Nest Smoke Detector Project - Essay Example

 International marketing - a 1500 word essay Introduction Nest protect is a smoke and carbon monoxide detector alarm system designed and launched by the Silicon Valley technological company, Nest. This is the same company which had launched the nest thermostat with huge success. The alarm is designed as user-friendly and using a high level of technology interprets data from smoke and heat. Like the thermostat, it uses the wireless technologies and is enabled to communicate with smart phones. Nest has attempted in creating a unique product with the Protect smoke detector. It is a good looking device on the outside and involves using the technologies that exploit the wide infrastructure of connectivity and sensors growing all around the world. The Protect is similar to other smoke detector devices but has the additional distinguished features of being able to differentiate between steam and smoke and having a full-fledged internet connectivity system to point to the exact location of danger. It features a pleasing tone of voice warning instead of the regular annoying alarm sounds and also has a light system to guide in the darkness. The voice warning of Protect can be made silent by waving the hands by standing under the detector. If the condition worsens, an alarm system of 80 decibels will start ringing. The Protect is also enabled to interact with the Nest thermostat when it detects carbon monoxide to instruct it to turn off the furnace, which is the common source for leakage of carbon monoxide. Discussion Nest has attempted to create a smoke detector with a brain. The Protect is aimed at replacing the common traditional alarm systems as a smarter and technologically advanced device. The Protect has many distinctive features which gives it much competitive advantage over any other traditional smoke detector. The Protect has the feature of alerting the user via a Smartphone as well as by glowing with a green light when battery is full and yellow light when it has to be charged. This replaces the traditional beeping alert on low battery for security alarms. The company has carefully applied the marketing mix in the development and introduction of the product. Product: For developing the right product, Nest has taken up a perfectionist approach. It has also pursued a restrained product development strategy, similar to the strategy used by Apple. The Protect has been launched as a consumer friendly, high innovation smoke detector alarm system. The Protect has been designed with a balanced blend of emotional and rational thinking. The product is enabled with different new features which will solve many of the problems that the consumers have been facing for decades with the traditional smoke detectors. The look of the product is designed to be attractive and compact. The Protect is precisely an intelligently reinvented product. Place: The Protect is aimed at adding to the already accelerating growth of the company. The company has launched the Protect in a hugely crowded market. The Protect has been made available for selling in more than 5000 retailers. The product has been made available for sell in reputable electronic stores like Best Buy, Amazon, Home Depot and the Apple stores (Bloomberg, 2013). The market place for smoke detector alarms is getting more crowded and there are different types of smoke detectors available from a number of companies in the market. Price: The Protect is very highly priced at $129 per piece compared to the price of the prevalent smoke detectors in the market which can be bought at an average price of $30. Though the Protect is loaded with advanced functionalities, still at $129 it is considered overpriced and is positioned as a more novelty product than a conventional smoke detector. But the company has weighed the price of the Protect carefully. The high price has been set keeping in mind the pattern of consumers paying a much higher price for a better technology and better performing alternative of a conventional product. Since the Protect has been priced high due to the features and benefits associated with it which are unique for the Protect and the other smoke detectors in the market do not match up to the Protect (Kotler, 2011, p.78). Promotion: Since the Protect is very highly priced and is currently the most expensive smoke detector present in the market, the company has to convince the people about the utilities and benefits of the Protect. Taking the cue from similar startup companies like Uber and Lyft, Nest also has applied different effective branding strategies. Nest has bought a fire truck which will be touring around 18 home depots and give a demonstration to the customers about the product. The brand will attempt to educate the customers about the highly evolved smoke detector that it has launched. The creative minds of Nest have enlisted the help of the West Coast customs of the pimp my ride show to get the truck and pain it the color of Nest egg blue. Also they have used smoke demonstration windows for displaying the product, created a range of fire safety educational kits for kids and used a Nest grill in the front side of the vehicle. The company has implemented exciting and unique promotional strategies for the Protect. The consumer buying behavior is seen to be a mix of rational and emotional thinking in this type of product. Nest has pointed out to a study by the National fire Protection Agency which has shown that the reasons for the failure of smoke detector alarms to be activated in the case of a fire are mainly dead or disconnected batteries. Also consumers generally become annoyed by the sound of the nuisance alarms which is triggered falsely many times by steam or smoke from cooking. Their annoyance against the noisy alarm often made them averse to the use of the smoke detecting alarms and resulted in deactivating the system (Warman, 2013, p.1). Nest has seen that when the consumers get a high technology and smarter looking device as an alternative to a traditional technology device (McGrath, 2000, p 198). They are ready to pay manifolds price for the new device. This had been the case in the launch of the Nest thermostat as well. The Protect had solved some basic problems that the customers have faced with the conventional smoke detecting systems. It has replaced the annoying alarm sound by a soothing voice programmed to speak aloud. Nest has recruited different voice talents to suit to the different regions where Protect is set to be launched. They have used a motherly voice as it is researched that kids are more likely to be awakened by a motherly voice than by a beeping alarm system. The Protect has been designed to solve the issues that the users face with their smoke detectors like dead batteries, annoying false alarms and limited usability. The SWOT analysis of the Protect is presented below to understand the position and viability of the product in the market. Strengths: The uniqueness of the product, high level of technology used, superior compared to other smoke detectors in the market, assurance of a high level of protection are the strengths of the device. Weaknesses: The device is highly priced for a product of this category and thus rules out the group of customers who would like to settle for lower cost smoke detectors. Opportunities: The market has opportunities for a unique smoke detector system. The smoke detector market is estimated to be three times bigger than the thermostats market. The smoke detector products have seen almost no innovation since last ten years. The recent increase in the accident and damage rates caused by fire hazards has driven the demand for fire protection systems. With more number of laws being passed in the US every year, the market has opened up to 25 more states (Carriers, 2012, p.2). Threats: The need for regulatory approval in the US market, patent lawsuits faced by the company and competitors like Canary coming out with competitive devices at a lower price. Protect is expected to have significant competitive advantage in the market considering the brilliant technology used to develop the device and the need for innovation in the smoke detector alarm systems market that has not been satisfied for a long time. Conclusion Protect has come up as a device of a completely new genre. It has a number of incomparable features. Nest has put in an effort to create a series of home usage smart devices by creating the Protect to be connected with the thermostat earlier developed and launched by Nest. Nest has put a foot step forward in the creation of smart technological home devices which can efficiently use the wireless connectivity, flexibly adapt to the environment and be easily controlled by Smartphone or tablet. The unique connectivity features embedded in the Protect makes it a more distinguishable and superior product than the other smoke detector systems available in the market. The Protect may be accepted widely by the consumers especially considering the need for smoke detectors in a home. The NFPA or the National Fire Protection Association recommends the use of at least one smoke detector in a floor of the house thus making the conscious people feel more need for a high end multi functionality smoke detector like Protect. References Bloomberg. 2013. Top 35 Tech Gifts for 2013. [Online]. Available at  http://www.bloomberg.com/slideshow/2013-11-18/top-35-tech-gifts-for-2013.html#slide10. [Accessed on 20 November, 2013]. Carrierre, N. 2012. Market Analysis of Smoke Detection and Applications. [Pdf]. Available at http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-042507-154514/unrestricted/VS_IQP_FINAL.p. [Accessed on 20 November, 2013]. Kotler, P. 2011. Marketing Management (14th Edition). [Print]. New Jersey. Prentice Hall. McGrath, M. 2000. Product Strategy for High Technology Companies. [Print]. New York. McGraw Hill. Warman, M. 2013. Nest Protect: iPod inventor introduces talking smoke alarm. [Online]. Available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10364499/Nest-Protect-iPod-inventor-introduces-talking-smoke-alarm.html. [Accessed on 20 November, 2013]. Read More