May the Fourth Be With You—And Your Customers
Wondering which of your friends are “Star Wars” nerds? Don’t worry—they’ll out themselves to you today if they haven’t already because it’s May 4th….as in “May the Fourth Be With You.”
Marketers are capitalizing on this geek high holiday. A check in my email box this morning reveals numerous offers from expected sources. Hasbro is giving 15% off and free shipping on “Star Wars” toys and games with the promo code StarWars40th, while Lego buyers can get a free exclusive R2-D2 set with $50 purchase.
Lucasfilm parent company Disney—never one to miss a marketing trip—set a Disney Stores email alerting the alliance that “these are the exclusive new arrivals your family is looking for,” while GameStop invited customers to “feel the fourth” and take advantage of a one day 30% discount on “Star Wars” collectibles.
While the economic impact of “Star Wars” merchandising is significant, the future of robotics and AI that it showcases is even more important for businesses and marketers.
“A huge part of the fabric of the Star Wars is artificial intelligence—whether it’s the emotive beeps and squeaks of R2-D2 or the dry English humor of C-3PO, many of us have grown up with the idea that robots have personalities,” Alex Guillen, go-to-market manager at Insight told Computer Business Review. “We might not quite be at a Star Wars level yet, but with digital disruption impacting businesses large and small the potential impact of AI on businesses is worth getting excited about.”
As Ellie Burns writes on CBR.com, AI is transforming customer experiences, and reducing costs and increasing efficiencies for companies.
“Implementing AI to automate numerous, repetitive operations for example has a significant impact on efficiencies, giving smaller businesses the freedom to allocate their resources towards reaching new customers,” said Guillen.
For example, chatbots offer marketers one way to use AI to better know their customers, Vince Lynch recently wrote for Chief Marketer. The tech is still new and intriguing for consumers, so they’re likely to be drawn to it. There’s also the ROI of AI to consider, he notes.
“AI also provides previously impossible analyses without the overhead of a dozen marketing strategists,” wrote Lynch. “Instead, you might hire two strategists alongside a machine learning model. Some models — not all, of course — can be built for less than $10,000. The average strategist’s salary is $69,500 per year. You do the math.”
Well, I could do the math. But it would be so much more fun to have C-3P0 do it for me. Happy Star Wars Day!
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