Consumers interested in wearable technology can be broken down into six main groups, researchers have found.
Potential buyers include ‘Full Time Competitive Employees’, ‘Young Keen Exercisers’, ‘Working Mothers’, ‘Social Reliants’, ‘Less Healthy Experimenters’ and ‘Older Keen Exercisers’, according to the report by Clicked Research Agency.
The project by the digital research specialist also identified a wide range of attitudes towards wearable devices that means businesses will need to ensure they understand their customers’ requirements before committing to a strategy.
Clicked MD and founder, Steve Mellor, said: ‘The UK consumer is very inquisitive about wearable technology, but the potential benefits can polarise opinions. For example, some love the idea of retail functionality but really don’t want the health benefits, and they are not necessarily the segment of consumer you would imagine.’
Clicked recently completed the substantial research project looking in detail at the UK attitude towards wearable technology.
The independent research, published together with Lightspeed GMI, identified a wide range of potential customers for wearable devices.
Clicked identified six different types of UK consumer of wearable devices. The segmentation is driven off of the back of a large study of 1,000 UK consumers, of which 20% were found to be interested in wearable technology. Only those who are extremely interested in wearables were used to generate the segmentation, ensuring the results are both relevant and reliable.
Each consumer segment has their own tastes and preferences from a long list of retail, health, fitness, entertainment, communication, social, information and navigation benefits.
With consumers displaying such a diverse range of requirements from wearable devices businesses need to ensure they consider the best strategy for their customers.
Mellor added: ‘There are two schools of thought about strategies to implement wearables into the business. Generate an app to implement into a wearable device that allows users to choose their apps, much as we currently do with smartphones, or develop a standalone device that is tailored to the experience your customers want.
‘The first is cost effective and easier to implement, but the second is likely to result in better brand experiences.’