Look at any computer screen and it’s highly likely you’ll see Google. The company has become so ingrained in our daily lives that Google itself is now a verb. Now, with the recent release of the Pixel smartphone and Google Home, the tech giant is looking to become just as synonymous with our social and home lives as it is with our online entities. This is big news for marketers, as for the first time, we’re looking at one company holding a significant amount of data on nearly everything a consumer could do offline and online. We could also be looking at the moment that the Internet of Things (IoT) finally becomes mainstream.
Google’s move into consumers’ pockets and homes is one of many moves several companies have been taking to bring smart devices into mainstream society. While the majority of smart home tech could be classed as a gimmick, Google has enough money to push the IoT market from smart kettles that take 11 hours to make a tea, to devices that make our lives significantly smarter.
Given the current momentum, it won’t be long before we see the IoT’s ‘killer app’ come to market. When that happens, targeting and personalisation as we know it will be changed dramatically. With connected devices in every home, marketers are then looking at an unrivalled opportunity to understand their audiences in granular detail.
Google Home will eventually be able to collect data on users’ everyday habits at home, from their music preferences to their heating, transport and even when they turn in at night. Add this information to the data that the Pixel smartphones could collect, and the data Google already has on consumers’ online browsing behaviour, and you can see how the tech giant will dominate marketers’ working lives for decades to come.
The insights marketers could potentially glean from such data could tell them precisely the right message to send an individual at the right time and on the right device. Imagine a retailer pinging a voucher to a customer’s mobile as they walk past a store, for a dress that customer had been previously looking at on their laptop and had also seen on TV. That’s the level of personalisation marketers will be able to achieve with each customer interaction if they can tap into the data Google will be holding.
Realising the potential in the data collected by smart devices may be the stuff of marketers’ dreams, but there are a few potential pitfalls that could suddenly bring them back to Earth.
Notably, there is simmering tension between marketers and consumers over the use of the latters’ data. This will hit boiling point if marketers irresponsibly use the data collected by the IoT. There is a fine line that marketers will have to tread between the kind of personalisation that consumers find useful, and the kind that creeps them out.
Generally speaking, a good rule of thumb is to always inform consumers if their data is going to be collected, how it is collected and stored, what it will be used for and who can access it. Giving them an option to opt out of any data collection is also essential. For marketers who take the time now to understand how the IoT fits into their wider marketing plan, there is a potential goldmine they could uncover. Google has realised this with the Pixel and Google Home devices. It may be a small step on the tech giant’s part to move into the IoT market, but it is a huge leap for marketers everywhere.
By Yariella Coello, head of consultancy at Profusion
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