The potential upsides of beaconing are
pretty well known.
The small radio-transmitting devices in a store can provide a pretty good idea that a person is in a certain department.
An ad, coupon or other message could be sent
to the phones of shoppers who want such things or the location data could be passively captured by a marketer for various uses later.
As in most major technology implementation, there’s
another side of the picture.
The reality is that only 3% of businesses are using beacons, while another 11% are piloting them, based on a new report from Forrester, appropriately subtitled
Beacons Aren’t Always the Answer.
More than half (56%) of companies have no plans to test or use beacons, according to Forrester’s online global survey of 3,600 adults.
Here’s the status of the others in terms of their beacon usage:
- 31% -- Planning to test/use
- 11% -- Currently piloting/testing
- 3% -- Regularly using
And to the potential challenges of beacons, Forrester identified five:
Expectations. Too many businesses expect too much of the technology and
improperly tuned and placed beacons do not deliver enough accuracy.
BLE is immature. Bluetooth is established, but Bluetooth Low Energy
is still somewhat of a work in progress.
Beacons not equally flexible. Apple iBeacon, Google’s and Radius have many differences,
limiting flexibility.
Implementation costs. The cost of beacons can appear to be low but hardware cost is a red herring. Implementations
have to include operational costs.
Controls and security.Bluetooth Low Energy has a higher level of risk compared to other wireless
technologies.
This doesn’t mean that businesses, most notably retailers, should skip beaconing, since the consumer behaviors associated with location identification are
evolving.
Those that don’t at least find out what does and doesn’t work for their particular customer set will be a major step behind as the Internet of Things moves forward.
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The MediaPost IoT Marketing Forum is
being held Aug. 3 in New York. Check it out the agenda here