The Rise of Automated Homes
Whether you are a fan of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains," or a Disney Channel fanatic of the movie Smart House, you know that we are currently living in a reality dreamt of by forward-thinkers.
Homes are automated, and the market is only growing.
Insider Intelligence expects the total number of connected devices to reach 64 billion by 2025. And, as devices increase, the home automation industry is projected to increase profits to around 21 billion U.S. dollars.
Companies like Amazon, Google, Samsung, Ring, and the likes are leaders in this space, working on optimizing sophisticated smart tools to keep consumers connected in addition to collecting data to continue improving their products and services.
What are the consumer benefits of smart homes and appliances?
#1 - Convenience
The biggest draw for smart homes is that they make the consumer’s life more convenient. In a digital world, where most things and services - affirmation, delivery, email messages - are instant, convenience is almost expected.
Dave Thompson, Owner of home building firm D2 Design and Development, stated that the biggest benefit to home automation is convenience. “When a smart tool is easy to operate, it allows consumers to run their home from an app. The interconnectivity can lead to programmed functions such as when the gate opens, certain lights come on.”
Instead of spending the time to turn off the lights, change the temperature, check to see if food is rotting in the fridge, appliances monitor and use sensors to save time and alert consumers when necessary. A 2016 survey by CNET and Coldwell Banker shared that “57% of Americans say that having smart products in their house saves them about 30 minutes per day.”
Some systems like the thermostats from Nest and Honeywell use machine learning to observe consumer behavior and adjust to the home owner’s behavior as time goes on. The more convenient and adaptable the tool is, the easier the consumer’s life. Advancements in smart tools are especially helpful to the elderly who may need help cleaning or moving around their home.
As the rollout of 5G devices and improved WiFi technology persist, users will also have more powerful networks, thus better access to data.
“From the homebuilder side,” Thompson added, “we focus on making the house wireless connected at the same level that an office building is connected - with no allowance for parts of the house to have inferior signal or dead spots. Perfect WiFi throughout is critical for smart homes to be able to function as designed.”
#2 - Security
Homeowners are able to monitor their homes like never before. With security sensors from companies like Abode, Ring, ADT and the like, consumers have automated and connected smoke alarm detectors, doorbells, and alarm devices/cameras to track visitors, break-ins, and dangerous activity.
Aside from data hacker issues, consumers feel safer and more secure in their homes.
#3 - Sustainability
Oftentimes landlords, tenants and homeowners pay an enormous expense when there is a pipe leak or when there are problems with the HVAC system. Automated thermostats and leak detectors gauge use and adjust settings or alert consumers of any issues leading to energy conservation and reduced costs.
#4 - Health
Smart appliances like smart watches help monitor heartbeats and exercise, allowing medical experts to monitor their patients more closely and accurately. Wearables and appliances like smart pillows help the consumer track their sleep and identify patterns. Innovations like smart pill bottles help forgetful patients and doctors monitor consumption. All of these improvements are geared towards consumers living a healthier lifestyle.
What are the challenges the automation industry faces?
Earning the trust of the consumer regarding privacy/security concerns. Given the vulnerabilities of smart devices, companies are constantly innovating new procedures to provide ultimate security. Thompson shared that “Most home systems are running on secure VPNs or alternate max security systems that run on their devices.” Consumers also have to do their due diligence to review their devices/activity.
Advancing machine learning and computer vision to keep up with consumer expectations and provide a superior customer experience.
Targeting a broad consumer base. Consumers want different appliances for different use cases - marketers must appeal to them all in a personalized way.
Maintaining costs while competing with tech leaders.
Adapting to consumer preferences. Most appliances require the consumer to download an application and, the more appliances installed, the more apps they have to manage. It is up to the service providers to make this process easier. Apple, Google, and Amazon have teamed up to create an “open-source smart house standard” so that homeowners can set up and control their devices to their preferred systems.
What does the rise in automated homes mean for marketers?
While not everyone may have an automated hot tub, a large percentage of Americans own smart devices. According to MediaPost, about 40% of consumers already have at least one smart device in their home - this could range from tablets to connected TVs to security cameras - and, based on a report by Mordor Intelligence, an estimated 16% own a smart speaker. Late adopters to smart tech will most likely purchase connected TVs first, other smart appliances second, and security systems third.
Knowing what consumers are purchasing and using the data collected from the devices helps marketers understand the consumer’s behavior in order to provide a more immediate, meaningful and personalized engagement. For example, a Comscore report stated that most consumers interact with their smart speaker in the morning to afternoon. Data also shows that one-third of Amazon Echo users use it for information/to ask questions and 40% to listen to streamed music.
Given this information, marketers need to optimize their SEO efforts for voice search to cater to the inquisitive consumers, and place ads - possibly morning appropriate - for the music streamers. Marketers need to think innovatively about their advertising when it comes to smart homes because, chances are, they won’t be placing ads on a light switch or smoke detector. Utilizing smart speaker ads or streamlining programs may be a good place to start.
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Observing when and how the consumer is interacting with the devices and what type of consumer is tied to these actions leads to companies providing more convenient and personalized solutions.
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As homes begin to incorporate more smart devices, marketers need to think about how they can optimize this opportunity to add value to the consumer’s life. The balance that leads to engagement lives between intrusion and actually serving the consumer.
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