Does a washing machine need AI in it?
It would have seemed somewhat of a daft question a couple of years ago – perhaps even the stuff of science fiction – but such has been the advent of AI into modern tech appliances that it is now very much reality. And, for marketers, it presents a dual challenge: how to explain it and then how to sell it.
Samsung has gone in hard on AI and its home appliances division is no different. From an AI Energy mode that you can operate from your phone to optimise energy usage across devices, to AI Vision inside its fridges, which supports food management by recommending things that are about to go out of date, there is a host of product innovations available. And, yes, there’s even AI Wash, which recommends the correct detergent for your washing machine.
Does a washing machine need AI in it?
It would have seemed somewhat of a daft question a couple of years ago – perhaps even the stuff of science fiction – but such has been the advent of AI into modern tech appliances that it is now very much reality. And, for marketers, it presents a dual challenge: how to explain it and then how to sell it.
Samsung has gone in hard on AI and its home appliances division is no different. From an AI Energy mode that you can operate from your phone to optimise energy usage across devices, to AI Vision inside its fridges, which supports food management by recommending things that are about to go out of date, there is a host of product innovations available. And, yes, there’s even AI Wash, which recommends the correct detergent for your washing machine.
For Tanya Weller, Samsung UK’s marketing director for home, these innovations have helped Samsung be seen as “leading the way” when it comes to AI – an impressive feat from a company that is better known for its hardware innovations than software ones.
“We’re seeing people use more and more of our AI features,” she tells Marketing Week. “And the more you use them, the more they become second nature. It’s really about building that habit.”
Samsung’s marketing lead on the value of having product in her titleInnovation for innovation’s sake, though, isn’t what Samsung is about. Weller wants every AI innovation to tackle a pain point for the consumer that it can build into its wider marketing strategy. Take its AI Energy tool, for instance, which was developed to help customers with their energy costs during a troubling economic downturn for most. While the innovation itself was quite “techy”, the messaging around it was to solve a “pain point” for customers and make it “meaningful” to them.
“Ultimately, it was all about saving energy and saving money,” she explains. “But putting monetary values around that makes it really simple for consumers to understand how to use it.”
Category challenges
The home appliances category is an interesting one for Samsung. Weller notes that while the brand is strong on home refrigeration and laundry, it faces challenges in more “difficult categories” like ovens and vacuum cleaners where its market share isn’t quite as strong. A natural consequence of fighting across multiple different fronts, of course, but one that Weller likes to use to her advantage by encouraging a challenger mindset in her team.
“You’ve got to be more disruptive, you’ve got to be braver and take more risks to try and drive that growth in these newer categories,” she says. “But you’ve still got the halo of the overarching brand.”
And the overarching brand is important. Samsung is a household name in mobile phones and televisions in the UK and so it is natural that the brand should want to jump on those positive associations when it comes to driving cross-category sales.
“We can see that consumers who have other Samsung products are much more loyal to brand because they get the benefit of the total ecosystem,” says Weller. “So, for us, driving that cross category ownership is really, really important. It makes your brand stickier in the longer term.”
She adds: “Why wouldn’t you consider a Samsung washing machine if you’ve got a Samsung phone?”
How Samsung’s ‘new era’ will see the brand front and centreThe teams at Samsung UK – across TV, mobile experiences and home appliances – all operate under a separate P&L, so while there is a culture of cross-collaboration and learning to be had, ultimately, each leader is responsible for driving their own growth. No wonder, then, that Weller is aware of the pitfalls of falling into an overreliance on performance channels to drive that growth.
“It’s a real challenge,” she accepts. “All businesses have become more and more hooked on performance marketing because it does give you that instant hit. But we at Samsung are constantly trying to drive that brand piece, that longer-term strategy, as we know in the long term that succeeds.”
How brands go about driving that longer-term strategy is up for debate. While traditional channels were seen in the past as being the obvious and almost de facto way to drive positive long-term brand associations, that thinking is starting to shift. Weller believes brand partnerships are one such way to drive brand equity and association while still reaching new audiences, and a “slightly different” way to think about brand building through various touch points.
“Rather than going, ‘I need an X million media budget to really deliver my brand message this year.’ How do you work in other ways to deliver that longer-term strategy without such hefty investments?” she asks. “What are the other levers you can pull in brand building that aren’t what I would call traditional brand building.
The key is the length of the partnership. Brands, she believes, need to have long-term social strategies in place to reap the benefits that can come from marketing through digital channels.
“People are like, ‘oh social, it’s just like digital, it’s short term and it’s instant.’ Actually, it’s very much a brand lever,” she concludes.
