One of the major promises of the Internet of Things has to do with location.
Identifying where a consumer is at any given moment and creating relevant messaging delivered in context has been a marketing goal since forever.
Beacons started to help a little in stores over the last few years and, along with Wi-Fi location and the old GPS standby, knowing where a person is has somewhat improved.
Companies like InMarket and Philips Lighting have figured ways to link the location of shoppers with specific products near them in stores, creating proper incentives to drive the sales of some of those products. InMarket taps beacons while Philips uses connected lights.
The promise of Internet-connected technologies is that the billions of sensors that will be deployed will continually supply a wealth of much more precise consumer location data.
However, that is then and this is now.
At the moment, advertisers are challenged in working with location data due to the varied levels of mobile marketing maturity combined with the complexity associated with the large number of sources and technologies that comprise the location landscape, according to a new study.
The study comprised a survey of 200 marketing decision makers in organizations that spend $250 million or more annually on advertising in North America. It was conducted by Forrester Consulting for Verve.
Many organization are challenged in using location date, for a host of reasons. Here are the challenges they face, according to the study:
The Internet of Things won’t cure all of this, but it will help identify where a consumer is located.
Perhaps I'm biased, but I would've thought Forrester would identify privacy as a key risk/barrier to entry, especially since there's no (easy) way for users to manage their location preferences or opt-out.
Great point, Ben. The study did mention that 52% of younger digital natives are comfortable with sharing their location when it makes sense. Only 17% of those older are.