Internet connected smart devices promise to revolutionize the way we interact with our consumer electronics and home appliances. To assess this dynamic space, we analyzed three categories of products: smart speakers, home security systems, and the virtual assistants that power and personify these brands.

Smart Speakers

We filtered E-Score^® Brand data by consumers interested in tech and household products and discovered that interest in these products is high.

• These consumers are very interested in smart speakers. Collectively, Brand Consideration among non-users is about double the average for all consumer electronics, led by Google Home and Sonos (both 33%).
• Smart speakers have strong positive associations for consumers interested in tech and household products. As a group, smart speakers have scores very much above the average consumer electronics brand for Innovative, Cutting-Edge, and Proud to be Associated With. Google Home and Apple’s Home Pod have particularly impressive scores in these areas.
• However, awareness is low. The smart speaker brands collectively fall well below the average consumer electronics brand in measurements of Awareness, Very Familiar and Ever Used.

Innovation Comes to Home Security Market

In the area of home security, smart devices are seeking to disrupt old business models. Our data shows that the old regime has a powerful position with consumers in terms of awareness and trust, but the challengers are coming on strong with a younger consumer.

• Established brands ADT and Honeywell have much greater Awareness than the new entrants, although this advantage is reduced among consumers under age 38. ADT holds the highest Trustworthy score among all respondents but younger consumers find newcomer Ring nearly as Trustworthy.
• In contrast, consumers have much more favorable views towards the new brands in terms of Cutting-Edge, and Willingness to Try New Products. Perhaps for this reason, Honeywell has announced a new brand, Resideo, strictly focusing on smart home security.
• Ring is benefiting from their simple visual marketing campaign with top-of-mind associations such as “feeling safe,” “advanced security” and “see who’s at your door without opening it.”

Looking at Siri, Alexa and Cortana

Virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa were early drivers many of the smart devices. While virtual assistants are a powerful new way for users to interface with products and services, they are also critical branding elements and come to embody the brand in consumer’s minds. Using E-Score Character we discovered which of the virtual assistants consumers find most appealing and intelligent.

• While Siri and Alexa are considered most Intelligent (41% each), Cortana edges both out as most Articulate (24).
• Siri ranks highest in Funny among all three virtual assistants and consumers have said she is “snarky, sarcastic” and “can be funny”.
• Although Alexa has the highest Appeal, Cortana holds a strong position with consumers under age 38. Consumer Comments show that this group is making a positive association with the character Cortana from the video game Halo.

Resources

Feel free to utilize these infographics in your social shares or other uses. To download, simply click the images and right-click, or pull the full sized images.