The future of user experience
Ian Karnell, President & Founder | One to One Interactive
March 27, 2003
Delivering Proximity-Based User Experiences
As interactive marketing has become more prominent over the last 5
years, some brand marketers expressed concern that technology would
begin to take the place of an engaging brand experience. Also, they
feared that the focus on data mining would distract marketers from
creating real and meaningful brand interactions with the consumer,
thus losing the brand completely.
Another school of marketers envisioned a renaissance in brand
marketing enabled by technology. They believed that the Internet
would spawn new innovations in the way marketers could extend the
brand through dynamic interactive channels with the consumer, as
well as enhance the consumer's brand experience through a richer
understanding of their desires, behaviors and attitudes measured by
real-time interactions. Such interactions would allow marketers to
architect tailored consumer experiences that would differentiate
the brand from its competitors and deepen the brand's relationship
with consumers.
As the Internet becomes more ubiquitous (see —
The future of
one-to-one marketing) allowing consumers and marketers to
converse anytime and anywhere, consumers will become fully immersed
(surrounded by colors, shapes, sounds, and sensations) in brand
experiences. No longer will consumers merely consume a brand; they
will become part of the brand and live the brand.[i] One to One
believes that Interactive marketers will be at the forefront of
leading innovations that will deliver such brand experiences by
architecting
proximity-based user experiences .
One to One defines proximity-based user experiences as: the
extension of a company's brand through interactive communication
channels and devices, which surround and engage the consumer at a
relevant place and time.
One to One believes that marketers will need to:
- Look beyond the PC Web
- Look beyond explicit customer attitudes and behaviors
- Adopt more sophisticated skill sets, tools, and
measurements
Beyond the PC Web
Interactive marketers leverage a range of channels to communicate
with their target audience. The PC Web has been the predominate
channel to date. However, Forrester Research predicts that:
"2003 will mark a dramatic shift to multi-device access:
Non-PC devices will penetrate 36% of US households; cheap
communication technology will connect platforms; and content will
flow easily across devices. Multi-device users will finally begin
to get a consistent experience, and providers will focus on driving
users to commerce platforms." [ii]
- The number of online mobile users will explode from 2 million
in 2001 to 23 million in 2003. 26% of these users will have three
or more devices.
- Interactive TV (ITV) is expected to become part of 15 million
user households in 2003. 29% of these homes will use at least
three of such devices
- Nearly 8 million people will own personal digital assistants
(PDAs) in 2003. These users will use location-based services,
browse the Web, and check email.
- By 2004 more than a million cars will have Internet
connections.
As outlined in
The future of
one-to-one marketing, marketers will need to go beyond
traditional marketing tactics to accommodate the speed at which a
consumer will use information to make a decision, as well as the
proliferation of channels to which they will access such
information.
Interactive marketers will leverage
"intelligent"communication services to track consumers and devices
and deliver "intelligent" marketing that is real-time,
proximity-based, and ultra-personalized.
Beyond Explicit Customer Behaviors and Attitudes
Successful Interactive marketers have pursued an ongoing commitment
to understanding and anticipating consumer behaviors and attitudes
in order to deepen the relationship between the brand and the
consumer through tailored experiences.
The proliferation of interactive channels will complicate the
marketer's ability to understand and anticipate consumer behaviors
and attitudes. The primary complicating factor lies in the fact
that the interactive experience will become multi-dimensional — no
longer will Interactive marketers be required to design experiences
for just Web-based interactions, but for interactive experiences
that are immersed within the physical environment (cars,
appliances, clothing, and other smart devices) and are ubiquitous.
(see figure 1.0)
figure 1.0
| Gerald Zaltman, How Customers Think, Harvard
Press 2003 |
|
"The ability to anticipate consumer responses based on
deep knowledge about them lies at the heart of skillful
marketing. As many writers on technological innovation
stress, a deep understanding of customers is the only sound
basis for developing marketing strategy for discontinuous
innovation."
|
Some companies have already begun to incorporate such
market research methods. Iain Douglas, vice president for marketing
at Gallo wines, develops maps that show how consumer thoughts and
actions are correlated in order to understand the "why" behind the
"what" of his buyers' attitudes and behaviors. [iii]
Other research tactics that some companies have begun to use
include neural imaging, latency analysis, and consensus maps in
order to uncover additional consumer insights to drive further
innovations in delivering richer brand experiences to consumers.
Adopt New Skill Sets, Tools, and Measurements
Delivering proximity-based user experiences will also require that
Interactive marketers adopt new skill sets, tools, and measurements
to track consumer interactions, anticipate their needs, and deliver
anytime/anywhere experiences.
As the physical environment becomes more digital and
interconnected so will the consumer. Marketers will need to round
out their teams with individuals that are skilled in understanding
how environmental and technological interactions impact the user
experience. Anthropologists, neural-scientists, and psychologists
will become a more present part of the Interactive marketing mix.
A geometric expansion in data will result in the coming years
as ubiquitous Interactive marketing begins to take root and
marketers begin to deliver proximity-based user experiences. As a
result, Interactive marketers will need to upgrade their current
tools in order to keep pace. Vendors like Curl, Sun Microsystems,
and Microsoft have already begun initiatives to track consumer-side
data streams that will be generated through smart devices and
appliances, which report on user behavior.[iv] Furthermore,
Forrester Research predicts that academic and military projects
funded to create software models of human behavior will spawn a
market of vendors selling packaged scenarios for automated
measurements. According to Forrester, these firms will be acquired
by "data mining giants" like SAS and NCR, who will merge the
software-based scenarios with mining tools to gain behavioral,
transactional, and financial insights from large data sets.
Lastly, delivering proximity-based user experiences will
require an evolution in the way Interactive marketers define user
segments, business goals and architect interaction scenarios that
are framed with meaningful metrics. Real-time variable testing of
value propositions, offers, channel mix and messages will become
more prevalent in the marketing process in order for Interactive
marketers to uncover interaction metrics that directly connect to
their company's business goals. Successful Interactive marketers
have already begun to learn and incorporate direct marketing
disciplines and, as a result, will be better prepared to deliver
proximity-based user experiences in the future.
[i] Marc Gobe, Emotional Branding, Allworth Press 2001
[ii] Forrester Research, June 2000. Many Devices, One
Consumer
[iii] Gerald Zaltman, How Customers Think, Harvard Press
2003, pg. 131
[iv] Forrester Research, September 2001, How to Measure What
Matters
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