With smart speakers having a global market growth of 187% in Q2 2018, it is only natural for product manufacturers to be eager to integrate with these solutions to gain a competitive advantage by adding voice capabilities to their products. Voice technology enables brands to connect with consumers in a personal way while addressing complex tasks through a natural interface. At the same time, these existing platforms pose serious risks to brands, and despite the compelling new experiences that they enable, incumbent brands will need to find ways to deal with the loss of control over the consumer interaction and the brand experience provided.
Lack of control over the conversation with the consumer, as well as the pivot of brand loyalty to the platform used for voice control all contribute to the difficulties for brands to compete.
Lack of control over the conversation with the consumer, as well as the pivot of brand loyalty to the platform used for voice control – ‘Hey Alexa’ or ‘Hey Google’ – all contribute to the difficulties for brands to compete.
One solution could be that , consumers would use multiple virtual voice assistants for varying needs and the home becomes an ecosystem of different assistants rather than a single platform. Brands that realize this early on and start offering their own virtual assistant for the niche experience they provide, will have a competitive edge.
Failure to Reach Intended Usage
As voice control has become essential, a growing number of brands are experimenting with introduction of their own apps on these platforms - referred to as “skills” for Amazon Alexa, “actions” for Google Assistant - to utilize the reach of already dominant platforms. These in theory enable brands to engage with consumers through an existing virtual voice assistant and enable interesting use-cases for the connected home.
