It’s the weekend before Christmas and I’m walking down Regent Street with my girlfriend. The Christmas lights are superb and the holiday spirit is up in the air.
I find myself in the middle of an unusual enterprise, I’m searching for a smart watch for my mum. She insisted that for Christmas she wanted one. Initially, I found this as an unusual request. However, it made me question myself why was she interested in using this gadget? how are firms targeting mainstream consumers such as my mum to buy wearable tech? on what stage of the product innovation cycle smart watches are? and what are the challenges and opportunities for smartwatches?
I crossed a busy street corner and I stumbled upon Michael Kors store. The brand was displaying at the shop window its new “Access” smart watch collection (please see commercial below). The gadget seamlessly fuses fashion and technology and is equipped with basic functions such as multiple animated display faces, fitness tracking, text, vocal messages and email alerts.
Michael Kors did an outstanding job bridging the gap between tech and fashion with its advertisement. The brand exhibits its target consumer which is a cosmopolitan and active woman who has an eye for design and is "always on", she wants to state to the world her personality through the mix of tech and fashion.
Wearable devices such as smart watches are bringing fashion into new heights. It allows brands to meet consumers’ growing demand for personalisation and a fluid lifestyle. More and more, people are seeking for versatile products that can easily adapt to whatever the day presents.
Fascinated by the Michael Kors shop window I entered the store, however, I was disappointed on how products were exposed. Smart watches were shown on an unembellished display that made the product range look cheap (circa £230 - £260). I asked the saleswoman to show me the watch but they were out of battery. Completely disenchanted with the poor shopping experience I left the shop.
Now let's set my incident aside and jump into the juicy stuff. To understand the evolution and probabilities of success of smartwatches we need to explore the product innovation cycle theory.
Based on my thoughts and conversations with friends and family, I can say that only innovators and early adopters own smartwatches. These segments are primarily concerned with the underlying technology behind and its performance (Norman D. 1998). Nowadays, the biggest challenge producers have is to make technology good enough so the chasm between early adopters and the rest is crossed (refer to the smartwatch innovation cycle below). Michael Kors example shows how firms are using fashion as an enabler that might allow this transition.
Research shows that the product adoption process has been slower than expected because consumers recognise on this gadget a lack of distinct capabilities such as high-speed wireless and standalone apps (Smartwatch report, Business Insider, September 2016).
If producers are able to add new functionalities, increase capabilities and permit smart watches to run independently from phones the probabilities to hook mainstream consumers will be much higher.
If producers are able to add new functionalities, increase capabilities and permit smart watches to run independently from phones the probabilities to hook mainstream consumers will be much higher.
Let’s wait and see how brands will overcome this challenging task. Meanwhile, a beautiful and unconventional Santa Claus figure is sitting under the Christmas tree waiting to be unwrapped by my mother.
