But now come the marketers, determined to turn it into a spam engine that could derail beacons' adoption. This year, the first broad use of beacons in stores such as Macy's and GameStop has arrived,
in time for Christmas. Actually, Christmas is the target, with
marketers hoping to blast us with coupons and come-ons as we shop in
physical stores this high-buying season.
Retail stores aren't alone in hoping to spam you as you enter their
premises. A company called GuestDriven plans to deploy beacons in
independent hotels so that guests "receive a welcome message when they
walk through the doors, a special offer to upgrade to a suite upon
arrival, or a message with in-room food options for guests checking in
past dinner time."
The Walgreens iOS app's notifications on an iPhone has several settings
for the kind of in-store messages that maybe sent via beacons triggers.
Various stores have been piloting beacons for a while. Coca-Cola, for
example, used beacons in parking lots at World Cup venues in Brazil to
send mobile ads directing people to the nearest Coke machine. Brazilian
fashion retailer Dafiti is exploring using beacons in city parks to
"alert" people to "the latest park outfits and lifestyle news." As you
can see, nowhere will you be safe from spam.
GuestDriven CEO Anthony Zebrowski-Rubin is clear as to why marketers are
salivating over beacons: "Beacons provide a way to market, engage, and
upsell customers, while driving repeat business." That's the same value
of junk mail, email spam, telemarketing calls, billboards, and flyers
left on your windshield.
Of course, businesses need to attract and retain customers, and they can
more easily grow profits if they get existing users to spend more --
which is much cheaper than getting new customers. Beacons are a great
technology to connect with those existing customers.
The issue is how a retailer uses the beacons technology, not whether it uses beacons.
Beacons today are largely an iOS phenomenon. Apple baked in support for its iBeacons protocol in iOS 7, and all its iPhones and iPads have supported the required Bluetooth Low Energy radios since 2012.
Several beacons makers, such as Estimote, have APIs that developers can
use on Android, iOS, and other devices, but Android devices supporting
Bluetooth Low Energy have become common only in 2014 models. Google is
working on its beacons APIs, with some in Android 5.0 Lollipop now
slowly rolling out -- aimed solely at use for mobile advertising.
In the iOS world, you need an app for iBeacons to work with. The app is
the conduit for the information exchange, as the exchange happens over
the Internet, with the beacon triggering the exchange when detected via
Bluetooth. The beacon also provides its location, so the app knows what
you are and what context you're in. The app need not be running -- the
iBeacons protocol in iOS will open or waken the app if needed.
What that all means is that retailers can be smart about how they use
beacons. Many will simply spam you with "special offers" when you enter
their premises. Others will be more subtle, welcoming you to the store
and reminding you that their app can help you as you peruse the store.
iOS 8's location privacy settings on an iPhone
Apps should have several levels of opt-in beacons interaction, typically:
Kiosk level enables the app to interact with beacons at the user's
initiation. For example, you might initiate the app when in the men's
section to get a floor plan for that area, or the ability to see what's
out of stock but available for online purchase
Guidance level enables the app to proactively guide you based on,
say, your shopping list stored in the app once you've entered the store.
Walmart has piloted this approach, for example.
Promotion level enables active promotions when in or near the store
-- the "special offers," coupons, and so forth that marketers focus on.
Certainly, there are shopaholics who will love these promotions, and
they should able to get them, but not at everyone else's expense.
The key is in understanding that there should be several levels of
interaction for different kinds of customers -- and letting customers
manage that. Some apps do that today; Walgreens is an example, though it
makes you opt out rather than in.
If beacon-triggered apps focus on only mobile promotion spam or turn
that on automatically in an opt-out approach, many customers will simply
turn off location services for the app, killing the beacons opportunity
that retailers seek. Remember: Apple's iOS makes it (correctly) easy
for customers to do so, via its Settings app's Privacy pane.
Marketers love to talk about using customer information to create a
better user experience. Many don't really mean that, of course -- but
they should. By using beacons wisely, they could put their deployments
where their mouths are.
Hello, my name is Mohd Azahar. I'm a self-employed Pivrate from the India.
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