Big data has had a profound impact on numerous sectors today including the marketing space. Marketers across the world are leveraging the power of data analytics, thus using insights to generate tailored marketing messages.

So, how do data analytics and big data help marketers develop targeted campaigns based on specific consumer behavior? Do you stand a chance to leverage existing data and understand customers better? Let’s find out!

Knowing the concept

Before we dive deep into the discussion, it’s high time to develop a comprehensive idea of big data. The term ‘big data’ refers to a collection or a database of complex data sets. Although it has a lot of potentials and can be used for dynamic development, you can’t extract it with conventional methods.

If you are operating in the marketing sector, customer information, notes, and behavioral patterns will be of paramount significance for you. These are the resources that help you take informed decisions. But you need to organize, arrange, and curate the data to understand your customers better!

The real scenario

Cut-throat competitions and steep growth curves are giving birth to new challenges. Every business wants to stay ahead of the growth curve, and big data seems to be the only way out. Since data analytics helps you develop clear ideas of consumer preferences, purchase behaviors, and decision patterns, it becomes imperative to take note of it.

However, you should know the art of extracting useful data as that is the key to gaining crucial insights into customer behavior. It’s here that consumer personas emerge as a significant point. Here’s what you need to know!

Understanding consumer personas

If you are on the other end of the sales process, you will surely come across numerous consumers. Without specific demographics, it will be tough to identify their individual behaviors. Here are some of the crucial parameters:

• Identifiable and direct: Identifiable demographics include age, marital status, ethnicity, income level, and employment status.
• Non-identifiable: When it comes to identifying the non-identifiable parameters, you will get parameters like preferences, lifestyle, personal objectives, influences, and interests.

How Big Data helps?

Based on the demographics and personal behavior patterns, big data helps marketers develop assumptions about their consumers. While a majority of organizations consider their customers’ spending power as the biggest parameter to be the MVP or ‘Most Valuable People, that shouldn’t be the case. These customers don’t score high in terms of brand loyalty and can shift their interests over time.

By leveraging these parameters, big data helps you come across crucial metrics related to consumer behavior. Here are some of those important metrics:

• Consumer acquisition costs
• Customer retention costs
• Lifetime value
• Customer satisfaction and happiness
• Average purchase amounts and behavior

Signing off

Marketers can develop a deep understanding of these metrics thus correlating them with customer information. Once they know their buying trends, it will be easier for them to match the results with specific consumer personas, thus devising targeted marketing strategies.

When you know what your target consumers like and spend on, you will surely stay ahead of your competitors in the market.

Across the span of diverse industries, disruptive technologies like Internet of Things are helping organizations stay ahead of the growth curve. Current market trends show how IoT can be transformative and fuel the growth of new processes, dynamic technologies, and exciting products.

However, this unsurpassed growth and rapid adoption of IoT can lead to severe security issues. According to data presented by Gartner, the IoT market will experience a remarkable expansion with 26 billion IoT units by the end of 2020.

That clearly explains the need for a robust security strategy. Internet-Of-Things shares integral connections with a company’s IP or intellectual property, which makes effective security ll them ore critical for an organization.

Identifying the security challenges

That was just a prologue to what the Internet-Of-Things does for various organizations. If you are planning to leverage this dynamic technology, security will emerge as the need of the hour. Although it’s a ubiquitous term for a range of integrated systems and internet operated devices, IOT is a tech innovation. Rapid expansions lead to a gamut of security challenges including:

• Replication Attacks

  The design and development of an IoT device take place just a single time. Once these devices get produced, mass replication occurs, and millions of replicas come into the market. Quite naturally, that increases the possibilities of security attacks. If hackers succeed in attacking a single device, the others with similar system integrations will fall prey to such attacks.

• Connectivity issues

  Connected devices control a multitude of systems and core processes including utility grids, communication systems, and transportation infrastructure. A major attack on these systems will lead to a mass catastrophe.

• Non-updated systems

  Most of the times, connected devices and systems aren’t updated and run on the same software installed during the development process. That hampers their capability to fight security attacks thus making the entire system highly vulnerable.

These are some of the critical challenges faced by connected devices and IoT-enabled systems. With these aspects in mind, it’s high time for you to implement the right security strategies.

How to secure systems in Internet of Things?

If critical data threats or malicious software affects your set of connected devices and systems, here’s what you can do to save them:

1.     Secured boot and access

It is better to begin right from scratch and achieve secured boot. Let the manufacturer come up with ‘cryptographically-signed’ code that offers secured access to these systems.

2.     Data encryption

Your IoT devices deal with optimum data encryption. Protect confidential data and make it a point to offer secured access to users.

3.     Password authentication

Those failing to provide the authentication password won’t gain access to the IOT system. Password authentication is a highly crucial security measure as it restricts user entries.

4.     Fighting cyber attacks

You will get the chance to fight cyber-attacks on your IOT systems with embedded firewalls. Firewalls offer access to authentic hosts and block hackers, thus ensuring optimum protection for the system.

Concluding note

With Internet of Things turning out to be the future of integrated operations, it is high time secure it against critical security issues. Implement these security measures and be on the right path to growth using IoT.

The Future Of AR Technology

Will the future be Augmented?

What if you could see things no one else could see?

What if the objects around you could communicate to you?

Sounds like the plot of a Sci-Fi movie? Well, it is the future, a future adorned with augmentation of the real world.

Augmented reality (AR) overlaps the virtual world and the real world to create a ‘fantasy-like’ experience. With AR, you can view your living room on a smartphone and see how virtual furnitures would fit into the real world. The applications are infinite and will be limited to the inventor’s imagination. They span through numerous sectors from training, marketing, education, e-commerce, retail to real estate.

The outcomes are endless and the revenue making opportunities are unimaginable. AR systems can spice up anything promotional or worth marketing. Brands such as Nike are already going full guns with AR and the future is all set to be augmented if the current trends are to be believed. And if one of the most popular apps of 2016, Pokemon Go has taught us something, it is that the reality in the future will be augmented.

Augmented Reality has still got a long way to go and these are some of the challenges it might face on the road to capturing the market.

 1. Marketing: Lousy marketing campaigns might completely dig the grave for this technology and unless something unique and innovative is thought upon, it might just fade away.

2. Content: Content defines the eventual outcome of any new product. If content developers fail to understand the possibilities and limitations of AR, and churn out cliched content, the future of AR might be very bleak.

3. Hardware: Making AR hardware readily available to the masses is a big concern. Eventually, if the right tool to access AR is not available in the market at affordable rates, the whole process of developing it will go down the drain.

Similar challenges were faced by the Internet, Mobile Phone, Social Media Giants but the investors stuck to the task and made the technology a necessity for the masses.

One point of view to look at AR is that it is expected to grow by 90% every year until these challenges do not saturate and hinder it. Companies are spending big bucks on AR. However, it is still under the clouds and there are many prospects on which leading tech giants are working on. Reportedly, Microsoft has paid as much as $150 million to buy IP assets related to augmented reality.

AR is also taking upper hand in the field of advertising and promotional events. Today smartphones have in-built GPS receivers, compasses and accelerometers that make it possible to know exactly where it’s located and what they are viewing. Augmented reality applications such as “Layar” utilizes these features to show people information through their camera screens about the surrounding businesses.

Click here to watch how Layar works

So, there is no doubt that investors believe in the technology and will continue to invest in its R&D consistently. AR is set to change gaming e-commerce, education or to put it in simpler terms, our everyday lives.

How will AR transform our future?

 1. Digital Marketing: Digital Marketing of your product via ground-breaking Augmented Reality tools will ensure bigger market share. Augmented Reality is recognized as an enhanced marketing application that customers can engage with at home, in store, or on the go. Services such as  augmented packaging, on street marketing, geolocalized apps, and interactive consumer products will change the marketing trends.

2. Mapping: Geo-location and its real time display of enhanced maps will change how we navigate.  Augmented Reality can provide classified and suggestive information to the user such as nearby restaurants, bars, grocery stores, and fashion outlets.

3. Education: Educational resources are magnified by Augmented Reality systems and can be used to recreate events or transform books into 3D images all superimposed in real-time.  Augmented Reality is an excellent virtual assistant for educators in classroom settings and helps students gain a deeper understanding on the topic. By overlapping content to media, the reading experience is made more enriching.

4. Industry Applications: Industrial, military and medical applications regarding the genesis and development of a concept can be made simpler by Augmented Reality. When soldiers need information on their surroundings they can refer to detailed 3-Dimensional maps. If a doctor is performing a surgery, a live human subject can be made accessible. Occupations of all kinds can benefit from AR applications. The workforce can be trained well and also be assisted in day to day operations.

Whether you find your future-self living in a world where Christopher Nolan’s’ epic Sci-Fi film “Interstellar” spurs imagination around you or you are on the hunt for a rare Pokemon GO species, Augmented Reality is as real as it gets and it is here to stay.

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” 

-Albert Einstein

The popularity of enterprise mobility can be easily recognized from the fact that about 71% of the organizations consider mobility as their number one priority. According to an estimate by Nasscom, the global market for enterprise mobility is approximately valued at $140 billion annually by the year 2020. It is not a surprise at all to see this encouraging adoption of enterprise mobility services by companies irrespective of scale or size, considering that it can save almost 240 hours per employee.

But, it is also important to note that this is an emerging technology with the space being extremely fluid. Every other day, new paradigm seems to be emerging. Check out these top five trends in enterprise mobility for 2017 to ensure that you are on the right track with your mobility integration programme.

1.     Artificial Intelligence features likely to go mainstream

You must be aware that AI or Artificial Intelligence technology is being widely used in the field of computing. This has led to a growing number of enterprise apps becoming “smart” now. Some of the examples are Cortana, Google Now and Siri. The launch of many smart apps like these enables the users to regulate the security, heating and lighting systems.

An increasing number of enterprises have started relying more on technology due to the fast adoption of Artificial Intelligence. At the same time, security concerns have risen as compared to earlier times. In case, there is a security failure, it can be a threat to the whole enterprise. So, it is the responsibility of an enterprise to assure complete security.

2.     Rapid application of cloud technology

Cloud services now have become extremely mature. These services are easily available and are both reliable and can be procured at affordable prices. The high probability of the big data has further increased the migration of these enterprise services to cloud,

Though the popularity of the cloud computing is beyond doubt, there is a big challenge in the form of security. Many enterprises are trying to control this concern by opting for on-premise mission critical applications or apps and hybrid solutions on the cloud.

3.     Bring-Your-Own-Devices has gone being more than just a trend

BYOD or Bring-Your-Own-Devices culture is very common these days in the corporate world. It offers benefits like high efficiency and tremendous productivity along with increased use of mobility. All these have made BYOD not just a trend but much more. It is graduating into becoming a usual norm in several enterprises. However, there are some challenges too. The devices brought by the executives are hardly equipped with the security features that are mandatory for being used inside the premises of an enterprise.

So, the IT team of an enterprise is under a lot of pressure to ensure the security of all those BYOD devices, which are being used inside the corporate network. MDM or mobile device management solutions are deployed to minimize the possible pain points, which can come in the way of productivity, as well as the work fluidity that gets executed on those devices.

4.     Increase of companion apps

Many organizations are literally struggling to develop certain enterprise apps that will be beneficial for their customers as well as for internal functions. Instead of generic apps that were a trend earlier, the focus now is more on companion apps. These are apps that intend to make a certain function or task easy instead of cloning all the features of a particular desktop app.

5.     Increase of Citizen Developers

Since the enterprise apps are highly in demand, they have led to the popularity and the rise of no-code, low-code and cross-platform development environments that provide user-friendly options like drag and drop and speed up the timeline of the app development to a great extent.

Even a few years ago, the very idea of simulated three-dimensional worlds that you viewed through those special goggles appeared to be unfamiliar. But, today things are no longer the same. Virtual Reality has gone mainstream and is increasingly adopted today to bring about a competitive edge and win over customers with tremendous audio-visual impact. For instance TechViz states that 171 million people globally could be using VR hardware and software by 2018. Another stat from Digi-Capital states that the 2020 VR revenue forecast stands at $120 billion.

Changing trends in Virtual Reality

So, how are things different from before? In fact, Hollywood has been using the concept of virtual reality for several decades now. The technology sector has been also creating prototypes every now and then. But, what makes things interesting is that consumers can now expect to find high-tech virtual reality gadgets getting closer to the consumer products. The applications based on VR are rapidly emerging in the market. Gaming based on VR does not exist in isolation but is interconnected with latest technologies and social behavior. The synergy between all these fields can change the way you will experience situations and your behavior.

It has also enabled the game developers to design new and interesting gaming experiences. The experiences include online casinos using VR technologies big time, which is extremely popular. Here are some of the ways Virtual Reality can change the gaming experience.

Synergy between collaborating gaming scenarios and social experiences

Virtual reality can create social experiences even while gaming. The person who uses the virtual reality headset can only view the various virtualized elements. This can be also regarded as a piece of the puzzle where the individual who can view the elements needs to communicate the same to the other team members. The job of the team then is to conclude what is the thing to do thereafter.

VR enables greater involvement among the players

Players are more involved when the gaming is based on VR, equipping them with a higher number of tools at their disposal as compared to the flat-screen gaming. While flat-screen gaming does have the capacity to make the players feel emotional to some extent, it does not match up to a VR gaming experience where the players feel as if everything is happening in reality. The players seem to feel that they are witnesses to the events and they are responsible for those scenes. Though earlier games had also done it to some extent, VR gives the players more tools in their hands.

Everything that is unthinkable of in reality is possible in VR 

Virtual reality can make the players feel as if they belong to a scene rather than simply demonstrating things. The simulation enables the players to see things from a different angle. They can witness the experiences of other people, which was something unheard of even some years back.

Thus, the VR technology can create an interesting world of vivid imagination while shattering the scope of traditional education and learning.

Chatbots and UX Design:

Delivering seamless customer experience is the top most KRA for many web and app developers. But are they really scoring well on this front? How can customers get 24 x 7 support in the face of personnel constraints? How can user engagement be lifted with timely, prompt, and accurate support, right when they need it?

Chatbots emerge as viable answers to address these critical questions.

How does a Chatbot Provide Value to Your Business?

• Offers personalized services
• Caters key consumer experiences, including Customer Service, Content Interaction, and Productivity
• Offers simple, seamless, and engaging platform to consumers
• Helps businesses to respond faster to consumers
• Assist you to distribute content with higher information dissemination rate
• Helps in delivering targeted content as per user’s feedback or past records
• Works as a source for lead generation
• In the future, the platform can be used to incorporate AI and machine learning for responding to customer inquiries

Here is how we feel Chatbots will re-define UX Designs

1. Defines the Problem Clearly

Chatbots are one of the most popular platforms that can help your define your marketing and branding strategies, before you actually invest anything into development. It helps you to identify a user problem that you have a solution for, and can help you analyze its capabilities for being a business opportunity.

2. Helps in Analyzing and Measuring Success

It is agreeable that many game-changing products have not delivered their expected results, just because the development team failed to identify the key performance indicators (KPIs). Since your bot has the capability to impact your business in a positive way, it can assist you to design certain metrics that can assist in showcasing success rates, when pre-defined goals are met.

3. Offers Better Understanding of Customers and their Preferences

The platform assists in segmenting information as per persona groups and develop user stories by deciding with whom the bot will interact, how it will behave, and what purpose it will serve. It not only helps you to understand your target users’ feelings, but also assist in customizing the application as per their requirements and preferences.

4. Helps in Deigning UX Conversational Flow

Unlike designing screens, the bot enables you to design a UX conversational flow that will answer queries as per bot’s intelligence. In the designing phase, developers will think of all the potential questions, answers, and logic paths that the bot will require communicating with humans in an efficient manner.

5. Ensures a Personalized Experience

Lastly, the most important factor is the bot’s personality, and it should link directly to your brand. Start with naming your bot, and work on its presentation styles, appearance, and other vital factors to deliver a personalized experience to your wide and trusted customer base.

Conclusion

Providing a fascinating experience to customers by the way of timely support helps in keeping them engaged with your brand. It can also assist in capturing important details to let your business improve and expand.

Undoubtedly, users would wish to access something that can answer their queries at the earliest and can assist them in better decision-making. If your bot can do that, then it can bring tremendous success to your current business activities and can enhance the chances of overall growth.

Gamification in the Healthcare Industry

If you are in the fitness industry you would surely need a helping hand with maintaining a high level of motivation and engagement. Have you thought about using technology for this? Have you considered using gamification to keep the participants engaged for success? If not then this blog will tell you how to achieve this.

We make a case to accomplish this KRA through ‘Pokemon Go,’ an AR game which revolutionizes fitness in a unique manner. If you are wondering how ‘Pokemon Go’ proves to be the next big thing in the fitness industry, here’s what you need to know!

Introducing Pokemon Go

While fitness freaks already know about this revolution, some of them might be unaware of the concept. Let’s introduce Pokemon Go for those who haven’t been exposed to this addictive game. As a collaborative venture of the Pokemon Group and Nintendo & Niantic Inc, Pokemon GO happens to be a captivating Smartphone app.

Pokemon GO is an application built in the gaming format. By leveraging some of the essential Smartphone features such as camera and GPS, Pokemon GO merges the fictional world of Pokemon Gyms and Pikachus.

Players can play in the real world with these virtual creatures known as Pokemon. The player should have physical proximity to these creatures, as that is what makes it visible on mobile screens. By overlaying the Pokemon’s image on a video, this particular game involves players in the real world and in real-time.

With such a unique and innovative approach, Pokemon GO is surely riding quite high in popularity. The app has garnered great attention and ranks at the top of Google Play Charts and iTunes. The manufacturers had to stop its roll out in the European market, simply because Pokemon GO servers are overloaded to a great extent.

These reports clearly indicate towards the unsurpassed popularity of this gaming application. On that note, it’s high time to find out what it does for the fitness industry.

What’s in there for fitness freaks?

Some of the remarkable spots in Pokemon Go known as ‘gyms’ are places where players engage in competitions. These places correspond to physical locations such as monuments, gardens, and fountains which require the player to come out in the open and play.

Most importantly, this particular game makes players walk around a lot. The physical movements of the player help them advance in the game. As a result, Pokemon GO has successfully pulled out players out of their couch!

Fitness benefits 

With the help of this spectacular gaming app, fitness walks have become easier than ever! You no longer need to drive, cycle, or run to stay in shape. Pokemon GO has an innovative speedometer which measures your moves and stops counting distance when the speed is above 5 to 10 mph.

Quite unlike its contemporaries, the app also warns you and keeps you aware of your surroundings. Players will come across a PokeStop if they are too close to platform edges.

Parting thoughts

With such distinctive and unique features, Pokemon GO is undoubtedly emerging as the latest revolution in the fitness industry.