Remember what life was like before we had smartphones? We flipped through inches of white pages without a thought, carried impossible-to-fold maps wherever we traveled and never left home without pocket change. Now, it seems as if we think everything would work better if it were smart. We can buy smart umbrellas that tell us where we left them and when we’ll need them next. Smart diaper-changing tables that track Junior’s weight, food intake (and output). Even smart underwear that can adjust our home’s thermostat based on our body temperature, change our Spotify playlist based on our mood and adapt our e-gameplay to our stress levels. Oh, yes. Smart underwear is a “thing.” With businesses so quick to employ the latest technologies, it got me questioning whether leveraging all this tech is really so smart after all. In an industry prolific with promises of shiny new toys, I worry about marketers becoming blind to the fundamentals of marketing and relying too much on technology, instead of their heads, to evolve and enhance customer experiences. Don’t risk losing the human touch While keeping up with technological advancements is absolutely critical to keeping pace with today’s complex consumer habits, integrating new technology without a complete understanding of how it works, how it changes consumer behaviors and what value it adds to the customer experience is potentially reckless and off-putting. Marketers who risk losing the human touch also risk losing customers. Consider that in a 2017 survey commissioned to find out how people really feel about the much-hyped area of artificial intelligence, 57 percent said they would have no problem engaging with a brand’s chatbot online, yet 65 percent said they have a big problem dealing with a robot instead of a human in a store. As cool as it may sound […]

Read Full Story: Smart marketing still hinges on humanity, not technology
Source:  MarTech Today