Having remained a curiosity for a long time, connected objects have been moving up a gear in recent months. We see a significant number of initiatives, from start-ups to large groups, everyone wants to launch their connected objects. There will not be room for everyone, and consumers will not find themselves included in all the proposals. More than ever, consumer insight must be mobilized to create audible value propositions.
The explosion of connected objects
The latest Google I/O keynote only illustrates this clear acceleration around the theme of connected objects. Long remaining a curiosity among geeks and lovers of technological innovations, the principle of connected objects has gradually established itself in the minds of consumers, without them being able to clearly grasp its contours. We talked very early about a connected refrigerator, connected glasses with Google Glass, then a connected watch with the iWatch. In this category of connected watches alone, Apple but also Google, Samsung, Sony, Archos, Polaroid, and even private labels have entered the market massively in recent months.
All categories connected…
Now imagine connected clothes, bracelets, hats, shoes, forks, plates, a casserole dish, etc. Imagine a multiplicity of manufacturers, brands, speeches. The number of product categories that will have to be reinvented is almost limitless. Also imagine yourself as a consumer at the crossroads of all these discourses. Some will be direct with clear benefits, others will blend in and it will become very difficult to navigate. All the more difficult as the “promotional pressure” will be intense and in all universes.
And the consumer in all this?
It is in times of strong pressure in promotional speeches that insight offers its greatest contribution: the ability to attract the consumer's attention with a value proposition that is anchored in their own real experience.
Let's be clear, if for a product manager or an entrepreneur, the launch of a connected object will be the culmination of months of work with his R&D teams, partners or investment funds, for the consumer, if the object is poorly promoted and understood it will only embody a forgotten promotional fraction of a second to which he will be exposed among many others. So make this moment of contact with your offer a unique moment for the consumer, a moment that speaks to them above all about themselves, about how certain habits in their life will change and how their experience will evolve. Put yourself in his place. And remember, by the time you speak, dozens if not hundreds of other references will be being thrown around.
Only clear proposals that respond to real tensions will be heard and then possibly considered. It is because consumers will find themselves in certain staged situations that they will listen to the benefits offered and therefore perhaps consider the connected object. Use insights to attract attention and offer benefits, and sell the benefits, not the item.