Now we have finally seen the pre-sale and release of the Apple Smart watch, the reviews have been electronically flying through the air in abundance. The general consensus that I can personally gather is that beyond the many weird and wonderful talents that the watch boasts, it’s the ease and non-disruptive means of receiving your everyday notifications and responding through your wrist that is winning overall.
The wearable technologies market is an astonishing one. Moving away from the web surfing Google glasses, Rebecca Minkoff’s notification bracelets and smart phone charging Ralph Lauren handbags, are essentially general aids to everyday life. However it’s the application of this technology to the healthcare sector which has the potential to really change lives.
US giant Ralph Lauren was one of the first fashion houses to kick start the fashion-meets-technology marketin 2014 by launching a ‘second skin’ shirt at the US Open. Embedded were technologies that sent biometric data to your phone consequently measuring athletes’ heart rate, body temperature and breathing.
We often talk of patient empowerment and brands reaching out to their audiences as personally and as clearly possible, and the rise in wearable technologies offers a very real opportunity to re-engineer brands’ relationships with their customers.
We are now at the beginning of a revolution where patients can track their own health data effectively – even without the interface of a smartphone. We need to think even harder about our brands’ position in the new landscape of how patients manage their condition and how we can engage and remain relevant.
As the usage of these accessible healthcare products increases, we must ensure that our in-depth understanding of audiences keeps pace. As always, it’s about our mantra of right product, right person, right device. But who’d have thought even a couple of years ago that the right device may be a handbag!
As we work on such a variety of brands, it makes for interesting lunch time debates!
