D?rf?r kommer ICA och Walmart att tvingas se ?ver sin kommunikation

Det ?r fredag kv?ll och jag skjuter igen d?rren till arbetsrummet f?r att ta del av fler sp?nnande uppkopplade saker och nya h?rliga tj?nster. Och f?rst?s m?nniskor som t?nker nytt n?r vi skall digitalisera organisationer. Goda exempel vi vill f?lja. Norah Jones sk?na toner ekar fr?n k?ket n?r jag l?mnar familjen f?r en stund.

Jag skall prata med Rupali Steinmeyer, som jag jobbade tillsammans med i Kina f?r att st?rka Volkswagens varum?rke. Hon ?r fantastiskt smart, inkluderande, strategisk, passionerad och tuff. Hon ?r f?dd i Indien, uppvuxen i Bangalore, Washington och New York. Levt med sin egen familj i Berlin och Beijing. En sann stj?rna som vigt sitt liv att utveckla stora globala varum?rken. Nu ?r hon tillbaka i USA f?r att skapa tillv?xt f?r varum?rkesbyr?n MetaDesign. Hon landade med sin familj under mars m?nad i San Francisco. En region som ofta ligger ett par steg f?re vad g?ller digitala trender. Vad ser hon? Bland annat en innovation som kan p?verka livsmedelsindustrin rej?lt. Jag hoppas att du vill h?nga med ett par minuter. Rupali ?r engelsktalande, s? vi tar det p? engelska.

-      Hey Rupali, lovely to hear your voice again. It’s so exciting with your move to “the bay”, how are you and what’s the big news?

We are exchanging the latest updates on family, friends, Berlin, Beijing, life in San Francisco, the California fires and work life, before moving onto what we had planned to discuss.

- The American society has changed a lot since I was living here, Rupali says. A lot is very familiar but many things have changed too. The bay area is at the forefront when it comes to technology and the adaptation of new technologies, she continues. I’m exposed to so an incredible amount of disruption and inspiration at the same time. And you can’t beat the sunshine!

I sense the pulse, her eager to learn. To understand how those new opportunities can be applied. That's very much Rupali, and why she is so successful.

-      To me the one big change is how we are moving into a very integrated world. When people talk about experiences, we′re not talking of either a digital or physical experience any longer. It’s a marriage of the two. Every company will try to develop a seamless experience, where consumers will be exposed to a digital/physical world very naturally. This change goes a lot quicker than we anticipated.

-      This is now finally happening. Augmented reality is becoming integrated into everything; every product and at every logic touch point where it makes sense. Artificial intelligence are implemented too and is part of how we interact with consumers in a much more efficient and more qualitative way. Rupali continues; if you add on Virtual Reality and suddenly the physical experience will have another meaning. You don’t have to go to a physical store any more. From a marketing and brand standpoint, we need to rethink. Branding/pr/above the line/digital - now just melt together. I see very clearly that digital tools are making more traditional channels work harder, and vice versa. You need to consider them in a complete mix when planning your brand- and sales activities.

- I love that it's happening, could you please exemplify, so I can picture your thoughts better?

-      Sure, take Amazons voice recognition/digital assistant Alexa* - which as you know is becoming very prominent. Today it’s integrated into Sonos speaker systems. It is only a matter of time before it gets integrated in kitchen appliances, home security solutions and more. IoT is changing connected living. Kitchen appliances manufacturers are integrating connectivity technologies at a very rapid pace. As a consumer, you are able to discuss recipes and chat with your assistant and e.g. order groceries or other goods. And the assistant will open the door for your grocery delivery so they can put your stuff directly in your refrigerator, if you’re not at home. This, in combination with our ability to think that voice recognition is less awkward, is the one next big thing. The appetite to actually have discussions with a computer has changed. It’s now becoming a single end point for consumers. How we interact with things, will be a great opportunity (and challenge) for brands.

-      On the same topic, screens are becoming integrated in products. I made a speech at a conference the other week, and it became very clear that touch screens are now moving into our homes as integrated parts of our homes. They are so thin; don't even think of it as a screen. Think instead of pixels you paint on surfaces. I see a lot of integrated screens combined with voice technology. We will use it for communicating with family members and doing all sorts of daily interaction with the world. Ask questions, get answers, doing your homework, check weather, get recipes, write a list to Amazon… get stuff from Amazon…

For a second, I'm zooming out and thinking on how brands need to be present in those automated processes. If you sell grocery but not part of the consumer initiated order processes, you are... not part of it. How will you safeguard your presence in highly automated processes?

As a marketer, the dynamics are the same but the tools are changing. Cars, machines, kitchen appliances, tools, clothes and all sorts of products are increasingly becoming a place for content, dialogue and conversation. If we can make consumers life easier and the interaction more valuable, it is more likely you strengthen loyalty beyond price reductions and campaigns.

- Related to this, another very tangible trend is how machine learning becomes a natural part of the interaction between brands and people, Rupali continues.

-      Machine learning is actually real. It’s not a strange "human-like" robot any longer. We have to unlearn the idea that a robot is something fearful. We often have in mind a robot as a human like person that has some physical similarities to us. But robots are a part of our life. It can be a stick. It can be a program. It can be a system or service. All your order information, personal information, payment information, reward information etc. are smartly stored and processed to service you better and more efficient next time you have an interaction with a brand. That said, another strong debate here in the states, is how much data you can have and still benefit from it. The more information you have, the more consumers will benefit from it. Or? Companies have to remember to make information to a size that people can understand. How much is of real value? How much is a trend? Count your steps… useless for many, important for a few.

I can't stop thinking our mission now is to drive the human aspect in all this. The meeting and experience needs to be warm, trustworthy, respectful, true and very relevant. And sometimes inspiring, overwhelming, mindful or maybe peaceful. The context and the human aspect of brand communication have never been more important. Many of e.g. booking sites today are so optimised you will freak out as a user/consumer. They stress you and takes your trust away. They are not acting on behalf of you.

- Rupali, have you seen any good examples of technology that might change the game in any aspect?

-      Yes, I ran into a super interesting solution/service on the conference I attended. It’s called SCIO. It’s a scanning mechanism for any goods but in this case, think of it as your personal scanner for food. It's not scanning the bar code; it's actually scanning the product and gives you the chemical setup. It’s really fascinating and uncovers what your eye can’t see. The application will decode information of your vegetable or piece of meat. How fat is it? How many calories? How much % water does it contain? What are the ingredients? Does it contain any chemicals? Is it as eco-friendly as it says on the packaging? Just imagine the benefit for me as consumer. You might be on a strict diet. You might be allergic and in the risk of a serious reaction with nuts?

-      We actually tried to scan a piece of meat and on the packaging it said 15% fat. In reality it showed more than 22% fat, Rupali says. This will also be the technology for the animal feed industry. You will be able to optimize your process of giving the right balance of food to your animals and get the perfect mix of fat, energy, protein, nutrition etc.

-      It will totally and radically change the power game with food chains. As a brand, you can’t be vague of how this vegetable is produced, where it comes from etc. If so, you will lose trust very quickly. A quick tweet from consumers will be devastating. Walmart and ICA needs to watch out. It's pretty mind-blowing, I also think this will completely change their way of assure quality. They need to be very conservative with what to communicate, if not 100% certain e.g. that a product is environmental friendly.

Jag skulle kunna sitta hela kv?llen och prata med Rupali men hon beh?ver kila iv?g till ett m?te och jag vill tillbaka till familjen. Innan vi l?gger p? best?mmer vi att ses i anslutning till CES i Las Vegas som g?r av stapeln i januari. Jag t?nker p? att automatiserade system tvingar alla varum?rket att se ?ver sina existerande “v?rdekedjor” och s?ka nya potentiella partners f?r att vara med i ett helt kund-initierat fl?de. Det beror sj?lvklart p? vad man har f?r business men ?ven en fl?kt kommer att koppla upp sig, f?rst? att luftfiltret beh?ver bytas, hitta potentiella leverant?rer, best?lla filter inklusive service samt ?ppna d?rren f?r serviceteknikern…

En annan tanke jag har ?r vilket ytterligare tryck p? transparens som SCIO skapar. P? n?got s?tt k?nner jag mig inspirerad av produkten. Vi lever i en konstig v?rld med politiker som ljuger utan att kunna st?llas till svars, avsaknad av k?llkritik och en allm?n k?nsla av att det ?r sv?rt att g? till botten med sanningar. SCIO k?nns som ett omr?de med n?gon form av uppr?ttelse, ?ven om det f?rst?s ?r en helt annan sak. ?rlighet. Att bolag inte kan s?ga en sak och leverera en annan. Riktigt friskt p? n?got s?tt.

Jag skjuter upp d?rren till arbetsrummet. Nora Jones har tystnat och ersatts av ljud fr?n omr?stningen av Idol. Tv? unga talanger st?r bredvid varandra. En skall r?stas ut men f?r b?da lever dr?mmen oavsett. Det k?nns bra.

L?s g?rna mer:

SCIO:

https://www.consumerphysics.com

*) Alexa:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Alexa