How to win in a world of hyperadoption

Ubiquitous connectivity, cloud architecture, big data and artificial intelligence are the four enabling technologies expanding our digital capabilities and driving modern consumer experience, a new report claims.

In his new report, Will People Really Do That, Forrester principal analyst, James L McQuivey, said that as digital disruption becomes the economic force reducing innovation costs, digital disrupters will become more agile when it comes to building products and service experiences.

As a result, people are overcoming their natural bias against change and becoming more adaptive to new product experience, which the report labels ‘hyperadoption’.

According to McQuivey, the four core enabling technologies – ubiquitous connectivity, cloud architecture, big data and artificial intelligence – will precipitate a dramatic expansion of digital capabilities in four key areas of our lives.

The first is how we produce and control the physical, such as digital homes, self-driving cars, 3D products and drones. The second is how we interact with technology, such as robotics, voice interactions, computer vision and virtual and missed reality. The third is by maintaining our wellbeing through smart wearables and internal biosensors. Finally, the fourth capability is how we connect with each other, through apps and other social sharing platforms.

CMOs that fail to understand what makes these new experiences not only possible but inevitable, won’t be able to keep up with the pace of innovation, the report stated.

In addition, marketing leaders will be faced with the challenge of keeping consumers engaged in an era where the audience is emotionally less connected to new products and invests less in low-cost experiences.

Read more: Companies lack policies to disrupt traditional business models: Forrester’s McQuivey

As a result, the Forrester report recommended CMOs offer innovative products or services when people are ready most for novelty, rather than geared up for rejection. For instance, Apple called its customers to attention with its smartwatch release in such a way that people believed they were hearing about powerful wearable technology for the first time, even though wearables had already been on the market for years, McQuivey stated.

When it comes to surviving the hyperadoption era, the report advised CMOs to be ready to answer five key questions:

• What does my customer need next?
• What would this change about our customer relationship?
• Can we develop this in a way that reduced the perception and loss?
• Do our policies permit us to do this quickly?
• Can our brand help us do this in a way that accelerates attention, intention or action?

The report also advised CMOs to work aggressively with their customer experience, technology management and product management peers to ensure innovative solutions brought to market can redefine or extend brand awareness through a simple and loss-less benefit strategy.

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