Cool or Creepy?

By Doug Stephens

I saw a tweet last week that caught my attention.  It linked to an article that outlined a new line of retail store signage equipped with anonymous facial recognition software –  software that detects the facial characteristics of the person standing in front of it, determines their gender and age and serves up video content that’s appropriately targeted to their likely interests.  The Tweeter asked readers if they thought this sort of technology was “cool or creepy?”

It’s not the first time I’ve heard that same question asked.  In fact, I think I’ve even asked it myself on occasion.  We’re seeing an awful lot of pretty mind-bending technologies these days, many of which are testing the boundaries of our sensibilities.

Whether it’s location aware technology like Foursquare Radar, facial recognition technology like Cognovision, or social ads that seem to be popping up just about everywhere, or any number of other new technologies, networks or platforms, it’s easy to get caught up in the  “cool or creepy” debate.

But  we’re looking at this the wrong way.  

I mean, imagine how creepy the voices on the other end of the first telephones must have sounded. Or how unusual the first human image that appeared on a television set must have looked.  Think of how weird it must have felt to be propelled along in the first automobile or airplane.  The truth is, most of the technologies that we can’t live without today began as being sort of creepy,  strange or uncomfortable.  And by the same token, much of the stuff we all thought was so cool, like Palm Pilot’s, Segways and 3-D television for example, didn’t have nearly the kind of profound popularity many would have expected.

And so we have to get beyond the whole cool or creepy thing.  It’s irrelevant and unproductive.

The most important questions that we, as retail and marketing professionals, need to be asking when a new technolgy hits the radar are, “Is it relevant?” “Does it honestly solve a real consumer problem?”  and “Will it create genuinely better and more gratifying consumer experiences?”

The point is, we’re just barely across the threshold of a remarkable period of innovation and technology in retailing.  A lot of what we’re going to see in the months and years ahead will seem compelling and uncomfortable all at once – so we have to stop fixating on our subjective feelings about things and focus instead on asking what’s relevant and what’s not. What’s useful and what’s useless?

History is pretty clear; if a technology solves a deep-seated consumer problem, whether it’s cool or creepy won’t matter a bit.  It will be embraced wholeheartedly!