Column: Will My Smart Fridge Judge Me?

“We’re out of milk again. You drink more than a third-grade soccer team.”I’ve gotten used to such caustic commentary about my diet from members of my family. I’m not sure if I’m ready to start hearing it from my refrigerator.I’ve always been a little paranoid when it comes to technology. I’m not so much afraid that Big Brother is watching, but that he’ll judge what he sees. I’m certain my GPS takes a condescending tone whenever my inept driving forces it to recalculate. And I simply hate the fact that the iCloud knows I’ve got Falco on my iPod.But granted, I’m probably going a little overboard worrying that the Internet of Things will soon have formerly inanimate appliances mocking my food and beverage intake. The smart fridge is here to take inventory, not to judge.Irrational paranoia aside, the arrival of IoT devices such as the recently announced Samsung Family Hub Refrigerator is a trend that should start keeping brand marketers up at night.According to a media release that helped introduce the smart fridge (unveiled in January at the Consumer Electronics Show and launching in May), the new appliance is a “sophisticated multitasker that reconnects families, organizes groceries and home tasks, and provides entertainment.” And I used to think the shaved-ice function on my current fridge was impressive.The appliance comes with three internal cameras that snap photos of the shelves every time the door closes. The photos are accessible through an accompanying smartphone app, which means that “there’s no more forgetting what you have at home” when you’re shopping at the store.I don’t know about you, but my shelves tend to be so overstocked I can’t find things in person, let alone in a photo viewed from my smartphone screen. Plus, for every near-empty ketchup bottle in my fridge, there might very well be two backups in the pantry. So this technology alone won’t be altering the future of grocery shopping.But what could produce more of an impact is Groceries from MasterCard, an accompanying app, which lets users build lists and place orders using the fully functioning tablet that’s built into the refrigerator door. East Coast co-op ShopRite and online grocer FreshDirect have already signed on as initial retailer partners. “This new technology … allows families immediate access to our [stores] the moment they run out of food or need ingredients for a recipe or planned meal,” ShopRite president Joe Sheridan said in announcing the partnership.“You can still find ways to engage a shopper who’s heading online to place an order... but what options will there be if this shopper is conducting her transaction through the refrigerator?”Here’s where things could get a little dicey for brand marketers. You can still find ways to engage a shopper who’s heading online to place an order through ShopRite from Home with information and offers about products and/or brands that aren’t on her list. But what options will there be if this shopper is conducting her transaction through the refrigerator? And what about in the not-too-distant future, when refrigerators could very well be viewing, weighing and tracking the shelf life of various products and placing relevant orders directly?Until now, technology has been changing the brand marketing game by giving shoppers greater control over the full path to purchase – media consumption, product research, trip planning and, ultimately, the buy. Shopper-centric marketing has become an imperative for success because the passive, persuadable consumer doesn’t really exist anymore.This next wave of technology is even more ominous because it has the potential to largely remove the shopper from the shopping process, eliminating the “path” by making the “purchase” a one-time action that can be repeated automatically without a second thought.For instance, will anyone ever choose to make a conscious decision about buying toner once all printers come with embedded AmazonDash-style ordering buttons – like the ones Brother is already rolling out? I sure won’t. You think it’s been hard influencing the behavior of today’s shoppers? Just wait until you have to influence the behavior of tomorrow’s refrigerators.“Will anyone ever choose to make a conscious decision about buying toner once all printers come with embedded AmazonDash-style ordering buttons?”It won’t be impossible, of course. It’ll just take some innovation. The trick will be finding ways to make sure shoppers want to stay involved in the process. One obvious possibility would be recipes and ideas for entertaining delivered through the refrigerator’s tablet and providing one-click access to the preprogrammed shopping list. Sounds like a job for, you know, shopper marketing.Personally, I’m also thinking that IoT-enabled refrigerators might even facilitate impulse purchases. If I’ve got my head in the freezer on a hot summer night and I can’t find any Italian ices (yes, this happens occasionally), I could just tell my refrigerator to add a package of Marino’s to our preset weekly order and have ShopRite speed up the delivery to same-day.I just hope no one judges me. Peter Breen is managing director – special content for the Path to Purchase Institute. He can be reached at (773) 992-4431 or pbreen@p2pi.org.

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