What 2011 will mean for technology and marketing
Monday, 13 December 2010 00:00
2011: it’s just another year, but what trends in technology and marketing will businesses need to keep an eye on in the year ahead?
Tribalisation of the web
The father of the internet, Tim Berners-Lee, raised a concern this year that social networking sites such as Facebook could fragment the web into a series of isolated islands. That’s probably putting it a bit strong, but they certainly create a tendency for the web to tribalise. Social networks divert our attention from the web as a whole, towards that part of it which is frequented by our real-world friends.
This may actually be good news from the point of view of small and medium businesses, because it creates such a large number of niches that it becomes impossible for large companies to dominate them all. Expect to see a growth in the number of small businesses participating effectively in social media, with the emphasis on customer recommendations and personalisation of the business identity.
Location-based search and networking
Location based searches will also be increasingly impacted by customer recommendations in 2011 and beyond. Where is my nearest supplier of green widgets? What is the most highly recommended restaurant in the area? What are the best tourist attractions where I am going on holiday? I can ask that question today, and see customer ratings for each result. But how do I know which ones to trust.
The eventual winner in this market will need to bring to together the best features of local search providers like Google Maps, and location-based networks like Foursquare and Gowalla. Through a single interface you should be able to search first for recommendations among your trusted friends; ask them questions; and then cast your search wider if they cannot provide the answer you need. Whatever site eventually provides that facility, it will be vital for businesses to get listed there, and to get rated.
Contactless technology
Our local library – not usually at the cutting edge of technology – recently installed a new self-service system. I no longer need to have books scanned individually by an assistant. I scan my own library card, then place the whole pile of books inside a machine, which checks them in or out, all in one go. This is RFID (radio-frequency identification), using small tags inserted into each book. Once supermarkets install this kind of technology, expect a huge customer swing towards self-service checkouts.
Almost at the same time, Barclays has kitted out its payment cards with similar contactless technology. For transactions up to £15, I will no longer have to insert my card into a machine – just wave it in the general direction to make a payment.
Speeding up the checkout process and reducing direct contact with customers in this way will make it harder for shops to encourage impulse purchases at the till. On the other hand, we can expect to see new ways of marketing to the customer through the checkout terminals themselves.
Mobile convergence
Still with the supermarkets, Tesco recently announced an iPhone app that can display your Clubcard barcode on your iPhone screen, eliminating the need to carry a separate loyalty card. Potentially, every card in your wallet could eventually be replaced by a mobile phone app. And why not? Even my two-year-old Nokia does a very creditable job as a camera, diary, address book, music player, FM radio and satnav system. Storing a few barcodes should be a doddle.
The true all-in-one mobile device is probably still a few years off. Mobile devices remain hampered by short battery life, a confusion of apps, and the incompatibility of the different operating systems. But the OS market will eventually segment between Android for the masses, and Apple for, well, people who like Apple. And there have been some encouraging hardware developments. The bright new touch-screens on the latest generation of mobile devices have contributed to the growing adoption of portable tablets like the iPad and the Samsung Galaxy. And the low-power e-ink display in Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader offers a revolution in battery life.
Maybe not in 2011, but come the revolution, all these goodies will be available in one luscious basket. That basket will include a web browser and a highly targeted advertising system, probably linked to Google Adwords, or maybe to Facebook. At that point, mobile marketing should really lift off.
More bright ideas
There are enough other developments in the melting pot to allow at least one new killer app to emerge in the course of 2011. 3D video and internet television are two technologies with obvious marketing possibilities. It will be fascinating to see what new ideas emerge in the course of the year, and whether or not they catch on.
Written by Bruce Townsend, SEO specialist at ecommerce & EPOS supplier, Actinic. Originally published on UTalkMarketing.