64% of Consumers Don’t Know Many Smart Devices Are Available for Purchase

Inter­net of Things (IoT) tech­nolo­gies suf­fer from a severe lack of aware­ness among con­sumers.

Danny Goodwin By Danny Goodwin from Momentology. Join the discussion » 0 comments

A recent sur­vey of more than 2,000 U.S. con­sumers showed that the major­i­ty isn’t aware that cer­tain “Inter­net of Things” (IoT) devices like smart refrig­er­a­tors or wear­able tech­nol­o­gy even exists. This research dives into the per­cep­tions that are cre­at­ing a bar­ri­er to entry to these prod­ucts, and how brands can incen­tivize the con­sumer to use an IoT device.


Hous­ton, we have a prob­lem. If you’re in the busi­ness of mar­ket­ing tech devices to the mass­es that fall under the “Inter­net of Things” (IoT) cat­e­go­ry, you may have your work cut out for you.

Accord­ing to a study pub­lished by Acquity Group, 64 per­cent of con­sumers have not pur­chased an in-home IoT device like a “smart” refrig­er­a­tor or smoke detec­tor because they didn’t know they were avail­able.

The research report, dubbed the “2014 Inter­net of Things Study,” is based on more than 2,000 con­sumer sur­veys across the U.S., and found the fol­low­ing:

  • Eighty-sev­en per­cent of those sur­veyed had not heard of the term “Inter­net of Things.”
  • Forty per­cent of con­sumers did not know wear­able tech­nol­o­gy like smart watch­es were avail­able in the mar­ket­place.

Of those who were aware of in-home IoT devices and wear­able tech­nol­o­gy, par­tic­i­pants cit­ed con­cerns with pri­va­cy and lack of per­ceived val­ue as rea­sons they hadn’t bought yet:

  • For in-home IoT devices, 36 per­cent cit­ed lack of per­ceived val­ue and 23 per­cent cit­ed pri­va­cy con­cerns.
  • For wear­able devices, 30 per­cent cit­ed lack of per­ceived val­ue and 19 per­cent cit­ed pri­va­cy con­cerns.

In fact, 57 per­cent said they were less like­ly to pur­chase wear­able IoT tech­nol­o­gy due to poten­tial hack­ing and data breach­es.

Adoption Rate For Wearable Technology To Double in 2015

Despite the con­cerns expressed today, the report fore­casts a healthy growth for IoT devices, and high­lights those that have the most promise for adop­tion.

Sev­en per­cent of con­sumers own a wear­able IoT device today, and 4 per­cent of con­sumers own an in-home IoT device. While it may seem like a small per­cent­age now, the five-year adop­tion rate growth looks promis­ing across the board, accord­ing to the study.

Data show the adop­tion of wear­able tech­nol­o­gy will increase from 7 per­cent in 2014 to 14 per­cent in 2015. When it comes to the devices most primed for growth in the short term, 13 per­cent of con­sumers said they would pur­chase wear­able fit­ness appli­ca­tions and tech­nol­o­gy with­in the next year, and 33 per­cent said they would in the next five years.

Demographics And Incentives Also Impact IoT Adoption

Demo­graph­ics also played a role in the deci­sion-mak­ing process for IoT devices. For exam­ple:

  • Par­ents are most like­ly to pur­chase in-home IoT tech­nol­o­gy and wear­able devices.
  • Men were slight­ly more like­ly (16 per­cent) than women (10 per­cent) to own or plan to pur­chase an IoT in-home device in the next year.

The research also showed that despite con­cerns the con­sumer has around pri­va­cy, when incen­tivized with coupons or use­ful infor­ma­tion, con­sumers are more open to shar­ing data with retail­ers, man­u­fac­tur­ers and so on.

In one ques­tion, sur­vey par­tic­i­pants were asked in what sit­u­a­tion they’d be will­ing to share data with third par­ties from their smart car; top answers includ­ed:

  • Obtain­ing one free main­te­nance appoint­ment.
  • Receiv­ing vehi­cle health reports on their smart­phone along with reminders for main­te­nance.
  • Know­ing the best place to get the least expen­sive gas.

As IoT tech­nol­o­gy trick­les into every facet of our lives, very soon, smart devices could be norm in con­sumer prod­ucts. A brand’s oppor­tu­ni­ty lies in not only the tech­nol­o­gy, but also the mar­ket­ing of that tech­nol­o­gy in a way that address­es key con­cerns and per­cep­tions the con­sumer holds that could be cre­at­ing that bar­ri­er to entry.


Is your brand ready to reach con­sumers via smart devices and the Inter­net of Things?

Danny Goodwin

Written by Danny Goodwin

Managing Editor, Momentology

Danny Goodwin is the former Managing Editor of Momentology. Previously, he was the editor of Search Engine Watch, where he was in charge of editing, content strategy, and writing about search industry news.

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