22 amazing Evolution of Smart Products cartoon – Marketoonist

One of the very most popular cartoons I ever drew was concerning the Internet of Things, immediately after Google announced the acquisition of Nest in early 2014.

“I think my Nest smoke alarm is certainly going off,” one character tells another.  “Google Adwords just pitched me a fire extinguisher and an offer for temporary housing.”

iRobot later proved that truth is stranger than fiction when photos drawn in homes by a beta form of its Roomba vacuum robot somehow finished up on Facebook in late 2022, including a photograph of somebody regarding the toilet.

The Internet of Things happens to be an important focus of manufacturers the past decade.  Internet-enabled “smart” features are actually section of 80-90% associated with appliances sold by LG Electronics.  Smart products can transform one-time purchases into long-term customer relationships, fueled by data and promising the chance to upsell and cross-sell.

Yet what could make strategic sense for the brand just isn’t necessarily resonating utilizing the consumer. 

LG revealed the other day that less than 1 / 2 of the smart appliances it offers sold stay linked to the world wide web.  Whirlpool reported similar numbers.

Henry Kim, US director associated with smart device devision at LG told the WSJ:

“the task is the fact that a consumer does not start to see the true value that manufacturers see when it comes to how that data might help them in the end. So they really don’t really take care of spending some time to simply connect it.”

I think this mismatch in “true value” is an excellent exemplory instance of marketing myopia. As Harvard marketing professor Theodore Levitt famously wrote:

“People don’t are interested a quarter-inch drill. They need a quarter-inch hole.”

below are a few related cartoons I’ve drawn through the years:

“If marketing kept a diary, this will be it.”

– Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs

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