3 Marketing Lessons from the Smartwatch War

There is a war being waged for your wrist. Pebble, Nike, Apple, Samsung – major corporations vying for that small spot above your hand. Smartwatches are the new hot tech, and companies are scrambling to be the go-to smartwatch. The SmartWatch Group – a research company created to track the burgeoning smartwatch movement – predicts the industry will be worth $60 billion by 2020.

And, with that much money in play, it’s no wonder companies are fighting so hard for their share of the pie. But what is interesting about this “war” compared to, say, the Cola Wars of the eighties, is how these companies are marketing smartwatches. This is a new form of marketing, relying on more than blitzkrieg tactics and celebrity endorsements; it has to be a lot more authentic. We can all learn a thing or two from what these companies are doing.

Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

Nearly every product and service comes with preconceptions and baggage. Unless you’re bringing something completely new to market, you have to deal with existing ideas about what your product or service should be.

Timepieces, for example, are more than a way to tell the time. They are fashion accessories and, in some cases, a way to show wealth. If companies want to replace standard watches, smartwatches need to be fashionable as well; and that’s one of the biggest complaints about the current offerings – they’re a bit clunky and ugly. Apple, and certainly other companies, are working to dispel that notion by creating sleek, attractive timepieces – and at the end of the day, that might be what makes these watches more desirable than a Pebble, or a FitBit.

When you're marketing, you should not be reinventing the wheel – you actually should be leveraging the best parts of the wheel to stand out. If you ignore or avoid these preconceptions, you may get edged out.

Be Your Brand

Let’s take two different competitors in this market: Pebble and Apple.

Pebble was one of the first to market, using Kickstarter to seed its project. Recently, Pebble launched another Kickstarter to fund the Pebble Time, an updated, color version of their watch. This forced many to wonder why a company that had already found some measure of success, and that had launched products following its initial Kickstarter, would use it again. Some accused the company of taking advantage of the site. But if you think about it, that move makes sense to the brand. Pebble is the underdog – it wants to reconnect to its grassroots supporters that allowed the company to market the product. And these are the people who are looking specifically for a smartwatch.

Apple, on the other hand, is a larger and better-known brand. Its target market may never have thought about getting a smartwatch, but they will because Apple is good at showing people how its products enhance the lives of its users.

In both cases, the companies play to their strengths and branding. Pebble isn’t targeting luxury users, and Apple isn’t going after tech-savvy early-adopters. Remember who your market is and don't ignore the power of your brand.

Consumer Consensus Can Make or Break You

Apple was not first to market, and yet many analysts predict the company will end up with a huge share of it. Samsung, which held a 33.8 percent share of the market in 2013, had its Galaxy Gear on shelves early, but reviews of both the original and subsequent iterations haven’t been stellar.

There is a difference between being first product to market, and being the first good product to market. As I said before, there are certain expectations for every product and service that need to be met. People want a smartwatch that looks good, and works well; if a watch doesn’t meet those specifications, they’ll let everyone who will listen know.

You thus have to focus on quality control and customer experience. The internet is a megaphone, and I shouldn’t have to tell you how important online reputation is to a company’s success. Marketing needs to include reputation management, so always remember to focus on quality control and the customer experience.

Now, granted, many of the companies I mentioned are corporate empires. And even the underdogs have quite a bit of money. But even though you’re probably not overseeing a national rollout of a cutting-edge product, you can still take marketing cues from what the big companies do.

When you plan out a campaign, keep the preconceptions of your industry in mind, be true to your brand, and don’t forget that unhappy people complain online. Marketing is a very different beast than a decade ago, and old tactics like static branding or shallow customer interaction won’t cut it anymore. Successful marketers and businesses will take their cues from the big players, and adjust.