<\/p>\n

But to fully appreciate the future we’re heading toward, imagine the scenario I mentioned earlier (reordering Tide with a Dash Button) but now eliminate the button.\u00a0 Imagine that the stock-tracking and reordering capability is embedded in the washing machine itself.\u00a0 In fact, imagine a world where most of the devices, products and even surfaces around us are imbued with intelligence that allows them to determine and act on our day-to-day product requirements. When we reach that point, we will have fully embarked on what I call, the replenishment economy<\/i> and it’s going to encompass a vast percentage of the products we consume.<\/p>\n

In the replenishment economy, the refrigerator becomes responsible for ordering more margarine, milk and eggs.\u00a0 The dishwasher is responsible for replenishing detergent .\u00a0 Our automobile becomes responsible for ordering new tires once tread depth falls below a safe level. The grunt work of shopping for routine items will done by our devices.\u00a0 We will need only to approve, reject or modify the order before it\u2019s sent off and fulfilled.\u00a0 In the same way we take air conditioning, running water and indoor plumbing for granted, so too will we take automated replenishment of commodity items as a simple fact of everyday life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sensors Don’t Watch Television<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

All this matters tremendously for brands and retailers because the growth of the replenishment economy will inevitably bring a steady decline in our need, as consumers, to go the store shelf.\u00a0 And without a consumer at the shelf, shopper-marketing becomes like the proverbial tree falling in the forest, with no one there to hear it. Messaging along the presumed path to purchase will be of little value if the consumer<\/i> becomes a sensor, buried in the workings of a washing machine or refrigerator.\u00a0 In-store merchandising, impulse buys and other conventional enticements will do little to appeal to the artificial intelligence tasked with managing our routine consumption.<\/p>\n

The questions facing marketers therefore are daunting and many.\u00a0 How will they reach consumers who are, on the one hand, steadily more recalcitrant toward mass media but who will also become increasingly less inclined to shop in-store for commodity items? How will brands succeed in becoming the default product choice for machine-initiated replenishment? And perhaps most importantly, how will marketers appeal to the emotional and often irrational side of consumer behavior, when the consumer<\/em> is now a string of bluetooth activated programming code?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About the author:\u00a0Doug Stephens is one of the world\u2019s foremost retail industry futurists. His intellectual work and thinking have influenced many of the world\u2019s best-known retailers, agencies and brands including Walmart, Home Depot, Disney, BMW, Citibank, eBay, Intel and WestJet. \u00a0Doug is also listed as one of retail\u2019s top global influencers by Vend.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Doug Stephens In 2009 Procter & Gamble began briefing its agencies on, what was at the time, a completely different and somewhat radical marketing strategy. [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1],"tags":[191,334,46,24,78,335],"class_list":["post-3845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","category-uncategorized","tag-amazon","tag-internet-of-things-2","tag-marketing","tag-retail","tag-shopper-marketing-3","tag-store-back"],"yoast_head":"\n