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7.7: The Internet of Things/The Quantified Self

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    The Internet of Things (IoT) stems from the idea that any device can be connected to the Internet or to another device. The IoT itself is a massive network of connected ‘things’, people, coffee makers, cars, front doors, and almost anything else that can be given a connection to the Internet. Think about the concept of a ‘smart house’ that can read your calendar, see your meetings for the day, set an appropriate time for your alarm to go off, have coffee ready and waiting and send the fastest route to work straight to your car. According to some estimates, there were 10 billion connected devices in 2015, expected to increase to 75 billion by 2020. (The Marketing Journal, 2016)

    For some interesting takes on the security problems surrounding the Internet of Things, check out Bruce Schneier’s blog: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2017/02/security_and_pr.html.

    The quantified self is related to this, it’s all about using technology to measure every aspect of our lives. Fitness wearables like Fitbits are worn every day and can track elements such as your steps, sleeping patterns and eating habits.

    The biggest impact on marketing for the quantified self is data, the sheer amount of it being created every day gives marketers incredible opportunities to mine that data for insights to help target their marketing opportunities.

    Increased data access is also inevitable with the IoT online devices can be connected to social data. The marketer will have to be something of a data scientist, using this new data to gain insight into the customer journey, but it goes a little further, the IoT means that brands can connect to customers and encourage interactivity much more easily by sending the right message to the right device and at the right time.

    The amount of data available because of IoT allows real-time interaction and targeted, contextual ads.

    This page titled 7.7: The Internet of Things/The Quantified Self is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Rob Stokes via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.