As we enter a more mature phase in the life cycle of connected products, how is the customer journey enhanced through the retail experience?

1. Unlocking
the Connected
Home Market
Connected home products are
no longer just for early adopters
Messaging needs to adapt to engage
and educate the mass majority
Brands and retailers still struggle to
communicate value successfully at retail
Green Room Futures

2. Intro; The Pace of Change
The technology behind the Internet of Things
and the possibilities this leads to for the
‘Connected Home’ and ‘Home Automation’
products has been gathering momentum for
a while. We are now arguably entering a more
mature phase in this product life cycle.
The early adopters are safely on board and products are now
aiming for the big time of the mass market. With this target the
‘coolness’ factor will not be a strong enough pull, truly unlocking
the category means educating consumers on the value of the
category.
However, brands are struggling with the complexities of the sale.
• Few brands have managed to tap into the promising potential.
• Perhaps because few brands have managed to connect it to a
genuine consumer need.
• And few brands are managing to communicate the proposition
successfully at retail.
While we see a proliferation of connected devices, from hubs that
aim to control the entire home to stand-alone automated products
like a coffee maker, a clear framework of understanding for this
relatively new product category is lacking.
The evolution of this tech-led group coincides with maturing
online shopping behaviours. Online shoppers for the consumer
electronics category are frequently characterised by highly
fractured research-focused customer journeys. This shopper
journey often relies heavily on the consumer researching unaided.
And doing so while lacking the framework of understanding for
the product category. This presents brands and retailers with a
challenge; how do they communicate the value of their product at
retail?
Unlocking the Connected Home Market
Page 1
Research firm
Gartner estimates
that by 2022 around
500 devices in
the home will be
connected
Samsung said at the
Consumer Electronics
Show this year that
all of its products will
be connected in five
years time

3. Three considerations to gain traction with IoT/
Connected Home messaging
1. Understanding the customer;
their needs and wants
2. Understanding the consumer; their fears
3. Excelling at retail
Understanding the customer, their needs and wants
Understanding the consumer mindset and teaching
behavioural shift
We are dealing with a mostly latent consumer need. Without a
frame of understanding, consumers will not be able to see the
relevance of this technology in their day to day lives.
Concerning today, people cannot visualise the potential
future benefits of this tech unless it is presented to them in a
contextualised way.
Understanding how to contextualise the story
In the spirit of the ‘horseless carriage’, the aim is to find tech
that people are currently comfortable with and then extrapolate
the understood benefit. You would not dream of buying a car
these days without central locking. Why does ‘central locking’ for
houses not exist? Well, the power of the IOT and the connected
home enables this to happen.
1
Unlocking the Connected Home Market
Page 2
With reference to a previous
behavioural shift, if Henry
Ford had conducted focus
groups before his production
lines went live, asking what
consumers wanted, they
would have said ‘faster
horses’, they wouldn’t have
dreamt of cars. Therefore,
the first automobiles were
called ‘horseless carriages’.

4. Unlocking the Connected Home Market
How to identify the needs and wants?
The customer value proposition above looks at some of the
often latent needs and wants a customer might identify and the
potential way that the IOT and connected home can fulfil these
desires. This model also helps to identify and, therefore, lead
with the relevance (consumer benefit) over functionality (features).
Often, this is about identifying routines and habits that can be
automated through the connected home, saving time and worry.
Page 3
Benefits
Flexibility
No need to worry
Control
Information
Instant access
Peace of mind
Features
Reduces waste
Keeps plants watered
Turns off lights
Protects the plumbing
Conserves energy
Locks doors
Wants
Life to be simpler
Control things whilst out
Immediate information if
something goes wrong
Peace of mind knowing
things are safe
Check status while on the move
Customise the environment
for the return
Needs
Doors locked
Lights turned off
Plants watered
Energy conserved
House secure
CustomerProduct
Experience
Education
Integration
Trustworthy
Instant Access
Ease of use
Reassurance
Fears
Cost
Obsolescence
Complexity
Commitment to provider
Data Misuse
Installation
Blind down
Music controlled

5. Unlocking the Connected Home Market
Once the needs and wants are determined it is easy to see
the benefits, here are some worked examples:
1. Low-level lighting changes the mood of a room instantly,
making it homely and comforting. However, turning on five
different lamps is a pain, but why should it be when they could all
be connected to a centralised device. You expect to be able to
control your television from a remote, why not your lighting?
2. When was the last time you left home worrying that you’d
left the iron or the hair straighteners on and had to go back and
check? No need to worry, these devices can be connected to a
monitor that you can view on your phone in your pocket.
3. Do you find yourself avoiding buying plants because you’re
worried that you’ll forget to water them, and they’ll die? Fear not,
a sensor in the pot can alert you if your new purchase is thirsty
and keep nudging you until it is replenished. A drip feed sensor is
not far away so that the plant will only need a top up once every
six months. And the same could be applied to the plants outside,
sensing if things have been a bit hot and caring for them.
Page 4

6. Unlocking the Connected Home Market
Understanding the consumer; their fears
The Customer Value Proposition framework also works to identify
not just what might turn a consumer on, but what might turn
them off. For this sector, understanding this driver is extremely
important. We’ve detailed below what we feel are the five most
pressing customer fears.
1. Financial cost
Consumers feel they are making an investment due to the cost
involved in the purchase and installation of many of the connected
home items. Investment requires research, comparison,
understanding and conviction, which can lead to an extended,
stalled customer journey and fear of making a bad decision.
2. Fear of obsolescence
The consumer commitment in is not only monetary, but they can
also feel as if they are buying into a system. This investment is not
futureproofed (#rememberbetamax). Reassurance needs to be
given that future iterations of products can include this purchase
within their infrastructure.
3. Fear/uncertainty about installation
Full-service provision might need to include an option for
installation advice or at the very least comprehensive professional
‘How To’ video and live chat options. Especially if the take-up of
the product goes out to those less dexterous and less able to
help themselves.
4. Fear of data misuse
Fear of theft and misuse of data is a big consideration for IOT
devices. An individual is surrendering a great deal of information
about their habits and everyday movements. Consumers need to
be assured that the recipient of the information is trustworthy, or
that they have the control and ability to opt out if they so wish.
2
Page 5

7. Unlocking the Connected Home Market
5. Fear of committing to one service provider
Going from 0 to 100 in one step is a big leap. Many consumers
have very few connected home products in place yet; many don’t
know where to start. Nest’s approach (“Trojan Horse”) does offer
an interesting solution: sell one product, prove its right to play,
then expand gradually. However, part of this problem is educating
how the technology can integrate … more on this later.
6. An underlying fear of technology.
Fear around where tech will take us in the future is frequently
played upon by Hollywood doomsday-movies depicting
technology/AI rising and overpowering humanity.
All these fears all need to be overcome by trust.
Page 6
Taking it too far – the
Coates home example…
“Yeah, yeah, but your
scientists were so
preoccupied with whether
or not they could that they
didn’t stop to think if they
should.” – Dr. Ian Malcolm,
Jurassic Park

8. Unlocking the Connected Home Market
Excelling at retail
The potential is huge – who is the leader?
Though the technology behind the Connected Home is coming
of age, in many ways the category is still in its infancy. There is a
lot of ‘noise’. But it’s unclear who’s going to take the lead as the
game-changers. Many are watching closely as Sky Q launch their
wireless home entertainment product into the market. Will they
have the customer buy-in to broaden their offering into a wider
conversation about connected home products?
Will Customer Service be the key differentiator?
To lead the field, it’s essential to assuage the fears identified in
section 2. The big differentiator here could well be the brand
placing the customer at the heart of their thinking. Customer
experience is often touted as ‘the differentiator of the omnichannel
marketplace’. Would you agree that the mobile phone company
Orange launched to become a top mobile provider largely off the
strength of their customer service provision in a category which
was in its un-understood infancy?
Does Customer Service also include education and
content curation?
This customer service focus has to be hand in hand with leading
the category in education and intelligent information curation. As
raised in section 1, the focus needs to be on customer benefit, not
product potential.
The more complex the product/system is, the more buy-in it
requires from the consumer and the more they need to be able to
trust the provider:
• To look after their data
• To keep their service running
• To stay up to date and futureproofed
• To be open and connect to other devices.
3
Page 7

9. Unlocking the Connected Home Market
Understanding how to integrate technology
The last point in the list above asks the provider to be open and
able to connect to other devices. Packages currently exist that
allow you to connect one piece of technology to another and
create ‘recipes’ to help automate your life.
For example ‘If I lock the front door, then turn off all the lights
upstairs’ could be programmed into ‘If This Than That’ (IFTTT).
These automating kits can work cross platform and cross brand.
They can, therefore, connect similar pieces of technology from
different brands, for example associating your ‘Yale’ home central
locking system to your ‘Hive’ heating controller.
The big challenge here comes down to who leads this customer
education? There are a number of key players in different sectors,
Sonos for music, Velux for blinds, Lutron for lighting, but no brand
has risen as an overall leader yet.
• The software packages, such as IFTTT are free to customers
but they potentially don’t have big budgets to promote their kit.
• Is it in the interests of the hardware providers to educate about
the kit that would allow their hardware to be virtually connected
to other hardware? Arguably not.
• Should the overarching retailers/curators be advice providers
and is this their point of difference in the market.
• Should one provider take the lead and be the ‘never knowingly
undersold’ of the market? Hmmm, interesting proposition.
Building customer journeys for specific customer needs
Within retail, the sales assistant needs to act as a real-time, live
educator and content curator, specific to the individual customer’s
pre-existing knowledge and benefits sought. The role of ‘sales
assistant’ is transitioning to that of a fully equipped personal
shopper for the category.
To enable sales assistants/personal shoppers to quickly profile
and segment customer, they need to be digitally equipped and
given appropriate profiling tools that help distinguish:
• The research customers have already done
• The level of connectivity they require (benefits they aspire to
achieve)
• The connectivity they are trying to link into (pre-existing tech)
Page 8

10. Unlocking the Connected Home Market
Right Place Right Time
Consumer mindset needs to be considered by geography and the
carefully curated content and education information on products
needs to be presented accordingly. Many car manufacturers are
now opening pop-ups in malls, why? Because they need a new
platform to speak to consumers and can no longer rely on them
to come into stores.
Page 9
At Green Room, we’ve been
instrumental in driving uptake
of the British Gas connected
home proposition to rival
Nest by creating a mall pop
up with playful interactivity to
help consumers understand
the proposition.
Always in Beta – Retail Example;
Retailing Connected Technology
In recent months, American discount retailer Target and department store Sears have been among
the first to attempt a new, dedicated store format for the Connected Home (Open House Connected
Solutions). In addition to being about selling, these formats are “labs to figure out the challenge that
is selling the smart home to the mainstream consumer” (Target). Is this right for retail? Were people
experimenting and then buying or just understanding and taking in information for later? This ‘always
in beta’ state is one that retailers may well have to adjust to in an ever-changing marketplace. For more
on ‘always in beta’ see our blog on the subject.
http://greenroomdesign.com/blog/green-room-stylus-innovation-forum/

11. Unlocking the Connected Home Market
Final takeaways; communicating value,
validating buy-in and being right for retail
Key takeaways from article about this; the role retail
could/should play in communicating value at points
of sale, both in-store and online.
Rules for communicating the value of connected home
products at retail
Rise above the noise; amidst the plethora of marketing slang
and messaging around products and functionalities, consumers
can and will easily get lost and confused in the category. A clear
message, focused on educating the customer, is necessary to
draw in the mass market.
Don’t talk tech, lead with emotion; don’t just celebrate the
technology or create an in-store ‘lab’. Speak in understandable
human terminology. Lead with a direct emotional benefit (e.g.
stay in bed 20 minutes longer) and capture/convince with a
more practical benefit/long term value (e.g. save money on
your energy bill).
Put the user first; every consumer’s use case for the home will
be different, and so should the product offer. Don’t force entire
systems on them, or trick them with product selectors that are
nothing more than up-sell tools in disguise. Get to know the
consumer’s use case to distill their need and respond to it. Better
yet, help them to understand their need and make a grounded
decision as to what they need.
Understand the moments; relate the value of the category
to the value for an individual; IoT supposedly has endless
possibilities, anything with a power button could become
connected in the future. Don’t get lost in the prospect of all
people-people, people-things and things-things communications/
systems, but consider the moments in the home that matter such
as ‘the morning ritual’ or ‘bed time’.
Page 10

12. Unlocking the Connected Home Market
Show the right amount of value in the right place; a store
in the traditional sense may not be the ideal place to tell the
whole story as you cannot always mirror the context in which the
products will be used. If you can’t sufficiently show or trial the
product, what part of the story do you focus on to tell the most
compelling story?
Finally, consider the long game; this category is growing,
nobody knows how big. Earning a place in the consumer’s home
is one thing, gaining their respect as an educator is another.
Google Nest seems to have delivered an excellent level of value/
service (i.e. higher than ‘necessary’ for just the thermostat) and
used that over-performance as a beachhead to establish their
right to play in the broader Connected Home category, they’ve
now moved to smoke alarms and home cameras.
Proving one’s right to play in the Connected Home category is
essential to expanding the presence within the consumer’s home.
There may yet be untapped opportunities for achieving this, such
as truly owning the post-purchase service level.
Page 11

13. All intellectual property rights are retained and reserved by Green Room unless expressly released in writing.
Full terms and conditions available on request. © 2016 Green Room.
www.greenroomdesign.com
London
81 Rivington Street
Shoreditch EC2A 2AY
United Kingdom
T +44 (0)121 200 2828
Amsterdam
Prinsengracht 463-HS
1016HP Amsterdam
The Netherlands
T +31 (0)20 221 6521
Birmingham
Fort Dunlop
Fort Parkway B24 9FD
United Kingdom
T +44 (0)121 200 2828
Contact details
Thank you