Hey hey, I’m back from the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas. Wow! That show was huge. How huge? 1.8 million square feet of technology huge!! The line “walk ’till you drop” must have come from there…
There is much I could report on. Rather than hit you with a post too long for its own good - I’m going to break this up and give you bites of goodness over the next couple of weeks.
Let’s dive right in.
I’m going to start today with my overall take away on what’s happening with technology from the show. You can watch or read the keynotes for Bill Gates of Microsoft, Toshihiro Sakamoto of Panasonic, Paul Otellinini of Intel by going here CES Keynotes
But if I had to sum up where consumer technology is heading in 2008, at least as presented at CES, I’d give it to you in one word. That’s right, just one word…
PERSONALIZATION
You’ll hear 100 different ways to call it, to name it and to come up with what it really means. But it all comes back to personalization.
That’s right. I didn’t see many revolutionary technologies. Which is fine, I wasn’t really expecting to. What I did see a lot of were extensions of current technologies, altered in one way or another to give and allow the consumer more control.
Yes, of course manufacturers have made TVs thinner (now as thin as an iphone), and larger - the Panasonic 150″ (I think that is something like 9 or 10 - 50″ TVs put together), stunning. But most of the ‘new’ technologies are focused around making technology more relevant to each individual consumer.
This isn’t anything new…we’ve been able to change our PCs desktop background for a long time, and then to choose the color of our Hotmail accounts, and to push one button to scan and archive receipts and on and on.
It makes sense that this trend keeps progressing. Until something revolutionary comes out companies can only hope to keep consumers interested in their brand and products by making it more and more relevant…and in this case, making consumers feel proud of what they own. It’s not a XYZ Brand MP3 player, but an MP3 player unique to each person and customized for their lifestyle.
Vets of marketing know that personalization is nothing new. While this technique has been around for ages only recently have many global corporations caught on that they should personalize their direct mail and promotions to the person they send them to. Receiving something in the mail or by email that has my name on it feels more personal, doesn’t it?
I’m glad to see the focus on personalization enter the mainstream increasingly.
Here are a few examples:
Optimus Maximus Keyboard - http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/demo/
Decal Girl - http://www.decalgirl.com/
Next week I’m going to give you the inside scoop on trade show marketing…
To your success,
Michael
