Blockchain- A marketer’s dilemma too soon?

“Bitcoin will do to banks what Email did to the postal industry”said Rick Falkvinge, IT Entrepreneur and Founder, Swedish Pirate Party.While bitcoin has faced many a bumps on the road to be the money of the internet, the technology that propelled it has certainly found a lot of aficionados. That technology is Blockchain.

Simply put, Blockchain = Network to transfer value without intermediaries

A little hard to get? Imagine a validated letter without the postal stamp i.e. email. The post department never stamped it, but an email is still your valid proof with sent/received copies stored in a server.

Blockchain unfolds in 2016:

More than $ 1 billion is estimated to be spent to bring blockchain technology.It is being extensively experimented across industries starting from banks to supply chain.Eg, the NASDAQ & Chain partnership to transform private share trading has been a key milestone.

The marketing link to the Blockchain:

So why should a marketeer be worried about a technology called blockchain.The reasons are many.To start off it is a foundational technology like the TCP/IP. While it may take time to evolve, it will transform the very foundations of doing business.To understand the marketing angle, let us list the key features of blockchain.It is :

-Auditable & Traceable

-Counterfiet resilient

-Irreversible

-Auto-verified

For a moment, now apply these to customer data analytics and real-time authenticated responses to changes in customer behaviour. This is the link between data-driven marketing and blockchain.

Power to the consumers-

Every large marketer and marketing service company would like a massive identity graph of all consumers, with the ability to leverage that information in all communications with their customers. But consumers (and regulators) aren’t likely to let such databases be created, let alone exploited, if they can stop it.

Enter the Blockchain. Combining Blockchain technology with multikey encryption could give us a well-distributed, user-controlled identity graph that could  monumentally empower consumer in the ad and marketing world -- from centralized media and marketing companies to end consumers which is a culmination of the trend we are already seeing.

Marketers can expect to use intelligent technology in the coming years – not only in monetary value but reputations, social interactions, experiences and memories, relevancy to tastes and ambitions.

For example,in the FMCG world, the blockchain might see consumers buy their household products direct from P&G or Unilever rather than through a supermarket. Sidestepping the middle man would reduce the cost to consumers considerably.

Supermarkets might react by providing new and innovative Artificial Intelligence services to customers.

These services, utilising personal data from the blockchain, could include managing health goals with a service linked to health data collected from a smartwatch. In fact consumers will gravitate towards brands that provide most value to them and will quickly reject those that don’t satisfy their needs.

Honest Marketing:

At Shanghai Fashion Week in October, fashion label Babyghost worked with VeChain, a blockchain platform, to let customers “verify” a selection of handbags. Customers here could scan the tags using their phones to find a “story” of the product — where it’s from, who previously modeled it, and so on.

The idea here is that blockchain can be used to advertise a product in a much more “authentic” way that doesn’t come off as marketing.

Marketing in an IoT world:

The near future will be cashless and wireless, with the internet of things. We would all be wearing chip-based devices to order everything.And to speak to these devices, intelligent laser precise inbound-marketing will be the accepted norm of the day.

The Marketing Cyborgs are Coming

“Will Robots inherit the earth? Yes, but they will be our children”said Marvin Lee Minsky, an American Cognitive scientist. 2016 can now be safely declared as the year of the robot, in which the debate about robotics, automation, and AI finally emerged from academic/IT circles and into the public consciousness.

The International Organization of Standardization (ISO) sets a standard for what constitutes a robot. ISO defines an industrial robot as being an “automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose manipulator” that is “programmable in three or more axes.”Robots are best applied in any fixed and repetitive task where the work involved is predictable and routine.

 So, where does a robot fit into the day-to-day life of a marketer

The Holy Grail of customer-centric marketing is to create truly personalized, eloquent and appropriate interactions that nurture long-term, value-generating relationships. More than the “narrow intelligence” of performing repetitive tasks, this is where AI will come into play.

The Los Angeles Times uses robots to report on earthquakes: the organization relies on an algorithm that pulls in data on magnitude, place and time from a US Geological Survey site. NPR has reported on the use of robot sportswriters producing coverage of games.

Robots are part of interactive displays at trade shows where they compete with more traditional marketing tools for attendees’ attention.

Brand bolster by Robots

As important commercial and cultural entities, brands will play an important role in this robot evolution. Our everyday lives are already hard to imagine without brands. The brands we already trust in our homes and offices, or in our interpersonal relations and individual communication, are the ones we will trust when they start using robots to convey a message, provide utility or entertainment.

But let us ask ourselves: where’s the dividing line between what you do, and what a machine could do for you?

If your customers own wearables or smart-home devices, they’ve already handed the management of their fitness, diet, power usage, personal security, and more, to software They don’t even have to drive or park their own cars.

According to Oxford University robotics expert Dr Anders Sandberg, if you can describe your job, then your job can and will be automated. In the future, he claims, 47 per cent of all jobs will be replaced by software, with those that can most easily be described being the first to go.

Hilton Hotels is piloting a Watson-powered concierge, Connie – an Aldebaran humanoid robot  – which guests can chat to and ask to recommend local attractions, restaurants, and more.

Kit, the artificially intelligent marketing robot recently acquired by Shopify, is looking to be one of the first robots to successfully plan your eCommerce digital marketing strategy.

Today, most artificial intelligence is referred to as "narrow intelligence," limited to discrete functions and programs on individual devices such as a mobile phone, car or PC. But as AI develops more broadly, it will reach the potential of human-level brain intelligence, that can reason, respond and react like a human being.

An Empathetic Maria?

“There can be no understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator.” Said Maria, the female robot in the movie Metropolis. Robots, as they move towards the next level of developing empathy and emotion, will truly begin making their mark in marketing.

It's All in the Experience!

“Customer comes first” is what the CEO of this retail organization told me recently.Of course, that has been true since eons but I believe now looking to their customer facing team for new notions, leadership and competitive advantage.

Customer service is now seen as the heart of a business. It’s that point where your team interacts with customers every day. It’s where the customers touch points are across functions. Here, prospective customers ask questions, people who are about to be customers clear up last minute hesitations, and existing customers get support.

Customer Advocacy=Consistent Experience

Create an amazing service experience that gets customers to not only come back, but to also share that experience with their friends, colleagues and family members. That is the best form of marketing there is.

But beyond the actual customer experience, the interaction and engagement that happens before the sale – which is part of marketing – needs to be considered as part of the experience. Smart companies have figured this out. It’s about engagement, interaction and relationship building… before the customer ever decides to spend any money with you.

Marketing from the inside out

that is, perfecting the customer experience for your advocates to boast about — is the most effective marketing you will ever do. Once you’ve done that, and the experience is so immaculate and hypnotic that your customers become your most vocal and loyal brand ambassadors, you can then go about doing external marketing to invite strangers into the experience.