Consumer Products Going Social
In the social media world, you often hear that in order for programs to be successful and to get consumers to adopt your campaign, embrace your brand or "move" towards a call to action, the online activities need offline components.
For example, if you're trying to sell a product, but doing so by incentives via a Facebook page, you need to drive consumers to that page through offline marketing channels such as ads, direct mail or Sunday inserts, for example.
This strategy has consumer product makers thinking that social aspects can help sell a product.
One aspect of social media that is very popular is photography, of course. It has been said that Facebook, with it's 500 million users, is the biggest depository of photographs online. So it would make sense for products to tie into Facebook and other photo sharing options that are social.
Take CEIVA Digital Photo Frames for example. These family-friendly digital frames allow a user to upload pictures to it over wi-fi from Facebook, a mobile app or through popular photo management software such as Picasa or iPhoto. Additionally, the frame comes with a service that allows the users to connect with other CEIVA frame owners and enables them to share their photos with their friends. So, imagine grandma having updated photos every day of her grandkids without having to worry about uploading pictures from the computer to a flash drive. It's all automated.
It's a simple premise that puts the consumer in control and adds a social component to an already popular product — digital photo frames.
Another example of social media embedding itself into consumer products is in the auto world. Take a look at what Ford is doing with their new vehicles. A last example is smack dab in your living room with television and cable service embracing social media as an "add-on" to the viewing experience.
The point here is, consumers will see more and more social integration into products that they already have. It's an easy to way make static products, sociable and interactive.
What do you think about consumer products being more sociable?
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