Matt BrittonFounder & CEO powering AI-driven consumer insights

The Last Mile Effect - Hardware Manufacturers Win (marketing strategies)

Name: The Last Mile Effect - Hardware Manufacturers Win (marketing strategies)
Uploaded: 2019-02-22T20:48:00Z
Channel: Matt Britton
Description: A short spoken piece arguing that hardware — specifically control of the "last mile" device in the home — will regain importance for brand owners. The…

22 Feb 2019

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A short spoken piece arguing that hardware — specifically control of the "last mile" device in the home — will regain importance for brand owners. The speaker uses Alexa/Amazon as an example of device-driven brand advantage and offers a concrete prescription: consumer goods makers (e.g., laundry detergent) should partner with or acquire smart-appliance makers and sell these into building developers to create an "intravenous" sales model. The talk reframes the CMO role from traditional brand-building and retail shelf competition to architecting product ecosystems that embed a brand beneath the surface of consumers' lives.

I think that that last mile effect, where whoever has that hardware device, I think hardware is going to have a renewed importance in 2019 and beyond. The dissemination of Alexa devices in their home has put Amazon in a real position of strength when it comes to branding and brand equity. So what does that mean for the future of branding? Do a lot of these companies need to get into hardware? Like I say all the time, if you make laundry detergent, you should buy a company that makes laundry machines which are smart and only order your product. Sell those to the big developers of buildings in major cities and you have an intravenous sales model because you don't have to rely on people going to Walmart and actually picking out your brand from a slew of other brands and, oh, by the way, Walmart's own private label brands. So I think that's, that's where a lot of this needs to change. I think the job of the CMO is no longer really even about brand building anymore. It's about building ecosystems in which their product can actually thrive in a way that's just beneath the surface, not basically trying to send down salespeople to get a couple inches of shelf space at Target or Walmart. That's a huge change.