chips at the top end, to sensors and Bluetooth down to RFID and NFC, which is what everyone has in their phones, down to QR codes and barcodes, and image recognition.

If a CPG client wanted to connect their washing powder via image recognition or smart packaging, or an Apparel manufacturer wanted a digital label for consumers to interact with, or a washing machine manufacturer wanted to add chips and sensors to be controlled by a consumer app plus detect leaks and send alerts to call the local plumber, we can do that today.

What else do marketers need to think about around IoT as an engagement channel?

We’re seeing ecosystems being built out around brands. By that I mean companies leveraging connected IoT data to bring more personal and intelligent offers to market. The insurance industry is a good example. Some forward-thinking insurance companies are asking the policy holders whether they would like three sensors: a water detector to put under your washing machine to check if there's a leak; a temperature sensor to put on your boiler to be notified if it's about to burst; and the third is a movement sensor to know if someone is at home. They are also doing deals with smoke alarm device manufacturers to connect that data into their systems. Consumers are being offered discounts off their insurance premium to do this because of the huge impact in loss prevention for insurers.

That's an ecosystem play also because when the connected system flags an issue, other companies have an opportunity to offer relevant repair services, or a new boiler, for example. That’s when the ecosystem starts getting really interesting, and it’s the kind of thing we’re already doing.

Ok so here I want to take a pause and would like to handover this now to you so that we can co-create another an impressive and rich documents, trust the last 15-20 minutes of your journey with me was fruitful.. Thanks !!!