Trend 2 GET TO KNOW ME #TECHVISION2019 create many consumer variables that businesses must in the first place. Individual lines will range from “all fever might wonder if their new connected both understand and address. personalization is creepy to me” through to thermometer is being too “chatty” about their “personalization is incredibly useful and I don’t find it household’s health. The most obvious example relates to the question of creepy at all,” plus everything in between—and the individualization and privacy. As companies move line will vary for each different offering. Fortunately for businesses, the very technologies that toward serving the market of one, they must toe the make individualized experiences possible can also line between “useful” and “creepy”—and bear in mind Businesses must also remember that they are not the help companies determine consumers’ preferences that the line will vary for each person. only company that individuals have technology-driven for how tailored those experiences should be. relationships with—and those other relationships may Going beyond the red line for an individual customer affect the lines they draw for your company. Businesses are already collecting the information they could mean all is lost. Case in point: one in five need to build this level of understanding, whether it is consumers report that they would switch to another Thanks to ecosystem connections, companies can for marketing purposes, figuring out how best to brand if a personalization experience was too creepy, access information about a person’s technological communicate with a particular customer, or for and one in five also said they would talk about the footprint even if that person has never interacted with providing support. Now, they must combine the data 16 creepy personalization with others. Yet at the same them. Kinsa’s connected thermometers let customers and use it in new ways to calculate the “creepiness time, nearly half of consumers say they have track their fevers via a smartphone app; Clorox paid quotient” in advance. Coupled with transparency purchased a product they weren’t planning on buying to license the information, using it to direct ads to US about the insights being drawn from their after receiving a personalized recommendation from ZIP codes where people had more fevers (and interactions, companies can use this understanding 17 18 a company. potentially more need for disinfecting wipes). No to build and maintain trust with customers as personally identifying information was ever shared. offerings get more and more individualized. The key takeaway: tailoring offerings to the individual Still, customers who end up seeing ads for also means figuring out just how much tailoring to do disinfecting wipes not long after their child had a 36 TECHNOLOGY VISION 2019 THE POST-DIGITAL ERA IS UPON US