Proximity Marketing – The How and What of Beacon Technology

17

October

2016

5/5 (19)

There is virtually always ‘an app for that’, from taxi services to food delivery. Take a minute to think about all the apps on your phone, the sheer number of pages or folders that are full of them. Some of those you rarely use, you downloaded it months ago, used it once, put it in a folder on page 6 and it stays right there until you ultimately need to free some space.

 

Apps were once the expected savior for offline retail stores, they were meant to engage customers and build a personal relationship with them. However, it has been proven that this does not happen automatically. To keep a customer engaged the apps needs to continuously give the customer added value.  To help them to achieve this, and prevent apps from being moved to the dreaded ‘page six’ of your phone, the online retail has been experimenting with a new technology: Beacons.

What are Beacons?

Beacon 1 BP

                                                       (Borowicz, 2016)

Beacons first emerged in 2013, when Apple introduced them. They did however not draw much attention until the end of 2015 (Kline, 2016). The $5 dollar devices, use Bluetooth technology to seek out customers’ apps and communicate with them. To ‘wake the app’ it sends a message to the user through the application. Because most applications require registration the message can be highly customized, from a friendly personal greeting to a reminder of a feature of the app.

How are beacons used?

beacons 2

                                             (Borowicz, 2016)

 

Beacons are used to improve the customer shopping experience, strengthen the relationship with the customer and make it possible to further connect online and offline retail. They can, for example, be used to help a customer navigate through a store, offer them a personalized discount and give them an incentive to return to the store another time (Kline, 2016).

 

Who uses them?

Today, this technology is starting to infiltrate mainstream retail. Early adopters are consumer packaged goods (CPG) retailers. This is mostly because these relatively inexpensive goods are purchased frequently and give the retailers an opportunity to utilize the consumer data they collected on earlier occasions. Examples of CPG retailers that have started to integrate beacons into their businesses are Walmart, Target and Macy’s (Halpin, 2016). A marketing technology company called Swirl has analyzed in-store campaign performance data of shopper exchanges and surveyed consumers who received beacon-triggered messages. The results can be seen in the graphics below.

Swirl1 swirl2

(“Swirl Releases Results of Retail Store Beacon Marketing Campaigns”, 2014)

 

Privacy concerns

Even though customers has to give permission to a company to track their location, privacy concerns still arise. This mostly comes from a few myths about beacon technology. Consumers believe that due to this technology the company is able to track their every move or transmits personal data. However, a Beacon is only able to determine whether the receiver (the smartphone) is nearby, how long it stays there and where it moves to and sends this information to the associated application. To relieve the privacy concerns of customers it is important to provide a transparent data privacy statement, avoid spamming, give consumers the option to opt-out easily and enable in-app privacy controls (Babu, 2016).

 

Other employments of Beacons

Of course, retailers are not the only industry that can benefit from using Beacons. Other applications of this technology include helping visually impaired travel with public transport, navigating travelers in airports, and tracking firefighters in action (Koskiola, 2016).

 

Sources:

Babu, P. (2016). 7 Tips on Relieving Beacon Privacy Concerns of your Customers. Beaconstac. Retrieved 16 October 2016, from http://blog.beaconstac.com/2016/08/7-tips-on-relieving-beacon-privacy-concerns-of-your-customers/

Borowicz, W. (2016). How do beacons work? The physics of beacon tech. Estimote. Retrieved 16 October 2016, from http://blog.estimote.com/post/106913675010/how-do-beacons-work-the-physics-of-beacon-tech

Halpin, N. (2016). THE BEACONS REPORT: Why the CPG category is poised to become an early leader in beacon-based marketing. Business Insider. Retrieved 15 October 2016, from http://www.businessinsider.com/beacons-are-shaking-up-the-consumer-packaged-goods-market-2016-5?international=true&r=US&IR=T

Kline, K. (2016). How Bluetooth Beacons Will Transform Retail in 2016? The Huffington Post. Retrieved 13 October 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kenny-kline/how-bluetooth-beacons-wil_b_8982720.html

Koskiola, A. (2016). 5 Amazing Projects with Beacon Technology in 2016 – Proximi.io. Proximi.io. Retrieved 16 October 2016, from https://proximi.io/5-amazing-projects-beacon-technology/

Swirl Releases Results of Retail Store Beacon Marketing Campaigns. (2014). Swirl. Retrieved 15 October 2016, from http://www.swirl.com/swirl-releases-results-retail-store-beacon-marketing-campaigns/

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Using Facebook while at work? Yes, please!

17

October

2016

5/5 (19)

While nowadays browsing Facebook while at work is a no-go this could change in the near future. On October 10th 2016 the social media giant has introduced a new form of its online application called ‘Workplace’. It is presented as an internal version to help connect coworkers and promote internal communication.

Current intra-firm communication tools

YammerBP HipchBP SlackBP

The key players in communication software within firms are Slack, Hipchat & Microsoft. Slack is often labeled as the fastest growing start-up, it gives coworkers a place to communicate with each other through direct messaging and chat rooms. It launched in February of 2014 and currently it has accumulated over 2 million active users every day (Cave, 2016). Slack tries to make inter-firm communication cool, with customizable rooms, humorous Slackbot commentary and the ability to integrate many cloud services into a worker’s workflow. Hipchat offers a similar function, however, it upholds a more serious and focused appearance (Walter, 2016). Even though Hipchat’s CEO has avidly denied that they sees Slack as its competitor the fight to obtain the monopoly position in enterprise communication has undoubtedly begun (Moazed, 2015). The last competitor in this list Is Microsoft with Yammer, although it is not in the race yet to ‘take-it-all’, the application’s close connection to Office 365 and potential future connection to LinkedIn give it an interesting competitive advantage (Walter, 2016).

Workplace

Back to Facebook, in an obvious attempt to obtain a part of the enterprise communication market it has introduced Workplace. The company describes the new application as the best of Facebook, plus new features. The service has already been tested by almost 300 companies and is currently used by over 1,000 organizations such as Starbucks, Danone, and Booking.com (“Introducing Workplace by Facebook”, 2016). The short video below shows the general idea of how Workplace would be used:

The design is similar as that of Facebook, but the iconic Facebook-blue has been replaced by more serious-looking gray tones. Furthermore, the Workplace application is completely separated from an employee’s private Facebook account and the application is advertisement free (“Trust Principles”, 2016).

Advantages of Workplace

One of the major advantages of Workplace is that everyone is already familiar with Facebook. The similarities between Workplace and Facebook enables employees to instantaneously begin using the app, without extensive training or instructions. Furthermore, the pricing plan is also very competitive, as a comparison, where Slack’s basic subscription is around 6,5$ per user, Workplace fees can go as low as 1$ (Paymans, 2016). However, it needs to be mentioned that Slack also has a free version available, although this version can only be used in smaller teams due to capacity restrictions. Another benefit is the fact that Workplace is a mobile-first product (Linssen, 2016). Given the fact that more and more companies evolve into more mobile forms of working, including the use of telecommuting, this can be of great importance. Facebook also offers a function that enables companies to invite third parties (who are not necessarily using Workplace) to participate in a particular group/project (“Introducing Workplace by Facebook”, 2016). Lifting communications restrictions and the need to use different applications for inside and outside enterprise communication.

Lack of integration

One major drawback of Workplace that can be observed shortly after the announcement is the lack of integration of third party services (Paymans, 2016). This is in stark contrast with Slack, which currently has multiple integrated applications offering services ranging from expense administration to recruitment management (Ghoshal, 2016) which are introduced in the video below:

Future of enterprise communication

Only time can tell if Facebook will succeed in competing in/winning the enterprise communication battle or if it will be one of the other mentioned alternatives. There might even be other start-ups/initiatives that offer even more relevant features to firms.

Sources:

Cave, A. (2016). Will 2016 Be The Year Slack Goes Truly Mainstream?. Forbes.com. Retrieved 16 October 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewcave/2015/12/31/will-2016-be-the-year-slack-goes-truly-mainstream/#2aa40e627f46

Ghoshal, A. (2016). Slack introduces interactive integrations from third-party apps. The Next Web. Retrieved 14 October 2016, from http://thenextweb.com/apps/2016/06/22/slack-supercharges-chat-app-interactive-integrations-third-party-services/

Introducing Workplace by Facebook. (2016). Facebook Newsroom. Retrieved 15 October 2016, from http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/10/introducing-workplace-by-facebook/

Linssen, J. (2016). Alles wat je moet weten over Workplace van Facebook. Emerce. Retrieved 16 October 2016, from http://www.emerce.nl/achtergrond/alles-moet-weten-workplace-facebook

Moazed, A. (2015). Slack And HipChat Are On The Verge Of Launching Chat Wars. TechCrunch. Retrieved 15 October 2016, from https://techcrunch.com/2015/12/23/slack-and-hipchat-are-on-the-verge-of-launching-chat-wars/

Paymans, L. (2016). Facebook Workplace: 5 verschillen met concurrende bedrijfsnetwerken. iPhoned. Retrieved 14 October 2016, from https://www.iphoned.nl/apps/facebook-workplace/

Trust Principles. (2016). Workplace by Facebook. Retrieved 16 October 2016, from https://workplace.fb.com/

Walter, D. (2016). Slack vs. HipChat vs. Yammer. CMSWire.com. Retrieved 14 October 2016, from http://www.cmswire.com/social-business/slack-vs-hipchat-vs-yammer/

 

 

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Digital Transformation Project – Muller & Van Dijk Tennis School

14

October

2016

5/5 (2)

The goal of the Digital Transformation Project Assignment is to transform the business model of a real-world company by introducing a new technology that will innovate or disrupt their current business model. We decided to focus on the Muller & Van Dijk Tennis School, also called MvD.

Be Yourself Method

Instead of applying the same technical plan (the traditional method) for every pupil, MvD beliefs in a tailored approach as each individual is different in terms of physique and talent. The Be Yourself method is an approach to tennis training that is focused around ‘using basic physical movements (e.g. throwing a ball) that are close to the individual’s own way of moving.’ Using this approach, an individual stays ‘close to itself’ and the capabilities of his or her own body (Muller & van Dijk Handboek, 2015).

Current role of IS

The current IT infrastructure of MvD is simplistic, but serves its purpose. MvD uses IT solutions for their website, social media, e-mail, mobile contact with customers and staff. Additionally, Microsoft Excel is used as a tool to schedule the season’s weekly training timetable. This IT use is similar for almost all tennis organizations across the Dutch market (KNLTB, 2016), namely that IT is mainly used for off-court activities and customer contact. As customer’s sign-up via MvD’s website, the website is of vital importance for the MvD’s revenue stream. In general tennis schools make little use of IT on the tennis court and MvD is no exception (KNLTB, 2016).

Key success factors

Screen Shot 2016-10-14 at 02.06.47

Technological Description


To evolve the Be Yourself method, we suggest introducing tablets. The main benefits of using tablets are discussed in a video showing the highlights of an interview with tennis trainer Jaimy Siegersma:

 

 

 

Risks

The implementation of the use of a tablet in the lessons provided by the teachers of the tennis school will result in the following additional risks.

Privacy – The use of the camera function and recorded footage might violate the privacy rights of the players.

Dysfunctioning – During the tennis lessons the tablet can dysfunction (such as the battery being empty or the memory being full).

Vulnerability – A tablet is perceived as a vulnerable product in general. Making use of such a product in a cautious manner while giving tennis trainings could be difficult.

Non-effective use
 –  The teachers might not be able to use the tablet in an effective manner according to the tennis school principles.

Managerial Recommendations

We found that the strong values of MvD were a core aspect that we needed to take into account, but was still very traditional and ‘old-fashioned’ in terms of IT Strategy. Therefore, we decided to introduce tablets for MvD to make the already effective Be Yourself method even more effective. By introducing the tablets, we are able to add on the two following key success factors: (KS2) the quality of the tennis lessons (KS3), the reputation of the youth-training-program. The quality of the training sessions will get better, because tennis trainers will be able to provide immediate visual feedback, which will result in an even more effective Be Yourself method. On top of that, trainers are able to better prepare players for their tennis matches. In combination with the higher quality of training sessions this will lead to better results in tennis matches. We believe that this will perfectly fit with the organization’s core values and is easy to implement. While implementing, the tennis trainers must be aware of the potential benefits and drawbacks of the tablet and as stated they should be properly instructed on how to use the tablet. These instructions will make sure that the possible improvement of the Be Yourself method is reached and the potential risks mentioned will be overcome. Special attention needs to be given during the implementation phase. But, as stated when the implementation phase is done right, clear value is reached: the Be Yourself method will be improved, the risks and challenges will be overcome, and thereby the key success factors will be reached.

 

Sources

KNLTB. (2016). Tennisleraren. Retrieved October 3, 2016, from http://www.knltb.nl/over- knltb/tennisleraren/

Muller, B., & Van Dijk, D. (2015), MvD Handboek.

 

Team Number: 13

Iris van der Heijden, 462360

Dylan Janssens, 460023

Sarah Schleeper, 459820

Jaimy Siegersma, 461932

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Why still bother cooking? – How Thuisbezorgd.nl and Deliveroo Changed the Home-food Delivery Industry

28

September

2016

5/5 (1)

Both Thuisbezorgd.nl and Deliveroo changed and disrupted the home-food delivery industry by adding an innovative element to their business models. (more…)

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