Targeting Wearables

In the coming months, wearables will present new and unique marketing opportunities for early adopters. Already, the Apple Watch is making waves in the US and shops are openly adopting the NFC payment method compatible with the device. Predominantly young customers are favouring a wave of the wrist over a tap of the card, and stores giving them this option are quickly dominating the competition.

The apple watch is also compatible with the iBeacon and geofencing technology revolutionising the high street retail model.

Imagine walking through town at lunchtime, looking for a nice place to enjoy a bite to eat, then imagine your watch notifying you that the shop you just walked past is doing a special on Thai Green Curry – your favourite meal. This is the kind of customer comfort and convenience we can come to expect as wearable tech becomes more mainstream in our society.

iBeacon technology and an interface with wearables can also provide invaluable customer research avenue. Mapping software can track customers as they make their way through stores, identifying common paths taken for better placement of goods; it can also tell at what point through a store people make their way to the tells or the exit. Information that can make optimising the store layout an easy task, increasing conversion rates.

This same technology can also be used to create a system of loyalty rewards by behaviour, rather than purchase history. You may notice that a particular customer lingers by a particular product, or always enters the store at a particular time. Tailored rewards to these consumers can help immerse them in the brand, and ensure a returning customer over the long term.

As for the much wider range of health tracking wearable tech, marketing values can be as simple as offering special rewards to people taking care of themselves. Walgreens, a health food brand in the US, is already doing something similar with its Balance Rewards loyalty program, in which members can earn loyalty points by doing things like weighing themselves, exercising, taking and logging their blood pressure, or measuring and recording their blood glucose levels.

Wearable tech is at the brink of becoming part of every brand’s mainstream marketing strategy. Redbox has the knowledge and the experience to innovate in this field, and bring a brand to the wearables market.