I received a Google Home Mini for Christmas and it’s been a life game-changer. I no longer have to find my phone to check the weather, listen to music or follow a recipe (and much more!).

My changing relationship with tech is exactly what Trend Watch have outlined as two emerging trends for 2018; Virtual Companionship and Automated Commerce (A-Commerce).

Virtual Companionship relates to tech making the jump from assistant to companion and developing a personality with the power to entertain, educate and befriend. It’s so true; the way I interact with technology has changed. I no longer type “Melbourne weather” into Google when I want to know the forecast. These days I find myself politely saying “Hey Google, what’s the weather for tomorrow?”, and “Thanks!” to my Google Home Mini, as if it’s just one of my (incredibly knowledgeable) friends.

The impact for brands is that I am now searching using natural questioning language and not siloed keywords.  Brands need to start tailoring their SEO to natural consumer language if they want to be promoted by our ‘incredibly knowledgeable friends’. The way to do this is meet face to face consumers and talk to them – find out how they talk about you and your product, how they describe the role you play in their lives and what problem’s you are helping them to solve.

The second trend, A-commerce, is about consumers handing over aspects of their retail experience (e.g. purchase and delivery arrangements) to algorithms and smart devices. I am using my Google Home Mini friend for this too. Instead of using a physical shopping list, I can simply say “Ok Google, please add dishwashing detergent to my shopping list”, and takes care of it for me.

Smart brands are quickly findings ways to inject themselves into this automated process. Woolworths has developed an app that works with Google Assistant that builds and edits shopping lists hands free and can order your groceries for pick up or delivery. Starbucks has introduced My Starbucks Barista, a chatbot that allows you to verbally ask Amazon’s Alexa to order your usual, and then head straight to your local store to pick it up.  A smart move by Woolies and Starbucks – they are predicting that this automated behaviour is going to be the new norm and are right there at the forefront to help embed the habit.

In last week’s BrandHook blog, Stacey has taught us that technology alone doesn’t guarantee value unless it’s really solving a problem. My Google Home Mini has found many problems to solve – but the problem for brands is that they need to keep up. At BrandHook, we specialise in getting you intimate with your customers by bringing you into their world and bringing your customer tribes to life. We deep dive into your consumer’s needs, drivers and pain points, and work with you to innovate and address the customer’s problem. Have a chat with us about how we can help you get to the root of your customer’s problem and develop trend driven solutions.

Written by Emma.