Digital Dunkin': Non-Tech Firms Crash CES, Looking to Connect
January 05 2017 - 4:36PM
Dow Jones News
By Georgia Wells
LAS VEGAS -- At the world's largest consumer electronics show
this week, Carnival cruise lines, Dunkin' Donuts and the owner of
Absolut vodka unveiled new technology and swapped tips.
The CES event has long been a gathering for tech geeks and
electronics manufacturers. With technology reshaping many
industries, more traditional companies are crashing the party.
French spirits company Pernod Ricard SA, the maker of Absolut,
is attending for the first time to introduce and seek feedback on
Opn, a connected cocktail library. "We're here to find people who
might be interested in supplying us with tech, or partnering with
us," said the director of Pernod Ricard's innovation group, Alain
Dufosse. "The opportunities here are richer than a spirits industry
conference, where it is the same old club."
In recent years, technology has seeped into many traditional
sectors, such as those interfacing with consumers. "We saw a
convergence coming in different industries" because of the growing
ubiquity of computer chips, said Gary Shapiro, longtime president
and chief executive of the Consumer Technology Association, which
organizes the CES.
These nontech companies are swept up by the same trends that
dominate the tech industry, such as connected devices. They are
looking at technology with the hope that it could help boost
sales.
Procter & Gamble Co.'s air-freshener brand Febreze set up a
booth on the show floor this week to display its high-tech
spritzer, which began shipping last year and connects with Alphabet
Inc.'s Nest home-automation system to modulate scent release.
Pernod Ricard's connected cocktail library, which the company
plans to launch next year, includes boxes of alcohol -- including
Absolut, Martell cognac and Beefeater gin -- that sit on a smart
tray and pair with an app that provides directions on how to make
cocktails.
Cruise line operator Carnival Corp., whose chief executive
delivered a keynote at the expo Thursday, this week unveiled a
blue, coin-size wearable device that travelers can put on a
bracelet, necklace or in a pocket. It is equipped with sensors so
that people can locate family members onboard and pass security
checks for getting on and off the ship faster, for example.
The device, which will be available on its ships in November, is
also designed to help crew members predict passengers' interests
and requests, so a waiter could know what a diner drank the
previous night and suggest a similar wine.
Some companies are repeat visitors to CES, such as coffeehouse
chain Dunkin' Brands Group Inc. and office supplier Staples
Inc.
Scott Hudler, chief digital officer at 66-year-old Dunkin'
Donuts, brought a team this year to learn how self-driving car
technology could inform a passenger of the closest Dunkin' location
and how to reroute the car to make a coffee stop.
"The opportunity is to come and find more ways to sell doughnuts
and coffee," Mr. Hudler said. Previously, Dunkin' has sent teams to
focus on interacting with customers on social media.
Staples, which sent its largest team ever to CES this year, is
piloting a program to let customers make their purchase requests
through an app, text, email, Facebook Messenger, Slackbot or with
an "Easy Button" -- a push-button ordering device that also takes
voice commands.
"Disruption is still in the early days," said Staples' chief
technologist Faisal Masud. "Is the office of the future going to
look like it does today? Probably not."
The new releases from nontech firms are a far cry from the
transistor radios and black-and-white television sets that were
among the first gadgets launched at CES 50 years ago.
But one company attended this year to push back at the idea that
technology is disrupting its business. American Greetings Corp.
said the sale of greeting cards has been "relatively stable" over
the past decade, despite the rise of social media, according to
Alex Ho, the company's executive director for marketing.
At CES, American Greetings set up its first booth, resembling an
Apple Inc. store with brightly lit wood tables and displays, to
show off its product: a paper greeting card. It "comes with
unlimited memory and it works across all platforms," Mr. Ho
said.
Write to Georgia Wells at Georgia.Wells@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 05, 2017 16:21 ET (21:21 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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