Whiskey maker Jim Beam has entered the connected devicearena with a smart decanter for its popular Kentucky-style bourbon whiskey. Like the brand’s Jim Beam Apple Watch, the smart decanter pokes fun at the explosion of connected devices hitting the market today — but probably also gains some points among the demographic that everyone’s trying to win over. Here’s how this gag product could fit into a larger branding strategy, and what other brands could learn from it.  Read More...

Getting consumers to purchase things they never planned to buy has been on every retailer’s bucket list since time immemorial. Karen Webster says understanding the profiles of those impulse buyers and how they drive "spontaneous commerce" also means understanding the role payments now plays in the process. Webster shows how new research — and a walk down retail’s impulse-buying memory lane — can help online retailers and payments players drive the sales that are truly incremental.  Read More...

A developer mashed up a Furby and an Amazon Echo speaker to create a smart, furry little monster that can turn on the lights, play music, check the weather and carry out any other task Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa can do. That’s great for that one guy’s desk (and probably for his YouTube stats, as well), but could it have a broader implication? What if smart speakers looked like toys? Could this unlock a whole new target demographic?  Read More...