How Smart Brands Are Redefining Convenience

For today’s consumers, convenience matters as much as it ever did. Perhaps even more so. But like so much else in the digital era, what we mean by convenience is changing significantly. 

Gone are the days when convenience simply meant “fast and easy.” Now, it’s far more multifaceted and context dependent. And brands need to understand the nuanced trade-offs that consumers are willing to make to get the kind of convenience they’re looking for.

It sometimes will still be all about speed and simplicity: “Don’t make me think.” Other times, it’ll be much more about precision and relevance in the moment: “Give me exactly what I need.”

Delivering convenience today is about doing the small things well, focusing on the detail, and using digital technologies to deliver something that’s “just right” for each individual when she needs it.

Look at the myriad new ways in which brands are helping consumers reduce complexity from day-to-day living. Whether it’s solutions that “Help me do it” (meal kits), “Do it for me” (Ikea and Task Rabbit) or “Get it right for me” (hyper-personalized recommendations), brands are taking convenience to new places. 

At this year’s Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit in Vancouver, Accenture showcased some of the work it’s been doing to help consumer goods brands deliver this kind of modern hyper-relevant convenience. 

Convenience in the home
The Drinkworks Home Bar is a smart new product combining deep insights into user behavior with human-centered design and clever engineering to provide next-level consumer convenience. 

Drinkworks created a first-of-its-kind machine: the drinkmaker. It recognizes the system’s proprietary Drinkworks pods and uses precision on-board chilling and carbonation systems to prepare quality cocktails, beers and ciders at the touch of a button. 

Consumer experiences are entertainment, and they happen anywhere and everywhere. As brands redesign their consumer experiences, they’re starting to reimagine the way they think of space by leveraging the power of digital, physical, and social connections.

With the current trend for off-premise alcohol consumption threatening trade sales, the industry will need to show a whole lot more agility and deliver hyper-relevant consumer experiences that can compete.

The “Digital Bar Experience” that Accenture hosted at the conference showcased how spirits brands and bar owners can adapt to this shifting consumer behavior and changing sales and distribution patterns. The Experience demonstrated how smart, connected equipment is helping bar owners respond to fluctuating consumer and market demands. Innovations like the connected tap, the self-service cocktail machine, and the remote-controlled cooler use machine learning and predictive analytics to create new and improved drinking experiences.